Does any one doubt, but the legislature of that nation may spunge out the public debts, with as much ease as a King of France? But in the one kingdom, the whole nation must be consulted as to the propriety of such a step; in the other, it may be done at the instigation of a single person, ignorant of the consequences: but I hope to make it appear, before the conclusion of this book, that it is impossible to form a supposition, when a state can be benefited by deliberately departing, for one moment, from the faith of her engagements. A national bankruptcy may (no doubt) happen, and become irreparable; but that must be when the state is emerging from a signal calamity, after having been involved in ruin and confusion. Confidence, then, is the soul and essence of credit, and in every modification of it, we shall constantly find it built on that basis; but this confidence must have for its object a _willingness_ and a _capacity_ in the debtor to fulfil his obligations. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CHAP. II. _Of the Nature of Obligations to be performed, in Consequence of Credit given._ We have already said, that all obligations contracted with a view to be performed in future time, consist in doing or giving something; in consideration of something _done_, or _given_. When actions only are stipulated in contracts, _credit_ (in a strict acceptation of the term) is little concerned; because no adequate security can be given for performing an action: such contracts stand wholly upon the willingness and capacity of _acting_, which depend more upon the _person_ than upon the _faculties_ of the debtor. To supply that defect, we see penalties usually stipulated in such cases; which reduce those contracts to an alternative obligation of either _doing_ or _giving_. We shall therefore throw out the consideration of the first altogether, as being foreign to our purpose; and adhere to the latter, which is the true object of credit. Again, In all obligations to give any particular thing, there is constantly implied an alternative also; to wit, either the thing stipulated, or the value (_id quod interest_, according to the lawyers) this must be relative to money; which is the common price of all things in commerce among men. Thus we have brought credit to the object under which we are to consider it, viz. the obligation to pay money, either for value received, or for some consideration relative to the parties, which may be the just ground of a contract. Credit and debts are therefore inseparable, and very properly come to be examined together in this book. When money is to be paid at a distant period of time, the obligation may either be, 1. for one precise sum; or 2. for that sum with interest, during the interval between contracting and fulfilling the obligation.