^ ^^. IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) 1.0 I.I ^1^ 1^ ^ Bii 12.2 t MS, 12.0 L25 III 1.4 K nina 1.6 x// o .alities h will ly of Iiap- oney ' can II be ^ of tiger Argument. Were crude physical labor, without mind power, the only means of production, every thing would be for local supply, and no more being in demand, barter . would meet the lim- ited condition. In this stcii of society man could never rise to moral intellectuality. It is coeval with the nationfil formation, that the mind begins to dawn, as a power, in the world's economy, in- stantly comprehending the requirement for system in pro- duction and government; perceiving that productions were valueless without protection, and feeling, that out of unas- sisted physical labor, the expense of governing would crush the desired advancement. And thus, the Intellectual, grow- ing slowly, through many ages, has been drawing onwards to a condition of harmony with Natural Law in tJie 'pro- duction of material suhdances. Properties would be valueless in a savage condition of life, wliich under civilized nationality are wealth : that only being wealth which has within itself a productive quality, and as it produces. The national condition can only be obtained by the acquiescence, in matters of general import, of the whole people, forming, or intending to form, a nation. If a nation is thro^vn back into anarchy, or barbarism, the 10 ^iV ESSAY ON PRODUCTION, value departs from its properties, for, production ceasing, there could be no wealth. Thus, it is apparent, that every thing of a national char- acter depends, for its continued value, on the wholesome Avorking and preservation of the national system. And, as national compact is a natural law, then, every thing that can permanently strengthen and solidify the same, should possess the attributes of eternal justice, benevolence and truth. Credit, which is the present great co- motor to the mind (and, therefore, while it holds sway, lies at the root of the first principle of national formation, which is the production of material substances; out of which production, relatively, if unshackled, there would follow intellectual, moral and spiritual growth), has the very contrary of these attributes, for its characteristics are injustice, cruelty and fraud J and its fmits are moral degradation and na- tional decay. There becomes, therefore, an imperative necessity for a natural moneys to underlie, and finally obliterate credit, Nevertheless, we can not part with the one until we get the other. Property outside of Nation being valueless, which in- side is valuable, the means of making it more and more val- uable is in increasing its productive capacity, and in giving protection to property and person. Now, if this protection were given, without taking any "value" from the citizen, would it not be reasonable to admit, that whoever paid the needful values for such governmental security and pro- tection, thus leaving all the "means" of the citizen with himself, to create further production (not otherwise possi- ble to such an extent), should have an interest in all the properties of the nation, to the amount of his advances? MONEY AND GOVERNMENT. 11 n ceasing, ional char- rtholosoiiie And, as hing that 0, sJiould ence and or to the the root h is the oductioii, e]]ectual, ^rary of cruelt}' and na- y for a credit, we get ieh in- •re val- giving tcetion itizen, ' paid 3 pro- with possi- II the ?s? And, if these advances (made from year to year for ever) were not repayable, were not a loan, nor to be in any way a lien, either for principal or interest, upon the pro- perty of the nation, would it not be right to say, that the party making these advances held an equitable ownership, and should possess a transferable "acknowledgment," rela- tive in amount with such advances, in all the (now called) assessable property, acquired, or to be acquired, by the citizen ? This condition of affairs would only be Just and philo- sophical, if it were beneficial and profitable. Thus, it would require that such advances should greatly increase the gen- eral value of fixed properties, and also the ability of the citizen, to further increase their productive power; while at the same time there was full assurance of protection of gov- ernment, in person and property. It is through just such a process, foreshadowing such results, that I elsewhere show how, in strict accordance with the requirements of human society and progress, and of natural law, a true money can be obtained. for eq tio as tio pr( vai sui tiei ma sw it des tlic pro pac the gol mo The Law. The desideratum in the matter of money, is to provide for an ample circulation, free from fluctuation, and always equal in amount to the fullest natural demand of produc- tion, in material substances. From the want of a knowledge of the law of money, as intended by nature, all the accumulations of the produc- tion of labor, in material substfinces, are resolved into fixed properties. A true money is requisite, to combine the varied powers of mankind, mentally and physically, to en- sure a full and multiplied production, out of fixed proper- ties. The process of credit, which has emanated out of man's ignorance and necessities, has come to a "dead-lock," swallowed up in the vastness of the fixed properties, which it has aided in producing ; and which fixed properties are descending in the scale of true productive value (w^hich is the value of all property — property having within itself a productive capacity, being the only wealth), by the inca- pacity of the moral man, to increase credit co-equally with the requirements of increased properties. All that is now called money, is not monef/, not oven gold and silver j but all paper " promises to pay," called money, are a mere credit, and the gold and silver, instead 14 JiV ESSAY ON PRODUCTION, of being used as a "measure of money," are degraded, as a basis for the support of credit. I proceed to propound the law of