“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 Palgrave, Palgrave’s Dictionary of Political Economy 643 (Henry Higgs ed., 2d ed. 1925).
