THE BABYLONIAN WOE Chapters XII-XIV
by David Astle
CHAPTER
XII. Sparta, the Pelanors, Wealth and Women
XIII. Money Creators and the Political Control
XIV. Man Proposes but God Disposes
CHAPTERS XII: SPARTA, THE PELANORS, WEALTH AND WOMEN
Page 175
     Sparta, of all Greek states, is one that resisted most of all the 
encroachments of international money power and the circulation of 
precious metals. However, from those laws promulgated by Lycurgus of 
Sparta, reputedly during the ninth century B.C. but it would seem that 
all those evils deriving from giving such international money power 
free rein had already been experienced and had brought about that 
reaction amongst the people generally that enabled Lycurgus to take 
those measures by which he expunged forever the main causes of the 
sickness of greed and self-interest which gnawed at the heart of the 
Doric overlord class of the Peloponnese. To him are ascribed the laws 
directed towards this purpose such as are described by Plutarch:
Page 176
     "Not contented with this redistribution of land, he commanded 
that all gold and silver should be called in and that only a sort of 
money of iron should be current, a great weight and quantity of which 
was very little worth. So that to lay up twenty or thirty pounds, 
there was required a pretty large closet, and to remove it, nothing 
less than a yoke of oxen. With the diffusion of this money, at once a 
number of vices were banished for who would rob another of such coin? 
Who would unjustly detain or take by force or accept as a bribe a 
thing which was not easy to hide or a credit to have, or indeed of any 
use to cut in pieces? For when it was red-hot, they quenched it in 
vinegar and by that means spoilt it and made it almost incapable of 
being worked. 
     So now there was no means of purchasing foreign goods. No 
itinerant fortune teller nor harlot monger, or gold or silver smith, 
engraver or jeweler set foot in a country which had no money. For the 
rich had no advantage here over the poor as their wealth and abundance 
had no road to come abroad by, but were shut up at home doing 
nothing."
     Plutarch, of course, lived in a city in an age when all wealth 
was assessed in terms of precious metals by weight. Needless to say, 
in order to have the cooperation of the real ruler, local money 
creative power, towards the publication of his works, he wisely 
followed that trend of making a mockery of Spartan customs, a trend 
which is still followed to this day by many so-called scholars. 
Page 177
     Sparta, early in the Millennium had come to understand the real 
significance of precious metals money as being part of an 
international confidence game. Sparta also realized the destructive 
forces inherent in the activities of its controllers.
     The so-called Spartan way of life derived from the necessity of 
the Spartans to always be prepared for total war from abroad, as their 
final rejection of international money power made certain would come, 
and to be always prepared for war from within, i.e. insurrection; and 
equal certainty deriving from the same causes.
     The first Messenian War (736-716 B.C.) was entered into by King 
Theopompus of Sparta for the usual reasons for any war in a state 
indicated by archaeological findings as being under the thumb of 
Šinternational money power; instigation of that money power in favor of 
its arms industry and its other long range purposes. The long drawn 
out character of the war indicated that the Messenians had equal 
access to international arms industry with Sparta. Armies are not 
raised and maintained in long drawn out wars without finances 
acceptable in international trade and ready access to the best of 
weapons and equipment; and it is clear the Messenians were not short 
of such. This war served that purpose most desirable to money power of 
reducing the power of kings followed by constitutional crises. The 
first settlement was a victory of the Spartan peers over the kings and 
curbing of royal prerogatives and powers. Such would have been typical 
of the progress of international money power in its usual insidious 
takeover of any state or civilization. 
Page 178
     The final edicts of Lycurgus as a result of the constitutional 
crisis that followed the second Messenian war certainly indicate he 
was aware of the loss of sovereignty that came to any state that based 
its money system on the product of the international bullion brokers, 
and which meant dependence on their good graces, the more especially 
if such state had no mines of its own. 
     Of the reforms of Lycurgus, their cause, and those forces they 
were directed against, there is no doubt whatsoever. 
Page 179
     There is no doubt that early in the sixth century B.C., the 
Spartans totally excluded the international money market such as 
controlled the rest of Greece through silver and gold money and the 
bankers' practices relating to. 
     The notion created by Plutarch of that national currency of iron 
as being something ridiculous and requiring also an ox-cart may be 
dismissed as part of the steady stream of propaganda no doubt being 
created in Athens against the customs of Sparta. If it is true that 
the "pelanors" were of such weight as ruled out their being readily 
passed from hand to hand, then it may reasonably be assumed that they 
denoted wealth in much the same manner as the stone rings of Uap and 
the ancient Indus Valley civilization; more in the nature of a 
reserve, the circulating money being the leather notes referred to by 
Suidas, just as the circulating money of Uap was shell strings, 
similar to Tekaroro of the Gilbert Islands. 
     Sparta was indeed fortunate to possess considerably reserves of 
iron ore. Thus both for her money and for her arms, she was therefore 
independent and needed no assistance from abroad. 
Page 180
     The very fact that the power of the kings had been undermined 
became a blessing in disguise. History has shown that the point to 
which international money power immediately gravitates when 
penetrating any people is the top, the king himself, either directly 
or through the priesthood. Given his sanction and connivance with 
respect to their schemes, then peoples are easily subdued and their 
minds filled with arithmetical calculations and obsession with their 
animal needs.
     One of the first steps of such money power towards total 
assumption of rule has been the eradication of kings for even though a 
king might be lead into connivance with their schemes through lack of 
understanding, he always could still awaken and discover his mistake 
and realizing the sword was still in his hand, take measures to regain 
his prerogative. Therefore he had to be disposed of or reduced to paid 
and willing servant. 
     In Sparta there seems to have been another obstacle to 
international money power, namely, the Ephorate, whose existence was 
Šlinked to that national money power of Sparta as instituted under the 
protection of Lycurgus. Of the Ephors, it may be said their main 
objectives were: "first the maintenance of home defence and limiting 
of Spartan dominion to Messenia and Laconia (i.e. no imperial 
entanglements) and an unrelenting hostility to the pretensions of 
royal power in the state. The Ephorate was a profoundly democratic 
institution that feared and fought against tyranny both within and 
without the borders of Lacedaemon." 
     Accepting the tyrant as the front man of those alien agents of 
international money power, the trapezitae, then the meaning of their 
policies becomes clear: establishment of an area from which Spartans 
could derive total economic freedom, sufficient to maintain themselves 
and that which above all maintained their way of life and its source, 
their national monetary system. 
