Summary of Edward Chancellor's The Price of Time

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Please note: This is a summary & not the original book. Original book introduction: In the beginning was the loan, and the loan carried interest.

For at least five millennia people have been borrowing and lending at interest.

The practice wasn't always popular-in the ancient world, usury was generally viewed as exploitative, a potential path to debt bondage and slavery.

Yet as capitalism became established from the late Middle Ages onwards, denunciations of interest were tempered because interest was a necessary reward for lenders to part with their capital. And interest performs many other vital functions: it encourages people to save; enables them to place a value on precious assets, such as houses and all manner of financial securities; and allows us to price risk.All economic and financial activities take place across time.

Interest is often described as the "e;price of money,"e; but it is better called the "e;price of time:"e; time is scarce, time has value, interest is the time value of money.