DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.22140#0097
THE DEVELOPMENT OF CREDIT AGENCIES. 81
economists had been increased tenfold, and according to all analogy,
prices should have been powerfully asfected. But, in fact, the
wealth of the country remained as it was. Property changed
hands. Man}' were ruined, many were enriched, but the aggregate
of riches, some waste considered and accounted for, remained
unaltered. No doubt the distress was very general. It always is
when credit is inflated by folly and temporarily destroyed by
inevitable panic. People often wonder at the rapid recovery from
monetary disasters. The true explanation is that what is lost is
impersonal ; individual, not collective. .There may be a serious
strain, there is for a time a formidable collapse. But what is
substantial is not gone, and will soon recover its efficiency.
You will then agree with me, that the proper interpretation of
credit is derived, as is common with economical phenomena, from
negative inductions. But to frame negative inductions you require
facts, as much as you do in affirmative inductions. Men learn
what they can do, by discovering, occasionally after a painful and
dangerous experience, what they cannot do. The lesson people
have to learn extends through all human action, from the highest
esforts of political and social agencies to the ordinary business of
every-day life. But I am sure that this cannot ever be learned in
an arm-chair, at a study table, and with nothing but metaphysics
to guide one.
The British nation is the only civilized community, and the
criticism does not of course extend to uncivilized communities,
which has kept unbroken, undeviating faith with its public and
private creditors. There have been, it is true, temptations and
tempters, both plausible enough, but they have not been listened
to with effect. There have been occasions on which, relying on
this honest sensitiveness, rogues have attempted and with success
to palm indefensible claims on the British public, under the guise
of vested interests. I told you on a previous occasion what is the
only vested interest which an economist can allow. But I suppose
that it is better in the long run, to be stupid and honest, than to
run the risk of being called clever and unscrupulous. But if one
is honest, one need not be stupid, and one may discover that one
is encouraging knaves, if one listens with over-much compliance to
their claims. There is and there cannot be any other definition of
7
economists had been increased tenfold, and according to all analogy,
prices should have been powerfully asfected. But, in fact, the
wealth of the country remained as it was. Property changed
hands. Man}' were ruined, many were enriched, but the aggregate
of riches, some waste considered and accounted for, remained
unaltered. No doubt the distress was very general. It always is
when credit is inflated by folly and temporarily destroyed by
inevitable panic. People often wonder at the rapid recovery from
monetary disasters. The true explanation is that what is lost is
impersonal ; individual, not collective. .There may be a serious
strain, there is for a time a formidable collapse. But what is
substantial is not gone, and will soon recover its efficiency.
You will then agree with me, that the proper interpretation of
credit is derived, as is common with economical phenomena, from
negative inductions. But to frame negative inductions you require
facts, as much as you do in affirmative inductions. Men learn
what they can do, by discovering, occasionally after a painful and
dangerous experience, what they cannot do. The lesson people
have to learn extends through all human action, from the highest
esforts of political and social agencies to the ordinary business of
every-day life. But I am sure that this cannot ever be learned in
an arm-chair, at a study table, and with nothing but metaphysics
to guide one.
The British nation is the only civilized community, and the
criticism does not of course extend to uncivilized communities,
which has kept unbroken, undeviating faith with its public and
private creditors. There have been, it is true, temptations and
tempters, both plausible enough, but they have not been listened
to with effect. There have been occasions on which, relying on
this honest sensitiveness, rogues have attempted and with success
to palm indefensible claims on the British public, under the guise
of vested interests. I told you on a previous occasion what is the
only vested interest which an economist can allow. But I suppose
that it is better in the long run, to be stupid and honest, than to
run the risk of being called clever and unscrupulous. But if one
is honest, one need not be stupid, and one may discover that one
is encouraging knaves, if one listens with over-much compliance to
their claims. There is and there cannot be any other definition of
7