money, as evidenced in the past and present history of man's necessities, in liis primary field of labor, in material substances. And I am impelled to this utterance of the " truth within," by the conception that all of mankind's intellectual and moral growth, all of present hai)piness or misery, all of human woe, beggary and vice, or of virtue, comlbrt and goodness, will be RELATIVE with the possession of true or false laws, governing the fundamental laboratory of man's existence, the production of material substances. The atmosphere, by co-creation, is in afiinity with the earth. ''Money" should likewise be in harmony with fixed properties, by both coming out of the net profits already earned ; thereby giving the same surety of result to the work of the "mind motor," that the atmosphere secures to the decree of the God of nature, in reproduction on the earth. And, as the atmosphere can only return upon the earth by virtue of common affinities, resulting from co-pro- duction, so a true money and fixed properties should come out of the same crucible of net profits already earned; that both being the products of labor in material substances, may naturally re-affiliate with each other in their separate characters of floating and fixed proi)ertics, causing ceaseless multiplication of producticjii. Money is an invisible substance, represented by some visible sign, be it paper or metal. Such signs are not themselves money, but the "evidences" thereof. Human law is required to regulate the " evidences," but the law of nature ordains the money. The flmt puri)ose of money is as a co-motor, subordi- nal brf bel UT MONEY AND (lOVERNMENT. 16 3gradcd, as evidenced ties, ill }iis And I am by the ind moral of humnu goodness, idso laws, existence, with the vith fixed s ah-eady It to the ecures to 1 on the upon the n co-pro- Jhl come od; that bstances, separate .'caseless y some are not Human lie law subordi- nate to the mind of man, which is the prime motor, in bringing the varied powers and faculties of mankind to bear in national compact, to the greatest possible advantage upon material productions. The second purpose of money, is to exchange the pro- ducts of industry and to socialize all the nations into one, in the Eye of the Universe. Therefore, a true money of any nation will be esteemed permanently valuable, and its paper "evidences" will pass current, the world over. The natural boundary of a nation is in its industrial economy, and in the equality of its parts in harmonizing with a common centre. Under the true law of production and its money, countries will sooner or later come together to make one nation, or separate to make two nations, as they are now naturally, or unnaturally joined, or dis- joined. Out of the instinct of nature, individuals have been re- solved into nations of mankind, whence a governmental necessity at once presented itself to protect one from the other; to secure the fruits of production to the producer, and to preserA'c the national compact against the aggres- sion of all other nations. This again created a demand for services, or something to pay services of government; and, clearly all must contribute, directly or indirectly, to- wards this object ; and herein arose taxation. Even tax- ation, as the world increased, could not be paid in material substiuiccs, and thus, at the present day, men have first to work unaided to gain possession, expensively, of " evi- dences of credit" called money, and when they have earned it, the government wants are the first to be supplied. And thus, this sham money, which would have trehhn not then as a 10 ex- (.'ulato )vcrn- 1 the A true "evidence" of money — money being invisible, nnd yet positively valOable — requires to be in itself val- ueless. Paper answers that purpose, and can carry its his- tory and origin on its face to the conscience and under- ,«tan(ling of the world. l^ankers, with commissions on the footings of accounts for their remuneration, will be the natural link between the bureau of production (which I propose that every gov- ernment sli;ill establish) and the earners and owners of the net profits of material substances. All gold will continually revert to the banks; it can not stay in circulation where a true money exists. The gold W\\\ reach the banks through depositors ; and when de- positors draw checks against their accounts, paper money will be wanted ; the banker's duty, therefore, will require his having a supply of such money on hand, and thus the gold must be sent in constantly to the bureau of production for the obtaining of what we now call " currency," but which in this case will be real tmyney. And real, be- cause of the application of the gold, through the govern- ment, to the defraying of the expenses of the nation, and thereby obliterating taxation, tariffs and eveiy other drain now made upon industry. Until the "relative" in supply and demand, between money and properties, under this law, is first established, there being now no money, and all " properties," the great- est proportion of net profits will flow into money, gradually displacing all credits and false money; thus an amount of money, equal to about one-half of the present produc- tive properties of a nation, will be created, and hence an equal sum in gold will be paid, through the bureau of pro- duction, Avithin a cycle of about ten years. And as some B 20 AN Kss.ir oy ruoDuoTio^, fixed pioix'itios imust 1)0 uddod, by the iiiitiiro of industry, within the suid ton yonr.s, an amount, e(iual to about tho half of said additional fixed })roportios, will also be wanted in money, further increasing tho gold paid into tho bureau. Wlien tho equilibrium has arrived between money and properties, atler u period of ten years, and all national debts have then been paid o% as they will be through natural consequence, it will happen, from that forward, that the additional money annually wanted to move the addi- tional fixed properties, annually created, will flow