by David Astle
[375] Augustus Boeckh: The Public Economy of Athens, p. 43, Vol. I.
[376] Aristotle: The Politics, Book II, Ch. 9.
[377] Polybius VI. 49. (Humphrey Michell: Sparta, p. 305.) François Lenormant: La Monnaie dans L’Antiquité, p. 215-216; Book II, Tome I.
[378] François Lenormant: La Monnaie dans L’Antiquité, p. 215-216; Book II, Tome I.
[379] By corollary, those prepared to promote the bankers’ policies, however subversive or destructive, would be amply provided for. Of this period Professor A.H.M. Jones (Sparta, p. 39; Oxford; 1967) makes comment: “After Aegospotami there was such an influx of gold and silver that the conservatives tried to revive the Lycurgan ban, and it was decided that the treasury might hold gold and silver but not individuals. Nevertheless part of the Spartiate’s mess contribution was in Aeginetan Obols.” (Italics present author’s.)
[380] Humphrey Michell, M.A.: Sparta, p. 78.
[381] Leviticus; Ch. 25: (King James Version).
[382] Aristotle: The Politics, Book II, Ch. 9.
[383] Ibid.
[384] Humphrey Michell: Sparta, p. 50.
[385] Further support is given to the opinions of the present author in respect to money creation and issuance by the remarks of Dr. Paul B. Trescott in his work: Money, Banking, & Economic Welfare (Page 55), in which the process of deposit creation in modern times (which would be known as money creation if more direct language were used), is briefly, but aptly summarized.
According to Dr. Trescott, in order to make a loan of $1000.00 to a customer, “a bank needs only to credit his account with $1000.00 in its books by a stroke of the pen.” The following words of Dr. Trescott certainly convey the impression that, despite the fact that nothing has been given by the bank in question that will cause any decrease in its assets, the customer will give the bank something of real value “in exchange for the deposit credit,” his IOU, “or an interest bearing security.” According to Dr. Trescott, this process by which deposits are created, consequently causes increase in the total money supply. Dr. Trescott further remarks: “The process of creating deposits is obviously a simple and painless one for the banks.”
[386] In days gone by it was customary for most who did business with ships, to make a gift, usually money, to both Master and First Mate. These gifts were known as “Perks”. The “Perks” of the Master were unknown to the First Mate; in some degree they took the place of commissions that shipmasters had formerly received on cargo bookings in the days before the advent of telegraphs etc., when they truly were kings of the sea in many senses of the word.
[387] Hence the existing situation in what is left of Anglo-Saxon governments: As their (unnecessary) expenditure beyond tax income is financed by the creation of debt directly to private persons, which indeed are the Banks (that everyone so unquestioningly accepts these days as an established feature in living) under incredible conditions,* units of exchange in circulation automatically suffer increase, and consequently there is a steady fall in their purchasing power.
Such fall in purchasing power immediately and arbitrarily constitutes a hidden tax on all who hold monetary units in one way or another. Levied in an unseen manner by those private persons who supposedly make the so-called loan to the government, its effects are not understood by the people, nor its origin.
*For a clear statement of the workings of this unbelievable system in Canada, see Brief submitted to the Royal Commission on Banking and Finance by Mel Rowatt, Ottawa, 1964.
Further than this hidden tax imposed with dubious legality, there is the absurdity of an interest rate, which, parallel to that of previous so called loans, creates a yearly interest bill which in itself necessitates further such borrowing, without ever thinking of paying off the principal; such system necessarily compels a government that has been trained to unquestioned acceptance of its financial liabilities to be servant in some considerable degree, of those private persons, its supposed benefactors.
For the opinions of orthodox Political Economy see: James M. Buchanan: The Public Finances; pp. 359-69. Homewood; Illinois; 1965. Reuben A. Kessel and Armen A. Alchian: Effects of Inflation, Journal of Political Economy, Vol. LXX, pp. 521-37, December, 1962.
[388] Ernest Babelon: Les Origines de la Monnaie, p. 106.
[389] Herodotus; The Histories; Book I.
[390] A. del Mar: A History of Monetary Systems in Various States, p. 29, and pp. 35-53.
[391] William C. White: Jews in Kaifeng; Toronto; 1966.
[392] R.A.G. Carson: Coins, Ancient Medieval, and Modern, p. 70. London; 1962.
[393] A.R. Burns: Pericles and Athens, p. 11; London; 1948.
[394] According to Augustus Boeckh in The Public Economy of Athens (Vol. II; p. 289): “The Public donations or distributions amongst the peoples were of frequent occurrence. To these belong the distributions of corn which have been mentioned before, the cleruchiae and the revenues from the mines, which, before the time of Themistocles (471 B.C.) were divided amongst the citizens; and lastly the money of the Theorica for the introduction of which, Pericles is chargeable.”
[395] Ibid. p. 290.
[396] Display in the Royal Ontario Museum, 1972.
[397] Bray Hammond and the staff of the Federal Reserve System (1939): The Federal Reserve System; Omni, Hawthorne, Calif. 1958.
[398] Augustus Boeckh: The Public Economy of Athens, p. 289, Vol. II.
