Question V: Whether the lender can receive anything on account of risk and ceasing profit, and what

Difficulty is raised by cap. Naviganti, de usuris: where it is thus said: Naviganti, et ad nundinas eunti, certam mutuans pecuniae quantitatem, pro eo quod suscipit in se periculum recepturus aliquid ultra sortem, usurarius est censendus.

Yet it seems to me that that danger undertaken is estimable by price; and accordingly one can receive some remuneration, as Caspensis says disput. 3. sect 7. Likewise that, from lucrum cessans, one who has been asked for a loan can demand something for true lucrum cessans; as Caspensis notes sect. 10.

But it must be noted that whole gains are not to be introduced into the agreement, but with the expenses of the danger of loss extracted, etc. The reason is, because a gain in hope, the more uncertainty it has, the less it ought to be. So Rodriquez in summa, cap. 111. num. 9. Palatius de contract. lib. 4. cap. 4. Sylvester, verb. usura, 1. quaest. 19. Angel. quaest. 16. Armilla num. 3. Molina tract. 2. disp. 316. Gabriel. in 4. dist. 5. quaest. 11. Graff. part. 1. lib. 2. cap. 115. num. 20. Rebell. part. 1. lib. 8. quaest. 6. and others, as Sotus lib. 6. de Iustitia, quaest. 1. art. 3. Salon. tract. 2. quaest. 88. art. 2. controv. 9. Bassaeus, V. Usura 3. with others cited.

But because the said opinion leaves the assessment of the said gain to the judgment of a good man, scruples must be bid farewell, and a morally certain manner given.

Therefore Diana p. p. Tract. 8. resol. 64. with Lessio lib. 2. cap. 20. dub. 11. num. 96. Bonacina de contract. disp. 3. quaest. 3. puncto 4. Reginaldus tract. 2. lib. 23. cap. 8. num. 87. [hold that] there is to be remitted of lucrum cessans just as much as he himself would give to another on account of a contract of insurance, that is, as much as he would give to him who would make him secure of the whole hoped-for gain, taking upon himself the whole danger.

It is better defined from D. Bonavent. in speculo animae, cap. 2. §. secundus fructus principalis, that the burdens, dangers, etc. of both be computed, and all things reduced to a common stock, so that lender and borrower participate equally in both, and it stand with good and bad alike, and this will easily be computed. But the bonification of such lucrum cessans must be fitted to the certainty of the quantity, and to the time, so that it be made not immediately, but at the time when the cessation will occur.