Page 181
     The intervention at Athens was obvious policy in view of of the 
unrelenting pressure of Athenian money power as a branch of 
International Money Power against Sparta, city that had made a 
mockery of the power of the counting houses of the world financial 
centers and had set up example in the world which would become 
inspiration to others. The Ephorate made sure that kings in no way had 
the power to surrender themselves and the people they represented to 
the blandishments of international money power whose opportunity alas, 
has always been a weak and ill-instructed king. However the remark of 
Archidamos, King of Sparta reveals even in 428 B.C. how the corruptive 
forces outpouring from Babylonia, with its immediate agents, had 
certainly re-entered Sparta to some degree:
     "And war is not so much a matter of armaments as of the money 
that makes armaments effective." 
     In his speech to his own people, Archidamos also warns them of 
the 6000 talents war chest supposedly held by the Athenians in the 
Acropolis. Both of these statements show no understanding of that in 
which a king should above all be instructed, National Monetary 
Emission, and prove how right were the Ephors in the controls with 
which they surrounded his kingship. Archidamos privately was close 
friend of Pericles, scion of the Alkmeonidae, whose destiny Greek 
history shows to have always been closely linked to that international 
money power. 
     During the period when the national currency of Sparta maintained 
its integrity, it might be safe to say that the Spartan, in so far as 
it is possible for true freedom to exist, was a free man. Indeed, the 
helots were more than likely more free by a long way than are the 
laboring classes of this day; and certainly more free than those 
classes of semi-mass production lines of the other Greek cities whose 
monetary systems were almost all at the mercy of the bankers, the 
manipulators of the value of bullion and slaves. 
Page 182
     A monetary system, simple, inviting neither peddlers or luxury, 
issued and regulated by a benevolent state and undoubtedly its units 
paid into circulation with care and attention to the result on the 
national well-being and strength, bred a sturdy independent people 
completely contemptuous of the gold madness raging elsewhere. They 
were an example by which other great peoples came to profit, 
outstandingly, the Romans. 
     History gives much information about the means whereby money was 
collected and raised and spent but nothing as to those shadowy figures 
who institute its units in the first place and inject them into 
circulation. 
     As to when international money power re-entered Sparta, there is 
little enough evidence. But the outlook of King Archidamos suggested 
Šit had made quite some progress by the date of the commencement of the 
Peloponnesian war, and it may be safely said that to win that war, out 
of which could come nothing but gain to international money power, 
Sparta had to make almost total concession. The final victory over 
Athens achieved the purposes of the international bullion and slave 
traders as surely as final defeat would so have done. 
     As it will remembered, the relaxation and luxury that inundated 
Rome after the second Punic War as a result of concessions that had 
been made to international bullion and slave traders in order to be 
able to re-arm after Cannae, and ultimately drive Hannibal out of 
Italy and defeat him in his own territory, within 25 years dragged the 
Romans down to a debauched money mad mob.
   
Page 183
     Similarly, after the Peloponnesian War, like causes had done the 
same for Sparta, and it was but 25 years later, in 371 B.C. the 
Spartan Phalanx crumbled into bloody ruin at Leuctra and never again 
recovered for the Spartans were now consumed by the corrupting 
diseases of money madness and its attendant liberalism. That by 360 
B.C. the ancient money system was little more than a memory is 
revealed by the quotation from Alexander Del Mar:
     "The crime of Gylipus, B.C. 360, and the decree offered upon its 
exposure, viz. "That no coin of gold or silver be admitted into 
Sparta, but that they should use the money that had formerly obtained" 
shows that as this decay of the state and weakening of credit went on, 
gold and silver coins, at or near their bullion value, gradually crept 
into circulation as money. The failure of the decree to pass is 
conclusive that the iron numerical system was no longer practicable." 
     In other words, the damage to that which had been Sparta done by 
the ruler who first of all turned a blind eye to dealings in precious 
metals, the regrowth of international trade, and no doubt the holding 
of deposits in Athenian banks, was irreparable. It seemed this time 
that the clock could not be turned back. 
Page 184
     Athens, as with Rome by the time of the Civil Wars, its original 
people had disappeared into that mass of freed slaves and immigrants 
from elsewhere. 
     Of Spartan money as reinstituted under the patronage of Lycurgus, 
Ernest Babelon wrote:
     "A long time after the use of money had been spread throughout 
the Hellenic world, Sparta continued to make use of ingots of iron as 
a means of exchange. These bars were known as "pastry cakes" weighing 
an Aeginetic Mina, that is to say 756 Kg, required a wagon to carry. 
All kinds of stories circulated on the subject of the famous 
"Pelanors" of Sparta that seem to have remained in use until the 
Persian Wars... 
     In the 7th century, King Pheidon of Argos, when he struck the 
first silver money of Aegina, withdrew the former iron spits from 
circulating that had served as money until then." 
Page 186
     Babelon, most learned scholar as he was, however reflects the 
complacent attitude of the bankers that money was precious metal and 
precious metal was money. Though over 2000 years have gone by, 
precious metal money and its promoters still ruled, despite a dozen 
great kingdoms and empires having risen at its behest and having 
fallen at its behest. Did Babelon see the shadow which lurked behind 
the throne, he closed his eyes and turned his head away.
     Lycurgus was without doubt inspired to re-establish this national 
monetary system by the clear understanding he must have come to have 
of the evil effects of this gold and silver madness and its disastrous 
Šeffects as a result of the operations of the trapezitae or bankers 
relative to the destruction of national morale and being. Precious 
metal coinage was currency whose total circulation the state could in 
no way control because of the desirability of its material 
internationally. Its value was dictated by the arbitrary decision of 
that international fraternity who controlled its mining and the slaves 
that mined it, and out of manipulation of that pyramid of abstract 
money they created thereon, controlled the political affairs of 
states. 
     The money that had been established at Sparta was of value to 
Spartans alone. Although no record exists of such matter, it may be 
safely assumed that the Pelanors, the leather multiples or divisible of 
Suidas, entered the circulation as against state indebtedness; thus 
reducing taxation, that vicious destroyer of peoples, to relatively 
negligible amounts. Their pitted and otherwise worthless appearance 
deriving from their being immersed in vinegar when red hot made them 
of no value for any other purpose than that for which they were 
intended. The use of this national money was the force that gave 
Sparta the leadership of Hellas until the end of the Peloponnesian War 
and was that which necessarily dictated the policy of extirpation of 
the tyrannies, the tyrant always being representative for the agent of 
international money creative power through precious metal control.