evenly, governed by an eternal law, which invariably regulates the "fitness of things." And the gold thus annually paid into tho bureau of productiitn will be foinid equal to meeting, thereafter, all the aiuiual charges of the nation, and of such expenses of the minor muni(i[)alities as are of a national character. I discover a " relative " in natural law, between the ad- ditional money wanted annually by unshackled production (after supply and demand are once e(iual, at the end of ten years) to meet the additional fixed properties aimually earned, and the quantity of gold needed to detray all national gov- erning. I repeat, these "acknowledgments," by tho application of the gold, becoming " evidences " of money (money being itself invisible), fu-e irredeemable and a legal tender, having no redemption, because paid for when obtained, thus repre- senting profits previously earned. A thing to be redeemed, apparently, requires something more valuable than itself. But true money, indoctrinated in all the property of the nation, and having vitality, through the productiveness which it aids in creating, and being, under unshackled pro- duction, the only invariable value, can find nothing in ex- ist it. tlu ab MONEY AND aOVEHNMKNT. 21 industry, bout tlio ) wanted bureau, noy and national throuoh aid, that 10 addi- evcnly, atcs the »aid into meeting, and of re of a the ad- oduction 1 of ten ' earned, lal gov- [Jication y being having 3 repre- loonied, itself. of the iveness 3d pro- in ex- istence, of ample value, in sulficient quantity to exchange it. Oertairdy, neither gold n(»r silver can meet the case, they being liuiitod in qiiantity, and fluctuating, merchant- able substances. No accumulation of gold, by the government, will be justifiable; ibr, gold being the "measure of money," it is important that all of the "measure" shall bo continually within the reach of the acquiring power of the net profits of production, in material substances. Nor, are the "ac- knowledgments" granted, truly "evidences" of money, until the ap[)Ueation of the gold is made ; for, gold in govern- ment vaults would bo mere merchandise, and thus the "acknowledgments" would only be "evidences" of mer' c/iandise, and not of money. No su[)erabun(lance, however, of gold ounces, in circu- lation or in bank vaults, will ever over-increase the paper "jicknowledgments;" for, although all the gold will be earned, over and over again, and placed in bank deposit by " net profits " of production, in material substances, yet, only so much gold will i)ass into the Bureau of Production as there are "acknowledgments" needed by the demand of fixed properties, within their producing ability. The intelligent mind, which carefully studies this sub- ject, will discover, under the machinery 'of this money creation, tliat production, net profits, additional money, increased fixed properties (wealth), can not avoid growing "relatively." And with unshackled industry, which will then hold, that it will be impossible to disproportion any thing. The lodgments of gold with the bureau of production will not decrease the power of continually lodging more ; every ounce paid in being immediately issued by the Gov- 00 ^l^- ESSAY ON PliODUCTION, eniinont, iiiid re-obtainod by tlie bankH, who will keep sending it in to tho bnrean just as oflen as tlioy liave occasion for lapor evidences of money, to nie(>t, tbroiij^h (lu'ir customers, the dem.ind in the production of material substan(;cs. And it wiil bo unprofitable to send it in faster than paper money is needed, as gold, in sn[tcrabund- ance, in a nation, can bo export(;d to a probaldo profit ; but money having no productive or mnteviid vahie avitiiin itself, and not being an article of mcrcbuiiliso, 'onscqucntly bearing no ])rolit, will be, in suroli;>, tilidly valueless us an investment. Tho money under this law will luver fluctuate in value — it will rulo all values. Tho degree of value in all fixed ])roducing properties of tho nation will depend upon tho relative amount of money atloat. When su[)[)ly and de- mand are equal, then projx'rty will be at its highest degree of productive capacity, i.nd conseciuently of standard value. And under a true law (reating unsliackled production, the anount of money can ne^er be in excess; because the gold has to be earned before tho money can l)e created, and the money must be required before gold will be given tor it. A natural law regulates itself, and it is no true law which needs human weakness to say : " Thus far shalt thou go, and rio farther." Once industry is unshackled, by the enunciation of a true money, so that riioDC tion forthwith crkatf^ UF\fAM> — w.'icn over-production will be an hnpossibility, and .\ m m every ^ ' g produc<'d will find a ready sale for i , ..^.y — then the declaration of tho French economist, M. Say, will b(! a[>plical»le : wherein all that a government has to do with national industry and its monoA', and with Domestic or Foreign Commerce, is " to certify a fict and to prevent a fraud." I MONEY AND GOVERNMENT. 23 will keep li»7 h.'ive >, tliroiij^'h mulerijil ml it ill jtonihiind- profit ; Hi WITHIN scquently ueless as value — all fixed upon the and de- st de«;ree rd value, lion, the the gold and the for it. true law liu* shalt jhackled, 01)1'' TION ill )»e an find a Fioneh all that and its , is "to Money is to fixed properties ns the atmosphere is to the (>arl]i. As the air is to tlu- lun^^s. An invisihlo siihstante to a niat(;rial Hul)stame. AtinoHphore is just as real a.s Ivirth. True niouey is just as real as machinery, or liuins, or 1'oimI. Money is the floating element oi' fixed capital in mat< rial substiinces. There is no inoiuy now in cori-stend Ucal money is ineumprossible V>y login^atitju or otherwise. A stunted metal circulation may he a safe medium {)[ i:. hvnoe in countries where there are no i»a[ier nt)tes, hut .