Capital, however capital may be defined, would practically cease to exist as an income producing fund, for the simple reason that if money, wherewith to buy capital, could be obtained for one-half of one per cent, capital itself could command no higher price.
There is no word more generally misinterpreted than the word egoism, in its modern sense.
But egoism is more than this. It is the realization by the individual that he is above all institutions and all formulas; that they exist only so far as he chooses to make them his own by accepting them.
In brief, egoism in its modern interpretation, is the antithesis, not of altruism, but of idealism.
At present, financial crises occur, chiefly because the paper currency is redeemable in gold only.
Large sums were paid for the use of money, because the available amount of gold and silver was far less than was needed to carry on the commercial transactions of the times.
Not an old woman that buys a paper of pins, without yielding a part of the price to the banks as interest!
Paper currency has hitherto been regarded with suspicion, as insecure.
When not only gold but all commodities are available for the redemption of the paper currency, its volume is limited only by the value of all the wealth of the country, and it can never become insecure up to this limit.
It was the king's army, the king's people, the king's taxes; and he who questioned the propriety of the royal prerogative of taking from his people without return or accounting, was reckoned, and felt himself to be, a criminal, guilty of the highest crime of disloyalty.
