"He [Turgot] now, in 1749, at the age of twenty two, wrote... a letter which has been an object of wonder among political thinkers ever since. Its subject was paper money. Discussing the ideas of John Law, and especially the essay of Terrasson which had supported them, he dissected them mercilessly, but in a way useful not only in those times but in these. ...Terrasson's arguments in behalf of unlimited issues of paper had been put forth in 1720. ...and he declared that the material used for bearing the sign of value is indifferent ...and that if a sovereign issues enough of paper promises, he will be able to loan or even to give money in unlimited amounts to his needy subjects. ...without danger of depreciation. ...Terrasson also made the distinction between the note of a business man and notes issued by a government, that the former comes back and must be paid, but that the latter need not come back and can be kept afloat forever by simple governmental command, thus becoming that blessed thing—worshiped widely, not many years since, in our own country—"fiat money.""
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Activists from the United StatesEducators from the United StatesHistorians from the United StatesUnited States Ambassadors to Russia and the Soviet UnionUnited States Ambassadors to Prussia and Germany
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
p. 168-169
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Andrew_Dickson_White
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Andrew Dickson White
Andrew Dickson White (November 7, 1832 – November 4, 1918) was an American diplomat, author, and educator who was the co-founder and first president of Cornell University.
32 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Andrew Dickson White →
Related Quotes
"My early years abroad were spent mainly upon the European Continent, and public duties since have led me to make prol…"
"Carlyle uttered a pregnant truth when he said that the history of any country is in the biographies of the men who ma…"
"While I have given references which will enable historical students to verify my statements and follow them further, …"
"A thoughtful historian tells us that, between the Middle Ages and the nineteenth century, Italy produced three great …"
"He [Paolo Sarpi] was one of the two foremost Italian statesmen since the Middle Ages, the other being Cavour."
"His [Sarpi's] career soon revealed another cause of his return; he evidently felt the same impulse which stirred his …"
"Of all tyrannies of unreason in the modern world, one holds a supremely evil preeminence. It covered the period from …"
"Into the very midst of all this welter of evil, at a point in time to all appearance hopeless, at a point in space ap…"
"He [Grotius] avoided another danger as serious as his precocity had been. He steered clear of the quicksands of usele…"
"My purpose in writing these essays has been to acquaint men who are interested in the bearings of modern history on p…"