NationStates Jolt Archive


America Created It's Own Money In 1750

Parthonia
11-06-2005, 06:33
America Created It's Own Money In 1750
How Benjamin Franklin Made New England Prosperous
By Congressman Charles G. Binderup
Copyright © 1941

The following historical story is taken from a radio address given by Congressman Charles G. Binderup of Nebraska, some 50 years ago and was reprinted in Unrobing the Ghosts of Wall Street:

Colonies More Prosperous Than The Home Country

Before the American War for Independence in 1776, the colonized part of what is today the United States of America was a possession of England. It was called New England, and was made up of 13 colonies, which became the first 13 states of the great Republic. Around 1750, this New England was very prosperous. Benjamin Franklin was able to write:

"There was abundance in the Colonies, and peace was reigning on every border. It was difficult, and even impossible, to find a happier and more prosperous nation on all the surface of the globe. Comfort was prevailing in every home. The people, in general, kept the highest moral standards, and education was widely spread."

When Benjamin Franklin went over to England to represent the interests of the Colonies, he saw a completely different situation: the working population of this country was gnawed by hunger and poverty. "The streets are covered with beggars and tramps," he wrote. He asked his English friends how England, with all its wealth, could have so much poverty among its working classes.

His friends replied that England was a prey to a terrible condition: it had too many workers! The rich said they were already overburdened with taxes, and could not pay more to relieve the needs and poverty of this mass of workers. Several rich Englishmen of that time actually believed, along with Mathus, that wars and plague were necessary to rid the country from man-power surpluses.

Franklin's friends then asked him how the American Colonies managed to collect enough money to support their poor houses, and how they could overcome this plague of pauperism. Franklin replied:

"We have no poor houses in the Colonies; and if we had some, there would be nobody to put in them, since there is, in the Colonies, not a single unemployed person, neither beggars nor tramps."

Thanks To Free Money Issued By The Nation

His friends could not believe their ears, and even less understand this fact, since when the English poor houses and jails became too cluttered, England shipped these poor wretches and down-and- outs, like cattle, and discharged, on the quays of the Colonies, those who had survived the poverty, dirtiness and privations of the journey. At that time, England was throwing into jail those who could not pay their debts. They therefore asked Franklin how he could explain the remarkable prosperity of the New England Colonies. Franklin replied:

"That is simple. In the Colonies, we issue our own paper money. It is called 'Colonial Scrip.' We issue it in proper proportion to make the goods and pass easily from the producers to the consumers. In this manner, creating ourselves our own paper money, we control its purchasing power and we have no interest to pay to no one."

The Bankers Impose Poverty

The information came to the knowledge of the English Bankers, and held their attention. They immediately took the necessary steps to have the British Parliament to pass a law that prohibited the Colonies from using their scrip money, and then ordered them to use only the gold and silver money that was provided in sufficient quantity by the English bankers. Then began in America the plague of debt-money, which has never since brought so many curses to the American people.

The first law was passed in 1751, and then completed by a more restrictive law in 1763. Franklin reported that one year after the implementation of this prohibition on Colonial money, the streets of the Colonies were filled with unemployment and beggars, just like in England, because there was not enough money to pay for the goods and work. The circulating medium of exchange had been reduced by half.

Franklin added that this was the original cause of the American Revolution - and not the tax on tea nor the Stamp Act, as it has been taught again and again in history books. The financiers always manage to have removed from school books all that can throw light on their own schemes, and damage the glow that protects their power.

Franklin, who was one of the chief architects of the American independence, wrote it clearly:

"The Colonies would gladly have borne the little tax on tea and other matters had it not been the poverty caused by the bad influence of the English bankers on the Parliament, which has caused in the Colonies hatred of England and the Revolutionary War."

