Shakespeare the economist.

Beneath the poetry lurks a mind uncannily alert to the costs and benefits of every human transaction.

I am happy to bring you a guest post from the splendid

Rohit Krishnan

who writes

Strange Loop Canon

, all about Shakespeare and economics.

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Paid subscribers can join this chat thread about Pride and Prejudice. The book club meets on 16th February. The next Shakespeare book club is 23rd February. We are discussing The Comedy of Errors. I strongly recommend watching this version from the Globe.

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Moral money

Shakespeare was a very good amateur economist, for which he gets very little credit. He had to be, to bring his stories to light, to be a true observer of human nature, since human nature is inextricably tied up with the economy. From business dealings in Venice to fights over land in Britain, Shakespeare looks at themes like wealth, poverty, trade, debt, and the moral issues around money.

Even marriages and friendships are intertwined with financial dealings. In The Merchant of Venice, the bond between Antonio and Bassanio is not just friendship but also involves monetary loans. Bassanio seeks to marry Portia not only for love but also for her wealth, to resolve his debts.

He wrote in Elizabethan England, a time rife with changing financial concerns, social hierarchies changing as there’s the rise of the middle class, the rise of mercantilism and trade, and changes in land rights. Shakespeare sets his stories in Venice, Rome, Britain, and beyond, but his abiding preoccupation is the universal pull of money and how it shapes life’s romances and tragedies.

All times seem tumultuous when you look at them closely enough, but with Shakespeare you can see the impacts of the changes being made manifest in the stories he tells.

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Debt

The Merchant of Venice is famously about Antonio, a Christian merchant, and Shylock, a Jewish moneylender. It centers around the conflict between trade and lending money at interest—a big issue in Shakespeare’s England, where charging interest was often frowned upon.

In the late 1500s the usury laws were strict! There was a parliamentary act against usury in 1571 which legalised interest rates of up to 10%, but even this found strong moral and religious opposition. Christianity traditionally condemned the practice of profiting from lending money.

Shylock is an outsider because of his religion and his job. He lends money, which makes people dislike him, but it's how he makes a living in a society that doesn't accept him. When he makes a deal with Antonio, asking for a pound of flesh if Antonio can't pay back, it shows how serious debt can be.

In Act I, Scene III, Shylock says:

You call me misbeliever, cut-throat dog,
And spit upon my Jewish gaberdine,
...
Well then, it now appears you need my help.

The play criticizes the hypocrisy of people who hate moneylenders but still need them. As David Graeber wrote, societies decry moneylenders but exploit them anyway. And we’ve had the same conversations after the 2008 crisis!