Section XCIV.. Letters of Respite (specialmoratorien).

Letters Of Respite (Specialmoratorien).

Special letters of respite (Specialmoratorien) are a suspension of the laws relating to debt, made in favor of an individual. (Quinquennalia.) They were intended to protect not only the debtor, but also the aggregate of creditors against the short-sighted severity of one of their number. They were wont to be given especially when the debtor showed that immediate execution would not only have the effect of ruining himself, but of sending his creditors away empty handed; while, if time were given him, he would be able to satisfy every one.(564) But the granting of such letters has, in recent times, been prohibited(565) in nearly all countries as arbitrary, and as a species of cabinet-justice. Nor should the granting of them be compared with the pardoning power. In the case of a pardon, the offended State forgives. In this case it sacrifices the unquestionable right of one party to the very doubtful advantage of another. Where such letters are granted in great numbers, credit cannot fail to suffer. “Quinquinnellen gehören in die Hollen!”

Yet in troublous times, when a great many debtors are insolvent at the same time, the question of modifying the laws relating to debt, temporarily, has been mooted. It has been urged on such occasions, that it would be a matter of enormous difficulty to treat, lege artis, thousands as bankrupts at once; that thousands of businesses would have to be closed, their stocks cast upon the market at mock prices, and their employees thrown out of employment. But, if certain privileges were to be accorded to all who should declare themselves unable to meet their obligations before a certain day, it would be known, at least, that the others were in a solid condition; and this would have the effect to strengthen the credit which had been before universally shaken. We must, however, leaving all cases of abuse out of the question, remember, that a really unrightful favor, granted to the debtor, may possibly entail the ruin of his creditor. Besides, the uncertainty of the law would have a much worse effect on credit than uncertainty as to the personal status of individuals.(566) Where, as is the case generally in inferior stages of civilization, debtors and creditors form two distinct classes, the question of right is not, indeed, changed, but there is a solid basis afforded for the political admeasurement of opposing interests. In another work I have shown how, after great wars, land owners, who became involved in debt, have been protected against capitalists. (See Roscher, Nationalökonomik des Ackerbaues, § 137, ff.)(567)(568)