The Middlebury register. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1850-1882, 1870-05-03
commercial Honor.

In the ethics of business there is but
one standard of safety and Of honor. 1t
is to assume no obligations that, in the
usual course OF trade, you may be unable
to meet. In other words, assume no
trust that yol have not the po,cer as well
as the 'cW to discharge at the proper
time. In the nature Of trade there must
be more or less of borrowing and conse-
qucntly of lending. Crippled indeed would
be the business world if exchange were
effectual only upon the production of the
ready cash But the necessity for the
borrowing and lending system affords no
warrant for its abuse, now so frequent.
1t is to the loose and indscriminate use
Of borrowed capital that is to be traced
the wrecks and ruins seen on every hand
in commercial life. 1t is difficult for the
borrower to keep within bounds. His
will is good, his intentions honorable, but,
in his haste to make money and become
rich, he ventures beyond his depth, his
plans miscarry, and then he loses the
power to meet his obligations. He has,
in brief, got away from safe moorings by
neglecting to observe the true standard of
commercial honor and although filled
with laudable desires, has drifed upon "a
lee shore. But this is not the worst of it.
Others, who are innocent, by this depart
ure on his part are involved in this disas-
ter They who trusted his word and had
faith in his rectitude-they who were
lenders, may also have been carried down
into the vortex.
OF course, there is risk in all CONNER
cial transactions, and there are occasions
when the wisest foresight and the strictest
adherence to the honest maxims of trade,
aided by an individual integrity beyond
the reach Of suspicion, are insufficient to
avert disaster But the point we wish to
make is that such failures would become
ike angels visits, few and far between,
were every man engaged in commercial
pursuits to make it supreme requirement
in the prosecution of his business, that
all transactions should be limited to his
ability to provide for in all ordinary
contingencies and fluctuations and of his
ability he should be sure in his own con-
science. 1t will not do to accept the
measure of ones credit as the measure
also of ones ability to make that credit
secure. 1t is here lies the danger. The
temptation to branch out beyond ones
means because the world, not knowing the
precise limit thereto, is willing to trust
you still further, is great one, and it is
only the strictest integrity, the most scru-
pulous honor, which will enable a man to
resist it successfully.
The merchant who succumbs to this
temptation takes a place at once outside
the realm Of legitimate business and ar
rays himself side by side with the mere
soldier of fortune, the man who stakes
his money and his reputation on the haz-
zard of die 1t has been felicitously
and truly remarked in this connection
that Where the quick venture is prefer
red to sure toll, where speculation in pre-
carious values takes the place Of real
transactions in material exchanges, and
where liabilities are recklessly incurred
without an adequate base to warrant
them, there commerce is losing her true
and honorable character, and descending
to the moral tone of the gaming table or
the betting ROOM" But, as we remarked
at the outset, there is one always safe
principle in commercial pursuits. 1t is TO
accept no trust that cannot be fulfilled in
all reasonable probability at the specified
time and place. Adherence to this rule
will secure borrower and lender from all
ordinary risk of insolvency and set up
just standard of commercial morality.