[R-G] [BillTottenWeblog] How Benjamin Franklin Made New England Prosperous

[Bill Totten]

America Created Its Own Money in 1750

by Congressman Charles G Binderup

The following historical story is taken from a radio address given by
Congressman Charles G Binderup of Nebraska, some fifty years ago and was
reprinted in Unrobing the Ghosts of Wall Street {1}.


Colonies More Prosperous Than The Home Country

Before the American War for Independence in 1776, the colonized part of
what is today the United States of America was a possession of England.
It was called New England, and was made up of thirteen colonies, which
became the first thirteen states of the great Republic. Around 1750,
this New England was very prosperous. Benjamin Franklin was able to write:

"There was abundance in the Colonies, and peace was reigning on every
border. It was difficult, and even impossible, to find a happier and
more prosperous nation on all the surface of the globe. Comfort was
prevailing in every home. The people, in general, kept the highest moral
standards, and education was widely spread."

When Benjamin Franklin went over to England to represent the interests
of the Colonies, he saw a completely different situation: the working
population of this country was gnawed by hunger and poverty. "The
streets are covered with beggars and tramps", he wrote. He asked his
English friends how England, with all its wealth, could have so much
poverty among its working classes.

His friends replied that England was a prey to a terrible condition: it
had too many workers! The rich said they were already overburdened with
taxes, and could not pay more to relieve the needs and poverty of this
mass of workers. Several rich Englishmen of that time actually believed,
along with Malthus, that wars and plague were necessary to rid the
country from man-power surpluses.

Franklin's friends then asked him how the American Colonies managed to
collect enough money to support their poor houses, and how they could
overcome this plague of pauperism. Franklin replied:

"We have no poor houses in the Colonies; and if we had some, there would
be nobody to put in them, since there is, in the Colonies, not a single
unemployed person, neither beggars nor tramps".


Thanks To Free Money Issued By The Nation

His friends could not believe their ears, and even less understand this
fact, since when the English poor houses and jails became too cluttered,
England shipped these poor wretches and down-and-outs, like cattle, and
discharged, on the quays of the Colonies, those who had survived the
poverty, dirtiness and privations of the journey. At that time, England
was throwing into jail those who could not pay their debts. They
therefore asked Franklin how he could explain the remarkable prosperity
of the New England Colonies. Franklin replied:

"That is simple. In the Colonies, we issue our own paper money. It is
called 'Colonial Scrip'. We issue it in proper proportion to make the
goods and pass easily from the producers to the consumers. In this
manner, creating ourselves our own paper money, we control its
purchasing power and we have no interest to pay to no one."


The Bankers Impose Poverty

The information came to the knowledge of the English Bankers, and held
their attention. They immediately took the necessary steps to have the
British Parliament to pass a law that prohibited the Colonies from using
their scrip money, and then ordered them to use only the gold and silver
money that was provided in sufficient quantity by the English bankers.
Then began in America the plague of debt-money, which has never since
brought so many curses to the American people.

The first law was passed in 1751, and then completed by a more
restrictive law in 1763. Franklin reported that one year after the
implementation of this prohibition on Colonial money, the streets of the
Colonies were filled with unemployment and beggars, just like in
England, because there was not enough money to pay for the goods and
work. The circulating medium of exchange had been reduced by half.

Franklin added that this was the original cause of the American
Revolution - and not the tax on tea nor the Stamp Act, as it has been
taught again and again in history books. The financiers always manage to
have removed from school books all that can throw light on their own
schemes, and damage the glow that protects their power.

Franklin, who was one of the chief architects of the American
independence, wrote it clearly:

"The Colonies would gladly have borne the little tax on tea and other
matters had it not been the poverty caused by the bad influence of the
English bankers on the Parliament, which has caused in the Colonies
hatred of England and the Revolutionary War."

This point of view of Franklin was confirmed by great statesmen of his
era: John Adams, Jefferson, and several others. A remarkable English
historian, John Twells, wrote, speaking of the money of the Colonies,
the Colonial Scrip:

"It was the monetary system under which America's Colonies flourished to
such an extent that Edmund Burke was able to write about them: 'Nothing
in the history of the world resembles their progress. It was a sound and
beneficial system, and its effects led to the happiness of the people.'"

John Twells adds:

"In a bad hour, the British Parliament took away from America its
representative money, forbade any further issue of bills of credit,
these bills ceasing to be legal tender, and ordered that all taxes
should be paid in coins. Consider now the consequences: this restriction
of the medium of exchange paralyzed all the industrial energies of the
people. Ruin took place in these once flourishing Colonies; most
rigorous distress visited every family and every business, discontent
became desperation, and reached a point, to use the words of Dr Johnson,
when human nature rises up and asserts its rights."

Another writer, Peter Cooper, expresses himself along the same lines.
After having said how Franklin had explained to the London Parliament
the cause of the prosperity of the Colonies, he wrote:

"After Franklin gave explanations on the true cause of the prosperity of
the Colonies, the Parliament exacted laws forbidding the use of this
money in the payment of taxes. This decision brought so many drawbacks
and so much poverty to the people that it was the main cause of the
Revolution. The suppression of the Colonial money was a much more
important reason for the general uprising than the Tea and Stamp Act."

Today, in America as well as in Europe, we are under the regime of the
Scrip of the Bankers instead of the scrip of the nation. Hence the
public debts, everlasting interest charges, taxes that plunder
purchasing power, with the only result being a consolidation of the
financial dictatorship.

There is only one cure for America's ultimate financial collapse and
that is for Congress to exercise Clause Thirty of the "Federal" Reserve
Act, buy the outstanding shares of stock, shut down this
unconstitutional system and sell off their assets to reimburse the
people of this nation for this unspeakable theft of their wealth. This
is the first installment of postings on this issue, new ones will be put
up as soon as manpower allows.

Additional reading:  http://www.members.shaw.ca/theultimatescam/index.htm

Link {1}: http://openlibrary.org/b/OL6452000M

http://www.planetization.org/prosperity.htm


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