Frenzied Finance, Vol. 1: The Crime of AmalgamatedLawson, Thomas William
History
Frenzied Finance, Vol. 1: The Crime of Amalgamated
Lawson, Thomas William
Amalgamated Copper Co.; Gas companies -- Massachusetts -- Boston; Insurance -- United States; Speculation; Standard Oil Company
At this stage "B" is still the possessor of $10,000, but it is "10,000
stock dollars." "C" is the possessor of $6,700, and "D," from whom the
copper-mine was purchased, is the possessor of $3,300; but the two
latter amounts make up the 10,000 real dollars, and _The Bank_ remains
where it was at the beginning of the transaction. The people, however,
are no wiser; but they know, because they have been most carefully
educated to such knowledge by "C's" agents, Wall Street, and the press,
that their country is tremendously prosperous--that its great prosperity
is evidenced by the $6,700 added wealth in the form of 6,700 new stock
dollars. At the next stage the financial trick accomplished by the
secret device is complete. "B," the farmer, who has contracted for new
machinery and other necessities and luxuries to be paid for "next
season," attempts next season to turn his 10,000 stock dollars into real
dollars, and "C," the Private Thing, knowing their real value to be but
$3,300, refuses to make the exchange, but instead, by proclaiming their
real value, compels "B," who must have real dollars to meet his debts,
to sell them for what "C," the Private Thing, is willing to pay. "C,"
the Private Thing, is willing to pay their worth, which he alone knows
is $3,300; he repurchases them at that price from "B," that he may
repeat the operation at the return of the next "wave of the country's
prosperity."
By this operation "B," the farmer, has lost, as absolutely as though
they had been taken away from him by a Government decree, $6,700 of his
own making, and "C," the Private Thing, has "made," as absolutely as
though the Government had allowed him to coin them for his own benefit,
6,700 real dollars, and _The Bank_, created, regulated, and controlled
by law, and existing because of the people's deposits of money, has been
the instrument by which "C," the Private Thing, has deprived "B," the
farmer, of his savings, because "C," the Private Thing, is at one and
the same time during the operation I have outlined, himself and _The
Bank_.
A careful study of this illustration, by even laymen unacquainted with
financial or corporation affairs, will clearly show that the foundation
of this transaction was _The Bank's_ putting in jeopardy $3,300 of "B's"
deposited $10,000, and that if the $3,300, after being put in jeopardy,
had been lost, "B" would have been the loser,[2] which, in turn, means
that the compensation for the jeopardy in which the $3,300 was placed
was the possibility of $6,700 profit; and that, therefore, the $6,700
profit when made should have gone to the owner of the $3,300, "B,"
instead of to "C," the user of it.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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