Brownlow's Knoxville Whig. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1866-1869, 1868-01-15


amounts TO 81 $50 600, while that Of the other bank
probably amounts to one fourth that sum maxim
q Ia AL about two and one half millions The none
D. Ia privist individuals IL probably no
d more than third what il was before tho ,vsr
g Thus with vast demands for money. and viii
= profitable enterprises everywhere presenting tbon,
e seiye'' our people have to work out their dos,ir
with one nm the capital they had before ,bo
Ihere are probably one hundred millions Of ,,o,,
s pioyed capital in the United State. v,at.bi,, 9
favorable opportunities Of investment. WIN no
! the Legislature, by broad and comprebensivo mol
10y invite part OF this capital into our midst,
II can be done by increasing the rate Of interest
Adcacs the price Of money, and it will surely come
Place capital here the same footing that If ba,
IN Ohio Michigan, Illinois, Missouri Iowa. Wiscon.
SIN, Minnesota, Kansas, Nebraska Oregon and Cal.
Norma, and it will flow in upon US. Population
Will also come with it. In this way our own peo.
pie VIII be induced to retain their surplus money
at home, Instead Of sending out of the State as
was formerly the case TO be loaned ut higher rate
Oh interest, or TO be invested in Western lands
Capitalists at distance will then find as many in
ducemens to settle invest here as they do in the
Western States. This policy would cause hundreds
Of thousands of dollars, now locked up in United
light and put in circulation the large sum Of money
now boarded up and hidden away in our own
State, by men who are afraid or unwilling to lend
at siI per cent but whom a higher rate would
tempt. The result of all this would be TO make
money more abundant, and by reason of that album
dance to keep the rate Of interest within
limits Day by day, under our present policy. we
are losing our capital by its being sent or taken 70
States where the law allows higher interest for its
use While l write, two Of our best citizens with
JOINT cash capital Of near forty thousand dollars
are preparing to leave for California to settle there
with the view, in part offending their money there
at from twenty to thirty per cent
1t IS useless to attempt TO disguise the fact that
our usury laws are dead letter on the statute book
They are daily violated The banks everywhere
evsde them. Business men do the same. But
few months since, a friend informed me he was
leudinG his money in Memphis, on the best of pa
per- at five per cent. month 1t was at that time |
OF every day occurrence. Thousands Of transac-
lions lake place every year in the State at from ten
to twenty per cent. viii any one pretend to say |
that these high and exhOrbitant rates would be /
either asked or given if money could be lawfully |
lent at from ten TO twelve per cent. The lender 1
demands an exhorbitant rate in order to Indemnify
himself against the danger, not of loss by failure,
but Of the law. Sir William Blackstone says, in |
this subject, that bad men will break
through the law, and in order to indemnify thom-
selves against the penalty they will make their
profit exhorbitant.
The only 'oay to Jreab dozen and prsccat these e.
te'siCe rates IS 10 Iegatze higher rate than 5r per
cent Let the legal rate in the absence of a con-
tract be six per cent, and allow parties 10
contract in all cases. for a higher rate, say ten or
Twelve per cent. The poor and the oppressed would
above all others be benefited by such a law At
'ix per cent. but few men will lend money TO save
,he debtors farm from execution sale none, except
ne CREDITOR will purchase it at the sale with the
-lght OF redemption attaching and but few viii
end TO redeem, after tho sale But at ten per cent
he neighbors of the execution debtor would on the
aith Of his land, advance money, and give him
lime TO relieve himself. Often, this would only
postpone the day of trouble But often, on the 9th
n hand, it would be the means of saving the op-
pressed mans home for himself and bis amily
AZ havO before intimated, money when left
rec, will regulate its own price If plentiful, it
will be cheap; if scarce, it will corn mand high
rice. The Bank Of England, the great monied in
ttution Of the world has the right TO charge nine
yer cent, (if, indeed, there is any limit on it, Of
which am not certain) and yet in October last its
ate two per cent. It rarely char. more lhau
I've per cent. The banks in Now Ic- csa Charge
even per cent, aad yet tho, ~tton fs Nal. g.
I've. Why is all this Because tho abundance OF
money creates active competition in the oar mar
et and brings down the price. On the other hand.
money commanded in Georgia last summer, in
private hands, in some instances, as high as five
'er cent. month, or sixty per annum. In Tennes-
&c, money would readily command and could be
,roatably used, at from ten to twelve per cent
The legal rate ought to be raised to seven or eight
per cent; and the conventional rate might safely
'snge as high as twelve. Tho conventional rate
night safely apply to contracts of all kinds wbclh-
'r in reference to money property, and to banks
As we'll as to individuals.
With all these facts and considerations before It.
will the Legislature longer adhere to the long since
exploded and Procrustean idea that money Is worth
Just 50 much and more, at ell times, in all places
and under all circumstances viii it longer place.
az it were, an interdict on the entrance Of money
into orr State VIII it still continue to diScrir1i-
nate against own State and thus repel capital
hat would come in, and drive out that which would
remain VIII il not rather initiate the wisdom Of
he Western States by offering Inducements to cap
talists and immigrants to settle here Most nobly
las your body responded to the ideas of progress
indeed, gone in the van, upon all the grea. ques-
ions Of the day Here alone, the Legislature seems
@ hesitate as to its duty, while the whole civilized
world is moving 10 the conclusion that men should
be left free within certain limit 70 agree upon the
price Of money, by contract, as they are TO the
price Of wheat cotton and tobacco. There IS now
IN unparalleled demand for more money, and the
people are grooming under the weight Of a money
pressure and il their name ask that the obstacles
IN the way Of the free entrance Of money shall be
broken down. and that the hundreds Of thousands
IF dollars in our own State now hidden away, shall
be unlocked for the public good ] ask for broad
and liberal policy that is up to the spirit Of the
most enlightened sentiments Of tho world, and one
that viii place Us on an equality with q msiorty
IF our sister States. T. II
W. W. WOODRUFF g. CO..