Thread by @Hamiltonianist

#NowReading History of Monetary Systems by Alexander del Mar

#OldBookClub

“In the great states of antiquity money was a pillar of the constitution. In the republics of Greece and Rome it was a social instrument, designed, limited, stamped, issued, and made current by the State,—in short, invented, owned, and regulated by the State.”

Alexander del Mar

Alexander del Mar

Alexander del Mar

Alexander del Mar

“Upon [Roman coins] were stamped the story of its miraculous origin, the images of its gods, demi-gods and heroes, the symbols of its religion, the spirit of its laws, and the dates of its most glorious achievements. All these now threatened to disappear in the melting-pot.”

“[M]onuments had come to be regarded only as so much bullion, and every provincial governor or barbarian king would be tempted to reduce them to metal, in order that, upon recoining them, his own upstart image might shine in the glass that had once reflected a Romulus, a Caesar”

Alexander del Mar

Alexander del Mar

The Pine Tree shilling 🌲

Alexander del Mar

Alexander del Mar

Alexander del Mar

Alexander del Mar

“The supreme right of coinage, which previously was always wielded and but rarely abused by the Basileus, was now both exercised and abused by every petty prince in Europe.”

Alexander Del Mar

“Thousands of millions of worthless notes have been issued, and the entire products of industry have been seized and perverted to the enrichment of a class, who know only how to scheme, to undermine, and to appropriate the earnings of mankind.”

Alexander del Mar

“Writing in 1776, Adam Smith was at great pains to inform us what a strong institution was the ‘burghers,’ Bank of Amsterdam… In 1790, [when] the French again invaded Holland, they found the bank empty and insolvent.”

Alexander del Mar

Alexander del Mar

Alexander del Mar

Alexander Del Mar writing in 1895