Luther: Sermon On Trade And Usury

Dr. Martin Luther: Sermon On Trade And Usury (1524)

[Luther's Works, vol. 45]

The holy gospel, now that it has come to light, rebukes and reveals all the “works of darkness,” as St. Paul calls them in Romans 13 [:12]. For it is a brilliant light, which illumines the whole world and teaches how evil are the works of the world, and shows the true works we ought to do for God and our neighbor. As a result even some of the merchants have been awakened and become aware that in their trading many a wicked trick and hurtful financial practice is in use. It is to be feared that the words of Ecclesiasticus apply here, namely, that merchants can hardly be without sin [Ecclus. 26:29]. Indeed, I think St. Paul’s saying in the last chapter of the first epistle to Timothy fits the case, “The love of money is the root of all evils” [I Tim. 6:10], and again, “Those who desire to be rich fall into the devil’s snare and into many useless and hurtful desires that plunge men into ruin and perdition” [I Tim. 6:9].

I suppose that my writing will be quite in vain, because the mischief has gone so far and has completely gotten the upper hand in all lands; and because those who understand the gospel are probably able in such easy, external things to judge for themselves what is fair and what is not, on the basis of their own consciences. Nevertheless, I have been asked and urged to touch upon these financial evils and expose some of them so that, even though the majority may not wish to do right, at least some people – however few they are – may be delivered from the gaping jaws of avarice. For it must be that among the merchants, as among other people, there are some who belong to Christ and would rather be poor with God than rich with the devil, as Psalm 37 [:16] says, “It is better for the righteous to have a little than to have the great possessions of the wicked.” For their sake, then, we must speak out.

It cannot be denied that buying and selling are necessary. They cannot be dispensed with, and can be practiced in a Christian manner, especially when the commodities serve a necessary and honorable purpose. For even the patriarchs bought and sold cattle, wool, grain, butter, milk, and other goods in this way. These are gifts of God, which he bestows out of the earth and distributes among mankind. But foreign trade, which brings from Calcutta and India and such places wares like costly silks, articles of gold, and spices – which minister only to ostentation but serve no useful purpose, and which drain away the money of land and people – would not be permitted if we had [proper] government and princes. But of this it is not my present purpose to write, for I expect that, like overdressing and overeating, it will have to stop of itself when we have no more money. Until then, neither writing nor teaching will do any good. We must first feel the pinch of want and poverty.

God has cast us Germans off to such an extent that we have to fling our gold and silver into foreign lands and make the whole world rich, while we ourselves remain beggars. England would have less gold if Germany let her keep her cloth; the king of Portugal would have less if we let him keep his spices. Count up how much cash is taken out of Germany, without need or reason, from a single Frankfurt fair, and you will wonder how it happens that there is still a heller left in German lands. Frankfort is the gold and silver drain through which everything that springs and grows – or is minted or coined – here, flows out of Germany. If that hole were stopped up we should not now have to listen to the complaint that there are debts everywhere and no money, that all lands and cities are burdened with zinss payments and milked dry by usury. But let that pass; it will go that way anyhow. We Germans must always be Germans; we never stop until we have to.

It is our purpose here to speak about the abuses and sins of trade, insofar as they concern the conscience. The matter of their detrimental effect on the purse we leave to the princes and lords, that they may do their duty in this regard.

First. Among themselves the merchants have a common rule which is their chief maxim and the basis of all their sharp practices, where they say: “I may sell my goods as dear as I can” They think this is their right. Thus occasion is given for avarice, and every window and door to hell is opened. What else does it mean but this: I care nothing about my neighbor; so long as I have my profit and satisfy my greed, of what concern is it to me if it injures my neighbor in ten ways at once? There you see how shamelessly this maxim flies squarely in the face not only of Christian love but also of natural law. How can there be anything good then in trade? How can it be without sin when such injustice is the chief maxim and rule of the whole business? On such a basis trade can be nothing but robbing and stealing the property of others.

When once the rogue’s eye and greedy belly of a merchant find that people must have his wares, or that the buyer is poor and needs them, he takes advantage of him and raises the price. He considers not the value of the goods, or what his own efforts and risk have deserved, but only the other man’s want and need. He notes it not that he may relieve it but that he may use it to his own advantage by raising the price of his goods, which he would not have raised if it had not been for his neighbor’s need. Because of his avarice, therefore, the goods must be priced as much higher as the greater need of the other fellow will allow, so that the neighbor’s need becomes as it were the measure of the goods’ worth and value. Tell me, isn’t that an un-Christian and inhuman thing to do? Isn’t that equivalent to selling a poor man his own need in the same transaction? When he has to buy his wares at a higher price because of his need, that is the same as having to buy his own need; for what is sold to him is not simply the wares as they are, but the wares plus the fact that he must have them. Observe that this and like abominations are the inevitable consequence when the rule is that, I may sell my goods as dear as I can.

