Because Spain and France defaulted so much in the early modern period, and because Greece, from the moment of its political birth in 1830, was a chronic or serial defaulter, some assume that national temperament somehow imbues countries with a proclivity to default. But that search for long historical continuity is facile, for it misses one of the key determinants of debt sustainability: the identity of the state’s creditor.
鉴于西班牙和法国在近代早期曾多次违约，而希腊自从1830年独立以来更是习惯性违约者，有人便揣测，是不是民族性格令有些国家染上了违约的瘾。但追溯这么漫长的历史连贯性有些想当然，因为忽略了决定某国是否能保持债务稳健的一个关键因素：谁是债主。