Our Economic Revolution

"The Refusal of George III to allow the colonies to operate an honest money system, which freed the ordinary man from the clutches of the money manipulators was probably the PRIME CAUSE OF THE REVOLUTION."

-Benjamin Franklin, American Revolutionary

in 1763, stunned by the exploding wealth of the British Empire's New World colonies, the administrators of the Bank of England, the true Monarch's of Britain, summoned the American diplomat Benjamin Franklin. Asked how the colonies had achieved such unprecedented economic success, Franklin answered:

"That is simple. In the Colonies we issue our own money.
It is called Colonial Scrip. We issue it in proper proportion
to the demands of trade and industry to make the products
pass easily from the producers to the consumers. In this manner,
creating for ourselves our own paper money, we control its
purchasing power, and we have no interest to pay no one."

The idea of this wealth escaping the taxation of the Crown and its coffers, became too much for the Empire to bear. Colonial Scrip was a truly revolutionary idea. It escaped the practice of usury that central banks had employed to usurp the sovereignty of European powers. In printing currency for the benefit of its citizenry, and guaranteeing that currency through the government itself, as opposed to guaranteeing it based on banking debt, the colonial governments were able to manage their economies independently for the public benefit, and the economies of the American colonies experienced wide-spread wealth unparalleled by their contemporary European societies.

Franklin himself oversaw the government program that issued Pennsylvania Scrip. Below is an example of Pennsylvania's Five Pound note, printed under the Auspices of Franklin and his business partner David Hall in 1760. (David Hall served in Delaware's Colonial Assembly from 1753 until the Revolution. His son David Hall Jr. fought in the Revolutionary War before becoming Governor of Delaware in 1802.)

These notes were printed by the government, six to sheet, 49,500 Pennsylvania Pounds in all. These were printed, debt free, and could be carefully disseminated to prevent the effects of inflation while fulfilling the financial needs of a sustainably growing economy. While the implementation of Colonial Scrip was imperfect, and the practice was swiftly crushed thoroughly by the Empire, this was the key to our revolution. Our wealth would parallel our abilities. Our intellect would become our primary resource. We were a nation with the potential to be free at last from the vestiges of European tribalism. A nation state to embody the Age of Reason. A Democracy with aspirations of a government for the people, by the people.

This money WAS the revolution. America had escaped the banks. Money, had escaped its archaic framework in notes issued by goldsmiths. Fractional Reserve Lending had led to a theoretical framework that enabled currency to be divorced from material standards, and developed currency into a utility to be employed by governments for internal and external relations. America, if not financially dependent, would inevitable become politically independent.

The American Nation was built on Revolutionary Ideas. Chief among these was liberty from tyrants, political and economic. The Bank of England was as perverse and tyrannical as George III. When the Government is in Debt to a Bank, that Bank is in Control of the Government.

Our Founding Fathers learned this lesson the Hard Way. America was born to free its people from control of the banks. The American dream was sold in the 50's as home ownership, and in a way, this is the true essence of the American dream. Our National Debt, owed to our Central Bank the Federal Reserve, means that what we in America call public, is not in fact public, but owned by our private bankers. Ownership of property is meaningless in a mortgaged country. The American dream is freedom and independence, not National Debt.

We have to reassert our control of our country's economy. To do this adequately, we should examine our history. Apocalypse Rex will begin its coverage of this global financial calamity, by remembering the words of America's founding fathers. The philosophy that crafted our nation state remains the grandest on Earth, and by returning to our nation's greatest political and economic philosophers, we can contextualize and begin to address the crisis facing both America and the World.

Next the wisdom of Thomas Jefferson...