“It’s all very simple,” Grant explained. “I am providing the capital to start a few families on farms. Instead of lending the money directly to them I am financing a company in which each farmer must subscribe for stock to the value of the land he is to occupy. His stock he will pay for with a part of the proceeds of each year’s crop, until it is paid in full, when he becomes a paid-up shareholder, subject to no further call except a levy which may be made for running expenses.”
“And then your advances are returned to you with interest,” Squiggs suggested. “A very creditable plan of benefaction; very creditable, indeed.”
“No, that is not the idea. In the first place, I am accepting no interest on my advances, and in the second place the money, when repaid by the shareholders, will not be returned to me, but will be used to establish another colony on the same basis, and so on—the movement will be extended from group to group.”
Mr. Squiggs readjusted his large round tortoise-shell glasses.
“Do I understand that you are charging no interest?”
“Not a cent.”
“Then where do YOU come in?”
“I had hoped to make it clear that I am not seeking to ‘come in.’ You see, the money I am doing this with is not really mine at all.”
“Not yours?” cried a chorus of voices.
“No. Mr. Squiggs, you are a lawyer, and therefore a man of perspicuity and accurate definitions. What is money?”