Question One: On the Contract of Credit

571. Credit (credere alicui, to trust someone, to have faith in someone; handelsvertrouwen) indicates faith given to someone, or confidence in his truth and honesty; hence it signifies a thing whose use is conceded and entrusted to another, or a thing exchanged against the promise of another to return it. Therefore the contract of credit (toevertrouwing) is a real contract by which a thing is handed over to someone under the obligation of returning it afterward, whether the same in individual, or an equivalent in species; or an agreement by which one entrusts the use of his own thing to another, who after some time is held to restore it.

By reason of foundation, one kind is real if the confidence is founded on the things of another, namely, of the debtor, which are brought in for the security of the thing handed over (credit garanti; gewaarborgd vertrouwen of krediet); another is personal if the confidence is founded only on the personal qualities of the debtor.

By reason of object, it is specified according to the diverse nature of the thing credited, which can be non-consumable by first use and non-fungible, whose use alone is conceded but dominion is reserved, and which must be returned in individual; and then it is called commodatum. Or it can be a fungible thing and consumable by first use, whose use is not without alienation of dominion, which therefore is conceded with it, whence it must be returned in species, and then it is mutuum (a. 1874).