Colonial Scrip popular and proven to stave off hunger in a depression

FEDERAL USURPATION BY FRANKLIN PIERCE - copyright 1908
USURPATION IN THE CIVIL WAR AND RECONSTRUCTION PERIOD,pages 41-75

Everyone acquainted with the Civil War who has carefully watched events since that time must have seen a gradually accelerated movement of the centralization of government commencing at that time. This was brought about by the government's issue of legal-tender notes, by the creation of our national banking system, (Dunning, Essays on the Civil War and Reconstruction, pp. 30, 31.)
and especially by the protective tariff then instituted and since continued.Hamilton, in his masterly statement on the currency, said that bills of credit and paper emissions were expressly forbidden to the states by our present Constitution, and that the spirit of that prohibition extended to the National Government. Notwithstanding that it was the intent of the framers of the Constitution to prohibit the National Government, as well as the states, from making paper money legal tender, Congress, in 1862, declared such paper lawful money and a legal tender in payment of public and private debts, and authorized the issue of $150,000,000 in notes, our present greenbacks. Never before had a statute of the United States made anything but gold and silver coin a legal tender in payment of debts. The United States Supreme Court, at a later date, in a suit where these notes had been tendered and rejected in payment of a debt existing before the war, held that the act making them legal tender was unconstitutional; but afterwards, when the court was differently constituted,reversed its own decision. Without discussing further at the present time the constitutionality of this issue, all will acknowledge that the exercise of the power has made the government all powerful in banking and commercial affairs. When a government issues the money of the country and has the tempting power to increase the amount for use in aiding private bankers, such power makes the government almost omnipotent.

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"Evil for evil, a good despotism in a country at all advanced in civilization is more noxious than a bad one, for it is more relaxing and enervating to the thoughts, feelings, and energies of the people." - John Stuart Mill

For a long long time I have wondered why in the world more societies across the nation haven't "taken the bull by the horns. Other American societies have done what the people in Wisconsin have.

For most folks this is probably much easier said than done. But defying the federal mob doesn't even really take guts; take it from one who knows. They might outgun us, but we outnumber them. Besides, we're much much much smarter those self-centered egomaniacs. Anyone who is driven by the love of money as well as a completely unquenchable thirst for domination isn't too bright. They're simply educated morons busy about the business of foolishness and self destruction in the name of temporal comfort. Their stupidity is beyond understanding.

--Cliff, Sioux City, Iowa
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Secret key to happiness: Stay happy. Shhh!

difficult. Colonial scrip was not backed by gold or silver and therefore the colonies could control its purchasing power. This was similar to the "tally stick" system used by the British Empire for over 700 years. It was different from the conventional European mercantilist system of money which required governments to borrow from banks and pay interest for those loans, as gold and silver were the only regarded forms of money. Colonial scrip, were "bills of credit" created by the government, based on the credit of that government, and this meant that there was no interest to pay for the introduction of money. This went a considerable way towards defraying the expense of the Colonial governments and in maintaining prosperity. The Governments charged low interest when it loaned out this paper money to its citizens, with land as collateral, and this interest income lowered the tax burden on the people, contributing to prosperity.

The currency was born when a lack of gold and silver in the Colonies made trade hard to conduct, and a barter system prevailed. One by one, the Colonies began to issue their own paper money to serve as a medium of exchange to make trade vibrant. The Governments could then retire excess notes out of circulation by taxing the people, helping some colonies generally avoid inflation. Each colony had its own currency and some were better managed than others. It was banned by English Parliament in the Currency Act after Benjamin Franklin had explained the benefits of this currency to the British Board of Trade. Outlawing the circulating medium caused a depression in the colonies, and Franklin and many others believed it to be the true cause of the American Revolution.

The Pennsylvania version of this currency was said to be the most effective, because they controlled the money supply and issued only enough notes so as to satisfy the demands of trade, preventing inflation. In 1938, Dr. Richard A. Lester, an economist at Princeton University, wrote that “The price level during the 52 years prior to the American Revolution and while Pennsylvania was on a paper standard was more stable than the American price level has been during any succeeding fifty-year period.” Pennsylvania established a "land bank" that allowed landowners to borrow scrip with their land as collateral. They could borrow twice the value of their land, half of it representing actual land value, and the other half representing production potential of the land. The loan was to be retired over a set period of years, with the land ownership being restored to the citizen upon payment. When the loan was fully retired, another loan could be taken out.

Benjamin Franklin helped create the Pennsylvania Scrip, and in his autobiography he wrote of this currency: "The utility of this currency became by time and experience so evident as never afterwards to be much disputed."

Franklin believed the shutting down of this paper money by Parliament in 1764 was the principal cause of the American Revolution, as did many other prominent Americans. Peter Cooper, founder of Cooper Union College, Vice-President of the New York Board of Currency, US Presidential Candidate in 1876, and one-time colleague of Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin said in his 1883 book Ideas for a Science of Good Government:

After Franklin had explained…to the British Government as the real cause of prosperity, they immediately passed laws, forbidding the payment of taxes in that money. This produced such great inconvenience and misery to the people, that it was the principal cause of the Revolution. A far greater reason for a general uprising, than the Tea and Stamp Act, was the taking away of the paper money.

(from Wikipedia)

Ok. Let’s define counterfeiting.

Counterfeiting is conjuring purchasing power out of nothing. By this definition the government now is the greatest counterfeiter of all.

By what moral right can a bureaucrat or a bankster, with a stroke of a pan claim fruits of the labors of someone who actually worked and produced goods and services? None. There is no such moral right. It is THEFT through counterfeiting, no matter who is engaged in it, be it government, private bankster, or a criminal.

That’s why I said, the ONLY honest monetary system, is commodity based one, the one that CANNOT be counterfeited. And nothing served as well and for so long as gold and silver, which is precisely what the Constitution demands.