MeulenBeckerathLettersContents1to6Webpage.htm
Contents
Section 1
Meulen -
Beckerath correspondence, pages 1 - 208, 1935 (2x), 1. 12. 1946 - 5. 8. 1949.
Contents of Volume I of VI
Letters of U. v. Beckerath
to Henry Meulen
With some comments by John Zube.
Motto:
Without full monetary and financial freedom and
panarchism or polyarchy - we can achieve neither enough jobs, freedom,
security, peace, prosperity, enlightenment, personal happiness nor progress,
and perhaps not even the survival of the human race. - J.Z., 5.6.03.
B. made summaries
difficult - because he squeezed so much information onto a page. - If you can
and want to, please do supply better and more accurate summaries. - J.Z.,
5.6.03.
1 Introductory remarks by John Zube, Tucker
connection, Hitler, Bruening & 4 Law Drafts against the Great Depression,
20th of July 1944
2 Writings by Beckerath & Meulen,
microfiche offers, related websites, PEACE PLANS
3 Meulen's "The Individualist".
Beckerath had no journal at his disposal.
Notes on B. and M.
4 Mobilization of all monetary freedom writings
& publishing on CD-ROMs, panarchies also for central banking. Conditions to
make opinion exchanges more fruitful. Communism as
original sin.
5 Tolerance and money reformers, the flawed
English of B. Copyrights, Libertarian CD-ROM Publishing, hints to LMP:
Libertarian Microfiche Publishing and PEACE PLANS & Web
offers of LMP
6 Libertarian CD-Publishing appeal
7 Further remarks on this edition of their
letters. Why the separation of the letters? On my comments.
8 A kind of introduction to this correspondence
by U. v. Beckerath himself, with his earliest preserved letter to Henry Meulen,
of 1. 8. 1935, dealing with their differences on aspects of
monetary freedom. Tolerance, PRA, Gandhi
& machines
9 Tolerance, Option clauses, flawed &
correct ones, redemptionism, silver & gold coin payments
10 W.B. Greene,
Zander, redemptionism, debt relationships & right to demand gold coins
or cash, exclusive currency, redemption
in gold or in goods? John DeWitt Warner, The
Currency Famine of 1893
11 Immediate
realization of monetary reforms, option clause system, "Free
Banking", "readiness to accept"
12 Confidence,
gold treasures, acceptance foundation,
13 Old Scottish
banks, tax foundation & debtor foundation, their long-term loans, monetary independence,
insurrection against the Soviets, finance of it, right of creditors to demand
exclusive currency, legal tender
14 Standing of
issuers v. standing of acceptors.
14 12. 8. 35
B.'s summary of the differences in their monetary views, confidence vs. value
preservation, convertibility into metal or goods
15 Size of cover,
redemption promised in future vs. immediate acceptance like gold, risks,
interest
16 Runs as an
advantage, constant purchasing power? price changes, legal tender, Assignats
17 Guardians fo
the currency, legal tender, Prussian paper money without forced currency,
central banks, indepence of the quantity of gold available. Beginning of
letters from 1946 –
1959: 1.12.46.
18 Lost mail,
"The Individualist", price control as disaster, gold currency, paper
money, gold standard, gold basis, "freedom of press" for people like
B, Zander, Hitler, Jews, Koreans,
collective responsibility
18 7.12.46:
My economic programme for
19 Dominion status
for new German States, free gold market, currency reform
20 27.11. 48
and
deflation without knowing limits.
21 Personal and
monetary freedom, legal tender or cours forcé & the free market
22 Free banking
and workers, acceptance foundation, free exchange rare, inflation &
dearness, right to refuse or discount, right of free banking, free coinage
23 Free Trade and
Free Banking, "experts", Roosevelt, New Deal, monetary despotism,
Kant, ideas & legislation. 4.
XII. 1948: Free banking & freedom of contract, law of 1844,
Bank of England monopoly, cours forcé
24 Aristotle, legislation,
paper money as unit to measure values, cour forcé, Free Banking, gold as a
measure of value. Herbert Spencer & central planning, spirit of liberty,
"The
Individualist", gold standards,
central banking
25 Bank of
26 Soviet media, 5.
XII. 1948 (II): Supply of exchange media and chance, forced currency,
inflation & deflation, Free Banking as an essential part of economic life,
central banking vs.
the people, price rises & govt.,
central banking, railways, cars and trucks
27 Free Banking
& economic enlightenment, war financing, Soviet armies, Moltke & war of
1870/71, "White" armies, plunder, financing revolutions, Dr.
Holzhauer's work, Japanese
armies in
28 Atomic bombs,
exploded by pure will, gadolinium & nuclear reactors. 11. XII. 1948:
Trade to support
thinking, devil theory & witches,
satanists, India Siva sects
29 Konfutse &
words, Kitson, opposition to gold standard rather than to right to demand gold,
Jevons, gold standard without a law, tolerance for opponents to gold standard,
corn
notes etc., free gold market
30 Gold market
& freedom vs. redemptionism, Kitson, monetary slavery, reformers, Goethe,
masses, freedom
31 Kitson errors,
Nero & denar depreciation, railway money, silver depreciation, small mark
notes prohibited after 1871, inflation, gold discoveries & prices
32 Prof. Bradford
& gold standard, readiness-to accept paper money, railway money. 17. 12.
1948: Communism,
33 18.12.1948 (I):
Free Banking, private bankers, supervision by public. Potential issuers, Krupp
store vouchers, Payment in French mines, B. in WW I, Kant: About Eternal Peace,
socialist parties behind monetary
despotism.
34 Cooperative
stores lending their money to employers in
private money, Marxism, workers, revolts
not revolutions, monetary revoluton of 1922/2, Reichsbank notes refused. Free
Banking vs. crisis of 1930/32 & Hitlerism & war, B.'s lost
library, M. seems to have lost his, too.
Free Banking as a human right.
35 18.12.1948
(II): Causal vs. personal thinking, Marx, capitalism, accidents, Kremlin,
blaming persons, plans and "sabotage", endurance of despotism, China,
French Revolution,
Robespierre, Roman policy, secessionism
36 Helping
secessionist by good social program, foreign policy, long-term credit by Free
Banking, Knapp's "payment community", taxpayment in alternative
currencies in
bankers to help customers use their goods,
labour and claims as ready money, acceptance by debtors
37 Daily needed
consumer goods or services as cover, length of loans, time factor
38 29.12.1948:
Regular repayments in the banker's notes, with other notes only upon a small
charge. Prussian practice of "Strafgroschen" to assure reflux: a
continuous demand for
paper money. Four Bills, Zander
39 Trust &
distrust, under shop foundation vs. Meulen banks. Bank vault gold useless.
Essential is that gold is not forbidden in the community. Security for
long-term loans, Building
Society example. Adam Smith on
"raising money by circulation". Sound alternative.
40 Sound long-term
loans, notes covered by due debts or at least readiness to accept foundaiton.
B.'s essays in the Annals of Collective Economy, ed. by Prof. Milhaud. Selling
bonds
vs. issuing notes instead of bonds.
Scottish Banks & silver standard, parallel value standard, option clause
41 Scottish
banking, power of bankers, redemptionism, Prussian central note issuing banks,
position of note holders who insisted upon redemption. Timing of loans and
repayments
42 31.12.1948:
Stirner, Statism, replacing the State by voluntary organisations, Engels,
Socialism, Stalin
43 Centre of
State's power: the money monopoly or monopoly of means of payment. 1934
"forgery" trials in
against the exploitative State, Free
Banking as a weapon, monetary statism,
44 Central banking
still after the fall of the Soviet Regime, public finance in Australia, taxes,
public fund holding and deflation. (Comments by J.Z.) 2.
Banking & British Commonwealth,
nationalism. Benjamin R. Tucker's : Instead of a Book",
raids against civilians but not against
furnaces
45 "Sound
Currency" Warner's article, clearing-house certificates. 2.
Marx's view of history as class wars,
Gibbon, monks, paper rather than silk from
46 Above contrasts
continued, acceptance for goods vs. trust, short term vs. long circulation,
role of gold
47 Free Banking
& external trade. 2.
"weapons"
48 4. 1. 19149:
Investments an trustworthy debtors, Building societies, interest rate,
intermediation rather than creation of capital or credit, it also requires note
issues. Limits for issues,
cours forcé, long-term credits. 14.
49 Banking
requires much more than trust and gold, old Scottish banks, silver, gold,
redemptionism or freedom for other banks, too? Monetary tolerance, pricing in
gold, readiness to
accept foundation, definition of paper
money
50 inflation,
price rises, profits, workers, experts, journalists etc., prices on a gold
basis, comparisons.
51 Industrial
credit, Scratchley, Building Societies and "local enterprise
associations" issuing bonds, Trustee Acts & credit insurance,
Rittershausen's German books on Trustee Acts and
Industrial Credits, 17. I. 1949:
Gibbon, standing armies & militia
52 Adam Smith and
militia, if not State controlled, collective responsibility, Bible, God, Jews,
Germans, Dupiat, Berlin, new frontiers leading to new nationalism, UN, Spencer
on right to
ignore the State, Fichte on individual
secessionism
53 Plebiscite in
Roman policy, Montesquieu, governments-in -exile, liberty, in kingdoms
and republics
54 "National
liberty" or "independence",
intermarriages, education via Free
Banking, role of
55 25.I. 1949:
Amok runners, cooperatives in India, Free Banking, Negroes, South Africa, tax
payment in tax foundation money only or also in private notes? B.'s book on
Public
Insurance & Compensation Money
56 26. I. 1949:
Free Banking without bullion or gold coin stock, no prohibitions,
convertibility into goods and services in daily demand, in short-term business
loans only, then panics will
raise trust in such bankers. Runs that
please sellers. If gold certificates are issued & not 100 % covered then
full publicity and honest are needed. Freedom to experiment.
57 Tucker's
"Instead of a Book", nuclear war threat, jury selection, ancient
Athens, selection by lot, hazard of the ballot, Tucker's appreciation of
Spencer, Social Statics, chapter XIX,
renunciation of citizenship as a right,
Werner Ackermann's Cosmopolitan Union, Protectorates for such Unions, Tucker on
State Socialism & Anarchism,
58 Liberal
socialism vs. governmental socialism etc. Hertzka's "Freeland", Free
Banking in Tucker's time a kind of
individualistic socialism, B. an adherent of Tucker since he was 18,
phrenology, Gall, redemptionism, Amok,
collective responsibility, antisemitism. Hitler held Jews, Freemasons, Jesuits, etc. collectively
responsible
59 Collective
responsibility, groups cannot be responsible, only individuals can be
responsible, Kant, Hume, Adam Smith, Spencer, Tucker. Trade unionists murder an
"undercutting"
barber in
Arrested and watched by Gestapo for
publishing, his friend Unger murdered
60 More on the
chance to execute Hitler. Did "the" Germans choose Hitler? Collective
responsibility & French Revolution, elections under Nazi control, clubbing
rather than arguing,
lack of freedom in
61 Guild of
democratic governments: they did not mobilize against Hitler early enough. B's
role in getting seven men together to frame the Four Bills, Dr. Ramin, Dr.
Walter Zaner, Dr. H.
Rittershausen, Unger, Meis, Dr. Munzer. (Details
in previously microfiched Beckerath Papers. - J.Z.) Personal Finance Cos. in
US, honesty among businessmen, security of loans
without the usual securities, student
loans, educated Indians, Free Banking in
62 Politicians and
their promises, universities and free banking, school for monetary freedom, no
missionaries & correspondence courses for it, no series of lectures etc.
CD-ROMs &
microfiche, floppy disks not used
sufficiently for it, either. Does home rule mean liberty? Capitani regenti in
little republics of
Experience with territorial politics not
sufficienty educational. Panarchism.
63 Inflation,
definition and indicators, contracts in terms of paper money, refuse paper
money, demand honest money. 9. II. 1949: Duties, Kant, god, a very
powerful demon, churches,
revelations, hearing voices, Schopenhauer,
divine prescriptions vs. duties derived from man's nature, Kant's and Spinoza's
"God" was nature, Frederick II., Christ, Jahweh, blood
sacrifices
64 Kant was
convinced that Jesus had prepared a religious general strike, beginning with a
refusal to pay the temple tax. 9. II. 1949: Long term loans through note
issues? Rather
mortgages, shares, bonds etc. Interest-bearing
notes, During US Civil War, interest rate: offer and demand for capital goods
decides. 14. II. 49: against land nationalisation, rather
private land capitalism than State
capitalism in land
65
Damaschke"s "Die Bodenreform", 1921, proposed confiscation of
land-value "increases" in the middle of the Great Inflation! Major
Douglas. Private Bankers and Free Banking for
people not "creditworthy" in the
opionion of average bankers. 15. II. 49: Repeal the law of 1848 &
restore the right to issue tradesmen's tokens. Replace term "banker"
by something
like: "manager of private clearing
house". Petition for such bill.
66 Another short
description on the introduction of monetary freedom, 4 points, cantine money,
fichas, truck shops redeeming truck notes, money monopoly, unemployment
67 9.II.1949:
Nuclear bombs introduced in suitcasses, somnambulists, esp & psychic
research to discover them? Tyrannicide, exterritorial autonomy for all
dissenters, atomic "weapons"
not better than "extermination
camps", Robert Oppenheimer & nuclear disarmament - with a big
screwdriver - in everybody's hands.
68 20. II. 1949:
those ordered to guard and finally use
them.- J.Z.)
69 24. II. 1949:
Hitler's secret war preparations. B.'s vain attempt to make them known.
collective responsibility, free competition between various free banking
systems, governments:
ignorance in action
70 25. II. 1949:
Kant & duties towards oneself, his metaphysics of morals and panarchism,
self-legislation
71 Absolute
duties, categorical imperative, 3 Kantian duties, Schopenhauer & Kant,
altruism & man's nature
72 Price control,
repentance vs. regret, 27. II. 49: typified tickets, not convertible
into money but merely into goods or services legal in
System…
73 Ticket money
and its convertibility into goods and services rather than into gold, option
clauses, gold prohibitions, Free Banking to start without gold, Cooperative
Brotherhood Bank,
social progress - a natural process. 28.
II. 1949: Securities fit for banks, securities offering immediate backing
through readiness-to accept, short-term loans & trust
74 Debt foundation
for notes, short term loans and reflux, rather than trust in banker and
long-term loans granted in notes. 3. III. 1949: Otto Huebner, Die
Banken, 1854, law of 1844,
little profit from note issues - under
then existing conditions - for banks of issue, deposit banking. Prussian public
fire societies & their sound practice
75 Deposit
banking. 4. III. 1949: Illegal coining of gold coins, private coinage,
bullion market, Free Banking
76 5. III. 1949:
Redemptionist practices by Prussian State Bank & Reichsbank to suppress
competitors. The all too limited "free" banking was not very
attractive. Tax on uncovered
notes, Michaelis. Cover by notes of well
established banks? Reject the conventional redemption idea & practice. Gold
bugs, fractional reserves, clearing without gold coins
77 Gold as value
standard rather than as means of exchange.
6. III. 1949: Soviets permitted shops unrationed and not price
controlled, prohibition of more than 600 East-Marks in
cash, forfeiture laws, anti-capitalist
mentality, workers and proletarians, Marx and Engels promised wealth not
freedom - and delivered neither. Bastiat, Tucker & Meulen, the most
important liberty, to provide their own
means of payment through Free Banking
78 Independence
from the managers of central banks, working class, Marx, Engels, Communist
Manifesto on central banking & legal tender, supply of means of payment,
money issue
monopoly, exclusive currency, W.B. Greene,
lack of cash the greatest evil, hoarding and the
79 Monetary
freedom is the preliminary condition of all other liberties. 12. III. 1949:
Duty to discuss details of Free Banking, compliments, politeness, market price of
gold metal, bullion
market, gold and trust, statism,
Rittershausen on savers as "bee-folk"
80 Currency
"reform", usual governmental, Rittershausen & his second wife,
redemption in notes of other banks, independence from rich bankers, note issue
without possessing riches
but rather by helping others mobilise
their illiquid but ready for sale and wanted consumer goods and articles into
optional and supplementary "money". Free Banking in poor countries
by poor people. Neither gold nor notes by
well-established banks will be available there. Competition by free banks.
People supporting free banks in US protected themselves
against redemptionist controllers. (Not
only by beating up the controllers but also by sending gold stocks ahead of the
inspectors to provide "cover" for the banks whose gold stock
was still to be inspected. Their monetary
knowledge was greater than that of the inspectors. - J.Z., 5.6.03.)
81 General shop
foundation. Establishing free banks, John DeWitt Warner's study, Clearing-House
certificates. 15. III. 1949:
Fractional redemption, distrust, discounting, refusals to
accept, clearing houses.
82 Clearing houses
as check on unsound note issues, long-term loans directly in fresh banknotes,
notes from the point of view of workers, stupidity of authorities, Nazi
mentality against
gold and Jews. Why are the crazy in power
and why do the reasonable have to obey them? Hayek: Why the worst get to the
top, panarchism, insufficient enlightenment, Ideas
Archive & Market
83 Libertarian
think tanks & Ideas Archive. 17. III. 1949: Absolute duty. Tiberius,
ghosts, Schopenhauer, king Theodoric, Gibbon, Genghis Khan's dream,
Dostoievsky, Pirogow,
Russian vivisector, Attila - some extreme
cases indicating human nature even in the worst men.
84 Rousseau,
decentralisation into small countries. 18. III. 1949: 3 kinds of
exchange, role of note-issuing banks vs. role of mortgage banks or other
capital banks. Clearing does not
need capital. Nazis against clearing.
Clearing certificates require not metallic redemption but only redemption into
each other.
85 Currency
famines under monetary despotism, Warner's article on self-help in "Sound
Currency". 19. III. 1949: Interest, Tucker, statistics, reference
to B. in Prof. Spitzer-Foerster
ables, edition of 1934, Proudhon, mutual
credit, clearing believed to be unsound by wholesale merchants of
86 Note issue as
clearing activity. Four Bills. Role of interest in achieving this clearing.
Reflux of notes. Notes as cheques to be made good by clearing,
clearing-cheques, credit &
adequat legal forms, Zander. Mutual banks
and their return of interest earnings. Rapid repayers could get a "borrower's
dividend". 19. III. 1949: health insurance
87 21. III.
1949: Duty, Kant, motives. 22. III. 1949: Bitterness against Germans
because of concentration camps, collective responsibility?
knowledge of wrongs does not provide the
power and opportunity to resist them.
88 Extermination
camps, cruelty, refugees. Early resistance group of B., count Ballestrem, Nazis
as Huns, could an Austrian regiment have liberated Nazi Germany at an early
stage?
Plans for contacts with
of war treatment, treatment of deserters
89 Desertion plan,
Follin and French & English nationalism, Free Banking, Four Bills, King Wen
of
& others. Why B. & Rittershausen
survived, resistance attempts, revolutions & military insurrections
insufficiently studied towards a libertarian program. However, see
www.exterritorial.info/
for some of my contributions towards such attempts. 23. III. 49: Deposit
business, Huebner, which bank is easiest to establish? Wage bill in
90 Metallic
redemptionism & free banking without it. Prof. Hirsch, estimate of
readiness-to-accept in stores, after 1928 in
their coop bank of issue, trust and
justice administration, foreign trade and free banking, profit through rapid
rapid rather than slow return of notes
91 Free Banking
for all countries with monetary calamities. 23. III. 49: Credit coops in
92 25. III.
1949: Tucker, hoarding, issue monopoly, sales struggles, sales costs, arms
industry in
simply by note-issuing, like Assignats
93 Selling costs
continued. 25. III. 1949:
life itself. Monopoly of the means of
payment is tyranny. Gettign means of payment by the own actions. Necessity of
creating new means of payment from one day to the other.
DeWitt Warner dissertation in "Sound
Currency" on precedent. Emergency money issues
94 Potter, a boy
of 15 invented the valve gear of steam engines, unknown worker wrote to Robert
Owen on order system for personal requirements in advance, to avoid sales
crises.
26. III. 1949: Tucker &
Anarchists vs.Henry George, George's statism, all politics. George for Free
Banking & for government money!
95 George meant
merely deposit banking. Tucker. Delivering money production to individuals,
means neither inflation nor deflation and produces superior money. W. B.
Greene. In
defence of H. George. 30. III. 1949:
Many kinds of interest, interest & exclusive curency, Justinian & his
Corpus Juris on interest rate control, payment in goods vs. payment in
money. Help of Free Banking for debtors,
enabling them to pay, indirectly, with their own products instead of with cash
(of an exclusive currency). Benefit from high interest rates e.g.
for old age pensions
96 Riches in old
age pension through contributions invested safely in productive enterprises at
very high interest. 1. IV., 1949: Tucker, Warren and the cost principle.
Jevons on values
determined by future costs of production.
Synthesis, order system. Options, dealings in futures. Selling without orders.
Workers should use economic methods now restricted to the
class of the rich people.
97 4.4.1949:
Greene's "Mutual Banking" & its abridgment, Indian edition. (But
did non-Indians publish the complete edition sufficiently? - J.Z., 5.6.03.)
Society for the reprint of scarce
old tracts. (Just use CD-ROMs, now, for
all of them! - J.Z., 5.6.03.) 6. 4. 1949: Rittershausen lecture on
mortgage banking & private note issues ca. 1929. Reaction of
"experts".
Statism and Central Banking. Free banking
against the opposition by bankers etc. Economic rulers have lost all sense for
what must be done.
98 Nazis &
Bolshevists. 7. 4. 1949: Mutual Savings Banks, interest and Tucker,
Long-term mutual banking, Building & Loan Associations, Mutual Credit,
Credit Cooperatives, interest
as a compensation for waiting, commissions
to agents, Short-term mutual banking
99 Here note-issuing
is essential, inducing debtors to repay fast, usage fee for notes instead of
"interest". Greene & Tucker. 8. 4. 1949: Wakinshaw:
"Prosperity for all!", index currency
party, Gsell (Gesell), antisemitism of
Nazis and Jews, Irving Fisher, Robespierre, Mirabeau, muzzles (chains) for the
economy
100 Free Banking
against index-money idea and forced currency & exclusive currency. However,
permission for private index clauses. Monetary despotism like Stalinism. Gesell
close
to anarchism, index standard for
optional currencies, stabilising the price level attempts by inflationary and
deflationary measures denying that one engages in either, dishonest CPI,
inaccuracy of price statistics sources,
Rittershausens research on this. 14. 4. 1949: Long-term loans from short-term deposits
101 Fraudulent
debt contracts of banks with debtors, unsound deposit banking practice, with
Reichsband (central bank) backing, Crisis of 1932. The "experts"
remained unaware of historical precedents for their mistakes. Commitments to
pay in dollars without possessing them, right of creditors to demand cash
102 Bruening -
abilities great but knowledge of banking: zero. Thus, he, too, blamed
speculators - and granted a moratorium, increasing the crisis and preparing the
road for Hitler. By putting his signature to the Four Law drafts, submitted by
his right hand man, he could still have stopped the crisis and prevented Hitler
and WW II. But just before that a polical crisis unseated him. (Not a summary
but a supplement!) Distrust under the M. and under the B. system has very
different results. 15.4.1949:
Duty, Kant, Thomas Moore, Babcock's pamphlet
103 Postage, Post
Office, Blockade practice. Tacit cooperation with Soviet censors. 16.4.1949:
Banking not tied to the amount of gold at any place, value standard: value of
gold on the bullion market and via gold coin pricing in shops, accepting notes
denominated in gold weight units instead. W. B. Green on gold merely as value
standard. Immortality of the churches via the immortality of great pioneers.
Buddha, Schopenhauer. Lack of exchange media restricts our productive abilities
- through restricting exchange options. Money lender interest rates, BLA rates
104 Money reform
in
105 Gram gold
weight as value standard, proposed already 1871, later by H.L. Follin, used
during Great Inflation, as accounting standard, like
106 Railway money,
acceptance foundation, the freedom barrier against inflation, dearness &
inflation, "experts" on inflation. 18. 4. 1949: Moratorium
107 Moratorium
worsened the crisis, honest bankruptcies preferable, promises to pay in foreign
exchange could not be fulfilled in foreign exchange - but otherwise, foreign
exchange control as cause of war, speculation not to blame except that
consisting in promises to pay rare cash and that consisting in the right of
creditors to demand it.
Free banking not
merely to meet a crisis but to make banking immune to crisis influences.
Moratorium may have relieved some banks but was bad for workers and
shopkeepers, then unable to sell what they had to sell.Where to establish the
first Free Bank?
108 Free Banking
in England, once started a chain reaction could result, courses on free
banking, ticket money of Namur, Belgium in 19th century, coop stores
operating as note-issuing banks for employers, alcoholism in Belgium. Emergency
money in
109 Warner on
currency famine, even small free issues can often help greatly. Emergency
money, money and blood circulation. 19.4.1949: Sanyal &
Rittershausen. 19.IV.1949:
110: 4 advances by
W. B. Greene, 6 advances beyond Greene's Mutual Banking scheme. 20.4.1949:
On M's "Free Banking" book and J. St. Mill, David Human, Adam Smith,
liquidity
111: Ability to
pay more important than prices or interest rates, inflation welcomed because,
initially, it improves liquidity. No strict border between deflation and inflation.
Deflation within inflations, inflations while in some parts while parts of the
economy are deflated. Prices and quantity of gold coins, Diocletian's price
controls, Profl Lexis on ancient prices in gold, J.S. Mill. False issue and
reflux technique rather than guilty persons to blame. Monetary freedom lacking,
it is most revolutionary. Wakinshaw, Personal Rights re money and banking. The
moral element in the monetary standard, unnoticed by Steuart, Hume, Adam Smith,
Mill, Senior, Marx & his disciples.
112: Childe:
"Changing Capital Market", Liberals & Free Banking, Brooks Adams,
illiquidity & govt. power
13.4.1949: Babcock's pamphlet, and Hamlet on
honesty.
113 25.4.1949:
Bishop Berkeley & John Gray, making the demand for labour greater than the
supply, Nazis & English point of view, interest in economic principles,
Hitler, State education in
Monetary distrust
may serve as a monetary basis as well as trust. Experience with Clearing House
Certificates.
24.4.49 (II):
Option and orders by workers with little cash, negotiated with shops
114 Contractual
buying by workers. If it were generalised the usual crises would hardly be
possible. Lending on a gold basis, Joint Import Export Agency. Gold basis
different from Kitson's gold standard. Shortage of wealth, but why? Gold basis
is prohibited. Confounding gold basis with "the" gold standard. Duty,
Kant, altruism, Darwin, Babcock
115 Distrust vs.
trust for note issues, ticket money of
116 Heroes of duty
resist. Badcock, Aristotle, Byron, Shakespeare, imposed duties vs. self-chosen
ones, Tucker on duty to respect other's rights, Schopenhauer
117 Pride and
duty, Shakespeare's Cordelia in King Lear, Kant on self-satisfaction
accompanying duty done. Babcock. Stirner, Arnold von Winkelried, egotism,
egocentralism, nature, time and space, language, egoism
118 Babcock's
"Slaves of Duty" & Shakespeare's King Lear & Timon of
119 Darwin &
Kant, duty, dignity, the true moral legislators of mankind, Voltaire, Swift
& Shakespeare, Epicurus and Moses, Babcock & pleasure
120 Duty to self,
obligation, Badcock, Goethe in his "Faust", Byron in his
"Manfred", Kant's view: He calls obligations imposed by others Heteronomy
and admits only Autonomy as foundation of duty, Kant on knowledge
without experience, mathematic certainties. Social reforms including monetary
freedom may require a new religion
121 Egoism as a basis
of religion has failed, Kant's philosophy as B.'s religion but his philosophy
needs translation into the language of the people. 1. V. 1949: Christian
God, Schopenhauer, Inquisition, fanatcis, old Jewis race laws and Nazi
legislation, Hitler's "Neo-Judaism". 2. V. 1949
122 I am a strong
adversary to Malthusianism, some reasons. Selling food has been the problem,
not producing it. The world needs eaters, not the things to be eaten. Let us
first meet under-population. Confounding job opportunities with shortage of
victuals, Godwin. 3. 5. 1949: Municipal credit offer to tradesmen, not
in cash but by paying their bills, like the Public Insurance Cos. of Prussia
did and US Building & Loan Associations.
123 6. 5. 1949:
Index money people and their despotism, public utilities, wars for oil? Mutual
banks, minimum size. Readiness to accept mutual money in wages etc. W. B.
Green. Starting Mutual Bank in a small town. Foreign exchange offices,
Woolworth and Coles note issue potential
124 Greene on
spread of Mutual Banking from one small place in the world. Legal form
for Free Banking, acceptance obligation for bank's debtors is (corresponding to
due or soon due debts), coop store as note issuing banker, payment of wages by
certificates valid at the employers own shops, Krupp's example in
125 Dr. Unger,
trust and judical avenues, on debtor's obligation to accept his banker's notes.
Committees & trust. Savings Banks in
126 Under Free
Banking the circulation of outstanding notes will be reduced because they will
return faster. Moratorium. Jacob's type of currency reform after an inflation,
tax foundation and new issues.
127 Financing
house repairs risking the charge: You do unauthorised banking business. 7.
5. 1949: B. still unemployed and not on old age penson. 15. 5. 49:
Greene asserts crises must occur where Free Banking is not in use. Role of e.g.
speculation. Causa proxima vs. real cause, mass unemployment in majo crises.
1929
129 "Woman
and children first!" & "The captain leaves the lost ship as the
last." Darwin & Kant. Louise Saxe Eby: "The Quest for Moral
Law", 1944. Drinkers. Arithmetic & teaching children
130 Certainties
vs. faith, duties and pleasure seeking, time, space & metaphysics, Berlin
Blockade, commando strikes rather than wars,
131 Inflation and
deflation crises,
132 Division of
labour, requires certainty of sales and that requires degrees of an ordering
system for produced goods or goods to be produced. Marx's vague idea that
consuming is part of production. Both are merely the two sides of the economy.
Both need some organisation, not only displays on the markets. Originators of
ordering system: An English worker writing to Robert Owen - & published in
his "Crisis" and Adolf von Elm, who died in 1917, who envisioned an
all-embracing coop. - How different would that have been from Soviet central
planning?
133 Malthusianism,
optimum population, possible population size for
134 Free Trade and
Free Banking could help to nourish a vast population. Malthus as the Soviet's
best ally. 19. V. 1949:
135 Gladiators,
too, struggled for life but weren't starving. Hunters & fishermen diminish
the stock of food, peasants augment it. The great migrations caused by epidemics
among cattle. 19. V. 1949: Multiply the population while people do not
stand in queues before bakers and while foreign countries compete to supply
136 Strikes for
payment in West-mark rather than East-mark. Strikes a barbarous expedient.
Prices in East & West
28. 5. 1949: Blockade almost renewed. Mail still
refused in Air Lift. Railways constituted as a coop. 31. V. 1949: Soviets still
holding back railway cars.
137 Soviet-system,
atomic bombs, Nietzsche, Man, nuclear threat, territorialism, 1. 6. 49:
Alcohol, light & health, Benjamin Franklin, ulcers, blockade for letters
138 Tucker,
Bilgram, Greene et al overestimated the role of interest, role in
long-term-loans vs. role in short term loans, Follin & Buddha on general
terms, Buddhism atheistic, gods, Kislat on life, pigs. Problem is not the
distribution of wealth & social product but to create the possibility to
distribute or to create liquidity, State issue monopoly. Prize for the conduct
of the first free bank, bankers. Who understands free banking? Middle class
139 Thinking in
terms of classes. Being a proletarian usually dumbs down rather than
enlightens. Kislat, refugees.
B. almost got a
job in
140 The situation
of the few enlightened people, significance of the Ideas Archive, Vram
Pilossian, price changes and Free Banking, crises will change the owners of
properties but need not hinder the exchange of existing labour force, goods and
services - under monetary freedom. Bad debtors should not be propped up.Taxes
& gambling, monetary despotism & false price signals, mutual banking
not speculation but merely exchanging present goods, labour and services,
exchanging the wealth consisting in labour power, raw material, example of
international trade with goods warrants, Prof. Edgard Milhau &
international clearing certificates
141 Foreign
exchange controls, limited circulation period for international clearing
cheques, Karl Pearson, Karneades, Kislat, harm done by the good or well-meaning
or ill-informed, Emerson, Nietzsche, cruelty, Nazis, rape, soldiers
142, Christ &
exclusive currency. 2. 6. 49: intellects, flaws in thinking, god,
Aristotle, scholastics, Cartesius, Kant, judgements, De Morgan, mathematics,
logic, certainty, suicide of Japanese students when they lost the belief in
certainties, Paul Morand's report
143 6. 6. 1949:
"The Individualist", some goods sell better at high prices. (Alas,
not quality libertarian information!) Very conservative Conservatives, Kennelth
de Courcy, "Intelligence Digest, law of 1844, overtime & accident
rate, Tucker & strike of taxpayers, Soviets finance themselves largely
otherwise. Education costs, education proposal by Rabelais, poverty of
intellectuals turns them towards communism, Kitson
144 Even a
tradesman needs a lawyer by now, artificial insemination & discrimination,
pop stars etc. as propagators of the human race through artificial
insemination? Or beasts like Hitler, Mussolini, Mao, Stalin? Income tax, dollar
shortage, spelling reform, Chinese children, torture, colour bar,
145 Racism
although pure races haved disappeared, Jews, antisemitism in
146 Agricultural
coops of
147 Northern
Germans, Prussian State Library,
148 Note discount
effects when shops are still ready to accept them at par, unjustified distrust
under Free Banking: It rapidly draws the distrusted notes out of circulation.
149 Discounted
goods warrants, bills of exchange business, Fullarton on bills in
150 Forgery risk
under central banking vs. Free Banking. Free Banking utilizes not only trust
but also distrust. Milhaud's time limit for the validity of notes, philosophy
& economy, Proudhon, cause and effect, Laplace, certainties and
probabilities, experience, Joshua & Hitler, sun standing still? a priori
knowledge, Karl Pearson
151 Levitation
experiments by Zoellner, psychic research, gravitation, Fallmerayer description
of Anthos monks levitating, Bertrand Russell, metaphysical theories catalogued,
Buddhism, Brahmans, Withdrawing religiously developed to withdrawing from the
State - Spencer - to doing it economically, via Free Banking. 12. VI. 1949:
Malthusianism, Colin Clark, real income
152 Most taxes
spend for purposes against the interests of the working class. Nazi Germany,
real income, net output, average incomes, Colin Clark, populations and real
incomes per head
153 Colin Clark on
incomes and population, social conditions factor, exploitation of agricultural
workers in China and India, beggars, usurers, rent & taxes payable in cash
by people who rarely see it, share of peasant in his product in France before
1789, Hyppolyte Taine on revolution. Extreme land monopoly thought example
154
155 Interest rate
at building societies, Scratchley on Building Societies, Tucker, Greene,
discussing all possibilities, central banking in post-war Germany, inflation by
the Allies continued that by Nazis, central bank notes penetrate the economy
insufficiently, need for tradesmen's tokens remained, Free Banking could
rapidly supply exchange media that the central bank could not in months. DeWitt
Warner report in "Sound Currency"
156 Bilgram still
favours centralised issue. His letter to Tucker of 18. I. 1890, Roscher on
interest, administration expenses, bureaucratic credit delays, Rabelais on
bureaucratic justice administration, Rittershausen on merchants renouncing
cheap government loans because of bureaucratic requirements for them. Murder of
Frick by workers, Montaigne on Skanderberch (Skanderbegh?), brutal force,
cooperative enterprises through purchase by employees
157 Some early
thinking of B. still preserved into his old age? Revolt mentality, John
Babcock, Nihilists, propaganda by deed, desertion plan, vs. prisoner of war
treatment, rightful war aims, Swiss constitution,
158 Not quantity
of food but employment rate, banking facilities & legislation set limits to
population. 27.6.1949:
159 Malthus.
Supply of population a question not of quantity of food but of note-issuing.
Cassell: "On Quantitative Thinking in Political Economy", method of
evaluating all possible factors and views, multy-hypothesis approach vs. single
hypothesis approach, Robert Sagehorn. Increasing income free migration and Free
Banking, Indians in
160 28. 6. 1949:
Meulen manuscript on note monopoly. Does it still exist? Malthusianism,
161 English
population density, arable land percentage, increasing the arable land, poverty
in China, Communism in China, Mao, mass murders there, France, reduction of
poverty after 1789, 4 possible improvements in China, consolidation of owned
plots of land, "Flurbereinigung" in Prussia, transport facilities,
sickness (Zander report), facilities for purchasing tools.
162
163 Schopenhauer,
gravity as vital force, matter in the last resort a product of the brain,
astronomy & mathematics, irrationality of landownership concept extended
into space, interest rates in Berlin
164 Women violated
by Russians - bottle of ink used to mark the culprits, each soldiers has only
one uniform! Modern painting. 29. 6. 1949: Kenneth de Courcy - no
understanding of banking, tax strikes, impossible now? Too much competition in
the absence of Free banking. (Rather, too many compete for scarce legal tender.
- J.Z.) Money monopoly & land monopoly
165 Henry George,
engineering profession, unemployment,
166
Artificial insemination, discrimination, children of fathers of 11 and mothers
of 9 years in India & Africa. Can certain qualities only be inherited from
older parents? International payments restricted by laws. The political
conditions an effect of modern monetary laws, laws prevent Free Banking,
monetary freedom and panarchism, monetary freedom would diminish statism.
Literacy in old
167 CD-ROM book
publishing option, Internet, scanning-in books not yet popular among computer
fans. It's still much too laborious, happiness. 26. VI. 1949: Railway
strike, spelling reform, relaxing of memory after 60. Physics teaches that any
influence has some lasting effect. The Norman Conquest had, too, e.g. on
spelling.
168 Slang, German
joke on spelling. Food production, buring of food, herrings used as manure.
Payment system prevented use of such food. Malthusianism and birth rate.
Rittershausen and amelioration credits to peasants. Tauser on ameliorations. To
make new land arable usually gives poorer results. 2. 7. 1949:
169 Book
education, Children & schools, education under Nazis, Nazi youth
organisations, compulsory membership & indoctrination there, public schools
in
170 "I did not learn Latin and Greek and
attended no university." Witchburning, last in
171 Contributions
of Chinese people in payment, clearing, credit sphere, Rueckstrom (reflux), in
notes of the issuer. Four Bills, supervisory committees should be admitted not
imposed.
172 China: Much
land is not cultivated at all, more difficult irrigation options largely
unused, capital shortage, gold clauses are prohibited, Chinese paper money
deteriorated and deteriorating. Burning of coffee & wheat related to
assumed "Dollar shortage". Malthus & herrings. Artificial sales
barriers. "Experts". 15. 7. 1949: Malthusianism, grazing vs. rice growing,
cattle in
173 Pigs and ducks
in
174 German princes
had no better use for their subjects than to lead them into battles. Tacitus on
beer drinking Germans. Conclusion: No shortage of grain. 16. 7. 1949:
Cimbri in
175 New credits
scarce where gold clauses are prohibited, "gold clause standard",
Milhaud's "bons d'achat", Malthus, low marriage age under Henry VIII,
& in some US States & in England until shortly before WW I. Henry
Dunant's Red Cross & Europe Union proposal in "L'empire romain
réconstitué". Reprint of valuable books. Passivity towards alternative
publishing & reading media. Suicide of Japanese students upon discovering
general uncertainty.
176 Morand's book
on this of 1932. Suicide. B.'s own first attempt at 10. Schopenhauer, David
Hume & Buddha on suicide. Buddha and Max Mueller on Buddhist Nirvana.
Education, visual and acoustic type, Justus Liebig against excess
specialisation. Malthus, abundance of herrings. "Economist" should
speak about free banking possibilities
177 17. 7. 1949:
178 18. 7. 1949:
Erhard, the monetary dictator, speaks for for devaluation to some and appeals
to workers to trust int he stability of the DM. Devaluation planned - and
denied. SPD little interest in the subject, although devaluation is robbery.
Did M. ever favour free choice of value standards? My article on devaluation in
PEACE PLANS 8.
179 19. 7. 1949:
B.'s pension, Badcock & Apostle Paulus on duty, pleasure principle,
Beatrice & Sidney Webb, Sir Stafford Cripps, Steuart, a given quantity of
means of payment can only produce a limited tax return, to get optimum
tax-yield there must be a certain quantity of means of payment in taxpayers'
hands. Means of payments on hand can only be provided by Free Banking.
Increasing tax revenues by reducing tax rates. Jevons, Sir Robert Peel,
politicians. Work harder? Shop rules, unemployment
180 Presently only
those workers are employed whose goods and services can be sold for the
existing monopoly money. Unemployment. Shortage of food and shortage of jobs
mixed up. Bastiat: What is seen and what is not seen. Food production per acre,
then and now. Machinery and transport facilities in agriculture, percentage of
people agriculturally employed gets smaller and smaller: No indication of food
shortage.
181 Agricultural
productivity under Soviets by their slave labour. Malthusianism and poverty,
Free Trade, central planning. Gold coins spent to not necessarily return fast,
but paper money does. Devaluation, paper "pound", erosion: Mr.
Fairfield: Our Plundered Planet. Gou Irving Burch, Malthusian
182 Overpopulation
never caused war, although many believe this. Waste and destruction during war.
Cimbri and Teutones were well nourished. Malthusians believe: Economic or
monetary causes of hunger etc. do not exist. The lack of food is observed, also
in the case of unemployment - but not the cause. Alexander von Humboldt:
Amazonas countries oculd supply much of the world with food. Permit Chinese and
Japanese to migrate there. (But end extermination of remaining "red"
Indians there! - J.Z., 6.6.03.) Potential of
183 Stephen King
Hall & his mag.
184 The contrary
is need of what the Malthusians advise. More new house building requires
financial freedom.
21. 7. 49:
185 25. 7. 49:
Western culture, Latin & Greek, other cultures, classical education,
Austrians, enlightenment & tolerance, culture in Tsarist Russia. Education
of children. Must schooling be compulsory? B. favoured that. Joseph Lancaster's
experiment, parental attitudes, book education, theoretical vs. practical
knowledge
186 Christianity
& Western Culture, modern education methods, Tolstoy, Kropotkin, Tucker,
Tolstoy on money, he really means the claim of creditors to cash (coins), even
when there may circulate only very little cash. He confuses that claim with
money in general. Malthusianism,
187 Prussian
farmers a wealthy class compared with best paid workers in towns - but always
groaning to get privileges.
188 Korff:
"Indien", 1893, reports deserted towns, deserted fields, many square
miles, now covered by jungle, reports on agricultural coops, buyers and eaters
and transportation facilities were needed. Georgist on failure of short term
leases. There are coops and coops. Most are very flawed - but not all are. B.'s
correct prediction on Indian population, Mutual savings banks near
189 Free Banking
in
190
191 26. 7. 1949:
Louse Saxe Eby: "The Quest for Moral Law", really scientif about
ethics. 1905 Russian revolution. Robbing banks to support revolutions? Imhoff's
example, suicide when caught. B.s preferred other method. Financing revolutions
properly. B.'s lost manuscript about this.
192 29. 7. 1949:
Malthusianism, hunger, famines as consequence of overpopulation not reported in
history. Agriculture, further technical possibilities and other requirements
for improvements.
193 B. became
acturary of "Deutschland" re-insurance company and dealt largely with
agriculture. Malthusian images quite wrong. Rather too much food in
194 Protectionism
major factor in leading
195 Overpopulation
in old
Moloch cult, human
sacrifices abolished by Abraham. State the modern Moloch. Malthusians confound
difficulties in buying food and selling food with difficulties in producing
food. Why did B. still have to enlighten M. on such fundamentals? Especially
M., a Free Trade and Free Banking advocate? Providing for old age through
children. Example of Yü, 18th male child of a banker at
196 Roscher:
197 Dismantling
(Demontagen) in
198 30. 7. 1949:
Prof. Vierkandt and his wife: Not all Russians plundered but German refugees
did. Zander. Dr.
1. 8. 1949:
Density of population and wealth. Malthusianism, optimum population. Abundant
land per head. Flight from land is mainly for higher wages in towns.
199 Primitive vs.
somewhat advanced Malthusianism. Colin Clark's figures.
200 Or Eskimos.
People in new countries better off than those in old countries? First
settlements in
201 Malthusianism,
Free Banking. Import payment with pounds. Devaluations, dollar shortage",
free exchange rate, balance of trade, redemption of goods instead of in gold,
in international trading as well.
202 Tax reductions
would increase yields. School education, inflation and dearness. 3. 8. 1949:
Malthusianism. 4. 8. 1949: German libraries 4/5th destroyed.
English not as much. Dutch peasants plan to increase arable land by 22 %.
Consolidation of split up blocks of land only via legislation? Perhaps only
because of legal, juridical and bureaucratic difficulties placed upon private
contracts of this kind?
203 Soviet system
and Nazi system still largely preserved through preserving their legislation
and institutions. As a result, "the free market" and
"capitalism", "free enterprise", "Free Trade" and
profit get the blame rather then the remnants of statist interventionism. How
to get rid of planners. Need to answer the "How?" Some doctrines for
a new religion, based on duties, rights and liberties.
204 Does the
"community of Saints" of Christians and Tibetans have some foundation
in reality? Kant. Saints? Saints are revolutionaries. 5. 8. 1949: Meulen
too opinionated and too much opposed to some fundamental liberties, even in the
sphere of Monetary Freedom and Free Trade, where he should have enlightened
rather than doubted. W. B. Greene: The debtor shall always have the right to
pay in specie, but the creditor shall not be entitled to demand specie. The
gambling nature of most promises to pay in cash. No legal tender not even for
gold coins.
205 Mutual Banks
might not only tend to reduce interest rates - at least for turn-over credit,
but increase interest rates for capital investments and yet find favour among
those otherwise not considered credit-worth at all. Gold travels where its purchasing
power is greatest. Perhaps in some communities a discount for sound notes will
not arise at all. Fixed price for gold and Greene. Gold prohibitions &
legal tender. Price increase through note issues? Only normal level will be
restored. Production will be increased and thereby prices will be lowered.
Discounted notes and price for goods. French laws clear on differences between
coops and stock companies. Profits will continue in coops. Profits in
cooperative banking may be considerable.
206 Only imposed
conventions are obstacles to progress. (Under voluntary conventions the
associations involved progress only as fast as they want to. - J.Z., 6.6.03.)
Stirner explained that a well organised coop is impossible without realising
the principles of a perfect individualism. Modern coops, Mutual Banks.
Acceptance obligation only for amounts
owed to the issuing bank and, perhaps, a little more. Acceptance posters iun
stores. Greene. Unless redemption in rare metals by the issuer, on demandm can
be proven it remains a swindle. Acceptance of emergency money without gold
redemption. Unemployment, unless workers are willing to accept payment in
alternative currencies. Note issue better by coop store than by employer's
store.
207 Then coop
store might develop into banker for this employer and for other employers, too.
Mutual Bank step by step. Cooperation and competition are not necessarily
opposites. Successes of coops led to attempts to suppress them. Hitler simply
replaced their top managers by his adherents. Before WW I state employees and
officials were not allowed to become members of coops. Training in the issue of
inconvertible (into metal at issuer) and convertible notes. Convertible notes
systems failed in spite of prolonged training and practices - because they went
beyond their sound and natural limits and promised more than they could keep.
"Fixed price for gold." "Drain of gold?" Not under Greene's
monetary system. Without such entitlement of the creditor this is impossible.
Banishment of gold from our exchange system? Gold coins should not be banished
but tolerated and can serve a valuable role as value standards, on a free gold
market and in pricing of goods, services and labour, payable in gold
value-accounting notes. Gold coins to be neither banished nor imposed. Mutual
Banks need not more trust but can make use of distrust. Discounts drive notes
back to the issuer and his debtors. Balances need not be paid in gold, either.
Legal tender for gold coins?
208 Free gold
market, free gold coin circulation. They should be refusable but that intention
should be declared in advance. Progress in banking without trust, paing with
acknowledgements to owe something, the possibility to divide such IOUs into
suitable pieces, equal in denominations to coins, a function that could be
performed easily by banks, on the "banking principle". Distinguish,
like Greene, the acknowledgement to owe a debt from the promise to pay it in a
particular scarce and exclusive currency. Persian law distinguishes between legal
tender and legal claim. Middle Ages, charter of merchant guilds
insisted on clearing options becoming exhausted before a legal action against a
member could be started. The merchants had a right to pay by clearing. Modern
German commercial law says that a creditor cannot decline to accept payment
offered in the usual manner, that means, in practice, by clearing.
==================================================================================
END OF SUMMARY OF PAGES IN SECTION I. Others are
invited to supply better and shorter summaries. J.Z.
==================================================================================
Contents
Section II
of file: Meulen
- Beckerath correspondence, pages 1 - 208, 5. 8. 1949 - 5. 3. 1950
Contents of Volume II
Letters of U. v. Beckerath
to Henry Meulen
II/1 5. 8. 1949:
Historians, Churchill,
II/2 Insurance,
realisation upon demand of clearing certificates. A real credit instrument is
not realised on demand.
8. 8. 1949: Saint Exupéry's "Terre des
Hommes" - Earth is almost deserted! Overpopulation?
II/3
Anti-Malthusians do not ignore the selling, social and political difficulties
to production. Atomic weapons to destroy polar ice? (Probably his worst
proposal. - J.Z.) Tse-Tse fly in
II/4 Meliorations.
- 10. 8. 1949: Vanity, if only the politicians will get out of the way,
let us free the exchanges, rebelling against their regulations is justified.
Freedom to buy a personal right, permitting every kind of resistance. Exports,
Kant, check your premises. Who exports? Price level, index numbers, Irving
Fisher, cheap vs. expensive countries trade between them
II/5 Tenfold price
increases, coffee, tea, trade always possible and profitable under freedom -
i.e., without foreign exchange controls etc. Dollar shortage? & free
exchange rate, standard of living in
II/6 Paying
imports with the money of the exporters govt., invented by Rashin, taken up by
Schacht, to enslave not only workers, aroused enthusiasm among the bureaucrats
of the world & led to general adoption. Free exchange rates not only for
governmental currencies but private ones. Pharaos enslaved workers for pyramid
building. For what do the bureaucrats enslave us? Abaelard'. Unemployment &
Free Banking. Check on extravagant wages: Lack of means of payment
II/7 Wage check
through transformation into coops, optimally through proper capitalistic
purchases of enterprises by their employees, using suitable free market means
to finance this take-over bid. Advantages for all through this transformation.
Attitudes or workers, employers & large land-owners, land reform. - 13.
8. 49: Not to be proven but to assumed is a natural tendency in population
to grow to its optimum
II/8 Natural
tendency of the population to remain stationary once the optimum is attained.
Self-preservation of species. New faculties must develop, such as conceiving
Free Banking ideas & communicating them. Wasteful way of nature, with
seeds, also with anarchists. Tyrants are best fought by creating conditions of
maximum liberty somewhere, from which it would spread almost automatically.
However, that does not make tyrannicide superfluous. But militarily fighting
and defeating his military machine is the worst approach. Tolstoy I human
soldier ants. Great reformers not only conceive ideas but also find suitable
words for them. "Nature"? Survival instinct & its limits,
territorialism, individual secessionism, full exterritorial autonomy & use
of alternative media
II/9 Required
funds are available on a gold basis, otherwise not. Productivity in
agriculture. Size of land-holdings. Restrictions of wheat planting in US.
Commerce entrusted to bureaucrats. Only one remedy: A large cudgel and chasing
them out. Wage level has nothing to do with Free Trade options. (Rather total
costs per unit matter for its sales potential. - J.Z., 7.6.03.) Without
bureaucracy
II/10 Machines
& manpower, not austerity measures but freedom to buy & sell and
freedom in the choice of means of payments, bureaucracy, free the exchange by
the cudgel! Effect of free exchange rates: balancing exports & imports
automatically. Gold standard, gold coins like nails, but tyranny to compel
debtors to pay with gold coins. Creditors to be served by clearing & other
means of payment. Only legally claimable gold is objectionable, not gold that
debtors can and want to offer in payment or that is merely agreed upon as value
standard. Tolstoy: "The Slavery of our Time", "in which he
proposes to abolish money & replace it by a Christian conviction".
Economists. Persian old law: Debtor must pay in gold only if this is expressly
agreed upon, otherwise local currency is the means of payment up to the value
of as many gold coins as was agreed upon. And even in these expressed
agreements the creditors, including employees, in practice took every means of
payment, including clearing. (Just like in
II/11 Cheating and
Turks, Jews, Greeks, Armenians & Persians. More honesty in business,
especially payment arrangements. Greene & Tucker taught: Substitute verity in
place of fiction. Not only a moral doctrine but an economic and social one,
too. Gold as a value standard in contracts & used to price goods in stores,
while no gold coins circulate. Devaluation, a violation of personal rights
& legalised theft. Gallows currency. Rueckstrom, reflux, bankers.
"The" German? "The" English?
II/12 Vansittard,
Soviet Empire & Malthusianism, dismantling policy, defence, war industries?
Beatrice Webb, King Hall, Education, Seneca, freedom, slavery, freedom for
aduls, not minors. For the latter only as much as is possible. Children,
schools & learning, increasing physical size of youths
II/13 Education
system or miseducation system. - 14. 8. 1949: Exploitation or belief
that it exists:
II/14
Expropriation of politicians and bureaucrats. Bureaucrats submit to any
conqueror. Governments neglects defence because it is busy with licensing
barrows & such things. Soviet attacking
II/15 Regular
instalment "payments" or "acceptances" of repayment
obligations for goods and services offered. Workers as proprietors will improve
plants and rationalise otherwise, too. Higher usage rate of patents. No more
strikes. Interests of workers change. Appeals of Communists become ridiculous.
That's why they fear cooperative or voluntary socialism. Most workers now
prefer wage system. But the example of others will be infective. Submissiveness
will be reduced. Advantage for proprietors. Purchase cheaper than civil war.
Decentralising coops. Bata system & gang work described by Zola in French
mines. No German journal will accept articles on this. (By now there are a few!
- J.Z., 7.6.03.)
II/16 Military
aspects. Decentralising
II/17 Different
living standards, productivity & labour costs per unit, agricultural
yields, long-term order agreements vs. producing for the current market
(compare dealings in futures! - J.Z., 7.6.03), or consumers organised to employ
workers.
II/18 Details
different from profit sharing. Bata system, gang work, work coops, autonomous
work groups, organisation development.
II/19 Changed
English mentality, "leading" class faild in every respect, thought to
be "exploiters" but proven even to be unable to exploit, leaving
masses of unemployed "unexploited" as workers and consumers.
"Exploiters" as statist as workers, insisting on welfare for the
rich. In
18 .8. 1949: 2 different gold standard vs. paper
standard
II/20 Assume all
prices double expressed in gold units, effects, automation of old gold
standard, right of creditors to gold remains unperceived as flaw. Difference
when right of creditors to payment gold is abolished. Prices & imports.
Prices expressed in gold units but payable otherwise. Private certificates with
acceptance foundation. Distrust, discounts - and their redemption at par and
disappearance. Shop foundation rather than gold redemption foundation -
expandable to the limits of production and wants. Even price reductions to be
expected. Sales costs would go down, mass production would be increased, with
its savings.
II/21 Plant
improvements increased, shop rules no longer observed. Distrust, well
organised, no less important than trust. Economists mostly deal only with the
exclusive paper money options. Merely replacing gold coins by fiat money makes
matters worse. Monopoly central bank becomes master of the country &
prescribes econmic conditions. Impoverishment with the best intentions. The
planners can do no more good than the best trained bear in a china store. - 19.8.1949:
Great agricultural coops in
II/22 Must
Hertzka's open coop principle be as extensively applied? PRA principle: Nobody
to have a monopoly.
II/23 Poles and
Czechs often were worse. Berliners failed to destroy liquor stocks. Drunken
soldiers committed atrocities in consequence. Homer's robber romances. Modern
men, regarding devaluations, still at the stage of the old Greeks towards
robberies. - 22. 8. 1949: States not to be treated as individuals.
Obligations and liberty of single Germans from a standpoint of reciprocity.
Every man has a right to choose his own government, but only so as Tucker
understood the thin
g, Auberon Herbert
& others, as opposed to territorialism. Allies did not have the duty to
instal a new territorial regime over
II/24 For maximum
personal liberty division into communites as small as is politically & economically
possible. Here B. did not consistently go to the limits set only by individual
sovereignty, individual secessionism & exterritorial autonomy for volunteer
communities, probably anticipating Meulen's conventional objections revealed in
the last letter exchange. Theory incompletely expounded by Proudhon in his
"Du principe fédératif" & practice in
II/25 Atomic bombs
of Soviets. Hate of Germans due to continued dismantlings. Czech army won over
in first weeks of WW I. Desertion plan example. Vansittard. Nazi propaganda. - 28.
