896 CREDIT. 
fidence of people in each other’s honesty, sol- 
vency and resources. Credit is not confined to 
civilized countries; Mr. Park mentions instances 
of it among the Africans; but it will not prevail 
extensively where the laws do not protect pro- 
perty, and enforce the fulfilment of promises. 
Public credit is founded upon a confidence in the 
resources, good faith, and stability of the govern- 
ment; and it does not always flourish or decline 
at the same time and rate as private credit; for 
the people may have either greater or less confi- 
dence in the government than in each other: 
still there is some sympathy and correspondence 
between the two; for a general individual confi- 
dence can rarely, if ever, take place in the midst 
of distrust of the government; and, vce versa, a 
firm reliance upon the government promotes a 
corresponding individual confidence among the 
citizens. The history of every industrious and 
commercial community, under a stable govern- 
ment, will present successive alternate periods of 
credit and distrust, following each other with a 
good deal of regularity. A general feeling of 
prosperity produces extension and facilities of 
credit. The mere opinion or imagination of a 
prevailing success has, of its own force, a most 
powerful influence in exciting the enterprise, and 
| quickening the industry, of a community. The 
first requisite to industry is a stock of instru- 
ments, and of materials on which to employ 
them: a very busy and productive community 
requires a great stock of both. Now if this stock, 
being ever so great, were hoarded up; if the pos- 
sessors would neither use, let, nor sell it, as long 
as 1t should be so withdrawn from circulation, it 
| would have no effect upon the general activity 
_ and productiveness, 
This is partially the case 
when a general distrust and impression of decay 
and decline cause the possessors of the stock and 
materials to be scrupulous about putting them 
out of their hands, by sale or otherwise, to be 
used by others; and others, again, having no 
confidence in the markets, and seeing no pros- 
pect of profits, hesitate to purchase materials, or 
to buy or hire the implements, mills, ships, &c., 
of others, or to use their own in the processes of 
production and transportation. This state of 
surplusage and distrust is sure to be followed by 
a reduction of money prices; and every one who 
has a stock on hand, and whose possessions are 
estimated in money, is considered to be growing 
poorer and poorer every day. But when prices 
have reached their lowest point, and begin regu- 
larly to rise, everybody begins to esteem himself 
and others as being prosperous, and the opinion 
contributes powerfully to verify itself. Credit 
begins to expand; all the stores of the commu- 
nity are unlocked, and the whole of its resources 
is thrown open to enterprise. Every one is able 
| readily to command a sufficiency of means for 
the employment of his industry ; capital is easily 
procured, and services are readily rendered, each 
one relying upon the success of the others, and 
CRESS. 
their readiness to meet their engagements; and 
the acceleration of industry, and the extension of 
credit, go on until a surplus and stagnation are 
again produced. The affairs of every industrious 
and active community are always revolving in 
this circle, in traversing which, general credit 
passes through the periodical ebbs and flows. 
This facility and extension of credit consti- 
tutes what is commonly called fictitious capital. 
The fiction consists In many individuals being 
supposed to be possessed of a greater amount 
of clear capital than they are actually worth. 
The most striking instance of this fictitiousness 
of capital, or, in other words, excess of credit, 
appears in the immense amounts of negotiable 
paper, that some individuals and companies 
spread in the community, or of paper currency, 
where the issuing of notes for supplying currency 
by companies or individuals is permitted. Indi- 
viduals or companies thus draw into their hands 
an immense capital, and it is by no means a fic- 
titious capital when it comes into their posses- 
sion, but actual money, goods, lands, &c.; but, if 
they are in a bad, losing business, the capital, as 
soon as they are intrusted with it, becomes ficti- 
tious in respect to those who trusted them with 
it, since they will not again realize it. 
CRENIC ACID. See Apocrmnic Acrp. 
CREPIS. A genus of herbaceous plants, of the 
chicory division of the composite family. About 
a dozen species formerly belonging to it are now 
distributed among other genera; but about fifty 
species still belong to it, and about twenty of 
these may be seen in the open grounds or in the 
botanical collections of Britain. Most are an- 
nuals, and nearly all have yellow flowers. The 
fair species grows 4 or 5 feet high, and occurs in 
Scottish uplands; the biennial species also grows 
4 or 5 feet high, and occurs in the chalky pas- 
tures of England; and the roof species grows 
about 20 inches high, and occurs in the pastures 
of both England and Scotland. These indigenous 
species are sometimes called bastard hawkweed. 
CRESCENTIA. See Canasasu-TReEn. 
CRESS (Ammrican). See American Cruss and 
VIRGINIAN CRESS. 
CRESS (Brtizrsin). See Wryrer Cress. 
CRESS (Common or GarpEn),—botanically Le- 
pidium Sativum. A hardy, annual, small salad 
herb, of the pepperwort genus. It is the most 
common of our cultivated salad plants, and is 
held in great and general estimation, both for the 
surpassing ease with which it is cultivated, and 
for the agreeable pungency of its taste and fla- 
vour. It was introduced from Persia about the 
middle of the 16th century, and has long been 
cultivated in almost every tasteful cottage gar- 
den. It grows about 20 inches high, and has 
white flowers, suborbicular silicles, and parted 
cotyledons. It comprises three varieties, the 
common flat-leaved, the curled-leaved, and the 
broad-leaved ; and the first of these is the most 
generally cultivated. It may be sown in succes- 
