On the other hand, when we
remember that habitual intoxication, so common in mediaeval days
amongst the nobles and townsfolk, has grown less and less frequent
in those classes (aided by the introduction and rapid diffusion of
coffee since the time of Louis XIV.), it is possible to hope that
the improvement of economic, intellectual, and moral conditions
amongst the populace will gradually succeed in modifying this
terrible plague of drink, which cannot be cured all at once.
To continue our illustrations of penal substitutes, we see that
the substitution of metallic money for a paper medium decreases
the number of forgers, who on the contrary had defied penal
servitude for life. False money is more easily detected than a
spurious note.[14]--Money dealers and dealers in precious stones
have done more than any punishment to check the crime of usury, as
was shown in the case of Spain, after her American conquests;
whereas mediaeval punishments never prevented the recrudescence
of usury in one form or another. Popular and Agricultural Credit
Banks, which are practically within the reach of all, are more
efficacious against usury in our own days than the special
repressive laws enacted once more in Germany and Austria, under
the influence of the old illusion.
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