This point of view of Franklin was confirmed by great statesmen of his era: John Adams, Jefferson, and several others. A remarkable English historian, John Twells, wrote, speaking of the money of the Colonies, the Colonial Scrip:

"It was the monetary system under which America's Colonies flourished to such an extent that Edmund Burke was able to write about them: 'Nothing in the history of the world resembles their progress. It was a sound and beneficial system, and its effects led to the happiness of the people.'" John Twells adds:

"In a bad hour, the British Parliament took away from America its representative money, forbade any further issue of bills of credit, these bills ceasing to be legal tender, and ordered that all taxes should be paid in coins. Consider now the consequences: this restriction of the medium of exchange paralyzed all the industrial energies of the people. Ruin took place in these once flourishing Colonies; most rigorous distress visited every family and every business, discontent became desperation, and reached a point, to use the words of Dr. Johnson, when human nature rises up and assets its rights."

Another writer, Peter Cooper, expresses himself along the same lines. After having said how Franklin had explained to the London Parliament the cause of the prosperity of the Colonies, he wrote:

"After Franklin gave explanations on the true cause of the prosperity of the Colonies, the Parliament exacted laws forbidding the use of this money in the payment of taxes. This decision brought so many drawbacks and so much poverty to the people that it was the main cause of the Revolution. The suppression of the Colonial money was a much more important reason for the general uprising than the Tea and Stamp Act."

Today, in America as well as in Europe, we are under the regime of the Scrip of the Bankers instead of the scrip of the nation. Hence the public debts, everlasting interest charges, taxes that plunder purchasing power, with the only result being a consolidation of the financial dictatorship.

There is only one cure for America's ultimate financial collapse and that is for Congress to exercise Clause 30 of the "Federal" Reserve Act, buy the outstanding shares of stock, shut down this unconstitutional system and sell off their assets to reimburse the people of this nation for this unspeakable theft of their wealth. This is the first installment of postings on this issue, new ones will be put up as soon as manpower allows.

http://www.preteristcentral.com/gov-money.htm
Parthonia
14-06-2005, 03:44
No commentary on this one at all? I stand in utter shock; I would have expected a least one flame or denouncement or "this is exactly what I've always said" etc., but nothing? Wow.
Marrakech II
14-06-2005, 04:05
This is a good article. True in alot of respects. Maybe some will learn how a monetary system is founded and run correctly. I personally always maintain that the national debt could be wiped by printing more money. But thats for another post.
NERVUN
14-06-2005, 04:11
What's to comment on? Besides, history also tells what happened after the war with all those scripts being worth less than the paper it was printed on and inflation rampent.

With each state also printing its own money, it also led to the several states not accepting money from each other for trade and evey state ignoring the money printed by the Congress. That's why in 1787 when the Constitution was drafted, it forbid the printing of money by the states and vested the system with Congress and Congress alone. It's also why the money is marked for all debts public and private.

Also, the US monitary system has been divorsed from having a gold standard for a very long time. As much as we like to think all the money printed has an equivlent in Fort Knox in gold somewhere, that is not the case. So I'm not sure what you are calling for here.
Piffland
14-06-2005, 04:34
Also, the US monitary system has been divorsed from having a gold standard for a very long time. As much as we like to think all the money printed has an equivlent in Fort Knox in gold somewhere, that is not the case. So I'm not sure what you are calling for here.

If you look at the date that the Congressman wrote the article, it was in 1941. ie. within living memory of the passage of the Federal Reserve Act and the permenent establishment of fiat money under the control of private banks within the US, and it's that and its consequent results that the article seems address with it's historical comparrison. The poster is probably pointing this out as the source of those same ongoing results (which seem to be ever accelerted these days.)
NERVUN
14-06-2005, 04:45
If you look at the date that the Congressman wrote the article, it was in 1941. ie. within living memory of the passage of the Federal Reserve Act and the permenent establishment of fiat money under the control of private banks within the US, and it's that and its consequent results that the article seems address with it's historical comparrison. The poster is probably pointing this out as the source of those same ongoing results (which seem to be ever accelerted these days.)
What results and what is being called for? The Fed actually isn't the one limiting the money supply. They don't even print it, they just distro it throughout the United States.
Paranoid Meat-Eaters
14-06-2005, 05:07
What results and what is being called for? The Fed actually isn't the one limiting the money supply. They don't even print it, they just distro it throughout the United States.

