Coins

Coins

I was recently watching the History channel, which ironically is something I never do.  (I am serious, it is never really about history is it?)  On an episode of Modern Marvels they were talking about money production in the United States.  Apparently Hamilton had wanted bank notes to be the main legal tender, while Jefferson wanted coinage.  Really quick, what do we usually use?  Sure we have coins for the smaller amounts, but come on, we use bills ... or bank notes.

Now, for many of you who know me, you know that I think Jefferson was lucky enough to be floating along with the right people.  If the British had won the revolution, it is pretty safe to say Jefferson would probably have survived just fine.  However, Hamilton was a republican to the hilt.  He realized that economic development could never reach its full potential under a strict state control.  So, he had a lot invested in the success of a republican-based federal government.

However, if you were going to put coin production under a particular cabinet who would you pick: the state department or the treasury department?  That's right: the state department.  Why?  I have no clue.  But we had coin production and the banks had decentralized bank note printing.¹  Eventually we switched over to bank notes and Hamilton's idea was implement almost three-quarters (no pun intended) of a century later.  Once again, the legacy of Jefferson haunted future generations.

What does all this mean for us today?  A centralized government is a necessity, not an impediment.  Government, as Russell Shorto would have it, is only one part of civilization just as the individual, religion, and business are.  If you do not view your life as made up of symbiotic composites, you will end up becoming a paranoid fool or at the whims of paranoid fools.  What causes this is quite simply fear.  Fear is purely emotional, but disguises itself as reason.  It is important to understand the aspects of our human experiment and not to fear them or rage against them.

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1. There were about 7,000 different bank notes circulating around the United States at this time.  Oh, and you didn't know if they were still viable in one place or another.