Weekly Chillicothe crisis. (Chillicothe, Livingston Co., Mo.) 1878-19??, 1881-04-28
The Original National Bank Swindle

The Original National Bank Swindle
Irish World
1t was confidently asserted in the
last Presidential campaign that Eng
lands material greatness dates from
November 4, 1858, when William III
inaugurated his invasion of that coun
try by landing at Torbay.
1t was then blatantly asserted that
with him came "hOnest" money, and
specie became an arbiter of values, and
regulator of exchange, and the prepos.
ferrous proposition was scarcely de.
MED.
The fact is, William found the Brit.
ish people absolutely ignorant Of none
tary science, and suffering from Il
frantic struggle to conduct their eX,
changes by specie when they had
scarcely any specie to do it with.
Much genius and hard work had
been expended during the previous
quarter Of a century by Lambe, Muir
ray, Asgil, DR.. Hugh Chamberlin, and
others, and the latter after Thirty years
study, announced that the national
credit could be adyantageOusly coined
and if sustained by the fiat of the ma.
ton would, with infinitely more econ.
omy and efficiency than specie had ever
done, provide Il safe and ample cur
rency for the people.
His trouble was how to get this fiat
money into circulation, but finally in
connection with Foley, the speaker of
the House of Commons, II bill in the
interest of landlords passed both
houses, received the kings signature
and became a law. The bill created
what was termed the Land Bank, and
made the landlords the recipients Of its
benefits, and the controllers of its is
sues exactly as our national bank act
similarly cndows the usurers OF our
national bank ring, If we had not
here before our eyes 50 parallel a
scheme of class legislation, eXtortion
and robbery it would seem impossible
that 50 great a villainy could he enact
ed as law. 1t provided that any land
lord whose rents amounted to say,
600 (S5OW per year, should be deemed
owner Of an estate worth $1,000, ($l0,-
00O), being estimated at what was
then and is now called twenty years
purchase,
On transferring the same in trust to
the government he would receive the
full value (Sl0,G0W in circulating
notes subject to tax, interest or usury
of one half of one per cent, without
impairing his rental, Il provision abso-
lutely identical with that by which
our government loans money to the
national bank usurers, while permitting
them to charge many times the amount
charged for usury or tax from their
wretched victims.
The landlord position with and with
out the bank, would be thus:
WITHOUT TIE BANK.
Rentals as above per ycar......o....S SOC
WITH THE BANK.
Rentals .......:........":., .... 0OO
Less interest onM y per ccnt,..".. 30
Net rentals. s.............. 100
Usury on $4,000 loaned by him at &
per cent. Observation-Disclosures. 600
Income of estate with land bank at
taclllncnt. t.................,..... lUO
But fortunately for the nation, the
scheme failed, and its projectors agreed
to loan the government e2,5OO,OOO
(S12, 2,500,00O) presumably in coin, at Z
per cent, if they could have the char
ter If they could have turned in
their own issues as our national
banks can and do for the same, no
trouble would have accrued, but the
demands of foreign creditors, and the
specie rings of that day had monOpo-
lized the specie.
1t is true the Bank of England had >
few months before secured its charter
bya loan of El,O00,0O0, $4,000, 600 to
the government at s pei cent, but its
stockholders were professional usurers
and forming the gold ring at that time,
possessed the specie and held on to it.
The position is quantity summarized
by Macaulay thus:
"The moneyed class (uSurers) alone
could supply what was necessary to the
existence of the Land Bank. AS the
usurers did not choose to take on them
selves the expense of putting down
usury, the whole plan failed"
The whole available subscriptions
were $1,000 from King William, el,-
500 from the rest of the nation.
The whole thing was fight between
landlords and usurers, and the land
lords were whipped.
About century and half later the
idea was resurrected in the state of New
York under what was termed the Safe
ty Fund System, which eliminated the
landlord element by refusing absolute,
conditional and iiduciary transfer of
land as u basis of circulation, but So
liciting and accepting mortgages on
the same, or, in other words, continuing
the usurer as sole arbi!er and admins
TRAITOR of money. BY that legislation
parties holding say 100000 of bonds
and mortgages could form bank, de-
posit the mortgages with designated
officer of the state, receive bills cOun-
tersigned by the comptroller and certih,
ed as being thus secured, and draw
usuryboth Oh the mortgaged loan and on
the circulation, exactly as is now done
by national bankers.
OF course this double usury, say Z
per cent on security and per cent on
circulation was absolutely exhaustive
of the products of industry, sucking
them like whirlpool into the vortexes
of the misers, but it made the paper
issues of the bank then, as
those of the national banks now
are, nearly if not quite abso-
lutely secure and when the inevitable
day of settlement came, in 1857, al
though depositers as a class, were
exterminated, bill-holders were pro-
tected.
Some of the conspiritors who con-
cocted the old national bank villainy are
now living, and they openly boast that
the latter was framed on the old work.