The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1895-12-25
ENGLAND'S POLICY.
THE TERROR OF THE WORLD.
THE CENTR.ALIZATIO
OF WEALTH. p
philadelphia American.)

No engine ever proved so mighty no
fnstrumen 50 powerful, so unfailing, In
the transference of property from the
producing to the money lending classes,
ana the consequent Capitalization of
wealth in the hands of the few, as the
single gold standard. Having discarded
silver and gained control over the gold
money of the world, the creditor classes
have the producing classes absolutely at
their mercy. for. by dispIacing silver, the
demand for gold has. been doubled, and
continues to increase as trade and popu-
lation grow And with this increase
and increasing demand, gold has and
must continue to rise in value, resulting
in shrinkage in the value of the proper
ty OF all producers, and an increase in the
burden of all debtors in like ratio
No one ever perceived this more clear
ly than Samuel Lloyd, who rose to the
head of one Of LOndon's greatest banking
firms, firm afterwards merged into the
London and Westminster Bank-the rec
ognized chief of the monied interests dur
ing the second quarter of the century,
the author of the bank restriction act of
1844-a man who Influenced the policy
of England, we might safely add OF the
world, more than any other man of his
time. Lloyd's first great aim was to
limit the issues of the Bank of England
and thus rigidly limit the currency of
England to the gold available for money.
This was accomplished by the bank act
of 1874, which required that the Bank Of
England hold pound for pound in gold. in
its vaults against every pound of paper
outstanding in excess of $4,000 900. Thus
securing an inelastic currency that could
not be increased in obedience to the in
creased demands of trade, save by add
tons to the stock of gold, Lloyd felt that
he had placed the debtor classes PROSTATE
at the feet of their creditors. The legal
tender money being insufficient to carry
on the trade. and being absolutely fixed,
he saw that payment was only made pos
sible to their debtors when the creditors
saw fit to loan them the means. 1t fol-
lowed that when the creditor. classes
chose to contract loans. payment became
impossible, and they thus had it in their
power to forfeit the property of their
debtors
Lloyd reasoned that with expanding
trade, and currency fixed absolutely by
the quantity of gold in the country. mon
ey must rise in value as the demand
thrown upon it by growing population
and expanding trade increased, for he
deemed it impossible that the production
Of gold would be such as to make possible
an increase in the quantity of gold in
use in money as fast as population and
trade grew He perceived that as gold
became more and more valuable 1t would
become more and more difficult for debt
ors to pay their debts and saw that debt
ors thus becoming more and more de-
pendent on loans of the creditor class to
enable them to meet payment OF interest
and principal, debtors would be forced
whenever the creditor classes system
atically contracted loans-to surrender
their property on such terms as credit
ors might dictate.
He foresaw that under such contraction
prices would fall to lower level than IN
other nations that then gold would flow
into England, and that this influx would
increase the quantity Of money and raise
prices, to the great benefit OF the creditor
class, who could sell the property Of
debtors forfeited during the panic, at an
advance. The property of one class Of
debtors having first been forfeited and
then sold at an advance to q new set Of
hopeful producers the wheelssof confrac-
ton could again be put In motion, an
other panic precipitated, ana another set
of debtors shorn of their property.
Fortunately for the producing classes
of the world, the great discoveries Of gold
in California and Austr a1ia upset Ldoyds
plans. For time atteapts sk eontrac-