ootnote 1: _Decr. Greg._ v. 5, 6.]

[Footnote 2: _Op. cit._, p. 67.]

[Footnote 3: _Ibid._, p. 99.]

The attitude of Aquinas to the admission of _lucrum cessans_ is
obscure. In the article on usury he expressly states that 'the lender
cannot enter an agreement for compensation through the fact that he
makes no profit out of his money, because he must not sell that which
he has not yet, and may be prevented in many ways from having.'[1] Two
comments must be made on this passage; first, that it only refers to
making a stipulation in advance for compensation for profit lost, and
does not condemn the actual payment of compensation;[2] second, that
the point is made that the probability of gaining a profit on money is
so problematical as to make it unsaleable. As Ashley points out, the
latter consideration was peculiarly important at the time when the
_Summa_ was composed; and, when in the course of the following
two centuries the opportunities for reasonably safe and profitable
business investments increased, the great theologians conceived that
they were following the real thought of Aquinas by giving to this
explanation a pure _contemporanea expositio_. The argument in favour
of this construction is strengthened by a reference to the article of
the _Summa_ dealing with restitution,[3] where it is pointed out that
a man may suffer in two ways--first, by being deprived of what he
actually has, and, second, by being prevented from obtaining what he
was on his way to obtain. In the former case an equivalent must always
be restored, but in the latter it is not necessary to make good an
equivalent, 'because to have a thing virtually is less than to have it
actually, and to be on the way to obtain a thing is to have it
merely virtually or potentially, and so, were he to be indemnified by
receiving the thing actually, he would be paid, not the exact value
taken from him, but more, and this is not necessary for salvation.
However, he is bound to make some compensation according to the
condition of persons and things.' Later in the same article we are
told that 'he that has money has the profit not actually, but only
virtually; and it may be hindered in many ways.'[4] It seems
quite clear from these passages that Aquinas admitted the right to
compensation for a profit which the lender was hindered from making on
account of the loan; but that, in the circumstances of the time, the
probability of making such a profit was so remote