8. 1949: Forgery & central banking vs. Free Banking. Now computer chips
inserted in forced & exclusive currency may prolong its life against the
threat to it from forgers. Money issue monopoly vs. right of workers to be
supplied with means of exchange required to uphold production, exchange media
which cannot be supplied by central banking, nor by present bankers. In SPD
meeting such ideas were laughed at. Hitler regime's forgery of English Pound
notes. Notes of small bankers will not be forged. Forgeries would be detected
too soon. Sales of fine gold. Machiavelli pointed out, in 1532, that all armed
prophets won. Hitler and Stalin as armed prophets, won, at least temporarily.
Their doctrine a religion, although a very bad one. Greek history. Spartans
absend in war for a long time. Women pointed out: No children, State in danger.
Send 50 handsome & virile warriors to propagate the race. The 50 were sent
& did their duty. But their children, 20 years later were discriminated
against.
II/26 Suggestion
on one possible reason for downfall of
II/27 Jacque
Bernoulli on probabilities also Buffon in his Arithmétique morale, special
clause in insurance contracts to cover extreme risks.
II/28. Tyrannical
monetary laws considered to be stabilising ones, by people & average
economists. Marx. No more compulsion than is necessary. Means of payment, based
on clearing are to be permitted. Any other principle's practice may freely
compete with "clearing certificates. Statist vs. near anarchist mentality.
Tucker. Four Law drafts. B. kept his anarchist opinions prudently to himself in
the circle that drafted the Four Law Drafts, upon his initiative. Difference
between notes of the old style and clearing certificates. Credit involves a
time factor. Instant claims are another matter. Zander explained the difference
well in his article on railway money. Railway money is not a loan raised from
the public. But if certificate holders must wait for the realisation of their
claims, then a credit is involved and certificates become a loan raised from
the public. Shop foundation for notes is essential rather than a burdensome
obligation for the debtors &, naturally, in the interest of the debtors of
the banks - the shops.
II/29 Distrust and
discount possibility an essential part of the monetary freedom system. (Free
pricing and free enterprise, free competition and full consumer sovereignty are
essential, in the offer and acceptance of the "product"
"money", too. - J.Z., 7.6.03.) Merely trust of the kind given to
postage stamps is required. The obligation to redeem in the own goods and
services is not a burden but an attractive feature. Christian ethic opposes justice. Kant insists
on it, even if all scoundrels in the world should perish as a result, the true
meaning of "Fiat Justitia, pereat mundus". Pleasure & altruism. Nature
will perform its intentions by our actions & thus provides its incentives.
Atomic bombs. Achilles. Glory vs. doing one's duty as far as one can. Consumer
coops. Laws on coupons.
II/30 Avalanches
of laws: Only escape: individual secessionism combined with exterritorial
autonomy, started by a monetary revolution or tax strike or by soldiers
deserting a warlike or despotic government en mass and establishment of genuine
citizen-militias of volunteers for the protection of individual rights. Now we
have combined the worst aspects of absolute monarchism & mercantilism.
Unemployment. Soviet managers, coops, workers should confront the real barriers
for wages, which they would have to as cooperators. Free Banking. Exploitation
of employers by employees. - 4. 9. 1949: Luther. Cassia, an ancient
remedy.
II/31 Rheumatism
& consuming liquids before going to bed. - 5. 9. 1949: Colour bar. Hereros.
Negroes & German colonialists. Individual vs. collective responsibility. B.
member of République supranationale, founded by H. L. Follin and of the
Cosmopolitische Union, founded by Werner Ackermann. Both rejected nationalism.
Free Banking. Duprat on collective responsibility. Senegal Negroes perfect
gentlemen compared with SS-Men who spread Nazi-"Culture" in
II/32 Superstition
among Indian women and women of lower clases in
II/33 English govt
in and for
II/34 Nations are
no persons but mere notions. Accidental origins of the French
"nation" & the English one. There were no English air
raids on
II/35 7.9.1949:
Jewish militants protesting against film "Oliver Twist" in
II/36 Often such
activism achieves the opposite of what was intended. Such incidents and reactions
to them could have been used as an excuse for the occupation of
II/37 Communists
& internationalism: Stalin-Hitler Pact. Treatment of German prisoners by
Soviets. British Labour Party & dismantlings. Cosmopolitanism and
Internationalism must be created. Old internationalists thought highly
of Jews - because of their internationalism. Some Jews really said: For us
Internationalism is a national task and consequently we reject Zionism.
Cosmopolitians considered as mere visionaries, while the practical men, on both
sides, mass produce mass murder devices. Clearing-House Certificates as used in
1893 essentially the same as Greene's notes except that these certificates
were, very wisely, not used for long term loans. Warner's system, rather than
Meulen's is suitable for rightful revolutionaries. - 9. 9. 1949: British nationalism
II/38
Territorialism, terrorism, loyalty, patriotism & MAD: Mutual Assured
Destruction – madness, with all in an wrongful and self-defeating combination,
which would be abolished via panarchies estabished via individual secessionism.
Strassbourg or United Europe program for defence against Soviet threat. - 14.
9. 1949: Anti-Malthusian article for
The Individualist
II/39 Profit
sharing flawed. Free Banking vs. Communist Revolution, Aristarch's heliocentric
system, economic interests of the priesthood. One place only needed for the
practice of monetary freedom. The world must come to see it & investigate
details. Unemployed should lease shut-down firms and issue purchasing
certificates for the rent. (One of numerous start-up options for Monetary
Freedom.)
II/40 Nature. Some
of its blunders in creating men. Courage for resistance, compared with that of
baboons, future vision too limited. Obedience to commands. ("For every
tyrant a thousand ready slaves!") -
15. 9. 1949: Privatization trend
because officials produced nothing but corruption and deficits. A happy
exception from
II/41 Privately
provided pension to Chinese officials as long as they did not attempt to rule.
Laotse. Free Trade and freedom in the payments sphere. - 16. 9. 1949: Labour Party point of view as expressed by
Tom Braddock, M.P. John Cade in Shakespeare's "Henry VI". Scientific
socialism vs. "State socialism". Soviets esteemed certain kinds of
brainwork and paid it highly. Savings are acknowledgements of labour whose
exchange into goods is delayed. The share of that labour in the products it helped
to produce, should be just. Thus even Soviets are interested in savings
institutions
II/42 Factory
managers in
II/43 Sinaida
Konnopliennikowa shot Russian general Min, accusing him of being a suppressor
of a strike. Murder of empress Elisabeth of Austria by anarchist Lucchesini,
who said that any member of the ruling class deserves death. Supporters of the
principle almost completely fail to discuss it. No book explains it. If it
existed, it should explain how an unarmed group of subjects is able to remove
dictators or tyrants who are obeyed by those who are armed. Gibbons estimate on
military force requirement to support a government. Subjects are defenceless
prey of an obedient army, even a small one. Outrage in
II/44 Not
"The Germans acquiesced … and must share the blame" but: "Those
Germans who acquiesced …" Should Russians be blamed for acts of the
Kremlin (they were, by the nuclear "weapons" and the nuclear
"strength" and "deterrence" policy of Western governments".
- J.Z., 7.6.03) and Spaniards for the acts of Franco etc.? Dismantling. Political consequences - have
nothing to do with revenge, forgiveness, morality or punishment etc. Ethics. Me
a Christian? Proper doctrines of Christ are lost. Four evangiles did not
understand him. Christ probably distinguished sympathisers from disciples, with
prescriptions on offering the other cheek meant only for the latter. Altruism,
egoism, Kantian. Louise Saxe Eby's "The Quest for Moral Law".
Altruism, pleasure & duty. Strong individuals, righteousness & society.
Society, as a mass of average men, seldom knows what is right. Monasteries,
solitude or suicide mentioned as alternatives, but not panarchies.
II/45 The
market-quotation of rights is low. Roman reproach to Christians: Men, who do
not fear death in any situation, cannot be governed. Territorial governments
may find their limits in right to ignore the State: Herbert Spencer's
"Social Statics", first edition, chapter XIX. Laotse. (If men come
not to fear death in the defence of or real individual liberties, because they
are very valuable to them, then really social life might experience its first
flowering! Even while the usual mere socialising might disappear. Perhaps that
was the real meaning of Laotse, here? - In some "societies" life has
few strong attractions and thus death is not feared. A soldier's life can be
made so miserable & his survival chances can be reduced so close to zero,
that he might come to fight fearlessly, almost welcoming death as a relief.
Some suicided when a dense artillery barrage approached. They did not want to
survive as cripples, if they survived. - J.Z., 7. 6. 03.) Cooperation,
committees, managers, wage system. Free Banking & social justice, profits,
wages. Cooperative socialism, resistance to it stronger among workers than
among employers or governments. Exploitation notions. Gold standarld in
II/46 Nations -
the modern gods? Sympathises with Proudhon's "Principle fédératif"
but regrets creating many federal central powers, including the
"rights" to inflate, deflate and devaluate. No evidence that there
must be a paper money with legal tender, on the contrary. Wars, aggressive
ones, and legal tender. Full employement does not need legal tender issues,
either. - 30. 9. 49: The monetary
freedom movement: A leaking boat out of sight of land, manned by two old and
sick people, one very sick! Brain & stomach connection. Write! What average
economists & politicians write is unimportant
II/47 Vita
cerebralis - the real human vita. The depressing and dumbing down
effects of reading, watching or listening to the news. Writing & publishing
on alternative media. Ball point pen. Nonsense of foreign exchange controls.
Flaws in foreign trade statistics. Spending one's paper money abroad enforces a
corresponding export. Zander lectured on this in
II/48 Atomic
explosion in
II/49: English
increased productivity since 1900 taxed away, according to Meulen. Collective
responsibility. Peaceful Mennonites (and Quakers - J.Z) did not want to fight, until they saw the
atrocities committed by Red Indians. War creates moments without satisfactory
solutions. (It is itself, usually, a quite unsatisfactory "solution".
- J.Z., 7. 6.03.) Balkan war practice. Partisans warfare. Atrocities on all
sides. 1870/71 war between
II/50 Hitler's
elections not honest ones. Not even democratic ones are, mostly. Already
II/51 The capacity
to revolt & for finding out the best means is more important than many
other human abilities. We were largely bred by slaves. Rebellious spirits were
exterminated for a long time & thus had less offspring. Territorialism
effects even here. Ethics, Christ, surviving reports seem to be on a real man.
Some Bible references for this. Buddha and miracle reports. Development of
Buddha's views. Religions all full of lies and deceptions. True teachings of
Christ unknown, according to Kant.
II/52 Christ's
ethics according to Louise Saxe Eby. Chinese Ethics. Islamic ethics, abstention
from alcoholic drinks. Ethics of Epikuros. Kant. Spencer: Social Statics: If
only 1914 & 1939 millions of German soldiers had followed his suggestion.
(How few of them had ever read this chapter and how few of these had fully
comprehended it and would have been able to apply it consistently? Most of
today's libertarians still don't! - J.Z., 7.6.03.) "Dollar shortage"
also the result of "exclusive currency" practice. Clearing
certificate alternative.
II/53 Cataracts
& eye bathing, suitable diet also important for eyes. Army's role and that
of Hindenburg, the old traitor, in the rise of Hitler, quite unkown abroad. 2.
X. 1949: Some scientists distinguish dominants and sub-dominants, like
Aristotle. Botanist Reinke, who still lived 1900, invented the name. Some
details. In Kant & Schopenhauer this doctrine plays an important role.
Plato link: Platonic ideas. Van Helmont, Buffon.
II/54 Mind over
matter aspects, Jesus, Niebuhr & spoof on Niebuhr's destructive criticism.
"Omnia in ominia". Christ refusing to heal a non-Jewish girl, later
gave up such a narrow view. His diminishing nationalism. At last he became an
Antisemite - i.e. he opposed the narrow nationalism and ritual-ridden religion
of the then existing Jews, not an Antisemite in the modern meaning. Goethe on
history as needing re-writing from time to time. Bees.
II/55 Bees
intelligent enough to conserve their food rather than burn it. Will insects
continue life on Earth after an atomic war? On strikes particularly for workers
that work socially, not legally, for the community rather than an employer.
English payments to
II/56 Medical
treatment. New methods, like that of M.'s doctor, should be published soon and receive
criticism. Thinking, together with others. Devaluation: a gruesome comparison.
Important ideas arise often at the same time in different heads. Ideas Archive
of Kurt Zube, suggestion by Clavel Blount & article in Reader's Digest.
II/57 Alas, his
suggestion was not applied 1933. Then, with few losses, WW II could have been
avoided. Now those then responsible and powerful hold ignorant, stupid and
unarmed voters responsbile, who, by February 1933 saw what fools they had been.
Alas, free societies and States, deserving the term, are still missing. From
territorial governments nothing better could be expected. Even anarchists and
libertarians have not yet sufficiently pondered their alternatives. - 11. X. 1949: Protection against
inflation by free choice of value standards, gold value clauses. Price level
rise is a consequence of inflation and not inflation itself. Even Truman
counfounded that regularly - and was not publicly corrected by
"economists". Protection against deflation requires right to issue and to associate with
others for this. Decrease of price level, unemployment etc. are consequences of
deflation, not deflation itself. 12. X. 1949: Raw potatoe used as
medicine. Often used in hospitals. Also for burns & cosmetic purposes &
skin wounds.
II/58 13. X.
1949: Connect idea of sound value standard with nationalism. Central banks
as "guardians" of currencies. Territorialism & central banking
closely linked. Party unity more threatened by support for Georgism than for
Free Banking. Single Taxers and rises of land prices due to devaluations and
inflations. Not even land owners are to be treated as serfs of the government
under one rationalisation or the other. Proprietary communities & other
tolerant land reform options.
II/59 Free Banking
need not be imposed. I merely requires that it be no longer prohibited. Right
to agree with others on a stable value basis. Political independe without
monetary freedom is of little worth: "like galvanising a
corpse". October 1923
II/60 14. X.
1949: Chinese money "reform". Still a "modern" system
that caused most of modern
II/61 Tax
foundation money, in
II/62 Trust in FUTURE
realisation options is quite another kind of trust. These two kinds of trust
are usually confounded, as are short-term turnover credits or genuine exchange
media with long term capital securities. Consequences of State paper money
without sufficient taxfoundation. 1. Trust of a creditor to be paid at promised
date. 2. Trust of note bearer that the is and will always be an opportunity to
utilise his notes, especially right now. No proper word for the note holder.
Monetary minuteman? "momime?
II/63 Governments
must distinguish means it can raise by taxes and those it must raise by a loan.
(They also resort to confiscations or compulsory loans and borrowings, e.g. of
accumulated old age funds, for their current projects, even armament costs,
like the Nazis did. - J.Z., 7.6.03.) Notes at par it can only raise for due
taxes. Lansburgh demanded death penalty for inflationist officials. Full
monetary freedom the better approach. A Rabbi of Wilnus compiled from the
Talmud all its monetrary prescriptions, which insist on monetary honest as an
essentical element of the Jewish character. That feature should have been
introduced into Zionism. Zander.
II/64 Monetary
despotism also in
II/65 Handwriting
& Biro pens. Currency taken abroad by tourists, exports, imports, notes
find their way back to pay for English exports. Gold prices, drawn from
Diocletian's price edicts, compiled by Prof. Lexis, were not so different from
those of 19th century in
II/66 Some
independence spirit remains in
II/67 Nietzsche.
The true Supermen would possess the following characteristics … A new Magna Charta
to be compiled, read, discussed, understood and signed. Nietzsche offered no
program.
II/68 No program,
not even curiosity over absurd restrictive practices for imports and exports.
Even Meulen, a supposed Free Trader, over many of these letters, accepted
popular prejudices and bureaucratic commands as if they were laws of nature or
rationalised in their favour, assuming that they would be sensible. Edgar
Milhaud suggested the monetary freedom alternative for Free Trade:
International clearing certificates. Another subject not discussed by M.P.'s,
another important information not dug up by the secret services. King-Hall on
technology and the "art of living". (Is living an art form without
all economic liberties, especially the monetary ones? - J.Z., 8.6.03.) Payment
technique was better in the Middle Ages. Specimens in Cantor's History of
Mathematics. Medieval merchants forced to pay cash only when clearing was
impossible. Medieval self-liberation of serfs
II/69 Crossbows
effective against knights & robber barons. Beginnings of free towns and
Hansa? Compare Robin Hood legend. Small modern example of ignoring forest
authority in
II/70 17. &
18. X. 1949: Voltaire on
governments, non-thinking of collective responsibility, retaliatory atrocities,
B.'s finances, goodness of anarchists, Zola's Germinal, B. an abstainer, his
frugality, like Spinoza largely living on oats. The invention of shares
multiplied the incomes of proletarians in the 19th century but only
dividends are reported in the papers. How philosopher Thales gained riches and
respect among ancient Greeks. Good Jewish habits, value of obeying Talmud rules
II/72 The real
ethics of Christ has not much in common with today's Christianity. Apostle
Peter kept a private life. Unification of armed forces, by Alexander the Great,
Genghis Khan, Napoleon & Hitler. Kant on the revolutionary beginnings of a
just, free and peaceful society
II/73 A power must
be created to prevent wars. (Not necessarily a State, although Kant was still a
republican, a cosmopolitan one. He favoured human rights and militias - but was
not free to express his view on such subjects. - 8.6.03.) Kong Fu Tse
(Confucius) on King Wen, his winning without fighting, enemy soldiers obeyed
rather him than their rulers. Wilhelm on comparing Confucius' ideas with those
of Kant. Metaphysics, Buddha, Proudhon.
II/74 Alas, people
like Buddha & Christ did not write. Confucius wrote. Thus we have an ethics
by him. But Buddhism and Christianity contain quite heterogeneous elements.
Crusades, Christian warriors, Cromwell's Ironsides, Prussian soldiers of 1813.
Mortifications, monasteries, cloisters. A separate Christian ethic does not
exist. Kantian ethics, moral appeal of French Revolution to other peoples,
pleasure principle. Spencer, Bentley. Adam Smith: "Theory of Moral
Sentiments", Schiller in his "Wallenstein"
II/75 Some duty
and honour notions and practices even among high-ranking thieves. Treason,
duty. Sometimes only disobedience is dutiful. Man only 80 % a rascal, not 100
%. Coal mining productivity, English and French workers compared. Report by
Thomas Brassey, M.P., "On Work & Wages". Trade union mentality,
employer-employee relationship, H. Dubreuil: "A Chance for
Everybody", describes it as "organised antagonism". Coalmines
get deeper & more expensive. Effect upon their nationalisation. English
payments, wheat imports from many countries
II/76 21. X.
1949: Milhaud bonds. Monetary legislation insufficiently published &
known. Gold coin redemptionism. Taxation of trade in gold. Air mail
restrictions, postal monopoly, communist censorship. In spite of all threats,
the communist candidates got less votes than there were card-carrying members
of the C.P. in
II/77
Malthusianism, fruitless opinion exchanges even between friends: Encyclopaedia
of the Best Refutations required, online & on CD-ROM. - 21. X. 1949: Devaluation. Goethe on the battle of Valmy
& the development of history. Exports, sell-outs or "sales" to
get urgently needed cash. Connection between false exchange rate and
note-printing
II/78 Devaluation,
Prof. Wageman on history of devaluations: After about 2 years the previous gold
prices are restored. However, it also leads to a corresponding paper money
inflation. Marx on relationship between costs of gold production and other
prices. Jevons on labour value of goods and just distribution
II/79 Some Berlin
prices before & after devaluation. - 22. X. 1949: Jewish
intermarriages in
II/80 Slogans for
connecting Free Banking with Scottish nationalist aims, clearing a Scottish
invention, according to Jevons. (Rather: re-invention. - J.Z.) A short economic
program for
II/81 Justice in
the workplace, capitalism, State capitalism, concentration camps, moral force
of socialism 100 years ago, cooperative or voluntary socialism. Owen, Buchez,
Lasalle. Failure to adapt or invent financial and monetary systems to their
aims. Monetary despotism of
II/82 Programs
needed. All could be easily offered on alternative media like microfiche,
floppy disks & CD-ROMs & via e-mail and websites. But the former 3
options remain neglected. Likewise an Ideas Archive for libertarian ideas and a
libertarian encyclopaedia. 23. X. 1949: Value of devaluated West-mark: 5
old gold pence. - 24. X. 1949: Declaring "war" towards State
capitalism.
II/83 Private
capitalistic government (a contradiction in terms - J.Z., 8.6.03) seated in
II/84 Relation of
food producers to food consumers in
II/85 F. D. Tandy:
"Voluntary Co-operation", consumer coops in
II/86 Tucker's
sharp pen, but treated Yarros badly. Morgenstern's poems & popularity in
II/87 Suggestion
of a book on devaluation and comments from the point of view of Free Banking.
Not only Hansards, edited and printed, but unabbreviated & unedited records
on a website, with MPs and ministers adding their comments. More important:
Freedom for citizens to add theirs. Web publishing of all comments and
corrections. Parliamentary waffling and deceptions, false pretences, outright
lies could be brought to an end. Spencer's suggestion on fully recording
intentions, acts and results of all law & reasons for their repeal. Voice
stress analysers etc. to be applied to all their public utterances and the
results to be published, continuously, almost immediately after they occurred.
A referendum to restrict the power of legislators. 10 points. Add your wish
list.
II/88 Theory of
Sir Stafford Cripps & his opponents comparable to old astronomical
epicycles, much more complicated than the plain system of Copernicus.
II/89 B. used
often predominant German and anti-capitalist meaning of the term
"capitalism" but also offered his own and improved definition of it:
a condition that inevitably results when most people do not bother to take care
of all their economic affairs but leave them to politicians, bureaucrats,
"experts" and employers and financiers. He was a voluntary and
cooperative socialist and as such also a very radical free marketeer, favouring
even competing governments and societies, not only full monetary &
financial freedom, and more anarcho-capitalistic than are most of those who
favour that term. Individual choice and self-help in every sphere. (Well, he had
some excuses for conscription and compulsory schooling in some situations. -
J.Z., 7.6.03.) Effect of monetary freedom upon Dollar scarcity, imports,
exports, food supply. Prices of coffee and tea under import restrictions.
II/90 Wagemann on
2 year effect of devaluations, low profit margins in wholesale international
trade, e.g. in wheat. Land value taxes & inflation, Henry George. Mortgages
and old age security. - 28. X. 1949:
Coal mines - at their end in
II/91 In Germany coal
miners paid by their output. Wheat suppliers in the world. US not decisive for
wheat supply to
II/92 French
II/93 Christ, Hume
& Kant. Christ on justice system, revenge, avoiding courts, settling with
opponents. Falsification of the scriptures. Christ never offered the other
cheek but protested with courage, cleaning of the temple. We have only
corrupted fragments of his ethics, not sufficient to restore Christ's real
teachings. In 100 years Free Banking will be acknowledged as a religion. Christ
attacked the Banks at the temple, because they are not founded on the Free
Banking principle - a real sin in such a holy milieu. (Elsewhere he defended
the money-changers there as a necessity for pilgrims, to change the local currency,
they had brought with them, into the currency acceptable to the
II/94 Cosmopolitan
Union of Werner Ackermann,
II/95 Goethe on women,
their judgements & opinions.
II/96 Schacht.
Modern textbooks on economics. Very rare are those which see a connection
between inflation and legal tender and the issue monopoly. Foreign exchange spleens.
Just let all people deal freely. (Then even the fools would finally do the
right thing, even if they do not comprehend why it works. - J.Z., 8.6.03.)
Redemptionism, clearing, shop-foundation insufficient for
"Internet-money" or "electronic money". (There is not
obligation or special interest for local shops to accept such "money"
of third parties. International money should rather gradually develop from
local private and coop payment and value standard reckoning communities. -
J.Z., 8.6.03.) Foreign exchange controls also for Milhaud-Bills? (Less likely,
once they are introduced. - J.Z.) Powers behind the scenes.
"Experts". Trade deficits
II/97 Balance of
trade fallacies and delusions, flaws in trade statistics leading to faulty
trade policies. Inflation experience.
II/98 Commercial
statistics? Statistics by bureaucrats on deals for which the merchants have a
tax avoidance interest in concealing the truth and the bureaucrats no
knowledge? Who is the debtor of the negative balance in English trade? Honesty
of Circassian customs officials in Tsarist Russia. So the "honest"
Circassians helped the Russian govt. in its robberies, while the dishonest
Russian official resisted them - well, to their own advantage, too. Chinese emperors
entrusted customs rather to some Englishmen than some Chinese.
II/99 Great
Britain grown into a single town. Free Banking applied to Africa & South
Africa. Daily growth of Soviet Army. Free Banking in
II/100 Commercial
body of Jevons of payment community of Mutual Bank or old Scottish Bank. - 4.
XI. 1949: Malthusianism. Revolutionaries like Rousseau, Marx, Henry George
and Prince Kropotkin did not conceive the ideas of emancipating mankind from the
money monopoly. German legislation very repressive in this respect. Similar
laws now in all countries uphold their central bank's payment monopoly. The
breaking of this monopoly would be bloodless and of greater consequence than
most other "revolutionary" steps. Monetary conditions of society
influence all relations of man to man, of man to the State, of man to the means
of production of man to the social product and its just distribution. Marx, at
27 demanded the present system in the first edition of the Communist Manifesto
- as a good start for Communism. That was 1847. Marx was right in this.
II/101 None of the
problems investigated by Malthusians have anything to do with an asserted
greater increase of the population than of his means of subsistence. Struggle
of life, cannibalism,
No record in world
history that men died of hunger or had to suffer from it merely because their
number was too great, except cases where the community did not enjoy free trade
or where the government or ruling classes restrained production or free
exchange. If Earth belonged to one person and there were only two other people and
this owner of the world would be unwilling or too stupid to employ the other
two, then the world would seem terribly overpopulated to these two. Prof. Edwin
Cannan advanced the "Optimum population" theory, adopted by more
progressive Malthusians like Warren S. Thompson, et al.
II/102 When
Malthus published his book G.B. was inhabited by less than 10 million people
and Malthus "explained" their misery and hunger by
"overpopulation"! Until 1815 the English govt. granted a bounty for
the export of wheat just to get rid of the surplus wheat. At the time of Defoe
the govt. tried to get the surplus turned into gin. At the time of Malthus
& still today many more people in
II/103 Under Free
Banking any country will always seem underpopulated … as long as queues are not
seen before bakeriers. Now it is difficult for labour to obtain credit or
purchasing power. Then it will be difficult for purchasing power to find
labour. (The higher returns for labour will perform the required balancing act.
- J.Z., 9.3.03.) Malthusianism, Lord John Boyd Orr, increase in arable land and
yields, erosion. Overproduction? Combined with under-consumption! Not enough
eaters? Not enough buyers! Henry Hamilton's History of the Homeland
II/104 5. XI.
1949: Overseas tourist spending = no returns to the home country? Import,
export. B. in
II/105 Cannan
& Carr-Saunders on Malthusianism, Malthusianism is a religion & who did
ever refute a religion? Schopenhauer on the children of real love &
Turgenev: "The New Generation", women, love and note issue. Wolzogen
& rarity of real love. Louise Saxe Eby & the fate of man - and men like
B. Two kinds of economists
II/106 Military
side of the population question, maximum of population, rulers abusing
populations for armies of conquests. Hohenstauffen empire united with
II/107 Collective
responsibility. Responsibility for guilty actions not for mere formal
membership. Tucker, Machiavelli & aggression. Kant disapproved of
preventive war. B. did not follow him there.
II/108 Recall,
majority, people, collective responsibility & exterritorial communities of
volunteers, individual & minority group secessions. Voters for Hitler &
their guilt: Example of individualist anarchist Dr. Walther Borgius, who
thought Hitler would soon make himself ridiculous & thus unintentionally
promote anarchism! Falsified votes - happen even in democracies. Nazi &
Communist "free & honest voting", Pearl Habour attack invitation
and
II/109 English
& French govts. & others negotiated with Hitler as an equal. By 1933
II/110 Kremlin
with atomic bombs. Bribery with gold coins, to those delivering such bombs to a
secure place?
12.11.1949: Communist Anarchism in England &
Berlin, 1958
II/111 That was at
last outlawed. (And peasants were not informed & organised for their
purchase options. - J.Z., 9.10.03.) The greatest enemies of any regime are at
its court. Probably true for Kremlin, too. Stalin, Tucker, Nikolaus I &
Robert Owen. John Henry Mackay's "Die Anarchisten". B. visited Mackay
ca. 1929, when he was poverty-stricken & had to sell his library to
II/112 Churches, 4
Evangiles unreliable & not fit as a basis for a religion. But some aspects
of Christs life appear believable. Koran written on paper 30 years ofter
Mohammed's death, according to Gibbon. Before only on shoulder blades of sheep,
by Mohammed's secretary, who misunderstood M. so much, that M. firmly declined
the authorship of these writings and even expressed the wish that any of
his friends might kill the secrtary. But he did not destroy this falsified
record and it was rediscovered and turned into another holy book, the
foundation for several religions. Amusingly represented in Volney's "Les
ruins". Some religions only seem to be founded on books but weren't
really, because most people could not read & were thus ignorant of the
contents of the Holy Books. They were merely guided or misled by ceremonies
& ritual & some stories. Cooperation vs. State Socialism. Coop Wholesale
Society not a coop itself. Work done by employees. Nothing in common with
productive coops. Latin & Greek. Old error that the State is a great coop.
Individualist Anarchists and facts in
II/113
Rittershausen article on devaluation. Not to consider it as a matter of right
and wrong is the worst. 18. 11. 1949: Communist Anarchists, Aldred,
asking: 100 000 unemployed in this town: Can your system find work for them
within a year? And if not, what laws etc. prevent this? Which laws etc. must be
repealed to make this technically & economically possible? 18. 11. 1949:
II/114 Guy A.
Aldred, Strickland Press, and "The Word", wants 300 Pounds. How he
might be able to raise such a credit by the issue of his own
"tickets". History of English Tradesmen's Tokens. 150 Years ago quite
normal. (Alas, mostly only in small denominations, for small change! - J.Z.,
9.6.03.) Warner's article in "Sound Currency". Distrust effect upon
the use of the tickets. A's readiness to accept them. But not for long-term
loans. For these another procedures is required and here described.
II/115 Guy A.
Aldred, suggested long-term-loan certificates to be issued & redeemed by
him over a period. Additional readiness-to-accept potential that Aldred might
have mobilised for his "ticket-money". Expansion of the scheme.
II/116 All kinds
of local service providers combining for the issue of their local currency.
Ticket money for all performances (sales of labour, services and goods). That's
the ticket! 19. XI. 1949: Devaluation, long-term loans simply by issuing
notes? Greene report on
II/117 Banker's
ability to grant long-term loans with the own notes is very restricted. Trust,
distrust. Cours forcé: the basis of all social & economic evils. (Well, not
of all but of many and very large ones! - J.Z., 9.6.03.) English writing
difficulties for B. - and for myself with my PEACE PLANS efforts. Is
"banking" still the optimal terms to refer to the note-issuing
option? Rittershausen. His students require long explanations for
"banking-principle" and "currency principle. They are unable to
think that others than govt. officials could also issue paper money.
II/118 Old German
banking rule: Outstanding notes equal to the bank's current income, so that the
public can use the notes as a means of payment against the bank. A distrust,
leading to a discount of the bank's notes elsewhere, will simply speed up their
return to the bank for acceptance there at par. Thus the bank's short term
loans will be repaid even faster. New short-term loans, with new short-term
notes become possible. Disadvantage to issuer of his carelessness if he
over-issued - and found careless acceptors for his over-issues. Notes ought to
be as a rule "as good as gold". Brand recognition and reputation do
matter for them, too. Issuers will not want to lose their good name or issue at
a large discount and have to accept these notes shortly after at par from
anyone. What would promises of politicians be worth - if issued as their own
service vouchers, not backed by tax robberies or supported by legal tender and
if competitive services could be freely offered? Money of competing insurance
and other services. First such issues
might multiply. Then they would consolidate towards few local issuers, perhaps
even upon a single local currency. But certainly not towards a single national
one, although nationally or even internationally, a single value standard might
be adopted by almost all. 20. 11. 1949: Purely technical improvements
& social progress, insofar as this progress means the spread of progressive
ideas. Alternative media and stagnancy & apathy even of libertarian minds
towards them. Gold bugs stuck to gold redemptionism, libertarians to paper,
e-mail & websites, even without making a proper free market survey for all
their publishing and reading options. Technical improvements in banking &
their contributions to economic & political freedom in
II/119 If monks would have brought paper instead of
silk worms from
II/120 Time delay
clauses. Time & quality promised should not be dependent upon lucky
chances. Honest & dishonest promises and "the" gold standard.
Rittershausen: Not the gold standard failed but the bankers to whom it was
entrusted. Some German bankers never forgave him such remarks. Supply and use
or abuse of value standards & supply of exchange media. No centralistic and
monopolistic supplier can ever supply them sufficiently and evenly for a whole
country. Paper standards systematically depreciated by those to whom they were
entrusted. And these criminals were and are highly praised and rewarded. The
sanction of the "sheple". Fundamental biogenetic law, discovered
before Haeckel - has a much wider application. No sphere of human activity is
quite exempt from it. It also applies to banking. Free Banking, to be revived,
must begin with the issue of tickets by merchants. Then merchants might
establish issuing departments and finally combine towards a local bank of
issue. That development migth take considerable time.
II/121 Can it be
greatly speeded up? Different option clauses in the future, scientifically
framed. Never more should be promised than can be delivered. No "lack of
trust" excuses to be accepted for taking unnecessary risks. Nietzsche:
Honesty is the youngest of virtues. Dishonesty among even the best people in
old times, in all professions. Machiavelli advised princes to always keep their
promises. Dishonesty of the generally adopted principle of banking in the past:
fractional reserve banking. Honesty can't be replace by piety or divine
miracles or belief in them. Goethe & errors in science, perpetuated as
truths. 21. 11. 1949: Aldred, revolutionary movements & their
leadership, French Revolution, Carlyle. Bakunin's lack of a sound program for
the Paris Commune. Kropotkin also flawed in "La Conquête du pain".
II/ 122 Alexander
Herzen, Tucker's kind of socialism, liberation of serfs under Alexander II,
Prussian 1807 liberation laws, Rothchild. Malvide von Meysenbug. At least
Bakunin & Kropotkin were not statists. Jews, Germans & Nazis as
businessmen. Hitler, Alexander the Great, Caesar & Napoleon III powerful as
debtors. Hitler regime cared for details needed to preserve it in power. Marx,
dissertation on "the Jew Queston", against the popular prejudice that
Jews are "masters of money". Here and only here did he suggest the
destruction of the money monopoly as a solution. Otherwise and quite generally,
he wanted to maximise it. Quite consistently, if power for himself and his
supporters was his true aim. B. suggested to Z. to call the Four Bills System
"the Jewish system of providing money". That might have gained the
support of the Jews in the world.
II/123
"Antisemitism is the socialism of fools". - Sombart. Pogroms & "Christianity".
Hitler's speeches on the radio. Mankind like a prehistoric monster to be
exterminated? English impartiality. Malthusianism. Cannan as B.'s predecessor
on "population optimum".
Warren S. Thompson, "Plenty of People", 1944, contains
valuable military considerations about Malthusianism. 22. XI. 1949:
Aldred. Age & changing one's views. 1906 (?) Questionnaire of "Temps
Nouveau" at
II/124 These
questions set B., then 24, on his life-long path, exploring and explaining
monetary freedom options. (Who can supply that Q.? And the answers then
offered? - J.Z., 9.6.03.) Aldred. Significance of the anwers for the success of
all social revolutions. State paper money & Jacobinism or Assignats-dirigism.
Bakunin, Marx, Kropotkin etc. provided no hints, did not even see the problem.
Tucker found at least some hints but did not think out a program on how to finance
a revolution. Or did not publish it. B. wrote one but it was destroyed by
an air raid, with his library. Otherwise, a book with such a title might have
become a bestseller in some countries, even if only underground. Party
membership, now and in the Athens of Solon. Taking sides. B. joined the
Independent Socialist Party in 1918 which later united with the SPD &
stayed with it for over 50 years but finally resigned in disgust.
Territorialism of all parties makes them part of the problem rather than the
solution. They could peacefully coexist and advances under the exterritorial
imperative. However, when mass murder becomes a popular "sport" then
sometimes even brutal repression of it is justified. Only in the long run could
panarchies prevent most such slaughters.
II/125 World
Government & World Federation. Misgovernment by them means no improvement -
& could lead to worse repression and
bloody civil wars. Banking & note issuing in the minds of average men.
Aldred an M.P.? They never have the time to enter into details of any social
reform. Anyhow, parliamentarians find certain views simply ridiculous. Indians
& Muslims. Hindu "miseries" include cow killings by others. Mogul
States ruled the Hindus better than the Brahmans did. They had religious
freedom, except for the burning of alive widows. Mohammedan tolerance. A
wonderful invention of Mohammed: You want to keep your religion? Well - that
costs you a gold coin a year. Thus the financial interest of rulers was
combined with religious tolerance. 23. 11. 1949:
II/126 Robertson:
Pagan Christs. Volney, Dupuis & Bastian writings. Abundance of atheist
literature - with all too little effects so far. Juvenile delinquency low among
orthodox Jews & Chinese. So there is at least something good about their
religions. Science, philosophy & religion. Religion of religious reformers.
Benjamin Franklin & slavery.
II/127 French Catholicism changed after the French
Revolution, Church vs. Religion, Jesuits investigating evolution. Forms
remains, contents changed. We know little of the real religion of old
reformers. 24. 11. 1949: Cruxifixion interpreted as a human sacrifice to
God. Homer: Some of his stories probably true
II/128
Cruxifixion, Jesus' last words, Gibbon on Christians & heathens and
readiness to die for one's religion. Nazis and Inquisition produced even more
victims than Nero & his successors. Priests like bureaucrats ready to
change their religion to keep their jobs. Pagan elements in Christianity.
Impossible to find out all the original teachings. 26. 11. 1949: Letter
to "Times" on M's letter re money monopoly and on monetary
alternative.
II/129 Money
certificates or banknotes on the acceptance principle - free issue of notes
without cours forcé. 26. 11. 1949: UK & Bank of
II/130 27. 11.
1949:
II/130 10. 12.
1949: Turgenev's "Virgin Soil" ("Die neue Generation"
or "Neuland"). Christianity and "visions". Origins of
religions. Revivalism. B. in
II/131 Free
Thinkers, Constantin, State religion. Otherwise it would have disappeared like
most other religions. Consider Christ, whatever little we know of him, apart
from Chistianity. Superstitions of the times. Edgar Allan Poe. 12. 12. 1949:
Aldred pamphlets received
II/133 Tea and
coffee for B.'s addiction and intemperance in this respect. Political unity not
the most important for
II/134
Dismantlings, Soviet Army in the East of the
II/135 The once good
reason for
II/136 "Tagesspiegel",
role in preventing the SPD joining the SED by giving minority of the SPD's
internal anti-communist opposition a voice, although it was by no means an SPD
paper, on the contrary. Boyd-Orr figures. How to sell victuals? Optimum population
of the world, Prof. Cannan. Could all mankind be drowned in the
II/137 Saving with
one's factory could provide a better social insurance. (Later also the funds to
take over a factory in a businesslike way. - J.Z., 9.6.03.) Aldred pamphlets.
Such people have no program. That leads to Sovietism in times of revolution.
Kropotkin, contrary to what B. stated here, did not join these bastards.
However, his economics was as bad as theirs. Christianity dying? As foolish
things do not die. Economics vs. Christianity. Proudhon. Dandelion tea,
Frederic II & his Dr. Zimmermann. Kant and coffee. Voltaire's coffee
consumption. 21. 12. 1949:
II/138 Value by
acceptance in external trade. At least it should not be prohibited. Complete
liberty of trade is the right means to decide the question. Pound circulation
1926-1930, value of UK Pounds before the 1931 devaluation, expressed in ounces
of fine gold, very much greater than in 1914. When circulation is excessive
then always something happens to reduce the amount to its "normal"
value. The "normal" relation between gold and paper money is always
stated by a really free market. There exists also a "normal"
relation between the population and its needs for means of payment. First
investigated by Petty. The normal relation is observed in normal times. (Are
any times "normal" under an issue monopoly & monopoly value
standard? - J.Z., 9.6.03.) State of the currency hidden by cours forcé. A part
of this condition is also the control of prices, wages, rents etc. in terms of
paper money. Without cours forcé inflation is technically impossible. That was
self-evident for elder economists. Ricardo, in his famous Bullion Report, was
the first economist who did not see that truth and thus arrived at nonsensical
conclusions. But it was never quite forgotten. In 25 German States it was
prohibited to created a paper money with cours forcé, as a principal means to
prevent inflation. The author of the German Law, after 1870/71, was Michaelis.
Rittershausen's exceptional stand against cours forcé.
II/139 Dollar
shortage: Now Canada and
II/140 Rights of
citizens regarding currency. None under statism. The decisions may come to be
made by the greatest blockhead in office, rather than by a Socrates not in
office. Trade with a currency always available and which will not be hoarded.
Milhaud-Bonds are such a currency. Such bonds meet difficulties which remain
even after foreign currencies are freed. Love and children. Christ himself a
bastard but his mother could afford a good cover-up job. Machiavelli on
aggression. UN army could become the most effective engine of tyranny ever.
Fichte on individual secessions and voluntary associations, 1793. Tyrannicide
in old Rom. Revival attempt in revolutionary
II/141 Free
Banking would also aid worthwhile marriages. Tyranny difficult when there is no
exclusive currency. If the Tyrant does not have a note-printing press at his
disposal and and not enough other incomes, then he must stop his tyranny. New
religion will abhor fiat money (forced currency), like old Jews felt when swine
entered their temple. Social Statics: Indeed, deserters might have to be
watched but that is no problem. Example of Czech army joining Tsarist side
against Imperial Austria. Atomic Bombs. Apparently, M. was in denial.
Christianity & money reform of
II/142 Serbian
coops. For Serbs coops are quite natural. Germans want a master or employer. B.
said with Schopenhauer: "Time is the possibility of observing different
qualities on the same object." Jews & races. Most living Jews, just
like many Germans no longer real Jews and real Germans. Already the subjects of
David were no longer a uniform race. The present German race was, especially in
the 30 year war, propagated by Scots, Irish, Spaniards, Flemings, Gypsies,
Swedes, Croats, Irish and also many Jews. But the new mixture was not worse
than the old although not much better, either, as history has proven. Trust:
Madame Roland: Distrust is the basis of liberty. She exaggerated but, on the
whole, was right. Trust in the Comité du Salut Public cost many of the best
French their lives. Both are so general terms to be useless without detailed
examples. Four types of trust in the note-issuing business. Deplorable trust of
many, where utmost distrust would have been justified, was the trust in
Hitler's promises - of that of
II/143
Territorialism gives the Hitlers etc. everywhere their best chance. Tucker
Bank: short-term loans or option clauses (time staggered repayment bonds)
corresponding to its long-term loans. Then distrust could do not harm. 23.
12. 1949: What would an Anarchist do if e.g. the Alberta Government
introduced such a tyrannical and idiotic system as that of
II/144 Can one
reach even anarchists and libertarians with such ideas? One should begin with
recording all of them on affordable, lasting and efficient alternative media,
like microfiche, floppies, CD-ROMs, DVDs. Superstitions on imports and exports.
Employment-providing investments should be tax-free. Kapp Putsch failed largely
because it did not get Reichsbank support. The whole plan was based on
occupying and using its note-printing press. Havenstein's honourable role in
this. Ramin's report. Ramin and Knapp were school mates. Political strength of
government with a note printing press Advantage, for all, if the government is
not tyranny. Disadvantage, for all its victims, if it is a tyranny and it has a
note-printing press and cours forcé at its disposal. A good government can
operate under Free Banking, competitively, based upon sound tax-foundation (if
one can accept taxation as sound). A bad government can be overwhelmed by
revolutionaries knowing how to finance themselves via Free Banking principles
and practices.
II/145 24. 12.
1949: "
II/146 Repeal of
monetary despotism the first presupposition for talking sensibly about peace.
Fear of war great in
Free Banking is
just one practical aspect of exterritorial autonomy for volunteer communities. 25.
12. 1949: Refugee problem, in
II/147 We make
better use even of water power. We even put refugees in concentration camps
& deport all but those which are finally, sometimes after years of delays,
accepted by our irresponsible bureaucrats. True reason or motive for denying
basic rights to refugees: The unfounded belief that employment possibilities
are limited. The limit is given by the quantity of means of payment available.
That means, now, in practice, those of the Central Banks. The admission of
other means of payment is assumed to be the greatest of all evils. A kernel of truth lies in this prejudice: If
everyone could issue legal tender money a disaster would result. However, if
everyone were only free to produce and offer optional and market rated money
while all others remain free to refuse it, a great improvement would rapidly
follow. Question of under-cutting or accepting lower wages.
II/148 Why labour
offered by a waterfall is welcome and that offered by refugees is not. The
former can be utilised by credit given and secured in the usual and well-known
forms. To secure credit, given to employee refugees (and masses of unemployed -
J.Z.) other forms are necessary, known only to those familiar with the note
issues of Free Banking. Moral side of the refugee (& unemployment - J.Z.)
problem: Indifference towards such problems. It is a kind of crime. Future
religion on this. Clergymen's view of social reform attempts as distrust in
God's affairs. Now we have statist individual irresponsibility and unwarranted
trust in the new God, the State, instead. Kant on duty regarding social problems.
The authority of the State to declare war is not a right but a usurpation. Nazi
teachers asked children to denounce their parents. 100 years ago at least tax
exemption would have been offered for capital used to employ refugees. Freedom
from taxes would attract refugee capital from all over the world. No German
paper dares publish anything very different from all what governments,
professors, politicians etc. declared to be necessary. Prescribed money
standard another obstacle. Industrialists even asked for another & sharper devaluation. Long-term
capital is deterred rather than attracted. None of the refugees (or unemployed)
ever cared about such problems and their solutions. Nor did bank managers, high
officials, exporters and scholars. Thus public opinion remained unenlightened,
too.
II/149
"Policies" against refugees (& unemployed! - J.Z.) Self-help
remains outlawed. But terrorists always wecome recruits from such circles of
victims. If free banking principles and practices for financing unemployed
labour were better known, the economic problem of refugees would never have
arisen. West Germany would have appealed to East Germans to come over and work
in the West. Free Trade could have supplied them with more food than is really
good for them. Free note issue could provide exactly the amount of means of
payment needed to pay them for their productive labours. And inflation would be
made impossible for cours forcé would no longer exist, nor would the issue
monopoly. A suggestion for story writers, novelists and film makers. Utilise
the true stories the refugees have to offer. 26. 12. 1949: Free Banking
Calendar? Goethe on calendars.
II/150 27. 12.
1949: Grotewohl: The top victimiser becoming a victim himself. B. had a
little letter exchange with him in 1946. The weaknesses of totalitarianism are
too little studied, as Kenneth de Courcy said. Asylum even for such people.
More so for deserters. Offering them a neutral status. Mao was hugely
successful with this approach. King Wen used it succesfully long ago. To be
made long before the war & well published & practised. Every soldier
& officer on the other side must know it.
II/151 Isle of Man
proposed as first station for Russian deserters. Temporary marriages to be
permitted. Honesty & humanity need not be political or military
impediments. They could become our best assets, rightly used. Precedent for
Soviet rulers in the French Revolution. The English govt. will do nothing.
Private associations should take the preparatory steps. 6. 1. 1950: A
German "Individualist"? That had been B.'s ideal for about 50 years.
By December 1932 he was nearly ready. But in January 1933 came the Nazis. (If
only he would have had a printing press, or microfiche or floppy disks, CD-ROM,
e-mail or websites at his disposal for a few of his active years and freedom to
use them! - J.Z., 9.6.03.)
II/152 Concern for
members of the royal families. Even such a mentality has some advantages.
Better such talk than merely talk about daily household affairs etc. Parliamentary
despotism is a greater obstacle to Free Banking than were Emperors, Dukes &
Princes. Personal thinking prevails rather than causal thinking. Russian atomic
bombs. But guards would sell them! Cooperation & piece work: No
contradiction. Example of agrarian coops in Italy, between 1905 & 1914.
Coop wages as advances on their shares in coop earnings. Workers & unions
against piece work. But things change when the workers become self-employed.
Then they favour rather than abolish piece work.
II/153 Coop worker:
If I work faster I earn more or can go home earlier. An average employer would
not let him go home. (Some local coal mines did, e.g., when I came to Berrima.
These miners started about 7 a.m. and were finished by 11 a.m. and earned so
much that even the bonus of an extra day's pay, if they did not take one
"sickie" for 2 weeks, did not attract them, although they had already
plenty of spare time. - J.Z. 9.6.03.) Advantage of coops for present employers.
First title of Meulen's book: "Industrial Justice by Banking Reform"
was excellent. Not merely a technical detail is involved but an essential
question of right and wrong. Now people think only a contribution to the
quantity theory is involved, proving that Free Banking can never produce an
inflation. Runge seems to confound private note-issuing with free note-issuing.
Free is here essentially also private, but private is not free, if it supposes
a permit by the govt. 37 private banks existed in Germany, all chartered.
Runge's false view of B.'s Free Banking writing in the Annals. German small
States also suffered much in the matter of note issue from State control. These
controls made the remaining note issue options unattractive. Their circulation
remained small and most readily gave up. The 4 remaining ones were strangled by
Schacht. Main impediment: Redemptionism, which was maliciously enforced by the
Reichsbank. Even the conventional option clause would not have helped the
Reichsbank's victims.
II/154
Denominations were too large. The same superstition existed in England. Adam
Smith share the error involved. Roscher reports on this. Dissertation of Dr. T. Schumacher, in German on the
development of German banknotes, full of important historical details and important
theoretical distinctions. 8. 1. 1950: Rade differences do not justify
differences in rights but they do exist. Tucholsky, his "Weltbuehne".
He fled to Paris and starved. Ossietzky,
editor, caught & murdered by Nazis. His widow now publishes under the same
name a tedious Communist paper. Tucholsky really an anarchist.
II/155 Two
anecdotes on supposed national differences. Zander's mission in India, to
Muslims. Arabs, Israelis & wide-spread bribery. Djezzar Pascha. Sir William
Sidney Smith defending Akka against Napoleon. A second great Arab leader like
him might incorporate little Israel in a greater Arab-Syrian-Turkish
commonwealth. 10. I. 1950: Nationalities & nationalism. Example of
the Wends (Sorbs) among the Prussians.
II/156 Wendian
nationalists pretended that they represented this minority group. So it is with
the Indians. A small minority pretends to speak for India. Almost none of the
Indian students talked about Indian independence. It was too far from their
interests. Education among the Old Romans: They took young men to courts to
listen to lawyers and judges.
II/157 That taught
them something e.g about natural rights, a highly developed language &
principles of justice. B. learned much for his profession from studying High
Court decisions. Malthusianism. If new cheap food production methods are
developed somewhere, then in other parts of the world some people lose their
jobs and this country will then seem to be "overpopulated". Instance
from Imperial Russia, Romania & Hungary. Stolypin send the
"surplus" population to Siberia and gave them credits, so that they
finally produced very cheap food even there. (B. instances cheap Siberian
butter in Berlin - but I reserve some doubts until I get confirmation from
others. What other products than timber, furs and ores did Siberia produce
cheaply? - J.Z.) Any "overpopulation" produced by a surplus of food
is very contrary to Malthusianism and yet was frequently observed. Instance: emigration from Eastern provinces
of Germany, where food was cheap and plentiful. "Pressure of mouths"?
Every man kept alive can produce in Africa victuals for at least 10 persons.
What will be increased will be the "pressure" of victuals on
"mouths". Souls, Chinese & David Hume.
II/158 Since
Malthus's birth (1766) not one year where overpopulation caused hunger,
although bad harvests did sometimes occur. But every year there were
difficulties in selling victuals. But Malthusians do not care about facts.
B.'s magazine
project. It could be started without capital, on credit. (Rather, buyers were
wanted: minds starved for such a journal. - J.Z., 9.6.03.) Alexander "the
Great" began his career with a great debt. So did Napoleon III, Caesar
& Hitler. (Such people get credit relatively easy, e.g. from the rich
crooks of the world. - J.Z., 9.6.03.) The man with capital is always exploited.
The one with large debts is always supported. Eumenes borrowed from those who
conspired to murder him. That made him safe for a while. (Later, I believe, he
was sold by war weary soldiers to the enemy and they gained as a bargain an unmolested
retreat for themselves, if my bad memory does not deceive me here. - J.Z.,
9.6.03.) Leaders could legally or illegally loot. But publishers of pro-freedom
journals neither want nor can loot their subscribers and, presently, cannot
find many subscribers. However, alternative media now offer almost everybody a
unique and vast chance as writer, editor and publisher and make them
independent of the number of their readers, provided they do not expect to make
a living this way. 11. I. 1950: "L'unique", of E. Armand
II/159 Name taken
from Stirner. Individualist anarchist. Speaks of everything except Free
Banking. No money for subscriptions + foreign exchange controls. Madelaine
Vernet mentioned, who played a role in Follin's Républicque Supranationale. B. was
in Paris 1926, for 8 days. Felt at home there. Paris police would not extend
his visiting permit, because it could not imagine his visit being profitable to
France! Werner Ackermann, on meaningless but nice sounding French remarks.
(Poets offer many such utterances. - J.Z., 9.6.03.) B.'s long correspondence
with W. A. seems totally lost. It dealt with all aspects of full minority
autonomy.
II/160 Lord Raglan
on Mythical Heroes, seems to have found a method to distinguish myths from old
and uncertain history. Raglan vs. Goethe on Moses as a hero. Biblical
Patriarchs no heroes, either, with one exception: Abraham. As opponent of child
sacrifices & the principle of
collective responsibility he attracted many refugees, e.g. newly married
couples. Arabic customary secessionism greatly tempers the despotism of chiefs.
Alas, this panarchistic trait was not fully developed. Could it be among nomads
and custom as well as religion-ridden tribal people? 14. I. 1950: German
"Individualist". In Germany principles will be taken serious once
their technical realisation is made clear. In France principles, abstractions
and generalisations are the foundation, leaving the reader unsatisfied.
II/161 Magazines
in two languages, e.g. French & German, could combined the advantages of
these two trends. Indians, likewise, still more so than the French, restrict
themselves to principles, while the Chinese confine themselves to practical
matters even more so than Germans. If that should be true, it would be a good
basis for international collaboration between them. Exceptions conceded.
Beginning of enlightenment according to Voltaire. German
"Individualist" could, perhaps, advocate monetary freedom practices
right away and demand self-help options for old age, & sickness provisions.
(That was not my experience with "social insurance" in Germany. -
J.Z.) To win the first 500 subscribers will be most difficult. (Only for print
on paper! For affordable alternative media, produced only upon demand, apart
from initial small batches, the number of subscribers does not matter, at least
not financially. - J.Z.) Cooperatives: A
free market for the organisation of work.
II/162 Salaries for organisers and public servants.
Modest standard of living of the Jesuits. Likewise, Soviet rulers. However,
their power incentives should be considered, too. Piece work combined with the
coop principle. Managers of coops. Special contract proposed by coop manager.
English workers prefer low stable income to high fluctuating incomes. Insurance
against fluctuations. Terms like "wage system" and
"employer" have become discredited.
Freedom of expression greater under employers than among cooperators.
Workers less tolerant than employers.
II/163 Hamburg
employer who employed only girls with a child. All revolutions are largely
unexpected. Leaders are more led by events than leading them. Robespierre.
Compardon's work about victims of the Guillotine: They were mainly offenders
against price controls, who might have added a few curses about the republic
and its paper money, when they got into arguments about controlled prices.
Demands for death penalty for "price sinners" are still wide-spread.
English translation of B's monetary freedom books. Royalism in Germany, largely
destroyed by dismantlings of factories.
II/164 High
citizen tax and voting rights. The results of general franchise speak against
it, everywhere. Age limite for voting. (But any self-chosen voting system is
right for the volunteers in panarchies! - J.Z., 9.6.03.) Questions to be
submitted to candidates. Robert Owen on order or commitment system for one's
requirements. Spheres for its application.
II/165 Nuremberg
law makers apparently did not know the relevant clause of the Weimar
Constitution of 1919, on international law as part of the German constitution
and binding for Germans. War criminals could have been prosecuted under German
laws. Alas, even Nero had his followers. A shame for humanity. (Is it? I feel
no collective guilt about it! - J.Z., 9.6.03.)
Malthusians, Social Credit believers, statists - people! Sometimes they
make it hard to merely laugh about them. 15. I. 1950: Is more capital
required to provide more employment?
II/166 Capital
required to achieve full employment. Fallacies involved compared with facts.
Austrian School. Crisis times, capital exists only its utilisation rate
differs. What "unemployment" would remain under Free Banking? Speed
or re-employment under Free Banking. Marx's "Mehrwert" would be
rapidly transferred to the working class. Soviet system and situation of its
proletarians. Waste by planning and huge exploitation by the government. It is
not that creating fresh jobs requires fresh capital; it is rather so, that
creating jobs immediately provides fresh capital. Fully used productive capital
becomes much more valueable. Factories might even come to work in three shifts
and easily sell all their products. Their capital value would rise immensely.
