September 2012

by Pastor Don Elmore

September 2, 2012

Scripture Reading: Nehemiah 5:1-6

When one studies the history of the world, most of the books omit the major reason that a nation or kingdom was in prosperity or depression.  Up to the 1100’s, goldsmiths served as the bankers.  And they manipulated the amount of gold and how much they loaned.  But King Henry I of England was in a situation where his gold supply was too low and he needed some money.  So he created something new:  tally sticks.  Tally sticks were used to pay taxes.  It worked well as a debt-free money system.  Ninety-five percent of English money was in tally sticks.  In fact, they worked well in England for over 700 years.  This is one reason why Richard Hoskins, editor of the Hoskin’s Report, recommends that we use something like the tally sticks that were used in England!

King Henry also made the Charter of Liberties and the Magna Carta which basically was the voluntary position of stating what his powers were to be.  In the year 1265 the first Parliamentary elections began.  In the 1600’s serfdom was legally banned.  But in the year 1694 the Bank of England was created by the Parliament.  The control of the money supply went back to the goldsmith; the bankers.  Soon 75% of England’s entire budget was involved with paying off the wars that they had been in.  Thus, they had to collect taxes from their Colonies to help with the payments.