Borrowing beyond your means is not an invention of Celtic Tiger Ireland – in Venice in the 1500s the Merchant Classes supported their trade with massive loans from the Jewish money lenders.
When Antonio borrows the sum of 3000 ducats to provide for his friend Bassanio’s trip to Belmont, he anticipates the safe arrival of his many ships to port and their associated good fortune, “but ships are but boards, sailors but men; there be land rats, and water rats, water thieves and land thieves”.
In a world without NAMA, when the loan goes bad is there anything to stop 'the Jew' from claiming his ‘pound of flesh’? And in the shadow of Shylock’s knife can Bassanio claim his prize in the shape of fair Portia?
A classic Shakespearean tale of love and hate with a moral all too familiar in the current clime – “all that glisters is not gold”, The Merchant of Venice is a timely lesson for us all.