- dl it is not money. And whore hank notes, i»r gov< .iiient credit issues, are in force, then all is credit, ca en go. and silver; tho one being a mere sustaincr of the other. Credit crushes, debt destroys; whilst produ' f. by a NATURAL MONFV, will expand the natural tho whole man, swelling general wealth, liumiiu and intellectual capacity inany hundred-fold. The net profits in pi-wf'vr>r lou'** Ibov mav Inst in action, ensure present misHu'tuue and ultimate destruction. 26 ^JV ESSAY ON FItODUGTIOJf, Money is now a thing of profit, and yet of itself pro- duces nothing. No producer can obtain it until he has long labored without its aid in acquirhig capital and credit, and then, and only then, can he horrotv it in limited quantity and at a largo profit to the lender; and it is only as a temporary motor that he can then rely upon it. No production can be cheap and very advancing with sucli a trammel; and thus we find that the rule of life is, that the majority fail in obtaining competence or happiness, and that a vast percentage of mankind sink into beggary and des- olation. Money, not first earned in the workshop or on the farm, only gets there in pay' • for something produced without the aid of money. Wliat millions fail to reach a first loan! lost to themselves, to the world and to God's service. And this is the action of what is now called money. It is a)»parent that all production is now the elfect of the mind motor and social credit, and that what is now called money is the aijent of commerce^ in being a mere exclianijer of products after they are produced, and never the co-motor of produt-tion. Thus, if on any occasion such money is ra[»idly in- creased, it adds but little to the productive power, sinifjly increasing the exclianning aliility. This surplus of ex- changing medium, without ((trrespondlng jiroductiun, will immediately raise the price of i)roducts. Then it is that production, seeking for credit to supj)ly a co-motor, tries to meet the apparent increase in demand; and, production being wonderful in its power, and the money issue under i)res- ent system being, even in excess, limited, i)roduction will rapidly till the market, overtop[iing the exchanging medium and ensuring a speedy collapse and n-rtain disaster to all. fi: th\ MONEY AND GOVERNMENT. 27 itself pro- til ho has uul credit. n liiuiteil it is only 1 it. No 1 sufli a , that the and that and des- on the produced reach a to God's w called he ellect t is now a mere kd never idly in- , simply of ex- i>n, Mill is that ti'ics to n beiiig ■r pres- on will nedium to all. False money, issued even by a government, no matter how large the quantity, can never keep pace for any length of time with production, and all increased profits, made under excessive issues of false money, can only go into fixed properties, inasmuch as net profits must go into some- tiling not yet created. The bank notes, government notes, gold and silver, are already eartied and owned by some- body, and can not be increased by changing hands; therefore the certainty of a crash, in ten-fold degree, is unavoidable, because properties being now too much for all the credit in existence, the disparity ^^ill be greatly multiplied by the addition of property from profits, while taxation increas- , ing, will be reducing the motive power and ready means within the present system. Thus, when the collapse hap- pens, apart from the increase of human wretchedness that will arise, there will be a depreciation of fixed properties just equal to the amount of social credit withdrawn ; and in a great nation, this will count thousands in subtraction for the hundreds of additional wealth realized under the inflation. It being borne in mind that fixed properties are the only tuealth, valued by what they produce, and as they produce, and, as the present system makes demand cre- ate production, and the last part of the family to get over a collapse is the commercial credit giving branch, whieh credit now moves demand, the great distister and its pro- longed effects on fixed properties may be comprehended. l];ink or government notes not arising out of net profits of production, but issuing against something yet to be earned, do not move (and they contract the profits) pro- duction. Ihit the obtaining of the " wherewith " by pro- duction to pay a profit on the bank notes, or, all the prin- cipal in taxation of the government notes, reduces the 28 AN ESSAY ON PRODUCTION, produutive capacity of a nation annually about three times the amount thus paid for profit in the one case, and for principal in the other. It is a mistake that war expenditures, if confined to the citizens, do not impoverish as much as if to foreigners. As much productive power is displaced, when the citizen produces for the government consumption, as would produce enough, or perhaps more than enough, in other produc- tions, to pay foreigners for the articles and services wanted by the government. Individual gain may be at the expense of other indi- vidual loss. The only gain to the nation is in the aggre- gate net profits of the whole people in the jiroduetion of material substances. The olher branches of life's labor are all dependencies and charges on the jiroduction of material substances, prospering only as production prospers. A money capital, in the production of material substances, moves annually about three times its amount; therefore, in wars, which are all sheer Avaste, the first direct loss is treble amount of the expenditure ; which, in a great war and under a false system of credit and taxalion, may be a death blow to a nation, but which under a natural law of money, would have merely Die effect of making, for a time, less fixed i»roperroduction of fixed properties; by its export caus- ing de.'ir products and limited value in properties at home. A nation having money to lend, under present filso systems, will increase its poor and its poor-houses, rela- tively, as it increases its lending capacity. Inevitable destinv. A natior. which borroM'S money from another, under 32 AN KSSAY OX PRODUCTIOX, present false system, iiKlicatcs too