Ermine usury

Unprompted, E told me that she had been lending at interest at school: her rate was something like 10p on a 70p loan, due the next day. I was impressed with her enterprise, and we briefly discussed usury and its negative connotations, and the difference between 5% annual interest on a 10k loan and 300% interest on a pay day loan. Unfortunately, the dead hand of authority has squashed E's enterprise: Miss C has forbidden lending-at-interest which, in an interesting echo of the payday lending stuff, means she'll no longer be lending to the boys. Also interestingly, she had no problems with being repaid; she only lent to people who were trustworthy.