"No economic activity was more irrepressible [in the 14th century] than the investment and lending at interest of money; it was the basis for the rise of the Western capitalist economy and the building of private fortunes-and it was based on the sin of usury."
Barbara W. Tuchman was an American historian and author known for narrative history. She won the Pulitzer Prize twice, for The Guns of August and Stilwell and the American Experience in China.