Mletački trgovac

Bassanio, on the other hand, wants to marry the rich heiress Portia, but he lacks 3,000 ducats to go begging in the town of Belmont, and he asks Antonio for help. Antonio agrees, but he cannot lend to him himself because he has invested all the money in merchant ships that are still at sea. They go to the miserly Jew Shylock, whom Antonio had earlier resented with comments about exploitation and green-handedness. He disparaged Shylock and the other Jews for lending money at high interest and undermined their business by offering interest-free loans.