One of Josiah Child's main deviations from free-market and laissez-faire doctrine was to agitate for one of the favorite programs of the mercantilists — to push the legal maximum rate of interest ever lower. Formerly discredited "usury laws" were making a comeback on faulty economic rather than natural-law or theological grounds, writes Murray N. Rothbard (1926–1995).

This audio Mises Daily is narrated by Jeff Riggenbach.