The best means to facilitate the migration of capital is credit. It is, indeed, true, that in international trade, ordinary private loans are seldom made. To make such loans would be to run too many risks; risks through a want of knowledge of persons or circumstances, on account of the difficulties in the way of continued supervision, and of being able to assert and defend one's rights away from home.[187-5] Loans are much more readily made to foreign states, to great corporations, or joint-stock companies, whose condition is well-known; and which, by reason of their perpetuity, have a deep and obvious interest in maintaining an honorable reputation. The issuing of certificates of stock, etc., has greatly facilitated international trade in capital.[187-6] But the mode of loaning in foreign parts preferred is to sell them commodities, and to require payment for them only after some time has elapsed, of course, with interest. Purchases, on the contrary, are paid for immediately, possibly even in advance.[187-7] The lower the rate of interest in a country is, the longer and more cheaply can it give credit to others; a new reason why the less civilized countries are particularly fond of trading with the most civilized.[187-8] [187-9] [Footnote 187-1: _Nebenius_, Der öffentliche Credit, 83 ff. After the end of the Napoleonic war, English capital flowed, by way of preference, towards South America, afterwards towards Spain and Portugal; after 1830, to North America; after 1840, towards Germany and France, to be invested in the construction of railways in the latter countries.]