The rule ought to be, not, “I may sell my wares as dear as I can or will,” but, “I may sell my wares as dear as I ought, or as is right and fair.” For your selling ought not to be an act that is entirely within your own power and discretion, without law or limit, as though you were a god and beholden to no one. Because your selling is an act performed toward your neighbor, it should rather be so governed by law and conscience that you do it without harm and injury to him, your concern being directed more toward doing him no injury than toward gaining profit for yourself. But where are there such merchants? How few merchants there would be, and how trade would decline, if they were to amend this evil rule and put things on a fair and Christian basisl

You ask, then, “How dear may I sell? How am I to arrive at what is fair and right so I do not take increase from neighbor or overcharge him?” Answer: That is something that will never be governed either by writing or speaking; nor has anyone ever undertaken to fix the value of every commodity, and to raise or lower prices accordingly. The reason is this: wares are not all alike; one is transported a greater distance than another and one involves greater outlay than another. In this respect, therefore, everything is and must remain uncertain, and no fixed determination can be made, anymore than one can designate a certain city as the place from which all wares are to be brought, or establish a definite cost price for them. It may happen that the same wares, brought from the same city by the same road, cost vastly more in one year than they did the year before because the weather may be worse, or the road, or because something else happens that increases the expense at one time above that at another time. Now it is fair and right that a merchant take as much profit on his wares as will reimburse him for their cost and compensate him for his trouble, his labor, and his risk. Even a farmhand must have food and pay for his labor. Who can serve or labor for nothing? The gospel says, “‘The laborer deserves his wages” [Luke 10:7].

But in order not to leave the question entirely unanswered, the best and safest way would be to have the temporal authorities appoint in this matter wise and honest men to compute the costs of all sorts of wares and accordingly set prices which would enable the merchant to get along and provide for him an adequate living, as is being done at certain places with respect to wine, fish, bread, and the like. But we Germans have too many other things to do; we are too busy drinking and dancing’s to provide for rules and regulations of this sort. Since this kind of ordinance therefore is not to be expected, the next best thing is to let goods be valued at the price for which they are bought and sold in the common market, or in the land generally: In this matter we can accept the proverb, “Follow the crowd and you won’t get lost.” Any profit made in this way I consider honest and proper, because here there is always the risk involved of having to suffer loss in wares and outlay, and excessive profits are scarcely possible. Where the price of goods is not fixed either by law or custom, and you must fix it yourself, here one can truly give you no instructions but only lay it on your conscience to be careful not to overcharge your neighbor, and to seek a modest living, not the goals of greed. Some have wished to place a ceiling on profits, with a limit of one-half on all wares; some say one-third; others something else. None of these measures is certain and safe unless it be so decreed by the temporal authorities and common law. What they determine in these matters would be safe. Therefore, you must make up your mind to seek in your trading only an adequate living. Accordingly, you should compute and count your costs, trouble, labor, and risk, and on that basis raise or lower the prices of your wares so that you set them where you will be repaid for your trouble and labor.

I would not have anyone’s conscience be so overly scrupulous or so closely bound in this matter that he feels he must strike exactly the right measure of profit to the very heller. It is impossible for you to arrive at the exact amount that you have earned with your trouble and labor. It is enough that with a good conscience you make the effort to arrive at what is right, though the very nature of trade makes it impossible to determine this exactly. The saying of the Wise Man will hold good in your case too: “A merchant can hardly act without sin, and a tradesman will hardly keep his lips from evil” [Ecclus. 26:29]. If you take a trifle too much profit unwittingly and unintentionally, dismiss the matter in the Lord’s Prayer where we pray, “Forgive us our trespasses” [Matt. 6:12]. After all, no man’s life is without sin; besides, the time will come in turn when you get too little for your trouble. Just throw the excess in the scale to counterbalance the losses you must similarly expect to take.

For example, if you had a business amounting to a hundred gulden a year, and you were to take – over and above all the costs and reasonable profit you had for your trouble, labor, and risk – an excessive profit of perhaps one or two or three gulden, that I would call a business error which could not well be avoided, especially in the course of a whole year’s trading. Therefore, you should not burden your conscience with it, but bring it to God in the Lord’s Prayer as another of those inevitable sins (which cling to all of us) and leave the matter to him. For it is not wickedness or greed, but the very nature and necessity of your occupation which forces you into this mistake. I am speaking now of goodhearted and God-fearing men, who would not willingly do wrong. It is like the marital obligation, which cannot be performed without sin; yet because of its necessity, God winks at it, for it cannot be otherwise?

In determining how much profit you ought to take on your business and your labor, there is no better way to reckon it than by computing the amount of time and labor you have put into it, and comparing that with the effort of a day laborer who works at some other occupation and seeing how much he earns in a day. On that basis figure how many days you have spent in getting your wares and bringing them to your place of business, and how much labor and risk was involved; for a great amount of labor and time ought to have a correspondingly greater return. That is the most accurate, the best, and the most definite advice and direction that can be given in this matter. Let him who dislikes it, better it himself. I base my case (as I have said) on the gospel that the laborer deserves his wages [Luke 10:7]; and Paul also says in I Corinthians 9 .[:7], “He who tends the flock should get some of the milk. Who can go to war at his own expense?” If you have a better ground than that, you are welcome to it.

