The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1891-04-30

L
Century narrates the cheap money ex-
pertinent of Rhode Island at the close
of the Revolutionary war. A more
timely study could not be offered at
the present moment. A paper-money
bank was started, and every farmer or
merchant who came to borrow money
must pledge rell-estate for double the
amount desired. We quote:
The depreciation of the new money
began literally with its issue. Every
merchant and tradesman in the State
refused to receive it for it's face-value,
and holders of it refuse to make any
discount. The General Assembly
came to the aid of the bank and sought
to give it's paper money full value by
statutory enactment. A forcing act
was passed subjecting any person who
should refuse to take the bills in pay
ment for goods on the same terms as
specie, or should in any way discour-
age their circulation or such terms, to
a fine of one hundred pounds and to
the loss of his rights as a free man.
This made matters worse than ever.
Merchants and traders refused to make
any sales whatever, many of them clos
ing their shops, disposing of their stock
by barter, and going out of business. In
fact, money almost ceaseb to circulate
at all. Nearly all kinds of business
was transacted by barter, rents were
paid in grain and other commodities,
and the only people who used the
paper money were those who had borr-
owed it on their land. The chief cities
of the State, Providence and Newport,
presented very remarkable spectacle.
Half their shops we're closed, their in
habitants idle, and their streets ami
mated only by groups of angry and
contentious men blaming one another
for the blight that had fallen upon their
business and industries. In order to
retilate upon the merchants and trad
ers for refusing to take their money,
the farmers refused to bring their prod
uce to market. A famine was so i'm
inent in Providence because of this
Withholding of supplies that a town
meeting was called to devise means
for obtaining the necessaries of life.
To provide immediate relief for persons
in want of bread five hundred dollars
was authorized to be borrowed and
sent abroad to buy corn to be sold or
bartered by the town council. In
Newport mob brought on riot by
attempting to force grain dealers to
sell corn for paper money.
OF course the catastrophe finally
came, after public and private interests
had suffered greatly. Absolutely no
body had benefited by the experiment
except the State, which had got rid of
a large portion of it's debt by dishon-
estly refusing to keep it's obligations
Industry and trade of all kinds, as well
as the States good name. had suffered
incalculable injury, and the States ma
terial progress had been retarded SC
seriously that it required many years
to regain what had been lost. The
deluded people who borrowed of the
bank on their land as collateral realized
the desire to have more money in Their
pockets: they realized the dream cher.
ished by the believers in "cheap money
in all lands and in all times, for large,
per capita currency in which they
should share, but they very soon found
out that none of the blessings which
they had so fondly imagined would
follow possession were destined to ap
pear. What was gained by having
plenty of money if it could not be usec
in payment of debts, if nothing coult
be bought with it save at greatly ad
vanced prices, and if it were to becom,
less and less valuable as time went on