In his book, Debt: The First 5,000 Years, anthropologist David Graeber traces the history of debt and its relationship with and effect on human societies. Among other things, Graeber focuses on the development of how the idea of “debt” is used today in explaining moral relationships, which he claims is a historical anomaly.

Palmer writes that the high-mortality rates of the black death threatened to destabilize credit, and thus the government sought to shore up the enforcement of debt obligations lest the “wealthy would shirk their debts.” (p. 59) It is interesting to me how penal bonds were one of the mechanisms used to help “stabilize credit relations and to reinforce commercial and social relationships.” (p. 63). These penal bonds carried penalties of default worth double the value of the underlying debt. Although Palmer does not directly address this point, and I am unsure whether my question is actually researchable, to what extent could a sense of morals have driven this development?

-- JulianAzran - 25 Sep 2014