large a domain, or too much fixed properties, witli too limited a power to make full capacity of production. Such a nation will not make "abject poor," like the other nation, but it will make uni- versal misery, precarious fortunes, disease trnd shortened life amongst its inhabitants. From the extreme mao-nitudo of transactions, and dil- ference in principle of exchange, under this system, the evidences of money will represent sums from one dollar to one hundred tliousand dollars. Ten, twenty and fifty thou- sand dollar "evidences" will be then as connnon as fitly and one hundred dollar notes are now. Although thousands of millions will be in circulation, the ([uantity of separate "evidences" will be less proporlionably. As pa[)er is perishable, and this money is to endure always, the bureau of production will rnicw all "paper evi- dences" of five or ton years issue. But this and all other machinery of the department being merely mechanical and office work, need not cumber this philosophical and practical, though brief, annunciation of a true money, and consequently of unshackled production. The production of material substances, and its money motor, under true natural law, will regulate all other branches of life, and the "'money motor" will be the proper " exchanger " of all productions. As is the standard high or low in the capacity of production in material substances within a nation, so are all the people in comfort, happiness, intellectujdity and virtue. There is no escape from the "relative" within the sphere of natural Luvs. Under the present s\stem, wImm properties grow faster than even the credit motors (there being no money), proporlionably, be- cause man can not expand the degree of credit as fast as MONEY AND GOVERNMENT. 33 net profits make additional properties, therefore production is f'lr below what would be ^ cnpaeity under luishackled industry, equally on the broad American continent, in North America and the Canadas, and in France and England. Although the aspect is diflcrent in America and Europe; which dilTerence it is unnecessary and perhaps impolitic to discuss herein. It must be true beyond all question, however strange it may «nppcar, that mankind, in the aggregate, arc reced- ing, in intellectuality, morality, happiness and individual wealth. The few may be growing rich and learned (learn- ing is neither wisdom nor understanding), but it is only an exception to prove the rule. Credit has reached a limit, at which it should be sup- planted by a true money, which would totally underlie it, within the first ten years of its action, and raise mankind heavenward, in worldly condition. Otherwise, there will be a period of retrogi'ession, dark and cruel, in the history of the world. It tic pr pv im th ph SOI {in to to se ci Reflections. Credit is the inexorable tyrant of the nineteenth century. It has, in the absence of the natural motor of produc- tion, been of service in increasing, to a certain extent, the productions of material substances. Without "money," in proper quantity, which is the true co-motor, the mind of man being the motor, and without the system of credit, the only productions would have been those of unassisted physical labor. Mankind generally would then have been somewhat like the Indians in civilization. Credit begets debt, and debt is alike abhorrent to God and Man, because it dwarfs individuahty, and is foreign to the natural law of production. It sends millions to misery and destruction, and prepares few for God's service.- Credit is the "skeleton in the closet" of present civilization. When Robert Burns composed the following verse, "credit" must have been the "lordUng" to which he alluded. "If I'm designed yon lordling's slave — By nature's law designed, Why was an independent wish E'er planted in my mind ? If not, why am I subject to Hia cruelty or scorn ? Or why has man the will and power To make his fellows mourn." 36 ^l.V ESSAY ON rnODVCTlON, For every purpose of man's life there is u imtural liiw. Man's conditions were made to accord with laws, alreiidy establisliod. And man can only truh/ prosper as he dis- covers and acts up to these Inws. When man loses the consciousness of his own individuality, within which : II truth must come, if it comes at all lor him, by having allowed his mind to fldl a victim to stereotyped systems, rules and habits, whi(;li have imperceptibly enthralled the mass of mortals, then his power to distinguish between the true and tho false is nearly gone. The economy of tho universal kingdom requires of man, in this world, a knowledge of tho laws of nature, under which his Being is planted; and the discovery of these laws, in physical, mental, moral and spiritual degree, and the exercise of them afterward, are tho o ily condi- tions under which ho can contribute to tho strengthening and eidarging of tho moral powers of the universe — to the perfecting of his happiness in tho present lifo, or, to an intelligent hope of an immortal individual exaltation hereafter. Studying the economy of man's existen?e from this stand-point, he has, most certainly, very much to un-learn. No branch of life's action, except the production of material substances, requires any notit'o whatever here, beyond saying that out of tho production of material sub- stances, of which tho mind of man is the "motor," and "credit," under a false system, and '* money" under a true . system, is tho "co-motor," — all other phases of society have their relative advancement. Under the base system of credit, production is limited by demand, and hence, general advancement is retarded ; but, under a condition of unshackled production, which can v^ MONEY AND OOVEHNMKST. 