4 / 32
4
Free issue of MICHAEL
www.michaeljournal.organt of the origin of money and
although they needed it, they
didn’t know how to produce it.
Certainly, many men of educa-
tion would have been in the same
boat; all our governments were
in the same predicament during
the ten years prior to the war. The
only thing the country lacked at
that time was money and the gov-
ernments apparently didn’t know
what to do to get it.
5. Arrival of a refugee
One evening, when our boys
were sitting on the beach going
over their problem for the hun-
dredth time, they suddenly saw
a small boat approaching with a
solitary man at the oars.
They learned that he was the
only survivor of a wreck. His name
was Oliver.
Delighted to have a new com-
panion, they provided him with
the best that they had and took
him on an inspection tour of the
colony.
“Even though we’re lost and
cut off from the rest of the world,”
they told him, “we haven’t too
much to complain about. The
earth and the forest are good
to us. We lack only one thing –
money. — to make it easier for us
to exchange our products.”
“Well, you can thank Provi-
dence,” replied Oliver, “because I
am a banker and in no time at all,
I’ll
set up a system of money guar-
anteed to satisfy you. Then you’ll
have everything that people in civil-
ization have.”
3. True wealth
H
ere are the men at work.
Each man worked at his own
trade. Whatever surpluses he
might have of his own produce,
he exchanged for the surplus
products of the others.
As season follows season
Salvation Island, the heritage of
the five men, became richer and
richer.
Its wealth was not that of gold
or of paper bank notes but one of
true value; a wealth of food and
clothing and shelter, of all the
things to meet human needs.
Life wasn’t always as smooth
and complete as they would have
wished it to be. They lacked many
of the things to which they had
been accustomed in civilization,
but their lot could have been a
great deal worse.
Besides, all had experienced
the depression in Canada. They
still remembered the empty bel-
lies of people standing outside
stores crammed with food.
At least, on Salvation Island,
they weren’t forced to watch the
things they needed rot before
their eyes. Taxes were unknown
here. Nor were they in constant
fear of property seizure by the
bailiff. They worked hard but at
least they could enjoy the fruits of
their toil.
So, still in possession of life
and health, those two greatest
of blessings. they continued de-
veloping the island, thanking God
and hoping for some day reunion
with their families
4. A serious inconvenience
The men often got together to
talk over their affairs.
Under the simple economic
system which had developed,
one thing was beginning to both-
er them more and more; they had
no form of money. Barter, the dir-
ect exchange of goods for goods,
had its drawbacks. The products
to be exchanged were not always
at hand when a trade was dis-
cussed. For example, wood deliv-
ered to the farmer in winter could
not be paid for in potatoes until
six months later.
Sometimes one man had an
article of considerable size which
he wished to exchange for a num-
ber of smaller articles produced
by different men at different times.
All this complicated business
and laid a heavy burden on the
memory. With a monetary sys-
tem, however, each one could
sell his products to the others for
money. With this money he could
buy from the others the things he
wanted when he wished and also
when they were available.
It was agreed that a system
of money would indeed be very
convenient. But none of them
knew how to set up such a sys-
tem. They knew how to produce
true wealth – goods. But how to
produce money, the symbol of
this wealth, was something quite
beyond them. They were ignor-
u