George Washington: Cash Ruins Commerce
on Tuesday, August 19, 2014George Washington Money Quotation saying his concerns over effects of paper money ruining business via fraud. George Washington said:
“Paper money has had the effect in your state that it will ever have, to ruin commerce, oppress the honest, and open the door to every species of fraud and injustice” — George Washington
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In this quote, George Washington is expressing strong skepticism about paper money and fiat currency not backed by precious metals like gold or silver.
His interpretation is that the use of paper money will inevitably lead economies to be “ruined”, with honest merchants and traders being unfairly burdened (“oppressed”), while at the same time enabling widespread corruption, deception and inequity (“every species of fraud and injustice”).
Washington seems to believe that removing the gold/silver standard behind a currency leaves it open to abuse and negative economic effects.
The overall message is one of Washington viewing paper money systems as prone to distorting commerce in harmful ways and benefiting the dishonest at the expense of the honest through a lack of inherent value and stability in an unbacked currency.