利息与利润对相关各方以及整个体系的含义截然不同。

Interest and profits have very different implications for the parties involved and the system as a whole..

在以利息为基础的经济体系中，一些后果包括：

Some of the consequences of an interest based economy are:

1. 剥削贫困者。

1. Exploitation of the needy.

2. 即使公众并未借入任何款项，他们仍在支付利息。利息已计入所购买的一切商品的价格之中，而国债的利息则通过税收从民众身上征收。

2. Interest is paid by the public even if they borrow no money. Interest is included in the price of everything paid for and there is interest on the national debt extracted via taxation.

3. 并非所有人受利率的影响都相同，利率由此成为一种隐性的财富再分配机制。

3. All are not equally affected by interest rates, which serves as a hidden re-distribution mechanism.

4. 以高额回报放贷，提供了没有实物支撑的流动性，而这正是不稳定的推手，也是当前危机的主要原因。

4. Lending money for high returns offers unbacked liquidity, which is the agent of instability and a chief cause of the current crisis.

5. 对未来进行贴现：由于利息会使投入的资本增值，人们自然会倾向于现在拥有一笔钱，而不是将来拥有同样数额的钱。这种几乎从不被质疑的逻辑可能带来灾难性的后果。贴现会影响我们消耗自然资源的速度——利率越高，资源就越有可能被更快耗尽。15

5. Discounting the future: Since interest results in appreciation of invested capital, it is a presumed rationale for people to prefer having an amount now than the same amount in the future. This rarely questioned logic can have disastrous implications. Discounting affects the rate at which we use up natural resources – the higher the interest rate, the faster the resources are likely to be depleted15.

没有理由不将其推向逻辑上的结论:贴现可能导致某一物种在“经济理性”上走向灭绝16,而且“在评估长期投资项目时,尤其是那些收益与成本之间相隔很长时间间隔的项目,净现值规则会引导决策者以牺牲后代的效用为代价,来最大化当代人的效用”17。

There is no reason that this cannot be taken to its logical conclusion that discounting can lead to the “economically rational” extinction of a species16, and that “in evaluating long term investment projects, particularly those in which the benefits and costs are separated from each other with a long time interval, the net present value rules guide the decision maker to maximise the utility of present generations at the expense of future ones”17.

在西方，利息与利润的混淆使人们难以准确理解二者的区别。在伊斯兰教中，这一区别在法律上得到了维持。利润以实际的产出为依托。此外，关于为获取利润而可以组建的公司结构，也有具体的规定，这使利润与产出之间的联系有了实质内容。

The mixing of interest and profits has confused an accurate understanding of their difference in the West. In Islam the distinction is maintained legally. Profits are backed by real output. There are also specific regulations on company structures that can be formed to make profit, which gives substance to the link between profits and outputs.

伊斯兰国家在一千多年间的历史记载，是稳定与繁荣的杰出范例。值得注意的是，1932至1933年间，奥地利小镇沃格尔（Wörgl）开展了一项货币实验。该镇镇长说服了商人与行政人员，按照西尔维奥·格塞尔（Silvio Gesell）的建议进行实验。格塞尔主张，应将货币变为一种政府服务，并对持有或使用货币收取费用，以此来保障资金的流动。18

The historical account of more than 1,000 years of the erstwhile Islamic state stands a brilliant example of stability and prosperity. It is interesting to note that between 1932 and 1933, the small Austrian town of Wörgl started an experiment where the town's mayor convinced the business people and administrators to conduct a monetary experiment in the way suggested by Silvio Gesell, who suggested securing the money flow by making money a government service subject to a hold/use fee18.

镇议会发行了32,000张“工作证书”(即无息先令),并以银行中等额的普通奥地利先令作为担保。持有这些货币的费用为每月1%,即每年12%。该费用须由月末持有纸币的人支付,方式是贴在纸币背面一枚面值相当于纸币1%的邮票。否则,该纸币即告失效。

The town council issued 32,000 "Work Certificates" (i.e., interest-free Schillings), covered by the same amount of ordinary Austrian Schillings in the bank. The fee on the use/hold of the money was 1% per month or 12% per year. This fee had to be paid by the person who had the banknote at the end of the month, in the form of a stamp worth 1 % of the note and glued to its back. Otherwise, the note was invalid.

这笔小额费用促使领取自由先令的人在动用自己的普通货币之前先把它们花掉。人们甚至提前缴纳税款,以免支付这笔小额费用。一年之内,这32,000自由先令流通了463次,由此创造了价值超过14,816,000先令的商品和服务。相比之下,普通先令只流通了21次。

This small fee encouraged those who were paid in Free Schillings to spend them before they used their ordinary money. People even paid their taxes in advance in order to avoid paying the small fee. Within one year, the 32,000 Free Schillings circulated 463 times, thus creating goods and services worth over 14,816,000 Schillings. The ordinary Schilling by contrast circulated only 21 times.

Wörgl在这一年内将失业率降低了25%，而当时欧洲正为失业率上升和经济萧条所困扰。当奥地利有300多个社区开始对采用这一模式感兴趣时，奥地利国家银行看到了自身的垄断地位受到威胁。它对镇议会进行干预，并禁止其发行地方货币。19

Wörgl reduced its unemployment rate by 25 % within this one year, while Europe was struggling with rising unemployment and depression. When over 300 communities in Austria began to be interested in adopting this model, the Austrian National Bank saw its own monopoly endangered. It intervened against the town council and prohibited the printing of its local money19.

Pearce D W 与 Turner R K，1990，《自然资源与环境经济学》（Economics of Natural Resources and the Environment），Harvester Wheatsheaf 出版社，伦敦。

15 Pearce D W and Turner R K, 1990, Economics of Natural Resources and the Environment, Harvester Wheatsheaf, London.

16 Daly H E 与 Cobb J B，1990，《为了共同的善》（For the Common Good），Greenprint，伦敦。

16 Daly H E and Cobb J B, 1990, For the Common Good, Greenprint, London.

17 Kula E, 1981, Future Generations and Discounting Rules in Public Sector Investment Appraisal, Environment and Planning A, 13: 899-910.

17 Kula E, 1981, Future Generations and Discounting Rules in Public Sector Investment Appraisal, Environment and Planning A, 13: 899-910.