Western Reserve chronicle. [volume] (Warren, Ohio) 1855-1921, 1864-07-27
Financial Parallels.

Englisn- press at ilii> Time. when they
wish to toueh the :.'r;,w spot" nf Ameri
can feeling. i to speak "i our financial
course iH this war. aS something insane
and unhoard Of
The suspension Of specie payments il
! 1861 was met with howl of defision: the
issue of legal-iender was treated as il such
n mad measure had never been heard al
i'll history; and the increase of paper cir
culation, with the depreciation consequent
the rise in prices and the active specula
tion, were detailed in London journals
with the eXultation with which man
might regard the sudden aud marvrlou:
ruin of his worst enemy.
One woald think that no nation, before
the universal Yankee, had ever suspend
ed cash payments, or carried on war with
paper money, or speculated on an intla-
to '1i~r"ncy, or had supported heavy tax
al .ii .'s customs.
When New York proposed to pay heI
foreign fund holders in deprecated cur
rency, Ia measure which we always de.
precated as utterly needless and unwise, J
general cry arose in the Tory Press oi
England, at Yankee dishonesty" RE
pudiators" was the mildeSt epithet put
hh W eupDOoT0 NAlis ~
European State-least of all Great Bri.
tain-had ever paid foreign fnnd-holders
in deprecated currency, but that such
uneXampled knavery was reserved alone
for Americans. and those of the North
ern States. And so profoundly ignorant
are large masses nf the English public,
even of their own history, that we have
little doubt many a respectable English.
man thinks our financial course as new
and original as ii is di'graceful.
Any American of common reading
knows that no long wars have been car
ried on without paper money; and the
course of this country in preserving its
national life, las a sufficiently exact par
allel, financially, in the course of Eng.
land, when seeking to ruin Napoleon
For eighteen years Great Britain suspend
ed specie payments in her desperate strug.
gle with France. Bank of England notes
were made, in effect. "legaEtender," by
every person being protected from arrest
who offered them in payment Of debt,
and by the bank being guarded by law
from any suit for non payment of its notes.
For eighteen years there was thus in
Great Britain an incontrovertible paper
currency. From 1877 to 1915 the Bank
of England lipiei its circulation, and the
country banks increased from two hun
dred in the same time to nine hundred
and forty, or almost pee times
The depreciation was, of course, enor-
nous, not shown so much in the price OF
gold, which only reached forty one in
lSl2-l3, owing to causes which need not
here be specified, but especially in values
-Gl in paper became worth but los. in
1913, and according to Doubleday. fell to
7s. or s., that is, depreciation OF nearly
- per cent. The price of wheat rose
from 53s. Id. quarter in o. to l26s. sd.
IN 1872: oats from les. I'd. Ais; wool from
IS. Sd. to 10. The rent of arabic land in
creased from fSS 6s. 34d. to the hundred
acres in 1870, to fl6l l5s Il in 1872. But
unlike America, no increase of prices
arose in England from diminished labor;
on the contrary, labor was supplied in
abundance and wages did not rise with
other values; the final rise being only
about 20 per cent. in many parishes.
In this deprecated currency, worth
forty or fifty per cent, below what the for
eign fund-holders has supposed them
selves pledged to receive, did England
pay her former creditors. individuals OF
course, complained, but it was manifest
she could do nothing else, and this ''re-
pudiation" has never, we believe, been
thrown in her teeth. The enormous vol
ume of paper money, amounting, accord
ing to the best authorities,t nearly S400,
600, 900 in 1915, naturally stimulated spec
ulation and extraxsgance to the highest
degree, and left its bad effects on the ma
tional habits. 1t served also las il has
done here to stimulate some very useful
branches of production.
Still. despite all the initiation and with
public debt in 1915, of some So, zoo, 900, :
600, England resumed specie payments
within four years after the termination of
the war, and began a career of prosperity
which has made her the richest nation of
the world. -
The financial experience of America
are no new thing. They have very near
ly their counterpart during the struggle
of Great Britain with France, with the
immense advantage to US that our work
ing classes were never in a more prosper
Gus condition. Even the fall in Govern
ment funds of late, which has so alarmed
some timid people, had more than its par
allel in England. where consuls fell from
l07 in 1877 TO Al in 1913, and 544 in 1873.
the two latter estimated in deprecated
currency. Heavy taxation carried the
credit of England through, and still ena-
bles her to bear her debt. What she bore
for the balance of power. we, with far
greater resources, can surely bear for Ma
tional Existence. and with much better
financial issue before us. ar. .-a-.. r..