Credit

THE HISTORY OF THE BANKRUPTCY LAWS IN THE UNITED STATES
Charles Jordan Tabb
3 Am. Bankr. Inst. L. Rev. 5 (1995)
(American Bankruptcy Institute Law Review)

"...Credit generally was viewed as immoral and almost fraudulent; as Blackstone noted:

"[T]he law holds it to be an unjustifiable practice, for any person but a trader to encumber himself with debts of any considerable value. If a gentleman, or one in a liberal profession, at the time of contracting his debts, has a sufficient fund to pay them, the delay of payment is a species of dishonesty, and a temporary injustice to his creditor: and if, at such time, he has no sufficient fund, the dishonesty and injustice is the greater."

2 WILLIAM BLACKSTONE, COMMENTARIES *473-74.