Other related topics at:
Bondage
Money
807. Bankruptcy; Debt; Debtor's
Prison
"Those who made the laws have apparently supposed, that every
deficiency of payment is the crime of the debtor. But the truth
is, that the creditor always shares the act, and often more than
shares the guilt, of improper trust.
It seldom happens that any
man imprisons another but for debts which he suffered to be
contracted in hope of advantage to himself, and for bargains in
which proportioned his own profit to his own opinion of the
hazard; and there is no reason, why one should punish the other
for a contract in which both concurred."
Johnson: Idler #22 (September 16, 1758)
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1,441. Bankruptcy; Fraud; Lying
"The commercial world is very frequently put into confusion by
the bankruptcy of merchants, that assumed the splendour of wealth
only to obtain the privilege of trading with the stock of other
men, and of contracting debts which nothing but lucky casualties
could enable them to pay; till after having supported their
appearance a while by tumultuary magnificence of boundless
traffic, they sink at once, and drag down into poverty those whom
their equipages had induced to trust them."
Johnson: Rambler #189 (January 7, 1752)
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