[발췌] 로버트 모리스의 파산과 미국 최초의 파산법

※ 발췌 (excerpts):


출처 1: Who's Going to Be Responsible for This?: Robert Morris

It's funny how some incredibly famous and important people are forgotten by history while others who have mae less of an impact are remembered or enshrned. Robert Morris is one of those significant figures who seems to have been lost in history. Morris is one of only two men who can claim to have signed not only the Declaration of Independence but also the Articles of Confederation and the final Constitution of the United States. ( ... ... )

At the start of the American Revolution, Robert Morris was one of the most respected and successful men in Philadelphia. His stella reputation and his keen financial mind made him the ideal choice for superintendent of finance for what was then the newly formed United States of America.

As superintendent, Morris' role was to manage the finances of the country in its efforts to support the ongoing war against Britain. With the treasury already $25 million in debt and the credit and credibility of the new nation in tatters, his job was not easy. Morris's first order of business was to create the Bank of North America. This was the first and only nationally chartered bank in the Americas. Morris lobbied hard and succeeded in persuading France to be the first depositor.

Using the unprecedented dictatorial powers, Morris set about raising money for the bank. This money would subsequently be used to fund the war effort. In order to raise the funds to be used for Washington's army, Morris needed co-sign notes as a personal guarantor. During the batter of Yorktown, Morris acted as quartermaster and personally bought or guaranteed the payment of $1.4 million in notes. Within time, Morris committed the bulk of his fortune and credit to further the cause of the revolution by funding the war. Morris commented after the battle that the war had changed from a war of bullets to a war of money.

Morris' contribution as superintendent of finance to the creation of the United States economic system was invaluable. Morris' paper "On Public Credit" was the framework that Alexander Hamilton used to form the country's financial system. Morris was the first to use the two vertical bars that go through an "S" as the insignia now universally recognized as the dollar sign indicating  the amounts for US currency.

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George Washington was so impressed with Morris's work as the superintendent of finance, and his backing of the war effort, that he was Washington's first pick as secretary of the treasury.

History as we know it might be different if Morris had accepted Washington's appointment. Morris was still a wealthy man, but he had depleted a large part his personal cash and credit during the war years. Morris believed that he needed to get back to work to rebuild his fortune. He turned down Washington's appointment. Morris recommended that Washington select another friend of his, Alexander Hamilton. Hamilton accepted the appointment.

Morris's decision to go back to private enterprise was very rewarding, at first. Having lost over 150 of his trading ships during the war, Morris turned to land speculation to rebuild his fortune. His first transactionㅡ3,750,000 acres of land that comprised a good chuncks of western New Yorkㅡwas purchased from the state of Massachusetts for the sum of $333,333.33, after the previous borrowers defaulted on a million-dollar note. This purchase turned out to be very profitable. Morris leveraged this success into other land deals and eventually controlled over six million acres of land in the rural South and Washington DC.

Unfortunately for Morris, and for so many people before and after him, economic conditions are rarely predictable. By 1797, the young republic's economy, along with England's, collapsed. England's economy collapsed from the high costs associated with the exploding French revolutionary war. The US economy collapsed from land speculation that had raised land prices far above sustainable levels. Investors and lending institutions did not want to loan money on overpriced real estate. This resulted in a freeze in the credit markets. As notes came due, the speculators couldn't obtain sufficient funds to meet the payments.

Having invested all his money in land and the US war effort, Morris din't have enough hard currency to pay his debts to creditors when the notes came due.

Without additional credit to finance his land or the ability to sell the land, he was quick facing the prospect of debtor's prison. Morris attempted to avoid his creditors by hiding out in his home. But his creditors pursued him right up to the gates and demanded that he come out and stand trial. Morris was arrested, convicted, and imprisoned for nonpayment of debts. He was sent to the Prune Street prison in Philadelphia in 1797.

( ... ... ) They [=George Washington and Alexander Hamilton] believed it was unfair that someone who had done so much for the birth of the nation should be behid bars. After all, Morris had signed his name to the Declaration of Independence, whereby, in effect, he had risked his life for his new country. He had put all his money and credit at the disposal of Washington's army. He was one of the main architects of America's financial system. ( ... ... ) Unfortunately, there was nothing that could be done. Morris had to serve his prison term or pay back his debts. Seeing this as a great injustice, Morris's powerful friends began to lobby Congress for a solution. After much debate, Congress enacted a Bankruptcy Act. This act allowed debtors to avoid a debtor's prison and wipe out their debts if they liquidated their assets. The Bankruptcy Act of 1800 was instrumental in getting Morris released from debtor's prison. It was also instrumental in letting many others not pay their bills. As a result, after four short years, well after Morris was released from jail, Congress was forced to repeal the Bankruptcy Act.

It took almost a hundred years before Congree tackled this thorny subject again. Today, there is a bankruptcy law. But there is no longer a debtor's prison.


출처 2: Introduction to Bankruptcy Law

The Bankruptcy Act of 1800

The Bankruptcy Act of 1800 was enacted in response to the financial panics of 1792 and 1797, which were caused by speculatio in land, stock, and government scrip. Scrip was paper money issued in the United States in amounts of less than a dollar. These panics resulted in the imprisonment of many debtors, some of who were quite important.

( ... ... ) Morris was in a debtors' prison when the Bankruptcy Act of 1800 was passed. Morris spent three years in the prison and was released after obtaining a discharge under the Act. ( ... ... ) In 1798, he fled Pennsylvania to avoid debtors' prison and died a short time after in North Carolina.

( ... ... ) The Bankruptcy Act of 1800, which applied only to merchants, was a temporary measure designed to expire in 1805. It was repealed in 1803. For the next 38 years, the country operated without federal bankruptcy legislation.


출처 3: http://www.philadelphia-reflections.com/topic/168.htm

( ... ... ) While in prison, he reduced that (= $12 million) to $3 million, and got released under a new bankruptcy law he helped devise.