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 Administrator
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#26083
Complete Question Explanation
(See the complete passage discussion here: lsat/viewtopic.php?t=10837)

The correct answer choice is (E)

This question asks for the choice that describes the likely perspective of English and French creditors before the Glorious Revolution of 1688. In the fourth paragraph, the author provides that creditors of that time demanded higher interest from monarchs than from wealthy subjects, apparently to offset the additional associated risk.

Answer choice (A): There is no discussion of whether creditors believed that wealthy subjects were failing to pay their share for expansion of the empire.

Answer choice (B): This choice is entirely unsupported by the passage and thus can be confidently ruled out of contention.

Answer choice (C): Although this could have been the case, the author provides no information regarding goals for the establishment of a government with more respect for property rights.

Answer choice (D): The passage does not specify whether or not the creditors of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries were aware of the paradox of omnipotence, so there is no support for the claim presented in this answer choice.

Answer choice (E): This is the correct answer choice. As discussed, French and English creditors before 1688 were wary of dealing with monarchs who had a reputation for repudiating debts.
 boyd107
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#37672
I am confused, How do creditors charging higher interest rates make them more likely to honor financial commitments?
 Francis O'Rourke
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#37759
Hi Boyd,

I believe that you are confusing the monarchs and the wealthy subjects here.

Answer choice (E) states that creditors at this time believed that "They were more likely than their monarchs to honor" their debts. The "They" in this sentence refers to wealthy subjects.

In lines 34-37, the author states that, because of the bad reputation monarchs developed, creditors charged the monarchs with higher interest rates. This makes some sense: even today people with bad financial reputations get charged higher rates by lenders when taking loans.

Those lines, along with the sentence preceding it, tell us that creditors thought that monarchs were less likely to repay their debts. This is expressed in answer choice (E) by stating that creditors thought wealthy subjects were more likely to repay their debts.

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