the funds, the
giving high and ruinous interest to men almost as greedy as vultures,
the causing the government to pay great and extravagant rates for what
they bought, and great premiums for what they borrowed--these were the
injuries to the public for want of credit; nor was it in the power of
the whole nation to remedy it; on the contrary, they made it still grow
worse and worse, till, as above, the parliament recovered it. And how
was it done? Not but by the same method a private person must do the
same, namely, by doing justly, and fairly, and honestly, by every body.

Thus credit began to revive, and to enlarge itself again; and usury,
which had, as it were, eaten up mankind in business, declined, and so
things came to their right way again.

The case is the same with a tradesman; if he shuffles in payment,
bargains at one time, and pays at another, breaks his word and his
honour in the road of his business, he is gone; no man will take his
bills, no man will trust him.

The conclusion is open and clear: the tradesman cannot be too careful of
his credit, he cannot buy it too dear, or be too careful to preserve it:
it is in vain to maintain it by false and loose doing business; by
breaking faith, refusing to perform agreements, and such shuffling
things as those; the greatest monarch in Europe could not so preserve
his credit.

Nothing but probity will support credit; just, and fair, and honourable
dealings give credit, and nothing but the same just, and fair, and
honourable dealings will preserve it.

FOOTNOTES:

[42] [How strikingly was this proved in the last war, when the British
government obtained credit for no less than six hundred millions to
conduct warlike operations, and by these means was ultimately
victorious.]

[43] [The author's praises of credit must be received with caution. If
his descriptions of the credit system of his own day are true, an
improvement has since taken place, as business neither is nor can be now
carried on to such an extent upon credit--a circumstance that redounds
to the advantage of all parties.]

[44] [Defoe speaks of such cases as if there were something laudable in
them, whereas it is obviously for the interest of all honest traders,
that no such men should be allowed to carry on business.]

[45] [Defoe almost appears in this place to lay capital out of the
question, and to represent credit as all in all. Credit is a matter of
great consequence; but we must not a