What Did Macaulay Mean by Fabulous Debt?

Robin Wigglesworth says the book title Fabulous Debt comes from Thomas Babington Macaulay, who described Britain's enormous accumulation of debt as fabulous because the burden capitalized the country instead of leading it to ruin. After the Napoleonic Wars, England carried what is still pretty much the biggest debt-to-GDP burden ever seen in history, then grew out of it and came through completely fine.

Macaulay's polemical history of Britain pointed out that after war after war the British debts kept growing and growing. The burden did not impede Britain's wealth and growth. A vibrant bond market meant the bonds could be used as security for loans, and people could buy an income stream. Critics erroneously imagined an exact analogy between an individual in debt to another individual and a society in debt to a part of itself. The analogy leads to endless mistakes. Macaulay made the point over 200 years ago.