The Tally Stick Gets Whacked

1694

England

After a series of wars with France and the Netherlands, England was in dire need of money and struck a deal with the International Bankers. England would charter a Government sanctioned, privately controlled, "Central Bank" that would print money out of nothing. It would be called the "Bank of England" to lead people to believe that it was a bank of "England", which it wasn't. The bank sold shares to "Private Investors" and the names of these investors was never disclosed. They were supposed to put up 1 1/4 Million British Pounds in gold coin, but only 750,000 Pounds was ever received.

The Bank of England was chartered and began loaning out several times more money than it had received, at interest (a.k.a. Fractional Reserve Banking). The first loan arranged by the bank was a 1,200,000 pound loan to the government. The Bank would loan the politicians as much money as they wanted, but they had to secure the debt by the "direct taxation" on the people. Soon there was an abundance of money and soon the price of things doubled. Loans were granted for just about anything. The government debt went from 1 1/4 Million pounds in 1694 to 16 Million pounds by 1698.

At its formation The Bank of England attacked the Tally Stick system because it was money outside the Banks power.

By the mid 1700's, the British governments debt to the Bank of England was 140,000,000 pounds, which was quite a bit. So, they looked to the colonies in America to "extract" the revenue necessary to pay the British governments debts to the Bank of England.

1707

England

The Charitable Corporation was founded to conduct pawnbroking on a large scale in England.

1716

France

John Law founds the Banque Generale in Paris.

1731

England

The Common Council of the City of London asked the Government to dissolve The Charitable Corporation. The corporations cashier and another official vanished with and undetermined amount of money. All that was known for certain was that only £30,000 of the original £600,000 was all that remained.

1738

England

Debtor Prisoners Song written by author unknown.

1743

Germany

Amshall Moses Bower opened a counting house in Frankfurt Germany. The sign hung over the door had a Roman eagle on a red shield prompting people to call his shop the Red Shield Firm pronounced in German as "Rothschild". His son later changed his name to Rothschild when he inherited the business.

1744

Italy, Rome

Scipio Maffei set off a debate with his three-volume defense of lending at interest, in which he suggested usury at moderate rates was not illicit, even if it was not charitable. This assertion was condemned by a papal encyclical, Vix Pervenit, in 1745.

1757

The Colonies (now known as the USA)

Benjamin Franklin went to London, during this time the colonies began to experiment with the issuance of their own currency, called "Colonial Script". This worked well. It was debt free and did not bear interest.

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