Page 187
     There might be the temptation to assume the Pelanors were a 
system of "Iron Greenbacks" but while they resembled the Greenbacks in 
this that they were the total will to be of the Spartans, assuming the 
truth of their great weight, they may have been more in the character 
of that monetary system of very ancient days of which the stone rings 
of Uap are a last remaining evincement.
     (According to Del Mar, the iron currency of the Pelanors was 
strictly a numerical system confined to Sparta, it was a national 
system having no relationship to International Standards or ratios 
with other metals; thus being identical in character to the 
"Greenback" paper money issued by President Abraham Lincoln during the 
American Civil War and by which means the schemes of the international 
bullion broking fraternity were temporarily frustrated.) 
     A healthy wholesome people who controlled totally their state and 
existence would have little reason to accumulate money fortunes, and 
wealth as distinct from the land which was their patrimony; and as 
such money fortunes begin and end as little more than figures in the 
banker's ledger, nor could they be guided into becoming mouthpieces 
for the policies of the bankers. A genuine contempt for luxury 
existed. 
Page 188
     Although it was said of the monetary reforms of Lycurgus that 
precious metals seized in war were deposited with the Arcadians, of 
later days, Augustus Boeckh wrote of gold and silver in Sparta:
     "Sparta swallowed up large quantities of precious metals. The 
principal cause of this stagnation was that the state kept the gold 
and silver in store and only re-issued them for war and foreign 
enterprise; although there were instances of individuals who amassed 
treasures according to the law.
     Xenophon stated that Lycurgus made the privilege of citizenship 
equally available to all who observed the laws which would mean that 
no Spartan suffered in respect to the mess to which he was entitled to 
belong on account of economic condition. Xenophon had lived in Sparta 
before the loss of Messenia. Aristotle after Messenia in 370 B.C. and 
the certain penetration and assumption of control of Spartan fiscal 
affairs by the bankers. The final military collapse at Leuctra rose 
from that weakened condition that followed the apparent victory of the 
ŠGreat Peloponnesian War and those concessions that would have already 
been made to the international bankers as a result of the desperate 
need of the Spartans for ships. The loan of 5000 talents towards the 
building of ships which was granted to Sparta by Persia in 412 B.C. 
would not have been granted without major concessions being exacted. 
It would not take long for them to undermine the morale of Sparta by 
the spreading of money madness. Of this situation, Polybius, as quoted 
by Humphrey Michell, wrote the following:
Page 189
     "Once they began to undertake naval expeditions and to make 
military campaigns outside the Peloponnese, it was evident that 
neither their iron currency nor the exchange of their crops for 
commodities which they lacked, as permitted by the laws of 
Lycurgus, would suffice for their needs. These enterprises demanded a 
currency in universal circulation so they were compelled to beg from 
the Persians and exact taxes from all the Greeks. For they recognized 
that under the legislation of Lycurgus, it was impossible to aspire, I 
will not say to supremacy in Greece, but to any position of 
influence." "
     The fact is however Sparta, while following the laws of Lycurgus, 
had dominated in more or less degree. As soon as she lost sight of the 
meaning and purpose of such laws, she became just another petty state; 
an agency for the subterranean control by international banking 
through manipulation of the silver and gold bullion basis of her 
currency; each man, concerned with his own need and greed, aimlessly 
following the pretty bubble which was the illusion of banker's 
"wealth." The old order which had given them strength was soon 
destroyed. 
     The later age of Aristotle was the age of the triumph of those 
international interests whose arming and instigation of the Messenian 
helots in an earlier age decided Spartans to accept the structure of 
law as advocated by Lycurgus which meant surrender of so much ease of 
living, rather than become the same as most Greek states, an alien 
money manipulators' paradise. 
Page 190
     As the earliest finds of the clay facsimiles of precious metals 
coinage at Athens seem to date around the middle of the fifth century 
B.C., it may be assumed that one way or another, the lust for having, 
one man more than his neighbor, slowly became injected into them. 
Perhaps Spartan mercenaries who always required to be paid in those 
international currencies of silver and gold had been inveigled into 
depositing their pay with the bankers of the Piraeus with whom it 
might "grow" with interest; taking home the baked clay coins as 
evidence of their account and thus evading contravention of the 
Spartan laws in respect of possession of gold and silver. 
     With the resumption of the rule of international money power in 
later Spartan history, one of the most outstanding instances of that 
sickness rotting the fibers of their racial morale was the tale of 
those "Homoioi" who seemed to have fallen in the social scale and were 
no longer able to take their places in those great messes. Scholars 
gave various reasons for these "disenfranchised" Spartans apparently 
known as the "hypomeiones." The reason for their coming to be is more 
than clear. They are the direct result of the power to discriminate 
which is the natural outcome in favor of the banker of that actual 
god-power he exercises once installed as local money creator. 
     More than likely, the re-established bankers would have taken 
care that certain families who might yet create opposition to them 
were dispossessed by one means or another. With that banker created 
money as being now necessary qualification for membership, it was a 
small matter to make sure that those they wished to dispossess never 
Šhad enough. 
Page 191
     Clearly, the mess charges being assessed in silver money whose 
issue the bankers controlled, those to whom such alien bankers 
extended no favors and therefore ultimately dispossessed through 
mortgage and foreclosure, not having any longer the wherewithal to 
pay, no longer belonged. 
     The Spartan, whether poor or rich, in the days of national 
currency had been the social equal of any other Spartan, however the 
slow decay of the Spartan principle derived from a most outstanding 
omission in the constitution which was total lack of provision for the 
redistribution of wealth at certain intervals, and the cancellation of 
debt as in the Hebrew custom of the 49th year. 
   
Page 192
     The control of wealth passed substantially into the hands of 
women. Concern for the growth of money, no doubt, just as in this day, 
replaced care for their men and the growth of their children.