Second. A common error, which has become a widespread custom not only among the merchants but throughout the world, is the practice of one person becoming surety for another? Although this practice seems to be without sin, and looks like a virtue stemming from love, nevertheless it generally ruins a good many people and does them irreparable harm. King Solomon often forbade it, and condemned it in his proverbs. In Proverbs 6 [:1-5] he says, “My son, if you have become surety for your neighbor, you have given your hand on it; you are snared in the utterance of your lips, and caught in the words of your mouth. Then do this, my son, and save yourself, for you have come into your neighbor’s power: Go, hasten and importune your neighbor. Give your eyes no sleep, and your eyelids no slumber. Save yourself like a gazelle from the hand, and like a bird from the hand of the fowler.” Again, in the twentieth chapter, “Take a man’s garment when he has given surety for another, and take a pledge from him for the stranger’s sake” [Prov. 20:16]. Again, in the twenty second chapter: “Be not one of those who give their hand on it and become surety for debts” [Prov. 22:26]. And he repeats in chapter twenty-seven: “Take a man’s garment when he has given surety for another, and take a pledge from him for the stranger’s sake” [Prov. 27:13].

See how strictly and vehemently the wise king in Holy Scripture forbids one’s becoming surety for another. The German proverb agrees with him, “Guarantors to the gallows;” as much as to say: It serves the surety right when he is seized and has to pay, for he is acting rashly and foolishly in becoming surety. Hence, it is decreed according to Scripture that no one shall become surety for another, unless he is able and entirely willing to assume the debt and pay it himself. Now it does seem strange that this practice should be wrong and be condemned, although a good many have learned by experience that it is a foolish thing to do, and have had subsequent misgivings about it. Why, then, is it condemned? Let us see.

Standing surety is a work that is too lofty for a man; it is unseemly, for it is a presumptuous encroachment upon the work of God. In the first place, Scripture commands us not to put our trust and reliance in any man, but in God alone. For human nature is false, vain, deceitful, and unreliable, as Scripture says and experience daily teaches. He who becomes surety, however, is putting his trust in a man, and risking life and property on a false and insecure foundation. It serves him right when he fails, falls, and is ruined.

In the second place, the surety is trusting in himself and making himself God (for whatever a man trusts in and relies upon is his god). But his own life and property are never for a single moment any more secure or certain than those of the man for whom he becomes surety. Everything is in the hand of God alone. God will not allow us a hair’s breadth of power or right over the future, nor will he let us for a single moment be sure or certain of it. Therefore, he who becomes surety acts in an un-Christian way; he deserves what he gets, because he pledges and promises what is not his and not in his power, but solely in God’s hands.

Thus we read in Genesis 43 and 44, how the patriarch Judah became surety to his father Jacob for his brother Benjamin, promising to bring him home again or bear the blame forever [Gen. 43:8-9]. God nicely punished this presumption, and caused him to flounder and fail so that he could not bring Benjamin back until he gave himself up for him [Gen. 44:14-34] and then was barely freed by grace. The punishment served him right, for these sureties act as though they didn’t even have to consult God on the matter or give thought to whether they are even sure of a tomorrow for their own life and property. They act without fear of God, as though they were themselves the source of life and property, and these were in their own power as long as they themselves willed it. This is nothing but a fruit of unbelief. It is what James in the fourth chapter of his epistle rebukes as arrogance, saying, “Come now, you who say: “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and trade and get gain”; whereas you do not know about tomorrow. What is your life? It is but a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say: “If we live, and God wills it, we shall do this or that. As it is, you boast in your arrogance” [Jas. 4: 13-16].

Moreover, God has condemned this presumption about the future and disregard for him in a number of other places. For example, in Luke 12 [:16-21], where the rich man had so much grain one year that he wanted to pull down his barns and build larger ones for storing his goods, and said to his soul: “Good soul, you have ample goods for many years; eat, drink, and be merry.” But God said to him: “Fool! This night your soul is required of you; and the things you have gathered, whose will they be?” So it goes with all who are not rich in God. He answers similarly the disciples in Acts 1 [:7], “It is not for you to know the times or seasons which the Father has in his own power.” And in Proverbs 27 [:1], “Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not even know what today may bring forth.” Therefore, he has bidden us to pray in the Lord’s Prayer for no more than our daily bread today [Matt. 6:11], so that we may live and act in fear, and know that at no time are we sure of either life or property, but may await and receive everything from his hands, as a true faith does. And truly we see it every day in many of God’s works, that things must work out a certain way whether we like it or not.

Solomon has devoted to this teaching nearly the whole of his book called Ecclesiastes. He points out that all man’s undertakings and presumption are sheer vanity, and nothing but toil and evil, unless God is brought into them, so that man fears him and is content with the present and rejoices in it. God is an enemy of that assured, unbelieving presumption which forgets him; therefore, he opposes it in all that he does, lets us fail and stumble, snatches away life and property when we least expect it, and comes at an hour we do no know [Matt. 24:50], so that the godless, as the Psalter says [Ps. 55:23], never live out half their days, but must always depart this life unexpectedly, just when they are getting under way, as Job also says in many places.

