The interconnection of Jews and money can be traced back to the story of Judas in the New Testament: "Then one of the twelve, named Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests and said, 'What are you willing to give me to betray Him to you?' And they weighed out thirty pieces of silver to him. From then on he began looking for a good opportunity to betray Jesus." (John 26:14-16). In 1179 Catholic representatives on the III Consilium Lateranum had prohibited moneylending at interest for Christians. It even became part of the seven deadly sins. Every margin of profit that was not achieved by enhancing the condition of goods through someone's own efforts was considered being usury. Since Jews were not allowed to learn a trade or to purchase property, moneylending was one of the remaining types of activity for them in order to make a living. The customers of the disdained Jews were people who were not creditworthy anywhere else, and therefore had to pay high interests. This fact also added to the image of the Jewish profiteer. In the 13thcentury however, the reevaluation of the loan system underwent a fundamental change because of a modified economic system. Then also Christians gradually started to participate in that kind ofbusiness, but fundamentally margins of profit were still connoted negatively. As we see, the argumentative debate between Shylock and Antonio is suddenly over, when Shylock compares financial increase with the natural process of breeding, and moreover, ascribes this natural process to the efforts not of God, but of a human being, in this case himself: "I make it breed as fast" (1.3.93). Here, Shylock refers to an Aristotelian argument argument against money, an inert object, breeding itself in an unnatural way. Antonio takes Shylock's probable malicious humour literally here. This is ironic since it is Shylock who is continously faced with the allegation of heartless literal interpretation in terms of religion and law.