CHAPTER XIII: MONEY CREATORS AND THE POLITICAL CONTROL
Page 193
     In their inception, so-called political parties were other 
expression of the principle of rule of tyrant, or dictator. Though 
apparently instituted in opposition to each other, such societies were 
the very natural outcome of complete usurpation of the essence of 
sovereign power through conspiracy in respect to interference with the 
issue of the unit of exchange. Such front organizations are the 
natural result of semi-secret societies arrogating to themselves that 
privilege which formerly belonged to the god alone, of the creation of 
exchange units, abstract or otherwise. The only limit would be the 
limit dictated by caution against over-saturation of that money market 
being interfered with.
     Naturally it was usually borne in mind that the (silly) goose 
that laid the golden eggs must not be altogether destroyed and care 
was taken that the real meaning of these activities was deeply 
concealed for fear that ruler and people might come to realize the 
true nature of the forces at work in their midst. 
     (In respect to money creation and issuance, Dr. Paul B. Trescott 
in his work: Money, Banking and Economic Welfare in which the process 
of deposit creation (which would be known as money creation if more 
direct language were used), is briefly but aptly summarized. 
     According to Dr. Trescott, in order to make a loan of $1,000 to a 
customer, "a bank needs only to credit his account with 1,000 in its 
books by a stroke of the pen." This process by which deposits are 
created consequently causes increase in the total money supply. Dr. 
Trescott further remarks: 
     "The process of creating deposits is obviously a simple and 
painless one for the banks." 
Page 194
     Each of these political parties could not but be instrument of 
private money creative power. Such establishment of conflicting groups 
was a very efficient device of such private money creative power 
towards the maintenance of its own hegemony. Herein was venality and 
corruption enthroned. Such "Politicians" as turned to look a little 
too closely at the hand that fed them promptly found their "Perks" or 
"Political Rewards" cut off. Should any government begin to be 
restless and unwilling to accept the axiom that it should have no real 
say in that most serious matter of all, monetary emission, then it 
would be but a short time before private money creative power 
Štransferred its favors to the so-called opposition. Funds would be 
made available sufficient to guarantee their winning the "Election." 
At the same time, funds would be withdrawn from the "Political Party" 
previously in control of government; which would very likely means 
that in the following confusion, men more suitable and pliable would 
force their way to the top; so that even if that particular government 
was re-elected, private money creative power would have no further 
fears. The price was always continuance of those policies most needed 
by such private money creative power necessary for its own real 
purposes and therefore the continuance of its own hegemony.
     The greater part of the units of exchange as emitted by private 
money creative power are of no intrinsic value other than those 
denoted by precious metal symbols and with which the confidence of 
peoples and rulers was gained. Therefore, the cost of instituting that 
control of any state so "captured" by private money creative power, 
the bankers, was virtually nil, since clearly such state financed its 
own lamentable condition!
Page 195
     It is clear that each unit issued into circulation, of fraudulent 
origin or otherwise, reduced by an exact valuation the worth of 
previous units transferring such loss of worth to the holder of the 
new unit. If later, with growth of industry deriving from the creation 
of such unit, all circulating units increased in worth, such increase 
in worth rarely caught up with the original decline in worth, or 
purchasing power of those previously existing units.
     The steady decline in worth of the unit of exchange at any place 
in any period of history will be sufficient proof in itself of the 
existence of secret creation and manipulation of abstract units of 
exchange by a relatively invisible force. Only under most unusual 
circumstances would even a sharp rise in the number of precious metal 
units circulating cause distinct and disturbing inflation of values 
without an accompanying fraudulent and secret expansion of the total 
number of working units through issuance of false receipts against 
non-existing valuables or warehoused goods, or by creation of 
transferable ledger credit page entry money against assignment 
collateral. Previous metals themselves soon wear out, disappear for 
purposes of speculation abroad or are hoarded. 
     Thus the creation and issuance of money constitutes free gift to 
the issuer when such issuer be private person. It automatically and 
immediately despoils he who thinks himself to have money or to be a 
person of worth. It is an indirect and hidden form of taxation no less 
than any other such indirect or hidden tax.
     (Hence the existing situation in what is left of Anglo-Saxon 
governments: As their (unnecessary) expenditure beyond tax income is 
financed by the creation of debt directly to private persons which 
indeed are the Banks (that everyone so unquestioningly accepts these 
days as an established feature in living) under incredible conditions, 
units of exchange in circulation automatically suffer increase and 
consequently there is a steady fall in their purchasing power. 
     Such fall in purchasing power immediately and arbitrarily 
constitutes a hidden tax on all who hold monetary units in one way or 
another. Levied in an unseen manner by those private persons who 
supposedly make the so-called loan to the government, its effects are 
not understood by the people, nor its origin. 
x     Further than this hidden tax imposed with dubious legality, there 
is the absurdity of an interest rate, parallel to that of previous so-
called loans, which creates a yearly interest bill which in itself 
necessitates further such borrowing, without ever thinking of paying 
off the principal; such system necessarily compels a government that 
has been trained to unquestioned acceptance of its financial 
liabilities to be servant in some considerable degree of those private 
Špersons, its supposed benefactors. 
     For a clear statement of the workings of this unbelievable system 
in Canada, see "Brief submitted to the Royal Commission on Banking and 
Finance" by Mel Rowatt, Ottawa, 1964.)
Page 196
     If in ancient times, such units of money, fraudulent or 
otherwise, were accepted by the simple folks as money, and seemed to 
serve equally well as had served that lawful money of earlier times 
yet again, which had been an order on the treasury or warehouses of 
the god of the city, then indeed, such units were money to all intents 
and purposes of the immediate needs of exchange. The fact of their 
legal issuance as a loan at interest against goods and services as 
collateral pledges, placed in the hands of their creator and issuer 
the power of total discrimination formerly recognized as being the 
sole and absolute prerogative of the god. As time went on, the fact of 
their creation, issue, acceptance, once the people had resigned 
themselves to slow inflation of values, placed in the hands of this 
private creator of these original fraudulent exchange units All-Power!
     Whatever the material on which the units of exchange were 
recorded, the customer still thought in terms of silver, as even today 
most still think in terms of gold, though none to speak of has 
circulated for thirty five years or so. So long as the ruler concurred 
in the conspiracy to denominate these exchange units as being as 
acceptable as those previously issued by the god and his people, then 
the power of preferment or rejection was soon in the hands of the 
banker as agent for what corresponded in that day to the international 
bankers of today; totally in opposition to that natural order of life 
in which the unit of exchange represents the will of the benevolent 
god. 
