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TAWES, TEMPLAR WEALTH & l-BILLS . en the crusaders first left their homelands in Europe for the crusade to the Holy Land, tlley too1c with them almost the entire circulating supply of gold and silver coins. This fefl Western nations, England in particular, with no money. In the year ~ 100 AD Henry I, fourth wn of William the Conqueror, ascended the throne of England. Finding the treasury empty and his needs great, he cast about for a source of inwme. Having wise advisors he soon hit on a plan. His plan, with a few refinements, remamed in effect for the next 726 years-and can be reinstated tomorrow. He issued 'tallies'. A tally was a stick about nine inches or so long with each of 'the four sides about 't/2 inch wide, On two of the sides, the value of the 'tally' was carved into the wood. On the other two sides, the amount was printed in ink. The tally was then split in half lengthwise. One half remained in the treasury and the other half was given to soldiers for their pay, to fanners for wheat, to annourers for armour, and to ~abourers for their labour. At tax time, taxpayers were required to bring in one half of a tally to pay their taxes. Woe unto the man who did not have the required number of tally sticks. As a conse quence, these intrinsically worthless sticks of wood were in great demand. Goltli and sil ver coins were fme if you travelled abroad, for a crusade or something, but at home if yON did not have your tax tally at tax time-you were done. Upon receipl! of a tally the treasurer would immediately match the presented! half with Jhe half stored in the treasury, THEY HAD TO TALLY-which is what ,gave it the name. Counterfeiters lost their heads! Actually, it was practically impossible to counterfeit a tally. The wood grain had to match-the notches had to match-and the ink inscriptions had to match. This could onIy come about if both pieces came from the same split tally. There you have it! An inexhaustible source of revenue for the government. The means were available to make tallies as long as rthere were trees. There was a dellland as long as the government required the ,tallies for taxes. The system flourished as long 'as tax evaders and counterfeiters were punished and they always were. For 726 years the system flourished. W INTEREST IN ENG~AND Government 'tally' money and 'usury' money cannot exist side by side, Tally money makes USury money look bad because it stays constant, while usury money expands and contracts. The advent of usury money spelled the death of the tally. The process started! in 1694 when ,the Bank of England was chartered. This new type of interest-bank was permitted because of a promise made by the pretender to his flOancial backers before he became king, and before he had access to the privilege of issuing the potentially inexhaustible supply of wooden money. When the pretender became king, he kept his promise to his usurer bankers. The days of tally money were numbered. At that time there were about 14 million pounds in tally money in circulation. In 1697 when the capital of the Bank of England was increased, 160,'000 pounds of this new money was paid for with tally s'ticks, The irritation of having usury money and tally money circulating at the same time ended when Parliament abolished the use of tallies for taxes in 1783. Circulation of tallies continued in the back country of England until 1826. In ~834 the treasury tallies were burned by allies of the Bank of England. The furnaces which heated the House of Lords were used. The fire blazed up and burned down both houses of Parliament. OCTOBER -NOVEMBER 1993 NEXUS· 17