Abstract This article attempts to contribute to ethical perspectives on sustainability initiatives by comparing the relationship between economy and society in the usury debate in early modern England and the sustainability debate in the late 20th century. This comparison highlights that the changing relationship between economy and society has been a self-conscious and hotly debated struggle among various groups at various times in history. The article concludes that if sustainability is going to be a viable ethical project, it may have to reclaim access to social and political relations which have been increasingly privatized in market economy throughout the modern period