Page 197
     Needless to say, this person would not extend his preferment to 
those who instinct told him might be able to come to understand the 
real truth of the emptiness of those shadowed vaults from which his 
hand reached forth. It might safely be assumed that discrimination 
would be exercised against those whose obliteration was included in 
the overall plans of those mystic, if not satanic, figures that lurked 
in the inner sanctuaries of the temple, mint, or counting house; in 
which secret places were formulated those policies that decided the 
promotion or otherwise of kings, tyrants, dictators, or political 
parties. 
     The extraordinary wealth and power according to the standards of 
the day of this secretive and apparently humble money power is shown 
clearly by the following extract from Babelon:
     "We know that the Greek bankers were money changers; all the more 
important financial transactions were negotiated through their agency. 
Their counters were the meeting place of businessmen and the stock 
market. They controlled at the same time the sea-borne trade and the 
affairs of caravans, above all, in Asia Minor. The exploitation of 
mines was often in their hands. These guardians of treasure received 
the precious metal deposits belonging to private persons or traders, 
keeping open account for their clients, thus accumulating enormous 
amounts; they hoarded, they loaned to Princes as well as private 
individuals. Listen then to the story of Nicholas of Damascus more 
eloquent than any commentary:
     "Wishing to carry the war into Caria, Alyatte, King of Lydia, 
(610-561 B.C.) gave the order to his commanders to bring him their 
contingents at Sardis, by a certain day. Amongst the generals chosen 
was Croesus, the oldest son of the King, at that time Governor of 
Adramyttium and the plain of Thebes. Negligent and prodigal, ill 
regarded by his father on account of his dissipations, very desirous 
Šof being received back into his father's good graces, and of 
confounding his calumniators, but not having the wherewithal to raise 
and hire mercenaries, the young Prince, in order to overcome his 
embarrassment, resolved to contract a loan. With this purpose in mind 
he sought out Dadyattes, the richest merchant of Lydia. This person, 
occupied with his ablutions, firstly let Croesus wait impatiently at 
his door. Then he agreed to receive him but this was only to refuse 
him money; "If I must lend to all the sons of Alyattes," he cried, 
"there will not be enough." 
     Rebuffed, Croesus proceeded to Ephesus. There, an Ionian friend, 
Pamphaes, learning the reason of his visit, obtained a sum of a 
thousand gold staters from his father, Theocharides, who was possessed 
of considerable fortune, and which he hastened to bring to the 
necessitous prince. Thanks to these subsidies, Croesus, furnished with 
troops, was the first of all at the rendez-vous and regained the favor 
of his father who took him in as a partner in this expedition. 
     Croesus later on revenged himself on Sadyattes who had turned him 
away, confiscating his treasure. The plunder taken from the unhappy 
banker was large enough to make two pillars of gold and the golden 
calves with which the temple of the Goddess was adorned. 
     Later we see a banker of Caelenae, Pythas, of Lydian extraction, 
make a gift to King Darius of a plane tree in gold and a vine in gold. 
     While afterwards, doubtless in fear that his immense fortune 
might only come to excite the covetousness of the prince, Pythias made 
up his mind to ward off the danger by making a concession. 
Spontaneously he offered Xerxes subsidies for the war."
Page 199
     The above excerpt illustrates a clear cut case of effort by money 
power to control political succession; for the real reason of the 
refusal by Sadyattes of the loan to Croesus was that he had already 
pledged himself to the support of Panteleon, Croesus's half-brother 
who was clearly more "suitable" and "pliable" than the strong-minded 
Croesus who, Sadyattes probably knew via his spies, would be his 
enemy; although his offensive conduct towards a royal son would 
suggest he considered his position inviolable. 
Page 200
     His surly arrogance in causing young Croesus to wait at the door, 
and then refusing him his request in no pleasant manner, so typical of 
this class of person today as much in Croesus's day, undoubtedly 
caused Croesus to enquire a little deeply into this precious metal 
money "Racket" when he did become king, a "racket" which allowed low 
and unsavory persons to make a mockery of kingship. The results of his 
enquiry undoubtedly showed him that above all, for his kingship to be 
meaningful, monetary emission had to be removed from the control of 
private persons. Further evidence of history would suggest, in Lydia, 
Croesus destroyed the arrogance and power to subversion of this class 
of persons, not the most noble amongst this subjects, by the 
institution of the issue of equal weights of precious metal or coin, 
as state prerogative; thus he thought, returning to himself that 
essential power, the total control of monetary emission. 
     That the reputed fate of Croesus after conquest by Cyrus was 
influenced by the longing for revenge of those leaders of finance at 
City, the main force behind Cyrus and his conquests. 
     Hence the real source of the so rapid decay of all relatively 
recent civilizations and so-called empires of the last 5000 years, 
whose establishment was so often due to the behind the scenes 
activities of bankers as agents for an internationally spread network 
of bullion interests was the complete dearth of clean and noble men in 
places of control and power. 
     Such natural and truly dedicated leadership had been destroyed, 
Šeither by the planned discriminatory activities of the bankers or by 
the never dying fires of war that maintained these so-called Empires. 
Page 201
     Clearly in that day almost all money in circulation arrived there 
created and issued by private persons of a class stranger to the whole 
world, and whose only guide was never more than their indifference to 
the miseries of mankind. Today, despite the continuance of the naive 
belief of those who toil from day to day that this money is created 
and injected by the state, it is the same as in the days of the 
corruption and crumbling of the god-given distribution systems of the 
Ancient Orient, in the face of the attack on their integrity, by the 
privately issued commodity currencies of silver. This attack later 
having been intensified when that silver apex to the inverted pyramid 
of abstract money by which the great banking houses were manipulating 
the exchanges became further augmented by gold. 
     The apparent beneficiaries of such systems were front men for a 
wider and more international system extending from China to Great 
Britain. The evidence of this world-wide financial system in Britain 
exists in the gold staters of the Iceni, Cassivellauni, Brigantes, 
etc. still existing, and which circulated long before Julius Caesar. 
     Although gold was obtained in Wales and in Ireland, its use as 
money could only have been inspired from that central point where the 
original staters were minted, the Near East and the cities wherein 
dwelt the controllers of international trade and mining. 
