TABLE OF CONTENTS

PAGE
[FIRST NIGHT.] The Standard of Value[7]
[SECOND NIGHT.] What Is Money?[26]
[THIRD NIGHT.] What Is Currency?[46]
[FOURTH NIGHT.] Bank Credit Currency[62]
[FIFTH NIGHT.] What Is Exchange?[84]
[SIXTH NIGHT.] Value, Price, Wealth, Property, Credit[101]
[SEVENTH NIGHT.] Commercial Credit, Land Credit, Government Credit[118]
[EIGHTH NIGHT.] Colonial Credit Money[144]
[NINTH NIGHT.] United States Notes or Greenbacks[173]
[TENTH NIGHT.] Reserves[195]
[ELEVENTH NIGHT.] The Bank[224]
[TWELFTH NIGHT. ]Land Credit Bank[248]
[THIRTEENTH NIGHT.] The Clearing House[289]
[FOURTEENTH NIGHT.] Banking in 1860[340]
[FIFTEENTH NIGHT.] Outline of Bill[368]
[SIXTEENTH NIGHT.] Draft of Bill[405]
[SEVENTEENTH NIGHT.] Aldrich Plan and Plot Exposed[459]

[FIRST NIGHT]

THE STANDARD OF VALUE

Uncle Sam: Gentlemen, I have invited you to take part in one conversation a week upon the much-vexed and all-important question of a financial and banking system for my country. We shall continue these conversations until we arrive at some conclusion which will be satisfactory to all of us, although this may seem difficult at the outset.

To begin with, I want to assure you that our talks shall be absolutely confidential, and nothing that is said at these meetings shall ever go any farther, unless we agree to announce our conclusion. With this understanding we can be brutally frank with each other, and I can expose my hand to you.

The present situation is one demanding immediate attention, and only our ignorance, greed or political cowardice can prevent us from arriving at a satisfactory solution of this problem. We must be sincere and patriotic in our purpose, for we represent practically every phase of our citizenship, and I assume you are typical of the average intelligence of the people.