Spirit of Jefferson. [volume] (Charles Town, Va. [W. Va.]) 1844-1948, 1873-06-24
Splrlt Of gstirrsulr
Charlestown, Jefferson county, West Va:
TUESDAY MORNING, JUNE 81, 1913.
IFor the Spirit of Jefferson.l
Corporate Banking "A Paper Feudal
System.!u

Mr. Editor AS the evils of currency. OF
money, OF country, entirely under the con-
troll of a few individuals, are now being ex-
tenslvely, and, may say. universally felt, [
will for the benefit of your readers-apd with
your lleave-produce.. from the writings of
John Taylor. of Caroline, his utterances and
protests against the adoption of the system
foretold and prophecied I: begin with Cor
porate Banking; and as follows below
OBSERVER
Summit Point, June TO- 1878.
'Had banking been called sa paper ferIlal
system" and had the Barons proposed to tako
lit by that denomination as a reimburse ,nent
Tor their abolished tenures, it might have been
fairly weighed against the landed feudal svs.
TEN, to estimate the effects of the EXCHANGE.
ln that event, it would have been clearly seen
by the people, that the money to be collected
by ''a paper feudal system" for their Lords
was the representative of the services rendered
under the landed ~feudal system; and that
whatever conveniences they might derive from \
altering the mode of payment, the payment
ftseJ would remain. Money, or a circulating
medium of any kind, in its quality of repre-
senting property and labor, conveys property
and labor to its possessor and if it, entitled
to the menial services of B, contracts to re-
SS'.S
may prefer this mode of payment. he must
still perform the sanae Udlue in 1n5or to ac.
qui:e the money it is commuted for Such
bargains were often made between the Kings
and the people of England, in the sale and
purchase OF vexatlous prerogatives. If then
nation hestows peculiarly income on an
order of Mobiles or of Bnnkcrs, it conuevs so
much of ITS serpices TO this the naoncv rep
rescnts nor is there any difference between
rendering the services in kind and in the
.pecuniary commutatIon. except in the superior
convenience of the latter mode !; since the
services mnst be still performed. IF great
nation owed its personal lahors to one thousand
individuals. so much excepted as might afford
bare subsistence, it would mend its condi-
ton IN small degree, by purchasing them
out Tor an annuity in money; but not in a
great one, if it paid to the order the full value
of them. AS mouey is vehicle for retain
ing. 1T is also nne for conveying the most op>
pressIve nsnrpatiops, and possesses a complete
capacity for re.Pnstnniny nations in9irectly.
after an accession of knowledge or IA division |
OF property, has liberated them from the
"'rccf feudal slavery. This treachar0us quality |
OF money was. perceived by the Spartan Leg
isator, without discerning any remedy for it, |
hut that of destroying its inestimabie benefits.
1t ia clear that pations by giving ann species |
OF currency tn an order or interest. will give |
1T title to every species of service from the
multitude ; that the revival nv law of the title
to such services through the infeyuention ofa |
currency, is a substantial reDi0ol of the Geulal
system that legal currency possesses a
power of destroying, with wonderful rapility.
the dfoision of property which destroyed that
systom; and that without a very considerable
division of property, free government cans
not exist. The remedy for these evils. which
Lycurgns did not discern, is to prohibit legal
distributions of money or currency, those ex.
cepted rendered unavoidable by government,
and to leave their distribution to industry.
Even the precious metals have furnished
to the oontrivers of pilagc and oppression a
medium forextracting indirectly from nations
a far greater proportion of their labor, than
they could ever be made to pay directly by
the feudal or any other regimen but the i'm.
possibility of multiplying these metals at plea
sure, inflicted a considerable check upon this
fraudulent perversion of SO useful a repre-
sentative of property. An artificial currency
is subject to no such check, and possesses an
unlimited power of cnslaviug nations, if
slavery consists in binding great number to
labor for few, Employed, not for the mse-
I'll purpose of exchanging but for the fraud
-"tent one of transferring property currency
IS converted into a thief and traitor, and
begets, Ike an abuse of many other good
things, misery instead of happir ess.