CREDIT. 63 



LEGITIMATE CREDIT. 



All the questions connected with credit, the usury laws, etc., 

 may be forever set at rest by the establishment of Mutual Banks. 

 Whoever goes to the mutual bank, and offers real property in 

 pledge, may always obtain money; for the Mutual Bank can issue 

 money to any extent; and that money will always be good, since it 

 is all of it based on actual property, that may be sold under the 

 hammer. The interest will always be at a less rate than 1 per cent 

 per annum, since it covers, not the insurance of the money loaned, 

 there being no such insurance required, as the risk is 0; since it 

 covers, not the damage which is done the'bank by keeping it out of 

 its money, as that damage is also 0, the bank having always an un- 

 limited supply remaining on hand, so long as it has a printing-press 

 and paper; since it covers, plainly and simply, the mere expenses of 

 the institution— clerk-hire, rent, paper, printing, etc. And it is fair 

 that such expenses should be paid under the form of a rate of interest; 

 for thus each one contributes to bear the expenses of the bank, and 

 in the precise proportion of the benefits he individually experiences 

 from it. Thus the interest, properly so called, is 0; and we venture 

 to predict that the Mutual Bank will one day give all the real 

 credit that will be given; for since this bank will give such at per 

 cent interest per annum, it will be difficult for other institutions to 

 compete with it for any length of time. The day is coming when 

 everything that is bought will be paid for on the spot, and in mu- 

 tual money; when all payments will be made, all wages settled, on 

 the spot. The Mutual Bank will never, of course, give personal 

 credit; for it can issue bills only on real credit. It cannot enter 

 into partnership with anybody; for, if it issues bills where there is 

 no real guarantee furnished for their repayment, it vitiates the cur- 

 rency, and renders itself unstable. Personal credit will one day be 

 given by individuals only; that is, capitalists will one day enter 

 .into partnership with enterprising and capable men who are with- 

 out capital, and the profits will bo divided between the parties ac- 

 cording as their contract of partnership may run. Whoever, in the 

 times of the Mutual Bank, has property, will have money also; and 

 the laborer who has no property will find it very easy to get it; for 

 every capitalist will seek to secure him as a partner. All services 

 will then be paid for in ready money; and the demand for labor will 

 be increased three, four and five fold. 



As for credit of the kind that is idolized by the present genera- 

 tion, credit which organizes society on feudal principles, confused 

 credit, the Mutual Bank will obliterate it from the face of the 

 earth. Money furnished under the existing system to individuals 

 and corporations is principally a[)plied to speculative purposes, ad- 

 vantageous, perhaps, to those; individuals and corporations, if the 

 speculations answer; but generally disadvantageous to the com- 

 munity, whether they answer or whether they fail. If they answer, 

 they generally end in a monopoly of trade, great or small, and in 



