Week 2 Blog Post
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Important Words from Defoe:
1. Credit
2. Trade
Credit can be good or bad. It can be your reputation, a form of money, a savior, or a bother. In Defoe, credit comes in all these forms. Credit to Defoe is a sort entity that can bring with it a solution to the economic problem, but with it comes internal strife. This is an important word because it ties in with his whole text, whether it is about the economy, the people, or even trade. It relates to all of them. Credit now has a close meaning to that which is said in Defoe’s text. It can be used as a placeholder for money, and can help or ruin a persons life. It is used differently now in a way but it is still an entity that can come or go.
Trade to Defoe, is a common occurrence that he supports. It is what people do to make a living. However, Defoe does not talk about trade as a transaction in this text but what is needed in order to make trade possible and create trade. He uses trade to inform those that plan to go into this business what they should consider and some of the better ways to create trade for oneself. He is trying to move people towards the idea that credit and business comes to those who work hard at it rather than making a front. What better way to explain this but through trade, which is a common ground for those in his time. The meaning of trade to Defoe is similar to the one we have today. It is still a transaction between people who wish to acquire different things.
I chose these words not because they are in the title of the readings but because they hold a lot of meaning behind them. They represent so much and have a huge effect on peoples lives. Without trade to begin with, there would be no need for credit because there is no need for any transactions. Trade would not get as efficient and organized as it is now if it weren’t for credit as well. It make for a speedy transaction and can last a lifetime. Understanding what credit and trade is will be important for reading this text because it is the concept for which this text was written upon.
You pick up on some important details of Defoe’s perspective, David: while trade can be a type of transaction or activity, he presents it as a prerequisite for that type of transaction — something that has to exist, even for it to take place. It’s significant, I think, that we also use “trade” to mean the type of business that someone is in — you might go to trade school to learn a trade, for example. If you wanted to revise this post, it might be interesting to take both of these terms, or just one, and explain how the different meanings of the terms can cause problems (assuming, of course, that you think they do — because what I get from this post is that trade and credit are each huge terms that can mean a lot of different things.
Also, you say that credit is used differently today than in Defoe’s time — can you say more about that? (Any time you say that something is used differently without explaining how, I’m sure to ask you for more details). 🙂
It is good that you link trade and credit together. I very much agree that credit increases the rate of trade and facilitates it greatly. Also, with Defoe’s opinion of good practice in trading by not putting up a face, but focusing on running a healthy business, credit is about having substantial “wares” as well by being reliable to supply or return a payment. When I read these two texts last week, I didn’t make this parallel.