Mr. Manufacturer has just given us an instance where the same identical property worth only $10,000 in Lancashire, England, was sold five times, and that credits amounting to $88,000 were being granted, and a corresponding amount of debts were created. Now here is a case where my debt to that blasted lawyer acknowledged by my check, paid him $50; paid my neighbor for a Jersey cow $50; paid the country grocery store for groceries $50; paid Mr. Merchant for boots and shoes $50; paid Mr. Manufacturer for clothing $50; paid the bank on account of Mr. Manufacturer's debt $50; or six separate debts in all, amounting to $300. And the joke is, I never ought to have given the check at all. This is the reverse side of the use of credit. The instance given by Mr. Manufacturer was one illustrating the tremendous expansion of credit. The instance I have given is one of the contraction of credit.
MR. BANKER: Right on that point Mr. MacLeod says that sixty years ago almost the entire circulating medium of Lancashire, England, consisted of bills of exchange in no way different from Mr. Farmer's debt, and that they sometimes had as many as 115 indorsements upon them before they came to maturity. So that the useful effect of a bill of exchange is indicated by the number of indorsements upon it, supposing that every transfer is accompanied by an indorsement, which is not always the case. We see here the fundamental difference between bills of lading and bills of exchange, because the indorsements on the former denote the number of transfers of the same identical property; the indorsements on the latter denote the number of transfers of distinctly different property.
MR. MERCHANT: Mr. Banker, in every form of credit granted so far and debts created, we have certainly been dealing only in a legitimate way with consumable commodities, the necessities of life, and ordinarily, if not always, this kind of credit will take care of itself. And yet the marvelous facility and power of credit has been illustrated so vividly, that I am sure all of us appreciate it and can readily see how it might be abused and lead to disaster if not confined to the actual production of articles of food, clothing and daily use, or, in a word, to the production of the necessities of life.