II/167 Under Free
Banking & Free Trade Germany could easily renounce foreign aid, e.g.
Marshall Plan aid. New forms of bills of exchange would solve the export
problem without creating problems with imports. Edgard Milhaud as innovator. 21.
I. 1950: Something like a second Berlin Blockade has begun. B. fears Soviet
censorship and asks for letters by air mail. Historians should catalogue wars
begun by subordinates, like the war between China and Japan. 26. I. 1950:
II/168 Response of
people to new ideas - after and Ideas Archive has been establishe plus full
experimental freedom. "Protectionism" &
"overpopulation". German federal minister "Professor"
Niklas, demanded "protection" for German agriculture from foreign
victuals. When others get tired of blockading Germany then Germany blockades
"itself". (The percentage of vested interest people demanding such
privileges for themselves, is usually very small compared with the total
population, nevertheless they have much influence and the consumers have no say
- and almost no expressed interest in the matter. - J.Z., 9.6.03.) Vaccination problem & accident insurance.
What value has a human life, compared with the costs of accident prevention?
II/169 Costs of
killing one person in war - about 30 kg of gold, a figure remarkably constant
since Napoleon I. So our generals are not even efficient killers. (Many
contract killers would do it for less. I knew one who admitted to having killed
ten people - according to officials for as little as A $ 400 each. In his own
"justification" he said: “ Only their mothers would have loved them.”
His victims were competing violent criminals. So this small analogy holds
relatively far. If he truly had only such victims, then he did, actually,
provide a public service and should not have been given a life sentence. But by
now most soldiers are not volunteers but conscripts or are paid with returns from
official looting. - J.Z., 9.6.03.) Desertion plan. Prices on heads of war
criminals cheaper than sending armies against them. Dangerous work & costs
in premiums and indemnities. Link to vaccinations. Ludwig Erhard & Walter
Eucken mentioned as Free Traders, but not Rittershausen. Labour Party
Manifesto. East Germany has full employment of a kind, like that of the ancient
Egyptians, sometimes in public works as in Nile regulation or in less useful
ones, like Pyramit building. Brugsch
Pascha's report on the state of mathematics in old Egypt. Plutarch reports on
how hated Cheops and Chefren were among th e people.
II/170 Eastern
Germany and Soviet Union near to bankruptcy. Like the English economy. It may
take another plan to bankrupt it completely. 5. II. 1950: Dr. Runge's
article on Free Banking in Mannheim's "Morgen". Protectionist
intentions good but its means are bad. However they know no other & are not
interested in any other. Permission for peasants to pay for all their
requirements in their own notes, in practice, those of agricultural issuing
institutes, would be the right means and a very good beginning for the general
introduction of free banking. Supplies to Berlin practically stopped, again.
II/171 B's
financial and physical inability to travel. Proudhon's health. Paying for
German imports. Medieval commercial guilds granted merchants rights to pay all
his debts by clearing at one of the great fairs. Crises and the right of
creditors to cash from their debtors.
II/172 Financing
of industry with stocks of goods that would otherwise remain unsold. Inflation.
Zwangskurs, legal tender & cours forcé. Many forms of "legal
tender". At least one should distinguish forced acceptance and forced
value. (No proper survey of all forms of it exists as yet or is known to me. -
J.Z.) Most economic textbooks got it wrong, especially the connection to
inflation and to Gresham's Law. Why is no inflation possible without cours
forcé? The names for abstract value unites express no real value. Only the
foreign exchange rate and the black market rate for gold remain as measures.
Depreciations not caused by over-emissions: Their result.
II/173 Paper money
mostly without cours forcé existed in Germany, in the 19th century,
except for a short period during the Napoleonic wars and in some small
Thuringian States without economic importance. Prussia conducted 3 wars without
it. (However, by now, now major, wrongful and unpopular wars can be financed
without it and this is just as well. - J.Z., 9.6.03.) Without cours forcé even
the greatest & most unwise over-emission cannot produce a real inflation,
i.e., one with an increasing general price level. (Free & informed people
are not so foolish as to price their goods, services, contracts & labour in
depreciated currency because they are free to used sound value standards, used
in competing currencies instead. - J.Z. 10.6.03.) Such over-issued paper monies
get a discount, that's all! The last German emperor, the Kaiser, & his
ignorance. Inflation & deflation theories before & after 1914. Robert
Koch example of the scientific approach to such questions. Correct inflation
& deflation definitions. Rittershausen. Hayek managed to cally
Rittershausen of all people an inflationist. He might as well have called the
Pope a Protestant.
II/174 CD-ROM use
for all monetary freedom writings. Runge's money reform project. He confounds
the possibilities of reducing a discount of notes against precious metal with
the possibilities to reduce the whole price level. (Perhaps most money
reformers just pick one or a few false dogmas among thousands, as their
"cure"? - J.Z., 10.6.03.) Taxfoundation detail. Guernsey Market
Scheme. Woergl. 9. II. 1950: Free coinage, Lucia Dressel, "Die
Weltgeld-Idee …", 1930, reports that G. R. Scaruffi, in a 1582 book "L'Alitinonfo",
proposed the same details for sound coinage that B. had proposed. Important
ideas rarely arise in only one head: Article by Lancelot L. White, "The
Thinker's Digest", Winter 1949.
II/175 J.B.
Coates, "What Is Personalism", ibid, shows that Personalists, too,
among them Mournier, are not aware of monetary rights. Mournier approached
Marxism. B. was not surprised: Even an ardent defender of liberty, if he
neglects monetary rights, is led logically and unavoidably led to
totalitarianism. (If you doubt that regarding money, just compare how many
libertarians have unquestioningly adopted totalitarian "nuclear
strength". - J.Z., 10.6.03.) Tax foundation and W. B. Greene in
"Mutual Banking". Writings on "fiduciary money" and,
perhaps even, some of those on "fiat money" may contain some truths
on the subject. Who has time, energy and opportunity to peruse them all? - J.Z.
10.6.03.) Unsound paper money - just requisitioning certificates. Monetary
despotism. Lorenz von Stein on tax foundation money. Really: clearing cheques
that exchange tax receipts for goods and services. Already Steuart insited that
States have to enable their citizens to pay taxes by issuing a sufficinet
quantity of tax foundation money.
II/176 This
principle generalised. Everyone who expects payments should purchase his
requirements with his IOUs in suitable forms, accepted by him at par. The old
rule was: First provide money, then buy. The new and right rule: First buy,
with freshly issued notes and then call in your outstanding debt, by accepting
the freshly issued notes from anyone as means of payment. (He tried in vain to
convey the same principle and practice to Meulen, for the payment of imports
and the settlement of these debts by exports, in return for the presentation of
the own notes used to pay for the imports. M. largely rejected the
"readiness-to-accept-principle" in favour of his trust and gold
redemption notions. - J.Z., 10.6.03.) The old rule applied largely to coins as
money and when notes were considered to be mere money orders. It no longer
applies when clearing is the normal form for trading. The coins are mere
"Ersatz" for notes (or merely small change - J.Z.). In the old view
notes are merely an "Ersatz" for coins.
9. II. 1950: Fuchs trial, communism, treason in favour
of the Soviets. West-Berlin mail channeled through the hands of Soviet censors!
Even Letters from West Germany were sent through an old mail centre in East
Germany! Air mail from and to Berlin prohibited! Although blockade air fleet
would easily have had space for its relatively small volume. All such these
just by chance?
II/177 Even
Meulen's visit to Berlin required a Soviet visa permit! Communists in the Post
Office. 10. II. 1950: That party wins which controls the country's means
of payment. Cobbet tradition.
II//178 Inflation,
cours forcé & cours légal, forced value and forced acceptance, Zwangskurs
& Annahmezwang. Definition of inflation, Jevons. Tax foundation money
providing primarily clearing beween the government and the taxpayer and also
clearing between the government as buyer and the owners of goods & service
providers, and also, under the money monopoly, for the clearing between all
sellers of goods and services and all their buyers. (Clearing or mutual
settlement is the essential element, not trust, confidence or a gold stock or a
stock of foreign exchange. - J.Z., 10.6.03.) Deflation and stable price levels
- in the middle of an inflation. Deflation and Inflation not opposites but
often occurring at the same time, through the expectations involved in the
price mechanism. A Mayor of a German city hoarded German's depreciated paper
money in the expectation that its value would rise again! Confusion in most
minds about inflation.
II/179 Foreign
speculators blamed for inflation. Hoarding notes during an inflation! Paper
money without cours forcé: discounts then wide-spread refusals. Inflation is
impossible without cours forcé. That simple massage seems to need hammering in.
Schopenhauer, lived in England for a while, called it a
"matter-of-fact-nation". If only it would be, in every respect! Some
kind of trust required, yes, but it is not sufficient. It must be supplemented
by liberty to distrust, to any extent and for any duration and by opportunities
to express distrust, towards, bankers, politicians and "heaven", in
all that a man can distrust. The Exchange to publish all the time the state of
trust and distrust, to expose the real values presently in existence - or the
lack of them. Frankfurt/M the pre-1870 Exchange for notes.
II/180 Free
discussions on the value of notes absent for decades. Redemptionism & its
evasion. Copernican Theory compared with Monetary Freedom Theory. It seems
complicated, although it is really much more simple than the other contrived
system. Whoever presents the money theory so that average people will
understand it would provide, perhaps, a more important insight than Copernicus
did. Another start-up for monetary freedom: clearing notes for international
trade, especially in times of "Dollar scarcity".
"Milhaud-Pounds". Using the term "bond" instead of
"notes" makes the obligation involved for the issuer much clearer, IF
people are able to clear their minds of metal redemptionism and also of notions
of "asset currencies".
II/ 181 Small
margin in wholesale trade, down to 2 %. Keynes: "The General Theory of
Employment …", based on the supposition that private notes and even
clearing do not play any essential role in the econom. K. is only occupied with
State monopoly money. His theory breaks down completely if freely issued notes
lead to a really general theory. Keynes did not provide it. Some definitions on
inflation from various sources.
II/182 11. II.
1950: B.'s health does not permit long voyages. Runge's method. Not all
processes are reversible. Prices in West Germany, reckoned in gold, are already
low. "Count in gold, let competition work and Free Banking, too, then the
right price of every product will be paid and can be paid." - The B.
method.
II/183 Lectures in
Germany, in English rather than German. Paying for German imports, with the
right method. Woergl. Party programs, Labour Party program. Parties think that
important reforms are possible without Free Banking. Political leaders with
such errors in their brains cannot lead. Postal disservices. 12. II. 1950:
Philippine limited "free" gold market.
II/184 Gold demand
from China, prices in Western Germany & Berlin low, reckoned in gold. Adam
Smith on gold production costs and other labour costs. Jevons. Marx,
"Labour Money" of State Socialists. The element of
"expectation". The first thing to get an honest value is to expose
money to the money market. Value theories
II/185 Jevons, at
47, died prematurely, when many celebrities began to write. Adam Smith did not
distinguish between spent & expected labour. His theory was not developed
enough. Vaccination & Immunisation. Free Banking & Free Trade may even
have a greater effect on public health. Rider Haggard's "She".
Biological warfare attempt during the US Civil War. John Dewey, human nature,
primitive vs. cultural life. Schopenhauer et al: Culture is as natural for
human beings as breathing and eating or building dams for beavers.
II/186 Technique
& culture. Sound weapon of Red Indians. Complicated marriage laws of
Australian Aborigines. Physical strength comparisons between natives and
"civilised" people. 18. II. 1950: People, who pretend to be
Individualists and do not acknowledge the Individual's right to offer his
labour in the form of freely issued notes, are not true Individualists.
Catholics, "Weekly Register", fail to apply their subsidiarity
principle to note-issuing. Free Banking would blow up, together with many other
old Isms, also the old Catholicism. Catholic Modernism, Kant, Abbé Loisy,
Schell.
II//187 Compulsory
acceptance without cours forcé. Lord King case. Legal tender, Inflation, note
issues by debtors of the bank, discounted by bankers. The banker cannot issue a
greater quantity of notes than his debtors could issue. "Commercial
body" or "payment community". Readiness to accept among his
debtors forms the real foundation for his notes. Limits for issues: The
possibility to "make good" presented notes by ready for sale goods or
servics of in payment of debts. Normal circulation path. (Compare charts in
PEACE PLANS 41, now also available by e-mail.) Other theories: Redemptionism.
Long-term loans in notes ares the business of the banker. Raising loans through
circulation. Asset currencies.
II/188 The flawed
theories and practices led to the false conclusion: central banking and
monetary despotism are required as "solutions", just like some
defects in private enterprises and in the employer-employee relationship led to
State Socialism or State "Capitalism". Bankers mere practitioners,
more or less law-abiding, with no knowledge of or interest in true monetary
theories. Notes issued on the "clearing cheque principle". Trust vs.
debt foundation. Panics would be rapidly dissolved through readiness to accept
at par. Retailers would welcome them as sales booms. Notes on the old
principles will not disappear rapidly enough and do not have sufficient
immediate utility. Speaking & writing will not make monetary freedom clear
enough by experiences and experiments will. Role of deposits, old and new
system. Central banking magnifies the spread of blunders. Effect of bank loans
on general price level. Jevons' "Investigations in Currency &
Finance". Bank loan periodicity.
II/189 Seasonal
& sunspot fluctuations. Prof. Hirsch on Germany's products ready for sale
in 1930. Price policy of owners. New bank loans, capital market and Exchanges.
Share prices of 1927 trebled within a year through abundant bank credit. Goods
prices follow in the far distance - or, in the case of a crash, become
depression prices under monetary despotism. How many short-term deposits were
thus malinvested? Effect of the repayment of loans. When loans are short-term,
the issue and reflux effects cancel each other out. Are banks free to lend or
not? They must lend what they can.
II/190 Bankers
& even scientists are in many cases unable to estimate a country's
resources. (But sound note-issuing bankers would be able to estimate their
short-term debtor's resources. - J.Z., 10.6.03.) Dates of bank loans are
important. (For short-term as well as medium and long-term loans. The latter
rightful only with corresponding capital, i.e., savings and investments for
that purpose and for such periods. - J.Z., 10.6.03.) Loans and price level.
Small effect, unless "asset currencies" with cours forcé are
over-issued. Over-issues without cours forcé. (Will be a different situation
under competitive note issue compared with monopolistic note issue. - J.Z.,
10.6.03.) Railway money, Zander. Rascals as issuers. Effect of continuing
circulation of sound coins. China under emperors. Ottomar Hupt, Arbitrages et
Parités, 1894. Harsh punishment preventing the use of gold.
II/191 Bullion
market, gold market. Acceptance at shops, acceptance at bankers for
interest-bearing deposits. Long-term loans and note issues. Long-term loans are
not the purpose of note issues. But they can be lent with saved and so invested
notes. Under freedom there is never a problem in getting long-term loans, even
at low interest. Building Society experience. Easier to get money than to find
reliable debtors. There are people who profit from long-term loans granted in
Central Bank notes. But that is no reason to compel others to respect the cours
forcé. Benefits to debtors from loans in depreciating legal tender money tend
to be only temporary & cannot be indefinitely obtained again and again.
Sooner or later to creditors wise up to their inflation losses - and grant no
longer credits under such conditions. Rightful militias.
II/192 Option
clause notes circulating at par. This old practice should be systematically
extended & developed instead of merely repeated. Discount as limit for
note-issuing. Inflation and price level. Prices measured in gold. Meulen
proposed a "bank pound" as a unit of value, so that even gold and silver
would become mere commodities, not themselves value units. Gold not ideal
measure of value. Just least evil, objectively. Free advocacy for and choice of
alternatives. B. was for a long time adherent of Irving Fishers and index
standards. Later he became convinced that I.F. underestimated the virtues of
gold. Silvio Gesell (Gsell) system, so tyrannical that the Soviets could learn
from it. German adherents wanted to imprison users of private means of payment.
II/193 German
Gesellians: Invariable unit by State compulsion. Gold as a good index. The best
possible approximation to the bank pound is the old gold sovereign. Its
vississitudes are not due to its gold-properties but to the old and bad laws,
insisting on bank redemptionism and entitlement of every creditor to demand
gold coins from his debtors. Both compulsions may be removed without giving up
gold as a measure of value. Free choice of value standards as an essential
natural, human and citizen right. Division of variation losses between
creditors and debtors. Bastiat: workers as major beneficiaries of increased
savings and their productive investment. Share of labour in the product tends
to increase, that of capital to decrease, while actual labour input decreases
and capital input increases.
II/194 There is no
good "Ersatz" for the gold standard. Abolition of conscription.
Generally a good thing. Exceptions. Alternatives to it even then. Kant on
governments acting reasonably. (Did they ever? - J.Z., 10.6.03.) Early
governmental intervention against Hitler. (What private and libertarian
interventions, very early ones, would have been rightful and necessary, to
prevent the rise of this regime or achieve its early and almost bloodless
overthrow? Libertarians and anarchists still fail to tackle and answer such
questions seriously! - J.Z., 10.6.03.)
Concentration camps. (The technique required to effectively prevent,
resist & overthrow totalitarian regimes and dictatorships still has to be
largely discovered, rediscovered and developed. - J.Z., 10.6.03.) Josephus on siege
of Jerusalem while inside it civil war raged. Tilly's siege of Magdeburg while
internally there was a riots about exemptions for rich people from helping to
defend its walls. (If one has let matters slide and deteriorate for a long
time, then sometimes, some compulsion may offer the only way out. - J.Z.,
10.6.03.)
II/195 Mosley
& other Fascists are probably unable to apply the Desertion-system that was
used by King Wen and by Mao. However, a Mao could use is and that the Nazis,
too, received many deserters and volunteers, is not a good sign. But genuine
liberators could apply it most successfully. 22. 2. 1950: Kant, the
natural power of ideas, nature's wasteful methods. Quetelet, Galton.
II/196 Size &
weight of Italian recruits of about 1900. Statistical law of distribution.
Uniqueness of "The Individualist". Without Free Banking China will
always be as poor as it is now and driven, by her paper money system to attack
its neighbours. The secret connection between oppressive foreign policy (and
internal policy! - J.Z.) and a bad monetary system is still to be explained.
Calcutta: About 3 million sleep in the streets. Tariff barriers are a blockade,
carried out by the own government. But "The Free Trader" does not
agree with the Free Trade opinion, 100 years ago, on Free Trade in money.
II/197 Informed on
Free Banking, Stephen King-Hall would have demanded, in 1945: We must impose
upon Germany the Free Banking System for our own safety. Exclusive currency as
bad as ever. Vulgar economists. Investment trusts. Absence of Free Banking
leads unavoidably to State Socialism. Monetary liberty - the mother of all
other liberties, which will enjoy only a short life without the protection of
their natural mother. Home Rule for England. Rommel and Tacitus on Corpulo, Nero's
general. Rommel did not resist Hitler early enough. For all too long he just
played at being a good career soldier. Really good generals would kill tyrants.
Elections & Aldred.
II/198 Roscher on
influence of private interests in conceiving econonomic theories. Case of
Benjamin Franklin, a printer of notes, for governments, thus favouring paper
money. B. F. understood nothing of the theory of paper money. Without that
private and profitable interest, he might have explored it. 3. III. 1950:
Zwangskurs, legal tender Lord King. Inflation: Limit for issues: The amount
which the debtors are able to convert into articles of day-to-day use plus the
amount which they are obliged to accept for due debts. Financing railway
building by notes? Such dangerous practices are called in Germany: "Ride
across Lake Constance". Based on a winter-time story. 100 years ago
England was constantly in a state of deflation. Thus all kinds of notes were
eagerly accepted by the public. Thus there and then it was possible even to grant
long-term loans in notes.
II/199 The
obligation ot redeem notes in gold obscures all kinds of traffic (&
significant covers - J.Z.) where notes are concerned. Shares or debentures a
much better kind of financing than granting long-term credits in notes. After
about 1850 no railway was any longer financed by notes. The danger was
recognised by then. All such attempts will have very different results in a
state of affairs where the circulation is fully provided with means of payment.
In what manner must members of the community support long-term loans? The right
to refuse paper money. The man who wants investment credit must look for
corresponding creditors. With the help of a banker or a broker he can find
them. At least it was not M.'s intention to prohibit B.'s system. State
socialism cannot provide sufficient credits.
II/200 Private
investment not only of savings but of goods which are otherwise hard to
impossible to sell. Details in B.'s 1934 book: "The Realization of the
Proposal of Milhaud". Deposits and their lending under proper timing.
Individual & coop bankers. Annual savings make loans via bankers' notes
superfluous. South Sea Bubble. Prosperity via repeal of bad laws. False finance
for genuine enterprises. Swindles.
II/201 For US
crises of 1907 & 1929 the vary bad money laws of the USA were the most
effective cause. Pound note used hundreds of times. Every sale is
counterbalanced by the succeeding purchase. Situation no worse than it would be
if all these trades had been made by barter. These transactions, using a pound
note, were simply made easier. More trade exchanges do not increase prices,
might even reduce them. Notes as facilitators of clearing. Jevons' sun spot
theory. German monetary revolution, 1921-1924 (1922-1923? - J.Z.) West Berlin
& emigration of J.Z. in 1959.
II/202 4. III.
1950: Desertion plan, Mao's system of warfare & pacifism. Soviet
appeals to German soldiers to desert. Germans were right not to trust Soviet
govt. promises. What would it take to induce Russian soldiers to disarm their
IBM's? Or bomber pilots to surrender their atomic weapons? The important role
of rightful governments in exile. Need for a genuine liberation & defence
program.
II/203 Payment of
Chinese imports from England by means of payment of Chinese origin, using a
sound value standard. Free Trade plus monetary freedom can win allies. Most
important may be the offer of "equal treaties", offering
exterritorial autonomoy and personal laws to Chinese e.g. in England.
Panarchism.That aspect of colonialism helped to make even Communism somewhat
popular in China. Friends of a Free China should associate everywhere. (Rather,
friends of many different but all tolerant Chinese panarchies! - J.Z.,
10.6.03.) Birth control in China, repeal of all race discrimination laws &
practices. Free migration for Chinese - and their own panarchies and Free
Banking & Free Trade for all who want them. Goebbels on colonies. Monetary
factor. Schacht prohibited publishing articles about new commercial questions
without written permission by the Reichsbank.
Protectionism & foreign exchange control and central bank notions
leading to motives for war. A subdued Ukraine would have had to accept
Reichsmark in payment. Free trade without monetary freedom is not sufficiently
free and thus, unintentionally, promotes Protectionism, interventionism,
conquests, monopolies and internal and external strife. Japan was blockaded by
the West & its own Protectionists. How much more of a "Japanese
Miracle" would have happened after WW II under full economic
freedom? The present system still best only in making huge losses.
II/204
Malthusianism and the optimum population theory of Prof. Edwin Cannan. Birth
control isn't the answer for China, either. Compulsory abortions constitute a
great weakness for this regime, which was so far not exploited. Offer all these
threatened parents not only Free Trade, Free Banking & Free Migration but
also Free Choice of Governments in China then how many subjects would remain
for a regime that has only volunteers for birth controls - among the own
membership? "Offering" them only immigration restrictions, illigal
emigration, concentration camps for the illegals and deportation back to Red
China, apart from some chance to be officially recognised as a political refugee
& thus accepted in Australia, is certainly not good enough but will arouse
justified anger e.g. against the Australian government and many of its
subjects, supporting such policies, even among anti-communist Chinese. As a
result, one day Australians might find themselves under compulsory abortions
imposed by a conquering Chinese government, while its Chinese immigrants would
not be under birth controls by it in Australia but would rather get child
support out of taxes also raised from Australians. How would they like that?
Apart from the innocent aborted babies, some of them, all too many, would
deserve this equal treatment to the present Chinese victims of compulsory
abortions, which seems to be of no interest to most Australians or may be even
favoured by them. - German army, defence, standing armies & rightful
militias. As an old adherent of Tucker I cannot concede rights to a government.
(Alas, T., too, under the influence of Stirner, came to deny the existence of
rights. - J.Z., 10.6.03.) Conscription under present conditions. Dismantlings.
Collective responsibility. Bible stand on this. Cour forcé. Limit for loans.
II/205 Little
scope for loans in notes. 5. III. 1950: India, Zander, Rittershausen,
Sanyal, war with Pakistan. Nationalism. Gold as a measure of value vs. Index
numbers, Irving Fisher
II/206 Valuation
in terms of gold weight units the least evil. Value of the bullion market.
Right of all people to use in their own affairs their own standard of value.
Right to use in my own affairs gold ounces, valued at the bullion market, as a
standard of value. Right to trade freely at the bullion market. Dealings in
futures must be done openly. We agree that the principles and techniques
proposed by M. should not be imposed, either. The idea of an invariable unit is
good. At present great disagreements on invariable unit. M. plan presupposes
the decision of one man, the best to be found, on the standard to be used by
his customers. The quantity of notes being important for their value, then he
would also fix the quantity of notes. In other words, he would provide a kind
of central banking scheme but only on a small and local scale, with many of its
faults, but competitively practised with other systems. Do you concede to
others the right to choose other value standards, even the gold weight value
standard? Nuclear threat. Nobody has a
serious program. What are the next steps? Defence of the West, without mass
murder devices. Liberation of suppressed, without such devices, even without
invading conventional armies.
II/207 Situation
as in 1812 Prussia: Our government will do nothing against Napoleon. What can we
do? Convention of Tauroggen, 1812, between General Yorck and Diebitsch.
Clausewitz helped prepare it. A similar English League should discuss a warfare
method like that of Mao during the last 2 years, treatment of those who are won
over by Mao's methods, the formation of one (several! J.Z.) Russian provisional
governments in exile and a good program for it, methods of collaboration
between that govt. and the League, Soviet nuclear disarmament with the help of
dissenting Soviet soldiers and officers, methods to keep all promises made in
the warfare with Mao's scheme for deserters. F. W. Hoare's article in
"City Press": "Romance of Private Banking". Convertibility.
What kind? Into gold only? Or, rather, into goods, services, and debt payment
certificates? Conversion via an honest exchange market. Devaluation.
II/208 Shortage of
agricultural products and raw materials? Devaluation and foreign exchange
controls. Imports without any controls, payable in means of exchange not
convertible into gold in the old sense (only a a free gold market, not at the
banks of issue!) and the recipients of these payments will assure corresponding
exports through their use of these means of payment, either directly or
indirectly. US might even be prepared to cancel all previous debts to it. It is
under such strong export pressure. Why not use such a mentality while it
exists? However, Scotch as well as English day: Imports without limitations and
controls? Rather perish! (Individuals, alone or in association, free to do so,
would use this option, buying e.g. cars and prefab houses cheaply. Also, e.g.
cheap shirts. Many years ago, Australian men were "protected" from
imported $ 1 shirts, just to privilege some technologically less advanced
Australian shirt producers. Likewise, we are still "protected" from
cheap overseas bananas. - J.Z. 10.6.03.) B. mentions the "protection"
of Germans from cheap cauliflowers. Who protects the German consumers?
Certainly not the government nor the privileged internal cauliflower producers.
END OF THIS "SUMMARY". Don’t complain.
Provide a better one!
Help to turn all disagreements into a public and well
recorded board game, which, step by step, must be won.
==================================================================================
Contents
Section III
of file: Meulen
- Beckerath correspondence, pages 1 - 204, 6. 3. 1950 - 6. 12. 1950
Contents of Volume III
Letters of U. v. Beckerath
to Henry Meulen
III/1 6. III.
1950: Some points of agreement: 1.) Liberty of note issue without legal
restrictions, 2.) the existing laws against swindle are sufficient to meet
swindle in issuing notes. 3.) the right to refuse acceptance … 4. Standard of
value depends upon the issuer … 5. The time validity of a note should be
limited. Different opinion on how the public will accept the notes, on notes
directly for long-term loans
III/2 Panic on
asset currency, cover by interest-bearing securities, discount: Why this round-about
way? Why not begin with selling securities? Example of Swiss Bank Bonds. B.'s
system has never such troubles. B. system for exchanging existing goods for
other existing goods. M. system: To exchange future goods for existing goods.
That's possible with the help of interest. B. believes in the possibility,
likelihood and even desirability of frequent runs. Who is in the safe side? 11.
III. 1950:
III/3 A paper
money without cours forcé is better than one not subject to the daily renewed
investigations of a really free market. Chile: 47 dollars an ounce of gold.
Prof. Spahr still believes gold redemption at 35 dollars to be possible. Spahr
favours exclusive currency. Constantine, the real creator of Christendom - a
religion which already then had not much to do with the reforms proposed by its
founder. Constantine abolished the Denar, which had cours forcé and whose value
was determined by the Caesars according to the requests of the public treasury
(sounds familiar, doesn't it? - J.Z., 11.6.03) by the Solidus = 1/73 of a Roman
pound = 4.55 grams of fine gold. His system was honest although imperfect, a
great progress. South Africa. A war against it by India?
III/4
International clearing certificates with acceptance foundation, valued e.g. in
US dollars. Discount & its effects. London "Society of
Individualists". Legal tender the basis for all present attacks on
liberty. It is the beginning of British slavery. Prof. Adolf Wagner, on The
Russian Paper Currency, 1868 and the Theory of Money and Credit leading to the
Peel's Bank Act, 1862. He was influential. Par. 3 of the German Banking Act of
1875 prohibited for every federated German State the introduction of cours
forcé. Increased credit by no means an essential element of inflation.
Confucius on changing the meaning of words. Inflation and dearth. Socialism in
Tucker's meaning: voluntary or cooperative socialism
III/5 24. III.
1950: Value, desire & sacrifice expressed by demand & supply. Salt
monopoly. Irving Fisher's "Compensated Dollars". Silvio Gesell, Major
Douglas. Sinners against logic, mental deaths and the continued existence of
churches. Prof. Sidgewick on tabular standard. Neither can become just systems.
Index number standard fanatics also adhere to "exclusive currency"
with its central banking & severe punishments for the use of alternative
means of payment. Inventors, innovators and their intolerance - to be cured by
panarchism or full experimental freedom.
III/6 Transforming
desire and readiness to supply goods, services & labour into effective
monetary demand through the free & private issuing of notes. Governments,
politicians and statesmen know nothing about this nor do they want to learn
about this - they have the central bank at their disposal. Under freedom for
note issue the demand for labour could be easily and vastly increased. Karl
Marx. His "surplus value" would then be returned to labour. Wages
will rise as long as the demand for labour continues. Then the gain for all by
improving the industrial and agricultural plant may be the most important
factor. Limitations: Productivity and consumption potential. "Exploiting
classes" will become producers, without State planning and concentration
camps. Setting free the economic forces, analogous to natural digestion.
Referral to Bastiat's Economic Harmonies.
III/7 A monetarily
freed labour market will solve the problem of the distribution of the social
product among all producers and also that of abolishing exploitation and
unemployment. Only it can solve such tasks. The present labour market is not
free. Merely the offer of labour is free. The demand for labour is restricted
by the limited amount of exclusive currency. On "distribution" and
"re-distribution". Rightfully acquired goods are already rightfully
distributed. Property rights and free exchange. No other separate distribution
system is required than that of a really free market in all spheres, for forms
of money, value standards, exchange media etc. and capital values. 25. III.
1950: What if the demand for metallic gold should become greater than the
offer? What would happen if all prices are expressed in weights of gold, all
face values of notes, too, all debtors of banks are obliged to accept the notes
of their banks at par, an absolutely free bullion market is established &
free private coinage?
III/8 Six
different cases when the demand for gold rises. Cover of notes by gilt-edged
securities bearing high interest. U.S. Government during Civil War, German
Rentenbank-Scheine of 1923. Refusal of notes not at par. Greene reported notes
with a discount as circulating. But a shop like Woolworth would not have
accepted them - its own notes excepted. The vehement demand for gold that may
arise when creditors can legally demand gold payments from their debtors
III/9 This is an
artificially created demand. It can be rightfully replaced by a legal rule that
the creditor must be content with paper valued at a free bullion market. In
Asia, not under Western influence, creditors are not entitled to receive metal
but only "local currency", as was the term in Chinese documents.
Zander does, perhaps, still possess them. In England such crises were several
times ended by suspending the Bank of England's obligation to redeem its notes.
Credit should not depend on a stock of gold & even a maximum exportation of
gold should not prevent the granting of fresh credits. Aldred. Heine on debts.
People who are not politicians have the time to study the right of issue, &
to become aware that it is a more fundamental right than the right to strike or
to riot, thus advancing the true revolution. Eastern Communist system called:
"Poster Socialism". 26. III. 1950: The monetary demand for
gold was rarely really satisfied, at least not in the last decades of the old
style gold standard.
III/10 Interest
rate and the creditor's real desire: not gold, but profit. Foreign creditors
claim to gold & lack of cable connection. After international telephone
connections were established gold shipments became rare. See: Prof. Liefmann,
"Geld und Gold", 1918. A commodity becoming the basis of a monetary
standard wins new economic properties, whether it is gold, corn or cowries. It
tends to stabilize prices, the stronger the more persons are involved. Index
price curves for retail prices often quite different from those of wholesale
prices. Gold as a commodity varies much in price as a wholesale good, although
less than every other good, except, according to Irving Fisher, carpets! It
varies much less as a commodity sold in shops, rings, etc. It can hardly vary
in price, expressed in gold coins, under free coinage.
III/11 Tendency
towards stable prices even observed in times of big inflations, but not when
the inflation has become galloping. Gold production per head and year is only a
few grams. Maximum economic freedom will reveal, by competition, the best
standard of value. It might even be the paper pound of a well-managed bank. 27.
III. 1950: Increase in gold production was several times correlated with a
sharp decrease of prices. Californian gold field discovery. When fresh gold was
correlated with increases in the general price level there were obviously other
factors involved.
III/12 Other
factors than additional gold: Transport improvements, expansion of monetary
economy, market expansion. Effect of the invention of salted herrings. Dutch
economic development, Spanish Armada. Role of fairs as clearing institutions,
Roscher, Jevons on clearing house in London. Middle Age trade without cash.
Price level 1848-1857, gold production and bad harvests and extreme colds in
1855. Prussian birth & mortality statistic for this time. Californian gold
may not have contributed more than 1% to the price increases of the 1850's. 28.
III. 1950:
III/13 Paying for
German Imports. German rules weigh at least a pound. Belgium free in this respect.
Only a few know all the restrictive rules. Smuggled goods are paid for fast
& in a satisfactory manner. These methods should be studied. Best method:
Milhaud's purchasing certificates, even if they are at a small discount.
Instances. Prices for growers compared with prices at retailers. Gresham's Law
reversed, here, too.
III/14 Silvio
Gsell (Gesell): He did not know or consider the right of issuing notes can
outweigh all effects of even the worst hoarding - provided the country's
creditors (landlords, workers etc.) are not entitled to claim the hoarded
"exclusive currency". Woergl experiment & its true nature:
Referral to B.'s "Does the Provision of Employment Necessitate Money
Expenditure?" Inflation, dearness & unemployment insurance. Runge et al
wrongly believe that for mere clearing some amount of cash is necessary. Even
remaining unsettled balances could be carried forward to the next clearing
& thus need not be paid in cash. Nazis. Giro Bank of Hamburg. "Man is
Stupid" by Richet. Pearl S. Buck: "Dangerous Errors about
China": Food difficulties of China, in normal times, is the selling of
victuals, not their production. But in cases of dearth or civil war food
becomes scarce as in other countries. 29. III. 1950: If Scotland were
governed by Englishmen acknowledging the Scots' Right of Banking, i.e., of
issuing notes without cours forcé, the progress would by like that from
Darwin's original apes to Walter Scott's heroes. If Scotland were governed by
Scots denying this right, then there would, very probably, be no progress at
all. Something tragic about free banking propaganda? Nietzsche said: Everything
decisive happens in spite of resistance to it. Free Banking not merely a
technique. It is a claimed right.
III/15 Tucker
thought that issuing notes in spite of legal prohibitions is the most
revolutionary act. Zwangskurs, cours forcé, legal tender. M. believed that
Banks can grant loans in notes for greater amounts than the value of goods,
services and credits at their debtors. Thus he takes the whole country's
resources into consideration. B. said: That may be a thing for granting credit
in general, which is very different from note credit. Can M.'s notes raise the
price level? B. denies that. Trust. Exclusively large notes vs. notes also in
small denominations. Note issuing without the deposit business or separate from
it. B.: Issuing bank is to provide the means to pay wages, salaries &
running expenses and so avoid unemployment and many bankruptcies, in the cases
which occurred so often: Raw materials are at hand, orders as well, labour,
too, the machines are in order - but there is no money to pay wages with and
consumers have too little money to buy all that the retailers offer them. Thus
workers must be dismissed and once the first factory has done this a kind of
economic chain reaction sets in, which may affect more than 50 % of the
country's workers. When there is no unemployment, then getting long-term
credit, under conditions profitable to both sides, is no problem. Therefore, a
note-issuing bank should not do long-term loan business but concentrate on
turnover credits. Real bills doctrine. Banking principle. Notes as clearing
certificates or cut-up bills of exchange. Then they are self-liquidating. In
addition and based on this, they have readiness-to-accept foundation among the
debtors of the bank of issue.
III/16 M.: Banking
based on "reserves". B.: Note issuing banks will have, at least
initially, no reserves except the interest their debtors must pay. (The
discounted short-term security. - J.Z., 11.6.03.) The other reserve consists in
the obligation of its debtors to accept its notes at par. Loans based upon the
Bank's own capital or upon corresponding deposits by its customers to be
distinguished from note issues & their reflux. Discount of notes &
panics. Reflux obligation for issued notes. Large vs. small denominations. Wage
payments formerly largely in coins. Now wage payments the most important
element in note-issue banking policy. Runge and his premise that German prices
are too high. B. held them to be too low, that's why German competition is
feared. Ezra Pound. Proudhon said that one cannot be at the same time a good
poet and a good economist. Lamartine, Solon, devaluation. Conscription under
present circumstances, in the face of the Soviet threat. Defence the
libertarian way.
III/17
Revolutionary & liberating defence, territorialism, governments, peace
protestors. Paris Commune did not justify conscription. Advantages of freeing
banknotes from cours forcé and even from being legal tender, largely discussed
only in elder monetary literature, but rarely in English writings. In a few
books of US authors. Best book on this: Prof. Adolf Wagner: Die russische
Papierwaehrung", 1868. Banking Enquete of 1908. Most members did not know that
German banknotes had no cours forcé. Thus the govt. had assured the German
people that it could trust its notes. They could not be inflated because they
were not endowed with cours forcé. (They were too much redemptionists to care
but could not envision all employees demanding payment in gold coins, either. -
J.Z., 11. 6. 03.) Mentalities can radically change within a few decades. 30.
III. 1950: Agricultural production in
III/18 Market
gardeners demand "protection". Germany needs to export her bureaucracy.
(But who would accept it and even pay for it? - J.Z., 11.6.03.) Unemployment:
Essential factor: How to provide payment for the unemployed after getting them
employment. The right to work must be claimed in form of a right of banking.
Who knows that? Free Banking so far was always represented as a technical
matter. Individualists must proclaim it as a right. Did Armand ever claim the
right of Free Banking? 31. III. 1950: At time of Crusades a fable arose
on a book titled: "The Three Impostors", meaning Moses, Christ &
Mohammend, whose crimes were glorified by other impostors, so that the two
Testaments and the Koran did not deserve any esteem or trust. A book with this
title never existed then. It was believed that the Templars possessed the book and
were no longer Christians. This fable helped king Phillip in exterminating
them. (B. pointed out orally to me and, probably elsewhere, to others, that the
king expected to find and to be able to confiscate their gold and silver
treasures - but found only records on how they may their living largely by
non-cash clearing transactions. Alas, that did not turn him into a friend &
promoter of clearing, just like it would not so convert a modern bank robber. -
J.Z., 11.6.03.)
III/19 There was a
wide-spread feeling that Christianity was not well founded & only upheld by
the Inquisition. When the great enlightenment began, it found its field well
prepared. Negative effect of the prohibition of Nazi literature. Suppressing
literature helps to promote and sell it and supports the belief that it would
contain some suppressed truths.(Most typical Nazi writings could probably be
reproduced on a single CD-ROM, together with their best refutations. Why isn't
it done that way? - J.Z., 11.6.03.) South African gold mining & working
conditions. Slave uprising. New interpretation of the old "divide and
rule" advice: Allow individuals to divide into volunteer communities, all
without a territorial monopoly. These communities would be as free as they want
to be and would neither be dominated nor a threat to others. Mixed marriages
favoured by Portuguese. That reduced racism and sedition. 6. IV. 1950:
M.'s short visit to B.
III/20 Well-being
& good company. Zander, Vierkandt family, von Natzmer, convention of
Tauroggen & Napoleon, obstacles to publishing. Freedom from taxes for
reconstruction purposes. 7. 4. 1950: Gold standards, different concepts.
Eight features of a real gold standard
III/21. Authors of
the Four Bills on this. Persian laws, under Shah Nassr ed din, did not entitled
creditors to gold coins. They had to be content with "local currency"
to the value of gold. That value is determined by the free market price of the
local currency, reckoned in gold. Zander: Same laws in China under emperors.
Gold-Rechenwaehrung, gold-clearing currency or gold-accounting currency. Hardly
any discussion in literature of right to refuse means of payment. In Prussia
this right was acknowledged until 1. 1. 1910.
III/22 Inflation
& price increases. Distinct word like "dearness" no longer used
where it is applicable rather than "inflation". 14. 4. 1950:
Some notes on gold
III/23 Gold
production, volume of this gold, about 1/3rd used industrially. 18.
4. 1950; 21. 4. 1950: Oranges made transparent, making the human
body similarly transparent?
III/24 X-rays.
Meulen the only Englishman who demands the right to issue notes freely. Jacques
Bernoulli, "Ars conjectandi", 1713 & Buffon on probability.
III/ 25 German
note issuing theory: Only sold goods are fit to serve as a base for
currency. (Sold by e.g. factory to wholesaler. - J.Z.) The issue of notes helps
to finance the whole continuing process from production to sale by the
retailers, through corresponding short-term loans, paid in notes. Circulation
charts in PEACE PLANS 41. Bad experiences with attempts to finance machines,
buildings etc. with notes. "One does not build with banknote issues."
Long term loans require capital ready for it. Adam Smith. When notes are issued
instead of mortgage bonds, the notes get a discount. Adolf Wagner, Roscher, Lexis,
Lorenz von Stein. B.: Their criticism did not go far enough. Not shopkeepers
but their customers are the last buyers.
III/26 The last
buyer must be included in the system to make it work as well as it can. So B.
proposed his order system for supplies some time in advance, to assure sales,
on the well known scheme of "put", of "call" and "put
and call" of the London Exchange. In German: "Vorpraemie" and
"Rueckpraemie". Details in his book on employment. Some notes by J.Z.
on this. The banker's character is not good enough to cover the speculative
risk, of not finding buyers at the time when they are needed. Not only trust is
needed in the banker's moral and business sense but the possibility to make
good the notes, and that at any time when this is desired. Insofar B. was also
an adherent of the old "redemption on demand", but not in gold. Note
holders do not really want gold coins but consumer commodities.
III/27 Individual
bankers as note-issuers. Order system or commitment system might suffice if it
covered 1/3 rd of supplies, the 2/3rd being of a kind that people
have to buy it, if they have the money for it: Bread, vegetables etc. Another
order system: Commitment to purchase for minimum amounts and periods from a
certain supplier, e.g. Woolworth or Coles. Consumer coops. Other attractions to
buy from certain people, e.g. cheaper petrol for Woolworth buyers. Division of
labour principle partly ignores refusal of some to buy the products of others.
(Offers on the market do not always assure sales. Compare the offer of shares
or houses, artwork or fashion clothing for sales. Low production costs combined
with high sales costs. Speculative stocking and selling is not always
successful & leads to considerable losses - and high prices. - J.Z.,
11.6.03.) Length of loans at the discretion & judgment of bankers? Yes, for
capital loans. Tucker agreed there with M. in a talk. But the note-issuing
banker must act on principles and the lines between sound & unsound
short-term loans and sound and unsound long-term loans can and should be drawn
and kept. Long-term loans granted directly in notes must be avoided.
III/27 They would
be not much better than over-issued fiat money, i.e., without immediate and
sufficient reflux. But at least they would not be cours forcé notes, i.e.
remain refusable by the sufficiently enlightened potential acceptors.
III/28 Long-term
loans on the Huebner principle: The banker should not sell better, longer or
cheaper credits than he bought. Turnover speed of money must today be much
larger than before. Prudency and care about safety of loans. A banker must be
able to distinguish a real bill from a mortgage. He should never accept legal
forms as representing facts. Here begins the banker's prudence. M. seems to
assume that means for longer-term loans are scarce and should thus be supplied
by note issues. But for savings banks and building societies what is lacking is
good opportunities for their investors. Strike of savers under heavy taxes,
inflation, controls, regulations etc. But this capital shortage is artificially
produced. Scratchley clause against repayments without consent of the Building
Society. Price effect of loans in notes. Emergency prices, normal prices. The
ideal prices are fair and just prices, not low prices. When do rising prices
become inflationary? Snowball effect of a loan in times of a slump?
III/29 Mankind had never too many goods. The
greatest "overproduction" never satisfied all real wants. But the
real wants (and productive potentials, offered in exchange - J.Z., 11.6.03.)
were often not permitted to appear as monetary demand. Loans to disaster areas.
Not note credits but capital credits, including consumer goods supplies, are
then needed. Insufficient consumer goods remain for shop foundation money
issues. Imports largely on credit. Credit to be quite independent from a
country's supply with gold. Possible and advisable even if there is no gold
left at all. This can be achieved by full monetary freedom, not by the limited
Free Banking that M. proposed. Free Trade with free payment & clearing
options. Balance of trade, between two countries as opposed to the automatic
balancing of all trades and payments on a world-wide scale. (Even for two
countries there is what is seen and what is not seen by the statistics. I often
took small & hidden reserve sums across borders that were not noted by
their guards and statisticians, without paying attention to volumes of foreign
exchange regulations. To the extent that they were in the home currency, I thus
promoted exports from my home country & deserved, according to the official
export faith, a medal rather than a penalty. - J.Z., 11.6.03.)
III/30 Natural
reflux of all paper monies that arrive overseas. The less governments meddle in
such affairs, the better the subjects will be supplied. Free Trade also in
means of payment and even freedom to try new manners of payment. Discounts and
free markets enable us to expert continuously, to get continuous employment.
For every commodity there exists some discount which will make it the cheapest
in the world. Discounts mean private planning & automatic balancing of
accounts between countries. Discounts as a great invention. Discounts provide
the advantages of devaluation without its disadvantages. Refusal of English
Pound note at Dunkerque. Disobedience may be a great virtue. Following Tucker,
we should investigate economic and social disobedience.
III/31 Free Trade
is a right of man. Smugglers are the champions of that right & deserve the
same esteem as other revolutionaries. Buyers and sellers at the black market
are worthy of being canonized. Issuing of notes by shops. Transfer of that
right to their bank of issue. Legal organisation does not matter much but their
way of making good their notes does. Redemption in all kinds of consumer commodities
& services vs. redemption in one commodity only. Role of tradition. Bad
traditions should not be followed. Try out offering gold in varying quantities,
while other banks issue notes accepted at their face value, counted in gold
weight. B. predicts that M-type bankers will get beaten up, however well their
system may be founded, at least in theory. Ease and flexibility of their
different systems. Suitability for revolutions or for normal times. Communist
coup may happen in Berlin. Collective responsibility
III/32 Saddam
Hussein, Iraq, peace lovers. Hitler & that kind of pacifists. US govt. does
not know what liberating a country means and would require. There are no
territorial solutions for Iraq, either. Democracy, parties, voting,
representation all delusional and misleading, there, too. Voluntaristic &
exterritorial alternative kept out of the public debate by miseducation at
every level and misinformation by almost all mass media. ABC mass murder
devices still directed against victims of territorial regimes. Delusions de
grandeur. Groessenwahn, superiority complex, megalomania. 22.4. 1950:
German "Individualist". Rittershausen. B. did not recognise himself
in Meulen's photograph. (I can't remember seeing a mirror in his rooms. - J.Z.)
Old age symptoms. Speaking of his unfinished manuscript. (I haven't seen it. -
Still preserved in Berlin, with Mr. Duewal? - J.Z., 11.6.03.)
III/33 Coffee as a
means to regulate digestion to make purgatives unnecessary. 23. 4. 1950:
Nine main differences between M & B enumerated and somewhat detailed.
III/34 Four points
on which they agree. Freedom of issue will soon develop the right technique and
correct principles for note issues. All should be tried out. Only by bad
experiences with unfit methods and principles can the good and right ones be
justified by experience. Liberty - the mother, not the daughter of order. Here
we agree completely. 24. 4. 1950: Scotch miners visiting Russia. As
usual for such visits by unionists, the report on Soviet conditions was
favourable. The gullible, Soviet propaganda & their Potemkin villages. (The
degrees of freedom of expression & information in the West & of their
practical utilisation have still left all too many people ignorant and
prejudiced. - J.Z., 11.6.03.)
III/35 Jasper
Moon, quoting Adam Smith on "balance of trade". A condition needed
where not one can impose crazy theories upon his fellow citizens.
"Practical" men, proud of having never anything to do with science or
theories. (Actually, they do have theories or hypotheses, too, but only very
primitive & flawed ones, never doubted and checked by them. - J.Z.,
11.6.03.) Society of Individualists:
"The Crisis of Liberty": Could not find individualism in this
pamphlet. Gustav Landauer, 12 articles, attached in German and English.
III/37 26. 4.
1950: Aperient of camomile & senna. Moscow prices 1948/49 with
indication of wage levels
III/38 Later
better comparisons were published on minutes of labour to be spent per standard
consumer article in this "workers' paradise" compare with the minute
to be spent for the same articles by US workers, supposedly much
"exploited" by their "capitalists", also on the
"pension-fund-socialism" prevailing in the US, through which the
productive people indirectly own most enterprises but, alas, do not properly
control them. Ca. 33% of the total food supply in the USSR came from the about
3 % of land still kept in private hands & thus intensely cultivated. Long
queues before stores - everywhere a State-socialist "blessing". (How
many years earlier would the Soviet system have collapsed if it had not be made
somewhat bearable through the remaining free market, the black one, corruption,
heavy drinking and huge credits and hand-outs from the West? - J.Z., 11.6.03.) 28.
4. 1950: Can standardised exchange media without cours forcé cause
inflation? If it could happen with such monies and if only the prudence of
banks could prevent the inflation of bank money, then Free Banking & Mutual
Banking would have no chance. People would continue to think State Banking the
lesser evil. Meulen's notion of the "fixed price of gold", vs. B.'s
conviction that when prices in shops are expressed in gold coins then gold
coins have no price. Greene's passage on this, interpreted differently from
M.'s view, as purchasing power of gold. Greene & inflation notions. Even as
an exclusive currency, but without cours forcé, free bank notes could only
themselves be somewhat depreciated - before being totally rejected, but without
affecting the price & wage levels, to the extent that these are still
expressed in gold weight units. Then such a currency would be inflated but not
the price level.
III/39 To be
distinguished: a) Prices rising from a normal & just level and b) rises
from a level which is to be considered as being too low - due to a shortage of
currency. Too low prices are also indicated by all too many forced sales and
their very low prices. It is impossible to over-issue optional and competing
notes and cheques without producing additional sales. Value of a suspect means
of payment can be checked by accepting it only through the channel of a bank.
Note exchange and clearing between banks of issue. Publicity on note issues. J.
E. Horn as an authority on note issues, e.g. in "La libre des
Banques", 1866.
III/40 Some other
monetary freedom titles in the PEACE PLANS series: Courcelle-Seneuil &
Coquelin. Horn proved the technical impossibility of over-issue of notes
without cours forcé. Wilson the first champion of the "banking principle.
Artificial demand for gold due to legal right for creditors to demand it. Right
only to local currency instead, by report of Chinese Minister of Finance about
monetary reform, 1931, in Zander's possession. All complaints about Money, e.g.
by Tolstoy, in his book "Money", do exclusively concern that presumed
and legalised "right" of creditors to demand gold or other scarce
legal tender, whether a debtor can procure it or not, the right to what Greene
called "exclusive currency". Also all arguments for communism are 99%
taken from that "right". A right to promised values payable
only goods and services, which a debtor is able to supply, or suitable
assignments to them, is quite a different matter. To confound money and this
claim of creditors (workers as wage earners included) to exclusive currency is one
of the most fatal errors of mankind. Zander. Monetary Liberty. Freedom
option for debtors, with a suitable surcharge.
III/41 B. proposed
surcharge of 30 %, not much considering Indian interest rates of 5 % monthly.
Laws of Justinian on this, market for commercial bills, Corpus Juris. Thus the
debtor will be in the position of a peasant who pays his credit not in money
but in agricultural products. (Seeing that his sales prices are low compared
with the retail prices for his goods, the creditor so satisfied has another
large profit opportunity - if he markets that claim against his debtor
properly. - J.Z., 11.6.03.) This method was invented in the Western States of
the US in crisis times. In Scotland such notes would have been called
"Option Notes". No literature reference on this was available to B.
His informant was a worker. Option Notes, in their original and primitive form,
formally mitigate the disadvantages of cash payments by delays, upon average
notions of "liquidity". Replacing them and other notes by notes based
on the principle of "value by acceptance" requires re-thinking for
which most people seem not yet mentally prepared. Usual meaning of liquidity as
ability to pay in cash. New meaning, under monetary freedom: Ability to pay or
clear one's debts with the own standardised and typified assignments upon the
own goods and services - and credits, monetising them as far as possible, best
in association with other debtors, forming a bank of issue or clearing centre
for this purpose. In the reported case the workers so paid went to the saloon
keepers and discounted these certificates there. (Which laws or customs or
ideas prevented the full and free development of that system? - J.Z., 11.6.03.)
Monetary freedom as the most important right of man and citizens. All other
rights are worthless or in danger if monetary freedom is not realised and
history proves that they do really disappear in times of crises. Free Banking
is a very essential element of monetary freedom but not yet monetary freedom
itself. Statement on monetary liberty in 9 points.
III/42 Monetary
freedom points continued. 29. 4. 1950: Mail received from M.
III/43 Neutrality
not a good defence against 2 million Soviet soldiers as tools of the Kremlin.
In this situation equivalent Western defence is needed, whether by German
soldiers or others does not matter. But every preparation for wars is hampered
by errors, prejudices, blunders etc. on both sides. (And such factors are also
the major ones causing wars in the first place and preventing liberation,
rightful revolutions and revolutionary defence methods. - J.Z., 11.6.03.) No
money available for defence? Prussian precedent. (I find organising manpower,
ideas, knowledge, institutions, finance, for effective peace preparations to be
even more important, but without opposing rightful and voluntary militias but
rather proposing them, like B. did, as natural protectors for individual rights
everywhere. - Defence & liberation on the model of Sir Thomas More, further
developed, in effect: reducing all out wars to rightful police actions. - J.Z.,
11.6.03.) Nuclear threat to England. Effect of "defensive" nuclear
weapons against invading troops. Those not immediately killed or seriously
wounded become walking dead who are fighting-mad & quite fearless. In their
few remaining days they will conquer. Certainly, such troops would not defect
to the West, even for the greatest and most truthful promises.
III/44 Europe
working for the Kremlin. A new 30 year war with similar results: Population
reduction to one fifth. Yelland poem on politicians commanding multitudes of
zeroes. And how many reflect on how to change that situation? The masses, even
of the peace lovers, appeal to the same war criminals and criminal territorial institutions
- as if they were or could be their saviours! B. held that Russians were much
more interested in their affairs. I have still to find living Russians or
writings of Russians confirming that belief. Even now about 30 % are still in
sympathy with the Soviet Regime. Has the Welfare State still as many believers
in the West? King John of Abyssinia, by his wars reduced, 100 years ago, his
male population to 10 %. (That is something territorial governments can
do. - J.Z., 11.6.03.) People find no contradiction between reports like:
"Big US Wheat Surplus Feared" and Malthusian propaganda articles.
Encyclopaedia of the best refutation for popular errors myths and prejudices
needed. Interest rates for industrial credits, Japan & Far East. High
interest rates are common there - and yet the total interest burden is small
compared with other production costs like wages, raw materials, taxes,
management costs, sales costs etc.
III/45 Privately
secured Free Trade and real defence required, instead of further reliance on
"countries" and "governments". Princess Margaret in
"Free Trader" No. 253. Reminded him of Queen Christina of Sweden, who
ordered the war with Germany to be stopped. Peace of Osnabrueck, 1648. Free
Banking the logical consequence of Free Trade. (Not merely a consequence but
also a pre-condition. The two are largely identical, like the best forms of
capitalism are with the best forms of voluntary socialism. - J.Z.) Bismarck,
English royal family & Churchill. Rittershausen, second edition of his
"The Other System".
