DRY EXCHANGE

dry  exchange.Something  that  pretends to  pass  on  both  sides  of  a  transaction,  but passes on

only one side.

“Dry exchange … seems to be a subtil term invented to disguise usury, in which something is

pretended to  pass  on both sides, whereas in truth nothing  passes on  the  one side.”  Termes de la

Ley 185 (1st Am. ed. 1812).

“DRY EXCHANGE…. A euphemism applied to the ‘coverture’ or ‘colouring’ of the stringent

statutes passed during the tudor period against usury …. Usury, which was condemned by religion

and  law  alike  during  the  middle  ages, was  from  the  middle  of  the  16th  century  no  longer  to  be

confounded with the legitimate employment of capital; but the sentiment which inspired the above

enactments  was  that  of  governing  classes  associated  with  the  landed  interest.”  1  R.H.  Inglis [Blacks Law 8th]

Palgrave, Palgrave’s Dictionary of Political Economy 643 (Henry Higgs ed., 2d ed. 1925). [Blacks Law 8th]