Perhaps you will say, “How then are people to trade with one another if surety is improper? That way many would be left behind who might otherwise get ahead.” Answer: There are four Christian ways of exchanging external goods with others, as I have said elsewhere. The first way is to let them rob or steal our property, as Christ says in Matthew 5, “If anyone takes away your cloak, let him have your coat as well, and do not ask it of him again. This way of dealing counts for nothing among the merchants; besides, it has not been held or preached as common teaching for all Christians, but merely as a counsel or a good idea for the clergy and the perfect, though they observe it even less than do the merchants. But true Christians observe it, for they know that their Father in heaven has assuredly promised in Matthew 6 [:11] to give them this day their daily bread. If men were to act accordingly, not only would countless abuses in all kinds of business be avoided, but a great many people would not become merchants, because reason and human nature flee and shun to the uttermost risks and damages of this sort.

The second way is to give freely to anyone who needs it, as Christ also teaches in the same passage [Matt. 5:42; Luke 6:30]. This too is a lofty Christian work, which is why it counts for little among the people. There would be fewer merchants and less trade if this were put into practice. For he who does this must truly hold fast to heaven and look always to the hands of God, and not to his own resources or wealth, knowing that God will support him even though every cupboard were bare, because be knows to be true what God said to Joshua, “I will not forsake you or withdraw my hand from you” [Josh. 1:5]; as the proverb has it, “God still has more than what he ever gave away.” But that takes a true Christian, and he is a rare animal on earth, to whom the world and nature pay no heed.

The third way is lending. That is, I give away my property, and take it back again if it is returned to me; but I must do without it if it is not returned. Christ himself defines this kind of transaction in what he says in Luke 6 [:35], “Lend, expecting nothing in return.” That is, you should lend freely, and take your chances on getting it back or not. If it comes back, take it; if it does not, it is a gift. According to the gospel there is thus only one distinction between giving and lending, namely, a gift is not taken back, while a loan is taken back – if it is returned – but involves the risk that it may become a gift. He who lends expecting to get back something more or something better than he has loaned is nothing but an open and condemned usurer, since even those who in lending demand or expect to get back exactly what they lend, and take no chances on whether they get it back or not, are not acting in a Christian way. This third way too (in my opinion) is a lofty Christian work; and a rare one, judging by the way things are going in the world. If it were to be practiced generally, trade of all sorts would greatly diminish and virtually cease.

These three ways of exchanging goods, then, observe in masterful fashion this matter of not presuming upon the future, and not trusting in any man or in oneself but clinging to God alone. Here all transactions are in cash, and are accompanied by the word which James teaches, “If God wills, so be it” [Jas. 4:15]. For here we deal with people as with those who are unreliable and might fail; we give our money freely, or take our chances on losing what we lend.

Now someone will say, “Who can then be saved? And where shall we find these Christians? Why, in this way there would be no trade left in the world; everyone would have his property taken or borrowed away, and the door would be thrown open for the wicked and idle gluttons – of whom the world is full – to take everything with their lying and cheating.” Answer: I have already said that Christians are rare people on earth. This is why the world needs a strict, harsh temporal government which will compel and constrain the wicked to refrain from theft and robbery, and to return what they borrow (although a Christian ought neither to demand nor expect it). This is necessary in order that the world may not become a desert, peace vanish, and men’s trade and society be utterly destroyed; all of which would happen if we were to rule the world according to the gospel, rather than driving and compelling the wicked by laws and the use of force to do and to allow what is right. For this reason we must keep the roads safe, preserve peace in the towns, enforce law in the land, and let the sword hew briskly and boldly against transgressors, as St. Paul teaches in Romans 13 [:4]. For it is God’s will that people who are not Christian be held in check and kept from doing wrong, at least from doing it with impunity. Let no one think that the world can be ruled without bloodshed; the temporal sword must and shall be red and bloody, for the world will and must be evil, and the sword is God’s rod and vengeance upon it. But of this I have said enough in my little book on Temporal Authority.

Borrowing would be a fine thing if it were practiced between Christians, for every borrower would then willingly return what had been lent him, and the lender would willingly forego repayment if the borrower were unable to pay. Christians are brothers, and one does not forsake another; neither is any of them so lazy and shameless that he would not work but depend simply on another’s wealth and labor, or consume in idleness another’s goods. But where men are not Christians, the temporal authorities ought to compel them to repay what they have borrowed. If the temporal authorities are negligent and do not compel repayment, the Christian ought to tolerate the robbery, as Paul says in I Corinthians 6 [:7], “Why not rather suffer wrong?” But you may exhort, insist, and do what you will to the man who is not a Christian; he pays no attention because he is not a Christian and has no regard for Christ’s doctrine.

