October 07, 2018 Sunday
Bedtime Story
Sylvio Gesell and the Argentina Connection
What made Sylvio Gesell think or rather
rethink about monetary system was a terrible loss that he suffered in his
business during the 1890 Barings Bank (of London) crisis of Argentina when he
had relocated from Germany to Buenos Aires Argentina at the age of 25(a top
spot for Nazis as well).
Not many are aware of Argentina as a
country of immigrants; with 6.6 million immigrants Argentina is only second to
the United States in terms if the number of immigrants within its population.
The nineteenth century saw massive waves of
immigrants arriving from Europe, majority from Italy and Spain, (along with a
large number of Jews who were being persecuted all across Europe) as a part of
systematic government policy to colonize the desert land of indigenous people
in Patagonia.
While the European Argentineans consider
this part of the history as the ushering in of the civilization to the native and
indigenous people this is nothing short of genocide.
The one man who is given the maximum credit
for committing this atrocity (or promoting civilization for some) in the name
of “Conquest of the Desert” is the army general and the 8th
President of Argentina Julio Argentino Roca who had reportedly stated that:
“Our self-respect as a virile people
obliges us to put down as soon as possible, by reason or by force, this handful
of savages who destroy our wealth and prevent us from definitely occupying, in the
name of law, progress and our own security, the richest and most fertile lands
of Republic.”
Among the Europeans who were entering
Argentina through its official policy of resettling over the lands of its
indigenous people one of them was our German businessman Sylvio Gesell.
He had hardly set up the franchise of his
brother’s business and got it going when the Barings bank of London went nearly
insolvent in 1890 thanks to some very high risk poor investments in Argentina.
Just as it happens today back then too
consortium of Banks including the Bank of England and the Rothschilds saved the
Barings from collapsing by creating a fund to guarantee its debts.
It was done out of any altruistic generosity
but out of fear that if not acted soon the entire private banking system of
London would collapse.
This event led to severe depression in both
Argentina and Uruguay besides blowing the Brazilian Bubble of 1890s or as is
known in Brazil, the Encilhamento.
This word ‘encilhamento” literally means “saddling
up” borrowed from horse racing and refers to act of mounting on a horse.
The root for such bubbles is of course
always in the human greed with the lust for get-rich-quick schemes drives the
hoards to their oblivion.
So it was through the personal bitter experience
through these dramatic economic failures/crises of Brazilian, Argentinean and Uruguay
economies that made Gesell ponder and come up with his own economic ideas.
We shall see what Gesell came up with in
nights to come.
Stay tuned to the voice of an average story storytelling
chimpanzee or login at http://panarrans.blogspot.com
Good night Mon Ami and my fellow cousin ape.
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Another great educator and a teacher that I am aware of is
Professor Subhashish Chattopadhyay in Bangalore, India.
While I narrate stories, Professor Subhashish an electronic
engineer and a former professor at BARC, does and teaches real mathematics and
physics.
He started the participation of Indian students at the
International Physics Olympiad.
Do visit him here:
All his books can be downloaded for free through this link:
For edutainment and English education of your children, I
recommend this large collection of Halloween Songs for Kids:
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