Timon's Bills

In the second act of William Shakespeare’s Timon of Athens, servants of Timon’s creditors confront him, and Flavius enters the scene “with many bills in his hand” (2.2.1). Caphis hands to Timon “A note of certain dues” (2.2.22). As Timon and Flavius withdraw from the dinner to discuss the details of the debts, Flavius claims, “At many times I brought in my accounts, / Laid them before you. You would throw them off / And say you found them in mine honesty / … And your great flow of debts. My loved lord, / Though you hear now too late, yet now’s a time. / The great of your having lacks a half / To pay your present debts” (2.2.150–162).

The amount of Timon’s debt and his ability to live on credit allude to the practices of lending, investment, expenditure, and collection. Although lending and debt alone do not alone constitute a capitalist economy, the ability of Timon’s creditors to seek a repayment no amount of material money could seem to cover portrays usury, a practice either forbidden or denounced throughout much of medieval and early modern Europe, as generative of early capitalism. To settle the debt, Timon proposes, “Let all my land be sold,” but Flavius asserts that “’tis all engaged, some forfeited and gone, / And what remains will hardly stop the mouth / Of present dues. The future comes apace.” (2.2.163–166). Whole fortunes could be lost before capitalism, especially as a result of gambling debts, but the debts portrayed in Timon of Athens, particularly Timon’s ability to postpone repayment for a time to multiple creditors, anticipate modern lending practices under capitalism.