> They also had serious difficulties in recovering money lent to Christians because either the repayment term was after August 10, the deadline for their departure, or many of the debtors claimed "usury fraud," knowing that the Jews would not have time for the courts to rule in their favor.
“Due to the precarious position of Jews, some nobles could ignore their debts. If the sponsoring noble died, his Jewish financier could face exile or execution.”
A lack of tribalism and a high-trust society, heavily influenced by the Church's ban on cousin marriage, is why the west was able to become so wealthy.
OK fine, it's a slightly different thesis but it's the correct one ;)
There's a theory that the faster things happen, the better - where we forgive outright fraud because it's theoretically driving commerce. In my experience, badly run (or intentionally fraudulent) businesses actually kill an entire area of commerce - by cheating and often going bankrupt on suppliers who then go out of business themselves rather than being able to provide their product to actually competitive companies who would remain in business.
Slower capital might mean more care and less fraud, but not implicitly. On the other hand, the velocity of capital through a system is at least one measure of its health and prosperity, and a system that deliberately tolerates a moderate amount of risk to min/max fraud/velocity is probably going to be healthier than one that errs too much on their side of either factor (at least in a very simplistic manner— of course there are many more factors and considerations as well)
The problem is that we seem to have entirely ignored the moral risk where some people (criminals in all but name) continually abuse the same issues. Companies intentionally go bankrupt with a ton of debt rather than trying to minimize debt when it implodes. I've seen companies buy big pieces of equipment just before bankruptcy and the machine (an excavator) was sold to pay general debts, only a small portion of which went to the seller. Management knew they were likely caput but they didn't act like it.
Mistakes can happen, but in this case it wasn't a mistake and it was incentivized - not just allowed - by our system.
If I borrowed your car and my garage burned down with it inside you wouldn't hold a grudge, but if I knowingly parked it in a burning garage you would.
I get the feeling you've never lived around Evangelicals or Mormons.
Joining the right church is a long-standing method of business/career networking.
I don't think you realize the business opportunities you're missing out on.
They aren't exclusively hiring their own, but it's human nature to trust those closer to you. I've seen this heavily reflected in the evangelical and Mormon communities, but you'd never know unless you had insight via friends or family.
From this I can gather that Sumerian kings on average didn't live very long. ;-)
It is unsustainable.