University Studies 



Vol. XII 



APRIL IQI2 



No. 2 



FINANCIAL LEGISLATION AND ITS LIMITATIONS 



BY W. G. LANGWORTHY TAYLOR 



NOTES AND DEPOSITS 



§ I. It may be assumed that the employment of credit had been 

 developed in society by the usage of business men, that an evolu- 

 tion in methods had taken place, reaching back into immemorial 

 time, which was intimately bound up with the increase in wealth, 

 in productive processes, in means of transportation and com- 

 munication, and in the markets. 



However, rulers have sought to regulate and monopolize not 

 only the money of communities but also their credit. It is a 

 noteworthy further proof of the absorbing position of credit in 

 the financial world, especially as compared with money, that, 

 notwithstanding the efiforts of governments to control the credit 

 system or to monopolize it for the selfish purpose of potentates 

 or of parties, they have been able to break down, destroy, or 

 assimilate and appropriate but a small part of the fiduciary 

 activity. In Oriental countries, it is true, enterprise is throttled 

 by taxation, which is the surest means to that end ; but in a nation 

 where the employment and recording of documentary promises 

 are well developed, the authorities are compelled to face the 

 problem of taxation in a spirit of scientific impartiality. The 

 highly developed credit system of the United States will force 

 that republic into scientific methods of taxation. 



Nevertheless, precisely through the channel of taxation, civil- 



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