You still have a grain of comfort too in the fact that you are not obligated to make a loan except out of your surplus and what you can spare from your own needs, as Christ says of alms, “What you have left over, that give in alms, and everything is clean for you.” Now if someone wishes to borrow from you an amount so large that you would be ruined if it were not repaid, and you could not spare it from your own needs, then you are not bound to make the loan. Your first and greatest obligation is to provide for the needs of your wife and children and servants; you must not divert from them what you owe them. The best rule to follow is this: If the amount asked as a loan is too great, just go ahead and give something outright, or else lend as much as you would be willing to give, and take the risk of having to lose it. John the Baptist did not say, “He who has one coat, let him give it away”; but, “He who has two coats, let him give one to him who has none; and he who has food, let him do likewise” [Luke 3:II].

The fourth way of exchanging goods is through buying and selling, but for hard cash or payment in kind. He who would use this method must make up his mind to rely not on something in the future but on God alone; also, that he will have to be dealing with men, men who will certainly fail and lie. Therefore, the best advice is this: whoever sells should not give credit or accept any security, but sell only for cash. If he wishes to lend, let him lend to Christians, or else take the risk of loss, and lend no more than he would be willing to give outright or can spare from his own needs. If the temporal government and regulations will not help him to recover his loan, let him lose it. Let him beware of becoming surety for anyone; let him much rather give what he can. Such a man would be a true Christian merchant; God would not forsake him, because he trusts properly in Him and cheerfully takes a chance in dealing with his untrustworthy neighbors.

If there were no such thing in this world as becoming surety, if the free lending portrayed in the gospel were the general practice, and if only hard cash or wares on hand were exchanged in trade, then the greatest and most harmful dangers and faults and failings of trade and commerce would be well out of the way. It would then be easy to engage in all sorts of business enterprises, and the other sinful faults of trade could the more readily be prevented. If there were none of this becoming surety and this lending without risk, many a man would have to maintain his humble status and be content with a modest living who now aspires day and night to reach an exalted position, relying on borrowing and standing surety. That is why everyone now wants to be a merchant and get rich. From this stem the countless dangerous and wicked devices and dirty tricks that have today become a joke among the merchants. There are so many of them that I have given up the hope that trade can be entirely corrected; it is so overburdened with all sorts of wickedness and deception that in the long run it will not be able to sustain itself, but will have to collapse inwardly of its own weight.

In what has been said I have wished to give a bit of warning and instruction to everyone about this great, filthy, widespread business of trade and commerce. If we were to tolerate and accept the principle that everyone may sell his wares as dear as he can, approving the practice of borrowing and forced lending and standing surety, and yet try to advise and teach men how to act the part of Christians and keep a good and clear conscience in the matter, that would be the same as trying to teach men how wrong could be right and bad good, how one could at the same time live and act in accordance with divine Scripture and contrary to divine Scripture. These three errors – that everyone may sell what is his as dear as he will, also borrowing and becoming surety – these are like three fountainheads from which the whole stream of abomination, injustice, low cunning, and trickery flows far and wide. To try to stem the flood without stopping up the source is a waste of time and energy.

At this point, therefore, I wish to tell of some of these tricks and evil practices which I have myself observed, and which good and pious people have described to me. This I do in order that one may realize how necessary it is that the rules and principles which I have set forth above be established and put into practice, if consciences are to be counseled and aided in matters of trade, and also in order that all the other evil practices not specifically mentioned may be recognized and measured by these. How can one possibly enumerate them all? By the three errors mentioned above as the fountainheads of evil, door and window are opened wide to greed and to wicked, wily, self-seeking nature; breathing space and room is afforded them; opportunity and power is given them to practice unhindered all manner of wiles and trickery, and daily to think up more schemes, so that everything stinks of avarice, indeed, is submerged and steeped in avarice as in a great new Deluge.

First, there are some who have no conscientious scruples against selling their goods on time and credit for a higher price than if they were sold for cash. Indeed, there are some who will sell nothing for cash but everything on time, so they can make large profits on it. Observe that this way of dealing – which is grossly contrary to God’s word, contrary to reason and every sense of justice, and springs from sheer wantonness and greed – is a sin against one’s neighbor; for it does not consider his loss, but robs and steals from him that which is his. The seller is not trying to make a modest living, but to satisfy his lust for profits. According to divine law he should not sell his goods at a higher price on the time payment plan than for cash.

Again, there are some who sell their goods at a higher price than they command in the common market, or than is customary in the trade; they raise the price of their wares for no other reason than because they know that there is no more of that commodity in the country, or that the supply will shortly be exhausted, and people must have it. That is the rogue’s eye of greed, which sees only the neighbor’s need; not to relieve it, but to make the most of it and get rich at his expense. All such fellows are manifest thieves, robbers, and usurers.

Again, there are some who buy up the entire supply of certain goods or wares in a country or a city in order to have these goods entirely under their own control; they can then fix and raise the price and sell them as dear as they like or can. Now I have said above that the rule by which a man may sell his goods as dear as he will or can if false and un-Christian. It is far more abominable that one should buy up a whole commodity for that purpose. Even the imperial and secular laws forbid this; they call it monopolia, i.e., transactions for selfish profiteering, which are not to be tolerated in country or city. Princes and lords would punish it and put a stop to it if they really wanted to do their duty. For such merchants act as if God’s creatures and God’s goods were created and given for them alone, as if they could take them from others and set on them whatever price they chose.

