When people talk about fear of debt, they often refer to the Great Depression, a time when families lost their homes because they couldn’t pay the mortgage.
A tough period of history but the Great Depression was kiddie stuff compared to the Regency times.
Michele Ann Young, author of No Regrets, a romp of a Regency romance (and with a sexy plus sized heroine! Yes! A real woman!) has a great blog post series on debt and prisons. You read that right. Not only did you lose everything but you got put in prison for doing so.
Oh, and you PAID for your stay in prison (very ironic since you got thrown in jail for having no money). The more you paid, the better the treatment. Couldn’t pay anything? Then you got the worst treatment, often resulting in death (jail-fever). Big incentive for families to scrounge up the funds. Brings new definition to dead-beat relatives.
Why the harsh treatment? Because debt was considered theft (which it is, if you think about it, theft from your creditors) and treated very similarly. Very seriously.
Although modern day me doesn’t avoid debt (especially for investment purposes), I do have a healthy respect for it. Being pressured to make payments you can’t afford can still curtail freedoms today.