We’ve been so busy here that we haven’t been able to announce the new books uploaded on literature, fully bookmarked and free.
A Treatise on Currency and Banking, by Condy Raguet (1889)
With such advantages resulting from the use of credit, so palpable and so well known to every body, it is not extraordinary that the “credit system” should be so much extolled. It is indeed a great moral power, without the employment of which our country could never in so short a period of time have attained to its present advanced state of wealth and prosperity. Whilst seeing and acknowledging, however, this important truth, we must not lose sight of another truth equally important, which is, that nothing but capital, that is, something which possesses an intrinsic value, can possibly be the means of enabling the person who obtains it on credit to produce a new commodity or a new value, and we must be particularly careful to remember that the credit system thus extolled, is not the banking system, as some would endeavor to inculcate in their speeches and writings.
See especially page 155 for his discussion of banks that extend loads when there is no specie backing:
Speculation, over trading, and extravagance, are all multiplied, as every new addition of the currency appears to augment what people suppose to be the mass of wealth. More especially is such a state of the currency apt to inflict misery and ruin upon the landholders throughout the country, who, by a rise in the paper money price of land, which they fancy to be a real rise in value, are induced to make purchases, upon credit, by giving mortgages payable at a future day…
Next, A Treatise on Political Economy, by Destutt de Tracy (1817)
All these bankers, exchangers, agents, lenders, discounters, at least the richest and most accredited amongst them, have a strong tendency to unite themselves into large companies… Government, on their part, are much disposed to favor the establishment of these large companies, and to give them privileges to the detriment of their rivals, and of the public, with the expectation of receiving from them loans, either gratuitous or at a low rate which these never refuse. It is thus that the one sells its protection and the other buys it; and this is already a very great evil.
Next, The Critics of Keynesian Economics, edited by Henry Hazlitt, with essays by Say, Mill, Viner, Knight, Hayek, Modigliani, Anderson, Cortney, Garrett, Hahn, Hutt, Mises, Palyi, and many others.
And The Clash of Group Interests, which is already in HTML here and which includes this comment that caught my eye.
It is a sad fact that most of our contemporaries are not familiar with economics. All the great issues of present-day political controversies are economic. Even if we were to leave out of account the fundamental problem of capitalism and socialism, we must realize that the topics daily discussed on the political scene can be understood only by means of economic reasoning. But people, even the civic leaders, politicians, and editors, shun any serious occupation with economic studies. They are proud of their ignorance. They are afraid that a familiarity with economics might interfere with the naive self-confidence and complacency with which they repeat slogans picked up by the way.
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Good books. I think it is good to get these out in the current economic structure because I don’t think people really get that when you get down to the fundamentals, it’s the banking system that is the problem.
Thank mises.org!
Highly appreciated.
I have a copy of “The Critics of Keynesian Economics” and I thought I’d chime in here real quick with a brief recommendation of the Etienne Mantoux and Joseph Stagg Lawrence entries. Both were gifted writers and I think your readers will be terrifically impressed with their contributions. Mantoux was a casualty of World War II, quite young. In regards to the maturity of his writing, he echoes another young French writer with remarkable clarity, De la Botie, of course.
Probably the best Half-Priced Books score I’ve come up with in my time.
The only thing better than reading great literature is reading EVEN MORE great literature.
I’m eternally grateful to mises.org already, but I would be even more grateful if “Economics in One Lesson” could be made available online.
Hi Will,
You will find a HTML version of Economics in One Lesson here:
http://jim.com/econ/
Anbu
We would like to put it up too but a deep pocketed claimant asserts proprietary rights.
Good stuff, especially Hazlitt and Tracy. Any plans to have these in print this year?
Have you considered sending these historical works to Google Books? When citing a small portion of a book, it isn’t very practical to link to the full PDF.
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