37 only bo with u tiuo mouoy, tlio wliolo flunily of iiuin will advance mitidly in physinil liMii[)inc.ss, and in intolloctual, moral and 8[>iiitual ^raiidcnr; and vico, ))osgary, sorrow, and wrutchodnuss will relatively decroa.sc. There is not u doubt of the soundnoris of those [)ronii.soH. And just as the [troductiitn of material substiuices (I do not use the term labor, of Aihuu Smith — it is too limited in its signifi- cance) approaches a high or low st^mdard, so is all \\\) or down for mankind. Nor does this claim in fivor of industry di>turb the lliet that man is born with a brain organism, cai)able of producing every thought, sentiment and propensity which characterizes the individual called man. But thoughts are not born, they are an aftrr-crcatlon ; and only to the extent that a system is true and free, under which the man lives, do thoughts grow toward truths, and Truth is immortal! I repeat, that a system of imshackled industry, Vv'hich can only hold where a true, and, conseque!itly, unlimited money is developed (unlimited, except by the demand of the net profits of production), is essential to the salvation of man's present happiness and future state Under a true system, with a proper money, production creates demand equal to its greatest capacity. Nature has so ordered the various capacities and necessities for difl'er- ent pursuits, productive and non-productive, that no people, under a natural money^ can produce more, in the aggregate, than they can consume. If too much of one or more arti(,'lcs is produced, then a proportionate deficiency in other articles wanted by that peonle, will hold. Gold estabUshed through an uncomprehendcd law of nature, first as an "evidence" of money, and since as the "basis" of money, of most nations, and yet not to be 10 .4.V ESSAY ON PItOBUCTIOX. found in all, forbids the possibility of exclusiveness by any nation as against all the others. And thus, through the non-universality of gold, and the irregularity under differences of climate, in the quantity of general products, there follows that commercial cementa- tion of one nation with another, by which all the earth shall be as " one people " in the Eye of the Universe. And hereby, the articles produced in surplus are expoiied and exchanged for otlier articles, to meet what was manufac- tured in too little quantity in the exporting nation. Under the true princijtle, — only possible with a natural money, viz : Of " production creating demand, " and over- production of material substances, or of money, being alike impossible, — then production Avill hold the first, and com- merce the second rank, in tlie world's economy. Conuncrce, now, by being the credit regulator, rules production, and is a besom of destruction to human happiness and intellec- tual growth. Credit, banking, and all other institutions of life, are approadies to natural law. " Whatever is, is right," up to the point where it can be bettered. Credit has prepared mankind, through a century or two of fierce and unhappy activity, for a true money. Credit has sent millions off the earth, unreclaimed and lost, for every one that it has strengthened and exalted in moral intellectuality. Credit, like the silk worm, has created so large a co- coon (fixed properties), that, as the worm dies when its cocoon is finished, so credit is unable to put productive life into the vastness of its property creations, and thus property generally is delicient in value, because deficient in productiven(^ss from want of money, to cause it to fully MONEY AND QOVERNMENT. 39 ^oniincrce. produce ; and, credit being of human growth, not coming out of the net profits, ah'cady earned, of material substances, can not keep pace, or steadiness with the ever increasing wants of perpetually increasing fixed properties. If "production," by the existence of a true law of money, created demand, then thought and wealth would be generally united in contra-distinction to small mental capa- city and small income; nevertheless, under the true law, herein propounded, the most moderate ability would make a certain and comfortable living. The great majority of superior minds would make wealth, and the minority of of such would only fail in reaching their high aim because of positive faults of mental or physical organization ; but would not descend to base poverty. As all nations, with elective institutions, must rely for permanence on the virtue and intelligence of the citizens, I can not conceive the future of such nations under the present system of credit as the basis of production of material substances — which production I always adhere to as the " fundamental " of mankind's present, and the " nur- sery" of their future — without beholding a hereafter of moral degradation and social confusion, preceding a retiu-n to semi-barbarism and absolutism. No wealth nor family types, under the credit law, can hope for perpetuation. All individual excellence, mental and physical, which, if wealth were always fully assured to talent and moral excellence, would be perpetuated, is now constantly drifted back into the baser and less advanced levels of human growth. Nothing short of the fierce power of strong men, in early states of society, sup- ported afterwards by legislative enactments, has been able to secure any chance of descent of family types. But 40 AX ESSAY ON PRODUCTION, i r 't i under unshackled production, which can only be through a true money, all families will be noble, and supported by wealth, who possess high intellectual and moral attributes; and, as these are generally accompanied by true physical conditions, a superior race of mankind, in all points of view, M'ill be certain, and family descents, in distinct channels, will bo as numerous as the trees in the forest. Dupatcr, a French philosopher, is said to have exclaimed that "in the physical man the great moral mystery lies concealed/' In the production of materi;ii substances (if under a sound law) will that " moral mystery " be brought forth and cultivated, taught to think, to feel, to see and to understand nature and nature's God. Elihu Burritt, in his benevolence, sought to cheapen postage between the nations — P^ngland subsidizes mail packets — individuals form charity hospitals, jind so forth ^- Legislatures pass relief laws for debtors, and protecting laws for creditors. This is all mere puny cobbling on a false fundamental system of human life. Within tlie law of unshackled production there will be no poor, no debtors, no creditors. Tliought will be far more generally diffused, and man will then hold a position of individual freedom. There is no man really free under the present system which governs production. It is lot intended by nature that in forming nations the individual should lose his indi- viduality; but he has, and it never can be restored until production is unshackled, and debtor and creditor unknown terms. Under the present system all profits go into properties, such as farms, houses, machinery ; and why ? Because the world has never yet had a money channel where any por- tion of net profits can be permanently planted as money. MONEY AND GOVERNMENT. 