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Writing: A Remedy for the Country

A Remedy for the Country, § 35

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§ 35

Third, all loans, purchases, contracts or whatever transactions they may be that were initiated before 1757 and have not yet been settled, whether between the Bank and the Crown or either of these and private individuals, or else between private individuals themselves, ought to be examined and settled at a 36-mark rate, though in such a way that no cases that have already been settled may on any pretext whatsoever be reopened and disputed. But all later transactions which are still current should be honoured at the exchange rate that applied when they were entered into, and in order that no dispute or lawsuit concerning these may arise, all the rates of subsequent years should be reduced to an average for each year and be notified by an ordinance and prescribed as a basis for settlements in future years, which should in particular be observed in the case of all contracts for labour and loans that are still in force.

This will almost inevitably meet with strong opposition from some, but the matter is based entirely on the nature of a correct financial system. For if all commerce ought to be based on hard cash and it is precisely the exchange rate that denotes how much real value the agreed sum of daler represented at the time, then nothing is fairer than that each individual may benefit from the exchange rate when settling a transaction.

It can hardly be denied that some variation will occur in the payments due to this, and all speculation in order to gain by a rising or falling rate will at once become impossible, but should one abandon the whole game for the sake of a few inconveniences? The harm has been done. To remedy everything is impossible, but to leave it in its former disorder will be fatal to the body of the kingdom and to liberty. To fear some complications and thereby lose the security that is vital to all enterprises would be like allowing a ship that has sprung a leak to founder rather than face the trouble of pumping and attempting to save the passengers and crew.

In order to avoid many small payments, transactions entered into since 1757 amounting to less than 10,000 daler kmt could all be settled at an exchange rate established in the manner suggested under the first point.

 

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