Page 202
     Amongst other principles of political control by money power used 
in ancient times, just as much as today, was that which is known as 
liberalism. Liberalism meaning that he who hath shall give to him who 
hath not; not so much out of proper charity, but so that he who hath 
not may come to put his foot on the neck of him who (formerly) hat, 
and who now foolishly gives him his own strength. Thus money power 
made sure that Permanent Revolution would prevent any power group from 
having control long enough to see the true source of that which is the 
power of the ruler, if he is to be in the saddle, namely, monetary 
emission. 
     Money Power, then as today, fully understood the necessity 
towards the continuance of its hegemony of the promotion of persons 
basically corrupt who possessed the wealth of kings though at the same 
time having the natural outlook of a slave, truly strange combination. 
     One such family identified in ancient times was that Athenian 
family known as the Alkmeonidae, who, although suspected at the time 
of the Battle of Marathon as being the source of the heloigraph that 
sent information across the bay of Marathon to the Persian commanders, 
strangely enough continued to maintain power and place at Athens. 
Equally strange had been the awarding of the contract for the 
rebuilding of the temple at Delphi to this same family in exile from 
Athens. 
Page 203
     Pericles, scion of this notorious family, while being the front 
man for those forces driving Athens into war with Sparta, was the 
instigator of the Donatives and later, of theorica which allowed two 
oboli per person to the lessee of the Oratorium serving two corrupt 
purposes: 
1. It made sure all the citizenry attended the plays thus keeping 
their minds off more serious matters as do cinema and television 
today.
2. It assure the lessee a certain profit. 
     A third purpose would have been the maintenance of an unbalanced 
budget and consequent stimulation of government indebtedness to 
Šprivate money creative power, the bankers. If the sophistication of 
the Sales Tax was known to Periclean Athens, it may be assumed were 
also known the sophisticated practices in relation to government 
indebtedness as practiced particularly in Anglo-Saxon countries today. 
Page 204
     The establishment of theorica was to further increase necessity 
of government borrowing in time of war and so strengthen the hold of 
that so-called National Debt almost certainly held by themselves. 
     Thus the principles of the total hegemony of private money 
creative power were as clearly understood by its masters yesterday as 
much as they are today. 
     If in any way kings had understood the malignance of this growth 
that had penetrated the sub-structure of life it would have been short 
shrift for its controllers. Hence the necessity for an absolute 
secrecy most restrictive in its effects. Clay, the material on which 
records were kept throughout Babylonia at least, did not have any of 
the potential of paper so far as went the keeping of records. 
Page 205
     The City of Athens itself, its monetary system based directly on 
their internationally required products, silver and gold, was clearly 
under their immediate control. If the state owned the mints, it would 
make no difference. The states own the mints today for what it means; 
which is little or nothing so far as goes control of Monetary 
Emission. 
     Where copper and bronze fiduciaries, as at Rome, circulated at 
values many times more than their value by weight of metal on the 
international bullion markets, clearly such bullion such as came on 
the market as military scrap would have been more useful towards the 
counterfeiting of such currencies than sold at its bullion value. 
Page 207
     Just as the copper rouble of Czarist Russia, issued at an 
overvaluation of 800% according to the value of copper bullion, 
brought into Russia a very inundation of counterfeits minted in 
Western Europe, thus international money power would have succeeded in 
diminishing the beneficial effects of such national currency, 
continuing to use Rome as the example, by mass counterfeiting which 
would have seen rapid increase once gold and silver commenced to 
circulate alongside the Aes after the Second Punic War. 
     Clearly, the main purpose of the counterfeiters, as agents of the 
international silver bullion traders, would be to inject their 
counterfeits into circulation at the best overvaluation possible. 
Hence the steady disappearance of the precious metals from the 
circulation. This disappearance seems to have been a factor inspiring 
the vehemence of Cicero in his Oration: Pro Flaccus. 
Page 208
     Of Roman banking,Mommsen and Marquardt wrote: 
     "The conduct of banking was done for the most part through the 
intermediary of the argentarii and of numularii: these last were known 
under the name of collectarii mensularii. In countries of Greek origin 
there was a kind of state bank as at Tenos; they were also in Egypt. 
Among the Romans, on the contrary, it was only in the most 
extraordinary circumstances that public banks were organised under the 
direction of state functionaries. 
     It is through the intermediary of the argentarii that most 
payments were made, as also they were entrusted with the collection of 
moneys due, the placing of capitals at interest, the sale of 
merchandise, the liquidation of estates, investments of all kinds and 
the changing of foreign moneys. 
Š     
Page 212
     Just as in today 95% of money in circulation is checks and 
assignments in transit, often written against credits granted by 
bankers where no actual funds previously existed but however 
without which the drive and turmoil of this civilization could not 
have come to be, so it was in Rome and in Greece. Indeed, for all 
those movements of vast armies, and movements of peoples through the 
consequent sale of slaves, and for the erection of all those great 
works in stone, the instigative factor was the same as the instigative 
factor behind all the mighty works and mysteries of today. It was none 
other than the driving force of that abstract money that none can see 
but that functions just the same as that which can be seen, the 
mysterious "Credit" of the banker; an instrument towards the willful 
redesign and enslavement of mankind. 
     In the late Roman Commonwealth and early Empire, the assignments 
and checks in transit may not have equalled 95% of all money in 
circulation and it is by no means impossible that they were even more, 
taking into account the fact that today's high speed printing presses 
and coining machines, the fount of the 5% of the circulation that can 
be seen, can create these visible units on which the inverted pyramid 
of the invisible units is erected, at a hundred thousand or more times 
the speed of slaves striking and finishing metal units of money by 
hand. 
     In Harper's Dictionary of Classified Literature and Antiquities, 
Roman banking is dealt with as follows:
     "The Argentarius thus did almost the same sort of business as a 
modern banker. Many persons entrusted all their capital to them and 
instances in which the argentarii made payments in the name of those 
whose money they had in their hand are mentioned very frequently. We 
also find that argentarii made payments for persons who had not 
deposited any money with them: this was equivalent to lending money; 
which in fact they often did for a certain percentage of interest." 
Page 213
     Thus banking was carried on in almost the same manner in the 
Roman world as in our world of today and to those who understand the 
significance of the practices of modern banking, nothing could be 
clearer. Even the ostentatious display of a metal safety deposit vault 
is recorded by the antiquarian Lanciana, doubtless to encourage people 
to leave their valuables with the bank and so strengthen their 
"confidence." 
