First Sentence

"As is well known, in the present year's session the Riksdag has passed a government bill for a new 'law against usury', which has subsequently been published and the first paragraph of which contains the statement that 'any person who, in advancing money or allowing the payment of a debt to be deferred, exploits any other person's straitened circumstances, imprudence or recklessness so as to obtain or to stipulate for him or herself or another person pecuniary advantages clearly in excess of what might be regarded as constituting a reasonable rate of interest in the circumstances, shall be . . . liable to a fine . . . of up to one thousand crowns or imprisonment for a maximum of one year, where no penalty is fixed for the offence in the general Criminal Code'."