d stationary for three
thousand years.

[Sidenote: Mercantile economics]

Statesmen then labored under the vicious error, drawn from the analogy
of a private man and a state, that national wealth consisted in the
precious metals. The stringent and universal laws against the export
of specie and intended to encourage its import, proved a considerable
burden on trade, though as a matter of fact they only retarded and did
not stop the flow of coin. The striking rise in prices during the
century attracted some attention. Various causes were assigned for it,
among others the growth of population and the increase of luxury.
Hardly anyone saw that the increase in the precious metals was the
fundamental cause, but several writers, among them Bodin, John Hales
and Copernicus, saw that a debased currency was responsible for the
acute dearness of certain local markets.

[Sidenote: Usury]

The lawfulness of the taking of usury greatly exercised the minds of
men of that day. The church on traditional grounds had forbidden it,
and her doctors stood fast by her precept, though an occasional
individual, like John Eck, could be found to argue for it. Luther was
in principle against allowing a man "to sit behind his stove and let
his money work for him," but he weakened enough to allow moderate
interest in given circumstances. Zwingli would allow interest to {609}
be taken only as a form of profit-sharing. Calvin said: "If we forbid
usury wholly we bind consciences by a bond straiter than that of God
himself. But if we allow it the least in the world, under cover of our
permission someone will immediately make a general and unbridled
licence." The laws against the taking of interest were gradually
relaxed throughout the century, but even at its close Bacon could only
regard usury as a concession made on account of the hardness of men's
hearts.

[1] In Greek the words "politics" and "ethics" both have a wider
meaning than they have in English.

[2] Lord Morley.

SECTION 4. SCIENCE

[Sidenote: Inductive method]

The glory of sixteenth-century science is that for the first time, on a
large scale, since the ancient Greeks, did men try to look at nature
through their own eyes instead of through those of Aristotle and the
_Physiologus_. Bacon and Vives have each been credited with the
discovery of the inductive method, but, like so many philosophers, they
merely generalized a practice already common at their tim