David Astle's "The Babylonian Woe" is the finest book on the
history of money in antiquity that I've ever read. In this scholarly
work, he has presented to the world a history of the effects of
monetary mechanics in very ancient times. It illustrates how, even in
the earliest times of which written record remains, the days of
Babylonia or before, a so-called monetary science undoubtedly existed;
being then, as in today, never more than as instrument by which its
secret and cynical controllers wittingly influenced the destinies of
individuals, nations, and empires as to (temporary) glory or final
disaster.
This important and well-documented work is a most useful reference
book; complementing any study of Economic or Monetary history. It will
be a great asset to learned societies, top management, and self-
teaching individuals in all parts of the world.
In his preface, Mr. Astle wrote:
"In almost all of books of reference on the history of money was
practically no clear approach to the subject of money and finance, or
to those exchange systems that must have existed in order that the so-
called civilizations might come to be. In the odd case where the
translations of the texts might reveal some key clue, no more special
emphasis was placed herein than might have been placed on the mention
of a gold cup, a ring, a seal, or some exquisite piece of stone work.
In almost all of the works of the great archaeologists and
scholars specializing in the ancient civilizations, there is a virtual
silence on that all important matter, the system of distribution of
food surpluses, and surpluses of all those items needed towards the
maintenance of a good and continuing life so far as were required by
climate and customs.
On the all important subject of the consequences of the creation
and issuance of money by private persons as opposed to its creation
and issuance according to the will of a benevolent, instructed and
dedicated ruler, almost no speculation seems to exist in ancient or in
modern times.
JCT: The situation is just as if future historians, upon studying
today's economy, found that there were no "economics" textbooks
explaining how banking worked. Considering how many such textbooks
there are, they would also find it quite mystifying.
I will be studying his book in conjunction with Professor's
Carroll Quigley's book "Tragedy and Hope where he mentions what he
calls "unorthodox" financial methods as opposed to "orthodox"
financial methods. They can be be distinguished by the fact that
"orthodox" finance has governments allowing banks to create the money
and then borrowing that money from them at interest to create massive
growth of public debt whereas "unorthodox" finance has government
Treasuries create the money and borrowing that money from the Treasury
without interest to create a stable debt where all payments go against
the principal.
In anticipation of a major improvement on the current unsafe
engineering design of money, I will be arguing that the unorthodox
financial methods we will be studying are better than the orthodox
financial methods that now are enslaving all the planet's nations to
insurmountable debt.
