CRE 



CRE 



lyx four-cleft; corolla three-petalled ; 

 berry one-celled, many seeded. There 

 are five species. These are trees with 

 ternate leaves, and the flowers in ter- 

 minating panicles. Natives of both In- 

 dies. 



CRAX, the curassow, in natural his- 

 tory, a genus of birds of the order Galli- 

 j\x. Generic character : bill strong, con- 

 vex, and thick, the base of each mandi- 

 ble covered with a cere ; nostrils sma'l, 

 and fixed in the cere; feathers which 

 cover the head often curling- at the ends ; 

 tail large and straight. Latham mentions 

 four species, and Gmelin notices five. 

 We shall select the C. alector, or the pea- 

 cock pheasant of Guiana. These birds 

 abound in the woods of Guiana, and are 

 about the size of a small turkey, which 

 they also extremely resemble in taste. 

 They are destroyed by the Indians of the 

 country in vast numbers, and sold to the 

 planters, who are particularly fond of 

 them, and with whom, as they are so plen- 

 tiful, they constitute a frequent and al- 

 most daily article of food. They are 

 easily domesticated, and found in this 

 state, in great abundance, in the settle- 

 ments of Berbice and Demerara, and in 

 others of the West India islands. See 

 Aves, Plate IV. fig. 7. 



CRAYON, a name for all coloured 

 stones, earths, or other minerals, used in 

 designing or painting in pastel. See 

 PAINTING. 



CREAM. See MILK. 



CREAM of tartar, the common name of 

 supertartrate of potash ; it is also deno- 

 minated crystals of tartar. In this salt 

 there is an excess of the TARTARIC acid, 

 which see. 



CREDIT, in political economy, is the 

 trust which an individual places in ano- 

 ther individual, or in the state, in pecu- 

 niary transactions. This trust arises from 

 a confidence in the creditor, that the debt- 

 or will fulfil the engagement into which 

 he enters. 



The foundation of credit is a knowledge 

 of the circumstances of the debtor, or of 

 his character for industry, ability, and 

 probity. The degree of confidence is 

 increased by experience of his punctu- 

 ality in making good his engagements, 

 and diminished by all circumstances 

 which diminish the safety, or even inter- 

 rupt the regular course of mercantile 

 transactions. 



The money price of goods sold upon 

 credit must be higher than that of goods 

 paid for immediately, and this in propor- 

 tion to the length of credit given and the 



risk. The advantage of giving credit to 

 men of large capitals is, that they get 

 higher prices, the difference between the 

 money price and the credit price being 

 greater than the legal interest of the mo- 

 ney price for the time. Hence it is a 

 principle with some traders to give very 

 long credit at proportionate prices. The 

 advantage to purchasers of small capital 

 is, that these credits are so much addition 

 to their capital for the time 



Some men of lar^e property, but whose 

 concerns admit of indefinite extension, 

 will take all the credit they ca;s get, ei- 

 ther on pecuniary loans, or in purchases, 

 being able to make a larger profit on any 

 capital they can procure by either of 

 these methods than it costs them. They 

 are exposed, however, 1, to the risk of 

 having great demands made upon them, 

 when it may be inconvenient to satisfy 

 them ; and, 2, to the very common mis- 

 fortune of forgetting how much of their 

 capital belongs to other people; Dr. 

 Franklin's observation being too true, 

 that most men think their debts and their 

 sins less than they really are. A person 

 on whom credit is placed, and to whom 

 it is advantageous, should be religiously 

 punctual. Nothing will so much confirm 

 his credit. He, however, is in a safer 

 condition, who can give credit without 

 taking any ; who sells on credit, but buys 

 for money. And this should in general 

 be the object of every young trades- 

 man. 



The degree of credit among private 

 persons is considerably affected by the 

 laws. If they tend to enforce the fulfil- 

 ment of engagements, they strengthen 

 credit ; if they facilitate fraud, they en- 

 feeble it. 



The confidence placed in governments, 

 on the public credit, depends exactly on 

 the same causes as the credit of individu- 

 als, on the punctuality with which they 

 fulfil their engagements. Hence, in free 

 states, i. e. states in which the creditors 

 have a controul over the government, cre- 

 dit is extensive ; but in absolute monar- 

 chies it is little or nothing. It is an alarm- 

 ing circumstance for all creditors of the 

 state, that uherein a great national debt 

 has been contracted, the issue has been a 

 national bankruptcy. The republics of 

 Italy, and that of the United Provinces, 

 as well as the monarchs of France, have 

 ultimately discharged their debts in this 

 unhappy manner. This has been caused, 

 indeed, by the pressure of inevitable cir- 

 cumstances, but it is not the less alarming 

 on that account. 





