Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1853-1862, 1859-11-04

which oficeh ar be established for keeping money,
in which bills exchange can be bought and sold,
and in which billssof credit or bank notes can be
issued. and all oteftowns and places are excluded
from this right.
Now Mr.. Huns does not hesitate to regard the
grants Of HENRY the 7thto the inhabitants of certain
municipal corporations the solefright to Enannfae-
ture certain articles excluding the open country and
other towns as tyranncal interferences with indus
trial freedom and as monopoes So anderson
characteristics the grant of HENRY the sth to the
inhabitent of Bridgeport of the sole right to
to manufacture and vend hats and rope as monopo-
lies. Historyof Commerce. So the grant Of PHILIP
and MARY to the eorperators of South Hampton Of
the sole right to import Spanish wines, was mon
opoly and void by common law. Bacon Ab.
No man can keep money for others as a trade, ex-
cept by charter and the legislature selects the place
and excludes alother plaessf The Legislature should
say that persons but the inhabitants of the towns
Of Nashville, Memphis and Knoxville should have
the right to manufacture and vend hats saddles,
keep warehouses for produce it would be regarded
an outrage on the freedom of trade and monopoly
which would be hooted down by acclamF ton /: yet
the difference is in the value of the monopoly to the
grantees and the injury to the public and not in the
difference in the principles on which they found
ed The bank charters do not confine the right to
the inhabitants Of any municipal corporation, but
fix the place at which the trade shall be carried
and exclude all other places. sg.
So also these charters by aid ofthe act of of 1927
fix the amount of capital which shall be employed
in the trade so that when that amount passes into
J he hoaI IL F&I,1
Used and no other capital can be employed in the
trade. Capital is the handspring which puts all in
dustrial enterprise in motion and fit be assumed
that any trade is necessary for the common good,
on what principle can the government undertake to
limit the amount to be employed and the places at
which the trade shall be carried so to make
actual monopoly both as to persons and places
This reminds one of the constant practice of the
despotisms of the old world, where the sovereign
wields the industrial movements of the nation, and
the people the machinery The legislative depart
ent may regulate all trades by general laws appli-
cable to all engaged in any one department But if
the provision against monopolies be not dead letter
in the Constitution it is difficult to see by what au-
thority the Legislature designate the persons,
| places and amounts of capital which can be en-
any VI kuOWH ldWlul lfditH.
Where will the power of the Government stop, if
the government can say that Mr.. KIRTIAND cannot
keep warehouse for produce Office of deposit
for money but that right shall belong exclusively to
certain individuals under chartered authority TO
keep such house at certain places, and employ a
limited amount of capital? Why not prohibit all
persons in the State from engaging in the business of
baking and blacksmsthing except such as shall be
chartered by the laws of the State and then char
ter companies located at Knoxville, Nashville and
Memphis to do the sole business?
! But to state more reasonable case: There are
many Iron mines in the State which are not worked
and we buy Iron from abroad. Suppose the I4egis-
lature were to pass an act to encourage the manu-
facture of Iron by which ii was declared that no
person should manufacture and vend Iron in the
State except such companies as the Legislature
should from time to time charter, and should then
charter such persons should own mines, exempt
them from an individual responsibility for their en-
gagements select ten towns in the State in which it
could be sold and exclude Others limit the amount
of capital they should employ, fix price on Iron
beyond which they should not sell, declare that if
any not chartered sold Iron he should be subject
to fine of ten thousand dollars and that to aseer-
tain and find out these free traders and interlOpers
the rights of the monopolists the Attorney Gen
era should prosecute oicio and send for persons
and papers, in of gambling. See act Of 1927.
And suppose to guard the sole rights of the monopo-
lists the Iron sold by all others should be forfeited
and searchers appointed in ELzABETH's time
and the chartered companies have right of action
as in IL COKE, would this be a monopoly?
Establish the principle that the government has
power to grant by charter contract, the sole and
exclusive profits of banking for a term of years,
and it follows irresistiby that the government has
the same right and power to grant by irrevocable
charter to few individuals the right to the ex-
elusive profits of every other trade for long term
of years forever. If such power exists it is
high time the delegates of the people assembled
in convention to take from the government powers
SO liable to be abused, and sweeping in their
sequences carried out If the Legislature haye
the power to deprive 100000 citizens of Tennessee
of any trade and give the sole profits of that trade to
company of 1000 persons, for ten, fifty OF one
hundred years, then there ought to be convention
assembled in the next year to remove the possibility
of such results.
Fortunately no such pewer exists to create such
monopoly founded on contract revocable grant or
otherwise.