that it could not
be made the basis of pecuniary compensation. The probability of there
being a _lucrum cessans_ was thought small, but the justice of its
reward, if it did in fact exist, was admitted.

[Footnote 1: II. ii. 78, 2, ad. 1.]

[Footnote 2: Rambaud, _op. cit._, p. 67.]

[Footnote 3: II. ii. 62, 4.]

[Footnote 4: _Ibid._, ad. 1 and 2.]

This interpretation steadily gained ground amongst succeeding writers;
so that, in spite of some lingering opposition, the justice of the
title _lucrum cessans_ was practically universally admitted by the
theologians of the fifteenth century.[1]

[Footnote 1: Ashley, _op. cit._, p. 99. _Lucrum cessans_ was defined
by Navarrus as 'amissio facta a creditore per pecuniam sibi non
redditam' (Endemann, _Studien_, vol. ii. p. 279).]

Of course the burden of proving that an opportunity for profitable
investment had been really lost was on the lender, but this onus
was sufficiently discharged if the probability of such a loss were
established. In the fifteenth century, with the expansion of commerce,
it came to be generally recognised that such a probability could be
presumed in the case of the merchant or trader.[1] The final condition
of this development of the teaching on _lucrum cessans_ is thus stated
by Ashley:[2] 'Any merchant, or indeed any person in a trading
centre where there were opportunities of business investment (outside
money-lending itself) could, with a perfectly clear conscience,
and without any fear of molestation, contract to receive periodical
interest from the person to whom he lent money; _provided only_ that
he first lent it to him gratuitously, for a period that might be made
very short, so that technically the payment would not be reward for
the use, but compensation for the non-return of the money.' At a later
period than that of which we are treating in the present essay the
short gratuitous period could be dispensed with, but until the end of
the fifteenth century it seems to have been considered essential.[3]

[Footnote 1: Ashley, _op. cit._, vol. i. pt. ii. p. 402.]

[Footnote 2: _Ibid._]

[Footnote 3: Ashley, _op. cit._ vol. i. pt. ii. p. 402; Endemann,
_Studien_, vol. ii. pp. 253-4; Cleary, _op. cit._, p. 100.]

Of course the amount paid in respect of _lucrum cessans_ must be
reasonable in regard to the loss of opportunity actually experienced;
'Lenders,' says Buridan, 'must not take by way of _lucrum
cessans_ more than they would have