| [00:00.30] |
|
| [00:01.66] |
So why do people scraping by on just ￡5.90 a day pay such horrendous interest on loans? |
| [00:09.31] |
These, surely, are loans you'd be mad not to default on. |
| [00:13.89] |
Here in Glasgow, defaulting on your loan is highly inadvisable |
| [00:20.06] |
You won't literally lose a pound of flesh |
| [00:23.07] |
but grievous bodily harm isn't an unknown consequence of letting down the loan shark. |
| [00:31.01] |
Quite simply, individual loan sharks have to be rapacious and ruthless |
| [00:36.11] |
because the costs to them of even a single defaulter are so high |
| [00:43.80] |
And that explains why, from Renaissance Italy to modern Scotland, the moneylender is so often a hated figure |
| [00:52.00] |
He's providing a service, but at a socially unacceptable price. |
| [01:00.00] |
So how did lenders learn to overcome this fundamental problem? |
| [01:04.20] |
If they were too generous, they didn't make any money. |
| [01:06.90] |
But if they were too hard-nosed, borrowers would eventually default |
| [01:11.23] |
The answer was to get bigger and more powerful |
| [01:15.02] |
It was time to invent banks |
| [01:18.33] |
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