If anyone wishes to cite the example of Joseph in Genesis 41 [:48-57; 47:13-26], how the holy man gathered up all the grain in the country and afterward, in a time of famine, bought with it for the king of Egypt all the money, cattle, land, and people-which certainly seems to have been a monopoly, or selfish profiteering this is the answer: Joseph’s transaction was no monopoly, but a common and honest purchase, such as was customary in that country. For he prevented no one else from buying during the good years, but it was his God-given wisdom that enabled him to gather in the king’s grain during the seven years of plenty, while others were accumulating little or nothing. The text does not say that he alone bought up the grain, but that he gathered it into the king’s cities [Gen. 41:48]. If others did not do likewise, the loss was their own. The common man usually consumes what he has without much concern for the future; and sometimes he has nothing to store up.

We still see the same thing today. Where neither princes nor cities provide a reserve supply for the benefit of the whole country, there is little or no reserve in the hands of the common man, who lives from year to year on his annual income. Accumulation of this sort is not self-interest or monopoly, but a good and proper Christian foresight for the good of the community and for others. It is not practiced in such a way that they seize everything for themselves, as these merchants do, but out of the yield of the common market, or the yearly income which everyone has, they set aside a store; others either will not or cannot accumulate anything, but get out of it only their daily living. Moreover, Scripture does not tell us that Joseph gathered grain in order to sell it as dearly as he pleased; the text clearly says [Gen. 41:36] that he did it not from greed but that land and people might not perish. But the greedy merchant sells as dearly as he pleases, seeking only his own profit, and regardless of whether land and people thereby perish.The fact that Joseph by this means brought all the money and cattle-and all the land and people besides-into the king’s possession, certainly does not seem to have been a Christian act,since he ought to have given to the needy without return, as the gospel [Matt. 5:42, Luke 6:30-31] and Christian love instruct us.

Yet he did right and well, for Joseph was administering the temporal government in the king’s stead. I have often taught thus, that the world ought not and cannot be ruled according to the gospel and Christian love, but by strict laws and with sword and force, because the world is evil. It accepts neither gospel nor love, but lives and acts according to its own will unless compelled by force. Otherwise, if only love were applied, everyone would eat, drink, and live at ease at someone else’s expense, and no one would work. Indeed, everyone would take from another what was his, and we would have such a state of affairs, that no one could live because of the others

Joseph therefore did right because God so arranged it that he brought everything into his possession at a fair price equal to what prevailed at the time, and in keeping with temporal law allowed the people to remain under restraint and to sell themselves and all that they had. For in that country there was always a strict government, and it was customary to sell people like other goods. Besides, there can be no doubt that as a Christian and a righteous man he let no poor man die of hunger, but, as the text states [Gen. 41:36], after he had been placed in charge of the king’s temporal law and government he gathered, sold, and distributed the grain for the benefit and profit of the land and its people. Therefore, the example of the faithful Joseph is as remote from the conduct of the unfaithful, self-seeking merchants as heaven is far from earth. So much for this digression. We return now to the merchants’ tricks.

Some of them, when they see that they cannot otherwise effect their selfish profiteering transactions and establish their monopolies because others have the same goods and wares, proceed to sell their goods so dirt cheap that the others cannot meet the competition, and are forced either to withhold their goods from sale, or to face ruin by selling them as cheaply as their competitors do. Thus, the greedy ones get their monopoly after all. Such fellows are not worthy to be called human beings or to live among men; they are not even worth admonishing or instructing, for their envy and greed is so open and shameless that even at the cost of their own losses they cause loss to others, in order that they may have the whole place to themselves. The temporal authorities would do right if they took from such fellows everything they had, and drove them out of the country. It would scarcely have been necessary to tell of such practices, but I wanted to include them so that one might see what great villainy there is in trade and commerce, and to make evident to everyone what is going on in the world, in order that everyone may know how to protect himself against such a dangerous class.

Another fine bit of sharp practice is for one man to sell to another, on promise of future delivery, wares that the seller does not have. It works this way: A merchant from a distance comes to me and asks me if I have such and such goods for sale. Although I do not have them I say Yes anyway and sell them to him for ten or eleven gulden, when they could otherwise be bought for nine or less, promising delivery in two or three days. Meanwhile, I go out and buy the goods where I knew in advance that I could buy them cheaper than I am selling them to him. I deliver them, and he pays me for them. Thus I deal with his (the other man’s) own money and property without any risk, trouble, or labor, and I get rich. That is appropriately called “living off the street” on someone else’s money and goods, without having to travel over land or sea.

