The pitkin affair: A study of fraud in early english bankruptcy

The great and apparent importance of commerce to this country was a sufficient reason for the anxiety of the legislature to establish and protect it. But when it was thus established, the very nature of commerce made it necessary to frame laws to regulate and to restrain it. No man embarks in trade, but from a desire of becoming rich⋯. But, among the many who thus pursue the same objects, all are not equally honest. The opportunities of becoming suddenly rich are too various and too flattering always to be resisted. The best men may be tempted by them: dishonest men will eagerly embrace them. The more diffusive our commerce is, the more frequently will these opportunities occur. Where they do not, ingenuity and depravity will create them. To prevent this facility of yielding to temptation, to restrain and to defeat the enterprises of the fraudulent trader, experience has suggested the necessity of enacting positive and severe laws.