ABSTRACT
NExT, our weavers determined that the Society should transact its business upon what they denominated the "ready money principle." It might be suspected that the weekly accumulation of twopences would not enable them to give much credit ; but the determination arose chiefly from moral considerations. It was a part of their socialistic education to regard credit as a social evil--as a sign of the anxiety, excitement, and fraud of competition. As Social Reformers, they had been taught to believe that it would be better for society, that commercial transactions would be simpler and honester, if credit were abolished. This was a radical objection to credit. 1 However advantageous and indispensable credit is in general commerce, it would have been a fatal instrument in their hands. Some of them would object to take an oath, and the magistrate would object to administer it; thus they would be at the mercy of the dishonest who would come in and plunder them, as happens daily now where the claim turns upon the oath. 1 Besides, some of them had a tenderness with respect to suing, and would rather lose money than go to law to get it ; they, therefore, prudently fortified themselves by setting their faces against all credit, and from this resolution they have never departed.
