but your mother – Through the parable of the Honest Sailor, Pound insists on a basic distinction concerning the nature of true wealth. In classical economics, wealth is calculated in money, on the understanding that producing wealth consists in creating profit out of existing capital – money “begets” money. But this line of reasoning was proven wrong by Aristotle and Dante: money does not give birth – a coin is the same as another coin – two coins together do not naturally beget something else, different from them. This is why Dante places the usurers together with the sodomites in the 7th circle in the Inferno (XVII). The irony of the anecdote is that the sailor honestly believes that an economy of same functions like a natural one – it portrays the logical absurdity of financial capitalism. Canto XII thus introduces the idea that would be so important to Pound, particularly in cantos XLV and LI, that usury is against nature.