No, the Fed does dictate the money supply. The Fed determines how much American money there should be and then the Treasury prints it or destroys it.

Marrakech: The national debt is the amount of money the government spent that it didn't have. In essence the government printed money it didn't have and spent it. Therefore it's not actually possible to pay that debt by printing even more money.
AkhPhasa
14-06-2005, 05:41
The more money you print without economic growth to back it up, the less your money is actually worth. Any perceived gain is illusory and short-term. Inflation kicks in, interest rates go berserk, the financial markets fall to bits.
Greater Valia
14-06-2005, 05:46
This is a good article. True in alot of respects. Maybe some will learn how a monetary system is founded and run correctly. I personally always maintain that the national debt could be wiped by printing more money. But thats for another post.

Oh yes, thats all well and good until inflation rips the nation a new asshole... See Germany circa 1919-1930's. The war debt was so much that the government decided to just print as much money as was necessary. This caused the mark to become completely worthless. Banks started printing notes in the millions of marks because the inflation was so bad. Eventually things got so bad that even things as basic as bread were priced in the billions. So printing more money is a very bad idea im afraid.
Socialist Autonomia
14-06-2005, 05:48
Well, yes, it's realized that you can't just print infinite amounts of money and axpect it to gain value. The point is that by printing the money without using fractional reserve banking, an impossible debt isn't created that fuels poverty and unemployment.
Seangolia
14-06-2005, 06:21
Also, remember that the Colonial money was used solely by the colonies, and was recognized only by the colonies. This money had worth because it was used, basically, in a vacuum. They could print as much as they needed because it had as much value as they wanted, and as they wanted.

However, today it doesn't work that way. Our economy is very much dependant upon the rest of the world. If we were to print more money, the rest of the world(And infact the rest of the US) would not accept it as being worth the same. Printing more money doesn't solve a thing for the debt, because the American dollar would lose value, thus actually increasing the Debt by a proportional amount of inflation. Nobody's going to accept worthless money, afterall.

Very rudimentary argument, I know.
NERVUN
14-06-2005, 06:30
Well, yes, it's realized that you can't just print infinite amounts of money and axpect it to gain value. The point is that by printing the money without using fractional reserve banking, an impossible debt isn't created that fuels poverty and unemployment.
I might be mistaken, but it was my understanding that the national debt is caused by the federal goverment spending more than it has, which has nothing to do with the reserve system.

That system by the way, functions as the central bank, the same as every OTHER country in the world. American just has to make it harder.

According to the Fed's website, one of the reasons that they came into exsistance and that the Treasurery doesn't print its own money is to remove politics from the nation's fiscal policy. Before hand, Congress woul set limits on how much money could be printed, and Congress would have to change, by the whole process of law making (President's sig and everything), that limit if the US wanted to print more money to respond to something. This of course is unflexable and subject to too much politics instead of market forces.

I think. Their FAQ is written by the same folks who write the Fed's pronoucement on economic idicators so it takes a while to chew through.
Socialist Autonomia
14-06-2005, 06:30
Of course you can't try to just use the sytem now...you would have to use it while setting up a new government. Damn fractional reserve bankers setting up a system nearly impossible to get out of...
Americai
14-06-2005, 07:36
America Created It's Own Money In 1750
How Benjamin Franklin Made New England Prosperous
By Congressman Charles G. Binderup
Copyright © 1941

The following historical story is taken from a radio address given by Congressman Charles G. Binderup of Nebraska, some 50 years ago and was reprinted in Unrobing the Ghosts of Wall Street:

Colonies More Prosperous Than The Home Country

Before the American War for Independence in 1776, the colonized part of what is today the United States of America was a possession of England. It was called New England, and was made up of 13 colonies, which became the first 13 states of the great Republic. Around 1750, this New England was very prosperous. Benjamin Franklin was able to write:

"There was abundance in the Colonies, and peace was reigning on every border. It was difficult, and even impossible, to find a happier and more prosperous nation on all the surface of the globe. Comfort was prevailing in every home. The people, in general, kept the highest moral standards, and education was widely spread."

