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  • From: Clansgian AT wmconnect.com
  • To: homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [Homestead] gold back currency anyone?
  • Date: Sun, 7 Dec 2008 11:02:07 EST



> >I'm still following the issue. It is not to be a 'regular' bank . They
> will take no currencies, only gold and silver. I just don't know if they
> can
> protect themselves from the U.S. gov't .

It is currently illegal to use gold as currency. When the 1933 exectutive
order prohibiting the private ownership of gold was partially lifted in the
1970's, only the provision for hold gold was removed. The prohibition
against
using gold as currency still stands.

The current economy cannot return to a gold standard for the simple reason
that there is not enough gold in existence to back up the outstanding
currency.
If you took all the extant gold and divided that into the countless trillions
of existing fiat currency, that would mean anyone with a high school class
ring would be a multi-millionaire.

Prior to the 1920's very few transactions took place using actual currency of
any kind. In settled communities people didn't so much directly barter but
rather kept ledgers with goods and services being rendered into a money
amount, although actual money was not used.

Herself has just finished reading the pubilication of the journala of a
midwife who lived in Maine from the 1750's to the 1830's. Some of the
journals are
in the form of half the page being everyday journal entries and the other
half being her ledgers. She got eight shillings for attending a birth. But
often as not the ledger reflected that the family "sold" a barrel of molasses
to
the merchant who transfered that asset to his debt to the fuller for some
prepared wool and the fuller transfered the asset to the saw mill her husband
ran
who gave the asset to his wife and she removed it from the books. No coin or
script ever changed hands.

When people had to "liquidate" a debt or asset, it was most often done in
molasses or rum or whiskey which could be stored for a long time and kept its
value.

The face of European economy and society was changed forever when the Spanish
brought back tons of gold and silver from the new world. Until then a
wealthy person owned many estates and would take his retinue to one estate
for a few
weeks to collect his due in the form of food, drink, care for his horses and
arms. Then he'd move on to the next in a seasonal cycle. There was not
other
way for him to collect his taxes because physical coin in large denominations
was rare. With the influx of New World gold, Europe when on a cash economic
basis.d

Trying to figure out what we are going to use as money is a lot like trying
to decide by what means we are going to power our cars ..... maybe the answer
is 'nothing'.


James




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