The word gives away its origins
In Sumerian tablets, the word for the cost of a loan also meant calf. In ancient Greek, the cost of a loan was called by a word meaning "offspring" or "that which is born." The metaphor was the same in different languages.
The logic is clear. A borrowed herd really did produce offspring, while borrowed grain produced a harvest - so returning more than you borrowed looked not like an invention, but a simple description of what happened naturally.
The metaphor also became the main argument against interest. If silver cannot produce anything by itself, then charging for lending it means taking something from nowhere - that was the reasoning of a famous Greek philosopher, and people repeated his argument for the next 1,500 years.
Later bans were built on this idea. At different times, different traditions restricted or prohibited charging interest on a loan, and the practice itself was considered unworthy of a free person.
How the ban was bypassed
The most common method was a bill of exchange involving currency exchange. Money was given in one city, repaid in another and in a different currency, and the exchange-rate difference was the fee - without formally being called interest.
The second method was taking part in a venture. The lender received not a fee for time, but a share of the profits and part of the risk - and this form was considered acceptable because the lender shared possible losses with the borrower.
Gradually, attitudes changed. As trade began to require larger investments, people accepted that a loan had a price - and only the debate over its maximum level remained, continuing to this day.
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Sources
- The earliest evidence of interest-bearing loans comes from Mesopotamia and is linked to grain and livestock
- Sumerian and Greek terminology used the image of offspring. Restrictions on charging interest were bypassed through bills of exchange involving currency exchange and profit-sharing agreements