G. Edward Griffin: Loaves and Fishes and Civil War

This is the eighteenth installment in a series of chapter summaries from G. Edward Griffin’s must-read book The Creature From Jekyll Island. This book may be the most important “red pill” available and we highly recommend that you read the full book. Buy it today at RealityZone.

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G. Edward Griffin
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Chapter 18 Summary: Loaves and Fishes and Civil War

The Second Bank of the United States was dead, but banking was very much alive. Many of the old problems continued, and new ones arrived. The issuance of banknotes had been severely limited, but that was largely offset by the increasing use of checkbook money, which had no limits at all on its issue.

When The Second Bank of the U.S. slipped into history, the nation was nearing the end of the boom phase of a boom/bust cycle. When the inevitable contraction of the money supply came, politicians began to offer proposals on how to infuse stability into the banking system. None dealt with the real problem, which was fractional-reserve banking itself. They concentrated instead on proposals on how to make it work. All of these proposals were tried and they failed.

These years are sometimes described as a period of free banking, which is an insult to the truth. All that happened was that banks were converted from corporations to private associations, a change in form, not substance. They continued to be burdened by government controls, regulations, supports, and other blocks against the free market.

The economic chaos and conflict of this period was a major cause of the Civil War. Lincoln made it clear during his public speeches that slavery was not the issue. The basic problem was that North and South were dependent on each other for trade. The industrialized North sold its products to the South which sold its cotton to the North. The South also had a similar trade with Europe, and that was an annoyance to the North. Europe was selling many products at lower prices, and the North was losing market share. Northern politicians passed protectionist legislation putting import duties on industrial products. This all but stopped the importation of European goods and forced the South to buy from the North at higher prices. Europe retaliated by curtailing the purchase of American cotton. That hurt the south even more. It was a classic case of legalized plunder, and the South wanted out.

Meanwhile, there were powerful forces in Europe that wanted to see America embroiled in civil war. If she could be split into two hostile countries, there would be less obstacle to European expansion on the North American continent. France was eager to capture Mexico and graft it onto a new empire which would include many of the Southern states as well. England, on the other hand, had military forces poised along the Canadian border ready for action. Political agitators, funded and organized from Europe, were active on both sides of the Mason-Dixon line. The issue of slavery was but a ploy. America had become the target in a ruthless game of world economics and politics.

Get the book for yourself or for others you want to wake up. It reads like a mystery novel and is filled with colorful metaphors that make the seemingly complex world of banking very easy to comprehend. Visit RealityZone for your copy today. Summary is re-printed with permission from G. Edward Griffin.

See other parts below:
PART 1: The Journey to Jekyll Island
PART 2: The Name of the Game is Bailout
PART 3: Protectors of the Public
PART 4: Home, Sweet Loan
PART 5: Nearer to the Heart’s Desire
PART 6: Building the New World Order
PART 7: The Barbaric Metal
PART 8: Fool’s Gold
PART 9: The Secret Science
PART 10: The Mandrake Mechanism
PART 11: The Rothschild Formula
PART 12: Sink the Lusitania!
PART 13: Masquerade in Moscow
PART 14: The Best Enemy Money Can Buy
PART 15: The Lost Treasure Map
PART 16: The Creature Comes to America
PART 17: A Den of Vipers