III/46 5. 5.
1950: German translation of a biography of Sir Robert Peel, by G. Kitson
Clark. Not bad, but the act of 1844 is mentioned only in 5 lines. (That is
already much notice for some writers and some historians. - J.Z., 11.6.03.) Two
legal reasons for deferring payments, including clearing.
"Glaeubiger-Verzug" (delay of payment caused by the creditor) and
payment by ticket money like that used by "Meinl" shops, 1922-1924.
Meinl priced its goods in gold weight units and issued and accepted its own
"ticket money", also expressed in gold weight units. (I am still not
certain from B.'s letters whether there was only a single Meinl shop or a whole
chain of them in Berlin. - J.Z., 11.6.03.)
Associations of such shops for the purpose of issue and acceptance of
their own notes. Economically, it is still the ticket bearer, who lets the
performance provider wait. Economically the bearer is no creditor. Time limit
for the validity of such ticket money. The shop association note issue bank lends
such ticket money to the shop or discounts its claims with them and is entitled
to a commission
III/ 47 Details of
such an arrangement. Interest charged might, apart from costs, be distributed
among the coop members of the Bank or Mutual Bank. Those repaying faster might,
as a reward, get all their interest back. For them Proudhon's ideal might be
realised: interest might become zero. Details arose out of long discussions
with Zander. All note theories, that of Greene included, were so far based on
the principle: "The creditor waits." Capital credits to be granted
should be granted by those who provide the substance of the credit - for the
same periods as the loans, in a sound average. Money and credit creation out of
nothing? Nothing can be created from zero and even God, if the biblical record
is true, found a substance, water and, probably, other things, useful for a
creation, which existed before he began creating. Note issuing as an element of
financing loan term loans requires the details described in the following
paragraphs and in his books.
III/48 Long-term
loans in which Meinl notes are also used as mediators between those who grant
the capital credit with their goods and services and those who receive them and
finally pay for them, while paying interest in the meantime. In this process,
ticket money does not remain in circulation but has its usual short-term
oscillation and shop foundation at every stage of the long-term credit
transaction. Always new issues are used for this purpose, as many as are
required for the period of the loan. The last note in which the credit was
given disappears when the debtor has met all his expenses with the ticket money
of the loan. Interest and capital repayments are done with new issues based
upon the shop or acceptance foundation with the debtor of the long-term loan
must then offer. Limits for note issues related to shop foundation and compared
with capital assets. Notes should only correspond to current payment wants and
obligations. Those who provide readiness to accept, in form of goods and
services, are not obliged to accept capital securities in payment, as if they
were local currency, national currency or their own note issues. No collective
responsibility here, either. Limits by the limited quantity of raw materials,
labour, transport and energy facilities etc.
III/49 All wisdom
does not help if the natural limit is reached. Cash reserves not required.
"My emancipation from precious metals is 100 %, yours is much less."
(Well, as optional value standards he still favoured them 100 %, while
completely rejecting them only as obligatory means of payment. While M.
rejected them as value standards, also as means of payment, but just to make
sure, and build up trust, wanted to offer a gold reserve and gold redemption by
degrees, "measured", supposedly, in his more stable and managed paper
pound, supposedly the value of a gold weight unit at some particular day of the
past. - J.Z., 11.6.03.) 6. 5. 1950: Payments for English imports in commercial
bills expressing dollar values. (M. saw many difficulties where not existed in
the facts and by nature, except the artificial ones, the barriers, rules,
controls and prohibitions provided by governments and based an all too widely
accepted prejudices, which M. himself shared, at least in his later decades. -
J.Z., 11.6.03.) The Dollar is by now means a gold dollar. Such a bad currency
will not always be preferred to well-managed English Pounds. Dunkirk case of
one Pound note offered in payment and refused. There was no market there for
Pound notes and the official pound value did not correspond to the pound value
on the black market. "Towns without a market are commercially isolated,
even if daily 100 steamers land there."
III/50 Landauer
and Ramus. "Neither you nor I can be impressed by a man, who calls himself
an anarchist but does not know what monetary freedom means. Such a man is not
better than a State socialist. He is not enough of an anarchist. New Russian
Revolution - learn from everybody in the world. Proposals for just or voluntary
taxation or contribution schemes should be advanced rather than complaints
about present taxation. Paying taxes with notes that have nothing but tax
foundation. Taxes should express the percentage of each government expenditure,
for information purposes. (Next step: Each taxpayer should get a veto on
certain expenditures as far as his contribution is concerned. He should then
get either a corresponding tax reduction or become free to make his own
allocation of part or of all of his tax contribution. Then expenditures
supported only by a small minority should be dropped from the budged. Finally
all taxes and state memberships should be quite voluntary. - J.Z., 11.6.03.) 6. 5. 1950: Although
Greene was a rare bird, regarding the use of gold as a measure of value he was
in accord with the best economists. Whoever prefers silver prices in silver
etc. Mutual money issues, influence on purchasing power and prices. No effect
according to quoted passage from Greene. (The notes themselves are priced in
the measure of all prices - under a general gold standard for consumer goods
and prices as value standard - and thus are automatically "regulated"
in their quality and quantity by consumer sovereignty & the requirements of
trade, the right to refuse and to discount them, the limits of their acceptance
foundation, the self-interest of the issuer, who wants to stay in business with
his notes and his goods and services and does not want to be charged with fraud
and that of their voluntary acceptors. Full publicity and every voluntary note
acceptor is also an inspector for the value of such notes, however
unofficially, but in the interests of all members of his payment community, not
only his own. - J.Z., 11.6.03.)
III/51 "A
fall or rise in the price of money, and a rise of fall in the price of all
other commodities besides money, are precisely the same economical
phenomenon." (Greene) Tucker calls this one of the most important truths
in finance. "Mutual money" does not mean "notes issued by a bank
run by a committee". Whether its issue and reflux is watched by a
committee or a single person is subordinate to the economic and monetary
property of the notes. "Fixed paper price of gold"? What Greene
really demanded was that the face value of his notes should be in
Dollars, but that the notes should not be convertible into metal dollars at the
bank. (Here was the main "fixed idea" or mind trap of Meulen
regarding money. He never escaped it but merely assumed that others either shared
it or ought to. - J.Z., 11.6.03.) Greene: "The bill of a Mutual Bank is a
bill of exchange, … payable at sight, but only in services and products."
To notes convertible into metal, Greene ascribes the power to influence prices,
overestimating that influence. (Case of fractionally metal-covered metal
certificates, wrongfully trusted for all too long: Expressed in them prices
might rise, until they get the discounts or refusals they deserve. Expressed in
sound and alternative exchange media they would not. And this competition would
also limit the acceptance of such "gold certificates". No business
secrets regarding note issues! Then "Goldbugs" and their enemies and
competitors might together point out, fast, the flaw in such notes and thus
achieve their deserved discount or refusal. - J.Z., 11.6.03.) Discount of
Greene's notes on the Bullion market. (To shortly and optimally express all the
facts, factors, ideas and theories involved, or arrive at it gradually, an
extensive alphabetical compilation of notes, observations, definitions,
explanations etc. of all relevant terms and relationships should be compiled
and gradually more and more improved, into a handbook on monetary freedom. Even
very ideas-rich letters cannot sufficiently describe and interrelate all aspects.
Far less can summaries of segments of such letters. Anyhow, that's my excuse
for the length of some of my "summaries" and additional comments. -
Comments upon comments, upon comments, in no particular order, are just not
serviceable enough. - J.Z., 11.6.03.
III/52 Meulen's
"invariable standard of value" was quite unknown at the time of
Greene. It is still and not yet widely discussed. It may be better than the
1913 method of pricing commodities in gold coins. This supposition should be
investigated. But even if you consider gold coins as a bad and unstable value
standard, it is a possible and optional one. Americans called Irving Fisher's
Dollar a "rubber dollar". Gold coins did their work as value
standards for centuries, so well that people free to do so did always return to
them, if not prevented by harsh punishments. Not the gold appreciates but the
desire to use it or possess it. Issue check by clearing. In the past this was
understood to require, ultimately, gold redemptionism. Suffolk System. Note
clearing at Edinburgh etc. "A mutual bank does not possess cash reserves.
Greene: "… they have not metallic capital, and never pretend to pay specie
for their bills…" - Meulen had another kind of clearing in mind, a literal
exchange of "stray" notes that were concentrating in the Clearing
House. Over-issued notes would arrive there in abundance and the issuer of them
would not have enough notes of others to exchange all of them. Horn demanded
convertibility - but also abolition of State supervision. Meulen demanded cash
reserve. He knew Wesslau personally. Also Ramus and Tucker.
III/53 7. 5.
1950: King-Hall on the revolution in Asia. The West educates many young and
bright Asians - and then they return - only to be discriminated against there,
by the colonial masters, thus driving them into opposition. Provision of
employment for them would have been easy, with good will, even without monetary
freedom, for they had an education rare in their countries. Communism or State
Socialism always offers them jobs, even if only lowly paid ones. Percentage of
National Income spent for military purposes.
III/54 Governments
can no longer defend the liberties of people. What they know and do is restrict
them. It's time for private associations, sincerely interested in their own
liberty, to preserve it and to do what territorial governments are unable to
do. Beginnings by a "miracle", namely two people get together and
talk about this problem. UNO Constitution. It must be replaced by
private Federations, Leagues etc. Mathematical "method of limits"
applied to the problem by B. (But, alas, not clearly enough for me. - J.Z.)
III/55 Nations,
governments, parties, representation. My 2 peace books, now online, largely
express B.'s ideas on the subject. "What the World wants." (? Name 10
who do!) A Union of subjects rather than governments. (Rather of volunteers,
who strive only for exterritorial autonomy for their communities. - J.Z.)
Replacing the old territorial principle by a new one: The principle of personal
associations and personal laws. In Germany proposed by e.g. Fichte &
Stirner. 1000 years ago well known and applied. Switzerland still calls itself
an "oath-community". Compare: "Panarchism" &
"Panarchy". A banker on inflation, production and credit. Even he had
no longer the right terms and thus not the right ideas on the subject. Gold
standard in the meaning of Jevons or one of his great contemporaries. Now
forgotten or ignored. In letter of 7.4.1950 B. tried to define the notion by 8
possibilities, hoping the list was already complete. M. & his opponents
consider only one aspect of the gold standard system: The legal claim of
note holders to gold coins from the bank, which is a specific case of the
general bad principle: "Creditors are entitled to gold coins when their
claims become due." The still more general problem is that of awarding a
title to an "exclusive currency" to all kinds of creditors. Not only
England was a gold standard country before 1914. Bank Rate and losses from it.
High interest asked for by Banks will have a different effect once the Banks
have to operate on the Free Banking Principle. Others will offer their services
more cheaply, if they can.
III/56 "Drain
of gold" would not occur without this artificial "right" of
creditors. And even if it did, it would not matter. People who really want gold
could, under freedom, always go to a free gold market and there test their
supposedly as good as gold exchange media and most issuers would strive to keep
them at par there, not only in their bank and among their debtors. Right to
local currency or clearing up to the agreed gold-weight values, rather than
right to metallic gold directly from the issuer or from the debtor. Once this
is realised somewhere, it would tend to spread rapidly. Pricing of commodities in
gold weight units is the most important and most suppressed factor. This
suppression is just one aspect of most legal tender laws that enforce
acceptance and value for an exclusive paper money and its exclusive paper
standard. Fiat money issue and inflation. (Watching them isn't made easy. I
haven't seen a year by year survey of the growing circulation of paper money
e.g. in England, Germany, Australia and USA for all too many years. Who
publishes such surveys regularly and relates them to prices, populations,
productivity, government spending, the total tax take and, naturally, the
yearly price level? Out of sight out of mind! - J.Z., 11.6.03.) Popular &
academic opinion on "causes" of the Great German Inflation. B's
contempt for most university economists dates from that time.
III/57 Pride, self-respect, morality, certainty and Kant.
Diminution of Christendom from another side: India and China became powers.
India might come to impose upon South African whites the same race laws with
they (well, some or all too many of them - J.Z.) had imposed upon Negroes and
coloured people. China may one day compel white nations to repeal their
immigration laws. (I would put "China", "white",
"nations" and "their" into quotation marks, perhaps even
"laws". - Too many of the commonly used terms are misleading. Turks,
Allah & God. - J.Z., 11.6.03.) In 500 years the Christians may be reduced
to a little sect, as now the Parsi, one so powerful in old Persia. The military
strength of "Christians" has contributed very much to their rule over
the world. "Conversion of wealth into capital." - "In my books I
described a possibility to transform unsaleable goods, in times of a crisis,
into capital that can be lent out on long-terms and that with the aid of
private note-issuing.
Another Malthusian
false assumption: "as population increases, the supply of good
agricultural areas diminishes." The notion of "good agricultural
area" is variable. Even China is an instance for this. For each seemingly
congested district the most important problem is: How can we sell the crop.
Obviously, there exists an optimum. Erosion is often diminished in the most
simple, cheapest and effective way by populating the exposed district. Pearl S.
Buck's reports on China very inconvenient for Malthusians. Not lack of food but
of transport facilities its major problem. Thus hunger in some districts while
in others surplus food is fed to animals.
III/58 Possible
population of Earth. Production and prices of gold. Capital formation &
long-term loans directly in notes. Note-Issuing Private Banks & Public
Banks, in Germany 1876, table.
III/59 How
different would history have run if
these banks had been really free banks and had made full use of their monetary
freedom options. (Central Banks, or, rather, their leaders, now play a similar
role in the economy which Popes once played in secular matters. B. often called
the "monetary experts" and officials the high priests of the popular
religion on money. - J.Z., 11.6.03.) Adam Smith, David Hume & Murray N.
Rothbard asserted that under Free Trade a lack of currency was impossible. They
assumed that the price level would fast enough adapt to any quantity of
exchange media. Primitive notions have often a much wider appeal than correct
ideas and sound observations.
III/60 Metallic
currencies, for centuries, never quite succeeded in replacing all barter by
monetary exchanges, even in the most advanced economies. Thus we got thousands
of emergency money issues for centuries. Also extensive clearing and other
non-cash payment attempts and practices. All still more or less flawed &
tried to metal redemption notions or those of exclusive currencies. If these
great economists would have been in the right, then all note-issuing would have
been unnecessary, as far as the supply of the people with currency is
concerned. But they were, nevertheless, friends of note-issuing banks, because
they assumed them to be institutions to improve the supply of credit. (B.
didn't & I could not say that with confidence on M. N. Rothbard.) Laws and theories
still consider the amount of outstanding notes as a debt of the issuing bank or
a loan raised from the public or even a mere "fiat" money. Two
conclusions possible: If currency always exists and is sufficient, then this
applies also to credit. Credit banks should give credits only in cash, in
metal, not in notes. The other is: Give up the false opinion that currency is
always available for normal business. One gap in currency supply is described
here by B. It was also described by Jefferson in a letter to Gallatin, in 1802.
Quoted here. J. included "National Bills" with currency. That was not
consistent. He also wrote to Mr. T. Cooper, in 1814 against this "banking
mania", for "total prohibition of all private notes" and for
"the necessary emissions of public money in circulating size, this
bottomed on normal taxes, redeemable annually, as this special tax comes
in."
III/61 Jefferson
quote continued. (Alas it is incomplete & I could not fully restore it. -
J.Z.) Swiss Care Parcel Certificates, redeemable in a Central Warehouse for
Swiss Care Goods, is printed, in three languages: Warengutschein, Bon pour
marchandises, Voucher for goods. Goods warrants may be a better term - until a
still better one is found. Compared with them, M.'s notes are mortgage bonds or
interest-free bills of exchange or interest-free promissory notes. Thus they
contain the element "credit", which vouchers do not contain. Tax
foundation money based on due taxes does not contain the element
"credit". It was inconsistent of him to propose it while believing
that metal currency can never be in short supply. Steuart, Smith, Roscher and
many named by Roscher, wrote on tax foundation money. But they failed to draw
the right conclusions from their observations and did not apply the principle
involved to the private sphere.
III/62 Loans with
the aid of notes or goods warrants. All the now necessary precautions were
previously often ignored. They got away with this in deflationary times. The
issue was therefore always below the amount of exchange media which were really
wanted in a country. (Apart from some forced currency issues like the
Assignats.) Therefore even the interest-free promissory notes got an additional
value nearly equal to the missing interest, so that the notes circulated at
par. The notes were largely confined to payments among merchants, since most
were in large denominations, not suitable for wage payments. Today merchants
largely clear and notes will be needed mainly for wages and retail trade. The
old redemption principle also allowed a greater liberality in long-term
credits. Once this principle is discarded, the old liberality with long-term
loans is no longer economically possible. (Instead, short-term deposits are
abused for this purpose or the banks simply assume that the central bank will
bail them out with its note-printing press. - J.Z., 11.6.03.)
III/63) Blessing
of newly printed notes by high official of the Roman Catholic Church in Spain.
As if e.g., blessed bridges had less accidents and did not collapse as frequently
as the unblessed ones. Protection for Egg producers. 13. 5. 1950: 9th
monetary liberty: "The liberty to establish money accounts with any
person, institution or bank ad libitum and to dispose of these accounts freely,
according to agreed-upon conditions." - In April 1950 5,600 refugees from
East Germany begged for admission to the Western Zone & 4, 663 were sent
back. The cruelty involved makes these Western officials no better than those
in the East. These officials should be deported to East Germany, instead and
should have to endure there what these sent-back refugees must endure there.
III/64 Free
Banking would enable us to welcome every refugee able to work as a helper. But
refugees must be helped, quite independent of the situation at the labour
market. Article by Ritchie Calder, Hannibal and his Elephants, points out areas
in antiquity, populated by hundreds of millions (dozens? J.Z.), are now
deserts. Erosion? Salination? Persians knew the art of transforming deserts
fertile land. They use it when a government governs rather than plunders. It
requires a dense population. 19. 5. 1950: Esperanto. Cash reserves &
bankers. UNO. Cases where wars are begun by subordinates must be taken into
consideration.
III/65 Dr. Jameson
& John Brown cases. Use of the atom-bomb-monopoly against the Kremlin?
(Each such "weapons" would have killed more victims than victimisers.
- J.Z. 12.6.03.) Gold standard. Jevons on Mint. Central Banks & gold
purchases. Reichsbank redemption. German objections against private note
issues. Notes were considered as loans granted by the note bearers and no one
has the right to take a loan from persons who are not willing to grant the
loans. Upon reply that a the German notes had no cours forcé they said: In
practice the right to refuse them is never used. Why should it be when the
notes are kept at par? But the note issue would raise interest-free loans, a
privilege to be granted only to the State. - If that were possible, shouldn't
that option be extended to everybody? Etc., on redemptionism. Taxes on note
issues. For decades the smallest Reichsbank note was 100 marks. Why the
Reichsbank (Prussian Bank) could buy the note-issue right from most private
banks. It had made it largely unprofitable. The field for the issue of smaller notes
was legally closed.
III/67 Theorists
followed Adam Smith's doctrine that small notes would drive precious metal from
the circulation. As real economists they should have welcomed such cheaper
exchange media! Greene, value & purchasing power. 26. 5. 1950:
Devaluation to promote exports, instead of introducing Free Banking and freely
floating exchange rates. Malthusianism
& race. China.
III/68 Japan,
thought police & spies: American occupation led to a mental liberation. But
continuance of central banking could lead to a restoration of the old excess
statism, lastly but a consequence of monetary centralism. Overlooked by
Spencer? No, he advocated Free Banking at least on the Scotch model. Two world
wars fought under monetary despotism. Soviet & Chinese as well as Nazi
totalitarianism arose under it. Malthusianism, China & Adam Smith. Housing
shortage in Paris: No one would invest in housing on a Franc basis, after so
many devaluations. And yet no one demands a stable currency. They should for
price & rent controls instead, although the government now realises that
they are beyond its powers. Free market in educational services. Libertarian
publishing & library. World Library in Alexandria. No copyrights.
III/69 6. 5.
1950 to Mr. Robert Picard, on aggression, Swiss defence only against
governments, not soldiers and citizens, desertion, separate peace, POW
treatment, asylum for all victims of dictatorships, Hague Conventions, free
migration, support of liberated victims of regimes, payment for weapons they bring
with them, rewards to acts against a despotic regime, alliance with the
suppressed people, separate peace treaty with them.
III/70 Rightful
war aims: No conquests or reparation demands from innocents. No meddling except
dictatorial aspirations will be resisted. War criminals will be held
responsible. Switzerland as refuge. Work
for all easy via free banking. German original appended on following pages. B.
advocated a kind of military jiu jitsu, to turn the seeming military strength
of a despotic regime against it. Practical details are very important. But
there is little interest in this kind of peace promotion.
III/72 9. 6.
1950: Gifts, presents and poisons.
III/ 73
Development of insurance terms and practices. How Roman Law was hated among German
tribes. Certain words were long "taboo". From the report on such
superstitions in the Bible, and it considered as "the word of God",
one can only conclude that even "God" was, to a large extent,
superstitious. Poisoning in Germany by women. An early form of "women's
lib" against their brutal treatment? Arab Bedouins, Mohammed, torture only
to get gold & silver.
III/74 Iceland
pretty wealthy through Free Trade. By Free Trade Burma's rice fields
"belong" to England, Germany etc. Without Free Trade Spanish colonies
were poor countries. But at that time they produced more gold and silver than
any other country. Gold does not enrich. Free enterprise and free exchange do.
UNO. Does it still exist? Only as a corpse, kept "alive" via tax
subsidies. Another kind of league needed. But it would need a program &
practically no one is interested in that. The brain dead rule the world and are
ruled by them. No way out left, so far, for the others. All fear of national
trade competition could be removed by the Milhaud plan on international
clearing and clearing certificates. Anti-cartel legislation. Free competition
to supply industry with capital, agreed, but there is no agreement on the means
to be used to achieve that. Liberty to experiment would provide the best system
soon and discard the others. Agreement on that liberty.
III/75 14. 6.
1950: Israel, Jews, Community Centres with voluntary communism. Connection
of "exclusive currency" with communist theory and practice. Culture,
mentality & scarcity of money. Slave armies. Aside such communistic spheres
there were some in which people were able to pay and were personally free.
Soviet "Combines". Feudal system probably arose of the lack of
currency after the fall of the Roman Empire. Where currency was introduced serfs
often bought their freedom. Where it was lacking they often revolted and
established free towns. Jews, very cultured people, but unable to conceive
monetary liberty, established voluntary Community Centres, which cannot produce
slavery, because members are free to leave them. The influence of currency
supply on history is insufficiently investigated, as is the currency supply
itself. Captains of industry. Inflation & forced currency. Aristocracy of
economics no longer exists. (Did it really ever exist? A few exceptional
persons do not yet constitute a ruling aristocracy and come to the top much
more rarely than the scum does. - J.Z., 12.6.03.)
III/76 Modern
"leadership" without a program. Just like their voters full of
popular prejudices. Technology and processes for enlightenment. The supposed
"free market for ideas" must be turned into a real one, supplemented
by freedom and tolerance for all tolerant actions and experiments of
volunteers. The State has no right to intrude services upon those able and willing
to render them for themselves. After 300 years of political economy they still
don't know that they are able to do so.
Marriage and divorce law reform. Slavery outlawed under Prussian civil
Law of 1794. Indian women, situation bad after divorce. Probably in China, too.
Manners should become like in Burma, where every woman may find a living by a
little trade. H. Fielding Hall, "The Soul of a People", 1898 ff on
this. China still under-populated. But land development can't be achieved on the
basis of inflated paper money.
III/77 What China
needs … Only 1/7th of the land which could be cultivated is
cultivated. China needs to encourage more birth, rather than preventing them.
Ireland now one of the richest countries? Before the French Revolution, with the
same population, it was one of the poorest. China's problems to be solved by
Free Banking, not by Malthusianism. Great men, such as great scientists, poets
etc., only possible in a great population. Qualities required of money
reformers. Do more than 10% possess them? Among 1000 million adult men there is
one money reformer, who deserves that name. (How can the knowledge of
those few be fully combined and spread? Technically that is now possible. -
J.Z., 12.6.03.)
III/78 Several
kinds of gold standard. Meulen's is the Ricardo type. If that had been the only
possible one then the Romans, at the time of the emperors and, especially,
after Constantine, were not on a gold standard. They had no banks whose paper
would be converted into gold. Naples, Bremen & Prussia on gold coin
standard. Greene-Tucker system & that of Four Bills. Gold-accounting
standard. Hamburg Mark Banko. The real value standard is the one in which
prices are expressed. Inflation. 16. 6. 1950:
III/79 Refugees
sent back to East Germany. Inhumanity of that measure. Jobs are there, but
under monetary despotism they cannot be freely financed. What was their fate
afterwards? (J.Z. on present concentration camps for illegal immigrants in
Australia. Only those should be deported who ordered and enforced this
treatment for these victims.) Malthusianism & Hunger. Lack of capital
prevents peasants from using more than primitive tools and equipment. Capital
unobtainable under inflated paper currencies. (However, black market trading
during inflations made peasants in Germany relatively well off. - J.Z.,
12.6.03.) Indian capital and interest rate position.
III/80 17. 6.
1950: Malthusianism & war. Was even one war mainly caused through
"population pressure"? 100
years ago, when Africa's population was less than half of the present, its
natives were in continuous warfare. Did these wars improve their situation?
Walker's "Insurance Cyclopedia" listed also all known famines. The
most terrible ones occurred under Charles "the Great". One of the
causes was lack of transport facilities But overpopulation was then certainly
not the cause. Buffon on the limits of all quantities of matter and force, even
regarding the dimensions of plants and animals and populations. Quite striking
is the increase of births after wars and famines. Once the normal number is
attained the sexual desire diminishes. The West now needs Anti-Malthusianism,
Free Trade, Free Banking, a suitable value standard, a better military
organisation & more interest in its own affairs. Free Banking vs. Malthus. 21.
6. 1950:
III/81: Chinese
successful treatment of POWs and deserters in 1877. In China Mao's method is
old hat. Kuropatkin: "Kashgaria", London, 1883. Reprint
suggested. 6. 7. 1950: Zander.
Soviets blocked water. In Neukoeln, some km from B., 13 schools had to be
closed because of this. During their first blockade the Soviets did not block
the water.
III/82 B. kept all
of M.'s papers and clippings. Refugees from the Eastern Zone. Their treatment
confirmed B.'s view that West Germany is not yet in a mental state to govern
itself. UNO intervention against its supreme cruelty? If England, in 1914, had
adopted war laws as B. suggested in the above letter to Dr. Picard, then
soldiers from all parties would have gone over to the English side, at least by
1916-1918. B. advocating larger populations in all cases where peasants find
difficulties in selling their products. The production of victuals can easily
be increased by capital credits under honest conditions. Malthusianism,
Catholic processions, birth control, human sacrifices. Malthusians tend to
ignore all real causes and solutions. Misery of small populations.
III/83 More
talents among larger populations. More births as the most effective means for
social & economic betterment. Ancient mentality of self-castration among
the priests of Cybele, introduced into Christianity and there propagated by the
priest Malthus. Malthusianism & Christianity in harmony. As long as this
faith is taken serious, Malthusianism will be taken serious, too. Edmund Keinschmidt,
1928 travel book, on Japan and its seeming overpopulation, describes the
real causes of its poverty. Even reduction of Japan's population would not help
- as long as the old system of leases is retained.
III/84 If peasants
are compelled to cede all production beyond a minimum standard of living, then
the density of population can be as low as in the Sahara and the peasants will
still remain poor and hungry. To such peasants even the Communist
"program" sounded attractive. "Lebensraum" claim in Germany
& of Nazis. What Germany needs is Free Trade in victuals. Protectionism
favoured war in two ways described. Nazis: Some people really believe in their
nonsense! Mobilisation took place in general consternation & silence. But
until then the "Lebensraum" slogan was good propaganda for the Nazis.
Malthus did not distinguish distress caused by too much food from a distress
caused by lack of victuals. Gold standard. Older English writers admitted its
possibility without paper money. Modern ones believe it to be a feature of
"sound" paper money. India's high and normal interest rates, in
different spheres.
III/85 Lending to
impoverished peasants whose sales were not assured, was a risky business, just
like lending money to gamblers. Pride of Brahmins may also have been involved,
towards low class Indians. Scarcity of coins & other ready cash - wasteful
use of precious medals for jewellery rather than coins to multiply exchanges.
Instances of money lenders in Europe. Under certain conditions - rapid daily turnover,
a huge interest rate is still quite bearable. 7. 7. 1950: Martial spirit
- until the first grenade shell whistles. James II of England was at last left
by his soldiers. Soldier's were abused by governments at all times. (They ought
to take their fate into their own hands & so should civilians. - J.Z.,
12.6.03.) Trygve Lie (UN) should publish a land reform program. Otherwise Mao
will win. Attacking Chinese soldiers in Korean War strongly under the influence
of drugs, according to an Australian soldier.
III/86 Most UN
soldiers there just ducked into their fox holes and fired into the air! Effect
on fighting morale once atrocities by the other side are seen. Why did Napoleon
I get obedient soldiers for many years? The soldiers were peasants and the Royals
had proclaimed that the old feudal land system would be restored by them. To
that extent his soldiers just defended their property. (Officers were largely
elected. Anyone could rise in rank. The old slogan of the Revolution: War to
the palaces but peace to the cottages, was not quite forgotten yet or turned,
too obviously, into its opposite. N. had provided a stable currency and a
relatively attractive civil code. But at last it became clear that Frenchmen
did not want to be soldiers forever, of glory & plunder, in attempts to
conquer the world, or live under censorship & secret police powers. - J.Z.,
12.6.03.) 9. 7. 1950: Skilled workers defecting to the East? At least
that regime is prepared to accept them. Refugees, mentality & abilities or
disabilities.
III/87 "Free
Trader". Are they 100 % Free Traders, as long as they don't advocate Free
Trade in means of payment? The term "effective demand". Monetary vs.
barter economy.
III/88 Form and
foundation of liquidity is very important. Two steps towards it. 1.) The
offered means of exchange are continuously inspected and evaluated by a free
market. 2.) The order or commitment system. - Existing exchange media must be
supplemented by "purchasing certificates". Wrong assumption that the
correct theory of "effective demand" has already been found.
Obligations to buy by commitments, expressed in article by Wasserrab on
commercial crises, in first supplement, 1890/91 to the 4th ed. of
"Meyer's Konversations-Lexikon". W. quoted. The absolute liberty of
buying, without regard to production, compared with the freedom or whim of
savages. (Compare the modern JIT [Just In Time) system of ordering supplies for
current production. It saves the producer capital and commits him to purchases
from suppliers for an agreed-upon period. - J.Z., 12.6.03.) Sound markets in
futures a step in this direction. Paris pre WW II journal "Plans".
(Neither B. nor I ever saw a copy of it. - J.Z., 12.6.03.)
III/89 Probably
linked to Ideas Archive project of my father, K. H. Zube. Certainly to my
"Peace Plans". Stress on synthesis or new ideas rather than on mere
analysis. Stephen King-Hall & monetary state of the world. Government
interference produces low wages. Low wages produce a low output. Even poor
countries have surprise attack strength. (The N. Korean regime may rely on that
now. - J.Z., 12.6.03.) Military strength through reduction of production for
private purposes.
III/90 Lord
Elgin's 1860 destruction of Peking's "Summer-Palace". Not forgotten
and forgiven even now. Effect of destruction of Korean towns by air raids,
simply because they were occupied by communist troops. So begins the
"liberation" of the Asians from Communism! Always the same old
"principle": Collective responsibility. The subdued is to suffer for
the actions of the oppressor! (When will enough people cease to be such
savages? - J.Z., 12.6.03.) 22. 7. 1950: Sufficient publicity on
difference between "news" in East and West. Ending collective
responsibility practices would make good propaganda for the West & increase
its military strength, while weakening that of its opponents. Soviet air raid
policy was more rightful and sensible, with two exceptions. Castille & Gold
Rule Banker. Sunset Bank.
III/91 Personal
Finance Assn. in US. German savings institution, also chained by antiquated
legislation. Men only 80 % rascals. Effect of interest rates is usually
overestimated. Sunset Bank offered youthful farmers loans without interest.
This is a very bad principle & practice. Christian philanthropy isn't
optimal economics. Christian charity vs. scientific charity.
III/92: Time
deposits (fixed deposits) are an invention to be compared to atomic bombs. (A
time bomb only when their timing is not sufficiently related to the timing of
bank loans and when repayments have to be made in monopoly money! - J.Z.,
12.6.03.) Their role in the Great Depression & in the subsequent events.
Castille's Sunset Bank practice. Californian law of Building & Loan
Associations, the best in its sphere. Customers wanting to withdraw and cannot
be satisfied immediately do simply give notice, the notices are listed and
their deposits are paid out in the sequence of the list. What they still lacked
was standardised certificates based on the acceptance principle. C. J. Voskamp,
"Zerstoerende und aufbauende Maechte in China", undated, on
conditions of peasants in China & extremely high rents and interest rates
there, causing poverty. Even with a very small population China would be
impoverished under such conditions. But Malthusians assert: All that does not matter!
Would Malthus himself have been as insensible? Korea & Japan. Hippolyte
Taine, in his "Origines de la France Contemporaire" reports similar
conditions in pre-revolutionary France.
III/93 Korea. Did
Americans reform the conditions there or left them as tinder waiting for the
first match? B. thought it prudent to advocate larger population on the chance
that more Free Bankers will be born, Free Banking being the basis of future
culture, life and liberty and only Free Banking. (Here one should
remember Bastiat's observation: "Society is exchange" and also
the very meaning of the term "exchange medium", in order not to
consider this remark to be a typical B. exaggeration, just to stress a point. -
I asked him once, whether he had enough cups for his few guests. His reply: I
have millions of cups in my cupboard! - Sometimes he gave the impression of
having millions of facts, ideas and references in his head, even while he
complained about a bad memory. - J.Z., 12. 6. 03.) There are other advantages
of large populations, e.g., for the provision of transport facilities for Free
Trade. American Banking conditions and beliefs 40 years ago. They were
relatively free and thought to be quite free, at least according to the
prevailing prejudices. Greene demanded not Free Banking - Freedom in Banking
existed - but Mutual Banks, i.e., banks which replace capital by a mutual
obligation of members to accept their notes at par. Green was quite near to the
truth. What he did not see was: This obligation can be imposed only upon
debtors. Once this is agreed, then the restriction to mutuality is no longer
necessary.
III/94 Obligation
of buyers to buy. Order or commitment system. Similar non-comprehension as
among pacifists. But a new aristocracy will arise. And they will practically
demonstrate their liberties and effectively defend their right to do so.
Russian tanks. One result of discriminating, in 1945, against German scientists
and technicians. (Only very few and selected specialists were welcomed in the
West. Probably many more secret service men than members of useful professions.
The Soviets were ready to exploit any skill, even that of Nazis. - J.Z.,
12.6.03.) Air raids against civilians and the fury they aroused. Compare the
fury aroused in England after the destruction of Coventry. In Germany even the
Nazis were seen as the lesser evil! A cosmopolitan like B. kept his mouth shut.
During WW II millions of Chinese came to Soviet Russia to work in its
ammunition factories. Bad as conditions were under this regime, they were
better than the Chinese conditions at the time. B. supplied some details.
III/95 Thus almost
every Chinese who returned became a propagandist for the Soviets. Times of 18.
4. 50 on race. "I know that in the USA the Negroes prefer banks conducted
by whites and are very right to do so. But if they visit a theatre, the prefer
as keeper of the wardrobe a Negro. The latter never errs in returning their
clothing." At railways Negroes are preferred for many jobs. The Negro race
seems to be in regress since about 1000 years. The first Portuguese discoverers
met powerful and well organised empires. The now living race was unable to
defend itself against a few Arabian slavers. Many scientists believe that the
Egyptian culture has been a Negro culture. Rothbard, like all American writers
for decades, does not distinguish paper money with cours forcé from paper money
without cours forcé, although the former means State interference. Inflation
requires cours forcé and is not synonymous with rising prices. M. notes cannot
cause an inflation, even if their issuers were firmly determined to cause one.
In case of over-issue the notes would get a discount and almost everybody would
then refuse to accept them. A few days later they would have disappeared,
together with their discount. Rothbard does not consider this possibility,
although American monetary history offers numerous examples. His fixed idea was
100 % gold redemptionism. Link between exclusive currency and inflation, if all
goods, services and debts are priced in it. That, too, gives a currency a
forced value and a forced acceptance. At least on the open market it leaves no
legal and sound alternative. What will happen if all pricing can freely be done
in two ways, side by side: Prices in a government paper money and prices in a
preferred alternative and sound currency. It would not take much intelligence
to draw this sound conclusion from the difference: The prices are not really
inflated, reckoned in a sound value standard, but the government paper money is
depreciated. Precisely because of this the inflating governments would attempt
to suppress such pricing.
III/96 Did Asian
gold after the victory over Macedonia and Egypt really raise the price level of
ancient Rome? Concerning the effect of influx of precious metal B. wrote to M.
before. Here he says that Bonn and Wieser proved it long before him. Each can
compare for himself the annual gold production since 1492 with the annual
population involved with that production, which from 1492 to 1592 was about 100
million. The quantity per capita is obviously too small to be able to exercise
a significant economic effect. Error of Rothbard concerning the time
preference. A story on an anti-trees religion arising among Negroes and the
spread of a pro-trees religion invented and spread as a counter-measure. True
or just a nice story on what motivates some people?
III/97 Bedouins in
Palestine knew of a method to store four for 10 years in desert caves. They
even increased its market value thereby. A hint worth checking out? Really no
deterioration? Wouldn't storing the complete grains be easier? The dishonest
practices of central banks spread dishonesty among debtors. Interest as the
creditor's share in the product which the debtor gets with the help of the
borrowed capital. The debtor may gain 30 % p.a. Roman gold standard, as
described in F. Hultsch, "Griechische und roemische Metrologie".
Rothbard does not see that a bank of issue, to maintain parity of its notes
with gold coins, does not need a store of gold coins but only a continuous
connection with a free bullion market. That is one of the greatest discoveries
in economics, and it seems the honour of this discovery belongs to W. B.
Greene. M. rejected that kind of parity.
III/98 If the bank
does not promise to pay in full in gold, then it cannot become bankrupt for
this reason, when unable to convert its notes into gold. Rothbard discusses
none of the alternatives. Rothbard speaks of "soft money fallacies of
Proudhon". That is unjust towards P. Rothbard could not quote a passage
from P. which makes it probably that P. rejected gold as a measure of value.
Other major flaws of Rothbard's monetary views. (I do not want to quote them
here in full. Look them up! They are very important flaws, especially for a
radical libertarian like him. - J.Z., 12.6.03.) Special journals like the
French "Plans" will be devoted to monetary freedom aspects. Nobody
considers that the terrors of deflation are much greater. Inflation deprives
the old and the receivers of pensions. But deflation deprives the whole people.
Rothbard does not consider the best way to avoid deflation and inflation.
Mises: While his book offers many interesting details about the history of
means of payment, he has not the least notion of self-help against monetary blunders
of an ignorant government. (I do not agree with this evaluation. He favoured
somewhat free banking but not quite FREE banking. – J.Z.)
III/99 Is it still
your opinion that the only way to protect a country's gold is: prohibiting gold
coins as a measure of value and means of payment? 28. 7. 1950: A
conversion to honest money. What Americans called, 150 years ago: "the
right of banking", the right of every honest citizen to issue standardised
notes in small fractions, without cours forcé of course. At that time it was
considered as founded on Common Law. Source: Prof. Bullock, Monetary History of
the US, 1912. (I microfiched the 1900 edition in PEACE PLANS 373-375. - J.Z.)
Irrigation plan for Swazi-Territory. They whole of Africa could be turned into
fertile land. B. mentions here only water and men as lacking. Perhaps he
presumed that capital could be gained for this under favourable conditions
& that if monetary freedom were introduced the additional produce could
also be sold. Schopenhauer's Eristische Dialektik points out 37 different
discussion tricks one ought to know, to oppose them properly. (Fiched in PEACE
PLANS in English & in German.) While generally it is more profitable to
ameliorate land already under the plough, than to transform deserts into arable
land (I republished 2 rare books and wrote one article on the latter option
& its finance. - J.Z.), sometimes, as in many parts of Africa, the cost of
transforming a desert into arable land is so small that the yield can be 100 %
and more p.a.
III/100 Carlyle
quote against Malthusianism. Carlyle was right on every point. At least one can
say about the Soviets that they were not Malthusians. Law of Diminishing
Returns. Also misunderstood by Malthusians.
III/101 Kropotkin.
Optimum population. Vegetarianism. Berlin needs monetary independence. (What
Berliners & other Europeans got instead is a single Central Bank for most
of Europe. The wrongs and damages caused by it will only be exceeded by those
of the Indian & Chinese central banks! The consequences of German central
banking seem already forgotten or most people simply never became sufficiently
aware of them! - J.Z., 12.6.03.) "Capitalism means the excluding of men
from a share in the earth, who do not possess capital." (I disagree with
that definition. A man's life-long labour ability constitutes also an enormous
capital. Its owner ought to utilise it property in a capitalistic or voluntary
socialistic way, as B. suggested elsewhere. Even now he benefits greatly from
the capital of others, while he has not yet sufficiently mobilised his own. -
J.Z., 12.6.03.)
III/102
Anti-Monopolism might be a better word for the ideal than is
"Capitalism". King-Hall favours the battlefield of ideas against
communism - but never takes a stand for monetary freedom. Anti-communism
without it is not sufficiently effective. Sympathy with "honest
money" is not enough. One must get quite clear notions on it. Volunteer
militias of England in 1848. Now a new militia is needed, locally and
internationally. The local ones should federate like the Maquis members did in
France, the "Geusen" in the Netherlands, the "Sons of the red
spears" in China. The Supranational Militia should have its centre in
London. A finance plan must be worked out for it. The German militia would or
should bring freedom from all the crazy laws which suppress freedom in the
choice of value standards. The governmental defence monopoly is to be broken.
Was there ever an invasion by Russian volunteer forces? Smaller States? Smaller
groups have rights, too. States are institutions of a doubtful military value.
Clemenceau said that wars are too important to be entrusted to generals. He
went so far as to think that not only States but generals, too, are of doubtful
military value. Full mobilisation? (By themselves, in the defence of their
rights, and with quite rightful war and peace aims, against real threat to
them, and with quite rightful arms and warfare or liberation methods. Maybe B.
wanted to lead M. only gradually towards alternative defence and liberation
ideas. - J.Z., 12.6.03.)
III/103 German
voluntary militias of 1812/13. "Landsturm" (& various
"Freikorps". - J.Z.) First action of the militia, to publish a
militia law similar to the articles B. proposed in his letter to Dr. Picard. 31.
7. 1950: Gold & Silver production 1493 - 1600. The total addition for
those involved was only about 27.4 grams per head, close to one ounce. Such a
small amount could not have caused the price revolution. Moreover, much went to
the Orient for luxuries, to churches & rich people for ornaments. Much was
lost by shipwrecks or in buried treasures. And that one ounce contribution was
spread over more than a century!
III/104 Adam Smith
on price rises in England, general not before 1570, although in this year the
mines of Potosi had been known for 20 years. Nevertheless he adhered to the
general opinion that the additional production of rare metals was to blame.
Real reasons were probably quite different. One factor was the replacement of
payments in kind by payments in money. Tax payments in produce vs. tax payments
in money, in Persia. Similar conditions in Europe. Another cause was the export
of corn to northern countries, in exchange for fish, wood, fat etc. Before that
these products were of little value. Roscher pointed out the effects, e.g. of
the invention of the salting of herrings. Another factor: Expansion of
clearing. It helped to reduce the deflationary effect of the all too small coin
circulation. Increase in armies.
III/105 While
there may be objections against a gold coin value standard, to prohibit it
would be tyrannical. Gold inflation has not been observed even now. Fort Knox.
Jevons recommended a similar standard to that of M., but based on index
numbers, for long-term investments. B. adopted the view of Savigny, in his
"Obligationenrecht", 1851/53. Laws of monetary despotism in Germany. 1.
8. 1950: Malthusian quotes 1821 figures and complaints that more modern
figures would not be available, although e.g. the Encyclopaedia Britannica of 1947
offers them. E.g.: World wheat yields by countries, 1930-1934.
III/106
Statesman's Yearbook, 1946 & 1949 offer such figures and also Whitaker's
Almanach: Wheat production figures for UK, 1939-1948. Fertility is relative. In
very wide ranges fertility is a product no less than wheat. Fertility is mainly
a matter of the product's price. B. worked from 1942 to 1945 at the Price
Commission, where Hitler, after July 1944 found so many victims.
III/107 Effect of
Nazi price controls: Production fell by 1/4 to 1/3. Much land remained
uncultivated. Compulsory delivery quotas could not be enforced. Lower
productivity in India. Rice yields in Java, Madura & Japan. 2. 8. 1950:
Full economic liberation rather than Malthusianism.
III/108 Possible
population estimates for Earth vary from 6,000 million to 15,000 million.
Malthusianism. There is no substitute for Free Banking. Only Free Banking. That
was the standpoint in M.'s Book: "Free Banking". 6. 8. 1950: "We have connected
our vital force with the Orion Nebula, which is now becoming the finest Free
Banking Centre in the Universe." (Are there really no borders for ideas
& life & mental energies? - Do they have a life and even immortality of
their own? Do space and time mean nothing to them? B. took some consolation in
such notions. - J.Z., 12.6.03.) (I would rather have all ideas brought down to
Earth, in combination, in an “ Ideas Archive”! – J.Z., 18.7.03. Under full
monetary freedom & Free Trade Germany would not need Marshall Plan Aid and
would, as in 1914, be a country in which labour is in short supply and would
invite immigrants with job offers.
III/109 Marshall
Plan Aid & currency law of 1948. Monetary freedom requires no law but just
absence of prohibitions. Free experimentation would do the rest and evaluate
the M. and the B. system. The Four bills permit any value standard and the M-
system, too. A German "Individualist". Regardless of any money offer,
B. could not publish it now. (But he would have extensively contributed, if
someone else had established it and opened its pages to him. - J.Z., 12.6.03.)
PEACE PLANS, since 1964. Indian capitalists & Indian money lenders &
their different interest rates.
III/110 Cheapening
of agrarian credits. California vs. India. Finance companies, credit insurance.
Freedom for institutions to buy all kinds of credit-insured investments. Also
investments with value-preserving clauses. And security from government
interventions with funds. But, who cares, now? Time deposits. Russian tanks.
Situation of scientists in Germany after the war. The same applies to German
officers. Alexander assumes that the North Korean attack plan was drawn up by
German officers. They would certainly have preferred to serve in a Western
army. But paragraphs prevented that.
III/111
Machiavelli says: Kill a beaten enemy or treat him as your own subject. But if
you ill-treat him and let him live, then one day he will conquer you. Rothbard,
redemptionism, clearing of notes. Shop foundation notes. Experience would soon
teach what is possible and what is not. Tucker & Greene on B.'s side, also
the experience in Germany from about 1919 to 1924. Railway money issues or
"Oeser-Bons". Meinl, active in Berlin on a large scale. Suffolk
system for clearing redemption notes. Woolworth & Coles issues. Zander. Rothbard's
statement on time preference. The case that a man likes the apple at once is a
special case. That this case, at the present state of society, is the most
frequent one, does not turn the single case in to a general case.
III/112 Lastly
interest is determined by supply and demand. For many years the demand for
capital, to applied to high yield investments, will be greater than the offer.
Immense opportunities in agriculture alone. Norris E. Dodd: "In more than
half the world the scythe has not yet supplanted the sickle." Derive from
that fact what could be invested in agriculture if the same capital would be
invested per labourer as in England. Prosperity of bachelors. How prosperous
would they be if everyone became one? India's paper rupee and China's
paper-Yuan are not a seductive basis for value reckoning. Neither are Germany's
paper mark and England's managed paper-pound. But if the gold-basis is restored
then capital for every practical increase of the population will be raised, at
least in some decades. Effect of public old age pensions. Who is paying them
for the childless?
III/113 Old age
pensions and children as an investment. China. A bachelor in China, in his old
age, must become a beggar or a monk. The same mentality prevailed in North America
to about 1850, especially in its West. Chinese philosophy on rebellion against
tyrants. Free Banking the best means to maintain a population, growing or not.
Optimum population. Malthusianism. 13. 8. 1950:
III/114 Kant and
thinking together with others. National feelings & taking them into
consideration. Mao vs. Chiang Kai-Shek & desertion. Transforming every war
into a civil war. Revolutionary governments as allies. Montesquieu. Soviets
employed this methods as far as they could. (Hardly in their treatment of
POW's. - J.Z.) Real masters & winners of this method can only be those who
have all rights and liberties on their side.
III/115
Communists. Mazzini: patriotic Internationalism. Bismarck. Switzerland. Rhode
Island & Vermont, little autonomous German towns. Exterritorial &
voluntary autonomy would bring us closer to the ideals involved.
Territorialism. Louis XIX, won wars largely by bribes. Montecucculi.
Wallenstein found: No gold can buy real patriots. A book ought to be written:
"Nationalism vs. Economic Advantages". Old age insurance. Government
meddling led to dependence in old age upon the government.
III/116
Malthusianism: 4 of its false premises. It has the very great advantages to
make observations, facts, thinking and experiments quite unnecessary for them.
Like some Christians, Communists & Nazis they are only expected to believe.
17. 8. 1950: Equality of rights does not involve equality of capacities.
Quote from F. Gregorovius, "Idyllen …", 1856.
III/117 Racial
rather than climatic differences. Malthusianism, Free Trade. Political
frontiers considered as natural walls. Hitler's racist "logic".
Perhaps innate ideas don't exist but innate methods of thinking do. 18. 8. 1950: Del Mar & Roman
coins. Gold standard with silver for small change. Japanese & Australian
farmers.
III/118
Phrenology, Gall's experience. Voluntary militia, Adam Smith & freedom of
speech and press. Gold production, Jevons. Distinction between gold coins
convertible into paper and paper convertible into gold. For many centuries
paper money was not in use but gold always was, with very few exceptions.
Sometimes, in old Egypt, kings declared gold to be a royal monopoly. Compare
governmental practices in our lifetimes.
Modern governments are not wiser than ancient ones.
III/ 119
Convertibility at the issuer of the paper money or at the bullion market? Paper
money convertible only at the bullion market & without cours forcé: The
discovery of the Four Bills. Greene & Tucker probably meant the same but
did not express it clearly enough. Spencer's idea on the legal possibility to
"ignore the State". First step: He who insures himself is not subject
to the social insurance laws. The next step would be to provide oneself with
employment. Rittershausen. People whose minds are not prepared for such ideas.
They are welcome to the rump States that would remain, as their voluntary
members and at their own risk and expense. Bribing rulers into such tolerance?
(That might be possible for small, poor & underdeveloped States. There refugees
might buy their independence gradually, via "protegé-citizenship, later
expanded into full exterritorial autonomy, for mutual benefits. A suggestion B.
made elsewhere. By their example and free exchanges & contracts they would
have so much to offer to native citizens. But the should beware not to purchase
all or most land away from them but rather go into partnerships or coops or
open coops with them. - J.Z., 13.6.03.) Mohammed's admirable invention of
"bought tolerance". "You will not become a true believer? Well -
that costs you one gold coin per year and head!" That was excellent. By
that invention the ruler become the protectors of tolerance. And those
prosecuted in other countries found asylum in Islamic countries. A possible
factor in the military superiority of Turkey until about 1700. German students.
(Eagerness to learn? (I know of an Australian libertarian academic lecturer who
gave up this job in disgust because none of his students showed enough
intellectual curiosity & willingness to learn, by his standards. How many
students were sufficiently influenced by Rittershausen? Heinrich von Kleist.
III/120
Bombardment of Korea. (By now it has led to a despotic Korean govt. armed with
nuclear weapons & IBMs. Actions have consequences and not always rational
ones. - J.Z., 13.6.03.) A Martian view of Earth politics. South Africa &
Hitlerism. An anti-white racism is bred there and suspicion towards democracy.
Malan. Zander. Taxation, devaluation, experts, defence. (The best defence
consists in making defence unnecessary because aggression does no longer become
possible for a government. - J.Z., 13.6.03.)
III/121 Militia
idea & practice. 18. 8. 1950: Malthusianism, Sir John Orr. Blockade
& Berlin mail practices.
III/122 23. 8.
1950: Hire purchase business inflationary? When people expect inflation
they buy on terms hoping to win from it. Gold mining, number of employees.
Strabo on silver mines of New Cartago. For shareholders it is wise to sell if
daily wages are pretty equal to daily output. Without supplying the number of
workers the financial figures are in twilight.
III/123
Protectionism, Free Trade & Swiss watches in US. (Later Swiss watchmakers
had their difficulties, too, until they re-designed their whole range
innovatively. And by now they have had to learn to cope with the competition
from $ 2 digital watches. Producers are there to satisfy consumer. Consumers
don't exist for the satisfaction of producers. Free enterprise is a service
job, not a privilege. But cooperation for mutual benefit is possible between
e.g. productive coops and consumer coops and so are special contracts between
large suppliers and their customers. I also like the Internet-given
opportunities for many buyers to combine their purchasing power to get special
discounts. Also computerised surveys of the market to find the best offers. -
J.Z., 13.6.03.) Free Trade propaganda for about 200 years was no more
successful than Atheist propaganda in that period. Freedom of expression &
information has not yet made fullest use of alternative media & special
,innovative and large reference works that could and should be compiled and
published in these media and it must also be supplemented by full experimental
freedom in spheres so far pre-empted by governments: Panarchism. - J.Z., 13. 6.
03.) Was the main flaw of the existing European currencies their multiplicity
or their centralism and monopolism? Euro. Europe had a common currency before
1914, namely: gold coins. The weight differences were of no importance. (The
small desirable improvement would have consisted merely in the adoption of a
common weight unit for all these coins, discarding their national names and
fractional deviation from a weight unit and then free coinage for them. - J.
Z., 13. 6. 03.) (A freely adopted common value standard is no threat to anyone
but an imposed common and exclusive exchange medium with forced acceptance and
forced value is and it is the precondition for the greatest economic crisis
that Europe has ever experienced. –
J.Z., 18. 7. 03.) Military situation. Democratic governments are not
even good at military protection. Militia. Morgenthau proposes rationing and
quotas, forgetting that Americans won in spite of such crazy measures.
III/124 Capital
levies technically impossible, like ceding part of a shop, house or machine to
the govt. (Actually, in form of corresponding imposed mortgages it would be
possible but it would hardly appeal to somewhat free voters. - J.Z., 13.6.03.)
Taxes raised must be invested quite liquidly. But it is impossible to find
enough such investments. Ministers are considered to be experts because they do
not ponder such "theoretical" questions. Their mentality is still
that of the "coin age". The tax system, external & internal
trade, laws concerning debts and banking are still on the same footing as they
were in the coin age. Evil of considering paper money and banknotes as
"Ersatz" for coins, and, consequently, clearing as an
"Ersatz", too. Clearing is the normal kind of payment. Coins are an
"Ersatz", although an indispensable one. (Small, fast, easy and cheap
& secure electronic payments are still more a dream than a reality, I
believe. Compare your experience at check-outs in shopping centres. Anyhow, I
do not want all my payments to be visible to governments & advertisers and
thus would not welcome goods & paper notes with inbuilt chips. - J.Z.,
13.6.03.) Without standardised
clearing cheques clearing largely remains a privilege and opportunity for a
few. Standardised clearing cheques are the means to make the normal method of
payment a general one. But, who is interested in such thoughts? B. did not
write a book on it because he would not find a printer or publisher or enough
sensible readers. Professors. Rittershausen's unfinished
"Geldtheorie" manuscript. Atomic weapons. Saving important literature
from them. Barbarism even among American occupation soldiers. Even Libertarians
are not willing to save and combine all their writings cheaply and permanently
e.g. on microfiche and CD-ROMs, keeping them thus permanently and cheaply in print.
III/ 125 Korean
warfare method. (We now experience the consequence of our government's
indiscriminate warfare half a century ago. - J.Z., 13.6.03.) Lack of a sound
program - almost everywhere. Communists are at least interested in the details
of their ideas, however crazy their ideas may be. Benedetto Croce. Aldred &
effective resistance. Military leadership. The whole system must be changed
completely. But who is interested? Even Aldred is unable to get his thoughts
beyond those of Antimilitarists 100 years ago.