[399] Ibid. p. 277. Vol. II. Analysis of the remarks of Demosthenes as quoted hereunder leave little doubt in respect to this matter:
“In ancient days” says Demosthenes “ everything that belonged to the state was costly and splendid, and no individual distinguished himself from the multitude; and the proof of it is, that if any of you know the houses of Themistocles and Miltiades, and the famous men of that time, he will see that they are not more magnificent than those of other people; but the buildings and construction of the State were of such size and number, that it is not in the power of succeeding generations to surpass them--the Propylaea, the Docks, the Porticoes, the Piraeus, and other works with which you see the city adorned! But now all who are concerned in the management of public affairs have a superfluity of riches, that some have built private houses more magnificent than many public edifices and some of them have purchased more land than all of you who are sitting in the court are together possessed of; but your public buildings and works, it is disgraceful to tell how scanty and contemptible they are. What indeed can be said of your works? What of the parapets we throw up? Of the roads we construct and the fountains and trifles at which we labour? Thus speaks the ardent enthusiast for the happiness and fame of his country; his speeches of admonition might with a few alterations be adapted to the present age, in which such vast sums have been squandered away without producing anything useful or durable.”
[400] A. del Mar: History of the Precious Metals, p. 105; New York; 1968.
[401] Augustus Boeckh: Public Economy of Athens, p. 43, Vol. I. London; 1828. Also Michael Grant, p. 3.
[402] The Royal Commission on Banking and Finance. Ottawa; 1964. Brief submitted by Mel Rowatt, and page 138 on “Swap” deposits etc.
[403] During the brief reign of Peter III (1762-1763 A.D.) the pood of copper was coined into 32 roubles, copper bullion itself being approximately 5 roubles per pood.
[404] According to the memoirs of Count Munnich, to his knowledge 6,000,000 counterfeit roubles entered Russia from Western Europe being exchanged as against the silver rouble at a profit of 566%. This amount was known. The unknown amount must have been much greater. A. del Mar: Money and Civilization, p. 303; London 1886.
[405] Naturalis Historia, xii, c. 18. Pliny. Minimaque computatione millies contena millia sesertium annis omnibus India et Seres peninsulaque illa imperio nostro adimunt. Tanto nobis deliciae et feminae constant. (History of Monetary Systems, p. 126. A. del Mar.)
[406] Michael Grant, (From Imperium to Auctoritas. p. 57.), makes mention of a banking family known as the Lollii. Cicero
speaks of a Laelius; (Orationes: Pro Flaccus, Book XVII.). They are more likely members of the same family.
[407] Cicero: Orationes: Pro Flaccus, Book XVII. Clearly transfer of the precious metals in the time of Cicero meant transfer of prosperity in the same way as it did in the European controlled world until recently.
[408] Manuel des Antiquités Romaines, pp. 78-85; Tome Dixième; De l’Organisation Financière chez les Romaines. Théodore Mommsen, and Joachim Marquardt. Paris. 1888.
[409] According to A. del Mar in A History of the Precious Metals, (p. 88). “At that period when the coining press was unknown, the work of coinage was done altogether by the hammer, shears, and file. A workman could scarcely finish more than twenty coins a day.”
[410] Harpers Dictionary of Classical Literature and Antiquities, p. 1598, Harry T. Peck, Coopers Square Publishers, New York, 1965.
[411] Alexander del Mar: A History of the Precious Metals, p. 105; New York; 1968.
[412] Ibid. p. 55. (Pliny, Books iii, xxxiv, 5. and xxiii, 21.)
[413] According to Harold Mattingly (Roman Coins, p. 19): “In the second period c.280-268 B.C., the aes and its parts were issued as before, but a coinage of silver was added for the purposes of the war in S. Italy. The chief coin was the Didrachme. the bronze coins of the series are struck at very variable weights and certainly represent values above their metal.”
[414] Harold Mattingly: Roman Coins; p. 91; London; 1923.
[415] 216 B.C.; in this terrible battle, 86,000 Romans and Italians were virtually annihilated and all their equipment lost to Hannibal.
[416] R.A.G. Carson: Coins, Ancient, Medieval, and Modern; p. 127; London; 1962.
[417] Michael Grant: From Imperium to Auctoritas, p. 19; Cambridge, 1969.
[418] An Encyclopedia of World History, p. 100, Boston, 1948.
[419] William Smith, LLD: The History of the Bible; p. 550; London, Ontario; 1885.
[420] Michael Grant: From Imperium to Auctoritas; p. 41; Cambridge; 1969.
[421] Britannica, 9th Edn.
[422] Michael Grant: p. 61-69.
[423] Ibid pp. 71-72. C.H.V. Sutherland (Coinage in Imperial Roman Policy) also makes frequent reference to Nemausen.
[424] Italics by present author.
[425] Fritz Heichelhiem: Ancient Economic History; p. 243, Volume III, Leyden; 1958-1970.
[426] Colchis was a district at the Eastern end of the Black Sea, South of the Caucasus and North of Armenia and Pontus. In Greek mythology it was famous as the destination of the Argonauts, and, as abode of Medea, a special headquarters for sorcery. An independent state at the time of Alexander, when that area subject to Mithridates was invaded by Pompey, Colchis was paying nominal homage to Mithridates. On his defeat it was made a Roman province.
The houses of the scarcely ruined streets of its principal sea port which long since sank beneath the sea as a result of some forgotten earth tremor, still stand in ghostly stillness deep below the surface. The Russians have a submarine which travels these streets for tourist purposes.
[427] Sir Charles Leonard Woolley: The Sumerians, p. 168 et seq. (Norton Edn.).
[428] June Grem: The Money Manipulators, pp. 137-178; Enterprise Publications, Inc. Oak Park, Illinois. 1971. Also see The Toronto Star, p. C9; “Monetary Experts favour new System”; Fri., June 14th, 1974.