Weekly Chillicothe crisis. (Chillicothe, Livingston Co., Mo.) 1878-19??, 1878-09-26
RECTOR TwELLS' PHAMPnLET.
Can Paper Money Increase the Wealth
of Nation.
BY REV. JOHN TwELLs.


ters can promote the prosperity Of n nation
or increase its wealth. But if the prosper |
ity of Il country be promoted by the tacili-
ty afforded to its inhabitants to exchange
what each possesses for what he requires,
a medium of exchange Inexpensive in it.
self and capable of expansion with the
wants ofthc country and with its incrcas-
ing population, must he highly beneficial.
The question proposed shall not, however,
at present be answered by explaining the
true theory of money, but by an appeal to
facts. Land and labor being admitted to
be the primary sources of anation Swcalth,
let facts show how paper money assists
land and labor to create wealth.
Look, first, at the great fact Of the pros
perity and wealth of the United States of
America. As Il testimony to their grow,
ing prosperity, let lis take short extract
from Il speech of Edmund Burke, on Amcri-
can Taxation, delivered in the House OF
Commons so far back aS the lith of April,
l77i. Abiding to the Americans he.
says:
Nothing in the history of mankind is
like their progress. For my part, never
cast my eve on their commerce and their
cultivated and cOmmodiOus life, but they
seem to me rather nations grown to per-
fcctiOn through Il long series OF fortunate
events and II train of successful industry,
accumulating wealth in many centuries,
than the colonies of yesterday; than Il set
of miserable outcaSts, Il few years ago not
so much sent as thrown on the bleak and
barren shore of Il desolate wilderness, three
thousand miles from all civilized inter-
course.
Such is the recorded opinion Of this dis
tnguishcd statesman.
And how was the miracle effected?
David Hume, the Historian, shall answer
that question. Here is an extract from
his correspondence with the Able Momcl-
let:
COLONY MONEY OF PENNSYLVANIA.
"In our colony of Pennsylvania the
land itself, which is the commodity, is
coined and passes into circulation a
planter, Immediately he purchases any
land, can go to public office and receive
notes to the amount of half the value of
his land, which notes he employs in all
payments, and they circulate through the
colony by convention. To prevent the
public being overwhelmed by this repre-
sentative money there are two means EN-
ploycd; first the notes issued to any one
planter must not exceed II certain sum,
whatever may he the value of the land;
secondly every planter is obliged to pay
back into the Public office every year one
tenth of his notes. The whole is, Of
course, annihilated in ten years, after
which it is again allowed him to take
out new notes to half the value Of his
land. D."
This was the Monetary System under
which the American colOnsts prospcred to
such an extent, that Burke said Of them,
nothing in the history ofthe worlds like
their progress" 1t was Il beneficial SyS-
TEN, and its effects were most conducive
to the happiness of the people. Take the
case of family, industrious and enter
urising, driven by persecution or mi-ior-
tune to seek Il refuge in the wilds Of the
new world. Withthcir scunty means they
purchased tract of land. Many years OF
hard labor privation and anxiety, would
have been necessary to bring that family
into state oidcccnt competency had they
been required to purchase gold and silver
by labor and by the produce of LABOR be-
fore they could effect other improvement,
of their property. But half the value O
his land was advanced to the head of tn,
family in notes which circulated as money
+ With these notes he could hire labor ant
purchase implements of hushundry anC
, cattle: and thus where without thcsenOtc
one acre could be cleared, cultivated ant
stocked in Il year, ten would, by the assist
Z ancc of the paper money advanced, III
reclaimed from the forest and rcndcrc,
productive.
Thus hope entered the dwelling of tn
. poor emigrant. Ten years found him witt
thcwholc of his debt to the government dis
\ charged, the proprietor of Il happy home
=, And the kind hand of a paterna govern
S mcnt was stretched out still, to advance t
i hm again onc-half of the increased valu
y of his land, and thus enable him to clca
u more of the forest, and to settle his chiI
+ drcn in new homes Such was the Systel
It by which "a set Of miserable Outcasts
j. were converted in short space OF tim
~ into happy, contcnted and prosperous co
y Onists.
II And observe here how completely tn
g Currency Question embraces the interest
If of productive industry, whether manutat
y turing or agricultural. Paper Currency
) or representative money, as David Hum
t here calls it, would enable the Englis
., farmer to drain his land, to improve il
Ie cultivation and to employ more labor, jus
10 as it enabled the American colonist
- convert barren wilderness into fruitfl
1t fields. The means adopted for issuing
lie Paper Currency, viz, through II publ
Y. office of government, was suitable II Il co
Or ony in its infant state. In such Il stat
i, there could be no body of men Of sulliclcr
'" wealth and responsibility to act as banl
y ers. In an Ola country like ours, whel
b. capital has not been accumulating, banl
J. ers discharge the function which the go
emment of the American colonies assun
ed, of issuing commercial money.
-, Adam Smiths explanation of this sy
'S TEN deserves attention: at is CONVEX
g lent" he says, "ior the Americans, wi
is could always employ with profit, il Il
10 Improvement of their lands, a.
a. stock than they can easily get, to Sc I
Z much as possible the expense of 50 cost
an instrument OF commerce as gold or 81
te yer; and rather to employ that part
OF their surplus produce Wlllcn would
at necessary for purchasing those metals,
he purchasing the instruments of trade, IL
lie materials of clothing, several parts
II. household furniture, and the iron wol
er necessary for building and extending the
Sc settlements and plantations; in purcha
:. ing, not dead, but active and producti
he stock" Again, he says, "Ihe redu
n dancy of paper money necessarily Danish
nd gold and silver from the domestic tran
lg actions of the colonies, for the same re
ch son that it has banished those meta
ne from the greater part of domestic tran
n. actions in Scotland; and it is not t
poverty but the enterprising and prote,
let ing spirit of the people, their desire
W. employing all the stock which they c,
:, . get, as active and productive stock, viii
v" has occasioned this redundancy of pap
nd money He also says, "ln those branC
ng es of business which cannot be transact
cv without gold and silver money it appea
- that they can always find the necessH
quantity of those metals. ."-W'edM
Nations, b. =. ch LII The represent
tive money which could in the colon
be converted at pleasure into land, lat
ny and produce ofevery kind, could, ofcour
to as easily be converted at the market pr
,t into gold and silver