Lending and the Prohibition of Interest

What is usury [neshekh] and what is increase [tarbit]? It is usury when a man lends a sela for five dinars, or two se’ahs of wheat for three, because he bites [noshekh] [off too much]. And what is increase? When a man increases [his gains] by [selling] produce. How is this so? [If] one bought wheat at a golden dinar [i.e., twenty-five silver dinars] for a kor when that was the market price, and then wheat rose to thirty [silver] dinars [per kor]. [If] he said to him, “Give me my wheat, since I would sell it and buy wine with the proceeds,” and the other said, “Let your wheat be reckoned with me at thirty dinars, and you now have a claim on me for wine [to that value],” although the creditor has no wine.¹