280 



THE FARMERS' REGISTER. 



dence that banking privileges are not too ureat, 

 and that the country has paid very little for the 

 public benefits of the banking system. So be- 

 cause highwaymen and pirates generally live 

 and die poor, it might as well be contended that 

 they had taken but little in their course of bu- 

 siness, and that society had suffered nothing 

 from the particular direction and long continued 

 exercise of their industry.* 



ff by the profits actually received by stock- 

 holders were to be estimated and determined (he 

 measure of privileges to be allowed to the banks 

 for iheir (supposed) benefits to the public, and for 

 the lair remuneration lor capital so invested, then 

 these privileges and profits have been too lovy, 

 and ought now to be increased, instead of being 

 limited and reduced. The stock-holders, as such. 

 on the whole, have deriveil but little profit, (k'ss 

 indeed than legal interest,) from their stock ; and, 

 as a body, have been almost as much cheated 

 and plundered as the community in general, by 

 those who enhance the prices of stock, and direct 

 banking operations, and as borrowers and specu- 

 lators, or stockjobbers, continue to appropriate 

 to themselves the rich harvests of gain. The 

 banks have been managed not (or the benefit of 

 their stock-holders, as much as for that ol" their 

 officers, directors, and the borrowing, speculating 

 and stock-jobbing classes in general. And who 

 are they who constitute the great body of stock- 

 holders? Not merchants, or bank directors, or 

 officers, or brokers, or stock-jobiiers. All these 

 have too much need of their money lor other 

 active business, yielding larger returns, to hold 

 much, if any, bank-stock, A few shares, merely 

 to make one eligible for the office of director, are 

 the most that any of these persons would care to 

 hold permanently. They all prefer to pursuade 

 and induce others, who have more spare money 

 and less information of the tricks and hazards 

 of the game, to hold the stock for their use and be- 

 nefit. Though some few rich capitalists are large 

 stcck-holders, more generally they belong to the 

 poorer than the richer portion of property owners. 

 The stock is bought (and generally "at prices 

 much advanced by the false pretences of stock- 

 jobbers) as permanent investments (or widows 

 and Iheir children— by fathers for their daugh- 

 ters, as a provision for I hem when left friendTess 

 orphans, and otherwise destitute— by patrons and 

 directors of charitable institutions, and designed 

 to support the already destitute and miserable— and 

 by numerous individuals of seamy means, to the 

 amount of their small accumulations ol earninfr?, 

 made by hard labor and strict li-ugality. These 

 are the different classes of people by wiiom, or for 



* Let not the ascription of a particular evil to the 

 number of different banlcs be constnird into an ex- 

 pression of preference for centralization, or the sys- 

 tem of one bank only, with branches. Under a pro- 

 per and honest system of free bankino;, such as will 

 be presented hereafter, several banks would certainly 

 be better than one only. But upon the present sys- 

 tem — which is almost as bad for thi stock-holders as for 

 the country, and profitable only to stockjobbers, bank 

 officers and sinecurists, baidc borrowers and' bank 

 thieves— it is truly stated, as above, thai the more 

 numerous the banks, the greater the waste and ex- 

 pense to the stock-holding interest ; and the less the 

 amount of profit of every kind that will fall to each 

 share of those who are entitled by law to the dividends. 



whose benefit or support much the greater part of 

 the bank stock is held, and (or whom the purchas(3 

 was made upon confidence that the then usual 

 profits of the stock would be permanent ; and under 

 the belief that the connexion with, and the guar- 

 dianship of, the government, and the high cha- 

 racter of the presidents and directors of the banks 

 olfeied an ample guaranty (or the faithlul care of 

 the pri)[)erty so invested. And the great losses, or 

 absolute ruin, of all these innocent and helpless 

 sufferers, which occurs whenever an expanded 

 banking system bursts, (as in late years and now,) 

 forms one of the most deplorable and afflicting of 

 all the unhappy and, sure results of the g'eneral 

 operation. Further — the numerous and wretch- 

 ed sufferers of th.s class have to bear twice as 

 much as the average loss upon the, stock. For 

 their purchases are invariably made in slocks of 

 the best established reputation, yielding, then and 

 long before, good and regular dividends ; and of 

 course the jjrice of such slock beinij at I he time much 

 above, par. Should the price, after the purchase, 

 rise 2J per cent, higher, these owners never 

 se|l for the advance, but cling still more anxiously 

 to what appears so valuable a property. It jg 

 only when the stock has fallen perhaps to one 

 half of what they bought at, and is yielding no 

 returns whatever, that these deceived and impo- 

 verished and suflering stockholders are (breed by 

 necessity to sell out, to avoid starvation, if that is 

 their all — or, if the possessors of other means, lor 

 (ear of entire loss of the value. Then the stock is 

 bought by those who rely lor its resuscitation on 

 the future and usual dishonest operation of the 

 system, and the support of it by the laws ; and 

 when, by such means, the price again rises, these 

 latter holders know that it is time to sell out to a 

 new race of other credulous dupes. Thus, the class 

 of poor and cheated stock-holders, not only lose in 

 proportion to their very large amount ol the 

 whole quantity of stock, but also they suflier the 

 utmost by depreciation of market prices. Thus 

 they bear, in common with the community, a (iill 

 share ol the cost of the system ; and the rich and 

 numerous prizes in the game are won by other 

 classes. Skillul stockjobbers receive the benefit 

 of the changes of prices of stock ; and Ihe paper 

 kings who direct or influence banks, and the bor- 

 rowers lor adventurous speculaiions, and the 

 bardirupt debtors, are they who have enjoyed 

 nearly all the profits, and thfe squandered booty of 

 the banks. 



But the most deluded, stupid, and heaviest 

 loser as a stockhoMer in Virginia, is the stale 

 ilsell--though deriving (apparently) so large a part 

 of its revenue from tlie profits of t)anking. To ob- 

 tain this benefit, the state exclusively bears all 

 the enormous expenses of legislation for banks, 

 and of that of administering justice for, or upon, 

 or because of the pioceedings of, banks. These 

 od'sets alone would take off a very large share, if 

 not ail the clear prcfils on the stale's stock. The 

 liirgreaier injury sustained by the commonwealth, 

 and the people at large, belongs to another part 

 ol the subject, and will be considered herealier. 



But it is full time to return from this digression, 

 and anticit)ation of results, to the banking system 

 where we left it, in the highest possible state of 

 prosperity, for iiseKj and apparently lor all ihe in- 

 terests of the country. 