Another practice called “living off the street” is this: When a merchant has a purseful of money and no longer cares to venture on land and sea with his goods, but to have a safe business, he settles down in a large commercial city. When he hears that some merchant is being pressed by his creditors and lacks the money he must have to satisfy them, but still has good wares, he gets someone to act for him in buying the wares, and offers eight gulden for what is otherwise worth ten. If this offer is turned down, he gets someone else to make an offer of six or seven gulden. The poor man begins to be afraid that his wares are depreciating, and is glad to accept the eight gulden so as to get hard cash and not have to suffer too great a loss and disgrace. It may also happen that needy merchants themselves seek out such tyrants and offer their goods for ready cash with which to pay their debts. These tyrants drive hard bargains, and eventually get the wares at a low enough price; afterward they sell them at their own price. Such financiers are known as “cutthroats,”" but they pass for distinguished and clever people. ‘

Here is another piece of selfish profiteering: Three or four merchants have in their control one or two kinds of goods which others do not have, or do not have for sale. When these men see that the goods are valuable and are advancing in price all the time because of war or some disaster, they join forces and let it be known to others that the goods are much in demand, and that not many have them for sale. If they find any who have these goods for sale, they set up a dummy to buy up all such goods. When they have cornered the supply, they draw up an agreement to this effect: since there are no more of these goods to be had, we will hold them at such and such a price, and whoever sells cheaper shall forfeit so and so much.

This practice, I am told, is carried to the crudest lengths primarily by the English merchants, especially in the sale of English or London cloth. It is said that for this trade they have a special council, like a city council, and all Englishmen who sell English or London cloth must obey this council on penalty of a fine. The council decides at what price they are to sell their cloth, and at what day and hour they are to have it on sale, and when not. The head of this council is called the governor, and is regarded as little less than a prince. See what avarice can and dares to do!

Again, I must report this little trick: I sell a man pepper or the like on six months’ credit, knowing that he has to sell it again immediately to get ready money. Then I go to him myself, or send someone else, and buy the pepper back from him for cash, but on such terms that what he bought from me on six month’s credit for twelve gulden I buy back for eight, while the market price is ten. Thus I buy it from him at two gulden less than the current market, while he bought it from me at two gulden above the market. So I make a profit going and coming, simply because he has to have the money to maintain his credit standing; otherwise, he might have to suffer the disgrace of having no one extend him credit in the future.

People who buy on credit more than they can pay for (for example, a man who is worth scarcely two hundred gulden and makes a deal involving five or six hundred gulden) practice or have to practice this sort of finance. If those indebted to me cannot pay, then I cannot pay my creditors; so the mischief goes deeper and deeper, and one loss follows another the more I practice this kind of finance, until at last I see the shadow of the gallows and must either abscond or go to prison. So I keep my own counsel and give my creditors fair words, telling them I will pay my debts. Meanwhile, I go out and get as much goods as I can on credit and turn them into money, or get money otherwise on a promissory note, or borrow as much as I can. Then whenever it is most advantageous to me, or when my creditors give me no rest, I lock my house, get up and run away, hiding myself somewhere in a monastery, where I am as free as a thief or murderer in a churchyard. Then my creditors are so glad I have not fled the country that they release me from a half or a third of my debts on condition that I pay the balance in two or three years, giving me letter and seal for it. Then I come back to my house and am a merchant who has made two or three thousand gulden by getting up and running away. That is more than I could have made in three or four years if I knocked myself out hustling.

Or if this procedure seems disadvantageous, when I see that I have to abscond I simply go to the emperor’s court or to his viceroy, where for one or two hundred gulden I can obtain a quinquernell, that is, an imperial letter and seal granting me respite from all my creditors for two or three years on my plea that I have suffered great losses. So the quinquernells too make a pretense of being godly and right; actually, though, they are knaves’ tricks.

Another little trick is customary in the trading companies. A citizen deposits with a merchant perhaps two thousand gulden for six years. The merchant is to trade with this and, win or lose, pay the citizen a fixed zinse of two hundred gulden a year. What the merchant makes over and above this is his own, but if he makes no profit he must still pay the zinse. In this way the citizen is doing the merchant a great service, for the latter anticipates a profit of at least three hundred gulden from the two thousand. On the other hand, the merchant is doing the citizen a great service, for his money would otherwise lie idle and bring him no return. That this common practice is wrong and is in fact usury, I have shown sufficiently in the treatise on usury.

I must give one more illustration to show how this spurious borrowing and lending leads to misfortune. Some people, when they see that a buyer is unreliable and does not meet his payments, are able to repay themselves neatly in this way: I get a strange merchant to approach him and buy up his wares to the amount of a hundred gulden or so, and I say to the stranger, “When you have bought up all his wares, promise him cash or refer him to a certain man who owes you money. When you have the goods, bring him to me as though I owed you money, and act as though you were unaware that he is in my debt. In that way I shall be repaid, and will give him nothing.” That is really practicing finance! It ruins the poor man entirely, together with all those to whom he may be in debt. But that is the way it goes in this un-Christian borrowing and lending.

Again, they have learned to store their goods in places or under conditions where they will increase in bulk. They put pepper, ginger, and saffron in damp cellars or vaults where they will take on more weight. Woolen goods, silks, furs of marten or sable, they sell in dimly-lit vaults or shops, keeping them from the air. This custom is so general that almost every sort of commodity has its special kind of air. There are no goods but what some way is known of taking advantage of the buyer, whether it be in the measure or the count of the dimensions or the weight. They know, too, how to give them an artificial color; or the best looking items are put at top and bottom and the worst in the middle. There is no end to such cheating; no merchant dare trust another out of his sight and reach.

