Weekly Pict.
"Now the first thing I think that we have to recognize - a thing which
is quite incontestable - is that there are only three classes of people
in the world who make money, in any literal sense of the word.
1. In Great Britain, for example, there is the Master of His Majesty's
Mint, who makes metal coinage, and, after a long and honourable career,
he generally gets a little bit of red ribbon - a Knight Commandership of
the Bath - and a good salary.
2. There is the gentleman ( scoundrel ) who sets up a little plant of his own and either makes counterfeit coins or writes very delicately executed signatures on pieces of special paper. He "makes" money, but he gets as a reward fifteen years imprisonment.
3. There is the third who, in regard to this matter, is much less advertised
and much more retiring, and that is the banker, and it is he, in the literal
sense of the word, who makes over 90 percent of the actual money that we
use.
When I say "makes it" I mean exactly what I am saying ; he makes it
in exactly the same sense that the brick maker makes bricks, and not in
the sense that Mr. Jones makes money ; Mr. Jones only gets it from somebody
else, but the banker makes it.
The method by which the banker makes money is ingenious, and consists
very largely of bookkeeping.
There is not, I think, in well informed circles really any discussion
in regard to the matter itself.
The "Encyclopedia Britannica" which most people accept as a fairly sound
and reputable authority, states that
"bankers create the means of payment out of nothing."
< Or nada. >
The Chairman of the Midland Bank, the Right Honourable Reginald McKenna,
( 1935 ) put the matter as shortly as I think it can be put when he said
that every bank loan creates a deposit , the repayment of every bank loan
destroys a deposit; the purchase of a security by a bank creates a deposit
and the sale of a security by a bank destroys a deposit.
There you have, in as short a compass as possible, a quite undeniable
statement of where money comes from.
All but 0.7 of one per cent. (or over 99 per cent.), in Great Britain
at any rate, of the money transactions - without which none of us under
modern conditions could exist - are in the form of "bank credit", which
is actually manufactured by the banking system and is claimed by the banking
system as its own property.
That is undeniably because the banking system lends this money (it
does not give it), a condition of affairs which will be accepted by anybody
as sufficient proof of a claim to ownership.
(1) Over against that, you have the manufacturer of real wealth,
by which I mean things which money will buy, < prints, > clothes, houses,
motor cars, the things that go to raise the physical standard of living,
and embroider our civilization.
We realize, I suppose, without having it emphasized too much, that
the possession of money is a claim upon real wealth : some of us
who have not gone into these matters for any length of time are still
hypnotized into thinking that money is real wealth. ( nada. )
I am sure, in an audience of this caliber, it is not necessary to emphasize
this : money is not real wealth." < Art prints are real
wealth. >
Nada Citizen: Treasurer
Art comes from nowhere. < nada. >
Artists make art.
Art is a perpetually renewable, environmentally friendly creative resource.
Art is a living thing that reflects and informs "real time" culture.
< no heritage moments please >
That is to say, art is alive now in the same way you are alive now.
We buy art because, like other real things, it is more valuable than
money.
We want artist to live well as an essential part of our culture.
Canadians regularly buy and sell art because it is part of their culture.
That is how they got to be so sophisticated about art matters.
Ask anyone.