The weekly democratic statesman. [volume] (Austin, Tex.) 1871-1883, 1878-10-17
VENETIAN FIAT MONEY.

VENETIAN FIAT MONEY.
Whenever Hamman and each spou:
| ing Greenbscker who wakes the echoes
of the prairies and ''mottes" OF Texas
would exhaust eloquence and learning,
they dwell rapturously upon the won
drous working of the Venetian bank
ing system. They have talked with
| 1ippant assumption of fam. .liarity with
historical facts of which they know
nothing. We have never heard q
rodent Greenbacker gnawing hard
money on the streets that he did not
open a great fissure in the banking sys-
TEN of Venice through which the light
of genius and of history poured as the
rays of the noon Jays sun into the bung-
hole of molasses barrel. The Venetian
credits (greenbacks) which Hsmman
and Davis and Still so pirate about
were only checks of the richest mer-
chants IN the world upon Venetian
banks or drawn upon themselves. They
were preferred to the current common
coin cf the commercial world because
this coin was clipped and of less value
than it's inscriptions indicated, while
the ingots and coins OF Venice we're of
full weight and never were debased or
wort tn less than their value as stamped
upon them. The ignorant, warning
governments of that age, grievously in
debt, each debased its own coin, while
that of Venice was at a premium be-
cause unclipped and unalloyed. 1t
was because of this fact that Venice,
through long series of years, was
mistress of the worlds commerce. Our
word "bank" had Its origin in these
facts. l. is the Venetian word
"bancO," "a BENCH" transferred
to England and Laturalized like
the money and banking system
of the Venetian noblemen. Ital-
ian money-lenders had each his
''bench" (JdneO) in the market place,
and when he failed 1t was broken (rup-
tusi, and hence the word bankrupt.
Even in blessed Venice there were aw-
full bankruptcies. But they who listen
SO rapturously to the idle philosophy
of Hon Wash Jones should not be i'm
posed upon by the earnest references
to Venetian history. Deductions from
the commercial fortunes of the Queen
of the Adriatic are demonstrative of
the correctness of Democratic theories
of finance, and calculated in nothing
to approve the fiat money schemes or
other. financial vagsries of Governor
Davis, Tracy, Wash Jones and their
erratic followers. The whole history
of the Venetian system of banking is
given in Gilbert's History of the Bank
of England, and in Jacques Savary's
Parfait Negociant and in Darius His
tory of Venice. The holder of q
Venetian draft or bill was paid
In a credit on the books of
the banker or merchant or in coin at
his option. A cash room or cash
desk the JanoO Cbank) existed for this
purpose, and gold or silver was paid or
credit given as desired to the holder of
the circulating bill. The Boston Her
all says that during the war between
II--.-SssL-l ln--AL----
bank were loaned to the State and ex-
pended. AS consequence the cash
room was closed. The credits became
greenbacks, in the sense that they
were then a forced loan. Deprecia-
tion followed. The unredeemed cred
its were no longer at a premium. They
fell to discount. They ranged 10 to
10 per cent. below coin. Subsequently,
the republic having coined some mon
ey, the leash Office" was reopened. At
once the depreciation disappeared.
The credits advanced to par with coin.
The Bank of Venice again suspended
specie payments from 17l7 to 1879,
according to the dates assigned by
Daru in his ''History of Venice" vol
ume 3, page 1856. At all other times
except these mentioned, the institution
paid either in coin or by transfer of
credit, at the option of the payee.
Daru explains how it came that, dur
ing the periods of redeemabllity, the
credits were worth twenty per cent.
premium. Tie bank established as its
standard ducdt dU baneo. The actual
silver in circulation was distinguished
as the ducat c0urdnt. Coins were re-
ceived by the bank, and valued &C
cording to their weight and purity;
then credited at their actual worth,
and paid out or transferred as ducats
du 6dnco, at a standard worth twenty
per cent. more than the current ducats,
which were comparatively debased
coin.