The Evansville daily journal. [volume] (Evansville, Ia. [i.e. Ind.]) 1848-1862, 1860-07-04
Com RllIlIicnted.
Hard Times and the Credit
system.


/ There are certainly no two things more
inseparably connected, or more naturally
/ deducible one from the other, than the
credit system and hard times Our best
fnanciers are perplexed in trying to find
out the cause of the contraction and expan-
sion o: the currency, and still more to find
out a preventive. Yet | think the cause
may be comprised in one short sentence
over trading, the credit system, and extra
vagance-and the preventive in another
prompt p. ymsnts and economy. The latter,
however, IS the exception, the former the
rule.
1t is true there could not be so much busi-
ness done by the mode suggested, but, where
it would be done, it would be emphatically
and in every sense of the word done. 1t
would be finished both as regards debtor and
creditor. On the contrary, with the credit
system, the business that is transacted IS not
hatf done, aud tue worst l;gti 10 et 20. t5sas.
Most customers, in view Of a long credit
are encouraged to purchase hundred non
essentials which they do not need and
"ere-long have to sell their necessaries.'
/ Tic ' trade" under its influence becomes so
extensive, that the retail merchant is soon
forced to get a fresh supply" from the
wholesale merchant. This throws the
wholesale merchant on the manufacturer,
and the manufacturer is soon forced to en-
large his business. All this is expansion in
business without adequate deposits. Alas
for the sequel In course of time the
manufacturer wants capital to lay in fresh
materials and pay expenses. Now commen-
h. Of flarn IL
succeeding wave until it reaches the " Gus
TONER who, properly speaking, is the only
real debtor because he is the consumer, and
the manufacturer is the only real creditor
because he first produced the article. The
intermediate merchants are merely as
agents who have their commission for pass
ing the commodity from hand to hand un-
til it is arrested by the consumer. And
now probably for the first time he is brought
up face to face with his account. What
picture for a painter! And yet, ere the
account is quite liquidated, at the sound of
New Goods" he forgets the lesson he had
learned and goes on as before; thus from
year to year be resolves and re-resolvesyet
dies the same"
A large proportion of our circulating
medium plays a conspicuous part in bringing
about unsteady and unsettled commerce
with Its irresponsible "promIse to pay,
and by its extensive circulation lin the ag-
gregate) adds largely to an unsafe expan-
sion, and which by its failure is accessory
in bringing about contraction, at the very
crisis when its aid is most required. Have
we all forgot the advice of great philoso-
pher, " to have one penny left when all our
expenses are enumerated and paid" He
who follows the advice might well boast of
his penny, not from its intrinsic worth, but
because it enables HIM to be both an inde-
pendent and an honest man. Besides, it is
more than the whole English nation can
boast of; for although she has possessions
in almost every corner of the earth, she can
not boast of having tone penny left when
all her expenses are paid, neither can her
subjects boast of the drudgery they have to
undergo in endeavoring to pay the interest
on her millions of Indebtedness. All this is
brought about by the cause above alluded
to, oUer- trading, the credit system and ertraO
Ggance. And were | asked the question a
thousand times, how 4 would avoid the occa-
sional and sometimes caamitouS financial
pressures, | would reiterate again and
again, by prompt payments and economy.
CENTRE TOWNSHIP, June 3Oth, 1860.
E