41 Thus all production resolves its profits into "properties," to be afterwards moved by a credit. Every thing called money, issued by Banks or Governments, is mere credit. Gold is not money, and there is only enough of it to form a ''measure" of money. All the gold held by banks in "rest," is neither money nor the "evidences" of money. Tt is mere bullion, held by banks as a contingent against losses on their loans, and to create a species of confidence towards gaining a public credit for their "promises to pay" and deposits. Gold is unquahfied to become a money "evidence," from its limitations in quantity, and because of its fluctuating, merchantable character. Money, itself, is an invisible sub- stance, emanating under a true law, however, from the net profits previously earned in the production of material substances. A natural money is only limited by the amount of net profits requiring it, and by the amount that fixed prop- erties can absorb in creating further production with the same. A natural money needs no redemption, but should con- tinue always growing, as the producing properties increase, and should be intrinsically valuable, by being indoctrinated in every value of the whole nation, inasmuch as all prop- erties arc dependent on it for their value, and have had a full "measure" of the money in gold expended in their behalf, and been increased in value to the extent of the money motor supplied, and of the sum not drawn away by taxation and tarills. The boundary of all nations is naturally designed to fall within the convenient evolutions of the industrial economy, ;ind the expenses of a government naturally 42 AN ESSAY ON PRODUCTION. required to protect the property to be acquiretl, and the citizen while acquiring and enjoying the same, form tli.e highway of nature, for the creation of a true money. Without this common necessity for a government, and the expenses of governing, there would be no way to make a true money of a universal value within a nation, and of unquestioned reliability in all the world. Credit is a false money, be it in Bank, Government or Individual notes; it all rests on the profits yet to be made, and not, like a true money, on the profits already earned. Credit is therefore unsteady, unsafe, limited, expensive, and it requires the half of each day of man's life to obtain it — to manage it, and to pay it. It makes all fixed prop- erty too cheap, and all productions too dear. It makes,* also, too much of the former, and too little of the hitter, under its system, but as compared with the rule of a true money and unshackled production, far too little of both. Money that does not arise out of the net profits of pro- duction never fuses into the industry of the nation; it can not be evenly obtained to move production. It never goes into the saw-raill, the farm, the workshop, the village, the town, the city, to-day, where profits were made yesterday. And all men — farmers, mechanics, manufacturers — although making profits daily, are poor in money to move further production. Thus, under this false S}'stem, demand only creates, and at the same time limits production, and this " limit " it is which originates what the clergy call the '■wrath of God," for it covers the earth with sorrow and anguish, wretchedness and despair. A true money, arising out of the net profits of yester- day, will be found through the local banker, in tlic very workshop or farm to-day, where it was car' .'d, stimulating MONET AND OOVEBNMENT. 43 more and more production. It will cost no interest or any time to obtain it, it will ensure cheapened production and money sales for every thing. It will produce money and properties relatively equal, and multiply the productions and the fixed properties, hundreds-fold beyond the power of the present system. Under a true money and unshackled production, production will create demand. Every thing will then be sold that can be made; too much can not be made, and cash transactions will bo universal. And this "unhmit" will remove that same "wrath of God" from off the face of the earth for ever. The processes of life, advanced by Adam Smith and his successors, have made most things ready to hand, such as values, exchanges and so forth, therefore nothing is required of me but to proclaim the process of a true money; and it will, if adopted, step into life silently and unobtrusively, assimulating with all the rules of hfe and machinery of business now extant, and yet within ten YEARS all debts of Individuals and of Governments, no matter how large, and interest on money, will be extinct. The Government debts having been paid in gold, the sup- ply and demand of money will then be equal to meeting every transaction where credit now is necessary. Taxation will cease at once with the adoption of this law, inasmuch us the gold rolled into the bureau of production will far exceed the expenses of the chief Government, from the very first application of the law. Tarills, which are merely indications of an incapable system of production, may depart at once, as far as Revenue is concerned; and in i)olicy (?) as gradually as credit