The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1891-07-09

notes at will.
The wonder is that the scheme found
any intelligent supporters, but the people Of
France were like the Farmers Alliance of
Lane county, Oregon, incapable of instruc-
ton through the lessons of the worlds
experience, and the shares of Laws COM
pany were eagerly bought, and he began
the issue of paper money guaranteed by
the government, and based upon the value
of all national property. Laws words
were: bills issued on land are in effect
coined land. Any goods that have the
qualities necessary in money may be made
money equal to their value. Five ounces
of gold is equal in value to f20, and may
be made money TO that value; an acre of
land is equal to f20, and may be made
money equal to that value, for it has all
the qualities necessary in money" Laws
notes were receivable in taxes, nominally
redeemable in coin and made legal ten
der. A season of the widest kind of finan-
cial frenzy seized the people. Paris was
filed with spectators from all France.
The bank continued to- pour forth paper
money till its issue reached 3,07l 900 900
francs. Law evidently believed in his
scheme, for he turned the vast paper per-
sonal fortune he made into lands in France
as fast as possible; had he been swindler
he would have invested his profits else
where.
This episode of fictitious prosperity pro-
cured by this enormous imitation of the cur
rency of course was quickly followed by
the inevitable collapse. As soon as people
began to sell their shares in the bank,
whose original issue of less than two
millions had been expanded by the craze
to twelve billions of francs, for land,
houses, or anything of stable value, prices
rose enormously, gold began to be
boarded, the shares began to fall and the
paper money to depreciate. Then the
French government, like that of Rhode
Island, tried to save its paper money from
depreciation by edicts or forcing acts, for
bidding the use of coin only in small pay
ments. Any one keeping more than
400 or 500 francs in specie was
to be fined 10000 francs; the
wearing of gems and diamonds was pro-
hibited; nothing made of gold was to
weigh over an ounce; old specie was con-
fscated, and houses were officially
searched to discover it. But it was all in
vain; the shares continued to DROP Then
the government, in May. ITO, about two
years after the founding the bank decreed
that the value OF the shares and notes
should be reduced one-half. Then the
bubble burst wide open; the bank stopped
payment, and the people in their rage and
despair over their losses sought Laws life.
and threatened that of the regent. The
bank was abolished, its notes reconverted
into the public debt; Laws estates were
confscated. and he became q wandering
exile and died in poverty.
Nevertheless this frightful experience
did not deter France in 1870 from issuing
notes on all the property and landed
domain of the Republic. called assignats.
and this financial issue from fools para
disc finally became as worthless as the
notes of the Southern Confederacy, of
which it took $500 to buy barrel of -four,
$500 to buy pair of shoes. and 500 to buy
a pair of hickory trousers. The French
assignats were forced loan on land, but
they were a non-convertible currency in
the markets of the world, and became
worthless even when France was at the
height of military success.
1t is to the repetition of this sort Of
financial experiment that the people of
the United States are invited by Senator
Stanford and the Farmers Alliance of
Lane county, Oregon: the same expert
ment that the Argentine Republic has
been trying for the past five years, with
the result of the present unhappy, bank
rupt condition of that country.