ABSTRACT
Commercial credit may be defined to be that confidence which subsists among commercial men in respect to their mercantile affairs. Even in that early and rude state of society, in which neither bills nor money are as yet known, it may be assumed, that if there be commerce, a certain degree of commercial credit will also subsist. This commercial credit is the foundation of paper credit; paper serving to express that confidence which is in the mind, and to reduce to writing those engagements to pay, which might otherwise be merely verbal. In a country possessed of commercial knowledge and experience, confidence, in most instances, will not be misplaced. The custom which tradesmen have of selling to the consumers on credit, is also an indication of wealth in the commercial world. Commercial capital, let it then be understood, consists not in paper, and is not augmented by the multiplication of the medium of payment.
