With the collapse of those conditions on which true commerce depends, trade became a question of mutual deception. Bonds and even money, since so much of it was false, were no longer freely accepted and the Neapolitans were reduced to the condition of the savages described by Genovesi who will only give with the right hand if they simultaneously receive with the left (1803: 70-1). As a consequence of massive degrees of mistrust loans were only made at exorbitant rates of interest, bankrupting all but the richest of merchants and leading to the widespread belief that a predominance of ‘idle money’ was the source of the kingdom’s ills

Diego Gambetta, Trust - Making and Breaking…, loc. 1854