     Until the end of the numerical currency, with the resumption of 
the striking of silver money and therefore reentry into the orbit of 
the silver bullion brokers, mining of the precious metals had been 
forbidden in Italy and copper mining had been state monopoly, clearly 
indicating the futility of any discussion of whether the striking of 
coinage had been free or otherwise. Where the policy of the state had 
been to maintain an overvaluation of its bronze coinage relative to 
bullion prices, it is quite clear that it could in no way permit 
private individuals the privilege of the mints, free or otherwise. To 
do so would be to concede to them the power to manipulate prices 
levels and so, confounding the economy, dismay the rulers. Thus it was 
not until the time of Cicero that evidence appears of private persons 
bring bullion to the mints. 
Page 214
     Such matters of state finance seem to have been well understood 
during the middle commonwealth. However, as a result of the second 
Punic War and the desperate need to rearm quickly that followed these 
unfortunate battles, Rome had been obliged to allow the whole currency 
system to become based on the international valuation of silver as 
Šcommon denominator of values. 
     It follows that it was only after Rome had thus surrendered her 
sovereign prerogative in money matters to the international silver 
bullion brokers that the growth of liberalism finally gave rise to the 
warlords known as the Triumvirate.
     With reckless abuse of the power of their Imperium through those 
bankers who supported them, particularly in relation to their right to 
strike money in the field, the warlords derived virtual independence 
from the auctoritas of an already corrupted senate.
     Thus with the rise of the warlords who were in effect tyrants 
under arms, each with his own Money Power, was the triumph of the 
empire concept. 
   
Page 215
     In the case of Caesar, his supporting bankers appear to have been 
the L. Cornelius Balba for whom the A. Hirtius of Caesar's "aes" 
coinage as issued in the country of the Treveri in Gaul, seems to have 
been agent with H. Clovius, emittor of Ceasar's brass issues. 
     Clearly moneyers and bankers reigned supreme behind Caesar or 
Anthony or Octavian.
     Sosius, moneyer and financial organizer to Anthony, who also came 
from a banking family, when governor of Syria, dethroned Antigonus in 
37 B.C. replacing him with Herod "The Great." 
Page 216
     The name of the bankers behind Augustus does not appear to be 
known but the extent of their massive operations is revealed by the 
widespread circulation of their heavy weight "aes" coinage right 
across the Empire. 
     The question would be: was this excellent and adequate coinage 
emitted by an organization of similar character to the Bank of England 
or recent world power or the Federal Reserve? Both of which, though 
apparently state departments, in reality private international 
organizations set up international circle of bullion traders, or, as 
they are now generally known, the International Bankers. 
     That which seems to be clear out of the fragments of information 
existing is that there was no such thing as a permanent interest 
bearing state indebtedness until the period which may mark the 
beginning of the decline of imperial Rome; the significance of which 
is that no Roman Government ever entirely lost control of that power 
so essential to the maintenance of its sovereignty, the power to 
directly inject the unit of exchange into circulation as according to 
its own needs. 
     Of this period until the 3rd Century A.D., Professor Heichelheim 
wrote:
     "There were regular lending associations while usury constituted 
quite an important item in the legal provisions of the Corpus Iuris 
and the Talmud. Only State Usury was rare for the Roman State was 
still in a supreme position. Large interest-free loans advanced to the 
state by individual citizens for reward in the form of honors were 
quite frequent up to the 3rd Century A.D."
Page 217
     Though Roman Government had endeavored to monopolize all sources 
of the material of its tangible currency and had prevented as much as 
possible the circulation of precious metal which clearly would 
undermine the integrity of the state issued unit of exchange, the 
grandiose aes, it still could not prevent counterfeits from entering 
circulation. It could not prevent the corrupt practices of oriental 
banking after the extensive re-entry of silver into circulation as a 
result of concessions made to the international bullion traders during 
the 2nd Punic War, nor thereafter, the functioning of Gresham's Law 
Šwhich such entailed. "Bad money drives out the good" which of course, 
depends on what is bad and what is good! Nor, therefore, could it 
control the activities of that underground that garnered the precious 
metal from the circulation of more profitable use elsewhere. 
     As a consequence of the rejection by growing and powerful states 
of the claim of silver bullion interests that all tangible money 
should be founded on their product as base and common denominator of 
values and the creation and paying into circulation of their own 
tangible money, with value deriving from its scarcity or otherwise, 
using copper or bronze as the material on which its numbers were 
recorded, much copper or bronze that came the way of the international 
bullion brokers would have been used in an extensive industry devoted 
to counterfeiting of these fiduciary currencies. 
Page 218
     Thus would be created the conditions in which foreign money 
lenders would be better able to flourish and secure the establishment 
of their own peculiar systems of private money emission based usually 
on the fiction of valuables on deposit for safe-keeping. Under such 
systems, when fully under way, the next step would be political 
control through so-called political parties that such money power 
would bring into being, each necessarily dedicated to some "cause" 
through a so-called "leader," also chosen through the agency of such 
money power and by those forces it controlled. Such leaders would be 
"suitable" men and would be chosen because they were pliable too often 
naturally corrupt. Raised as likely as not from the lower ranks of 
society and therefore dazed by the dizzy heights to which fortune had 
lifted them, such men would be most likely to carry out without 
question the policies required for the fulfillment of their master's 
purposes and dreams; principally that of World Government; which 
should raise such masters to the position of world rulers, and 
therefore heirs of the god-kings of ancient days, in their own eyes; 
although to the eye of any clear-seeing man, they might better have 
been called the anti-god, or in the language of the naive Christians 
of a somewhat later time to the god-kings, demons.
CHAPTER XIV: MAN PROPOSES BUT GOD DISPOSES
Page 219
     So speaking of ONE WORLD and of World Rule, a vision stirs of a 
distant past and of efforts towards World Rule in a smaller world of 
another day; a past of which so little remains other than shattered 
columns, cracked vases, a few precious metal coins and baked clay 
facsimiles thereof, and the writings of relatively a handful of the 
best of a former day, amongst which, strangely enough, still exist the 
works of the propagandists for money power such as Xenophon, and, as 
some say, Thucydides.
