OF THE TRADESMAN IN DISTRESS, AND BECOMING BANKRUPT


In former times it was a dismal and calamitous thing for a tradesman to
break. Where it befell a family, it put all into confusion and
distraction; the man, in the utmost terror, fright, and distress, ran
away with what goods he could get off, as if the house were on fire, to
get into the Friars[14] or the Mint; the family fled, one one way, and
one another, like people in desperation; the wife to her father and
mother, if she had any, and the children, some to one relation, some to
another. A statute (so they vulgarly call a commission of bankrupt) came
and swept away all, and oftentimes consumed it too, and left little or
nothing, either to pay the creditors or relieve the bankrupt. This made
the bankrupt desperate, and made him fly to those places of shelter with
his goods, where, hardened by the cruelty of the creditors, he chose to
spend all the effects which should have paid the creditors, and at last
perished in misery.

But now the case is altered; men make so little of breaking, that many
times the family scarce removes for it. A commission of bankrupt is so
familiar a thing, that the debtor oftentimes causes it to be taken out
in his favour, that he may sooner be effectually delivered from all his
creditors at once, the law obliging him only to give a full account of
himself upon oath to the commissioners, who, when they see his
integrity, may effectually deliver him from all further molestation,
give him a part even of the creditors' estate; and so he may push into
the world again, and try whether he cannot retrieve his fortunes by a
better management, or with better success for the future.