When Benjamin Franklin went over to England to represent the interests of the Colonies, he saw a completely different situation: the working population of this country was gnawed by hunger and poverty. "The streets are covered with beggars and tramps," he wrote. He asked his English friends how England, with all its wealth, could have so much poverty among its working classes.

His friends replied that England was a prey to a terrible condition: it had too many workers! The rich said they were already overburdened with taxes, and could not pay more to relieve the needs and poverty of this mass of workers. Several rich Englishmen of that time actually believed, along with Mathus, that wars and plague were necessary to rid the country from man-power surpluses.

Franklin's friends then asked him how the American Colonies managed to collect enough money to support their poor houses, and how they could overcome this plague of pauperism. Franklin replied:

"We have no poor houses in the Colonies; and if we had some, there would be nobody to put in them, since there is, in the Colonies, not a single unemployed person, neither beggars nor tramps."

Thanks To Free Money Issued By The Nation

His friends could not believe their ears, and even less understand this fact, since when the English poor houses and jails became too cluttered, England shipped these poor wretches and down-and- outs, like cattle, and discharged, on the quays of the Colonies, those who had survived the poverty, dirtiness and privations of the journey. At that time, England was throwing into jail those who could not pay their debts. They therefore asked Franklin how he could explain the remarkable prosperity of the New England Colonies. Franklin replied:

"That is simple. In the Colonies, we issue our own paper money. It is called 'Colonial Scrip.' We issue it in proper proportion to make the goods and pass easily from the producers to the consumers. In this manner, creating ourselves our own paper money, we control its purchasing power and we have no interest to pay to no one."

The Bankers Impose Poverty

The information came to the knowledge of the English Bankers, and held their attention. They immediately took the necessary steps to have the British Parliament to pass a law that prohibited the Colonies from using their scrip money, and then ordered them to use only the gold and silver money that was provided in sufficient quantity by the English bankers. Then began in America the plague of debt-money, which has never since brought so many curses to the American people.

The first law was passed in 1751, and then completed by a more restrictive law in 1763. Franklin reported that one year after the implementation of this prohibition on Colonial money, the streets of the Colonies were filled with unemployment and beggars, just like in England, because there was not enough money to pay for the goods and work. The circulating medium of exchange had been reduced by half.

Franklin added that this was the original cause of the American Revolution - and not the tax on tea nor the Stamp Act, as it has been taught again and again in history books. The financiers always manage to have removed from school books all that can throw light on their own schemes, and damage the glow that protects their power.

Franklin, who was one of the chief architects of the American independence, wrote it clearly:

"The Colonies would gladly have borne the little tax on tea and other matters had it not been the poverty caused by the bad influence of the English bankers on the Parliament, which has caused in the Colonies hatred of England and the Revolutionary War."

This point of view of Franklin was confirmed by great statesmen of his era: John Adams, Jefferson, and several others. A remarkable English historian, John Twells, wrote, speaking of the money of the Colonies, the Colonial Scrip:

"It was the monetary system under which America's Colonies flourished to such an extent that Edmund Burke was able to write about them: 'Nothing in the history of the world resembles their progress. It was a sound and beneficial system, and its effects led to the happiness of the people.'" John Twells adds:

"In a bad hour, the British Parliament took away from America its representative money, forbade any further issue of bills of credit, these bills ceasing to be legal tender, and ordered that all taxes should be paid in coins. Consider now the consequences: this restriction of the medium of exchange paralyzed all the industrial energies of the people. Ruin took place in these once flourishing Colonies; most rigorous distress visited every family and every business, discontent became desperation, and reached a point, to use the words of Dr. Johnson, when human nature rises up and assets its rights."

