Re: [Pen-l] the era of free banking

[Michael Perelman <michael@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Peyton, John L. 1869. Over the Alleghenies; extracted in Warren S. Tryon, 
ed. A Mirror for Americans, 3 vols. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 
1952): III, pp. 589-607. 
  605: Visiting Chicago in 1848, Peyton objects to taking wildcat notes 
from an obscure Atlanta bank.  The hotelkeeper responds, is discussing 
notes: "Why, sir, ... this hotel was built with that kind of stuff ....  I 
will take "wild cats" for your bill, my butcher takes them of me, and the 
farmer from him, and so we go, making it pleasant all around.  I only take 
care ... to invest what I may have at the end of a given time in corner 
lots ....  On this kind of worthless currency, based on Mr. Smith's [the 
issuer's] supposed wealth and our wants, we are creating a great city, 
building up all kind of industrial establishments, and covering the lake 
with vessels -- so that suffer who may when the inevitable hour of 
reckoning arrives, the country will be the gainer, Jack Rossiter [the 
speaker] will try, when this day of reckoning comes, to have "clean hands" 
and a fair record ....  A man who meddles, my dear sir, with wild-cat banks 
is on a slippery spot, and that spot the edge of a precipice." 



-- 
Michael Perelman
Economics Department
California State University
Chico, CA 95929

Tel. 530-898-5321
E-Mail michael at ecst.csuchico.edu
michaelperelman.wordpress.com
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