First Extract from the book:
MONEY
BY JAMES PLATT
1880
 
PREFACE.

Und es herrscht der Erde Gott, das Geld.
"And it rules as God of the world - Money" - Schiller.

Money is an attractive title - a subject every man is interested in;
and my object is to bring clearly before your mind how largely the
success of English trade depends upon the currency laws, in rela-
tion to our system of banking, that being the recognized medium
for supplying borrowed capital, the life-blood upon which our large
trade depends ; and I hope to awaken within you a desire to under-
stand this subject better than heretofore. That it is no easy task
to rouse men of business to think, and that they cling most tena-
ciously to old customs, I am well aware; but the present times
will compel them to hesitate, and ponder as to how trade is to
be got and business is to be done; whereas hitherto they have
let daily affairs float before them, content to seize hold of what
they could as it passed them by, so long as they felt satisfied that
the system in operation would last their time. It is this supine-
ness, this ignorance of the delicacy and refinement of our banking
and monetary system, that the future of commerce has so much
to dread.

The power of money is immense, the benefit of our banking
system to traders only known to those who use it ; but it must be
remembered that in exact proportion to the power of the system is
its delicacy. This extreme sensitiveness causes our periodical
panics. The amount of money held by bankers on short notice or
on demand is enormous; money that the owners could all ask for,
money that in a panic many do ask for ; and then it is perceived in
what danger our industrial system, and the banking system upon
which it depends, really are. Money will not manage itself. Our
bankers have a large sum of money to manage ; the task is not an
easy one. The principle of our currency law, is right; but in 1844,
when started, there was nothing like the commerce or the deposit
and banking business that now exists, and the time has come when
it is imperative upon us to examine the system on which the great
masses of money are manipulated, and we must have the will and
courage to go to the root of the subject. No labour ought to daunt
us, no prejudice should hinder us, no alarm at the convictions our
inquiries may draw us to should make us recoil from their conclusions,
as upon our commercial system our existence as a nation depends,
and to maintain that commercial supremacy we must be sure that
our currency system is not only safe and right, but the useful tool it
should be, might be, would be, if we thoroughly grasped the subject.

Money, how few understand it; and although all are so eager
for it, yet how few know how to use it wisely, or understand what
money is, its nature and qualities ; how powerful a small amount
of it is if judiciously used; how impotent, useless, worse than
useless, to its possessor, if he does not understand its nature, and
how to use the power in his hand. Adam Smith clearly demonstrated
that labour is the one and only original source of the wealth of
nations ; but we still want a writer of equal calibre to clearly demon-
strate to the people that the causes of, and remedies for, the distress
and misery we are subjected to as a commercial nation from periodic
"panics," arise from the people's ignorance of "money," what it can
and what it cannot do, and its function as a medium of exchange.
" Money," in its various forms of credit, bank notes, bills, cheques,
is an enigma to the mass. To supply this information, so as to enable
the people to comprehend business, and how to make money morally,
would be one of the greatest and most beneficial reforms ever achieved.

To men I say, be more earnest; never pass by a golden
moment; for "Fortune, the one goddess we all so strive to catch,
turns a bald head to those to whom she has once presented her
locks in front, and who have hesitated, and not taken hold."
‘Why wilt thou defer thy good purpose from day to day? Arise, and begin
in this very instant, and say, Now is the time for doing, now is the
time for striving, now is the fit time to amend myself'

Thomas A' Kempis.
The essential point is to arouse greater earnestness, and a desire
to begin at once; delay makes the danger. Now is the time for
action! Be prompt; whatever is important enough to be necessary
to be done ought to be done at once, and so got out of hand with
as much dispatch as possible. The success of nearly all great men,
in every trade or profession, may be traced to a spirit of prompti-
tude ; they put into practice the maxims the instincts of earnest
men have bequeathed to us : "Never put off till to-morrow what can
be done to-day," "Strike while the iron is hot," ''Make hay while
the sun shines," ''Hesitancy and loitering destroy earnestness."
To succeed, you must have decision of character, be able to decide
promptly, and be ever in advance of your opponents, comprehending
and satisfying the wants of the times and age you live in.

