Payer Currency. 



the name of the Imperial Bank; its date corresponds to 1399 B. C; on 

 it is the number of its issue and a list of the penalties for forgery of 

 the notes, and it is authenticated by the signature of a mandarin. 

 Therefore, the issuing of paper money was, probably, original with the 

 Chinese. 



In the year 1294 the Persians had paper money, adopting the copy 

 set them by the Chinese. 



In the fourteenth century the Japanese thought they would try the 

 system. All of these issues of paper currency resulted in a disregard 

 of the good of the people, the loss of many official heads, and a dis- 

 continuance of the system for a time. But these serious lessons did 

 not prevent later rulers from adopting the same measures and suffer- 

 ing the same consequences. 



Inconvertible paper money has a fascination about it which is almost 

 resistless to those who wish to get something out of somebody with- 

 out giving an equivalent. Its history is a checkered one, and for our 

 purposes it is not desirable to wade through it all, because the advo- 

 cates of "fiat" money always argue that the times have changed and 

 that the dim past should not be referred to for rules for our guidance 

 in this matter at the present time. Therefore, let us pass over a con- 

 siderable period and renew our investigation when the world had be- 

 come wiser and administered the affairs of state in a more intelligent 



The history of France is rich in material for illustrating the effect 

 of inconvertible paper currency, and we will turn our attention to the 

 time when Louis XV, who was then but five years of age, ascended 

 the throne. The unscrupulous and dissolute Duke of Orleans, through 

 his influence and control of the Regency, reduced the public treasury 

 to the verge of bankruptcy. While the deplorable condition of the 

 country's finances was being discussed, a Scotch adventurer, by the 

 name of John Law, saw the opportunity to draw attention to himself 

 and make some money. He conceived the plan of issuing paper cur- 

 rency by the government, with a fictitious basis. At that time, France 

 ow ned, in North America, a tract of country, known as the Province 

 of Louisiana, which in 1S03 was bought by the United States of America 

 J* the sum of $15,000,000, and embraced all the country west of the 

 Mississippi not occupied by Spain, as far north as British territory, 

 and comprised the whole or most of the present States of Arkansas, 

 !ow a . Kansas, Louisiana, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Colorado 

 ^d Oregon, the Indian Territory, the Dakotaa, Idaho, Montana, 

 Washington and Wyoming 