Another writer, Peter Cooper, expresses himself along the same lines. After having said how Franklin had explained to the London Parliament the cause of the prosperity of the Colonies, he wrote:

"After Franklin gave explanations on the true cause of the prosperity of the Colonies, the Parliament exacted laws forbidding the use of this money in the payment of taxes. This decision brought so many drawbacks and so much poverty to the people that it was the main cause of the Revolution. The suppression of the Colonial money was a much more important reason for the general uprising than the Tea and Stamp Act."

Today, in America as well as in Europe, we are under the regime of the Scrip of the Bankers instead of the scrip of the nation. Hence the public debts, everlasting interest charges, taxes that plunder purchasing power, with the only result being a consolidation of the financial dictatorship.

There is only one cure for America's ultimate financial collapse and that is for Congress to exercise Clause 30 of the "Federal" Reserve Act, buy the outstanding shares of stock, shut down this unconstitutional system and sell off their assets to reimburse the people of this nation for this unspeakable theft of their wealth. This is the first installment of postings on this issue, new ones will be put up as soon as manpower allows.

http://www.preteristcentral.com/gov-money.htm


Very good article! Thank you!
Delator
14-06-2005, 08:59
*snip*

Parthonia - I would highly recommend to you, or anyone else interested in this article, a novel by Robert Heinlein called For Us, the Living.

While a work of fiction, roughly half the book is actually a long discussion between two characters on the nature of the economic system of the United States in 2080's (yes, it's sci-fi :p )

I'll try to sum up what I remember...

In almost any industrialized society, there is more that is produced than is consumed. This is due to a number of reasons, most of which are addressed in the book, but primarily connected to the banking system.

Essentially, whenever less than 100% of what is produced is consumed, it results in a shortfall for the producer, who then is indebted to the bank because he has not made enough money to pay back his debt, plus interest, and still make a profit.

This means that in the next economic cycle (which can be a month, a quarter, a year, a century, or whatever), the the producer has to make less of his product, and/or charge more for each unit produced, in order to try to cut his costs and increase his sales in order to end his debt to the bank.

This does not work. He has reduced costs by lowering production, putting people out of work; or he has increased the price of his product, placing it out of reach for some people. Now the workers who were previously buying his product are now buying cheaper alternatives, or saving what they can in order to buy necessities and stay alive. This means that, again, the company has produced more than can be consumed by the market.

Again the company has not made enough to pay off the bank, and so must again cut costs and increase price to attempt to make up the shortfall. The process repeats...and repeats...and each time more people have less money, and less is consumed.

In the novel, the problem is eliminated. The goverment issues money every month, in the form of "heritage checks", to every citizen, in direct proportion to how much production is expected to exceed consumption. Companies that overproduce to a significant degree usually find themselves eliminated in the free market due to inefficency.

Private banks are required to hold 100% cash reserves, and only the National Government bank is allowed to "create" money by fiat, allowing the government to print as much money as it needs to both issue the "heritage checks" and to fund any project deemed necessary, without becoming indebted to private institutions. To trade with foreign nations, the U.S. uses gold or finished goods, and not fiat money.

Gah...It looks like I've rambled quite a bit.

Essentially, the whole thing looks great on paper. Whether it could ever be made to actually work in our country is something I would not hold my breath about, but it is an intriguing concept regardless.

Anyways, yeah...read that book *points back up to top of post*, it makes much more sense than me. :p
Harlesburg
14-06-2005, 09:45
"That is simple. In the Colonies, we issue our own paper money. It is called 'Colonial Scrip.' We issue it in proper proportion to make the goods and pass easily from the producers to the consumers. In this manner, creating ourselves our own paper money, we control its purchasing power and we have no interest to pay to no one."
Sounds similar to Medieval Europe and how Gold Coins were good for buying what was needed but not what was wanted.