Robinson Crusoe's Money;: or, The Remarkable Financial Fortunes and Misfortunes of a Remote Island CommunityWells, David Ames
General
Robinson Crusoe's Money;: or, The Remarkable Financial Fortunes and Misfortunes of a Remote Island Community
Wells, David Ames
Currency question -- United States; Money
With few exceptions, to be hereafter noted, the whole population of
the island were jubilant, and proceeded as rapidly as circumstances
would permit to adjust all their commercial transactions to the
new basis. But joy at the prospect of the coming millennium did not
extinguish feelings of gratitude in the hearts of the people, and
they resolved to send ample testimonials to all, in foreign lands,
to whom they had been indebted for wisdom.
To each of the judges who had so intelligently defined value they
accordingly voted an ideal castle and estate, possession of the
same conferring nobility upon their owner, with the title of "Baron
Ideality," to which, by special patent, the recipient was authorized
to use (if he pleased) the prefix of "damn."
To the most notable advocate, in foreign lands, of the idea of
non-exportable money a gift of one million of "instruments of
association," represented by ideal currency, was voted. But as
this currency, both by law and the fitness of things, could not be
exported from the island, it became impossible to pay this gift,
and in its place a letter was written explaining the circumstances,
and requesting that the resolution to pay might be accepted as a
"sign of transmission."
To the eminent financier who defined money, "as a sense of value
in reference to currency as compared with commodities," there was
sent a plaster image of the "What Is It;" while to his colleague,
who had given the opinion that "the less costly the material out of
which money was made, the better for the community which uses it," was
sent a large box, containing contributions of the most worthless things
every body could think of, with a polite note requesting the recipient
to make his choice out of the collection of what seemed to him best
adapted as a token, and forward a detailed report of his experience
in attempting to use it as a representative of unrequited service.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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