ABSTRACT
This chapter explains about Creditum. The last piece of etymology worth exploring is 'creditum' the origin of 'credit'. The moral and religious overtones of 'creditum' are, in other words, just as strong as with 'debitum', with the addition of some further emotional harmonics. While this principle is often invoked to prevent fraud on the part of the debtor, Hudson recounts cases in which it is invoked to prevent fraud on the part of the creditor. But we can at least give some direction to our intuitions by carefully identifying the object of credit in each type of case. Hudson explains: We can't fully understand these far-from-home cases until we examine the mechanics of banking and finance in later chapters. Perhaps the simplest way to put this is to say that 'credit' means 'belief', and genuine belief involves the possession of sufficient reasons for belief.