28. 8. 1950:
III/126 Warfare in
Korea. Air raids compared with Nazi mass murders & their readiness to
murder even more. Mostly they did not slaughter people quite as openly, in the
streets and in their homes. Malthusianism. Dr. Fuelster, "Volk ohne
Raum", 1947. Same title as the book that served Nazi propaganda. F. tries
to refute the Nazi theory. Hitler was a 100 % Malthusian, although he never
read Malthus. Fuelster quotes "Mein Kampf". Quite common to Hitler
and Malthus: The absolute neglect of Free Trade. For Hitler trade was a Jewish
invention, for communists it is a capitalist invention and Free Trade the most
evil abuse of it. For them, too, that's self-evident. (Compare today's
"Anti-Globalism". - J.Z.) 31. 8. 1950: Russians convicted for
selling weapons and ammunition to the Hungarian underground. Kenneth de Courcy
is right: As dangerous as Soviet power is, for money and vodka you may buy 9/10
of Russia. Similarly in Chiang-Kai Shek's China.
III/127 Powerful
regimes remain powerful only as long as their adversaries do not consider their
real weaknesses: corruptibility of everybody. (Plus their oppression &
exploitation & cruelties & mass murders, victimising almost every
family. In China e.g. compulsory abortions, do treat the victims according to
the principle of collective responsibility and do not offer them a just and
free way out. - J.Z., 13.6.03.) Mao used the silver he found at Tientsin and
the same armies that would have effectively resisted him in battle could not
resist the offer of silver. Gibbon, "Decline & Fall of the Roman
Empire": The canons effectively used by Mohammed II against Constantinople
were built by a Hungarian, who had fled the Inquisition. It would have been
easy to prevent this conquest by a little cooperation. But the Western powers
were indifferent. Territorial governments are almost always incompetent to
solve any real problem - but competent to create, magnify and prolong them.
Book title suggestion: The habitual blunders of territorial governments when it
comes to defence. 2. 9. 1950: Japan, Malthus & Australia. Grain
production & prices in Germany.
III/128 Volunteer
militia in London. Napoleon III had joined it before his putsch in France.
Mosley & freedom of speech. Antisemitic popular fallacy. Voluntarism &
war. French Revolution & its tactics. Military discipline. Desertion under
Napoleon I towards his end. By 1813 the Prussians became revolutionaries.
Russian volunteers in WW II. (My uncle Erich, the family's only Nazi, told me
about the effectiveness of even single Russian sharpshooters, selecting optimal
placements for themselves, equipped with plenty of ammunition, a bottle of
water and a loaf of bread, risking but not wasting their lives, but wasting
many of the remaining German soldiers. - J.Z., 13.6.03.) Ignoring the State.
Such secessionists as allies against a dictatorship. Interest in
hire-purchases. Nazi food policy. Small price increases made food imports
largely unnecessary.
III/129 3. 9.
1950: On having children under tyrannies. Chinese philosophers &
Buddha's point of view. Neo-Malthusianism. Social reform first to realise the
true nature of life. Buddhist contradiction. Food from the sea. Fishing yields.
III/130 Saving. Present
conditions. Inflation and devaluation. Providing for old age under these
conditions. 4. 9. 1950: Desertion
& patriotism. Voluntarism, conscription. Government was widely hated or
held in contempt by 1915. By 1918 this view was almost general. Requirements to
make battles largely unnecessary to win. If proclaimed in time, such
declarations could become irresistible. But not for a Soviet government or a
Nazi government. But, who is interested?
III/131 Just some
criticism of a statist article by Marinos E. Constantacatos.
III/132 Index
money idea, Irving Fisher, money with and money without cours forcé, gold
production & price level. Inflation, "banking school", Wilson et
al. Private contracts on long terms. Adam Smith. Malthusianism. Ancient
Helvetia over-populated? Julius Caesar. Free Trade. Plutarch on Romans &
Gauls. Cimbri & Teutones. III/133 Tacitus. Consequence of an aristocracy of
hunters. Extreme case: William Rufs destroyed 60 villages to win room for
hunting. Adam Smith (vs. speech of pope Urban II in 1095) on the discouragement
of agriculture in Europe after the fall of Rome. Famines were frequent, but the
main reason was the lack of transport facilities, as in China & other Asian
countries. Crusaders. Land of milk & honey? More than half of the Crusaders
starved in the "Holy" Country. Germans lacking food? They were
"protected" from food imports. Their problem was almost always:
selling food, not buying it. Malthusians. Abortions murder even more innocents
than the Nazis did.
III/134 Malthus confounded
victuals & employment. Under a real food shortage people would not be
unemployed but over-worked in attempts to produce more food. Replace the
Malthusian mentality by the Free Banking mentality. Primitive
"economic" thinking like that of the Christians. 10. 9. 1950:
Schutzverband der Zwangsversicherten…: It favoured a voluntary insurance
alternative.
III/135
Disturbance of this meeting by statists. "United Germany" proposal
then by Communists. Statism.
III/136 Seniority
principle was done away with in East Germany but not West Germany. Runge's
system and cours forcé. Separation of cash accounts and others at the banks. B.
proposed that all accounts should be honest cheque accounts without the cash
withdrawal option. 11. 9. 50:
Discussion on alternative value standards. The right to hold gold.
III/137 B held for
many years that Tucker was on the right track when he demanded a monetary
revolution as the beginning of a social revolution. The monetary revolution may
begin either by thinking & contracting in other value units or developing
and using alternative exchange media. UNESCO statement on race. Negro
representatives & corruption. Where and are whites really less corrupt?
Eliminating Negro majorities in government and administration or full exterritorial
autonomy for them? Race discrimination in Java. Are customs, religions,
traditions, habits and beliefs unchangeable or merely hard to change for all at
the same time? Dismantling. German re-armament. Governments, that produced so
much unemployment, the single thing that they were able to produce. Production
went on, as Prof. Roepke remarked, in illegal ways. In legal ways it would not
have been possible.
III/138 Voluntary
militia and dictatorships. Japan & Malthusianism. Feudalism lasted longer in
Japan. Invasion by Eastern "Volkspolizei" "people's police"
expected.
III/139 Darwin on
racism. Runge's plan. UN Human Rights Declaration. 12. 9. 1950: Camille
Gutt, Man. Dir. of IMF on inflation, a statement full of errors, pointed out by
B. (The bigger they rise & the more they are paid, the more flawed their
ideas? All part of "why the scum rises to the top"? - J.Z., 14.6.03.)
III/140
Devaluation. Despotism & philosophy, acts & effects, personal thinking,
popular thinking follows the language. There the language does not follow
thought. People turned off by the babble of modern "economics". 13.
9. 1950: Malthusianism, Japan, food consumption. Avoidance of milk and milk
products among adults has led to low cancer rates. Vegetarianism &
Buddhism. Rents & taxes.
III/ 141
Malthusianism confuses the "product per head" with the part of the
product which is left to the head of the producers. It ignores industrial
production crossing borders in exchange for food etc. Bankrupting restrictions
of trade. Free trade includes freedom in the use of means of payment. 14. 9.
50: If Malthus is right, the Free Traders and Free Bankers are wrong.
Malthusianism, for several thousand years, has been the usual manner of blocked
or illogical thinking people to solve economic and social questions.
Prophylactics among Australian Aborigines. "Volk ohne Raum" myth.
III/142 Quite
common to all those theories is: The problems are not to be solved. Instead:
The men must disappear, together with their problems! Growing attitude among coloured
people towards "whites": They are a degenerate people. They will be
our prey. Malthusianism itself a motive for non-Malthusian people to begin a
war with Malthusian people. 21. 9. 1950: Entrepreneurs as co-workers,
making essential contributions. Wage differentials in Russia and England.
Productive coops. Even if they do not greatly increase output, they would
greatly increase understanding. Economic events must not only be good,
they must also be seen as good. Hitler & the revolt of the Generals.
Militia.
III/143 Japan,
Malthus and machine cultivation. Fishing in Japan. Under-nourishment due to
social & economic reasons or irrationalities, not due to overpopulation.
III/144
Photophone. 22. 9. 1950: Gold production, costs per ounce produced &
purchasing price of Bank of England. Japan, population & Malthusianism. The
payment system may prevent the payment of a decent wage. A country is
overpopulated if, at times of normal crops, good transport facilities, of real
free trade, free banking and in the absence of government planning, the people
stand in queues before the food shops. Such a condition has never been
observed. 24. 9. 1950:
III/145 Manual
workers, tradesmen and their conceit. Unemployed intellectuals doing all the
work necessary for their support themselves, buying enterprises on terms, as
suggested by B. Redemption of bonds & coupons by the Milhaud Principle: No
redemption in cash but redemption by acceptance in payment for goods and
services. Three years later, intellectuals will do the same work in 4 hours or
less, which average labourers will do in 8 hours. Jewish Rabbis must all learn
a trade, to keep them independent. An excellent principle. Compare what
Heinlein said on competent men.
III/146 England
now. What has the real England to do with changes in government? Precision
instruments sent to prospective enemies. Zander. Taxes payable in due
government bonds. Foreign exchange control & effects of its abolition.
III/147 Victuals
enough in the world. What is lacking is merely permission to buy them.
International Wheat Agreement. Did consumers agree? What enemy blockades could
not perform the protectionists achieve. Custom officers should disobey. Every
smuggler deserves the country's thanks. There exists no dollar shortage. There
exists only a prohibition to use Sterling as a means of payment. Personal Law
of French in Algeria. The own courts for the coloured. Free Trade as freedom
for the Coloureds to buy where they want in the world. Free Banking would give
them independence from the present money policy of the whites. Their choice, if
they prefer e.g. cowries or makuta. Panarchies, Algeria & unemployment
under French rule. Statism, libertarianism, territorialism, exterritorial
autonomy, individual sovereignty. Experimental freedom & minority autonomy
for all. Application to abortion controversy.
III/148 Korea,
land reform, Hitler & governments-in-exile. Ireland & Panarchy. Chinese
peasants. Adam Smith is right: The fundamental basis for a solution of the
social question is a militia independent from the government. Protests by a
million unarmed voters are very different from protests by a million armed
voters. Governments can't ignore the latter. Iraq case: Both the war hawks and
the peace doves were wrong on several points. Neither studied the problem
objectively and arrived at enough rightful and rational conclusions.
III/149 Even Pope
Leo XIII, in the Encyclical "Immortale Dei" of Nov. 1, 1885, still
held: "that heretics were justly burnt." - (How many more ideological
dissenters were murdered in modern times than religious nonconformists in the
past and present? - J.Z., 14.6.03.) Perhaps that attitude partly explains the
stand in West Germany against refugees, who are mainly Protestants? Foreign
exchange controls. Maltusianism: By his reckoning England should have had 640
million people by 1950. All England would be a city. It would have ruled the
world for decades. The whole world would compete to nourish England. By Free
Trade and Free Banking it would have been an easy thing. But the English, too,
preferred their remaining chains - or did not allow dissenters to opt out
sufficiently. Religious freedom must be supplemented by its political, economic
and social equivalents. Cimbri & Teutones were far from undernourished.
III/150 The assertion
that a people is a "Volk ohne Raum", while hiding from the people the
possibilities of Free Trade & Free Banking, that has produced many
wars. When a great part of China and the Philippines etc. was conquered, the
Japanese Govt. forbade the emigration to the conquered territories. It
was intelligent enough not to believe in overpopulation. To what extent is a
government entitled to jeopardise its subjects' lives, wealth &
independence? When begins the subjects' right of resistance & what kind of
resistance is possible? When begins the minorities' right of resistance and
what are their possibilities? 28. 9. 1950: Francis Whitmore on
devaluation. Today's "gold-reserve": foreign exchange.
III/151 Government
"actions" in times of crises. Prof. Machlup's omissions when writing
on "balance of trade". Population of Japan, urban & rural, 1920
& 1940. England, Netherlands, Belgium & Java more populated.
III/152 Figures
show what trade can do for a population. As evil as the present state of
English currency is, a simple return to the "Redemption Gold
Standard" of 1913 would not be a good reform. It had brought down the
other gold standards, which are much more important than the redemption
standard: 1.) The standard given by a free bullion market. 2.) The standard
given by the custom to value goods and services in gold coins. These two gold
standards have objectively nothing to do with the redemption standard, which M.
also rejected. Both existed long before there was any paper money used. Large
papers do never seriously discuss serious reforms of the existing money system,
not in any country. Malthusianism
III/153 Does an
"average income" for slaves and slave masters make sense? Land
holdings in Japan and Scotland. Role of the agricultural money lender in India
and China before the Communist revolution. (Was the total take by the
Communists even larger?) Restriction of incomes for the lower classes through
bad laws. Malthusians are not right in one detail of their doctrine.
Agriculture in Japan & Australia.
III/154 If all of
Japan became one city, this would not prevent Japan from being very rich,
provided Free Banking and Free Trade are in full swing there. It would be a
town in the same situation as Athens, which was rich, although she depended
mainly upon trade and manufacturing. All errors and all truths are interlinked.
Optimal population. Italian agricultural coops: "affitanza
collectiva". 29. 9. 1950: Normal currency circulation, devaluation
& inflation, reckoning in Gold, for Germany.
III/155 29. 9.
1950: G. Goldberg. Nazi inconsistency in their racist views. Wages at
Melbourne Harbour.
III/156 Goldberg's
first impressions from Australia. B's article: Goldwaehrung &
Immobilitienkredit". This may have been the only one he could get
published after his books in the Annals. Freedom of press? For whom? (The SPD periodicals were not open
to him, either, although he was a member for 50 years! – J.Z., 18.7.03.) Free
Banking Calendar, publishing the clauses of monetary despotism. 2. X. 1950:
III/157
Malthusianism. Andrew Roth: "Dilemma in Japan". Realistic on
situation of peasants in Japan. Quotes from it. Germany in WWII: Continual
hunger was the normal feeling of average people.
III/158 Irrigation
- would be easy, with sufficient capital. But exploited peasants don't have
sufficient capital and can't get it. Japan was "protected" from cheap
rice imports. Numerous peasant revolts occurred. Taxes demanded in cash where
cash was short. So peasants had sell their harvests at emergency sales prices.
Absentee landlords & strikes against them, reported in Edmund Kleinschmitt,
"Durch Werkstaetten & Gassen dreier Erdteile", Berlin 1928. Fate
of peasant girls in indentured servitude. Indebtedness of peasants.
III/159 Japanese
landlordism & result for Japanese peasants. Fishing and Malthusianism. Sea
plants as human food. Sea plants may surpass quantity of land plants.
III/160 For Japan
& other countries there was and will be never any other help than full political
freedom, Free Trade and Free banking. Malthusianism is no help. Colin Clark on
agricultural production growth faster than population growth. Clothing and
housing: It was never a problem to produce clothing or raw material for it. The
problem was always to sell it. For housing not shortage of bricks or mortar is
the problem, but finance. Farming in Japan and Australia. Continuance of
disagreement.
III/ 161
Malthusianism paralyses social reform thinking. The thoughts, ideas, arguments
facts and references of the latter have not yet been sufficiently mobilised,
although, technically, this would now be relatively easy and cheap. Very few in
the world, perhaps no more than 1000, see: The evils in the world are,
essentially, Banking disorders. Nevertheless, these few pioneers have not yet
bothered to combine all the relevant writings and offer them cheaply and
permanently in affordable media. Maybe less than a dozen CD-ROMs would suffice.
With all their resources combined, they could rapidly become the most sought
after and best paid consultants in the world. But, will they bother to so arm
and prepare themselves with the "weapons and ammunition" required,
with the information that should be closest to their hearts and minds? How can
one induce them to act in this direction? The importance of monetary liberty is
a discovery like that of the heliocentric system in astronomy. 7. X. 1950:
Calendar of French Revolution, duty to continue "The Individualist".
III/162 "The
Individualist", M. & B., alternative media. 8. X. 1950: Colin
Clark, Communism, State socialism. Capitalism.
III/163 Mentality
of workers, employer-employee relationship, liberation at the work place,
financing it, slave mentality and anti-capitalist mentality, Kurt Zube's
Manifesto for Peace and Freedom pointed out: German workers could liberate
themselves with a fraction of their bank accounts from one day to the other.
Factory banks or savings banks with employers. Even published company
statements ignored. They prefer to continue to adhere to false and fixed ideas
on their situation. Technology and spread of independent proprietors.
Technological decentralisation options grow. Bata system. Italian agricultural
coops and large-scale agriculture. Colin Clark.
III/164 Colin
Clark, Capitalism & Free Banking, ownership reform or exchange reform, or
both. Free banking will also promote coops and partnerships. Clark on the false
track of Karl Marx. Every opinion not considering the right to freely issue
standardised means of payment leads to the erroneous opinion that the problem
must be solved by redistribution of ownership. Free Trade and Free Banking,
consistently and rationally applied, not only yield the maximum production but
also guarantee human rights and dignity in the most effective and simple way.
French & Japanese peasantry compared. Committees of Ministers, God.
III/165 9. X.
1950: Velikowski theory and Biblical wonders. The Biblical language likely
to have been misunderstood, as are many languages and dialects. Reconstruction
of the likely original wordings of the "sun standing still" passage.
III/166 Revisions
and incomplete "corrections" of Old Testament by Ezra. Gold standard
& paper money. 12. X. 1950: Individualism & Korean War.
Individualism is the tendency of un-terrified individuals to bring
authoritarian power and monopolies to the technically possible minimum. It
teaches that every individual possesses rights which cannot be lost and which
even a majority cannot abolish. It teaches, too, that such rights exist in the
economic and social spheres no less than in the political. Here Individualists
differ from most Liberals. History showed that the individual's most important
rights are to buy and to sell. When citizens are in a position to sell their
products or their labour and to buy the just equivalents, then they get, by and
by, all other liberties, and this even if the society's original political
state was the most far-going absolutism. Buying and selling are impossible
without standardised means of payment, freely transferable, sufficiently fixed
in value - by the nature of the means of payment - and free of cours forcé.
Legal tender. Forced value, compulsory acceptance. Russian paper money example.
Bank of England notes, during Napoleonic war, had legal tender but were without
cours forcé, until the law of 1811. Fiat money always injures.
III/167
Governments and monetary despotism are unable to supply means of payment in
sufficient quantity and quality. Private standardised means of payment must
supply the gap. (Not only the gap! Some of them will, as better wide-spread
currencies, drive out the worse money of governments. - J.Z., 14.6.03.) The
right for private people to issue them was, in old times, called the right of
banking - a fundamental economic right of men and citizens. Korean war
pronunciamento, also derived from Tucker. Capitalism vs.
"capitalism". State capitalism vs. rightful forms of voluntary or
cooperative socialism. Proudhon's: "liberal socialism", going beyond
of what is now called "libertarian socialism". State capitalism.
libertarian communism. The Korean War Pronunciamento in 19 points and short
comments - to page 169. Not summarised here. Some texts cannot be properly
summarised. They have to be read, pondered and understood. Try to summarise a
good poem or a good bill of rights. Are the secret services able to discover
and comprehend and recommend such platforms? They are merely governmental
bureaucracies and as such almost always inefficient. 15. X. 1950:
III/170 Would much
reading matter have enlightened Robinson Crusoe more than it did Henry Meulen.
Would it have turned R. C. into a perfect economist and revolutionary?
Malthusianism, submarines. Cause of wars. Hitler & Germany. Deaths by
overfeeding vs. deaths from hunger. Present methods against unemployment cost
money instead of producing money. Mathematical flaw in Malthusian
doctrine. Liebig & labour, intelligence & machines used in agriculture,
related to returns.
III/171 Liebig,
language and scientific language. Law of diminishing returns. Japan & additional
labour in the fields. Food grown in skyscrapers and underground. Largely a
question of energy supply. Malthusianism. Migration to and from Germany. Koch
achieved repeal of the crazy law that limited note issues to those of 100 M.
and more. The 19th century experience with agricultural labour
turned the rule of diminishing returns into a quite contrary rule. We are only
at the beginnings of agricultural science.
III/172 Formosa:
An impartial study of the Formosan economy would overthrow Malthusianism. It
would reveal the decisive importance of trade and credit, even in such a
primitive shape as is used by Chinese merchants at Formosa. Mixed marriage.
Race war atrocities. Prof. Kimble: "… when the first white man came to
Africa, he had the Bible and the native had the land. Now the native has the
Bible, and the white man has the land." "Land reform" in South
Africa: Europeans had 156 acres per head, the Bantu less than 7 acres. Sooner
or later the answer of the Bantu will not be "moral restraint" but, rather,
the answer that Haitians gave in 1791 to their white oppressors. (However, many
South African whites arrived before most black immigrants came and the latter
were attracted by the achievements of the former. - J.Z., 14.6.03.)
Malthusianism in Japan, India & China. Hitler's rather indiscriminate
exterminations. Genghis Khan. Wars may be expected due to Malthusian
propaganda. Propaganda for Free Trade & Free Banking would open the whole
world to all its inhabitants.
III/173
Investigate what private enterprise would have been if Free Banking would have
been permitted & used. Clearing cheques without redemption in gold on
demand. Clearing in medieval times. Fairs at Lyon, Cahors etc. better in
clearing than London was at the time of Jevons. Example from a German town.
Roepke, a good man, knows much and is an adversary of totalitarianism - but he
knows nothing of Free Banking. Exclusive Currency leads to totalitarianism,
even among those who do fight against it.
III/174 Pure
liberal philosophy. Economist remark that because liberty is an uncompromising
questions it can only be upheld by a party or movement which is concerned not
with power nor with princes but with what is right. A party never likely to
form a government, but with access to the formidable sounding board of
Westminster would have a chance to stand on its principles … and expose the
shallow compromises of routine politicians. (My condensation. - J.Z.) B.
commented: I do not remember to have read in the Economist a passage more
serious, more wise and more practically spoken. (But have modern and somewhat
libertarian think tanks as yet sufficiently filled that role? - J.Z., 14.6.03.)
B. suggested to M. to form a party with 7 young friends. Alas, M. could not
gather as many young friends, either! 16. X. 1950: Marco Polo on China's
population. His ESP observations at Court. Labadie: "All I am pleading for
is the freedom of note issue, and then let interest persist if it can."
III/175 Different
things are wrongly all called "interest". An important part of
political economy would get another face if only there would be invented
suitable words for the different kinds of "interest". Bastiat &
Proudhon discussion on this. 17. X.
1950: Kant, Schopenhauer, value of life and social reform, Buddha, &
evils like torture
III/176 Communism,
Marx, Engels, State socialism or State capitalism. Independent ownership &
its limitations. Adam Smith, Division of Labour & unwillingness to accept
the products of others. Order system and its limited role, when compared with
Free Banking. To some extent the order system is already applied, e.g. for
housing and long-term other goods. Choice between employers is not enough.
Italian coops and how they got established.
III/177 Bata
system vs. too large private enterprises or coops. Colin Clark. Capitalism is monopoly
of capital. (Rather, a not sufficiently wide-spread oligopoly of capital
ownership. - J.Z., 14.6.03.) Example given by Carlyle, where an Abbott got a
mill destroyed that peasants had built for themselves. That view should be
called "monopoly capitalism" as opposed to quite freely competing
capitalism, in which everybody legally could participate and would have the
economic opportunity to do so, using all free market financial options. Japan
& Malthusianism: Japanese farms compared with Australian ones.
III/178 Already
Petty saw that density of population is an asset. Different productivity in
England and USA. Malthusianism. Cultivation of deserts - without enough eaters
able to pay? Payments abroad. Balance of
trade.
III/179 Redemption
at the bullion market instead of at the counter of the note issuer. War with
Hitler in 1933. Non-interference? Fichte on this. Korea, China & tomorrow
Greenland are English & German matters. (H. was largely welcomed as a
supposed ally against Communism. Hitler, Rittershausen & Ramin saw things
differently. Installing a German revolutionary government in England and an
alliance with it and then declaring war on the Nazis. The losses would have
been trifling compared with those which occurred. (The panarchistic
alternatives could have reduced the losses even further. A panarchistic Nazi
regime, for voluntary followers only, might really have made itself ridiculous,
soon, as individualist anarchist Dr. Walther Borgius expected the territorial
Nazi regime to become. - J.Z., 14..6.03.) Napoleonic wars. Dr. Otto Strasser,
et al & Hitler.
III/180 18. X.
1950: M.'s proposal to use the value of gold at one particular day as a
from then on invariable unit of value. Partly realised in German insurance.
Deutschland Rueckversicherungs A.G., Prof. Dr. Paul Riebesell, then introduced
it in the Hamburg Feuerkasse. Dr. Ramin. How B. helped to introduce the M.
standard into an as important branch of the economy as insurance. But demands as immediate measure
the permission to create a free bullion market and permission to use its prices
for the pricing of goods, services and labour. Here, too, one has to
distinguish between capital goods and consumer goods ready for sale.
III/181 Woolworth
pricing now by goods prices of 1914? How many goods would still be of the same
kind? How many would have no precedent? To be introduced within hours a measure
must be simple and easily comprehended. Four major objections of B. against the
M. system. 19. X. 1950: Two major agreements.
III/182 The market
to be the supreme judge. Value relation of goods to gold coins. The problem is
not to construct a medium value of gold from the observed changes of the value.
The problem is rather: How to explain why the disturbances are so very small
and in practice negligible? One of the reasons: The great accumulation of gold
compared with the relatively small annual production. The value of M-units will
be influenced by the lending policy of his kind of banks. Several M-type banks will
have several different lending policies. Several different "invariable
units" would result. (If they have no legal tender and all of them adopted
and retain the same value standard, the purchasing power of a certain weight of
gold at a certain date, expressed in their paper pound, then these paper pounds
might merely suffer different discounts against this paper standard. – J.Z.,
18.7.03.)
III/183 Under
freedom conditions and within a few weeks gold coins will possess all the good
properties M. expected from his value standard units. 26. X. 1950: H. L.
Follin, founder of the République Supranationale and later of Cosmemétapolis,
which demanded a charter of economic rights, including monetary ones. His
"Paroles d'un voyant". (I never yet saw any other of his writings! -
J.Z., 14.6.03.) Follin: Not labour endows products with value. Labour brings
them into existence. Value they get by exchange. B. had a long correspondence
with F. I all of this lost on F.'s side, too??? F. had a son. - J.Z., 14.6.03.)
III/184 Follin
quite unknown at several Alliance Francaise centres. Nuclear war threat. Soviet
surrender demand. Their atomic bomb factories were not destroyed in time. Only
the Israelis once destroyed a nuclear reactor of their enemies that was to be
used for nuclear weapons. - Their history makes them more afraid of mass
extermination devices - but does not prevent them from using such collective
responsibility devices against innocent Arabs when attempting to resist their
oppressive rulers. They might change their minds if these "weapons"
were renamed: Small and portable extermination camp packages, still more
indiscriminately mass murderous than the Nazi extermination camps were. - But
call them powerful, modern and scientific weapons and they appear to be justified
and useful. - J.Z., 14.6.03.) Serious interest in the own affairs? Not under
the prevailing slave mentality. Suicide aids sell well. B.'s metaphysics that
of Kant & Schopenhauer. Other philosophers, too, taught that ideas are
beings sui generis, such as seeds. (Obviously, they are not yet sufficiently
mobilised by a proper market for them, as proposed e.g. with the “Ideas
Archive”. - J.Z., 14.6.03.) 28. X.
1950:
III/185 Farming
conditions in Algeria, old Prussia and Italy. Emigration not for lack of food
but largely for lack of employment, especially in winter. Gaetano Marzotto's
paternalistic system. Working the own land peasants would probably have found
useful work for themselves during the winter, too. Example of modern
"machine storming" or rather wilful avoidance of the use of efficient
machines.
III/16 Canberra
economics lecturer praised Red Chinese method of building great dams via masses
of labourers working with shovels, baskets and wheelbarrows! Most professional
economists tend to get along, not protesting, with every anti-economic
absurdity a government practices or may even apologise it or praise it.
Overpopulation is seen where, in reality, nothing else exists than bad
organisation and general stupidity. Unemployment. Money is supposed to be
missing. But not money is missing but a) means of payment, standardised like
money is, to pay wages with, b) people prepared to accept that money-Ersatz, c)
credit on a stable basis, so that creditors are attracted. Most people, being
on fixed wages, get thereby a Malthusian mentality. In a free economy children
will be a good investment and soon self-supporting, as they are still largely
in agriculture. Upbringing and education loans may become more profitable than
others. First proposed by Prof. Engel, director of the Prussian statistical
office about 90 years ago. He had founded several mortgage banks on a mutual
basis and also the first German credit insurance company. He also tried, in
vain, to introduce the English Building Society principle in Germany.
III/187 29. X.
1950: UN, Major C. N. Douglas and his Social Credit system. Kimmitt: There
is only one way to free trade, and that is to free trade." 10. 11. 1950:
III/188 Tucker was
justified when he demanded that editors & their staff should be able to
print papers themselves in an emergency. Now they have largely automated
printing plants and the Internet. Inflation, always a disaster, quite distinct
from dearness. No Dollar shortage under floating exchange rates and monetary
freedom. If Germans were really unable to plan, this would be a great honour,
like the Roman remark: "Sardinians are bad slaves". They really were. The Roman proverb was:
"cheap as a Sardinian". India policy. All the diverse Indians to rule
themselves under one institution and one set of laws? Genuine self-government
does not get away from free individual choices. Peaceful coexistence is
possible only when we accept the tolerant practices of sportsmen towards other
sports than their own favourite ones – in the economic, political and social
sphere, as we have done already, to a large extent, in the religious sphere.
III/189 Panarchism
vs. "self-government" and "national independence" as
practised or aimed at now. I can satisfy more power addicts than can
territorialism - but it also restrains their activity to voluntary victims.
Main remaining defect of Pax Romana, Pax Britannica & Pax Americana, of
which their practitioners remained unaware, at a huge cost to themselves and
others. Full employment & nationalism. Free experimentation for employment
methods would soon demonstrate which systems do work. Indian unemployed became
nationalists or revolutionaries. Overpopulation in India? Even scythes are not
used yet in a great part of India - because the peasants cannot pay for them.
(There must also be mental resistance, for not that much more metal and wood is
used in the larger scythes. - J.Z., 14.6.03.) What Tibet's fate has been
wrongly made dependent upon. How to organise an international resistance
against such people. The Dalai Lama hardly constitutes an ideal
government-in-exile, although he could rightfully constitute ONE of them, for
his volunteers. Bastiat proposed that no parliamentarian should become a
minister. (I rather hold: No one should, except in volunteer communities that
still believe in such animals. - "Leadership struggles" are struggles
on who should lead a country into a further mess or disaster - and get well
rewarded for his "contribution". - J.Z., 14.6.03.
III/190:
"Individualism" uses "Socialism" as a synonym for
"governmental socialism". Such abuses of the language results in the
situation that in English, like in other languages, no word exists for a
movement which aims to reduce injustice and exploitation of men by men to the
extent to which this is technically and psychologically possible. As Tucker's
article "State Socialism and Anarchism" showed, the word
"socialism" was quite apt as a name for such a movement. Tucker
insisted on "Anarchy" for his aim. If he would have invented a new
and proper name, he would today, perhaps, be acknowledged as the
reformer. Use of "nationalisation" instead of
"expropriation", first possibly used by leaders of the Irish Land
League, 60-70 years ago. The mere world "expropriation" would have
been an insurmountable obstacle. But "nationalisation" must have
seemed to the people of that time to be merely a little exaggeration of
patriotism. Was there in ancient Greece a secret alliance of worshippers of
Apollo, aiming to avoid the destruction of towns and of orchards? Would such an
alliance have been possible in Europe and in the USA? Its aims should simply
be: Realisation of the laws of war resolved upon by the Congress at The Hague,
in the year 1908. A modest aim, seeing that in all States its resolutions are
officially written laws.
III/191 It is a great consolation that
there live in the world some women whose horizon is not limited to interests in
little household matters. How can a scientist be a Christian? Korea: B. did not
expect his proposals to be accepted by a Syngman Rhee. "Despotisme tempére
par l'assassinat" is perhaps still the best for it for the next few years.
The tyranny of committees, cooperative & others. Foreign interference, like
the British, after the French Revolution, deserves resistance from its own
subjects. Cobbett writings against this, extracted in Heine's Letters from
England. It was an action of ruling British classes against French peasants who
had expropriated the same classes in France. Louis XVIII. 23. 11. 1950:
"Tagesspiegel" clippings on Otto Strasser. Summarised by B. In
German, mostly, to page 195.
III/195 24. 11. 1950: Tyranny of shop councils in Germany, applying
political & religious discrimination. Coops as alternative to the excluded.
But that would require a degree of initiative seldom found in this class. Also,
because all things in this world must be financed, it would require a system of
Free Banking. Theodor Hertzka. B was converted by him away from Marxism to what
was then called "Social Liberalism". Now B. was no longer quite
satisfied with Hertzka's proposals although he still thinks them quite
valuable. Bastiat's edition of his discussion with Proudhon appeared 1850
entitled "Gratuité du crédit". Bastiat's edition the better and complete.
P.'s incomplete. Tucker on this discussion. But even he did not see the subject
in the right light. Like nearly all economists he by far overestimated the
importance of interest. Statistics were not available. Today we know that the
sum of all interest in a community is about 5 % of the community's income. Of
this only a very small part is paid to banks and the smallest part to
note-banks. In crisis times interest in some cases is a heavy burden but not
because it is high, say, more than 6 %, but because it must be paid in fiat
money, which is nearly always scarce. Tucker, Proudhon & Bastiat did not
sufficiently distinguish note-bank credit to finance the exchange of existing
goods and credit to finance the exchange of existing goods for goods not yet
existing. The first can be done without a bank-capital or any other capital,
with capital used in the popular sense. The second requires capital, firstly
raw materials and wages, also to replace the depreciation of the used machines.
In both cases interest is unavoidable. Inherent rights. Kant on human nature.
Some men suppress their human nature. One relevant experience of B. Distinction
between rights which a man can give up and other rights, which he cannot. Each
makes this distinction for himself. Catholic Church.
III/197 Payments abroad. Reflux of national
paper money to the country of issue. As Zander expressed it: It is at least as
strong as the tendency of a pigeon to return to its roost. Before 1914 the
buyer determined the means of payment. For large deals the
"Gegengeschaeft", the opposite trade, is also arranged by the trading
partners. Futures trading has its basis in such transactions. For smaller deals
one did not buy or sell "Termin-Devisen". Merchants know better than governments how to
make trades beneficial for both sides. Foreign interference. The Germany of
1933 needed it and justified it.
III/198 The term "internal
affairs" does not justify any despotic act. Hitler and his followers did
not deserve any more respect than the French king, who once stated:
"L'état, cest moi!" Alas, even libertarians and anarchists still fall
for flawed slogans and "principles". The mentality of the German nation
as opposed to that of the Nazis, could be seen clearly in 1939 at every
railway station. Even in 1914 the initial enthusiasm among all too many did not
last long. Later it took deception to get troops into the trains to the front.
Willingness of countries? Countries are never asked. When currencies were much
depreciated then e.g. Germany, Hungary, Italy, Austria, China, Japan, did not
pay in gold as M. had assumed they would have. B. writing in the cold, with
cold fingers and erring often, he says. (I write now in a cold room, too, but
with so many layers of clothing that I still feel warm. - J.Z., 14.6.03.)
III/199 25. 11. 1950: Social order:
Unions & their co-determination. Lack of program among most. Those who have
one get no chance to be heard or read. Economic order. Present paper standard
is distrusted but people know no better one. "We have no gold!" All
forgot the gold standard of 1923, which worked quite well without more gold
than the few kilos or less that were daily bought or sold at the Exchange.
People demand price reductions although prices, expressed in gold, are already
low. When the govt. admits a higher price in its paper for gold then it
declares, indirectly, that its currency is already depreciated. Reason's fate
in crisis situations. A plan is needed that the people can understand and that
can be executed within an hour. M.'s plan does not possess this quality.
III/200: M., for his "invariable
unit" wanted to pick the gold of a particular day. Which day? Any day
under the rule of Central Banks does not truly represent the value of anything,
gold or whatever. Korea program of B. Not intended for any government but for
reading by any intelligent Asian. In China, until about 1931 the right of every
banker to manufacture silver currency (sycee) was acknowledged and even
considered as self-evident, not needing legal confirmation. Malthusianism:
Atomic bombs as blockade breaking weapons? (I can't see any rightful use for
them on Earth. - J.Z., 14.6.03.)
III/201 6. 12. 1950 B. and his
conditions in Berlin.
III/202 Follin, mentioned in THE INDIVIDUALIST
of April 1935. B. thinks he might be ranked with Tucker. His domain was the
organisation of individualist activity on an international and new scale. He
was a strong opponent of cours forcé and of all kinds of government planned
economies. Russia & China, Stalin & Mao do not know how to let people
enjoy the products of their labours and to provide employment otherwise than by
making ammunition and building "pyramids". Marx without ideas for the
Commune of Paris. Great heroes as killers. Killing people by leading them to
the battlefields is easy, simple, honourable and the costs are paid by the
people themselves.
III/203 German economic literature - does
not deserve the name literature. Indian independence? "I would be
interested in the address of one Indian who is now more independent than
he was before. (Well, the prisons were emptied of political prisoners and the
former prisoners, then in ruling positions, improved prison conditions. So they
had at least some grateful "customers". - J.Z., 14.6.03.) 7.
12. 1950: Stephen King-Hall on China, conforms 50 year old reports
expressed in Baroness von Heyking, "Letters which did not reach him".
She got her views from a Dr. Silverstein, who had published many articles in a
New York daily. (I stated my disagreements with the 2 views B. reported on. -
J.Z.)
III/204 Gold coins and their
"pricing" in paper money. Whatever goods are used as a measure of
prices get an additional stability in value through such use. Gold
redemptionism & right of creditors to demand gold.
III/205 All blame laid upon gold should be
directed to the above two features only. As Rittershausen put it: Not the gold
was guilty but the bank directors were. He might have added: And the
legislators. M.'s system of "covering" notes by medium and long term
securities. Different practices will result among different M-Banks. Their
notes will, as a result, get differently rated in a free money market. There
will be XYZ different Meulen pounds, all more or less deviating from the
supposedly "invariable unit" or the value of a weight of gold on a
certain day. (Correction, as stated above: Probably only different discounts
will arise for them, against their common paper standard. But these discounts
will also lead to wide-spread refusal of M-type notes. – J.Z. 18.7.03.) Gold
coins will soon be considered as a much more reliable and easy value standard.
Treatment of British troops in Korea by American commanders. Wide-spread opinion that in WW III the
protection of Germany by Americans will be very moderate and,
practically, zero. Germans will then think: Why fight rather than surrender?
Whoever wins, Germany will be destroyed. Malthusianism and its military
effects. DP: Deutsche Party.
===========================================================================================================================
Contents
Section IV
of file: Meulen
- Beckerath correspondence, pages 1 - 203, 9. 12. 1950 - 31. 10. 1951
Contents of Volume IV
Letters of U. v. Beckerath
to Henry Meulen
IV/1 9. 12.
1950: Abuse of language by governments, Turgénieff, two languages now in
Russia. The word "socialism then and now. Bismarck, Tucker, state
socialism, State socialism. A word is needed for a movement whose aim it is to
reduce the exploitation of men by men to the technically possible minimum,
where the means applied are expressed by an attribute to "socialism".
Even the notion of such an aim has been lost, for the notion depends, for
average people, upon the existence of a word for it. Duration of bank loans
IV/2 Normal
duration for loans granted by note-issuing banks: The short time of
transportation of existing goods from the place of manufacture or storage to
the place where it was to be bought for consumption by the last buyer and user.
The profit of such a business is not great. W. B. Greene proposed it for
non-profit-making coops. Other business of bankers cannot simply be done by
handing over notes for the amounts of credits involved and telling them: Return
these notes to me within 15 years. The notes themselves are not capital. They
can only help in transferring capital under certain precautions required by
their very nature, described in B.'s books. Distinction between the exchange of
present goods for other present goods and of present goods for future goods
still to be produced. Banknotes etc. for the former, capital securities for the
latter. They have their different issue and reflux spheres and timing. Why
should those providing ready for sale goods, services and labour accept capital
certificates of others as means of payment, even if they are offered in form of
banknotes? Free men can refuse them and would be informed by their free market
rating that it is wise to do so. They would have not enforced acceptance or
compulsory value. (Legal tender & cours forcé) Experience will teach those
still in doubt. Financing in old times
is not yet fully explained.
IV/3 Marx, Engels,
credit arrangements at their time. 10. 12. 1950: Dismantling
(Demontagen), defence against Soviets, Korean War, Civil War of the US. 11.
12. 1950:
IV/4 Gold coins,
individualist monetary system, right to refuse acceptance of notes. Right to
issue notes & independence. Nero's depreciation of silver coins. Taxes had
to be paid in the old coins. Obligation to accept the own issues at par.
Agnostics & atheists in the Bible Belt. 15. 12. 1950: Quinine as
medicine
IV/5 Payments
abroad. Greene & the right of creditors to demand gold. It is more
extensive than metal redemptionism. Essential part of the old gold standard.
Established by civil law. Should be replaced by right to clearing-house
certificates instead. German Civil Law of 1900 on this. It only required that
agreements must be fulfilled as good faith and customs require. (Par 242 BGB)
"Experts" in banking conference of 1908 overlooked this. Every note
or certificate has the tendency to return to the issuer. Jevons reported
resistance among English merchants against clearing.
IV/6 Gold
Standard. English currency before 1913: gold coins. They never suffered a
depreciation. Free Banking in the M-system.
IV/7 Internal
affairs & armies of volunteers. Right to retire from armies. Have Europeans
and Americans lost the capacity to talk reasonably about such things? If there
is a future for mankind, volunteers from the whole world will interfere if the
rights of man and citizens are violated in any part of the world. Rightful
militia idea. Anarchists as example. Kamikaze pilots: Self-preservation is not
always the guiding principle of human conduct. Salazar. India & independence.
Deutsche Partei. Reconstruction of Nazi promises of 1932/33. Literature is
destroyed. Hitler, gold & Jewish conspiracy "theory".
IV/8 Can one store
gold, i.e., not lend it out and, nevertheless, get interest from it? Silly
& dangerous Nazi belief on this: Let's capture a prominent Jew and torture
him until he would at last reveal the secret how to do this! Silliness may also
become a political power. Malthusianism. 29. 12. 1950: Chicken prices in
London & Berlin. Socialism - Individualism, anti-capitalist Individualist.
Capital for non-capitalists and to break the monopoly of the class now called
capitalistic. "Bank-Socialism" better word for the aim than
"Free Banking"? B.'s two books on unemployment. (PEACE PLANS 9 &
10.)
IV/9 His third
book (PP 11) develops a further application of the principles at first
established by Milhaud (and then much further developed by B, as Milhaud
himself admitted - J.Z.). Long-term loans - with notes only or with willing and
ready capital? Scratchley's economics books, especially: "Local Enterprise
Societies". Gold coins and their power. Constantine created a good gold
coin system, which helped to make his Christianity acceptable.
IV/10 Loans in
priest-ridden countries. Antisemitic note-issuing bank in Pommerania, 1923/24.
How it defeated its own intentions. In our time no act of monetary craziness or
fanaticism can be considered as impossible. B.'s draft on monetary rights, in
response to one of the numerous proposals made in 1947. 2. I. 1951: Otto
Strasser. Italian elections. Destroying the Fascist literature is clearly the
way to a new Fascist movement. Payments abroad, "dollar shortage"
& export spleen.
IV/11 Gold coins,
their value & the "fixed paper price" for them: Gold coins could
not depreciated because they were themselves the legal measure of value. Mint
policy. Jevons. Pop opinion that paper money is the natural measure of value,
also for gold.
IV/12 The natural
measure of value, one freely chosen, in a world without prohibitions on this.
Artificial standards of value & their disadvantages. The right of those,
who prefer other measures of value than gold should not be violated. The
"gold standards" should be considered in all their details. Suitable
terms required. The "jacks in office". Tax-foundation money & its
invention. Language change. Free coinage. Fort Knox & spleen of Anti-Semites. (To my knowledge Herbert
Mueller Guttenbrunn first suggested this spelling of Antisemites, which
indicates, linguistically, in one interpretation, that these prejudiced
fanatics are semites, too and are anti something or the other, without clearly
declaring what they do oppose. That is certainly true for most Arabs, to my
knowledge. - J.Z., 18.7.03.)
IV/13 Chicken
prices. Free Banking without metallic redemption by the issuer & instead
convertibility on the bullion market and redemption in goods, services, labour
& debt receipts. Free Banking system of Four Bills is independent of
"trust" in M's meaning. Runs. Offering the runners gold bonds instead
of gold coins. Niebuhr, King Friedrich Wilhelm III. Gold standards.
Fluctuations of gold values compared with fluctuations of paper money values.
Gold as a measure of value does not possess a price.
IV/14 Not
"the price" of gold coins will be stable if governments do not
interfere with it but its usefulness, purchasing power and abundance will reach
their maximum. Issue of notes without any "reserves". The readiness
to accept the notes at par, by the bank's debtors and the bank itself is quite
sufficient to keep them at par at the bullion market. However, business with
reserves should not be prohibited. Banks of Amsterdam & Hamburg also used
stocks of silver coins as "reserves" for their clearing - until they
had to see & learn that clearing was possible without such reserves. No
need for gold reserves in external trade, either. Three monetary freedom
conditions for really Free Trade. Zander on "Protectionism":
"The enemy stands threatening with bread & bacon at the frontier.
Don't let him in at all!" Credits on a gold basis vs. credits without it.
Salazar.
IV/15 India,
parliament, voters & dictatorships. A new system required. The basis for it
provided by Tucker. Our task should be to complete it. Hitler's promises.
Parliaments could not fulfil them, either. German voters of 1932. Pax Britannica.
4. I. 1951:
IV/16 Hitlerism
practically dead. One aspect of Hitler's power-base: The government could force
all officials to join the party or into its organisation. Further: The whole
country was subdivided into national guilds (Fachschaften) as proposed by Cole
& Catholics, and these forced the managers & department heads to become
party members as well. At last it became necessary to gather the real
Nazis in special organisations. In May 1945 the many millions compelled to
become members were suddenly free. They should not have been treated as Nazis.
(My mother could get a lowly job as a secretary, to support her two kids, only
by joining the party! By coincidence: At the height of the Great Depression
there were about 8 million unemployed in Germany and Hitler ended up, through
his "membership drives" among his cattle, with about 8 million
dues-paying members. That alone would have turned him into a multi-millionaire.
Would the 8 million have been willing to pay a mere 1 RM for a realistic plan
to get all of them peacefully employed fast? Today's hundreds of millions of
unemployed are still not willing to make such a "sacrifice" and
self-help "effort". - J.Z., 16.6.03.) In the Potsdam court for final
revision ("Rechnungshof") all members were collectively signed up as
party members by its manager. No one dared to protest. This system was also
applied by the Kremlin. Election of military officers
IV/17 9. I.
1951: Investment in chain store shares. Pricing in gold coins. Chicken
prices. B. had a sister in Wiesbaden. (And a brother Erich, a conventional
economist, somewhere else. I have not got B.’s post 1943 correspondence with
him or with his sister. - J.Z.) Gold coins daily offered and demanded at a free
bullion market are the best means to express prices in shops. Cours forcé. What
if it were repealed & also the note issue monopoly? Payment communities, a
term invented by Knapp. Three gold standard aspects.
IV/18 Gold &
Kitson's terminology. Long-term loans. Limit for the issue of means of payment
without cours forcé: the production of about 3 - 5 weeks. Loan certificates,
when due (or shortly before, as B. pointed out somewhere else! - J.Z.) should
not be redeemed by currency but by being accepted by the debtor in his normal
business. Other payment option: issue of corresponding amounts of goods- and
service warrants, which the debtor would accept and then use to pay his debt
with them. Meulen system acts as if it were entitled to write out
"cheques" upon the goods and services provided by others, for long-term
investments by the M.- banks. (If they are foolish and trusting enough & if
there is not enough competition, then this might work for a while. Even the
money of monetary despotism works for a while and in its fashion. - J.Z.,
16.6.03.)
IV/19 Meulen notes
are camouflaged capital securities, which do not even pay any interest.
Publicity alone would defeat this system. Dividend coupons, when due, used as
means of payment. B. saw them in the shop of his father. Even if all the
present currency is hoarded, within hours a fresh currency can be supplied.
Experience with free note issues will teach all the required lessons. Freedom
to experiment. Individualism supplies not only new aims but also the technique
to attain the aims & reasons against false techniques. The unlimited right
to issue, or, rather, to offer for acceptance, standardised means of payment,
combined with the unlimited right of others to refuse or discount these offers.
Starting from any other Ism, one comes to State inflation, Keynesian managed
currencies and such monsters.
IV/20 The
"Individualist": Its monetary views not yet individualistic enough.
Rights vs. permissions, privileges etc. Rights are not only ideas but powers.
Carlyle in his history of the French Revolution presented this fact
convincingly. German peasants in the US of 1848 helping an escaped Negro slave.
IV/21 What
Socrates should have asked his accusers. Encyclopaedia of the best refutations.
13. I. 1951: Chicken prices. Payments abroad. (M. the supposed Free
Trader, argued again and again as if a political border made an economic
difference and as if full monetary freedom would not be the ideal solution for
these payments, too. - J.Z., 16.6.03.) Free exchange rates. Robert Conquest
& education. Export spleen. Gold coins, their prices & other prices
expressed in government paper monies.
IV/22 Gold prices
of commodities are much more stable than their paper money prices. The State
has failed in all spheres. Mints supplying industry with standardised ingots in
the shape of legal gold coins but without stamping them. Regarding their
"price" one must distinguish times when they are legal tender from
times when the government's paper money is legal tender. Keynes on Bank of
England's practice in restricting redemption during WW I. Shopkeepers as
issuers. Their relationship with
wholesalers. What limits are there for the issue of M's notes for long term
loans?
IV/23 Future
note-issuing banks will mainly provide means of payment for wages. Before 1844
these banks had nearly nothing to do with that business. Redemptionism
restricted them & laws on minimum size for their notes. "Balance of
trade". According to the statistics the imports of the world are greater
than the exports, although they should be the same. The statistics are flawed
and misleading. The gold movements in the world were rarely caused by trade
movements. The gold movements were mostly due to the legal right of creditors
to demand gold.
IV/24 Devaluation.
Popular view of the market. Statism. India & "self-government".
"Parliamentarism" in East Germany. Englishmen held relatively few
official posts in India. Pariahs. Colour bar goes on in practice. Central
banking newly established eliminated private note-issuing banks.
"Punch" & "Simplicissimus". 14. I. 1951: Korea.
IV/25 Taxes in
kind, already opposed by Adam Smith. Newspapers don't publish opposition to
modern money theory, especially Keynesianism. Overpopulation in Italy? The
bakers are looking for customers, not the customers for bakers. Defence of
Germany. The Germans have to choose between submission or suicide. 14. I.
1951: Refugees refused entry.
IV/26 Those who
refused asylum to these refugees had been helped even by their former enemies.
Now they refuse to help their own countrymen! No economic "reasons" for
such refusals. By a few strokes of the pen there would be created the
possibility to supply every man able to work with employment, including all
refugees. 15. I. 1951: The "outlawry" of atomic bombs proposed
by the Soviets. Their petitions outlawed rather than amended: Russian atomic
bombs, too!
IV/27 The
importance of discount rates is much overestimated. "Balance of
trade". Balancing by the automatic return of paper monies.
IV/28 The balance
of trade is always zero if long periods are considered. Trade statistics
deserve distrust. 20. I. 51: Eskimos as anarchists. Pricing in gold
coins. For Germany pricing in multiples of grams of gold would be best.
IV/29 Free
coinage, free bullion market. Why is gold, in times of unrest, preferred to any
other commodity? Because its purchasing power is more stable than that of any
other commodity. Unfree gold markets. Dr. W. J. Busschau: "The Measure of
Gold". Rittershausen: Only one really free bullion market: Tangier. During
inflation prices rise in sequence: Precious metals, other metals, wool, cotton
& other wholesale commodities. Then retail prices. Official exchange
quotations unreliable, e.g. at the Exchange in Paris, 1926/1927. The published
quotations often differed from the really paid prices. Reliable are the
quotations at New York, where ever single operation is published. Upon strong
foreign demand gold coins would disappear from circulation.
IV/30 When paper
money is made a forced currency then gold disappears from circulation. They
wander from circulation to trade. From trade they cannot disappear. What
happens when foreign creditors use their right to demand gold coins? Long-term
loans. Payments abroad. Free Banking for wage payments before 1844?
IV/31 Debased
coins were used for wage payments. Act of 1844, Adolf Wagner & Lorenz von
Stein: There was no system of thought but, rather, a lack of thought behind it.
Long-term loans. Balance of trade. Indian democracy, with criminals in
government.
IV/32 India,
colour bar & religion, Pariahs, caste bar. Brahmans. Human rights, militia
& panarchies: Human rights repose not in the individual as a bearer of such
rights but in the individual so organised, that his organisation leads him to
acknowledge the rights. Rights of rational beings. Rights of animals, vegetarianism.
21. I. 1951: Trees & Malthusianism
IV/33 Forests
& free markets for timber, making them profitable. Houses built without
timber. Unions & cooperative socialism. Egypt & its peasants. Defence.
Mao's method of treating deserters. Union.
IV/34 Forced
currency & cours forcé, corso forzoso, forced acceptance & forced
value. Danish butt49 policy. Mercantile theory: Man produces not to consumer
the product but to export it. Free gold market, inflation
IV/35 Free gold
market, gold per head amounts
IV/36 Gold per
head. Factors that make gold values more stable than any others. Bombay gold
& silver quotes
IV/37 30. I.
1951: Currency, fiat money, legal tender, cours forcé, Zwangskurs, forced
currency, tax foundation
IV/38 Nero:
debased coins but did not accept his debased coins in payment of taxes. Fiat
money, Zwangskurs involves repeal of redemption. Discount rate in Germany.
Interest rate, relative unimportance. Payments abroad. Long-term loans. Free
Banking, Attwood, wage levels of industrial revolution. 1926 abolition of one
pound notes in England. Lord Overstone & Act of 1844.
IV/39 Small number
of Indian Nationalists, French Revolution, Carlyle, Nehru, corruption. Gandhi,
caste spleen. Foreign exchange control, Danish butter, human rights. Human rights
& "society". 31. I. 1951: Increased demand for gold
leading to depreciation of paper money?
IV/40 Gold
redemption before 1914, right of creditors to demand gold. Tax foundation.
Hermann von Beckerath, Krefeld banker & Reichsfinanzminister of 1849, earned
much by mediating due bills as means of payment against their debtors.
(Probably grandfather of B.) Although it is arithmetically the same to say:
gold rose or the bills of exchange fell in value, it is not the same
economically. Economically the bills fell and gold remained stable. 1. II.
1951: Lombroso & criminal types of men. Schopenhauer & man's
development by sexual preferences. Planners vs. Free Trade.
IV/41 Free Trade
as a right, free gold market, free currency market, right to issue notes, right
to refuse means of payment, monetary despotism. 2. 2. 1951: Rights for
humans, animals, plants. Capacity to acknowledge rights. Gall on criminals.
Darwin on moral actions among apes. Repentance. Schopenhauer. Fighting for
rights. A moral tendency in men. And tendencies can be developed.
IV/42 Kant on
rights & revenge. Claims founded on rights are often granted, even if the
claimant is completely defeated. They are founded on our mental and
psychological organisation, or better nature. They are given, like the form of
one's nose. Herd instinct? moral sense? 4. II. 1951: Benn: does not see
that at the bottom of all trouble is the money question.
IV/43 Warfare with
a money system as the world uses now. Alcohol & abstention. Soberness vs.
Tsarism. Change in Chinese mentality due to the elimination of opium. General
notions & great conceit. Collective
responsibility.
IV/44 Pigou on
Keynes. Keynesian clap-trap: As if competition would have to be based upon the
biggest and most anti-economic monopoly. How few of a thousand economics
textbooks get the relationship between inflation, cours forcé and the
note-issue monopoly right? Greek inflation, Canadian trade, definition of
inflation
IV/45 Inflation
requires forced currency. "Credit-inflation" is only possible if the
credit is expressed in fiat money. Velocity of circulation & distrust.
Right definition of inflation. Price levels. Assignats. State socialism and
money monopoly & monetary despotism. Indiscriminate warfare methods.
Refugee streams should be increased!
IV/46 Herodotus on
understanding without influence or power. Peace contribution through Free
Trade. Pitt's example. "Interpreter" thinks that the coop element in
Greene's plan is essential. It is not. Essential is the right of issue and the
braking of the government's monopoly for standardised means of payment.
Interest is also without importance. If the interest of a Greene-Bank is
redistributed, so as the dividend of a life insurance co., then the interest
may be nominally as high as possible. Riegel proposes standardised cheques
instead of notes. That is the system of the Four Bills. German clearing
cheques, i.e. cheques which can be made good only by clearing and not by
redemption in cash. Redemption in goods is or leads to clearing, as pointed out
by Zander, in his explanation of the Four Bills. Keynes: Took monetary
despotism so for granted that he never talked about it. 8. II. 1951:
"Thinking too far ahead is a bad thing, and I must confess that I incline
towards that bad habit." Schopenhauer, women.