     Behind these scattered fragments and the unseen but still 
existing remains of millions of dead consumed in the constant wars of 
those ancient days, is the enigmatic vision of those half-Greek men 
amongst their records in the counting houses of Athens and the clear 
picture of them and their boy, Pericles, scion of that line of shifty 
Alkmeonidae, preparing under their guidance, plans for that Great War 
which would extend their financial hegemony across the whole Grecian 
world. If events proceeded along those lines, who knows, perhaps 
spread across the whole world. ONE WORLD might be brought to reality. 
     After Klearchos and the edict of 432 B.C., the Athenian Empire 
must have fallen totally under the control of the banks. The edict 
ordering the subject allies to contribute money instead of ships meant 
that they were to be drained of silver. When the silver was gone, they 
would be obliged to come hat in hand to the Piraeus for that which the 
Great Bankers were now lending as money against real collateral; 
Šentries in the credit page of their ledger, or clay facsimiles 
of silver and gold money which once had been. 
     This war would give the bankers complete control of Greece and 
all that such could bring about through their financial guidance. 
Page 220
     None would flourish from Colchis to Illyria except they so willed 
it. The instrument which was Athens and its allies would finally and 
forever destroy that Spartan hegemony that had so long denied them 
entry and had refused to accept their control through trade and money. 
All that proud Dorian aristocracy would be exterminated as these 
bankers had arranged long since for the aristocracy of so many other 
states and cities of the world. Their own future as a people destined 
to be lord over all would be secure. Gone forever would be that iron 
and leather money over issues they had no control.
     So with this vision before them, the war would commence and from
that blood and fire that they, the bankers, would see to it would 
sweep the land could come nothing but good for them as they planned in 
the shadows of the counting houses. Under the stress of war, Sparta, 
through the agency of its aging king Archidamos, who was privately 
friend of the banker's boy, Pericles, would secretly accept their 
terms and permit the circulation of that which they loaned as money 
and permit private persons to possess and hoard silver and gold which, 
through the principles of banking, would soon be theirs in any case. 
     However, it seemed as if even in that day, it could be said: "The 
best laid schemes of mice and men aft a'gley! A well planned stratagem 
that should have established forever the banker's dream of world 
empire through the creation of common money market would have removed 
all remaining resistance towards the realization of such dream could 
they but settle once and for all the problem of Sparta, was 
frustrated. 
Page 221
     Those precious metal pieces, those copper fiduciaries, those clay 
facsimiles, all those ledger entries, credits against no funds, money 
created out of think air as by the hand of the gods, all these were 
the secret of that endless urge and turmoil of the city states of 
Greece and of the tumult which finally culminated in the dark years of 
that miniature "World War" out of which could come no winner but the 
International Money Power, the Great Peloponnesian War, just as did 
these last two so-called "Great" world wars of our time. 
Page 222
     One thing stands out clearly from the fitting together of these 
tattered fragments relating to man and his money in very ancient days 
and that is ONE WORLD! Through the whole web of confusion, this faint 
design grows clearly more distinguishable concept of those who by 
nature of their secret trade, money, think they know all the paths of 
men and life; and because of the international character of that which 
they now control, delude themselves into believing that they, as 
designers of it all, rising into the firmament as gods, shall be heirs 
to it all.
     These secret classes who live shut in by the four walls of their 
exclusivity had originally believed that one more step would place 
them forever on the now empty thrones of the god-kings through the 
devious paths of knowledge of precious metal money creation and 
emission and all the deceits against mankind to which it loaned 
itself. 
     With the establishment of the United Nations complex via the 
International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, otherwise 
designated "The World Bank," knowing no master on this earth other 
than God or the Devil as the case may be, and with the advent of the 
Šsettlement of international trade balances by transfer of Ledger 
Credit Page Entry Money, evinced by Paper Gold, as the final deceit, 
these secret classes behind it all well might believe that the total 
of human activity, whether towards War or Peace, depended on their 
instigation alone. With such triumphs resulting from the long years of 
planning and waiting, well might they have been justified in 
concluding that the end of a long and weary way towards WORLD RULE had 
been reached; perhaps the only question remaining being: "Who should 
be the Ruler?" 
   
Page 223
     Where in the fatuity of their vain imaginings was to have been a 
money changer's World Kingdom, and for them and theirs, are in reality 
the desolate ways of the gulf of time and infinity, no less for them 
as for all. 
     And even should this ONE WORLD come to be, what of INTERNATIONAL 
MONEY POWER itself and its fatuous dream of a money changer's world 
dominion? And what will happen to it when the Indo-European who was 
its unwitting host and protector for so long is gone? 
     The present day Chinese, for instance, who very well may be 
strong in the competition for the throne of the gods from whence ONE 
WORLD would be ruled, in the event of their accession to such throne, 
either by election or by force of arms, would not be likely to 
tolerate this finance core, privately and irresponsibly controlled, 
and from which has been drawn the threads of evil that have so long 
tormented the Indo-European world which long since has been totally 
entrapped in the web that has been woven. No more did the Chinese of 
ancient imperial days extend toleration to such activities throughout 
their long history. 
     But it may not be doubted; little if anything will be left 
anyway. Even should this world we know be spared total obliteration, 
after the pestilence of decay, once again will be just shattered 
columns, crumbling concrete, paper that turns to dust with the touch 
and ruin over all. Life's urgent clamor will be followed by the 
silence of its extinction. The brief and fading evidence of all this 
turmoil will be but faint shadows on the accumulating dust. 
Page 224
     Revelations xvii 1. to xviii.21 
     "...And there came one of the seven angles which had the seven 
vials, and talked with me, saying unto me, Come hither; I will show 
unto thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many 
waters: With whom the kings have committed fornication...
     So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I 
saw a woman sit upon a scarlet beast, full of names of blasphemy...
     And upon her forehead was a name written, a mystery, BABYLON THE 
GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND OF ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.
     And he saith unto me, The waters which thou sawest where the 
whore sitteth are peoples, and multitudes, and nations and tongues.
     And the woman which thou sawest is that great city, which 
reigneth over the kings of the earth. 
     And the kings of the earth who have committed fornication and 
lived deliciously with her, shall bewail her, and lament for her, when 
they shall see the smoke of her burning.
     For in one hour so great riches is come to nought. And every 
shipmaster and all the company in ships, and sailors, and as many as 
trade by the sea stood afar off.
     And they cast dust on their heads and they cried weeping and 
wailing, saying, Alas, alas that great city wherein were made rich all 
that had ships in the sea by reason of her costliness! for in one hour 
is she made desolate. 
   End of book. 

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