The bank bills which you see lying about, and which
look a little like money, are not only not money in the sense Seneca
understood the term, but they do not represent over a third of what
the bank owes to various people. You go to some safe-deposit vaults,
thinking that it is perhaps there he keeps his valuables, but all
you find is a mass of papers signed by Thomas Smith or John Jones,
declaring that he is entitled to so many shares of some far-off
bank, or that some railroad will pay him a certain sum some thirty
years hence. In fact, looked at with Roman eyes, our millionaire
seems to be possessed of little or nothing, and likely to be puzzled
about his daily bread.
Now, this wonderful change in the character and incidents of
property may be said to be the work of the last century, and it may
be said to consist in the substitution of an agency wholly moral for
an agency wholly material in the work of exchange and distribution.
For the giving and receiving of gold and silver we have substituted
neither more nor less than faith in the honesty and industry and
capacity of our fellow-men.
Pages:
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106