Now the merchants raise a great cry about the nobles or robbers,complaining that they have to transact business at great risk, and that for their trouble they are imprisoned, beaten, taxed, and robbed, etc. If they endured all this for righteousness’ sake, the merchants would surely be saints because of their sufferings. To be sure, it may happen that one of them suffers something that is an injustice in the sight of God, in that he has to suffer for another in whose company he is found, and pay for another man’s sins. But when such great injustice and un-Christian thievery and robbery is practiced by merchants all over the world, even against one another, what wonder is it that God causes this great wealth, wrongfully acquired, to be lost or taken by robbers, and the merchants themselves to be beaten over the head or imprisoned? God simply has to administer justice, even as in Psalm 11 [:4-7] be has himself extolled as a righteous judge.

Not that I would thereby excuse the highwaymen and bushwhackers, or approve of their thieveryl It is the fault of the princes; they are supposed to keep the roads safe for the benefit of the wicked as well as of the upright. It is also their duty to use their duly constituted authority in punishing the injustices of the merchants and preventing them from so shamefully skinning their subjects. Because the princes fail to do so, God uses the knights and robbers to punish the wrongdoing of the merchants; they must be His devils, just as He plagues the land of Egypt [Exod. 7-12] and the whole world with devils, or destroys it with enemies. Thus he uses one rascal to flog the other, but without thereby giving us to understand that the knights are any the less robbers than the merchants, even though the merchants rob everybody every day, while a knight robs one or two people once or twice a year.

On the trading companies I ought to say a good deal, but the whole subject is such a bottomless pit of avarice and wrongdoing that there is nothing in it that can be discussed with a good conscience. Who is so stupid that he cannot see that the trading companies are nothing but pure monopolies? Even the temporal laws of the heathen forbid them as openly harmful to the whole world, to say nothing of divine right and Christian law. They control all commodities, deal in them as they please, and practice without concealment all the tricks that have been mentioned. They raise or lower prices at their pleasure. They oppress and ruin all the small businessmen, like the pike the little fish in the water, just as if they were lords over God’s creatures and immune from all the laws of faith and love.

So it happens that all over the world spices must be bought at whatever price they choose to set, and they vary it from time to time. This year they raise the price of ginger, next year that of saffron, or vice versa; so that in the end it all comes out the same: they do not have to suffer any loss, injury, or risk. If the ginger spoils or they have to take a loss on it, they make it up on saffron, and vice versa, so that they make sure of their profit. All this is contrary to the nature, not only of merchandise, but of all temporal goods, which God wills should be subject to risk and uncertainty. But they have found a way to make safe, certain, and continual profit out of unsafe, uncertain, and perishable goods; though because of it all the world must be sucked dry and all the money sink and swim in their gullets.

How could it ever be right and according to God’s will that a man in such a short time should grow so rich that he could buy out kings and emperors? They have brought things to such a pass that everybody else has to do business at the risk of loss, winning this year and losing next year, while they themselves can always win, making up their losses by increased profits. It is no wonder that they quickly appropriate the wealth of the whole world, for a pfennig that is permanent and sure is better than a gulden that is temporary and uncertain. But these companies are always dealing with permanent and sure gulden for our temporary and uncertain pfennigs. Is it any wonder that they become kings and we beggars?

Kings and princes ought to look into this matter and forbid them by strict laws. But I hear that they have a finger in it themselves, and the saying of Isaiah [1:23] is fulfilled, “Your princes have become companions of thieves.” They hang thieves who have stolen a gulden or half a gulden,but do business with those who rob the whole world and steal more than all the rest, so that the proverb remains true, “Big thieves hang little thieves.” As the Roman senator Cato said, “Simple. thieves lie in dungeons and stocks; public thieves walk abroad in gold and silk.” What will God say to this at last? He will do as he says through Ezekiel: princes and merchants, one thief with the other, he will melt together like lead and bronze [Ezek. 22:20] as when a city burns to the ground, so that there shall be neither princes nor merchants any more. That time, I fear, is already at the door. We do not think of amending our lives, no matter how great our sin and wrong. So, too, He cannot leave wrong unpunished.

This is why no one need ask how he may with a good conscience be a member of a trading company. My only advice is this: Get out; they will not change. If the trading companies are to stay, right and honesty must perish; if right and honesty are to stay, the trading companies must perish. The bed is too narrow, says Isaiah, one must fall out, the covering is too small, it will not cover both [Isa. 28:20].

Now I know full well that this book of mine will be taken amiss;perhaps they will toss it all to the winds and remain as they are. But it will not be my fault, for I have done my part to show how richly we have deserved it if God should come with his rod. If I have instructed a single soul and rescued it from the jaws of avarice, I have not labored in vain. Nevertheless, I hope (as I have said above) that this thing has grown so high and so top-heavy that it can no longer carry its own weight, and they will finally have to give it up.

Finally, let everyone look to himself. Let no one stop as a favor or service to me. Let no one begin or continue either, in order to spite and hurt me. This thing has to do with you, not me. May God enlighten us and strengthen us to do his good will. Amen.