disappears, for with a full money in supply and demand equal, no one country can undersell another, unless from superior intellectuality applied 44 AN ESSAY ON PRODUCTION, to production. Unshackled production, to be so, needs a true mone}'^, but, the full economy of the nation requires also untrammeled commerce, free goods and no navigation laws. With the incubus of a false system removed, mankind under the benign influence of unshackled production, and as credit and its offspring, debt, disappear, and a full money advances, will see poverty growing less and less; and will feci the spirit of truth gradually dawning upon the long period of darkness that has heretofore shrouded their understandings ; and the spiritual man will step forth, to be no more enslaved by the bondage of material transactions. The individual will then have his individual- ity intact. lie will be a law unto himself, and will work out his own truths and his own salvation. Then, there will be no more "poor," and less disease and crime; but there will be great general happiness and much increased length of days. INIen will stay longer in business, because it will be safe iiml jleasant to do so. When production creates demand, the conception of a real earnest present, full of purposes to God and man, clothed in justice, benevolence and truth, will dawn upon the world, and man will see God face to face, instead of imagining Ilim in or behind the clouds. And it may arise, that the teachings and example of Jesus Christ will then be comprehended as indicating, between the present and the future, a harmony which human reason Avill under- stand, believe, and act upon. I confine myself, mostly, to pronouncing what is the true law of money, but while I rest with that, I could easily and satisfiictorily explain and prove, how all affairs, including foreign exchange and transactions, will be sub- MONEY AND GOVERNMENT. 45 biJiary to, and be regulated by, the great domestic wheel whose axis is in the bureau of production. Should any nation adopt this system, and the others did not, then that nation would undersell the world, and exchange would be most extensively in its favor. But w^hen all the nations of the world adopt the natural law of money, as I trust they all will, sooner or later, and the basis of all transac- tions behig then ready money, then the foreign exchanges will be a mere secondary affair. No present banking sys- tem, or its issues, will be legally disturbed; their notes will be gradually displaced under the new system .ind new money. All natural laws are conservative, and the best test of the soundness of the law which I advance is that eveiy person and every kind of transaction in life will be benefited by it. Truly understood, natural laws do not pull down — they build up! Wars, plagues, famines are but trifles in their effects and results as compared with the slavery of credit and the debasement of debt. Debt in every shape, from a bar of soap to millions in government stocks or railway bonds, is abhorrent to the natural law of production; and mortgages on fixed proper- ties, when general, as they are in the United States and Canadas, indicate the last round of the ladder in the career of credit here, as the fearful pauperism of Europe fore- Marns the end of the credit system there. As debt increases, the productions of labor decrease in profitability ; but as debt decreases the production of mate- rial substances, and of all other occupations, multiply in quantity and in profit, to the extent of debt discharged, by triple over triple, onward. Thoro can be no. indebtedness created by a nation so 46 AN ESSAY ON FHODUCTION, 1 1 large bufc that there must be productive power in the nation equal to discharging it. So long as debt weighs upon pro- duction, through tarifls, taxation and credit money, produc- tion can not rise to the power of rescuing itself. Hence we see population thrown out of work, poorhouses filled, brains stagnated and the moral man petrified. Debt is unnecessary and unprofitable, originating out of the imperfect knowledge of how to apply floating and fixed capital to their relative conditions and proportions. It has not only desolated the human happiness and economy of three-fourths of mankind, for centuries, but has latterly, from its greater force and energy, deteriorated so much, through descent, the material organism of the brain, that intense selfishness and unrefined passions predominate to bar the door on high moral intellectuality in all matters bearing upon the amelioration, or refining, of the condition of mankind. Men, with destructiveness, secrctiveness and acquisitive- ness large, and with adhesiveness, concentrativeness, con- scientiousness and benevolence moderate, no matter how strong their intellectual organs, will not see the truth in this essay. It is not necessary that all men should. It is to be hoped that some will, who have power to sway legislation, and then, when this law is operative, it will rain its blessings on all alike, rich and poor, good and bad, wise and foolish. Nature laid the foundation, Adam Smith and his suc- cessors built the columns, and, I believe, it has been given to me to place the keystone in the arch of Political Econ- omy. This assumption of mine may sound like a boast. I do not mean it as such, but being convinced myself, I place my I/'fjM on a high elevation, that it may be seen MONEY AND GOVERNMENT. 47 of all men, aud only be extinguished by a new and greater light. Any attempt to discredit, by appeal to the present unintellectual hotch-potch system of temporary ex- pediencies of the credit system, upon which life is certainly not moving upwards, will be no argument, but merely the dull animal assertions of non-thought. The laws of nature are beneficent, and a system where ignorance, misery, poverty and sin are the rule, and where wisdom and understanding, happiness, wealth and virtue are the exceptions, forms no foundation for argument against a declaration of truth.