The Findlay Jeffersonian. [volume] (Findlay, Hancock County, Ohio) 1870-1881, 1878-07-26
PAPER MONEY IN VENICE.

If we invite our greenback friends tc
point to single instance in the history
of the past, where paper money moi
based upon coin has been held equal in
value to coin, they will point to thai
spectre which was once the empress oi
the seas-Venice. That, theyare obliged
to admit, is the only case they ever heard
of and they know Venice thrived on
Iirredeemable paper, because the ire
deemable speakers of the Ralph Hoyt
stripe have told them 50. To dispel this
illusion-ifit it is possible to dispel an il.
lusion from the mind of deluded and
infatuated devotee of the greenbaok god
we quote the following from McLeod's
work ON banking and currency, with
comments BY the Adrian Times:
Venice was small state, but gradually
became the center of an enormous com
merce; and as an inevitable consequence
great quantity of clipped and worn
foreign coins circulated in it. brought by
the foreigners who resorted to it. When
the practice of bills of exchange became
common, the degraded state of the cur
rency caused an intolerable inconyen
fence to merchants. To obviate this, al
some subsequent time, though at what
precise period we are not informed, the
plan was devised of the chamber ofloans
receiving deposits from private persons
Every merchant deposited there the
coins he received, and he was credited
with their
VALUE IN BULLION;
and the bank gave him corresponding
number ofits notes, payable to bearer on
demand in full weight of bullion.
As the bank always pledged itself tC
pay in full weight, its notes always bore
"a premium as compared with the worn
and clipped coin in circulation. Al
bills of exchange between merchants
we're made payable in this bank money
The bank, however, does not seem evel
10 have discounted bills upon its own ac
count, and as its paper only represented
the price of bullion actually in Its Golfers
it made no increase in the quantity o
currency IN circulation. Its only advan
tage WAS to save the wear and tear of thu
coinage, and to insure uniform stand
ard in mercantile contracts This banl
continued 10 enjoy great credit anC
repute, until i. fell, with the republic, il
1877.
The Venetians tolerated no such tom
foolery as
| CREATING MONEY"
out of rags and lamp black; that non
sense was lef; for the paper money
financiers Of the nineteenth century, il
the new world of America Before
Venetian bank could issue a scrap o
paper money, it was compelled tc hav'
coin in its vaults, Of which the papel
money would be the representative
Has any one heard the greenbackers O
Michigan demanding paper none,
with such basis as that Not one
When "Saleratus" Smith, Green I'M
Thomas, and the rest of that crowd, de
mand that there shall be no paper none
issued, that Is not representative of 8
much coin, or bullion, placed as securit
for its redemption, they will be in a sit
uation to refer to the paper money {
Ancient Venice, as illustrating tn
practicability of their ideas; but unit
that time the less they have TO say abou
the paper money of Venice, the better
will be for their reputation as truthful
honest-intendoned men.-In9rdham c,
(MIch) Nelrs.