The house of Industry : a new estate of the realm

CHAPTER XI A NOTE ON CREDIT

TuHat the House of Industry must control credit is so obvious that I might leave it there.

Let us, however, nibble at a tiny slice of innocent history.

It happened that many years ago I lived ina small British Colony, an outpost of Empire, as we proudly called it. Our products were mahogany, chiclé (from which chewing gum is made), bananas and cocoanuts. A population all told of about 40,000.

We were neither prosperous nor povertystricken. Our churches, I regret to say, were almost entirely monopolised by the coloured people. There were few adventurers, no stockbrokers nor financial touts nor money-lenders. Anon, a quiet American joined our community. With a few thousand dollars and doubtless some credit, he opened a Bank. Being honest, considerate and trustworthy, the good Colonists very soon trusted him and transferred the contents of their stockings to the Bank. Oddly enough, everybody felt a greater sense of security and importance with this Bank established amongst them. Gradually, a habit or system of credit

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