IV/47 Resistance
as long as there is a chance. Payments abroad. Foreign exchange controls.
Schacht prohibited value preserving clauses. (So did the "currency
reform" law of 1948! - J.Z., 17.6.03.)
IV/48 Foreign
exchange controls. Long-term loans. Denmark: export prices vs. internal prices.
Gold payments before 1914.
IV/49 Zwangskurs,
cours forcé, forced currency. Italy, after 17 years, repealed its cours forcé
in 1883. Human rights. 15. II. 1951: R. G. Hawtrey, "Currency &
Credit": Turgot's notes of the Caisse d'Ecompte, 1776, were forced
currency. Necker followed his example. Forced circulation - term for forced
acceptance. Keynes. Gold coins & Reichsbank
IV/50 Havenstein
and the introduction of legal tender & cours forcé, 1910, in Germany.
Intentionally, to prepare for the next war! Gold clauses abrogated in 1914.
Laws did not apply to foreign creditors. Probably, inflation of German paper
money led finally to prohibitions for foreigners by their governments against
accepting German paper money and led then to dollar shortages & foreign
exchange controls in Germany. Free gold market: bullion market, department
gold. Gold market in Tangier. Long-term loans. Gold per head. Quantity of goods
for sale.
IV/51 Rights,
property rights, respect for rights. 18. II. 1951: Dollar quotations in
Germany, October 1923
IV/52 Hungarian
inflation the largest ever? Housing finance. "The Statist". The black market is the only honest market. People, who today
buy gold are not "speculators" but the very contrary. Gold wire and
silver wire as an auxiliary currency. Leonard E. Read, "Outlook for
Freedom". Anti-monopolism, independence. "analysis". Is Russia
free from depressions?
IV/53 Pressing men
into mercantile fleets as well as into the navy. Soviets do the same, pressing
men as forced labourers into their concentration camps. Unemployed used forced
labourers ("Arbeitsdienst") and as informers, like before in Turkey
until 1980, in Mussolini's Italy and Hitler's Germany. Planning &
unemployment. Robinson Crusoe & Friday: No depressions for them. Why not?
Sales or acceptance of their product was never a problem. Order system,
commitments. Coops & price reductions. Income of members would be reduced
but none of them would become unemployed. The now existing difficulties in changing
one's occupation or job is another very effective cause of unemployment. Legal
claim of workers to get their wages in legal tender & unemployment. Payment
of wages in clearing cheques. Suggested book title: "The organisation of
society in which continuous but step by step fallen prices do continuously
improve the standard of living and tend to continuous employment.
IV/54 Unemployment
caused by monopolies. Revolutions and their terror connected to inflation &
it is not possible without a forced currency. Freely floating exchange rates.
Keynes the monopolist and coercer. Heffernan. Gold & silver production.
IV/55 23. II.
1951: Emerson, morality & civilisation, institutions, fiat money &
criminality. Honest money diminishes crime. Nehru, Afghanistan. Governments in
exile with a program. Prof. Johannes Scherr, Das rote Quartal, on Paris
Commune. Voting, participation rate.
IV/56 Paris
commune. If more voters had voted … Militia of Paris & Thiers. Moratorium.
(Unemployment was high. The unemployed got at least some payment as militia
members. When most were dismissed, they were unemployed without any income:
Tinder waiting for a spark. - If I remember my reading correctly. - J.Z.,
17.6.03.) What could or should have been done?
IV/57 27. II.
1951: Radio broadcasting & advertisements. Unemployment in West
Germany. Refugees. All could be rapidly employed if all monetary laws would be
repealed. Are Europeans less intelligent than 100 years ago? (Most of the
revolutionaries of 1848 did not reveal much intelligence, either! - J.Z.,
17.6.03.) Banks should be absolutely free. The few which misuse their liberty
will soon disappear and the rest would fulfil their tasks. Bank lending and
degree of unemployment. Turn-over credits vs. capital credits.
IV/58 Confinement
of notes to large denominations did largely eliminate them for wage payments.
Long-term loans and employment. Employment depends mainly upon financing
current production and bringing the products to the consumers. Hertzka:
"Freiland", 1889: Sales obstacles must be removed. Producing more
unsaleable goods does not improve the situation. Redemptionism made note issues
a bad and even dangerous business. Employment in Germany was largely financed
by its store of coins, not by notes. The existence of a store of coins is not
sufficient to provide employment for all.
IV/59 All errors
on the subject found their ways into the new prescriptions on banking, imposed
on Germany after 1945. Deposit banking. Cours forcé. Medieval laws granted the
sentenced the right to scold the sentence for half an hour, according to
Zander. Value fluctuations. Gold is the least evil. Rittershausen. Savigny:
Obligationenrecht. Jevons.
IV/60 Jevons
remained an adherent of gold because he studied it. Monopoly. Natural
monopolies. Marshal. Ordering system. Keynes. 2. III. 1951:
Redemptionism.
IV/61 Free
circulation of sovereigns: Four questions on details: As legal tender, as
exclusive value standard? Free choice of value standards? Shall creditors get
the right to claim them or only the right to be paid gold values? Free coinage?
Precedents. Payment in kind up to certain gold values. Persian precedent.
IV/62 Mint
monopoly? Delays can amount to prohibitions. Circulation of foreign coins.
Prussian precedent. Redemptionism, free note issue. Monetary revolution with
the Lord Mayor of London at top?
IV/63 Kimmitt,
Johnston & Alexander proposal for City of London, further discussed. Free
gold market. Four Bills. German law of 1923 on value-preserved mortgages.
IV/64 Vram Pilossian.
Persion copper ore deposits. Cambodia. Melting pot for gold coins only used
where paper money is fiat money. No modern author, following Ricardo's example,
speaks of forced currency and its consequences.
IV/65 Foreign
exchange control, always only for fiat money. Speculation? Over-issue of fiat
money. "Giro Banks" of Amsterdam and Hamburg: Stuart's report.
Sovereigns in Greece. Over-issue? That word does not exist in a government's
vocabulary. Nor do the people care about over-issues. Lack of theory does not
make a practical man.
IV/66
Non-comprehension towards the fundamental reforms required. Reichsbank spent a
milliard gold marks in 1923 to "prop up" the Reichsmark. Purchasing
power of Gold in Greece increases during its inflation. Gold as a life-saver
for Jews fleeing from prosecution in Middle Ages. M.'s proposal to redeem notes
at a fixed value and not at a fixed weight of gold.
IV/67 Four bills.
Dr. Unger & Dr. Ramin on fluctuations in the value of gold. Legal tender
& forced currency not quite the same. Cours forcé & cours légal.
Foreign exchange control and gold price in paper money, indirect influence, in
12 steps.
IV/68 In May 1922
the purchasing power of gold in Germany was 5 times greater than in 1913. In
the USA it had not changed much. A real clearing needs no gold as means of
payment. If gold is required as means of payment, not merely as a value
standard, then it is not a real clearing. "Let the price of gold
rise"? Once the forced currency is repealed, paper money will get a discount
on the free market. The standard coin was never quoted on the Exchange. Notes
were quoted, with their value being expressed in parts or multiples of
sovereigns.
IV/69 Letter by
Alexander of 24. 1. 1951. 4. III. 1951: Irving Fisher: "Making of
Index Numbers".
IV/70 Index
numbers. Sharing of price variations between creditors and debtors. Government
index numbers use controlled prices. Black market prices closer to real prices.
The official or "normal" market is not readily supplied. Gsell
(Gesell) party in German & Switzerland & US. They continue to demand a
tyrannical system that uses official index numbers. They began to demand it
when official maximum prices did not yet play a role in economics. Bombay rare
metal prices, 1951. Official gold price for gold in London.
IV/71 Crises
before the "Keynesian Age", George Winder's view. Unemployment in 19th
century, & 17th century Italy & Belgium in 1790. London monetary revolution involving the Lord
Mayor, via meetings & petition: London declared as an independent district
concerning the monetary standard, reopening of the Royal Mint &
announcement that everybody may coin his gold ingots under the conditions of
1913 at that Mint. It would be an impressive beginnings. Alas, Kimmitt,
Johnston & Alexander just talked, all too vaguely - and did nothing.
Working hours.
IV/72 Several
optimal lengths of working time, considered from standpoints of high output,
people's health and quality of product. Atrocities during German post WW I
revolution. Cruelty is regularly observed during civil wars. Social &
economic effect? Zero! King-Hall reports terrible details on American warfare
in Korea. Suicide by starvation.
IV/73 Redemption
on the bullion market! 5. III. 1951: G. D. H. Cole: "A Short
History of the British Working-Class Movement", reports on circulation of
Owen's Labour Notes. Copyrights. C. R.
Fay: "Life and Labour in the 19th
Century", reports that in 1819 the shortage of small coins was so large
that labourers were paid in bulk, with large notes, which they had to split at
the nearest pub. The Truck Act of 1831 prohibited payment in notes of Banks
more than 15 miles distant.
IV/74 Malthus
mentions wages of 18 pence to 2 shillings per day as typical for his time. Lady
Vierkandt recommends Nathaniel Gubbins: "Dear Pig", London 1948, as
one of the most amusing books ever written. 7. III. 1951: Aggression
& intervention, Fichte's view. B.'s view: Every citizen & every group
of citizen has the right to intervene against oppressors.
IV/75 Communism on
aggression, defence & liberation. Hertzka: "Freiland". Negroes
& Whites. 11. III. 1951: On Johnston & Alexander correspondence.
IV/76 The
country's need for currency cannot be supplied merely by freely circulating
gold coins. Four Bills, Bill No. IV. What shall be legal tender if precious
metal does not circulate & notes are at a discount? Settlement by clearing.
Warner's solution the same in his "The Currency Famine of 1893".
IV/77 Clearing of
bills in Germany. "Gegengeschaeft". For the financing of present
goods against future goods - still to be produced - the German banking theory
demanded that it must be performed through interest-bearing bonds etc., not
notes. In practice this rule was sometimes violated, especially in the years
before 1932. Rittershausen wrote a very good book on it.
IV/78 Acceptance
foundation is missing for notes issued to grant long-term loans with them.
Refusal of notes that are at a discount and do not have shop-foundation
acceptance at par.
IV/79 DeWitt
Warner. M.'s aim is primarily the financing of production and not of sales.
Right middle course described by Zander in his "Railway Money".
Railway Minister Oeser: Oeser-Scheine for about 1,500 million gold marks. 15.
III. 1951: Stirner. Bruno Bauer. Duty. Highest duty? Criticism! Accept
nothing because an authority said it. Reject all doctrines not founded on
reason. Societies for the reprint of scarce old tracts. CD-ROM option for this
today. Bruno Bauer & his brother Edgar contributed much to overthrow the
old theology in Germany. Edgar demonstrated that Seneca through his
correspondence with Paulus, probably not a falsification, must be considered as
the true founder of Christendom.
IV/80 Arthur
Kitson: "The Banker's Conspiracy". Its flaws. (One of his first
books: "The Money Question" is worth reading as an attack on the
money issue monopoly.) Alan Greenspan. Right to refuse acceptance of paper
money. The neglect of this right is the last cause of all our evils. Gold coins
are not sufficient as currency. Redemptionism.
IV/81 Resemblance
of cause and effect law to old Jehovah, as it punishes seldom the sinner but,
primarily, his children, other relatives, subjects, followers. It uses the
principle of collective responsibility. Monetary liberty ought to be among the
world's most fundamental laws. Tax foundation money, discovered in Saxonia in
the 18th century, about 1740. Tax Anticipation Certificates.
Rittershausen collected the older laws on this: PEACE PLANS 641. Means to keep
the nominal value of paper money without cours forcé on a par with precious
metal.
IV/82 Jevons
mentions tax foundation money as an American invention, also in the 18th
century. It, too, can keep notes at par with old without cours forcé. (Legal
tender, in today's interpretation, usually combines cours forcé with cours
légal. - J.Z., 17.6.03.) Rittershausen: The principle of value through
readiness to accept at par. Treasury Notes. Lorenz von Stein on tax foundation.
Distrust hardly affects this kind of paper money. With it there cannot be a run
in the usual sense. Gold value instead of gold coins. Value-preserved
investment opportunities needed. IV/83 Kitson went from monetary freedom to
monetary despotism. Treasury Notes. Usually not valued in gold weight units. US
Civil War Bonds with gold value clauses. WW I & Germany's legal tender law.
Right to refuse acceptance of paper money was not sufficiently discussed in
England. E.g., not by Sir Robert Peel.
IV/84 Criticism of
Peel. The best investigation, although not published, is one by Zander.
Clearing in Peel's time. German commercial usage re: a) legal tender, which a
debtor may force upon his creditor and b) legal object of demand by creditor.
English legal theory does not seem to deal with the matter. The French does.
Right of the people to refuse paper money. Union functionaries and Labour Party
leaders.
IV/85: Eight
current monetary opinions Individualists should criticise. 17. III. 1951:
Marcus Aurelius, Caesar, Pacing while thinking.
IV/86 The true
source of employment is the own wants of the employed. Wants must be permitted
to appear as demand, to the extent that one is able and willing to supply
wanted services in exchange. Current wants must be satisfied by current
production. During crises the formerly employed are separated from plants
already existing. The question then arises: How to bring the men back to their
machines and not: How to finance fresh plants and machines. If that is true,
then employment for the unemployed is not solved by the raising of long-term loans.
One exception: When goods are not consumed and in danger of becoming spoilt. I
such a case its advisable to lend out the goods in form of long-term loans
rather than see them wasted. Mrs.
Johanna Boedeker & Geheimrat Wohlmannstetter.
IV/87 Short description
of long-term loans of the above indicated kind. First hint towards that method
B. found in a book of Hertzka. Cours forcé, forced currency and fiat money.
Better words desirable. Falling value of money. Price fluctuations as the
valves of the economy. To be distinguished those caused from the money side and
those caused from the goods side. Jevons held that neither creditors not
debtors want protection against the latter. Dr. Ramin formula on a value
preserving clause. Two suggestions by B. on this.
IV/88 By 1830 B.
had not yet investigated price developments in connection with harvests etc.,
for the very years for which other economists believe to have observed a
gold-caused inflation. Also he had not calculated the per head increases of
gold and found out how trifling they were. The State buys gold - at its
unrealistic price - but does not sell it. Gold flows were possible in the past
mainly because creditors were entitled to demand gold. (During the Great
Inflation in Germany gold also went there because its purchasing power then and
there was extraordinary. - J.Z., 17.6.03.) Coining in London by order of the
Lord Mayor, that would have been a matter of no less consequence than the
revolution of 1688. Greek inflation and official gold policy there. Emerson on
civilisation and morality.
IV/89 CGT
questionnaire of 1905 to all union workers. Among them the question which
motivated B. for most of his life: "With what will you pay your bread,
your other victuals, your bus, etc., the day after the revolution? Suppose that
all currency disappears on this day from circulation, as will, very probably,
happen. 21. III. 1951: Refugees
& corruption in Berlin. Unemployment, refugees & cheap commodities in
East Berlin.
IV/90 The problem
is not seen in the right light. Only false solutions are proposed and
practised. 22. III. 1951: Jews & Arabs: Nationalism is the same
thing among all peoples. Communism in China. Who among the Anti-communists has
published a sketch of an attractive alternative constitution for China? All
past ones neglected the means of payment problem. The reformers might follow
the existing texts and merely modify some paragraphs, thereby immediately
pointing out the flaws of the existing one. "But, among the thousands, who
could do such a work not one performs it. What an age in which we
live!" (An Ideas Archive is missing. It would also market better ideas and
would attract them. - J.Z., 17.6.03.)
IV/91: Starvation
during the Great German Inflation. The currency stabilisation took place on Nov.
19th 1923. A few weeks later the conditions of 1913 were largely
restored. Before that date people believed commodities were missing. But
nothing was short except sound currencies. (Even the many sound emergency
currencies then issued were not numerous and voluminous enough to supply enough
sound currency! Their issuers still fumbled and stumbled, too, in all too many
cases. - J.Z., 17.6.03.) Deflation after the Big Inflation. One significant
factor contributing to it: Tax funds hoarded in public funds and delayed there
before being spent again. Repeal of all modern money laws. Land reform:
unification of all too spread small parcels (Flurbereinigung), in England,
Prussia and Japan. Why was it not done by mutual agreement? (I suspect the red
tape, fees & taxes involved in official land titles was a major obstacle. -
J.Z., 17.6.03.) Mathematics &
economics. C. Bresciani-Turroni, Walras, Jevons, Pareto, Prof. Riebesell.
Proofs that a liberal order of society must work best. Nazis were right, from
their standpoint, to prohibit lectures on mathematical economics. Old gold
standard.
IV/92 India not
liberated by the new regime. Russian gold output & corruption of Western
officials. Capitalism or Anti-monopolism? If Tucker had not insisted on calling
his system "anarchism", then "Tuckerism" would be a good
name for what is needed now. Football.
IV/93 Trade &
the right to issue standardised means of payment, to use standards like gold,
to oblige oneself to accept means of payment as one would accept gold coins, if
one sells one's labour's products. Price controls since 4,500 years. Price
edicts of Diocletian. Gold prices then about the same as those of the 19th
century. Lexis. Interest in house building. Building & Loans Associations.
IV/94 Malthusianism
and Division of Labour effect, as expressed by G. B. Shaw. Japan's fish
production. What can I do? Tucker: "… issuing their own money in defiance
of legal prohibition". Here is the means to liberate Russia, China, all
others. If Tucker would have written nothing else than this single line, he
would already have been the greatest of all economists.
IV/95 King Solomon
& his temple. Korean agrarian reform by the Communists. Praised by
King-Hall and B. agreed. (So what caused starvation there, in recent years?
With land redistribution is not enough without a free market for produce, under
planning, price controls, quotas, red tape, insufficient property incentives
etc. Free competition for all land reform systems practised among their
supporters, at their expense and risk! - J.Z., 17.6.03.) Refugees, freedom of
note issue, loans on a gold basis and exterritorial autonomy for them and all
others desiring it. Strasser. Kant’s four kinds of thinking & 12
categories.
IV/96 German
"co-determination-movement". Most people use only one category in
their thinking. Bureaucracy begins to occupy itself with the other categories,
although in an extremely primitive manner. Thereby it rules over workers &
employers. 24. III. 1951: Did women contribute anything to monetary
theory? Young Gauss & young Pascal. 25. III. 1951: Marcus Aurelius.
Safe deposits and deposits for the lending business.
IV/97 It is not
self-evident that 100 coins, given as a loan, must be repaid in form of coins.
Law of Hammurabi. Marcus Aurelius introduced set-off. But most laws are legally
still in the same state in which Hammurabi found the Babylonians ones. The
whole theory of metallic "redemption" is based on the old
pre-Hammurabian prejudice. Schlieman & Troy. Long-term loans. Machinery
& unemployment. The fresh employment created by machines is the aspect not
seen. Trade union rules prevent many job changes.
IV/97 Balance of
trade. As a rule countries are not partners in trading. Gold redemption. Not
obligatory for all banks but optional. Minorities and real or pretended
suppression. Stirner. Value by readiness to accept at par. Let systems compete.
Right to refuse the acceptance of paper money must be the basis of a good
theory of money. Open market policy and relation of gold to notes. Note of
1793:
IV/99 The note
seems to have been issued against the law. That is pleasing. The issuer
promises to pay, although the thing, which he promises to pay, is very scarce.
He should have added: "If I possess the cash" and: "In every
case, I accept the note in my business so as I would accept cash." Honesty
as a factor. 28. III. 1951: Morale in war. Napoleon I, conscription.
IV/100 Volunteers
in WW I and in other wars were generally believed to be of a lesser morale than
the conscripts. Reputation of mercenaries & professional soldiers and even
of some volunteer militias. (Mercenaries and professional soldiers practise
prostitution in the sphere of military services. They are officially hired
killers or murderers: contract killers that are legalised. – J.Z., 18.7.03.)
Generally the tendency to sell is much stronger than the tendency to buy.
(That, too, may be related to monetary despotism. Under rapid inflation it is
not a general tendency. Then this rule is reversed. - J.Z., 17.6.03.) Export
spleen. Mao's regime demands the arrival of imports before permitting exports.
Dollar-Gap, under false and enforced exchange rates, quotas, permits etc.
IV/101 Credit
insurance. Liquidations. Not number of liquidations is decisive but sums that
are lost. Figures may also merely indicate the take-over of a number of small
firms. Increased advances by Banks need not be dangerous. When they get more
money from investors than it is not unnatural or dangerous for them to lend
more money to their debtors. Dumping of cheap Japanese shirts.
IV/102 Trade with
Japan. Dumping is impossible if the means of payment is convertible into goods
only. For Full employment policy. (Yes, but not by government and through
Keynesianism! - J.Z., 17.6.03.) Paper money: Private optional paper money with
a sound acceptance foundation should be distinguished from government paper
money with forced acceptance and forced value & insufficient tax
foundation.
IV/103 Government
policies towards capital. Monetary & financial revolution required. Paying
wages in sovereigns? Goethe: The invention of bills of exchange - which
emancipated many people from gold and other cash - seems to have been a very
essential element in the development of Italy in the Middle Ages. 31. III.
1951: Generalities, facts & doctrines.
IV/104
Unemployment and capital. In the case of economic crises the capital is
unemployed, too! Only in wars and natural catastrophes is it destroyed. General
J. F. C. Fuller on Marshall Plan. In cases of vast destructions capital is
needed. In unemployment and general sales crises the crises must be attacked
from the side of selling or selling and buying, which requires the answer to:
How to restore the purchasing power of the consumer? Generally production
arranges itself if buying is not handicapped. Not the man buys. His means of
payment buy. Only the possession and use of suitable means of payment permit
the transformation of want into demand. This transformation is the central
problem of the present state of culture and civilisation.
IV/105 Will banks
that finance primarily production by long-term loans and low interest -
sufficiently finance the consumer and sufficiently transform his want into
demand? While the provision of capital finance also makes many consumers
financial, there remains a gap, one great enough to require special attention
and means to fill it. It is dangerous enough as a possible cause for a sales
crisis. (A greater output does not assure more sales but might merely lead to
greater stockpiles and more unsold consumer goods. - J.Z., 17.6.03.) B.
suggests here only the order system to fill that gap, not mentioning the issue
of shop foundation money, used in wage payments, to assure sales, although
generally he advocated both.
IV/106 1. IV.
1951: On a gold deal of one central bank to another. Foreign exchange
control. Vietnam (Indo-China -Annam). Unemployment, central banking, private
armies & tax foundation money. Spiritualism, augurs, Constantine.
IV/107 Devaluation
& price rises, Wagemann. Emergency money: two pence banknote. Kitson,
"Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion": A Russian forgery. Its
nonsense on gold, gold standard and Jews.
3. 4. 1951:
IV/108 Free gold
markets: Not even Tangier quite free. Without them credit is destroyed,
consequently capital supply for building etc. Housing shortage. Prohibition of
gold clauses. Malthusianism. Zander. Gold standards. King Solomon & the
conquest of Palestine by Egypt. Women & money questions. (Still: For every
woman writer on this subject here are, probably, at least ten men. But then
women writers on any subject are more rare than male writers. - J.Z., 18.6..03.
– That’s odd insofar as women are mostly better in languages than are men. Does
their education, environment or biology still keep them all too often from a scientific
and writing career? – J.Z.,18.7.03)
IV/109 Marcus
Aurelius. Deposits & interest. Machines & employment. Exports &
gold payments. Balance of trade. Wrongly applied to nations. Aggression.
République Supranationale. Wangenheim, 1908, on gold supplies from
IV/110 It is
possible to send those who want gold to the gold market and yet keep notes at
par with their nominal gold weight value. Distrust & discounts. The effect
of new money depends on its quality of being a forced currency or not and upon
nothing else. Four Bills rule on issues. Sound issues up to their limits cannot
raise prices but a smaller issue may cause a deflation.
IV/111 5. 4.
1951: Depreciation by bad management and depreciation by the government's
monetary policy. Not one Building Society ever protested against the present
forced currency. (Not one social insurance company in Germany, or savings bank
or general insurance company, either, as far as I know! - Like sheep they
follow their "Fuehrers" into monetary and financial disasters. -
J.Z., 18.6.03.) Scratchley on Building Society Finance Principle.
"Truth" considered the State Israel as a Jewish Nazi State.
Atrocities on both sides, Arabs & Jews, reveal a Nazi mentality on both
sides, at least among their radical minorities. (As modern territorialists both
sides have largely forgotten their best tradition, that of exterritorially
autonomous communities, which would offer a just and peaceful solution for
their present troubles. - J.Z., 18.6.03.)
IV/112 Soviets
monopolised ownership of and trade in gold. Missing gold? A free gold market
replaces the greatest stock of gold. (It offers the greatest gold redemption
fund for exchange media standing at par and properly evaluates those that are
depreciated. - J.Z., 18.6.03.) Swiss population & note circulation, its
gold value per head.
IV/113 Official
vs. real prices for gold, reckoned in government paper money. Effect of full
employment and affordable housing on marriages. 7. IV. 1951:
Conscription, experience, rights, duty.
IV/114 Conscripts
vs. volunteers. Some of B.'s war experience in WW I. Kant. China & its
transportation facilities: Famine in one district and abundance in others. Mao.
Luxury. Before England's economy was "planned" by the State, she was,
at the end of all her wars, richer than before the war.
IV/115 Dumping of
shirts, trade with Japan. A money convertible into goods, where it is accepted,
brings, within a short time, the industry of the country to a condition where
this industry makes only goods in which it is superior to other countries. Full
employment as an aim. Crises and a free economy. Truck system & truck shops
& truck tokens. Sound currency developments prevented by complete
prohibitions.
IV/116 New money
& rising prices. Roscher: 3 kinds of prices to be distinguished here, in
relation to the type of currency supply. How much optional and free market
rated money would a country accept? Example of the potato seller.
IV/117 Example of
the potato seller continued, fiat money, price controls, rationing. Monetary aspects
overlooked by Tucker, Greene et al. Payment communities & panarchies.
IV/118 11. 4.
1951: Morgan, his hoists also priced in sovereigns. Roscher says that fine
gold would give the same service in circulation as an alloy of gold. Tradition
of token money. Private coinage. Readiness to accept foundation. Common Law.
IV/119 12. 4.
1951: China's agriculture, land distribution, tools, leases. Italian coops:
As important examples as free note issues in Britain before 1844, USA before
1863 and Germany in the 19th century. 22. IV. 1951:
IV/120 Deposits
& safe deposits. Laws of Corpus Juris on this is flawed but, nevertheless,
taken over by modern legislation. Zander. French banking laws permit the
handing over of securities the banks had invested in, in case of a run.
Everyone, who has opened an account with the Bank must sign the rules,
confirming his agreement. Now a run can do no harm. Private gold purchases
& payments. Balance of trade. Interest & note circulation. Dumping. New
money & rising prices.
IV/121 Gold price
system. Scarcity of wheat in India & price controls. Thiers: "Histoire
de la Révolution Francaise. He was clear on the effect of forced currency. Four
results listed.
IV/122 French
Revolution terror regime connected to Assignats issues and price controls. V.
R. Kimmitt, "The London Newsletter", to Meulen, 15. 4. 1951: On paper
pound and gold sovereign. Gold bullion standard.
IV/123 B.'s
comment to it of 22. 4. 1951: 7 points. 5.) Fiduciary money is never backed
by a government gold stock but by the readiness of the government to accept it
for taxes. 28. 4. 1951: US foreign exchange laws.
IV/124 Macaulay:
"Frederic the Great": 1/7th of the males able to do
military service were constantly soldiers. They were maintained without
government debts or debasement of the currency and without an income tax in the
modern sense. Today an army of about 2 % of the population cannot be maintained
without inflation, increase in public debt and taxation. However, the pay of
F.'s soldiers was incredibly small. Number of births increases with the poverty
of those married. Families that never really suffer from hunger tend to die
out, e.g. the aristocracy that conquered England under William I. A large
population, merely by its size, increases the wealth per head unless government
measures & actions prevent this. The increase in wealth decreases the
fertility, although not at once, to zero growth. Thus a natural maximum is
attained, estimated at 6 - 20 thousand millions. The former quite obviously too
small. The present population movement is nothing more than the tendency to
attain the natural optimum. 30. 4. 1951: Free gold market, internally
& externally. The supposed difference between foreign & internal trade
is a prejudice and where differences are observed, they are the result of that
prejudice. Protectionism. "Buy British", "Buy Germany".
Free Trade.
IV/125 The conceit
of rulers & the slave mentality of their subjects. Kant: International
govt. only for purposes that cannot be achieved without a govt. Are there such?
Free Trade & Christians. Kant: Atheists must also be Cosmopolitans. Man's
nature and reason lead to a Commonwealth including all men, as the most
valuable of all goods, more valuable than individual life. Quite new principles
follow from this. For B. such theorising led to solutions for the monetary,
trade and political problems, not excluding such intricate ones as the
treatment of minor Indian people. Money reformers must use appropriate
terminology to become understood. "Forced currency being the real basis of
all our evils." (Only if one includes here the "forced
currency" of the existence and acceptance at their face value of territorial
governments as well. - J.Z.) Rittershausen. Keynes depreciated his writings
to nearly zero by not distinguishing money endowed with forced currency and
other money.
IV/126 Gold coins
insufficient for all payments in England. As Lubbock pointed out, 100 years
ago, much more than 90% of England's internal payments are not performed
by cash. When all governments introduced in 1914 a forced currency, they did so
with the intention to fill out the gap necessarily produced by the
disappearance of gold from circulation. They knew no better means and
economists did not propose other means. That train of ideas was expressed by
Havenstein before the Currency Commission of 1808. The circulation of gold
coins must be completed by a circulation of notes or standardised clearing
cheques, etc. When gold coins are permitted the gold pricing will follow and
also token money accepted like gold coins. Competition will force note-issuing
bankers to keep their notes at par with their nominal gold weight value
otherwise than by gold metal redemptionism. For their notes will not be forced
currency but refusable and discountable. Adolf Wagner, Lorenz von Stein and
Michaelis. Trust is not sufficient. Under monetary freedom: What kind of means
of payment shall a creditor be entitled to demand from his debtor?
IV/127 What kind
of payment must a creditor accept, when sovereigns are rare and the right to
refuse notes is acknowledged? B. discussed this with Zander. Sir Robert Peel's
view, the standpoint of almost all people, laws and economists. Its erroneous
presupposition. "Market price" of gold for M. was always a paper
money price. The situation is very different when all goods, services, wages
& other contracts are priced in sovereigns and paid by sovereigns or other
means of exchange that are equivalent to them. Marx on legal tender or forced
currency. Gold standard: New terms required. Wage and price spiral.
IV/128 Nossig
investigated wages in Basel from 1800 - 1900. He found that typical wages,
expressed in precious metal, were about 7 times higher in 1900 than in 1800,
while the prices were largely still the same. He thus disproved the feared
wage-price-spiral hypothesis. Law of a geometrical series. In cases like this
it has an indefinite number of terms and yet its sum is a definite value. The
old Greeks could have discovered the law of this series by reflecting, without
prejudice, upon the "paradox" of "Achilles and the turtle".
But even today average people still think unconsciously: A series with an
infinite number of terms must produce an infinite sum. Another aspect:
High sales costs. They are reduced when the income of buyers increases. 30.
4. 1951: Extracts on "dumping" from the Encyclopaedia Britannica.
Most of its prescriptions are not applicable to goods paid by means of payment
of domestic origin that do not promise foreign exchange.
IV/129 Complaining
unemployed are more feared than invaded armies. (And yet governments can offer
only palliatives not cures & yet neither the governments nor the unemployed
themselves are sufficiently interested to study real cures & pretended
cures and the difference between them. - J.Z., 18.6.03.) In 1789 Paris had
200,000 unemployed among 600,000 inhabitants. 1. 5. 1951: Election laws
in Germany, selection of candidates. Elections within panarchies. Woman
parliament in old Rome, under later emperors. Such an institution would be
better than the present parliaments mixed of women and men. Balance of trade.
IV/130 Balance of
trade. Gold payments. Interest & note circulation. Industrial use of gold.
Prices during a crisis. M.'s invariable unit system.
IV/131 Price differentials
in different districts. India's wheat scarcity & corruption by officials. 3.
5. 1951: Jevons: What trouble is greater: New laws to compensate for
fluctuations in purchasing power of gold or let things go on? His view was that
new laws would be the greater evil. What degree of variation is large enough so
that a just legislator or judge must make allowance for this variation? Dawes
Agreements. German supreme court decision.
IV/132 Jevons,
Scrope, Lowe. Immense literature on the adjustment of debts to the price level.
Index numbers. Irving Fisher. The possibility of a sudden very large supply of
gold, by new mines etc. was always considered as given by Jevons & B. It
will always be necessary to distinguish between the substance of the money unit
in use for immediate payments and the variations of prices in respect to
deferred payments. Best clause invented so far is that of Dr. Ramin.
Ladislaus von Bortkewitsch, Univ. of Berlin, published in 1925 a survey of
modern Russian literature on index numbers and the theory of deferred payments.
The journal no longer exists. Agreements among debtors and creditors on this.
IV/133 9. 5.
1951: Radio noise one of the great misfortunes of B.'s life. Constant radio
noise effect upon thinking tends to produce barbarism, according to a pre-WW II
article in "Temps". (Even its songs usually merely confirm popular
prejudices. A Melbourne anarchists, whom I met in 1986 asserted that classical
music stimulated thinking while rock music suppressed it. True or false? I can
read and write by music that I like. - J.Z., 18.6.03.) Voting systems. (The
territorial aspect of all voting systems is wrong. Exterritorially
applied, i.e., only among volunteer communities, they would be rightful and
might even be useful to some of them. - J.Z., 18.6.03.) Gold ingots and the
"invariable unit".
IV/134
Gold-pricing as the least evil. The best test of attained improvement is
practice, even if merely in a restricted sphere. Full liberty for all to try
their own systems at the own cost and risk. Redemption systems can be honest -
if nothing impossible is promised in them. Three ways to maintain parity.
IV/135 Gold coins
as currency. Note clearing. Discount of notes. Means of payment a creditor is
entitled to demand.
IV/136 Wage price
spiral. Parliament of women. Gold payments. Purchasing power of gold in times
of unrest.
IV/137 The
phenomena caused by forced currency cannot be considered as economic laws for
communities where there is no forced currency. Interest-rate and note-issue.
Invariable unit. How Runge saved B.'s life in 1942. Mussolini.
IV/138 12. V.
1951: Finance of trade unions, compared with costs of insurance companies.
Disraeli proposed Dehli as the capital for the British Empire. Difference in
quantities & qualities of food consumption in "planned" vs.
somewhat free economies.
IV/139 Russians as
intelligent and honest black market merchants. Shakespeare, Bacon or Marlowe?
Famine in India, while credit is permitted only on a paper rupee basis.
Malthusianism. Corruption in Japan: Ill paid officials are always bribed.
(Well-paid bureaucrats may be even more bribably. They have more favours to
dispense and their "prices" for them are higher. - J.Z.) Summer time.
Deregulation & time limits for legislation etc. Jefferson & Paine proposed
sunset-laws. But even that rule could not sufficiently cope with the mass
production of wrongful laws and regulations. Freedom for individuals &
minorities to opt out from under them! Gold coin wages as a right? Very
dangerous proposal. Gold-value wages - a good thing, provided prices in shops
are gold value prices.
IV/140 Free gold
market, the first requirement of a real gold standard. Repealing the Charter of
the Bank of England. What may a worker demand from his debtor, the employer, in
case of a currency famine? If conventional gold bugs temporarily win then
monetary despotism is likely to be re-introduced soon, because of the flaws
remaining in the old redemptionist gold standard system. Study Warner's system
of self-help with clearing certificates. "The Currency Famine of
1893". Convertibility at the nominal value, on demand and by the issuer,
or even with an option clause, is an impossible thing in times of a crisis, for
notes that are only fractionally covered.
IV/141
Revaluation. Non-coercive currency reform. Prof. Ludwig Heinrich von Jacob's
1821 book on this. A reprint of his "Staatsfinanzwissenschaft" would
be worthwhile. Prague: Bribery has been almost wiped out! Character or
organisational change? Stock market prices and inflation.
IV/142 German
credit restrictions. Impossibility to discuss them quite frankly and with sound
conclusions in German media. Central Banking represents a popular faith. A
paper propagating daily, weekly, monthly, the nine monetary liberties could,
perhaps, still help.
IV/143
Governmentalism and the economy. Economic development primarily the
responsibility of the country itself? A country cannot be responsible. Only the
thinking - or the deciding - part of a country can be responsible. Indian coop
movement initiated by English cooperators. Reaction by Brahmans and Zemindars:
Murder. (Short-term leases and remaining monetary despotism remained major
obstacles for cooperators. - J.Z., 18.6.03.) Greece, gold & paper money.
Distribution of property in Egypt.
Leadership and maturity. Knowledge of and interest in the own affairs.
Absent at top and bottom. US constitution: In the year 1787 coining
meant manufacturing coins. It did not mean prohibiting coins.
IV/144 US
constitution did not even provide a monopoly to Congress for coining. The
Dollar was created as late as 1792. Other coins continued for many years to be
legal tender, too, according to the value relations fixed by Congress. If after
1787 Congress would have dared to debase the value of the currency, it would
have been the President's duty to arrest Congress and impeach it for high
treason. (Can any government institution be a sufficient guardian for a
monopolised currency and value standard? - J.Z., 18.6.03.) The long history
between money and banknotes is fully reproduced in the monthly "Sound
Currency", volumes 1895 & 1896.
IV/145 Kant's 12
categories. The "Interpreter" asserted that there are 13 but did not
indicate them. Aristotle. Life insurance and "safe" investments.
IV/146 Inflation
should not be ascribed to "government" but to its forced currency.
Dearness. Mildred Loomis. 24. 5. 1951: Radio: a wonderful invention per
se - without its abuse by some. Payments to a creditor during crises, money
shortages or currency famines. Legal tender law in Germany. Havenstein. War
finance.
IV/147 Margins in
long-term contracts. Gold price at Paris. Gottfried Keller: "Das verlorene
Lachen" on quarrelling between husbands and wives when both are
intellectuals. (Note on the reverse side is missing!) 25. 5. 1951: Open
air sculpture. Modern art. Such degenerations announce bloodshed, atrocities,
devastations and indifference among the people. The same in Germany before
Hitler arrived. Christian Morgenstern. B. condemned his verses as completely
crazy & asserted that all intellectuals knew them by heart. (Many of his
verses and aphorisms may be judged "crazy" but there are at least
some pearls among them. I quoted some. - J.Z.)
IV/148: Quotes
from Morgenstern continued. Moscow & Peace. Russian mentality. Germans
turning back German refugees.
IV/149 54,113 were
granted asylum last year but for 83,280 it was refused. Thus not even freedom
of movement was recognised for these Germans by "free" West German
governments. (Even the Nazis welcomed Germans from all other countries, unless
they were political opponents or Jews, etc., who were, naturally, wise enough
not to flee there. - J.Z., 18.6.03.) Accept every person, without
investigation, and provide him with employment. A year later the East would be
a corpse without a soul. Naturally, our planners don't know how to provide
employment. (Nor do their victims. Nor do either the bureaucrats nor their
victims sufficiently ponder this problem. - J.Z., 18.6.03.) 28. V. 1951:
Inflation, dearness, forced currency. Many kinds of interest. Enemies of
interest have insufficient interest in all the different forms of interest
which are in the public interest.
IV/150 Strasser.
Wallenstein caught & released General Arnim. Blamed by the Emperor for this
he replied: Such an ox at the head of hostile armies saves your Majesty many
thousands of soldiers. Remer: More dangerous since his party was forbidden.
Thinking in military terms regarding the control of a population. Unemployed
officers a danger. Contact between high German officers, like Seekt, & the
Soviets. That they might write against Bolshevism proves nothing. Hitler
profited from Stalin's attacks and Stalin from Hitler's. But their personal
relations were not bad and Hitler prohibited all personal attacks on Stalin.
What would help would be a program to abolish unemployment (See B.'s
"Berlin Program", microfiched by me. - J.Z.) and a paper talking
about it at least once a month.
IV/151 Nazis and
Allies air raided private houses rather than furnaces. Compared with
bombardment of Paris in 1871. Free Trade, including Free Banking, will supply
the country and every sphere of it with a sufficient quantity of sound means of
payment. The long history of the truck system in all countries, still
unwritten, proves the impossibility to provide sufficient means of payment
consisting of an "exclusive currency". Equal pay for equal work?
Beaumarchais, in his "Figaro", gave a noteworthy contribution to
solve the question of female labour. Jews & Arabs: Israeli Jews insist on
committing all national faults of other nations. If they would do the contrary
of all that, they would get such sympathy in the whole East that the young men
in the neighbourhood would voluntarily join the Jewish army, their feelings
strengthened by the pay of a piece of gold every day. A year later the Empire
of old king David would be restored & Damascus would again be a Jewish
centre. But the Jews would rather die, man for man, than becoming in this
way the first of all nations. Deportation of 100,000 Jews from Baghdad. If they
would have become the real aristocracy of Mesopotamia, by adopting the
principles of a free economy, they would play a most honoured role there. The
alternative for all races is now: Become real aristocrats or become
chased out or murdered. Jews do not understand that. It seems that the English
and Germans are no better.
IV/152 Russian
gold is not coined. Russians are prohibited to possess gold. There is no gold
market in Russia. There is no market at all in Russia, except the "black
market". Rouble & gold. Kant: Average people take their moral etc.
notions from the existing legislation. (I think that it is precisely the other
way around. - J.Z.)
IV/153 A union of
lawyers, economists and men of practical business should frame a petition to
Parliament, demanding the immediate repeal of all monetary laws enacted since
1814, and an amnesty for all persons and firms punished for violation of these
laws, and, especially, demanding an act which permits a free gold market.
IV/154 Swiss
income distribution. Extraordinarily high returns from capital. Foreign capital
working there is probably counted as domestic capital. "L'Unique" vs. Tucker's
"Liberty". Among B.'s burnt manuscripts there was a sketch on modern
French and German novels before 1914. Importance of a manuscript centre to
prevent such losses. Frequency of twin births.
IV/155 Sunspots
and mortality. Tangier "Free Zone". Honesty of Russian merchants 100
years ago. 8. 6. 1951:
IV/156 American scientists
trying to produce a synthetic pepper. In Germany, during the war, there was
plenty of synthetic pepper & B.'s impression was that it was good. (Without
an Ideas Archive ideas do not easily and fast enough travel around the world! -
J.Z., 18.6.03.)
IV/157 Buddha,
Kant & Schopenhauer. Remer. Nationalism - everywhere the same. Too much
competition?
IV/158 11. 6.
1951: A wage expressed in fiat money cannot be said to be a fixed wage.
Vested interest of union functionaries in inflation. Entrepreneurs as a
degenerate class. Abolition of taxes laid on incomes destined to provide
employment.
IV/159 Racial
differences. Dr. Stamm & Cairo's health. Mixed races superior to others.
Anyhow, only mixed races are left by now. Inflation.
IV/160 Gold
standards. I cannot agree that a country must introduce paper money before it
can be on a gold standard. Roosevelt's "Four Freedoms". Freedom from
want. Exports & imports, Switzerland. Zander lecture at Geneva, about 15
years ago: Swiss notes act as if they were fixed to the issuing bank by a
rubber band. They must return and soon. Other means of payment, gold coins and
dollars, do not have the same characteristic for Swiss people. Profits.
IV/161 Why do
entrepreneurs not follow the Russian example and name what is called
"profit" in the West simply: a) reward for organisation labour and b)
reward for labour whose reward was delayed? Two kinds of competition: a) under
exclusive currency and b) under freedom to issue. Greene & Tucker. Gold
standards.
IV/162 Vaccination.
1. 7. 1951: B. about 20 years ago had a severe attack of influenza. For
about weeks he subsisted on bananas, hot lemon squash and two or three times a
week a little bread. He felt an aversion to every other food & recovered
completely. Because of this self-treatment? Preservation of banking pamphlets.
More than 90 % of their authors started from 2 false premises: 1.) Issuing
notes is raising a loan from the public and 2.) Notes are a substitute for
metallic currency.
IV/163 If economic
life really is an exchange of labour then the medium to make the exchange
technically possible cannot be a loan. Further: The exchange must be organised
so that it is possible even in the absence of precious metal or in the case of
its scarcity. That leads to the understanding that, economically, metallic
currency is a substitute for notes, not vice versa. Very few, one of them John
DeWitt Warner, recognised the true nature of note issuing and were able to
emancipate their thinking from the accessory circumstances by which note
issuing did, historically, come into existence. Economic liberation movements:
The proposal to extend the act of 1826 to Scotland provoked there a real
movement. The monetary revolution of five provinces in China, about 1932. A
third case was the general strike of the workers of Florence, around 1876,
against the forced currency of the notes. In most other cases the people merely
demonstrated against high prices without considering their monetary cause. Was
there ever a demonstration against legal tender and the central bank's
monopoly? Number of innovators among Scots, Jews & Japanese is relatively
high.
IV/164 Invention
of clearing. Scotch bankers and authors attempting to emancipate the world from
metallic currency as an exclusive currency - one of the greatest advances ever
made. Payment crises, the quantity of exchange media issued and their
distribution and the readiness to spend them. Bacon - Shakespeare. The fate of
manuscripts, letters etc. after the death of authors. Schopenhauer & Dorguth.
Revaluation & devaluation. Verbal vs. economic differences. Great German
inflation taken as instance.
IV/165 Besides the
currency all debts are to be revaluated. Mentality of the workers. Revaluation
experience after the Napoleonic Wars and that of England after WW I should not
be forgotten. Bribery in Czecho-Slovakia. Herder. Honesty & sense for
independence. Hitler was rarely able to bribe Czech intellectuals. Strasser.
Germans now and forever will be a minority in the family of nations, a small
minority. Rights of minorities. Democracy does not mean majority rule.
IV/166 Strasser
& Hitler, minority rights & individual secessionism. Pounds spent in
Switzerland, Protectionism. Regularity of suicides.
IV/167 B.'s youth.
He got beaten from all sides, mainly from teachers in religion! Applying to
Jehovah in vain. Redemptionism. Acceptance principle for keeping the own notes
at par with gold. Refusal of depreciated notes leads to their disappearance.
Trust & distrust.
IV/168 Prices
expressed in gold. Right of creditors to get gold. Peel. German civil law, par.
242 on this. Gold clauses were not prohibited. Payment by
"Verrechnungsscheck" among merchants. Mint & Bank of England.
IV/169 Further
discussion of views of F. W. Smyth's
& Meulen's letters on gold, acceptance, redemption, refusal, discounts,
cover etc.
IV/170 Advantage
of a free gold market: Here small quantities do the same service as large ones.
Thus it provides independence from the stock of gold for gold value reckoning. 11.
7. 1951: Slow & careful eating. (Fletcher recommended chewing every
bite 32 times! - J.Z.) Leibniz, Newton & Schopenhauer. Everywhere reforms
are required. Eliminating more and more pain. God & Nature.
IV/171
Philosophers like Leibniz, Spinoza & Kant forced to accept a language that
was then "politically correct". Kant, pleasure, life, duty, nature of
men and reforms. Insufficient interest in technical options to accelerate the
reform process. Nihilists. Altruism, egoism, self-respect. Democracy,
proportional voting. Tucker: The best way is: limiting the power of parliaments
by clearly stating the rights of minorities and full liberty of opinion. That
would include the right to secede & to practise one's beliefs &
convictions in full exterritorial autonomy.
IV/172 Government
power to distribute the printing paper is effective like censorship. In Germany
the government went further: Even letter writing paper is hard to obtain. B.
often used envelops & other scraps to write upon. Freedom of expression. A
power to preserve it as a fourth power. Similar to the old Roman institution of
the Tribunes. Political maturity or immaturity when many people still believe
in the election process & participate in it? Spelling reform. Gold standard
& redemptionism. Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1947 on this. Par value
maintenance does not require gold redemption by the issuer.
IV/173 Gold
imports to Lebanon. Sleeplessness & coffee. Egg in London. Entrepreneurs a
degenerate class. Miscegenation. Haiti: Mulattos resisted slavery with more
energy than did Negroes. Competition with the US.
IV/174 Revaluation
not needed to end inflation. "If God created lice, crocodiles and Genghis
Khan, then I am his enemy." Trust, distrust, discounted notes and shop
foundation: acceptance at par. Free Will & Determinism. Voltaire, Hume
& Priestly, Hobbes, Spinoza, Lukianos, Walter Scott, Schopenhauer &
Kant. Metaphysics of Free Will.
IV/175 Free Will
& voluntarily chosen starvation as a suicide method. The medium of exchange
cannot be a loan. 12. 7. 1951: Medium of exchange: Its true nature vs.
the act by which it is put into circulation. Its nature can appear in many
forms. Hawtrey, "Currency & Finance", has an excellent chapter on
Assignats. H. saw the deciding role of their forced currency. Thiers &
Sybel speak of that role as real experts. The Assignats lacked tax foundation.
IV/176 Adam Smith
on this in "The Wealth of Nations", chapter "Of Money",
last but one paragraph, beginning with the words: "A prince, who should
enact …" Assignats and prior notes of the "Caisse d'Ecompte",
since 1788, also a forced currency. John Laws. Necker. Official prices &
official CPI. 22. 7. 1951: A. J. P. Taylor on Germans, discipline and
Nietzsche. Nietzsche as a victim of physicians who prescribed Chloral Hydrate
as an opiate and of syphilis. Taylor represents it as if N. became crazy as a
result of his own theories.
IV/177 Discipline
in German army compared with that in the English. Cruel treatment of soldiers
& sailors. It is always absurd to ascribe evil characteristics to people as
a member of a nation. 23. 7. 1951: Berlin association of unemployed
intending to issue standardised certificates to help them to mutually exchange
their labour: SPA. Finally it was another disappointment. But from it resulted
small groups around B. and long records of their discussions and B.'s long
comments on them and the Berlin Program.
IV/178 Life,
happiness, duty and reforms. 28. 7. 1951: God, benevolence, creator,
anthropomorphism, Schopenhauer, Leibniz, Jewish Jehovah, Spinoza, Kant.
IV/179 Happiness,
its shortness during life. Kant. Nietzsche. Power of Parliament, Tucker,
program needed, panarchism. Spelling reform. Children & their memory.
Phonetic script. "Let the income of people be based on gold and the
proportion of 'have-nots' will be at once be diminished." Degeneracy of
entrepreneurs. Competition with US.
IV/180
Fluctuations in the value of paper notes & how to avoid or reduce them by
valuing in gold and hedging. Revaluation. Prof. Jacob's 1821 classic book on
this: "Staatsfinanzwissenschaft". Circulation of option clause notes.
Trust in economics is seldom causa prima, but, on the contrary, it is caused.
M. himself pointed it out on page 81 of his "Free Banking": "…
moreover, the local tradesmen themselves were frequently debtors to the bank
and were therefore only too willing to accept the notes." (Later it turned
out that M. did not appreciate the significance of his remark. - J.Z.) In a
perfect paper currency system distrust produces the same beneficial effects as
trust. If distrust arises, the sales increase -
that's all. Free Will & feelings.
IV/181 Plato on
free will and character. Schopenhauer & Kant. Causality in general.
Determinism. World of things in themselves. Example of a lamp. Indian
philosophers. Buddha. We only get appearances. Buddha: Beside the sensations we
get there exist very many things from which we get no sensations … The true
nature of the medium of exchange - is a purchasing certificate. The existing
notes are degenerations. The buyer is always able to issue certificates on
which he states: In my usual business I accept this certificate as cash. 29.
7. 1951: Progress by teaching and not by suffering.
IV/182
Christianity, Christendom, Jesus Christ. Love one another as a commandment for
his disciples only. Jesus knew how to hate. What he understood by
"God" can no longer be found out. Ceremonies. Catholic prayers.
Churches. Jesus attribute to truth the greatest value. The people of
antiquity generally were liars. E.g.: Plutarch on king Lysander of Sparta. The
readiness of subjects to honour their rulers as gods. They felt no shame in
producing such lies.
IV/183 Church
Christianity. Warrior mentality & honesty. Jesuit mentality, resembling old
Jewish clergy mentality. Bastiat called it the "poisoned antiquity". 30.
7. 1951: Public opinion questionnaire on value of life
IV/184 9. 8.
1951: The old idea of financing employment by a coop, refuted by theory and
practice more than 100 years ago. Warner system. Smallest self-help instance
between 2 persons only and their clearing house. Seume on women and men.
IV/185 15. 8.
1951: Quotation from Seume. Generalisations among men and women.
IV/186 Gardening.
Robertson: "Pagan Christs". More than 90 % of the Churches' dogmas
are of heathen origins. Martyrs' readiness to die for their faith. Christ not
properly represented by the symbol of a lamb. Christ and Kant on resistance.
Economics and truth telling: Spender, warrior milieu. Persian doctrine:
"Tell the truth and cultivate the art of archery."
IV/187 Gold quotations
at Tangier & Alexandria very different. Role of reformers. Cosmic method.
Crypto-atheists. Communist World Youth Festival in Berlin. Spelling reform.
Revaluation. Shop foundation notes
IV/188 16. 8.
1951: Value of life, happiness, Kant, Thomas Moore (Morus) on health.
Maistre. Goethe, Abd ur Rahman, Bismarck. "Pure" happiness.
Eckermann. Leopardi.
IV/189
Misfortunes, life & happiness. Buddha, pleasure, Christian mentality. 9.
9. 1951: Dividend limitations, with dividends considered as unearned income.
Dividend earners should demand that all income from employment-creating
investments should be freed of taxes, then the discussion would in the long run
change the present anti-capitalist mentality. Alas, 90 % of dividend
earners are not interested in affairs beyond their household.
IV/190 SPA
Acceptance by the Bank's debtors vs. the Bank's metallic redemption obligation
to assure the capacity of notes to circulate. Number of acceptors required in a
population to assure acceptance. (Quality & of acceptors and quantity of
their readiness to accept also counts for much. - J.Z., 19.6.03.) Tax
foundation. Zander's "Way Out of the Currency Chaos" quotes old
Wuerttemberg example: Less than 5 % of the people had to pay taxes at the same
day but, nevertheless, the notes were quoted at par. This applies to railway
money. Rittershausen called this "shop foundation". Meulen asserts
that acceptance foundation would not have worked without metallic
redemptionism. B. held that it would have worked so well that the promise of
metallic redemption would be found superfluous. Gold redemption by gold coins
is immediately impossible for most countries but a free gold market could be
opened in an hour. Shop foundation is the principle and issue method that is
almost always possible.
IV/191 Meulen
declined the honour of having been the discoverer of the principle "value
by acceptance at par" and clearly rejected it. So the first man who
published it with the necessary explanations is Zander. For the SPA only the
acceptance at par principle is possible. Small note issuers are always
restricted to the neighbourhood where they are known, whether they promise to
redeem or not. Barber shop issues in China, prohibited 1931 by Minister of
Finance, Wang. (There were similar practices and then prohibitions under the
rule of the Mongols. One term for such notes in China was "street
money". Tea houses and brothels issued it. - J.Z., 18.6.03.) B. lecture on
Kant's philosophy as the basis for a religion for daily life. 12.9.1951:
SPA, workshop exchange.
IV/192 Muslims,
too, died in great numbers, e.g. in Spain, to defend their faith. But B. spoke
of heathens being not so ready to die for their beliefs. One day Agnosticism
will have its martyrs as well. There are already remarkable examples. Religious
tolerance in ancient Greece was very moderate. Cases of Anaxagoras &
Socrates in Athens, its centre of enlightenment. Without its martyrs
Christendom might have remained a small sect. Mohammed was most ingenious:
Remaining an infidel costs one gold coin per nose and year! Thus religious
tolerance became an important source of income for rulers and induced them to
support religious tolerance. Opposition by the first Christians may have saved
the world from Caesarism. In Taiping Rebellion the soldiers refused the
imperial paper money and the emperor saw well enough the difference between a
refusal by armed soldiers and that by unarmed merchants. Rare metal wire proved
to be a successful "Ersatz". The binding of the note value to the
market price of gold means the abolition of redemption in the commonly used
meaning. Goethe & Nietzsche stated repeatedly that their best thoughts
always came while they were in fresh air. (Brain work consumes much food &
oxygen. In closed rooms the oxygen percentage goes down. - J.Z.)
IV/193
Determinism. Coal shortage. "Governing is so easy! The people are patient
and ready to believe everything if a nationalist explanation seems
possible." Possev & Solidarism.
IV/194 Wages,
highest & lowest and statistical law of distribution. 13. 9. 1951:
Clavell Blount: "A National Ideas Department", "Ideen Zentrale
of the German federation of unions & Kurt Zube's "Ideas Archive".