The importance of a knowledge of what "money" is, is best
illustrated by the case of Ovebend, Gubney and Co. Within ten
years, to descend from the highest pinnacle, standing next to the
Bank of England in London - no English firm so well known
abroad; yet, by reckless misuse of the immense wealth they had in
their hands, in six years they lost all their own and other people's
money - a result solely attributable and traceable to their incapacity
for, and ignorance of, the duties of their position ; a result inevit-
able again, as also in similar cases to the City of Glasgow Bank,
unless the people generally better understand what money is. Do
not be alarmed. I am no rash innovator, do not want to proceed too
fast, the last man to urge any change in so delicate a subject as
"currency," but quite satisfied that the time has come when
" Business," " Money," and kindred subjects must form part of
every Englishman's education, and also convinced that if taken up
at the right time, the subjects are of such interest that all would be
eager to understand them. I ask for the earnest co-operation alike
from the Pulpit, Platform, and School Board, to urge upon the
people the importance for the future well-being of the nation, that
all Enghsh youths be taught such subjects, and so, step by step, we
may make men more thoughtful, better men of business by their actions,
the result of study and reflection. The end may be a long way off,
but it is of the greatest importance that a beginning be made. Do not
expect too much at first ; carefully test every step as you advance,
make every foothold sure ; sustained under all difficulties with the
conviction that every step onward, upward, must be, will be, of
benefit to mankind.

It is surprising how few people in this commercial metropolis devote
their leisure time to the study of works on money, banking, finance,
etc; to literature so calculated to give them correct principles upon
which to guide their actions and enlarge their mental views, by
enabling them to get or take more comprehensive ideas on a matter
that comes under their daily notice ; such books being useful not
only from the information they impart, but from the impressions
they produce and the suggestions they prompt to the mind from the
recollections they awaken when one has to decide the acts of one's
daily life. Decision is a most essential quality, and ' the want of it
may be attributed to one's ignorance of the subject one has to give a
decision upon. Everyman needs to be reminded of the importance of
a steady adherence to sound principles. Books upon the subject we are
engaged upon, by men who have thought and written thereon, act as
a safety valve, and keep more particularly those whose time is fully
occupied, business men, from going astray ; such books strengthen, as
it were, the impression in the mind of the necessity of firmness, and
the wisdom of being guided in our conduct by a fixed line of action,
and cause our life to be guided by knowledge instead of by caprice.
It may be taken as an axiom that the more frequently the right path
is pointed out to us the less likely are we to wander into those which
are forbidden. We all err, and deviate more or less from the laws
alike of God and man. My object will be achieved if I can get
you to think that for every such error we have to pay the penalty -
that as we sow so shall we reap ; and to stimulate into activity your
better resolves ; by rousing your self-respect, to be better men ; not
to be disheartened by the past ; but, feeling that you have paid the
penalties the laws of God and man exact, you will begin afresh and
manifest your repentance by your higher aims and earnest strenuous
efforts ; and to believe that God will be satisfied by the motives that
control and guide your daily acts. There is good in the worst
creature that ever lived, if the right means be adopted to bring it 
out ; no one is lost whilst there lingers within him any sense of
shame.

" The little I have seen of the world teaches me to look upon the
errors of others in sorrow, not in anger. When I take up the history
of one heart that has sinned and suffered, and represent to myself
the struggle and temptation it has passed through, the brief pulsa-
tions of joy, the feverish inquietude of hope and fear, the pressure
of want, the desertion of friends, I would fain leave the soul of my
fellow-man with Him from whose hand it came." - Longfellow.

When we think of men's conduct in the pursuit of wealth, we need
have present to our mind the sublime charity embodied in the above
words, and to ask ourselves. Was money made for man, or man to make
money ? Can we sincerely believe that the lower was intended to rule
over the higher faculties of man's nature ? Is not the present life of the
majority of us cursed by an abuse of the lower, instead of being
blessed by the intelligent use of the higher faculties ? And can we
believe seriously that it is not possible, by earnest effort, to attain a
purer aim in life, by developing the better impulses of our nature,
and using faithfully and truly the nobler part of us ; so that life
might become to us a real wholesome pleasure - the substance,
instead of the shadowy substitute supplied by a social position
founded on wealth only, and the hollow happiness based upon
external show and glitter ?

I agree with Goethe," But let a man thoroughly realize what he
is, and he will soon rise to be what he should be." What is wanted
is to make men more familiar with the best types of humanity;
and greater effort to be made to exalt their conception of human
nature. If they cannot all be great, they may be better than they
are, and at the very least it is open to all men to. be good and
truthful, and faithful to duty, doing their work here intelligently,
honestly, and thoroughly.
“The best of every man's performance here
Is to discharge the duties of his sphere."

Cowper.