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INSOLVENCY. 1
As one man is the same to the State as another
man, & one's mans's interest as another man's interest
it is no matter to the State whether B.
who borrowed the money or L who lent it have
it at the long run, supposing so it once supposed that things to be so order'd,
that the punishment shall not be such as that B, knowing & expecting it the punishment,
can think it worth his while to incur it
for the profit of the delinquency. If it be, that is if it be perceived so to be, by persons in the situation of L, especially
after having once been otherwise, from
that moment Credit must receive a shock,
more or less severe, as the inequality of that
punishment to that profit stands more or less
confessed — In more particular language, L, seeing
that if he lends his money to B, B as far as
depends upon the Law, having no a clear Interest but
to return repay it the money, to will keep it to himself.
By this means a double loss is sustained incurred in
the first place: one by L who loses the profit
INSOLVENCY
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2 INSOLVENCY
he might have had for the hire of his money:
another of B, who loses the advantage he would
have had from the use of the it either in the
way of accumulation 2, by laying it out in
bargains commodities which sold again would produce more
than an equivalent; or in the way of conservation 1
by using it for a time, till more should
come in to replace, saving himself keeping himself clear from out of a temporary
distress.
In the second place, the loss of B, in the way of accumulation draws with
it a train of numberless derivative losses. Let
B be a trinket maker maker of hardware at Birmingham, who
cannot get money to buy iron: there are his
men who cannot get the money they used to would receive
for the making of the trinkets, wares which are
lots or rather collection of trinkets; losses there are
the men at ....... to pass over intermediate Trades who would have been paid for
It can be ... smelting the ore, which is another loss; there are the
that can spread the Idea of insecurity. men at .......... who would have drawn
out this ore, another.
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INSOLVENCY 3
If it appeared in the first place, that he did not borrow the money but in expectation of being able to repay it: in the second place, that eventually he was not able either to pay it or to get it paid, who is there even of his Condition that would wish to continue him in Sufferance? Who is there one may further say to whom Debtor & Creditor are equal that that would wish to continue supposing him
to have borrowed it innocently
& to be unable
to repay it himself? there being no reason
for preferring the innocent creditor to the equally innocent friends & relations of the Debtor, & those friends & Relations not being compellable. if at all in any other way than
by the sufferance of the Debtor
which according as it has had a
greater or less continuance before it has
operated it's effect, is more
or less of clear unhappiness.
The only Question is therefore, how
would Credit bear the
of this precarious collateral
security? [a Question
which resolves itself into another,
how far men trust much of their confidence
to it men place to the account
of it at the time of
lending?]
INSOLVENCY [BR]3.]
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4
If it be said, that upon the reduced plan of
punishment, men will still borrow in contemplation of
not payinginsolvency, it is answer'd so do they now: they
do so, from the prospect of escaping to another
country, of the creditor's placability, of living in
privileged places, of shutting themselves confusing them the
Of some fortuitous resurgence affluence
confusing themselves for 6 day compounding for a 6 day enforcement at their own <add>Laws</add> with freedom
As equivalent for the the 7th, of a Legislative Pardon, in short from
precipitancy & absence of reflection, casting the wait
behind them looks on the future evil of looking only at the present good. Door to be broke open & privelige to be abolished
The .... first must be the same under every
dispensation, the ... pardon subsists only from the want of
these, the & the temporary Asylums subsist under the
present plan but may be taken away under upon those which
is prepared, in compensation & an ample one they were for the defalcacity —
They may yield the other as neither Neither the one nor the other were established on
considerations of policy, but the one on Religion
the other on a political consideration, [both founded
on and refered to beginning & ending in]the imagination only judgment
on principles that have their root not the
but in the saving .
It may be urged a caution, that the bare apprehension of tho' softened by these chances of escaping is itself a sufficient punishment to ( In speculations vague as these one may give one's own opinion, but it is folly to think to have decided.
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Identifier: | JB/070/281/001 "JB/" can not be assigned to a declared number type with value 70.
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070 |
of laws in general |
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281 |
insolvency |
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001 |
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1 |
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jeremy bentham |
[[watermarks::[lion with vryheyt motif]]] |
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