17. 9. 1951:
IV/195 Treatment
of Arab girls. Kerensky group. Its program contains nothing and is not worth the
paper. Military party in Germany. Precedent of Convention of Tauroggen. Yorck
& Clausewitz. Malthusianism & Australia. Some bachelors are well off
because other people were not practising Malthusians and so produced the
children whose labour nourishes these bachelors in their old days. In Berlin
each worker must now supply another non-working adult.
IV/196 Australia.
"If Australia would have accepted Chinese and Japanese, she could today be
peopled by 150 million Asians, all, certainly, champions against
Communism." Roepke, a Christian. They rarely see economic and social
matters in the right light. Considers communism to be a "progressive"
ideology, although it is the very contrary of progressive. Objects to
"individualistic" philosophy. Catholic doctrine of
"collegia" as the real unit of social life. Free trade in means of
payments would, in a few days, produce the equilibrium of the balance of trade.
Gold coins need not return if they leave the country but other means of payment
must. And while returning they do automatically finance the wanted export.
IV/197 9. X.
1951: Completion of above letter: Reduction of labour hours as a
"remedy" for unemployment. Low unemployment in England under Labour
Party. Reason for it? Otto Klineberg: "Race & Psychology",
concludes: "The scientist knows of no relation between race and
psychology." Every traveller would refute Klineberg. (What is involved?
Different Folkways, mores, customs, traditions and beliefs or inherent
psychology? - J.Z.) Postal deficit to achieve the greatest economic efficiency?
IV/198 "The
Vaccination Inquirer". Indian widow burning in which the police protected
the murderers, not the widow. Buy
British? Pay British and buy where you like! Malthusianism while there are
record harvests. Malthusians even welcomed atomic bombs for population control!
Prof. Cannan's "optimal population" would considerably improve the
world's condition and food supply. Fuel crisis under price controls.
IV/199 Food is
cheap - when expressed in terms of gold. Age & productivity. Examples of
Kant & Isokrates. 31. X. 1951: Seume, 1792, book on armament.
recommended personal armour. (US soldiers during latest Gulf War against Saddam
Hussein finally had such protection. How many died in the meantime because it
was denied them? - J.Z., 19.6.03.)
IV/200 Elections.
Decline of the old glorious UK Liberal Party to 710 934 voters. If it would
become really liberal and declare itself against all kinds of monopolies,
beginning with that of the Old Lady in Threatneedle street, then this party
could again become what it once was. Churchill is without an economic program.
Christianity & martyrs. Constantine. Determinism. Malthusianism.
Unemployment in England & rearmament. Hitler & Stalin used the same
method.
IV/201 Arms are
easier to sell than consumer goods - under present conditions. The monetary
demand for arms is assured by the government's taxation and spending policy.
And "democratic" government can and do sell arms all too readily to
dictatorships as well. Post office and Courts to be run at a deficit? Do
governments provide justice and do so cheaply? Youth, clear language. Tucker an
exception. Happiness. Probability of misfortunes. Quetelet. Note acceptance by
debtors of the issuing bank.
IV/202 Railway
money. Right of the public to refuse all kinds of paper money, widely
recognized by German States, first by an edict of Frederic II of Prussia, about
1766, acknowledge by the Bank Law of 1874, abolished by the law of 1909, which
began monetary slavery in Germany. This right will automatically wipe out all
paper money whose economic right to exist is not given. Monetary liberty in US
before the Civil War led to several thousands of note-issuing banks. Moreover,
many shops paid with their paper money. In Pennsylvania, where the relative
number of banks was the smallest, there was still one bank for 40,000 people.
Such proportion would mean about 200 note issuing institutes for London!
Impossibility of gold redemption e.g. for Germany. Amount of gold available for
redemption purposes is very small.
IV/203 Gold
redemption under M.'s system. 100 % gold redemptionism for gold certificates as
"exclusive currency". No monetary exchanges in Germany until 4,000
million gold marks in gold coins have been accumulated for such issues? Or in
the meantime only as many exchanges as are permitted by the growing stock in
gold coins? Why drive "free" exchanges of millions of goods among
millions of people through such a bottleneck? The system is tolerable only when
tolerantly practised among volunteers. Why rely on a bank promise to redeem
when the bank itself has to go to the gold market to keep its promises? Under
the system of the "Four Bills" the note holders themselves may go to
the gold market, if they want to. If the notes are discounted there, then the
note holders will get their par value to gold at the shops which have to accept
the notes at par and have expressed their prices in gold weight units. The gold
market offers all the traded gold in the world as "cover" to the
suspicious ones. (But it does not guaranty par acceptance of private notes.
That is the responsibility of the issuer and his voluntary acceptors, aided by
maximum publicity and sound issue and reflux practices. The quality of numerous
other goods and services is also controlled and guaranteed without a stock of
gold. Imagine all other goods and services having to be redeemable in gold
coins by their producers! - J.Z., 19.6.03.)
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Contents
Section V
of file: Meulen
- Beckerath correspondence, pages 1 - 203,
B. to M.:
1-180, 1. XI. 1951 - 4. 5. 1959,
M. to B.
180-203, 6. 7. 1946 - 1. 4. 1949
Contents of Volume V,
part 1
Letters of U. v. Beckerath
to Henry Meulen
V/1 1. XI. 1951:
David Hume, Kant, determinism, metaphysical origin of free will. Bank rate: If
there exists free competition in the monetary sphere, then the Bank rate of the
Bank of England is not very interesting. Nor are, then, its credit
restrictions. Repeal of all charters that grant monopolies, that of the Bank of
England no less than that of all others. 2. XI. 1951: Option clause.
Adam Smith called it the "Optional clause"
V/2 Short-term
& long-term loans, different in banking theory and practice, although
seemingly only a matter of degree. Cannan's theory of the optimum population
vs. conventional Malthusianism. Refugees & employment for them. Essential
point in Kant's philosophy: Contributing to social reform and to the world's
peace first of all (being the greatest possible reform), is the most important
and urgent of all duties. 8. 12. 1951:
V/3 Redemptionism.
Gold standards. No agreement on definitions. Malthusian tactics. "Critical
Thought" rather than "Free Thought". Inflation.
V/4
Gold-accounting currency. "Dollar gap" is legislatively caused and
would disappear with the repeal of these laws. "Hands off the people's
money!" Food is not dear reckoned in gold units.
V/5 English means
of payment, used to pay for imports, return to England with greater certainty
than a pigeon returns to its coop. By their return they pay for the wanted
export. "Pay British and buy where you buy cheapest!" Convertibility
at the free gold market, at the note-issuer's counter or into gold-weight
priced goods and services in the shops and into the payment of debts measured
by gold weight units? Gresham's Law: Money, fit to be pushed, with advantage to
debtors, upon creditors, will drive out other money, fit to be preserved as an
investment. Do you think that under your system England could accept, with
advantage, 10 million refugees, without any immigration restrictions, refugees
able and willing to work? If you think that such an increase in labour power
would not be an advantage then your system is not perfect and you should try to
find out its remaining defects. Clearing cheques or clearing bills. Economic
liberties required for this refugee policy. Likely results.
V/6 Even
legislators do not know all the restrictive legislation, far less all the
wrongful and harmful effects of it - and yet they go on mass-producing such
laws. Ancient Romans had always pretenders or governments-in-exile on hand to
use against their enemies. England in the old days had a similar policy. But a
social and economic program would be necessary - but neither Churchill nor Eden
nor anyone in the whole party has one. Multiple governments- in-exile should be
offered. All only for volunteers and confined to full exterritorial autonomy
& personal laws. Aldred. Malthusianism. The food question is essentially a
monetary question.
V/7 Scottish
banking & gold standards. Stephen King-Hall on Soviet expansionism. Old
fable, that there is a tremendous surplus of labour among the refugees. There
is a crazy monetary system, which prevents the refugees from transforming their
want into demand, a transformation that would be easy under monetary freedom.
Paper shortage & law repeal. Sir Ernest Benn, concerned with the Census
rather than framing a program for individualism. In "The
Libertarian", India, I/ 2, July-Sep. 51, article: "Can there Be a
Welfare State?" by ?: "As long as the State … has control over money
power, our freedom is conditional." The author found, by his own reflection,
the reform system which I tried to spread for so many years. (Who was the
author? What else did he write on this subject? Monetary freedom advocates of
the world unite - & subscribe to full tolerance for all voluntaristic
monetary experiments! - J.Z.)
V/8 Mr. Workman,
"The Interpreter", 1. 7. 51, article: "A new system of
exchange". Sir John Clapham: "Bank of England, a history", 1944.
Valuable are the tables showing the Bank's income from the Bank-rate for many
years. It was trifling compared with the country's national product. The trouble
was not the amount of the Bank rate, it was the Bank's monopoly. 31/ 12/
1951:
V/9 Kant rejected
both, egoism & altruism. There is no duty to make others happy, because
even the wisest does not know in what happiness consists of under given circumstances.
He also rejected patriarchal government as the most despotic. Instead, he
speaks of a constitution of the greatest possible freedom, in which all
liberties can peacefully coexist. Then happiness would follow automatically.
Really free banking offers the only possible way out of the present situation.
A revolution requires a monetary revolution. (The overthrow of communist
regimes has still to be followed by a monetary freedom revolution, especially
since central banking was the major "reform" of the "Communist
Manifesto". - J.Z., 19.6.03.)
V/10 Revolution
and monetary freedom. Without monetary freedom revolutions tend to fail even
when militarily they win. In a revolution a new monetary system cannot be built
upon trust. Monetary freedom first. Next admit Free Trade in every economic
sector.
V/11 Zander:
Creditors usually don't complain about being paid in gold coins. But creditors should not be entitled to demand gold. Distrust rather than trust
is the basis of B.'s system. He started from conditions given in every
revolution. Paul Einzig, "Primitive Money", on the kind of value
standard that people choose if free to do so: One readily available and
marketable. In the Italy of 1945 it was oil. Stipulating payment in gold coins
is a kind of gambling or dealing in futures.
V/12 M.s
"price of gold" varies because it is not priced in gold but in paper
money. When goods are priced in gold then gold would not have a price, for the
"price" of an ounce of gold would be an ounce of gold. Do people
trust paper money more than gold coins? Let experience in free experiments
decide. B. demands a system where everybody is permitted to grant and accept
credit even if the last grain of gold has left the country. Balance of trade
and gold payments. Free Banking in Germany. By 1870 there were more
note-issuing banks in Germany than in Scotland. Full freedom of issue existed
in neither or any other country. Commerce does not need gold as a means of
payment. When international clearing certificates are used gold would also not
be needed in external trade as a means of payment.
V/13 Trust. Price of gold. It would be best if the Bank of England would be
just one bank among other bank and the very best if its charter would be
repealed. David Hume on money. If the quantity of money changes then prices do
not follow very quickly. But when they do, they always disadvantage somebody.
Hume lacked knowledge of clearing, of free banking and of clearing bills.
Determinism. Japanese cheap bicycles. Gold Standard, article in Encyclopaedia
Britannica recommended.
V/14 Payments for
imports. Reichsbank policy. Before cables connected Europe and America
negotiations on clearing settlements were time consuming. So often gold
shipments were made from both sides, meeting in the middle of the ocean and
indicating that the best payment method had not been used. 500 years before the
merchant guilds of Italian towns used well organised clearing in their oriental
trade. Gold shipments were rare. The Bank of England redeemed in gold coins
that were too light or at their limit in weight, where a gold coin ceases to be
legal tender. The whole redemption system was dishonest and rested on ignorance
and prejudice.
V/15 At the free
bullion market precious metal was so easily obtained in Germany that foreigners
preferred to secure it in Germany. Quote from speech of von Wangenheim, in 1908
on this. Many grievances concerning gold were attributed to the economic or
monetary properties of gold while bad payment methods and habits, bad laws and
the ignorance of "experts" etc. were the real cause. "Raising
capital by circulation" is now out of the question. For where is the limit
for such a system? M.'s book, magazine & letters do not supply an answer.
M.'s fundamental principle: Slacken the velocity of paper currency, so that for
years it would not return to the issuer and do this by strengthening trust in
the banker. Neither gold stocks nor trusted bankers exist in the East. But
ticket money could be easily and fast issued. How quickly was indicated by
Warner in his "The Currency Famine of 1893". Ticket money was issued
in Russia in 1934. The issuers were wrongly accused of being coiners or
forgers. But they had merely issued emergency money to pay wages with when
notes from Moscow were delayed. (Even after the fall of the Soviet regime there
were delays for months in paying wages and salaries! - J.Z., 19.6.03.)
Obviously, ticket money and shop currencies return fast to their issuers.
V/16 The value
standard needed in the East must not depend upon the opinion of experts. Long
term credits. Any chosen one must be permitted. Repayment by instalments would
be required. Or e.g., payment for machines supplied by dated clearing certificates. In every case in the B-system the
store of goods or services, ready for sale at the shops of the debtors of the
bank of issue, are the redemption fund, a sufficient and necessary one. This
redemption fund must also be priced in the same value unit as the ticket money
or the clearing certificates or industrial bonds issued. This conformity
creates a great independence, not an absolute one, from the conditions of the
general market of the good which serves as value unit. 3. I. 1952:
V/17 Payment for
imports.
V/18 4. I. 1952:
Determinism, Post Office. Scotch notes & the clearing house.
V/19 5. I, 1952
Bullion market, cross rating, value preserving clauses. Convertibility into tax
receipts, general debt receipts, commodities or services. Economists. The aim
of a revolution is to create as much liberty as possible and not new
restrictions and suppressions.
V/20 Acceptance
obligation for debtors of an issuing centre. "Upon no other class of men
can such an obligation be imposed without tyranny." (Well, the issuer
themselves are obliged to accept their own notes from anyone at par. - J.Z.,
20.6.03.) Tax payers get no loan from the government. Insofar they are not
debtors. Tax payments with clearing bills. Paper money for a revolution must be
valued in a commodity like gold, silver, grains etc., so that it can get a
discount at the market, as its best safety valve and refusing the paper money
is the best means to get the safety valve to work. Trust & distrust.
V/21
"Invariable unit" & gold redemption. Both unsuitable for
financing a revolution. When all commodities of the country, or a great part of
them, are priced in gold units, then the stock of commodities ready for sale
works as an immense gold redemption fund, provided the commodity owners must
accept the notes at par. According to Prof. Hirsch, the value of goods ready
for sale in Germany was about 30,000 millions in 1930. To this must be added
the value of services ready for sale & of due debts.
V/22 Tucker's
money system unsuitable for revolutions. Gold hoarding, accumulated gold &
current production. Interest, wages and production. 17. II. 1952:
V/23
Rittershausen. Germany's involvement in producing war materials.
V/24
Rittershausen. Using commodities as investments. Wrongfulness of credit
restrictions. Central banking. 18. II. 1952: Gresham's Law. Confucius.
V/25 Foreign trading
only with foreign exchange? Export spleen. Clearing bills.
V/26 Referendum.
"Englishmen - use the whole world as your market, but pay
British! Profits, then & now. 1.
5. 1952: Insomnia connected to chloride of lime in the drinking water?
V/27 Employing
every refugee, rebuilding long-term credit, reconstruction of the East. Can
Europeans use the method of Mao to extinguish a war?. (By induced mass
desertion.) 2. V. 1952: Malthusianism and the experience of a maximum
for everything. Dr. George Biedenkapp, Denkdummheiten …: 1896. Chamisso noted
that Polynesians use the word taboo as it is used in Hebrew.
V/28
"Recent" discovery that Greenland is a group of island. Chamisso
pointed this out in the report on his voyages. Rodbertus, Marx & Chitti. 2.
5. 1952: Health, tea, coffee. gardening. "… economics and social
reform are my real life."
V/29
Arbeitsgemeinschaft der Sozialreformer, Rittershausen's visits. Two currencies
in Berlin, jobs for refugees. 8. 6. 1952:
V/30 Constitution
of Athens, a described by Hans Delbrueck & Aristotle. Party system &
"election" by lot. Lay judges. In Basle & old Germany members of
the faculty of law are eo ipso judges in the court of appeal.
V/31 Working
harder? Under trade union rules? The principles of the trade unions are the
same as those of the universities: They take it for granted that there can be
no other monetary principle than the present of monopolised paper money being
not only legal tender but a forced currency, which are notions never used in
modern economics. Repealing all acts restraining liberty in the supply of means
of payment would remove all motives with which unions now try to restrict the
quantity of British output. Modern language of "economics". When
governments devaluate all "captains of industry" applaud because for
the moment export is increased. Inflation vs. dearth.
V/32 To determine,
a priori, the needed volume of paper money is impossible. But when people have
the right to refuse suspect means of payment then monetary liberty creates
exactly the required amount. Without forced currency no inflation is possible.
Without forced currency means of payment may get a lower value, but prices in
the general market remain unchanged. But if the notes are a forced currency,
then prices rise by inflation. Is deflation the opposite of inflation? The opposite of inflation is liberty of
note issue, for better notes than the State provides. The opposite of
deflation is by no means inflation. Deflation is impossible where the people
possess what the Americans 100 years ago called "the right of issue"
and where the bankers are able to use that right with the necessary prudence.
So the opposite of deflation, too, is
liberty of note issue. The liberty of issue is in both cases differently
used, one time to remove a bad currency, and one time to remove a lack of
currency. These are the possibilities of liberty. Lack of income may be a
motive for a government to inflate. It is not a cause for inflation. Inflation
involves a heavy guilt for those who inflate. Lansburg proposed a "gallows
currency". Monetary revolution. Tucker: "… a determined body of
people … by issuing their own money in defiance of legal prohibition …
government will go by the board." Dividends in US only 5.3 % of total
wages. In Germany it is now nearly the same.
V/33 Cooperative
socialism. Production of war materials. 9. 6. 1952: Gobineau: "La
renaissance" recommended. Machiavelli: a perfect gentleman and friend of
the Italian people, in his heart an anarchist. True meaning of his "The
Prince": See, reader, that is the unavoidable behaviour of a prince if he
wants to serve his country. No ruler at all would be the ideal. This ideal
being impossible, democracy is the least evil. Alas, neither Gobineau nor
Machiavelli explored the exterritorial autonomy option for all. 14. 6. 1952:
V/34 Excess
thinking? Spencer. Exercise, walking & thinking. Kant. West-mark &
East-mark. A problem for statists. Liberty in trade would solve the problem
very easily. Insofar as the people of Berlin simply took the liberty here
needed, they did solve the problem in the most natural and simple way.
International auxiliary language. Esperanto and Zamenhof. Maximum size of all
corporal things. Goethe, Kant. God. Spinoza.
V/35 Kant &
astronomy. Friedrich Wilhelm I of Prussia and his giant soldiers. Araucans in
South Chile. Malthusianism.
V/36 Multatuli:
"Max Havelaar". Indonesia. Mentality that endures tyranny without
resistance. Possible effect of marriage at a very young age. 15. 6. 1952:
Comparing interest in the Hansard Society with that in Free Banking. Free
banking is a right and a necessity. King-Hall. UNO. Second Hanseatic League.
Berlin. Swiss model.
V/37 Letter of
Count de Tancarville on Germany. Malthusianism vs. the facts. Lasker &
Gerhard on 1848 German revolution & soldiers shooting on peaceful citizens:
"tail-wagging obedience machines" … "do not deserve the name
human beings …" Dividends: 1/10th of wages.
V/38 Relationship
of wages & profits 50 years ago. 16. 6. 52: Free Trade under
monetary freedom.
V/39 Monarchism
& John Law. Every government is good which permits a legal condition as
described by Herbert Spencer in chapter 19 of "Social Statics": The
right to ignore the State or to secede from it. Hitlerism, Casesarism,
Stalinism. German language. 17. 6. 1952:
V/40 Free Banking
practised without being permitted is a revolution. Gold coins in circulation.
Zander. Religious aversion against Gold. Silvio Gesell. (Gsell). I do no longer
demand a cours forcé for gold coins. Credit restrictions. Free Trade &
clearing bills.
V/41 Free gold
market: a free bullion market. Trust? What kind of trust? Right to refuse all
kinds of paper money. Option clause notes. Tradesmen's tokens. Everyone thinks
his system to be the best. Practice will decide, once it is permitted.
V/42 Interest and
profit rates. Abolition of foreign exchange controls. 19. 6. 1952:
Unionists in Yorkshire striking against foreign workers & thus declared the
principle of international solidarity between workers as non-existing for them.
V/43. By their
actions they declared: Workers have the right to exercise the same privilege of
exclusive disposition over land and other means of production which employers
exercise. The presupposition for using this privilege is only the power to use
it. Neither the employer nor the workers have a right to exclude others from
the right to use a country. Henry George. (He denied it e.g. for Chinese! -
J.Z., 21.6.03.) Theodor Hertzka. 22. 6. 1952: A money system for normal
times? What are normal times? Monetary despotism prevails everywhere but is not
normal.
V/44 To think that
precious metal, as a measure of value, was the true cause of the many evils of
the old system, was one of the most disastrous errors. Complete liberty for
economic and monetary experiments will come to be considered as normal but such
a complete liberty has hardly ever existed and if it existed, then it was not
used. I demand the right to take standardised medals of gold as 1. measure of
value and 2. as a means of payment freely accepted and not to be extorted by a
law suit. Not as the main means of payment but as one which exists and permits
daily the control of the value of all kinds of other means of payment. You
demand a special system of redemption, which supposes that prices are fixed in
paper units, which are not connected to any commodity. You suppose that the
public will adopt such a system under freedom. I demand for all the liberty to
try.
V/45 No economist
would consider your system as normal, may its virtues be ever so high. It is
quite new. Meulen's system would lead to different values for the notes of
different Meulen bankers. Trust & redemptionism. "Normality"
before fire was discovered and cannibalism discontinued. 30. 6. 1952:
Choosing politicians by lot. Aristotle & the Constitution of Athens.
Jefferson on sunset laws. Inflation & rising prices.
V/46 Over-issues,
refusals & discounts will not affect the price marked in sound value
standards. Thus no inflation will take place. Abstract units of value do not
lead to instant recognition of over-issues. Let the market decide, on
currencies, too. Acceptance obligation for the debtors of the bank of issue.
The "goods" which a government sells are tax receipts.
V/47 Tax
foundation money. Deposits and capital. Inflation & its opposite. Kant on
popularisation. Maximum size in plants etc. Darwinian selection.
V/48 Nature as a
cruel and prodigal being and not our friend. It should be replaced by something
better, as Schopenhauer contended and others, like Leopardi & Buddha.
"The Individualist" at the ANL in Canberra. German media and Free
Banking. Internal affairs. The treatment of nationals in Germany is a matter
for every man in the whole world. Hitler. "For me no national matters
exist. I concede to no prince, parliament, conqueror or politician or any other
the right to reserve a territory and to declare: this territory is mine
and the atrocities I commit here or assist here or pardon and protect here, are
my affair! Every man would have the right to kill such a monopolist if
he can and should be assisted by all other men not unworthy of this name."
(Panarchism & tyrannicide.) Payments to USA.
V/49 A great
building in a forest near Berlin destroyed merely because Hitler wanted to use
it for a military academy. It would have made an ideal hospital. 4. 8. 1952:
Chitti, Marx & Rodbertus, vs. Andrews & Warren. Mr. Bhavan as publisher
of freedom writings.
V/50 St. P.
Andrews & monetary freedom. Right to issue: Most people think of it only in
connection with legal tender currency & thus reject this right. Right to
refuse paper monies - for all but issuers and his debtors. Trust. Ticket money.
Long-term credit would be provided by means very different from simple
note-issuing. Interest of for pre-done labour: Labour done in excess of the worker's
immediate wants is also entitled to its full reward. (A share in what it helps
to produce.) Forms of capital and of interest. Right of creditors to extort
gold.
V/51 St. P.
Andrews continued. Zander. Right to demand an exclusive currency, even if it is
only "labour notes". Right to demand cash to be replaced by right to
demand clearing. Ticket money and goods and service vouchers etc. do constitute
a form of clearing. Labour hour standard. As soon as one speaks of average
labour of average people, one introduces the market element, an element which
easily solves the problems not to be solved by the most impartial judge, who
tries to appreciate the just price of a special labour of a single person.
"I do not acknowledge the cost principle." The value principle is a
good regulator wherever no monopolies exist. Too high monopoly prices violate
other people's rights. The Indian Satyagraha is, for social and political
purposes, much superior to the guillotine method. Gandhi. Value in the sense of
Andrews and market value profoundly investigated by Marshall. What Andrews
wants to achieve is achieved by a market, whose visitors are not monopolists.
Andrews, Marxism & the market. Subjective value theory.
V/52 Reparations
of 1919-1923 were really paid. Later they were turned into loans to Germany.
Keynes. Defence costs. Dismantlings or Demontagen, in East and West Germany.
V/53 Germany in WW
III, as main battleground, will be largely destroyed. 8. 8. 1952: Ido. King-Hall
underestimates the importance of economic liberty. Did Germans chose Hitler
with their eyes open? The fundamental flaw was the parliamentary system, with
its "elections", its parties, etc. This was set up on the English
model. That's no reproach to Englishmen and none to Germans. But this system
must be wholly removed. (For territories! For exterritorial volunteer
communities it could remain, then being also rendered sufficiently harmless. -
J.Z., 21.6.03.) Athenian lot system. Gold coin hoarding in France. Gold
conversion at the bullion market does not restrict economic liberty. An
obligation of the issuer to convert his notes restricts liberty, even if the
obligation is undertaken voluntarily. Trade should be quite independent of the
quantity of precious metal in a country. Free gold market, different
interpretations, including misunderstandings. To avoid misunderstandings B.
intends to use "Free Bullion Market" instead.
V/54 The
obligation of an issuer to redeem his notes at par and on demand in rare metal
is one of the worst inventions ever made. (All monetary commodity exchanges are
thus forced to go through the bottleneck of one or two rare metals, whose
physical presence is required, instead of using merely their value as value
standards. - J.Z., 21.6.03.) Option clause notes. There should be only one
restriction. (Here Andrews & Warren are much superior to the Scotch): The
quantity of goods and services ready for sale in the country, and not the
quantity of precious metal that restricts note issue and, consequently,
trade. Tradesmen's tokens were
redeemable only in goods of the issuer. If that was the case, then these notes
were not based on trust but on the quantity of saleable goods, visible to
everybody, on the shelves of the issuer. The trust was eliminated so as it is
eliminated in the case of an opera ticket.
Scottish tradesmen's tokens. Low & high interest. I am a
metaphysician. The beliefs, that things like pressure, elasticity, electricity,
acid, alkali and such "entities" are things in themselves, is a
metaphysic, too, and by far not the best.
V/55 Commercial
discounts & fluctuations on the bullion market. 9. 8. 1952: History
of how Hitler came to power: By appointment, after the 1932 elections. The
March 1933 election was not free but already under Hitler's control.
V/56 Hindenburg
the old traitor. (Also an almost illiterate one. He bragged once that after
school he had not read more than 3 books! - J.Z., 21.6.03.) Tacitus on Corbulo,
Nero's general. The general must revolt and try to kill the tyrant. That
is his duty! Hindenburg a tyrant of the Galba type. Galba governed by his
favourites. His government was so bad, that the people's opinion was: Nero
governed better. Modern exclusion of machines: Not destroyed but simply not
used!
V/57 The old
fallacy on machines & employment, shared by Montesquieu & Marx.
Machines increase the degree of employment. 10. 8. 1952: The
government's "care" for the currency is the main cause of
unemployment. Communism, Soviets, Russia: A Mafia or Camorra: Jobs and power
for the top boys. Full employment for all refugees, possible through Free
Banking - but it seems impossible to sufficiently publish this method.
V/58 Social Credit
in Canada. Legalism among Nazis? Article 4 of the 1919 Weimar Constitution:
"The generally recognised rules of international law are binding parts of
the German laws." Disobedience to wrongful orders was even part of the
Prussian military law, directed, naturally and primarily against high treason
by officers. West German army rules a positive development - although,
naturally, they do not yet go far enough, either, in upholding individual human
rights. German disobedience under Napoleon I. Nuremberg Court should not have
excluded impartial German judges. However, if its judges were impartial then
their nationality should not have mattered. M.: "How Germany treats her
nationals is a matter for Germans to decide." B.: The
"nationals" were not treated by Germany; they were treated by
rascals, followers of Hitler. Germany did not know all of their crimes before
1945 and many still believe that they did not happen. But I know they happened
and even more terrible ones than the journals reported.
V/59 Actions like those of commanders of
the concentration camps concern every man in the whole world. No authority has
the right to say: In this territory I can do whatever I like to do! I declare
that other peoples' notions of justice are not valid in the territory which I
declare to be mine! ("Internal affairs" &
non-intervention.) Such a haughty standpoint is morally worth less than the
croaking of a frog. Every Eskimo has the right to kill the rascal and those who
help him. "Russia" & "Russians". 11. 8. 1952:
Trifling dividends at Daimler-Benz AG, 1951. Very high the "share" of
government. If the workers were better led, then they would offer to buy the
whole society and make a cooperative of it. But the almighty unions want
something against which they can fight or seem to fight, so that the workers
are not tempted to discuss the necessity of the unions. Thus they pretend to
fight against shareholders.
V/60 Businesslike take-overs of enterprises
by their workers. Communist Manifesto on Central Banking & Legal Tender.
Today all governments of the world realised the Communist monetary program. (In
"freed" Russia and its "freed" satellites it is still
realised! - J.Z., 21.6.03.) The Reichsbank & the Bank deutscher Laender are
concessions to the Communist idea. 12. 8. 1952: German treatment of
nationals? Are nations individuals? Are governments individuals? Berlin:
Refugees voting with their feet.
V/61 Religion. Fichte really opened the
door to all sorts of interference by individuals into affairs today considered
to be affairs of nations. But a nation cannot have affairs. (Free love for
individuals - in their political affairs! - J.Z., 21.6.03.) Progress &
decentralisation, including individual secessionism or Spencer's "ignoring
the State". Fichte, 1793: "Each has the perfect right to secede from
the State as soon as he wants to." 13. 8. 1952: Payments to USA.
Zander. Inflation & rising prices. M.- notes compared with B.-notes.
V/62 I do not say that gold is a very good
measure of value. It is the relatively best or least monetary evil. I demand
liberty in choosing the measure of value. I never demanded that people should
be entitled to exchange notes for gold at a fixed price. Balance of
trade, hoarding etc. cannot influence the value relation of gold to my notes,
as long as shops accept gold and their paper as equals. Acceptance at a
fixed relation and exchange at a fixed relation is a great, fundamental,
theoretical and practical difference. 14. 8. 1952: Dismantling. Cases where it was not done:
After the Civil War in the US, after the Swiss war of 1847 & after the
German government occupied Alsace-Lorraine in 1971. If the Nazis had won, they
would not have proceeded more reasonably. "I am an old Internationalist -
- and a member of the République Supranationale. The last war was for me a
civil war." Reason in the 20th century does no longer possess
the same power that it had in the 19th century.
V//63 Human factor & dismantlings. Duke
of Wellington would have declared: The German arms industry now works for us!
German workers would not have cared much for whom they worked. Andrews &
Warren. Andrews as the pioneer of the "shop foundation idea", the
only possible one in a revolution, to provide at once wage payments without the
danger of inflation. (Or to provide mass employment for masses of unemployed
and refugees and deserters! - J.Z., 21.6.03.) Robert Owen and his "exchange bank".
Spent labour & value. Independence of producers from lenders, under freedom
to create the instrument of lending. Labour notes: Andrews, buyers and debtors.
V/64 "My proposition: The debtor sells
his own notes to a banker or shopkeeper or an association of shopkeepers and
gets their notes in a sound discounting business. 15. 8. 1952: B. on
M.'s article "Wages & Profit", text not on hand. B.'s 20 notes on
it.
V/65 25. 8. 1952: Association of
Unemployed. B's talk on reconstruction of Berlin & employment, via
value-preserved investments, gold coin circulation, free gold market etc.
Precedent the German law of August 1923, Switzerland, Tangier etc. Only a few
listened with interest.
V/66 The senator for labour tried to bribe
the leaders with jobs for them. Representatives by lot as in old Athens.
Socrates, aristocracy & party system. Gold coins always quoted over the
market price for gold bars.
V/67 M.: The quantity of gold use in an
exchange system is a measure of mutual trust in that system. B.: It depends,
essentially, on the right of creditors to demand gold coins & this factor
dominates much more than the trust factor. Pricing in gold weight units.
Forerunner of this system in Berlin was "Meinl", a shop or chain of
shops. The right of people to refuse paper notes would favour B.'s system.
Tradesmen's tokens. Hitler appointed by Hindenburg although the majority of
voters was against Hitler.
V/68 Machines for clearing the ruins of
Berlin and employment. Spencer's "Social Statics". Tucker.
Dismantling. 26. 8. 1952: Metaphysics, Kant, Schopenhauer & Hume.
Experience & certainties.
V/69 Gold coins: For short intervals paper
money may possess a more stable purchasing power than gold coins, but for long
intervals the contrary is the case. Wages & profits. Competition in the
insurance business. Agents and middlemen between producers & consumers.
Here great possibilities exist to reduce the general price level, some say even
by about 50 %. Some public insurance, e.g. in Prussia fire insurance, much
cheaper than private insurance.
V/70 Bata and his shoe factories with their
nearly independent work-coops or autonomous work groups. Zola, in
"Germinal" described the system in full use at the French mines in
the Pas de Calais. ("Gang work" - J.Z.) Banknotes directly issued for
industrial loans? Banknotes & similar notes must at every hour be
convertible into goods of daily use or such services. That is not possible for
M.-notes issued for long-term loans.
V/71 When prices of a produce ready for
sale are split into their elements: wages, earnings of the entrepreneur,
commissions to sales agents, interest etc., then interest is usually quite a
trifling percentage. Proof: The published records of joint stock companies.
Clearing bills for the purchase of machines, redeemed gradually by being
accepted in payments. The quantity of goods & services ready for sale is
the real source of credit. It is also saved capital. Statistical rule that the
quantity of circulating money does not differ much from a month's production.
This was already observed by Petty. Free bullion market.
V/72 2. 9. 1952: Meinl Gold-Mark
notes in Berlin.
V/73 Meinl notes not disturbed by the
inflation of the other means of payment. The legal tender system itself becomes
impossible once it is abused as it was in Germany in 1923 or in the time of
Assignats, as described by Hawtry in his "Currency & Credit". The
shop foundation system functions even when the issuer is otherwise considered
as a bad debtor, i.e., not "trusted" in M.'s sense. Bullion market as
a barometer for widely used exchange media. (The others are not rated there.
- J.Z., 21.6.03.) Soviets are not revolutionaries but the ruling class.
Fichte's, Herbert Spencer's and de Puydt's secession from the State apparently
not known to Tucker, but de Puydt's "Panarchy" was known to Max
Nettlau & Gustav Landauer.
V/74 A law permitting the renunciation of
State citizenship, including State laws against "aliens" requires no
change in morality. (But it will bring one about! - J.Z., 21.6.03.) It is far
superior to that of Tucker, although at last, through the dissolution of
territorial States into a system of voluntary communities or voluntary
governments, polyarchies, panarchies etc., the same status of the general
society would be achieved. The role of interest. Manufacturers and banks. Gold
Coast politics. Democracy in Africa etc.
V/75 The possible beginning of a democracy
among "savages" was pointed out by Ellis, Polynesian Researches, II,
page 457. This was transformed into a poem by Chamisso: "A Day of Court in
Huahine". Legal tender property of the sovereign. Legal tender decision of
the Reichsgericht in 1923. The people executed the monetary revolution some
weeks before that highest court of Germany legalised it. Rittershausen.
"Yes, I would abolish completely: 1.) the right of every creditor (worker,
landlord, etc.) to demand gold coins from a creditor, 2. the right note holders
to demand gold coins from an issuer. I do not consider the note holder as the
creditor of the note issuer. 9. 9. 1952: Gold hoarding in France. M.
seems to presume that paper money, prescribed as a measure of value and as
legal tender, is the only thing not disturbed by political interventions and
that it has remained as stable as the pound avoir dupois, the second and the
yard.
V/76 What is disturbed when political
causes occur, such as the Korea panic in the year 1951? Is it the price of gold
bullion? No - the paper money has got a kick! Why the increased demand
for gold in panics? In such panics they remember that gold bullion, especially
in form of coins, will remain more stable in relation to all other goods,
except paper money, than any other particular good. Meinl notes.
V/77 Meinl notes. My system has, certainly,
nothing to do with the British standard, at any moment of British history.
During the US Civil War and many years afterwards US merchants used B.'s
system. They priced their goods in gold dollars. It is a private system, not a
"gold standard" system in the usual meaning of the word. "Gold
bullion market payment system" would, perhaps, be a good name. Typical
Meulen objections.
V/78 B. vs. M. system. "… I knew the
principles of the system before I had heard or read of the "Clearing House
Certificates". "I would not use the bullion market as an infallible
sign of excessive note issues." (Local currencies may not even be rated
there. For them local markets, their discounts and refusals are more decisive.
- J.Z., 21.6.03.)
V/79 Stronger demand for gold: "I ask
you once more: What demand can occur from the side of foreign merchants, or of
the country's merchants, if creditors do no longer possess the right to claim
gold coins?" 29. 9. 52: Meulen accepted the notion of modern
economists of the "price of gold", although they take it only in one
meaning and that is: Price of gold expressed in current money, an exclusive and
forced currency. Gold coins as the basis of a gold standard do not possess a
price expressed in gold.
V/80 An assumed doubling of the value of
gold. Meinl notes.
V/81 Meinl notes and M.'s objections.
V/82 Meinl notes and M's "If!
If!" Rationalism and Reality. Reality beyond sensations. Knowledge without
experience. Kant. Christians. God as a mammal. Buddhism, Brahmans.
V/83 Since Christians are also convinced
that their God does not consist of flesh and blood one can only conclude that
he or she or it consists of a very light and transparent gas: A gaseous mammal.
Kant, in cautious and even biblical words, contended that the most dignified
representation of God was that of a redeeming principle, a principle of
progress and, consequently, of social reform. He invites the reader to continue
and to say: Ergo, God is the principle of revolution! 6. X. 1952:
Standardised means of payment are the most indispensable of all goods, much
more indispensable than bread. "… you are at present the only man in
England, who defends the right of your fellow citizens to issue such means of
payment, while all others take it as self-evident, that only the
government or government-authorised
banks should be permitted to issue them. … a strange thing, that Old England,
the mother of liberty, till now overlooked such a fundamental right of men and
citizens." 7. X. 1952:
Churchill, Peel. "I consider the legal claim of creditors to gold coins as
the most evil detail of the old gold standard."
V/84 What M. means by the words "the
price of gold doubles". He refers to the average price of all other
commodities. He speaks of the "fixed value" of a gold coin and that
B.'s intention would be to let gold coins circulate at a fixed value. "But
such an aim would surpass the power of an almighty being. What I demand is
only: Not to prohibit the free circulation of gold coins. Also: Not to prohibit
the pricing of commodities in gold coins." Gold coin circulation &
pricing in gold coin values. Cross rates. Gold pricing is possible even if not
a single gold coin circulates in a country.
V/85 Frankfurt/M gold market. Prices
expressed in gold are more stable than many people think, though they are far
from absolute stability. Meinl notes. When a government declares: We
purchase gold at a fixed price, the latter expressed in paper units, that
is a certain sign that the subjects are on a paper standard. M.'s assumption
that the price of gold will fall sharply.
V/86 Physical properties are very probably
the same on the other side of the moon but mathematical truths are not only
probably the same but the are the same with absolute certainty. How certain are
the impressions given to us by our eyes? Program of the Berlin Society of 1952
to fight the causes of unemployment. Index numbers and price averages. 16.
X. 1952: Mathematical truths.
V/87 Publication of the "Berlin
Program". Here B. missed a chance by insisting upon a very low price. (My
suggestion of a prize competition among unemployed, financed by themselves, run
by themselves, decided by themselves, to solve themselves the
"problem" of full employment. One million unemployed, properly
organised and motivated, could certainly do this within one to a few years. –
Since they show no interest for a ready-made and real solution – let them
discover it for themselves and thus convince themselves! - J.Z.)
V/88 "Sir Robert Peel certainly would
decline the assertion that my system resembles, in the least, the system of the
Peel's Act." B. - shops stand towards buyer who appears with gold bullion
and buyers who appear with B.-notes. B.'s definitions of "price of
gold", "purchasing power of gold" & "free price of
gold".
V/89 Payment by B.-shop to the wholesaler
for commodities, to landlords and employees. B.'s best business will be to lend
his notes to employers, who have difficulties in getting short-term bank credit
for the payment of wages. Price increases in extraordinary situations. In
Greece the Sovereign is the normal measure of value for most commodities,
although the buyers seldom have or even see a gold coin. This causes no
difficulties.
V/90 11. 11. 1952: Lack of a
program. Most great reforms began with meetings or petitions. (But are they
effective and cheap enough means? Are there better ones, neglected so far? -
J.Z.) Value of Sovereigns in Greece. (One factor that helped to stop the paper
money inflation in Greece, which B. reported elsewhere, was that public
servants, paid in paper money, with inflated paper, not indexed and paper
salaries increased only at rare intervals, largely gave up their jobs and
worked e.g. in harbour jobs instead, whose wages were continuously increased in
accordance with the inflation rates. No despotic system can go on working when
its bureaucrats, soldiers and taxpayers and inflation victims escape it or
begin to help themselves in honest ways. - J.Z., 21. 6. 03.) Pricing in gold
coins is not ideal; but it is the least evil.
V/91 Disappearing gold coins. Hawtrey.
Refusals for all paper money. Governments may force merchants to accept paper
money. It did so in Munich in October and November 1923. As a result the
wholesalers stopped all supplies to Munich. When prices race ahead of the
printing press then prices, converted into gold, are extremely high.
V/92 Experience in stable value reckoning
during the German Great Inflation. Kurt Zube, copying B.'s letter on Desertion
Plan and pacifism. "Military Jiu Jitsu or: How Chinese Soldiers Determined
the Limits of Military Obedience". Kant's philosophy & Kleist.
Schopenhauer Society.
V/93 Space and time are functions of our
brains, according to Kant and Schopenhauer. Communist philosophy, the
well-known popular materialism. 4. 12. 1952: State, revolutions, power,
statism, modern liberals. The monetary sphere should be restored to the
individual. South Africa: The whole native question is really an attempt to
provide work for the Whites. The Negroe always gets work because he works
cheaper than the White.
V/94 The only ones, who can present a
program to provide work to the Whites, without the
"Apartheid-Despotism", are we, the money reformers, who say: The
quantity of work and employment should no longer depend upon the quantity of
money provided by the ignorance of modern money-"planners". Full
employment should thus become the normal condition of society. 5. 12. 52:
"… my monetary aim: finance the social revolution, without which life will
lose all worth and mankind will be reduced to a state much worse than the state
of their predecessors, when they lived - a 100 000 years or so ago - on trees.
Probably nobody described the state to be feared better than Orwell did in his
'1984'…." Tucker.
V/95 Tucker's plan must be completed in
important details, e.g. by replacing the "member-foundation" by the
"debtor-foundation". Sometimes I am inclined to despair. Kant
consoles me. Do your duty and do not forget that nature also acts in you. If
you want to get an impartial judgement concerning my plan: Try yourself to draw
up such a plan or imagine that some revolutionaries from suppressed countries
came to you for advice. Or imagine yourself in the situation of Steuart, whom
the Scotch, in 1745, made their minister of finance. His task was to provide
the means of payment for the revolution. He did his best, still a very young
man, but later realised that it was not good enough. The result of his
reflections were the 5 books of his "Enquiry", which give the
impression that he would not have failed a second time.
V/96 "Price of gold" once again.
Kantian philosophy. Certainty. Gauss & Dase.
V/97 Kant, writing under censorship about
revolution, God and immortal "souls". Mathematical truths.
V/98 Aristotle, Plato, Kant. 5. I. 1953:
Edward VII. 1870/71 Bombardment of Paris. Moltke & Crown Prince
opposed but King William & Bismarck
were in favour of it. (What is to be done with such decision-makers and, more
importantly, with such decision-making powers? - J.Z., 21.6.03.)
V/99 Buckle on religious tolerance, climate
and landscape, relatively easy vs. relatively hard lives. Buddha considered
monotheism as a gross heresy. Seven Brahman sects considered complete
annihilation as the end (aim? - J.Z.) of salvation. Buddha, like Kant,
eliminated the notion of heaven from true religion. J. M. Robertson, "History
of Freethought". Revolutionaries that use forced currency do not deserve
the name "revolutionaries". The cours forcé is the existing thing and
the free market quotation is the revolutionary change. "The revolution
that I expect and foster (that means: I hope to be able, one day, to do so) is
a monetary revolution, …" Banking by prominent, honourable people? Is
there one such person who did not utter absurd ideas on note issuing?
V/100 Two men, both trained and logical
thinkers, sincerely seeking truth, for years and years cannot agree and even do
not understand one another, the cause may be: They use the words in different
meanings. They start from different suppositions, without exactly stating from
which suppositions they start. Both happened to us. E.g., the "price of
gold" may mean … ABC. Rittershausen's "Internationale Handels- und
Devisenpolitik". R. distinguishes between Legal Tender for notes and Legal
Tender for foreign exchange, the latter via foreign exchange controls.
V/101 9. II. 1953: Electric
blankets, much more useful than atomic bombs. Rittershausen's new book. Modern
economics language: "it disgusts me". Philosophy and monetary
standard. Kant.
V/102 Simplicity of valuing with gold
coins. Tolerance for "payment communities", a term suggested by
Knapp. Fiat money that a debtor may force upon his creditor should be
distinguished from fiat money that a creditor may demand from this debtor.
V/103 The great error of the reformers was,
that they thought, that measuring values by gold coins or paying, voluntarily,
debts in gold coins, would be essentially the same as claiming gold coins from
debtors. Creditors should not be entitled to claim gold coins. (It is often as
difficult to impossible to pay in this way as it would be to pay e.g. in diamonds
or in some rare earth mineral or the other. - J.Z., 21.6.03.) Shop foundation
money. When notes are based on goods ready for sale, the note is based on
distrust rather than on trust.
V/104 Monetary disobedience. Gold
circulation & accounting on the black market. You defend a "free gold
price". I demand the abolition of the gold price, if it must be: By a
monetary revolution. Tucker. Berlin & refugees.
V/105 Inflation, deflation & credit
restrictions. A government has not right to restrict credit, nor a right to
expand credit. The govt. has only the duty to abolish the cours forcé. The
right of the people to refuse a currency and to replace it by means of payment
of private origin. It would expand the amount of currency exactly to the limit
whose transgression would depreciate the currency. The explanation of that
simple but forgotten truth is one of the aims of Rittershausen's book. Military
expenses under free labour. Want to be permitted to appear as demand. The true
age of the machine will begin after the establishment of the new monetary
order. Many more granted patents will come to be used. Receiving gold coins in
normal business, i.e., as means of payment, is very different from buying the
gold coins. "Price of gold", once again. Monetary revolution.
V/106 Many things that M. thought
impossible did occur daily in Germany in practice, during the Great Inflation.
(Alas, this monetary revolution did not go far and fast enough! - J.Z.,
21.6.03.) Cross rating to determine the value of a currency. "My aim is
primarily to finance the Russian revolution." "No real revolution in
Russia is possible if the Kremlin remains in possession of its present
note-issue monopoly. This monopoly must be broken. How? Certainly not by those
means which you will apply to England, that is: Let honest men, known for their
honesty, issue notes based on trust." - "Possible is then only a note
system founded on visible goods or ready for sale services, which may be bought
with the notes."
V/107 I earnestly hoped that you would
devote the qualities of your unique intelligence to the liberation of the East
and so of the whole world. … I must abandon this hope. Pity! Disappearing gold
coins do not really disappear. 10. II. 1953: From a remaining or
introduced bad monetary system a new tyranny will arise, a new imperialism and
things will only have changed their names. The future monetary organisation of
the East must be as good as it can be, from the first minute of its existence.
Nuclear war threat.
V/108. Private gold coins used as measure
of value. Present paper money discounted then generally refused. Shop
association money will be issued and accepted like gold coins are accepted.
They will be lent to employers, coops etc. especially for wages. Many coops
will issue notes on the same principles. Paper money is never used as a measure
of value while people are permitted to use real things as a measure of value,
especially precious metals. That tendency belongs to human nature and will
belong to it for many of the coming years. 6. II. 1953: Price, value and
purchasing power do not represent synonyms. A good explanation of the
difference between price and value was given by Marshall when he created the
notion of "consumer's rent".
V/109 "International gold price"?
The habit of pricing gold coins is international, but there is not
international price for gold coins. What would be the unit of this
international price? A condition where no paper money is any longer enforced.
V/110 Par value &
face value. Various objections of Meulen against the simple system of a)
accepting a sovereign note as if it were a sovereign, b) pricing commodities in
gold sovereigns, multiples of fractions of it, c) accepting coined sovereigns
also for the goods priced in sovereigns, all in order to achieve the equality
in value of paper notes and gold coins.
V/111 Various
assumptions of Meulen. B.: "… the worst of all goods, that is, modern
paper money…"
V/112 Meulen's
"gold price" again, expressed in paper money. Not even distinguishing
between official and free market prices. 17. II. 1953: Napoleonic wars.
The numbers were on N.'s side. But the Allies declared that they were not
fighting against France but only against Napoleon. And they had a
government-in-exile ready: Louis XVIII. Moreover, the promised national
independence to subdued countries. Furthermore, even N.'s soldiers were
war-weary and N. had twice deserted whole armies, in Egypt and Russia. They
obviously fought no longer for their own freedom. - Soviet rule and Satellites
ready for revolution if the military preconditions are given.
V/113 Manpower of
Satellites compared with manpower of Soviets. One of the generals will play the
role of Iturbide in 1821 Mexico or Monk in the England of 1660. The victory of
the anti-Soviet revolution will be very probable if it possesses a good
economic and monetary program. (And a political one, like panarchism, which
promises liberation and self-government to all volunteer communities, including
even the various communist and socialist ones. - J.Z., 22.6.03.) But none of
the programs published in England is suitable for the East. 23. II. 1953:
Forced currency.
V/114 When gold
coins were legal tender and prices were expressed in gold coins, gold coins
never got a price. All men tend to use precious metals as measure of value, if
they are permitted to do so. World price for ingots? In what units was that
world price expressed? The fact, that in every part of the world ingots had a
price, does not mean that there was a world price for ingots. Drain on gold
reserves of Central Banks: Central Banks backed flawed investments of other
banks. The also had committed themselves to pay at least other central banks in
gold upon demand. Bagehot, in "Lombard Street" explained the crises
by the right of creditors to get gold coins.
V/115 M. explains
crises by commercial causes. Bagehot & many others explained the crises by
the legal system. B. sided with Bagehot. His proposals for reform are primarily
proposals for the repeal of despotic monetary legislation. Mrs. Rittershausen
on the savers as bee-people. Internal self-financing of enterprises. German
small savers could buy the controlling interest in the enterprises they work in
- three times over! Rittershausen & Keynes.
V/116 M. Beer: A
History of British Socialism: Currency shortage & population
(unemployment).
V/117 2. III.
1953: Gold as a commodity. Gold coins as legal tender.
V/118 Typical
disagreements continued.
V/119 French
option clause. Option clause of American Building & Loan Assns.
V/120 The
sovereign was before 1914 the world currency, though not the legal currency.
V/121 Unchecked
premise: "A thing cannot act where it is not." Newton. Kant contended
the reality of actions from a distance. Schopenhauer even declared: Every
action is possible only as an action from a distance. Sunshine effect. Love at
first sight. Even absent policemen can act as a deterrent and so do many silly
laws. B.: Gold coins - - as other things - - never exercise influence where
they are, but always exactly where they are not. "Disappeared"
gold is simply much harder to get but still on this world. Small shopkeeper in
a little village in Ireland, pricing in gold but rarely ever seeing gold coins.
Rittershausen translation. Zander's writings.
V/122 Soviets
& kidnappings of anti-communists from West Berlin. Revolutionary situation.
French Revolution & Roberspierre's overthrow. Attwood. 9. III. 1953:
Further wrong assumptions of M. Banque de France & other French Banks.
Legal tender & cours forcé. Redemptionism.
V/123 22. III.
1953: You will use the notes of people of repute, manufacturers or bankers.
I will use shopkeeper notes or notes of associations of shopkeepers.
V/124 How
shopkeepers would get their notes into circulation. (A long interruption! -
J.Z.) 4. V. 1953: Shop-foundation money does not need M.'s type of
trust: the trust of people, who (as Luther says) "do not see and yet
believe." Insufficiency of "repute". Readiness to accept
foundation. Necessity for cover in consumer goods and services that are daily
in demand. E.g.: One does not buy a car every day or every week.
V/125
Shop-foundation vs. "trust" of M.'s type. 20. IV. 1952:
Confirms receipt of electric blanket from M. His sleeplessness for about 2
years. M.'s system compared with that of Keynes. Some terminological
clarifications. Redemption & selling & buying of gold. "Internal
inflation", a word unheard-of before 1914. All inflations were then
acknowledged to be internal inflations. Inflation can only be produced by the
note-issuing bank and only if its notes possess cours forcé. (Here a page may
be missing! - J.Z.)
V/126 Further
unfounded assertions and misunderstandings of M.
V/127 Discount of
notes and stopping further issues until it has disappeared. The redemption
system was bad. But it would have been possible to keep gold as a permitted
measure of value and yet to abolish the redemption system. Also to keep gold
coins as an optional means of payment for debtors but not as one that creditors
could legally and juridically demand.
V/128 Pricing of
goods in gold coins, as value standards, not in gold value notes. The latter
are only convenient exchange media denominated in gold coins and accepted like
gold coins. Zander. Further wrong assumptions by M. Financing revolutions &
Assignats. Trust. B. insists on historical examples and answers to questions.
M., usually, does not supply them.
V/129 "You
must give up your gold theory and accept the theory of Adam Smith." A
reductio ad absurdum. Shop-foundation and gold weight pricing.
V/130 True reason
for the acceptance of option notes at par: The merchants were debtors of the
banks. M. rejected that readiness as an influence. Pity! (Here M. rejected one
of Greene's insights, namely that sound money is "bought" with goods
and services and debt receipts and that these thus exert an influence upon the
value of money or banknotes etc., a demand, that leads ultimately to the reflux
of the notes to the issuer. What would any money be worth without this demand
and without delusions or coercion? How can one think about money for decades
and overlook that factor? It is the obvious counter-part to the issue-action,
which also expresses on the side of the acceptor a demand for that money. It is
readily accepted only because it has sufficient reflux (shop- and debt- or
tax-foundation). - J.Z., 22.6.03.) B. was 22, in 1904, when he read the
question of Jouhaux, then secretary of the CGT: House wife! How will you pay
for your cabbage the day after the revolution? "I could not answer the
question and resolved to devote the rest of my life to the solution of this
problem. I did." 3. V. 1953: Zander, too, never recommended
monetary tyranny in any form. 95 % discount limit for the issue of treasury
notes, to prevent over-issues. (M. claimed that would cause deflations.
I think he covered most possible misunderstandings and this without wanting to
play the devil's advocate. - J.Z., 22.6.03.)
V/131 For private
clearing cheques the right of the public to refuse their acceptance or to
discount them is sufficient to prevent an over-emission. (For treasury notes etc. a misplaced trust
among statists could lead to the continuance of over-issues if no fixed limits
were set for their bureaucratic management. - J.Z., 22.6.03.) B.'s system
independent of the gold stock in a country. The issuer needs none. In B.'s
system the issuer's and the domestic gold stock are essential. Meulen's kind of
qualified gold redemptionism. In B.'s system: gold is never more than a
servant. It ceased to be a master. Gold need not even be present at the gold
bullion market. For the same reason as wheat need not be present at the very
important London wheat market.
V/132 Insomnia
effects. Germans, saving and instalment credit or hire purchase system.
V/133 While
Holland was distressed by a great flood it donated aid received to refugees
from the East! they added: Our distress is presently great, but their distress
is much greater! Stephen King-Hall, speaks of nations as if they were persons.
Collective responsibility. Anti-Nazis in Germany and in Israel. Children born
after 1945 held collectively responsible! Official gold price: only a buying
not a selling price. Malthusianism & the Soviets. 4. V. 1953:
V/134 Workers
refusing shop foundation money. The new money system during a revolution cannot
start with clearing houses. Free choice of value standards and exchange media
systems. Freedom to experiment. (But revolutionaries should already know enough
about sound monetary experiments of the past not to repeat all the mistakes of
the unsound experiments of the past. - J.Z., 23.6.03.)
V/135 Monetary
liberty, the mother of the goddess of economic sanity. It cleans the
circulation very quickly from means of payment that are not really fit. 12.
V. 1953: How is deflation possible in a country where no note monopoly
exists? The abolition of the monopoly is a very essential part of making
deflation technically impossible, provided the monetary freedom alternatives
are known, appreciated and applied. Discount effect of shop foundation notes.
