The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1896-10-10
HOW FREE COINAGE
WORKED LONG AGO
A Chapter Of Instructive History Pre-.
scented for Review.
A LESSON FOR RHE DISCONTINUED
How the Attempt TO Make Value by
Government Fiat Worked in the
Days of James III. Of England.
What Macaulay Says About 1t.
Letter in the Sun.

that experience Is to some as the stern
lights of Il ship, serving only to illu-
inmate the tracks of the past. The
Populists and free silverites in this
country have no experience. but their
prototypes in former days left lurid
track in the path of the worlds history.
The wild dreams of prosperity in
dulged in by the siXteen-to-one party
have been dreamed before, and the
awakening has not been pleasant. EN-
actly the same financial troubles that
atilict US today worried the good people
in the days of James III. of England,
and he hit upon exactly the same rem
edy. the free coinage idea.
The only difference was that he did
not restrict himself to silver. but coined
anything he could melt up and cast.
In Macauley's History of England. vol.
Ill, y. 1863, we find the following de-
scription of the bad times" of those
days: Trade was at an end. Float
ing capital had been withdrawn in
great masses. On the fixed capital much
had been destroyed and the rest was
lying idle. Poverty of the treasury was
the necessary effect of the poverty of
the country; public prosperity could
be restored only by the restoration of
private prosperity; and private pros
perity could be restored only by years
of peace and security. James was alb
surd enough to imagine that there was
a more speedy and etficacious remedy.
THE RESULTS.
Nature is hard and unforgiving
mistress. and her control over social
afairs Is no less potent than over the
animal kingdom. For this gross viola
tion OF the true principles of good gov
ernment and sound finance she must
have her penalty, and in 1896, exactly
two hundred years ago. the canoe:
came to a head, and it was found nee
essary to apply the knife. The suffer
ing that followed need not be described
but the process of restoring the coin
age to its gold basis, and the people
to their senses, should be warning
Of the possibilities ahead of our pres
ent free-silver cranks.
He could, he conceived, at once ex-
tricate himself from his financial diff
ficulties by the simple process of call
ing q farthing shilling. The right of
coming was the flower of the preroga-
tive, and in his view the right of coin
ing included the right of debasing the
coin" That is to say, he did not re-
strict himself to a ratio of sixteen to
one, but carried the theory to it's logic
nj conclusion, and thought that if a
coin were to be below par at ALL 1t mat
tered little how far below it went.
Pots, pans, knockers of doors, pieces
of ordnance which had long been past
use, were carried to the mint and coin
ed. In a short time humps of base
metal, nominally worth near a million
sterling, but intrinsically worth about q
sixteenth part of that sum, We're in cir
culatiOn. The royal edict declared these
pieces to be legal tender in all cases
whatever. n mortgage for a thousand
pounds could be declared off by bag
of counters made out of old kettles.
The creditors who complained to the
courts were told to take their money
and begone. OF all classes the trades
men were the greatest losers. At first
of course, they raised their demands
but the magistrates of the city met this
by putting forth tariff regulating
prices. Any man who belonged to the
party now dominant might walk into u
shop, lay on the counter a bit of brass
worth three-pence. and carry off goods
worth u guinea. The sufferers thought
themselves happy if by the sacrifice of
their goods they could save their limbs
and lives. There was not a bakers
shop in the city round which twenty
or thirty soldiers were not constantly
prOWlng."
THE material wealth of England had
not been seriously affected but she
was suffering severely from the defec-
tive state of the currency" In addi-
tion to the fiat money of James, the
country was flooded with clipped and
mutilated coins. In spite of the most
severe punishments. even that of death.
we lind that there were thousands of
persons who made business of clip
ping coin. eff the stamp of the gov
ernment will make a farthing's worth
of brass worth a shilling's worth of
silver" they said, "why is the stamp
not still good to make the shilling go
if it contains only tenpence worth of
the metal?" In other words, who is go
I'M; to stop and question exactly how
much below par coin is, when every
Une knows it Is only fiat money in any
case? There was only one remedy for
this evil: only one way to get back to n
solid basis and restore confidence: "the
only way to resume was to resume"
Parliament fixed Saturday, May 9. 1896,
as the last day on which the govern
ment would receive clipped silver for
taxes. 1t could not prevent the de-
based coin being used in trade, for there
was little or nothing to take it's place.
This brought to the tax office, eager to
settle in bad money while yet there
was time, a mob that ran only be dup
Heated now at the Brooklyn end of the
bridge when the cable is out of order.
"They besiegcd the eXchequer from
dawn until midnight so that it became
necessary to call out the soldiery to
preserve ORDER
"On the Monday following the final
day of grace began the cruel agony of q
L. I 4
succeeded by many years of prosper
ity." The fiat money and sixteen to-one
coins of those days were finally shut
down upon and repudiated by the gov
ernment, and time was left to heal the
ravages the false financial system had
wrought The alarmists of those days,
the Altgelds, Tillmans, and Debses,
whom we have always with us, pre-
dicted the most terrible things. One of
the boy orators Of the time we find
saying: "The wealthiest and most in
tellgent kingdom Of Europe will be re-
duced to the state of those barbarian
communities in America. in which a
mat is bought with a Ratchet and a pair
of mocassins with a piece of venison.'
TEACHING OF THE PAST.
For a time the greatest inconveni-
ence prevailed. 1t was impossible to
obtain genuine money. All the old
coinage vanished, and the new was
very slow in taking its place. The
upper classes lived chiefly on credit;
even the richest could hardly pay their
weekly bills. Manufacturers had great
difficulty in getting coin to nay their
workmen, and promissory notes with
good signatures became the common
means of payment. The finacial condi-
tions were almost identical with those
of 1893 The paper money continued to
circulate. but its value iluctuated vio-
lently from day to day. "A ten-pound
note which had been taken in the
morning as worth more than nine was
often worth less than eight before
night" In this dilemma Charles Mon
tague suggested the issuance of ex-
cheOller bills as a substitute for coin