V/136 Are total
sell-outs of shops possible, which issued shop foundation money? How rapidly
can they be restocked? Can as many notes be issued and will they be accepted,
that they could buy the total existing stock in the shops? Most likely they
could issue only a fraction of the value of their stocks in form of notes. They
would be fools if they tried to repeat all the mistakes of the fractional gold
cover and full redemption promise system and much less likely to get away with
such an issue policy for a while. Lord Overstone. Note issue monopoly.
Production need not be prevented or diminished even for one day. Self-help via
clearing certificates as described by DeWitt Warner. Demand for gold? "I frequently pointed out that the
demand for gold will be wholly changed once the pernicious claim of creditors
to get gold will be abolished. You never answer."
V/137 Gold
prohibitions. Replacing the old redemption fund by the country's commodity
fund, which, normally, is - counted in
gold more than tenfold of the amount of gold coins or even gold ingots ready
for being used as a redemption fund. The right to replace every lack of cash
money by clearing. Quantity theory holds good only for cours forcé money. For
paper money without it other rules are governing. The right of the people to
refuse suspect notes changes much.
V/138 22. 5.
1953: Gold in foreign trade. Balance of trade. Volume of gold trade on the
bullion market does not matter for gold-weight valuing.
V/139
Shop-foundation and pricing in gold weight units. Over-issue. Par acceptance at
shop maintained even if there is a discount for notes at the bullion market.
V/140 Filling the
gap if shop notes disappeared from circulation. Strasser. To be distinguished:
Discount of notes at the general bullion market and discount of notes at the
issuing shop.
V/141 2. 6. 1953: Stability of value
standard through paper money or gold weight units? Discounts of notes. The
greatest discount of shop notes at the bullion market does not influence their
purchasing power at the shops and insofar does not interest the shopkeepers.
V/142 Balance of trade. A country gets no
presents. Demand for gold. I reject paper money as a measure of value and
consider it as monetary tyranny. The shopkeeper stops issuing notes when the
public declines his notes.
V/143 Deflation under freedom to issue? Who
decides? The public decides. As long as it continues to accept the notes all is
as it shall be. If the public refuses notes then the optimum point of issue is
attained and further note issue is stopped. Stability of the purchasing power
of gold - even when there are fluctuations at the bullion market.
V/144 You apply to our discussion the
reasons which the newspapers apply to the relation of cours-forcé-notes to
gold. What interests me is a very different thing: a) abolition of the cours
forcé, b) monetary liberty, c) using monetary liberty to price in that good
which remains more stable in value (purchasing power) than other goods. Free
choice of value standards. 9. 6. 1953: Parity through acceptance at par.
Well known in 1913 it now appears unbelievable to many. This parity is
restricted to the issuing shops for their own issues.
V/145 Gold hoarding in 1952 in the whole
world amounts only to the sum which England spends per day for wages and
tradesmen's invoices.
V/146 My notes obey other monetary laws
than yours, for reasons connected with their foundation. Balance of trade. Adam
Smith. Imports and exports are just trades and all trades tend to balance and
be mutually profitable.
V/147 The intensity of the demand for
coffee compared with that for gold. Saudi Arabia coins gold. The first step of
loosing India was the imposition of a forced currency upon the Indians. 18.
6. 1953: Likely false premise of M.
V/148 Your notes do not possess a fixed
relation to gold coins or to commodities like my notes do. Your notes,
consequently, obey other economic and monetary laws than my notes. Adolf von
Menzel. Mary, Christ & God. Tucker. Language. Socialisation vs.
nationalisation. Socialism. M. Beer.
V/149 Cooperative socialism. Open coops,
Theodor Hertzka, Oppenheimer, Siegmund Englaender, "Geschichte der
franzoesischen Arbeiter-Associationen". Arson in the Eastern uprising.
H.O. shops burnt. West-Berlin shop keepers had enforced a law which punished those
West-Berliners who purchased more cheaply in East Berlin. The flaw in their
"thinking". Paper money
without cours forcé remains insufficiently considered.
V/150 A general strike against cours forcé.
Shop foundation and tax foundation when there is a discount for their exchange
media at the bullion market. Panics, runs and faster reflux of sound exchange
media.
V/151 25. 6. 1953: M. continues with
his false assumptions. Zander.
V/152 My system holds good also under such
conditions, which are practically impossible and were never recorded in
history. (M.'s assumptions.) I did not and do not admit that such conditions
are or may be considered as normal and may serve to explain the system as well
as real and normal cases might. The evil effects of the Bank of England's
obligation to redeem its notes at par and on demand. The fluctuations of the
Bank rate would hardly have been of general concern, if there had not been a
monopoly for the Bank of England to issue notes. Now you blow the same trumpet
as all others, who hold gold responsible. Warner described what will replace
the Bank of England notes. Your present theory has not always been your theory.
V/153 You treat my nice notes as if they
were notes of the presently usual and pernicious kind. The frequent small
alterations of all commodity prices and the less frequent and severe
alterations, will not do more harm under the B. system than they did until
1913. On the contrary: Prices will be more stable, because there is no longer a
note monopoly which can cause instability. Eperanto. East German
revolutionaries burnt the Leuna-Werke. In 1923 this plant for e.g. synthetic
petrol, had issued a stable emergency money accepted in payment for petrol, on
the same foundation as Zander's railway money. If the workers had, instead,
begun by issuing, once again, Leuna-money, perhaps they would have won. Reprint
of "The Individualist" of April 1952 concerning Zander's publication
on Chinese paper money. The right to refuse paper money. Cours forcé.
V/154 3. 7. 1953: Adam Smith &
balance of trade. The impossibility to determine it numerically. Hoarding. In
"my" or Warner's system people may hoard what they like and what they
are able to hoard. Goschen's 2 %, part of the theory of gold points. Changes in
the Bank Rate.
V/155 Freedom of note issue & drain of
gold. World demand for gold. Large loans abroad & the balance of trade. A
single country adopting freedom of note issue. Fixed relation between gold and
paper money. Prices unduly low?
Sales costs and their reduction.
V/156 Reichsbank or central bank notes.
They need restrictions which issues of shop foundation money do not need. Point
by point replies to M.'s usual objections.
V/157 In a country, where for all creditors
the right to claim gold is abolished, it is also abolished for foreigners.
Concerning the remaining demand: May they have the gold. We don't need it! New
notions and new kinds of monetary thinking are required. Karl Marx on natural
laws of monetary circulation & legal tender money.
V/158 Gold-redemption vs. gold pricing
standard.
V/159 Whether the banker goes to the gold
market, on behalf of the note holder, or whether the note holder himself goes
to this market, makes no essential difference. Wesslau, father & son.
Monetary rights. Irving Fisher. Price alterations caused by alterations in the
supply and demand of gold - I consider as quite insignificant. Nevertheless, B.
thought it to be good to discard even the possibility of such an influence.
Gold coins, as measure of value and optional means of payment are the least
monetary evil. 10. 7. 1953: The possibility of Warner's system does not
need proof. Why not? The system existed and things which existed are always
possible.
V/160 "the voluntarily undertaken
obligation of a shop to consider a coined sovereign and a 1 Pound note, issued
by a shop as equivalent in the shop - or in the shops of a shop association
that issues its own Pound notes. Bagehot on fluctuations caused by gold
redemptionism.
V/161 12 specific disagreements & 2
agreements.
V/162 7 further disagreements. 11. 7.
1953: Coops so as Hertzka & Englaender proposed them.
V/163 17. 7. 1953 & 23(?) 7. 1953:
Schopenhauer's "Eristische Dialektik". B. more or less suggests that
M. used its debating tricks.
V/164 Short replies of B. to references in
M.'s letters.
V/165 Monetary freedom aspects. Peels Act of 1844. Communist conquest of China
created a sharp and sudden demand for gold among the Chinese who had to flee.
V/166 Lack of interest in reform programs.
Beria, planning & Malenkow, Stalin. Private capitalism, economic liberty,
crises and planning in the view of Marx and Engels. 23. 7. 1953: B.'s
system as one which makes and influence by variations in the demand for gold
practically impossible.
V/167 Three major remaining disagreements.
Two agreements: 1. Freedom to experiment. 2. We both prophesy the complete
breakdown of the adversary's system within a very short time. Financing a
rightful revolution. 17. 9. 1953: Scott's books.
V/168 "At least 99 % of women are
enemies of social reform and of every thought which leads to it."
Journalistic exaggeration of national differences. Prof. Milhaud proposed
alliances between cities. Dr. Ramin. Most Individualist Anarchists did not
consider the possibility of "ignoring the State" and of giving up
citizenship. This would involve a technique of establishing quite different
social orders in the same territory and at the same time. J. G. Fichte seems to
have been the first man, who proposed such a solution. Stirner. Iternoscia's
code for associations formed by people not subject to a State.
V/169 I agree with Adam Smith that
political borders are economically of no importance. A balance of trade in the
exchanges between France and England is of no more real importance than the
balance of trade in the exchanges between England and Wales. M.'s standpoint is
quite different and he attributes the greatest importance to the import and
export of commodities, gold and other things. Preparatory Committee for the
Establishment of a Democratic Administration in Eastern Germany. Freedom to
experiment, also for adherents of Silvio Gesell (Gsell). 8. X. 1954:
Duewal.
V/170 Kant, "Der Streit der
Fakultaeten", on the French Revolution, its importance for the abolition
of war and its contribution to the new view of rights of man and citizen. He
wrote it when he was 74. Long-term loans in Germany, with short-term funds.
V/171 Published discount rates referred
only to a fraction of all bills. The discount rate for other bills was higher.
Bankers as "hasardeurs". Banks are not the suitable creditors for
long-term loans. (At least not until they include suitable option clauses in
all their short-term deposit contracts. - J.Z., 23.6.03.) M. became a
Malthusian again. 9. X. 1954:
V/172 Soviets were never Malthusians. Third
WW. The deciding people in the Western countries seem to be bribed by the
Soviets. The Tsar Peter I ruled over 10 million subjects. Anti-Malthusianism
made the Kremlin rule over 100 million subjects. Optimal Population article in
Encyclopaedia Britannica. Dekabrists of 1824.
12. II. 1959: Nietzsche & Strindberg. Effect of alcohol on
the brain.
V/173 Statistics is the most revolutionary
science which exists. Statistics teaches, that unemployment diminished in
proportion to the application of machinery to production. Rothbard's monetary
hypothesis, that any quantity of exchange media suffices to bring about all
desired and possible exchanges, is refuted by the high unemployment figures
reported on old times. Theodor Hertzka. Completion of the War Rules of The
Hague. Restoring the status quo is not sufficient. Rousseau's opinion, that no
State should have more than 4 million inhabitants. Leagues of such States.
Rights of man and citizen to be restored or established in conquered countries.
V/174 The human rights codes must be
supplemented. Five proposals for this. 2. III. 1959: Creation of money
by banks? Instance provided by Warner: The certificate of the Arnold Print
Works. "If the certificate would have been money, then everybody in
North Adams … would have been legally obliged to accept it at its face
value." - But it was merely a means of payment and a very good one,
considering all circumstances.
V/175 It was good because being no forced
currency, it was impossible to inflate it. Moreover, there was a strong
tendency to bring the certificate back to the Arnold Print Works as a means of
payment for an invoice. Thus this plant avoided reducing the price of its
printing, additional advertising or the need for credits in the usual
commercial sense. Emergency Clearing Houses agreed with the Banks the
acceptance of their certificates, with no rare metal redemption obligation.
Many Banks themselves formed such Clearing Houses. They did thus not create money
but merely created means of exchange. Do Banks create credit? Walter
Leaf, in "Banking", quoted on this.
V/176 "Irredeemable notes" are
held in bad repute. But such notes could be advantageously replaced by Clearing
House Certificates. Their name would make it immediately clear that this paper
is made good not by redeeming it in cash but by a much more effective and sure
means: by daily clearing. An institute that possesses the courage to expose
itself daily to the "trial by clearing" does not need State supervision
and not even State banking laws. The voluntarily agreed-upon Gold Standard, in
which those, who think it good, express their debts, say, an employer the wages
he must weekly pay, and their demands, say, employees expressing the amount of
their monetary salary, in weight units of gold, mutual agreement provided. Free
use of gold coins but even they should not be a forced currency. Gold coins
should not be actionable but payments performed by them, on the basis of mutual
agreement, should be valid. Free coinage. Distinct appearances. Clear statement
of their characteristics. Nor should pricing in the shops in such units be
prohibited. If the public rejects that old method of pricing - it is its good
right. But if they like this kind, it would be tyranny to prohibit it.
V/177 Shops that priced their goods in gold
would, nevertheless, accept all kinds of means of payment. Berlin precedent
since 1948. That a Bank's participation in the clearing of a clearing house
would be an infallible means to find out very quickly all deviations from sound
banking policy is an important discovery of M. "Has it ever been recorded
in the history of monetary theory, that an author freely confessed to have
given up his opinion in favour of the opinion of his opponent? I do not know such
a case." Banks do not create money, but they are able to transform
the want of the possessors of goods into demand. How? By mobilising
the purchasing power of his goods. 4.
V. 1959: Kant on principles needing publicity for their realisation.
V/178 Anarchists & anarchism. Coercion.
Statism & voluntary subordination. Socialists, State Socialists,
Cooperative Socialists. Tucker, Mackay. Panarchism. The de Puydt-system
"opens to all State-Socialists the possibility to submit themselves to
their own Popes. To the extent that the State-Socialist mentality declines,
their organisations will become smaller, poorer and less active and at last
they will disappear. The Non-Socialists will organise their own communities. It
is not so self-evident as you think, that they will always be the weaker part
of the human or the national society. Nations do neither prohibit nor permit.
They are mutes and some say: they are mere notions. That governments of
the present or the past type will never agree with de Puydt, that's clear. But
is it so self-evident that these types of government will always be the
stronger? Tucker's and your system of monetary emancipation is in best harmony
with de Puydt's system. Chaper XIX of "Social Statics" by Herbert
Spencer. S. never worked out the technical details of "ignoring the
State". De Puydt did.
V/179 Old people do generally overestimate
the usefulness and the stability of that what exists and underestimate the
historical fact that good ideas are the greatest power in politics, in
economics and in social organisation. (Only if fully assembled, discussed,
developed and quite sufficiently publicised. - J.Z.) De Puydt probably read Spencer & Fiche
but his technical details are not found in their writings. Freedom of note
issue. Clearing by Clearing Certificates and these no longer monopolised by
privileged Banks but open to everyone. I demand liberty in using measures of
value. I think that the paper of Central Banks is a bad Ersatz for gold. But
he, who demands not better measure of value may use it. I am a Kantian. Working
for social reform to the utmost possibility of working and to the last moment
of life, without regard to success, is an inborn duty of man. Contribute some
ideas for the political, economic and mental reconstruction of Russia after the
victory of the West. Remain a pessimist - that's your good right - but
contribute the ideas!
(This is the last letter of B. to M. in my possession and it may really
be the last letter that he wrote to him, after having been extremely patient with
M. for many years. - J.Z., 23. 6. 03.
===========================================================================================================================
I am just reading and largely agreeing with
L. Neil Smith: Lever Action. Essays on Liberty, published by Mountain Media,
P.O. Box 271122, Las Vegas, NV 89127, vin@lvrj.com, copyrighted 2001, ISBN 0-9670259-1-5, 465
pages, $ 21.95. He is one of my favourite SF writers. Alas, I have not yet got
all his books but I do look forward to reading the few I still missed out on.
While reading it, so far to page 266, I was several times reminded by his
remarks of the letter exchange between B. & M.:
Page 122: "We have no time left to
spend in a futile attempt to persuade those who wilfully misunderstand
everything we have to say."
Page 169: "Know when to give up a lost
cause. Anyone who needs to be persuaded to be free doesn't deserve to
be.
Page 174: "You may never convince the
other guy, but it's often worthwhile to keep arguing for the effect it has on
bystanders, especially his allies."
Page 204: "You're people, in short,
who must be stupid, insane, or evil to continue arguing - in the face of
indisputable facts and irrefutable logic …" (The rest of this remark does
not apply to M., not even in my opinion. - J.Z.)
L. Neil Smith, like B., concentrates on a
few essential points and like B. he uses some poetic licence and exaggerations
to stress a point. All his SF contain libertarian messages. If you haven't
discovered his writings yet, you are likely to be delighted when you do. -
PIOT, John Zube, 23. 6. 03.
===========================================================================================================================
Section V,
part 2:
Letters of Henry Meulen to Ulrich von
Beckerath, 1946 - 1959
V/180 6. VI. 1946: Check whether he
can reach B. and asking for Rittershausen's address. 16. VIII. 1946:
V/181 "The Individualist"
appeared right through the war. Not allowed to send printed matter to Germans!
Both opposed to price controls. It is difficult to get a permit to go to
Germany except on business! M. just retired from it. News on Zander. Hitler's
treatment of the Jews was fiendish & inexcusable. 8. XI. 1946:
"The Economic Journal" did not consider an article on the effect of
the Bank Charter Act in creating the present monopoly of banking as of
important enough to justify printing it.
V/182 Difficulties in nationalising our
industry. The trend is all towards State control of the issue of money. 27.
XII. 1946: M held that the amount of gold needed in a community for
currency depends on the state of mutual trust. Under M.'s system the gold
reserve held would be used for redemption on demand only "at the market
price of the metal". Gold standard defined as a system wherein gold is
bought and sold at a legally fixed price. He was also secretary of the Economic
Freedom League. M. favoured a United States of Europe. (Some anarchist! - J.Z.)
His experience with German nationalists.
V/183 UNO: Against veto in Security
Council. Dismantlings. Germans voting for Nazis. 7. 8. 1948. Write to
me.
V/184 14. 9. 48: Meetings good for
emotional subjects. People must read our case. Revolutions &
Governments-in-exile. 6. 10. 1948: Propaganda for Free Banking makes so
few converts. After 30 years of propaganda M. cannot think of 5 men in England
who are strongly convinced of the truth of the Free Banking doctrine! Why?
Bimetallism movement. Money is hardly ever discussed.
V/185 11.10.1948: War with Russia?
Hume's essays. Kant, Fichte & Hegel bore him. 5. 11. 1948: Kant.
V/186 Hume. I cannot read Schopenhauer. His
pessimistic doctrine seems to me to have been taken straight from Buddhism.
Rubber shares. 8. 11. 1948: Berlin Blockade. Danger of war.
V/187 1939 he was convinced that Hitler was
only bluffing. I think his invasion of Poland, and his subsequent war on
Russia, the acts of a mad man. 14. 12. 1948: I am not quite sure of your
doctrine that inflation cannot occur so long as notes are given no forced currency.
Over-issues. Customers of free banks will be wise to insist on the frequent
publication by the bank of detailed balance sheets… Short-term & long-term loans. Scottish
banks. Hume, "Idea of a Perfect Commonwealth", on representatives
chosen by ballot not by lot. Kant.
V/188 Psychic Research. Malthusianism. Gold
standard. Cooperative banks. M.'s pamphlet on Free Banking. Wage earners never
initiate a movement. Bombard the few intellectual people responsible for
reform. When they are converted, the wage-earners will follow. It is so much
more interesting to discuss points of difference. There is so much of what you
write that I agree with. 28. 12. 1948:
V/189 Russia, military insurrections,
military purges. Only a successful war will overthrow the Russian system
quickly. And none of the Western Powers wants war. I knew Kitson very well …
Tucker's discussion with Kitson in Liberty. Kitson became a State Socialist and
then a follower of Major Douglas. Banker's conspiracy? Free gold market.
V/190 9. 1. 1949: Tucker. M. was
introduced to Tucker's writings and this started him, at about 22, to study
banking.
He often met Tucker & his wife when he
came to Europe on book buying trips and stayed with him for a fortnight in his
villa near Paris. Wrote obituary in Aug. 1939 of "The Individualist".
"Instead of a Book", spare copy that he will send to B. Zander. Vier
Gesetzentwuerfe, received 1932. Asserts that he studied them pretty carefully
at that time. Thinks that their main defect was that they ignored the
historical development of banking. Trust. Scottish banks, redemptionism.
V/191 Denies par acceptance obligation for
debtors of the bank of issue. "Bankmaessigkeit". Scotch banks often
made long-term loans. Option clause. Zander.
V/192 "If you prohibit long-term
loans…" (B. only opposed granting them in loans fresh notes, issued just
for this purpose! - J.Z., 23.6.03.) Letter by Gollancz on treatment of Germans.
Victor Gollancz: Anglo-German Relations, letter to The Times, undated.
V/193 2. 2. 1949: Free banks should
either redeem their notes in gold at the market price or in notes of well
established banks.
V/194 Central Banks and their gold
reserves. "On the whole I agree with the doctrine of collective
responsibility of people in a democratic country for their government's
actions."
V/195 "Germans were misled by Hitler;
but they chose him." Hitler, 1931. Industrial credit & credit
insurance. "Your idea of liberty is somewhat different from mine."
India. Indian students in England. Back in India they were discriminated
against. "When demand for self-government became strong, I supported
it." 9. 2. 1949: Tucker's use of the word
"Socialism".
V/196 State socialism &
nationalisation. Land: I have indicated my preference for Tucker's system of
"use ownership". Major Douglas system and P. S. Wakinshaw as his
disciple. 17. 2. 1949: M. was a member of a Phrenological Society. Gold
hoarding. Collective responsibility & taxes. Apparently, he thought taxes
to be justified.
V/197 22. 2. 1949: Altruism, duty.
Asserts that notes redeemable only in goods are legal in England. The
Cooperative Brotherhood Bank (or Trust: page 198.) in London. Tradesmen as
members. Not enough would join. 9. 3. 1949:
V/198 Redemption at the market price of the
metal. Check on note issues through the Clearing House. Experimental freedom.
Duty.
V/199 Federation for peace. Remaining
functions to be decentralised. 20. 3. 1949: Would welcome B. banks and
questions only which type would be easiest to establish. Bagehot for banks of
issue in "Lombard Street". Trust. Early banks in Scotland. Option
clause.
V/200. Redemption without State
interference. Del MarL The abuses and failures were due to State interference.
V/201 Of course, if no rich men are
available, and there is enough trust among the poor people, I should
enthusiastically support the creation of your banks. Concentration camps &
knowledge of them.
V/202 1. 4. 1949: Agrees that in
times of crisis B.-banks may be easier to establish. Interest rates.
V/203 Duty & altruism. Pleasure principle.
Badcock.
____________________________________________________________________________________________
Contents
Section VI
of file: Meulen
- Beckerath correspondence, pages 1 - 200, 22. 4. 1949 - 1. 5. 1959
Contents of Volume VI,
Letters of Henry Meulen
to U. v. Beckerath
VI/1 Yes - Greene said a lot of good things; but I doubt if
they had not been said before him. Bishop Berkeley preceded him in 1710 when he
asked in "The Querist" many fundamental monetary questions. John
Gray, in his "Lectures on "The Nature and Use of Money"
(Edinburgh, 1848), developed James Mill's principle that production is the
cause of demand. Gray pointed out that the compulsion to use gold in exchange
contradicted this principle, since it compelled demand (the possession of gold)
to be the sole cause of production. Gray proposed a sort of mutual bank system
in which a bank should issue to the producer money equal to the value of the
goods he had produced. When the goods were sold, the money should be paid by
the buyer to the bank, which should then issue a delivery note to the producer,
authorising him to deliver the goods. Any goods remaining unsold after a
certain period must be bought by the producer at his original price. Economic
crises.
VI/ 2 How M. misunderstood B.'s "order-system".
Lack of capital & refugees.
VI/3 "… world shortage of wealth". Competition
among banks. Duty & pleasure. 1. 5. 1949: I agree with your
condemnation of index money. My only difference with you on the subject of
mutual banking is the question of which type of bank is the easiest to get
started.
VI/4 Notes by
employers vs. notes by shops. Trust. I agree with your opposition to the idea
of low interest. The main requirement is freedom for experiment. Guarantors.
Against banks run by a committee
VI/5 Moratorium.
Reserves of State or other notes thought advisable. 5. 5. 1949: Causes
of crises. The difficulty is not shortage of money but, rather, that the money
is not lent to those who could use it productively. Duty.
VI/6 Duty, Kant,
egoists, altruism, pleasure principle. 30. 5. 1949:
VI/7 Montaigne,
Bilgram. Crises, gold standard, 1844 Act. Shop foundation money & raw
material purchases of manufacturers. Trust.
VI/8 Duty,
Badcock, pleasure or pain avoidance.
VI/9 Agnosticism.
Karl Pearson. God. 9. 6. 49: Malthusianism.
VI/10 Firms
issuing notes to pay their wages with. Bali fisherman and Manchester notes. A
system designed to stand the stress of crisis may not be the best for peace
time.
VI/11 Banking is a
fine development of mutual trust. Duty. Cromwell. Russia & Western Allies. 4.
6. 1949: M.'s letter to "The Literary Guide".
VI/12 June 1949:
M. letter to "Freethought News". 25. 6. 1949: Malthus. Banking
& committees.
VI/13 Freiburg
notes in Solingen. "… your exaggerate the importance of the Rueckstrom
principle." Convertibility into gold. 25. 6. 1949: No believer in a
taxpayer's strike. Kitson.
VI/14 Chinese
children. Spelling reform. Post Office. 12. 7. 1949: Interest. Equates
"Rueckstrom", assured within a short period, with due repayment even
of long-term loans.
VI/15 Committees.
Solingen banks and Freiburg notes. I have not recommended the use of gold
coins: a token subject to almost daily fluctuations in value. Malthus, poverty,
bad government, land monopoly. Germany.
VI/16 Education,
spelling reform. Malthus. 23. 7. 1949:
Voluntary school attendance. Tucker. Free Banking.
VI/17 Money
lenders in India, interest rate. Malthusianism. Russia's military strength.
Rueckstrom. Freiburg notes. Bertrand Russell. Vegetarianism. 29. 7. 1949:
VI/18 Trade with
US. Devaluation. Taxation. 8. 8. 1949: B.'s letter to "The
Times" on German opinion on "dismantlings". 11. 8. 1949:
VI/19
Malthusianism. Restriction of wheat planting in USA. Imports/exports.
Rueckstrom & confidence. (The dozens if not hundreds of misunderstandings
of M. indicate well the need for an alphabetised handbook on Free Banking! -
J.Z., 24.6.03.)
VI/20 Education.
Beatrice Webb. King-Hall. Vansittard. UNO. 25. 8. 1949: "Your ethic
is very Christian: "Let justice prevail, though it kill me."
VI/21
Self-indulgence. "I am not sure about your definition of notes as clearing
certificates." Ticket money & trust.
"… if we are
both prepared to allow free experiment, the most suitable type will
emerge." Cooperation. Dollar scarcity. Unemployment.
VI/22 Standard of
living in UK. Colour bar. 6. 9. 1949: Malthusianism. Coops.
Profit-sharing.
VI/23 Free Banking
& Communist Revolution. Nature & atomic bomb. Man. 12. 9. 1949:
Jews & Germany, collective responsibility. Antisemitism.
VI/24 Dismantling.
"… world slump, caused by the return to the gold standard, …"
Collective responsibility.
VI/25 Christian
ethic. Altruism is a pleasure. Cooperatives & payment for managers in
Russia.
VI/26 Workers
& employers. Colour bar. Intermarriage. 27. 9. 1949: Chesterton.
Nature's "blunders", man.
VI/27 UK/USA
trade. Collective responsibility. Ethics. Spencer. Cooperation. Gold standard.
VI/28 4. 10.
1949: Ball point pens. Taking the own currency abroad as tourist. 5. 10.
1049: "but …" Scottish independence.
VI/29 Nietzsche
& Strindberg. 9. 10. 1949: Privacy & financial affairs.
Christianity & J. M. Robertson. No unemployment in England.
VI/30 Collective
responsibility. Tucker & defence. Voting. Spencer & the right to ignore
the State. Disobedience by German soldiers in 1939. Bees. Strikes. General
strikes & doctors. 18. 10. 1949:
VI/31 18. 10.
1949: M.'s letter to T. H. Gibson on Free Banking never being mentioned in
"The Independent". 20. 10. 1949: Tourist currency abroad.
Christianity. Export/import payments.
VI/32 26. 10.
1949: Coal nationalisation. Wheat: US claimed to be only supplier for the
quantities needed in UK. 7. 11. 1949: Christianity. Duke of Bedford and
Major Douglas. F. D. Tandy & coops. Socialism.
VI/33 10. 11.
1949: Aldred's pamphlets. Jews: A remarkable race. Whatever they do, they
seem to do well. 20. 10. 1949: T. H. Gibson to Meulen on devaluation
etc.
VI/34 16. 11.
1949: On his Free Banking letter to "The Times".
VI/35 16. 11.
1949: Meulen to "The Times" on Free Banking. 29. 11. 1949:
Tourist spending abroad. Love & children.
VI/36 Machiavelli
on aggression. Social Statics & desertion plan of B. Christianity.
Cooperative Wholesale Soc. J. M. Robertson. Aldred.
VI/37 Mutual trust
& industrialism. 30. 11. 1949: Imports/exports. Inflation, gold
& paper. Christianity.
VI/38 3. 12.
1949: M.'s letter to "Truth" on European Union, international
politics, nations. 17. 12. 1949:
VI/39 The
Christianity discussion has no end, and I will not continue it. I think
Christianity is damned and dying; … 9. 12. 1949: A response to Meulen by
? on gold standard, Keynes.
VI/40
"Times" article of 8. 12. 1949: Workers to get 15 % on savings
with their employers. J. C. Johnstone, undated letter: How Diet Improved, from
1909-1938. Letter, undated, by J. W. Slater to "The Daily Telegraph",
expressing concern about trip of princess, supposedly under-reported.
VI/41 3. 1.
1950: German "Individualist"?
"What you call "Cooperation" we should call
"Piece-work". 11. 1. 1950: M.'s connection with "The
Individualist".
VI/42 Princess
Elizabeth. Monarchism. Coperation. "Bankers should be free to make
whatever innovation they please." 11. 1. 1950: M. to Prof.
Rittershausen on German "Individualist".
VI/43 13. 1.
1950: M. to "Truth" on UNO. 24. 1. 1950: "I note that
you expect a violent revolution here." Tucker. Citizen's tax to confine
voting to those who have an interest in politics.
VI/44. Questions
to candidates. Lack of interest among electroate. Listen to boring political
lectures just to put a question at the end, one which will probably not be
understood by the audience? Armand, Kropotkin & Tucker. 25. 1. 1950:
VI/45 30. 1.
1950: "… the financing of industry requires an adequate amount of
savings to support the fresh credit until the goods from the fresh production
come on the market; otherwise inflation must result. The virtue of the creation
of money by the banks rather than by the State lies in the fact that a banker's
resources roughly correspond with the community's savings, whereas the State
has no such check." (Typical lack of distinctions by M.! - J.Z.) Guernsey
Market Scheme. 31. 1. 1950:
VI/46 Vaccination.
Full employment policy.
VI/47 4. 2.
1950: For Meulen's trip to Berlin via car or rail he would have needed a
visa from the Soviets! Post Office "service". 8. 4. 1950:
Paying for German imports. Inflation.
VI/48 Runge,
Gesell, Woergl. 16. 2. 1950: Zwangskurs, cours forcé, legal tender.
"… a general rise of prices can occur if bankers make more loans (or at
longer dates) than the resources of the country can stand." (A typical
non-comprehension of M. - J.Z., 24.6.03.)
VI/49 Keynes.
Runge. Party programmes. Mosley. Ezra Pound. 17. 2. 1950: M. to
"The City Press", on gold standard, Bank rate fluctuations, 1929
depression, deflation.
VI/50 28. 2.
1950: Zwangskurs, legal tender, inflation.
VI/51 Meulen fails
again to distinguish the savings bank business from the note-issuing business.
VI/52 Multiple
turnover by a single pound note. Jevons' sunspot theory. Option clause. Another
Nazi law still applied: On reporting guests to the police.
VI/53 24. 3.
1950: Return of some money. 3. 4. 1950: M. had to make his trip on officially
permitted 50 Pounds.
VI/54 19. 4.
1950: Issues by debtors. Length of
loans. Snowball effect of loans. Price rises in slumps.
VI/55 Loans and
prices. Notes for railway construction in 1846. UK/USA trade payments. Refusal
of his English pound notes in Dunkerque: "Nobody wants them - we are being
offered them all day long … they are going down and down."
VI/56 Shop
foundation banks vs. M.-banks. M. asserts that Rittershausen was on his side on
this. (I would doubt this unless I saw it in Rittershausen's writing! - J.Z.,
24.6.03.)
VI/57 1. 5.
1950: On points of difference between them.
VI/58 Yes, of
course, I am perfectly willing that your system and mine should be put to the
test, and let experience decide which is the best. Snowball effect. Paying for
American goods with British Pounds. Pierre Ramus. Iron Curtain. 3. 5. 1950:
Typical misunderstanding by M. of Greene's teaching and gold as a value
standard.
VI/59 "I
cordially agree that the rise of prices which would result from a bank's issues
in times of slump should not be called inflationary." Check on over-issues
via clearing house. M. read Horn and often talked with Wesslau. 16. 5. 1950:
Greene. Thinks that no limit for notes should be set for notes which are issued
on a given cash reserve. UNO. Wars arise between governments: the ordinary
people cannot make war without some such organisation as the State.
VI/60 Still
asserts that England's gold standard was unique. Reichsbank practice.
Esperanto. 6. 6. 1950: On B.'s letter to M. Picard: "But I rather
hope that in the next war there will be no neutrals." (Apparently, he
could not envision that Red armies could declare themselves neutral, or even as
enemies of the Soviets, when ordered to attack. - J.Z., 24. 6. 03.)
VI/61 UNO.
Malthusianism. Experanto & Ido. Schuman Plan.
VI/62 4. 7.
1950: M. to "The Malthusian" regarding the assertion the
population pressure is the chief cause of war. Historically no such case is
known. 4. 7. 1950: UNO. Divorce. Gold standard. Interest rates in India.
VI/63 -65 23.
6. 1950: M. to "The Times" on wrongfulness of sending 4/5th
of asylum seekers from East Germany back to it. It was not printed. 13. 7.
1950: M. to "The Times" on development of Australia & banking
restrictions. Proposing his kind of Free Banking.
VI/65 18. 7.
1950: Refugees from the East. Malthus. Capital in India.
VI/66
"Plans" would be a most useful paper. Air raids in Korea. Racial
differences. Some notes on the Personal Rights Association. 3. 8. 1950:
VI/67 Capital
& interest in India. Malthus. Over-issues. Who would notice it first?
Clearing house or shop-keeper encountering refusals or shopper encountering
empty shelves?
VI/68 Rothbard's
interest theory. 15. 8. 1950:
VI/69 Optimism,
pessimism & health. Roman value standard. Malthus. Phrenology. Voluntary
militia. Gold production.
VI/70
Rittershausen is much more Anarchist than I thought. 16. 8. 1950; 30.
8. 1950: Japan & Malthus. Voluntary militia.
VI/71 "I
doubt if the path to freedom lies through a legal recognition of the right to
ignore the State." 9. 9. 1950: Japan & Malthus. Voluntary
militia.
VI/72 "fixed
price of gold". Unesco Statement on Race. 17. 9. 1950: M.'s visit
to Russia. Runge.
VI/73 Voluntary
militia, Japan & Malthus. UN Human Rights declaration. 13. 9. 1950:
M. to "The Times", sending translation of B.'s letter on a remark by
M. Camille Gutt, IMF on inflaiton, controls and devaluation.
VI/74 23. 9.
1950: B.'s letter on Gutt was not printed. Malthusianism.
VI/75 12. 10.
1950: Japan & Malthus. Payments abroad. Free Banking Calendar.
VI/76 Hitler &
internal affairs. Strasser.
VI/77 "Evil
is the necessary antithesis of good. If evil is abolished, we lose the idea of
good." (All we would “lose” are the examples of wrongful and bad
practices. The idea of good actions would not be lost. On the contrary, it
would become traditional, customary, habitual and bad actions almost
unthinkable: How often do you beat up your wife and children?” 15. 10. 1950:
"I propose that the value of gold be used to fix general prices on one
particular day only, and that thereafter any change in the demand and supply
conditions of gold shall be indicated in the paper price of gold, just as done
in the case of all ordinary commodities."
VI/78 "It may
be objected that my plan will not reveal inflation as clearly or as quickly as
your plan. This is true." 23. 10. 1950: Just a card from Edinburgh.
1. 11. 1950: "I think the Old Testament a primitive account of the
mythology of a primitive and blood-thirsty people, in which I am not
interested." - "In my view no man or animal has inherent
rights."
VI/79 "Alas -
I have not seven young friends who believe in Free Banking - the only free
bankers I know are a few elderly men, …" Dignity of the wage earner.
Malthus: "I do not think we need discuss this further. In the main I think
we agree." Payments abroad.
VI/80 Intervention
in internal affairs. Value. Gold stocks and threat of war. 23. 11. 1950:
Gold coins. "The duration of bank loans is determined largely by the
operation of the Clearing House."
VI/81 Follin. A
few pages of translations in "The Individualist" of April 1935.
Russia. China. India.
VI/82 12. 12.
1950: Payments abroad. Internal affairs. Value.
VI/83 Free
Banking. India's independence. Purchase of gold by Mint. In Scotland before
1645 there were hundreds of competing banks, each with its own policy, but this
did not cause depreciation of their notes. (They valued them not in M.'s paper
standard but in gold weight or silver weight units! - J.Z., 24.6.03.) Russia's
fighting strength.
VI/84 Deutsche
Partei programme. 15. 12. 1950: M. to "The City Press" on what
he called "gold standard". 26. 12. 1950: "… the word
Socialism has become so attached to the theory of State Socialism that I prefer
to call myself an Individualist. This of course exposes me to the accusation
from Socialists that I am a defender of predatory Capitalism; …"
VI/85 Long-date
loans. Gold coins. 31. 12. 1950: Dr. Strasser.
VI/86 Payments
abroad. Value. Purchase of gold. Free Banking. Foreign interference. India.
VI/87 Gold in US. 4.
1. 1951: "In a free democracy rights are given by the electorate to
its government, and the government decides on the enjoyment of certain rights
by the people." 10. 1. 1951: Payments abroad.
VI/88 Gold coins.
Gold in Fort Knox. Free Banking.
VI/89 Settlement
of trade balances in gold. Protectionism. Balance of trade. India &
Britain. Humour. 18. 1. 1951:
VI/90 Gold coins.
Long-date loans. Payments abroad. Free Banking. Balance of trade.
VI/91 Crises &
drains of gold, balance of trade, India, human rights, animal rights. (Freedom
of press & speech, right to bear arms and issue notes for sheep? If one
pays no attention to specifics one cannot even comprehend the generalisation. -
J.Z., 25.6.03.) 27. 1. 1951: Discount rate in Germany, coal mines, gold
coins, long-date loans.
VI/92 Payments
abroad, Free Banking, balance of trade, India, human rights, Danish butter
story. 29. 1. 1951: M. to Engineering Industries Assn. on long-date
loans & Bank Charter Act.
VI/93 5. 2.
1951: Keats & M. on thinking too far ahead. Human rights. (What about
the evil of not thinking far enough ahead? - J.Z., 25. 6. 03.) Human rights.
VI/94 Gold coins,
payments abroad, long-date loans, Free Banking, India. 13. 2. 1951:
Payments abroad & absurdity of foreign exchange controls.
VI/95 Long-date
loans. Gold coins. Zwangskurs. Human rights. 21. 2. 1951:
VI/96 Competition
in broadcasting. Unemployment & Free Banking. Cours forcé.
VI/97 Monopoly is
aggression. 14. 3. 1951: Long-term loans. Cour forcé. Falling value of
money.
VI/98 Rights of
the City of London.
VI/99 23. 3.
1951:
VI/100 Marcus
Aurelius and Caesar. Long-term loans.
VI/101 Falling
value of money. Buying gold. Gold payments. Balance of Trade. Gold Redemption.
Communism. UNO & internal affairs.
VI/102 Reichsbank
gold redemption. Stirner, Byington. Kitson. Value by readiness to accept at
par, in war & peace. Right to refuse money. Greek coins.
VI/103 30. 3.
1951: Gold standard and the experts. Malthusianism.
VI/104 Women &
the money question. Long-term loans. Communist aggression.
VI/105 4. 4. 1951:
Conscripts vs. volunteers. China. Dumping. Full employment.
VI/106 New money
& rising prices. Unemployment. 9. 4. 1951. 18. 4. 1951.
VI/107 Long-term
loans & unemployment. Balance of trade. Interest rate. Dumping.
VI/108 New money
& rising prices. Loans & reflux.
VI/109 25. 4.
1951: Jevons.
VI/110 Exchange
Control Act on gold ingots. 27. 4. 1951: Balance of trade. Interest
rate. Dumping. New money & rising prices. Wage & price spiral.
VI/111 Radio. P.R.
Gold ingots. Discounts against gold & refusals to accept.
VI/112 Parliament
of women. Gold payments. Interest & note issue. Gold prices & the
invariable paper unit. 22. 5. 1951: P.R., Payment to a creditor. Gold
payment. Runge.
VI/113 22. 6.
1951: London University houses Goldsmiths' and Prof. Foxwell's collection
of currency and banking books and pamphlets. The latter is a unique and
extensive collection. The Act of 1826 prohibited the L 1 note. Protests. Sir
Walter Scott's "Letters of Malachi Malagrowther". Scottish
nationalists movement.
VI/114 Bacon,
Shakespeare or Marlowe? Revaluation. Pounds spent in Switzerland. 8. 7. 1951:
VI/115
Fletcherism: Slow & careful eating. Spelling reform. Sleeplessness.
Entrepreneurs.
VI/116 Medium of
exchange issued for long-term loans. Revaluation and inflation. Christianity.
VI/117 19. 7.
1951: Trial & error. Kant: On living again.
VI/118 Pleasure
principle. PR vs. limiting the power of Parliament. Spelling reform.
Entrepreneurs. Competition with
VI/119 Free Will.
Kant's metaphysics. 6. 8. 1951: Life's value and devotion to reform.
VI/120 Kant on the
value of life. Competition with USA. Option clause notes. Free Will. Thinks in
themselves.
VI/121 11. 8.
1951: Christian doctrine. J. M. Robertson, "Pagan Christs".
Morality of the ancients. Warrior mentality. Value of life - Gallup Poll.
VI/122 Men vs.
women. 7. 9, 1951: Pagan Christs. Summing up his "Free
Banking" book: "A proposal to allow anybody to issue banknotes
redeemable in varying weights of gold, according to the free market price of
gold." (So why did he call it "Free Banking" instead of e.g.:
Meulen's kind of banknote issue restriction instead of the current ones? -
J.Z., 25.6.03.) Determinism. Insomnia. Unesco on race and Dr. Gall.
VI/123 "City
Press" clipping and M.'s reply to it of 19. 10. 1951: Free Trade
& interest rate. 28. 10. 1951:
VI/124 Elections,
Christianity. Determinism. Malthusianism. Unemployment. P.O. Happiness.
VI/125 Option
clause note. Railway money. Gold redemptionism. Undated note. 9. 11. 1951:
VI/126
Determinism, P.O. Happiness. Railway notes. Redemption of notes in pre-1845
Scotland.
VI/127 Pricing of
goods in gold instead of in paper. Bank Rate. Determinism. Hume. Adam Smith.
VI/128 27. 12.
1951: Gresham's Law. German and Scottish banking.
VI/129 13. 12.
1951: "I also, wish that we were in agreement on banking policy. It is
no good advertising for free banking when the only two men who are really
fighting for freedom cannot agree on what precise form of banking would be best
under freedom." Gold standard. Cheap Japanese bicycles. 14. 1. 1952:
VI/130 Kant.
"Revolutions are rare. I cannot advocate a banking system suitable for a
revolutionary period, if it is inferior for normal times." Zander on
acceptance of gold coins in history.
VI/131 Pricing in
gold, withdrawal of gold coins from inflation & inflation. Acceptance of
notes must be voluntary. Legal tender by custom. Determinism. Japanese
bicycles.
VI/132 Upper limit
for note issues?
VI/133 Option
Clause notes & shop foundation notes. (Scottish money tokens were a kind of
under-developed shop-foundation money. - J.Z., 25.6.03.) Stephen Pearl Andrews.
Interest rates. Malthusianism.
VI/134 Kenneth
Smith, The Malthusian Controversy, clipping of a review. Count de Tancarville, 15.
1. 1951 letter on Germany, West German Federal Republic & monarchism.
VI/135 Charles
Galton Darwin, "The Next Million Years", 210 pages, a review. 17.
1. 1952: M.'s visit to King-Hall.
VI/136 UNO &
Free Banking. 9. 2. 1952: German's recovery & rearmament.
Rittershausen.
VI/137 Bank Rate.
M. seems to believe that more production is needed to combat inflation. My own
summary of the monetary freedom view as opposed to M.'s approach to inflation. 21.
2. 1952:
VI/138 Gresham's
Law & Warner. UK/USA trade. Monarchism. German language.
VI/139 29. 4.
1952: Sign of life, asking for one. 11. 5. 1952: Gardening &
walking. Considers the settling of the relation between East- and Westmark
after re-unification to be a problem, i.e., does not trust the market in this
sphere. IDO.
VI/140 Maximum
size in plants, in everything. 27. 6. 1952: Old Athens: Choosing
politicians by lot. Inflation.
VI/141 Publicity
for Free Banking. A Bernard Shaw needed to present it? (So far not even the
monetary freedom jokes have been assembled - and published, e.g., in a Free Banking
Calendar. - J.Z., 25.6.03.) "The Individualist" in the Australian
National Library in Canberra, issues from 1911 onwards! Mass murders as
internal affairs? Payments to USA. 2.
7. 1952:
VI/142 Auxiliary
language. King Hall. Monarchy. Revolution, Tucker & Russia. Gold coins.
Option Clause notes.
VI/143 Money
tokens. Interest. Foreign workers. Redemption in varying weight of gold at the
free market price.
VI/144 11. 7.
1952: Choosing politicians by lot. Inflation & rising prices. "…
you exaggerate the stability of the value of gold."
VI/145
"German treatment of her nationals". (I see 4 errors in that
statement of 5 words. - J.Z., 25.6.03.) Decentralisation. Payments to USA.
VI/146 Zander.
Gold redemption vs. shop foundation. 1. 8. 1952: Chitti only opposed forced currency because
it is not convertible into gold. Otherwise favoured redeemable government paper
money.
VI/147 Germany is
spared armament costs. 10. 8. 1952: "You are undoubtedly right in
stressing … the right to refuse money. A generation brought up under legal
tender laws overlooks the great difference that the right to choose would
make." Andrews' "cost principle". Labour notes. (B., elsewhere,
stressed that under a perfect clearing system individuals, too, could issue
notes ultimately cleared against their labour. - J.Z., 25.6.03.)
VI/148 Lenin &
Communism. Dismantling. 19.8.1952: Bertrand Russell & manners.
VI/149 Private and
official gold hoard estimates for the world. Free gold market. Tradesmen's
tokens. Metaphysics. Hitler's "election".
VI/150 He did know
that the Communist Manifesto demanded monetary despotism. Spencer's
"Social Statics".
VI/151 Wages &
Profits paper & criticism. Bata. Dismantling.
VI/152 30. 8.
1952: After all this discussion he still asks: "What is the use of
marking a note 'Nominal value 5 grammes' if 5 grams of gold cannot be bought
with it? You did not reply to this question." (Well, no more than about
100 times in their correspondence! - J.Z.) "Social Statics". Tucker
did not advise the immediate dissolution of the State, even if that were
possible.
VI/153 Tucker
& Spencer on existing morality being too low to permit the immediate
abolition of the State. (M, T. & S., apparently, did not apply the
principle and practice of individual sovereignty & individual secessionism,
and their consequences, consistently enough in every sphere but continued to
think in terms of collectivist territorialism instead of individualist
exterritorialism. They did not even mobilize the power of the latter in their
own heads! But at least all three were advocates of degrees of monetary
freedom, which is not a bad start. - J.Z., 25. 6.03.) Interest.
VI/154 Further
misunderstandings. 31. 8. 1952: Free Gold Market. 5. 9. 1952:
Gold hoarding in France.
VI/155 Assumed
gold value fluctuations. Meinl notes. Shop foundation. 12. 9. 1952:
Meinl notes and gold value rises.
VI/156 2. 10.
1952: "I must demur to your statement that a gold standard is a gold
coin standard." …
VI/157 Not yet
freedom from thinking in terms of "the free price of gold", which
assumes a stable paper money. 13. 10. 1952: Gold prices, gold coins
& gold redemptionism.
VI/158 Meinl
notes. Mathematical truths. 6. 11. 1952: Gold price. "Makute".
15. 11. 1952:
VI/159 Gold
pricing. Fallen gold price. Shop foundation money. Still utter confusion! 30.
11. 1952: Kant & mathematical certainties.
VI/160 Kleist. 8.
12. 1952: "Your aim is to finance a social revolution, whereas my
scheme is intended rather for the normal everyday working of an industrial
society. But is your scheme really more suitable than mine for a revolution?
The main difference between your scheme and mine is that you will use
shop-keeper notes, whereas I will use the notes of people of repute -
manufacturers or bankers. (Where are they, in despotic countries? Have we ever
had a normal, i.e., quite free industrial society? - J.Z., 25.6.03.) "Now
your shopkeeper can get his notes into circulation only by buying from
manufacturers." (M. was full of misunderstandings like a bucket full of
worms for bait. And B. took these baits perhaps for all too long. And M. never
seemed to notice when he was caught like a fish on the bait he had himself
supplied. - J.Z., 25.6.0.03.)
VI/161 Dishonest
bankruptcies ascribed to Jews jewellers. Shop foundation & trust.
Mathematics.
VI/162 9. 12.
1952: Revolution, trust & barter. "…the revolutionary govt. will
be compelled…" to adopt communism!
VI/163 "I
think the notes of prominent manufacturers etc. will be more readily
accepted." France, 1918 had municipal notes down to "Deux Sous".
VI/164 As
definition of his standard M. says: M. banker must offer the current free
market value of gold in redemption. Priced in which of 1000 M.-type banknotes,
of 1000 M-type banks, each with a different policy e.g. on long-term loans paid
directly in its notes? Or still priced in the government's paper money?
"How I have spread myself on this subject!" - Yes, all too thinly!
Almost never going beyond superficial thoughts, premises, ideas and
appearances! - J.Z., 25.6.03.) 16.12.1952: Religion, God & atheism.
VI/165 Religion
& climate. (As if some of the worst religious fanaticism was also shown in
hot climates! - J.Z., 25.6.03.) 21. 12. 1952; 1.1.1953; 4. 2. 1953:
VI/166 Gold
pricing and gold coin circulation. "…you are standardising in paper the
value of the gold coin on a particular day - which is precisely my
proposal." Refugees to Berlin. Tax reductions.
VI/167 13. 2.
1953: "I cannot understand what you mean by saying that under your
system gold has no price."
VI/168 & 169
Further misunderstandings & false premises. 20. 2. 1953:
V/170 Price of
gold. Savings in Germany. Rittershausen.
VI/171 to 174 28.
2. 1953; 7. 3. 1953: "Price of gold" & related
misunderstandings.
VI/174 11. 3.
1953: "Please believe that a discussion of paper money without forced
currency is not disagreeable to me".
VI/175 "I am
assuming precisely the system you advocate: one wherein people are free to
accept or reject paper notes." (So why was he unable to comprehend it? -
J.Z., 25.6.03.)
VI/176 Still
assuming large fluctuations in the value of gold. Banque de France. 13. 3.
1953:
VI/177 Sent B. an
electric blanket. 15. 3. 1953: Zander. Four Law Drafts. Gold standard
"problem". "Bank inflation",
VI/178 & 179
Zander. Four Law Drafts. Gold standard. Anyhow, how Meulen understood or
misunderstood him and them. 14. 4. 1953: Keynes proposed something
similar to M.'s "gold standard". Free gold market proposal by Senator
Pat McGarran in May 1949. 28.4.1953:
VI/180 -185 M.
equates the stopping of further issues when notes get a discount - with
"deflating credit"! And other almost incredible misinterpretations. 6.
5. 1953: Over-issue & discounts. "… you will continually alter the
value of your notes whenever the world demand and supply of gold alters." 16.
5. 1953 (184): "… there is a world demand for gold which is
independent of legal compulsion, namely (1) for hoarding, and (2) for
settlement of trade balances." (How independent are either from legal
tender government paper money and central banks of governments and of foreign
exchange controls? - J.Z., 25.6.03.) Strasser.
VI/186 29. 5.
1953: Right of creditors to demand gold. Balance of trade. Increased demand
for gold.
VI/187 Discount of
notes at bullion market but not at shops. "Gold price". 7. 6. 1953:
Gold pricing in shops.
VI/188 Pricing in
sovereigns. 13. 6. 1953: What if the market demand for gold has
increased four-fold …and when your notes will buy only 5 s. worth of gold? Etc.
VI/189 & 190 23.
6. 1953: Further misunderstandings on pricing goods and services in gold. 30.
6. 1953: Demand for gold. Adam Smith & Goschen on exchange rates.
VI/191 Bank Rate
changes. Gold drains. "Gold price". Asked why B. wanted to restrict
the Reichsbank from continuing to issuing notes already at a considerable
discount! Considers this to be "harsh treatment"! Price changes in
B.- shops. "I point out the need to protect a bank's gold store in times
of strong foreign demand." (He still assumed that an issuing bank needs a
gold store & has to use it for redemption purposes! - J.Z., 25.6.03.) His
discussion with O. E. Wesslau and Egmont Hake.
VI/192 & 193 8.
7. 1953: Drain of gold. "… changes in the bullion market will be
frequent even under a Warner system." (Murphy's Law, Meulen version: If it
is possible to misunderstand and misinterpret something about exchange media
and value standards, then Meulen would. - J.Z., 25.6.03.)
VI/194 Clipping on
Thailand exchange rates. 14. 7. 1953: "I am honestly trying to find
out what exactly is the Warner plan." - So why did he not read, or better,
study, Warner's essay and B.'s books, until he would finally understand them? -
J.Z., 25.6.03.)
VI/195 20. 7.
1953: Assumes that B.'s notes would have dropped in value while in the
assumed case they actually bought four times as much. 28. 7. 1953:
"If you and I cannot explain our meaning clearly to each other, we have
little hope of converting others." (Maybe both should have concentrated on
formulating monetary freedom and monetary tolerance as exactly as they could.
B. did. M. did not publish B.'s extensive monetary rights draft, saying it
would be too technical for his readers and, probably, because he rejected the
rights concept altogether. - J.Z., 25.6.03.)
VI/196 Further
misunderstandings, wrong assumptions and a superfluous question on the Warner
system. Length of loans in German and in England.
VI/197 Franz
Bluecher article on "gold currency", assuming that under it the gold
price could be arbitrarily increased or decreased and that this
"convertibility" would secure the financial stability in every
country. (Thus he was, obviously, wrong and stupid enough to make it to the
post of Vice Chancellor. - J.Z., 25. 6. 03.) 14. 9. 1953: WW I. "… fear of Russia is a uniting
element." - Both, M. & B. often used the term "Russia"
rather carelessly when they really meant the Soviet regime. Adenauer,
leadership & Germans. J. J. Martin: "Men Against the State".
VI/198 8. 3.
1954; 6. 2. 1959: Nietzsche & Strindberg.
VI/199 1. 5.
1959: Anarchist ideal and methods. Abolition of the State seems to him impossible
because of the ever-present danger of war. (Precisely that danger makes it all
the more necessary to do away with the territorial State! - J.Z., 25.6.03.)
State socialists would not admit the right of sections of the people to disobey
the central decision. (By now many of them would be glad to be allowed to
practise their own State-socialist "ideal", at the own expense and
risk, but is not under consideration for them e.g. in Russia and in China. -
J.Z., 25.6.03.) "The more hopeful way is, I think, Tucker's. Abolish the
money monopoly, …" Social Statics. It is possible that de Puydt read it.
"All in all, however, the de Puydt article does not seem to me worth the
labour of translation into English. For fifty years I have tried to persuade
people to take the relatively small step to freedom involved in granting
freedom of note issue and the abolition of the gold standard of value; yet
there has been little response. How much less likely are people to respond to
an appeal to grant the right to ignore the State!" (He still did not
notice the contradiction in his own monetary proposal. To each the kind of gold
standard or any other value standard and kind of exchange or clearing medium or
method of his or her dreams, as a step towards: To each the government or
non-governmental society of his or her dreams! – If M. had widened or
generalised his secessionist appeal then his own proposals would have got their
maximum chance as well. One cannot successfully advocate the liberties one
wants for oneself without conceding all liberties to others as well. - J.Z.,
25.6.03., 19.7.03.)
Obviously, I did
not find it worth my while to try to sum up each argument or assertion or
belief of M. His fans are free to do so. But I did give him much space in my
PEACE PLANS series, in spite of our disagreements. - J.Z., 25.6.03.
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