COBBETT'S PAPER AGAINST GOLD: CONTAINING THE HISTORY AND MYSTERY OF THE BANK OF ENGLAND, THE FUNDS, THE DEBT, THE SINKING FUND, THE BANK STOPPAGE, THE LOWERING AND THE RAISING OF THE VALUE OF PAPER-MONEY; AND SHEWING, THAT TAXATION, PAUPERISM, POVERTY, MISERY AND CRIMES HAVE ALL INCREASED, AND EVER MUST INCREASE, WITH A FUNDING SYSTEM

[London: Printed by W. Molineux, Published by W. Cobbett, 1817. viii, [2]-470, [1 blank] pp. Printed in two columns per page, with each column counted as a page [as issued]. Bound in original paper-covered boards. Rather crudely rebacked with waste paper, else Very Good with light foxing.

Cobbett's thesis is that "The Paper-Money System has mainly contributed towards our present miseries...In all countries, where a Paper-Money, that is to say, a paper which could not, at any moment, be converted into Gold and Silver, the consequence, first or last, always been great and general misery." To prove his point, Cobbett inquires "into the origin of money, how it acts upon the affairs of men, how prices depend upon its quantity, and how money itself is changed in its quantity and value." He then discusses the origin of the Bank and its Paper, "from their fatal birth."
Much the same argument raged in the United States between Hamiltonians, who wished to expand credit extensions, and Jeffersonians, who were deeply suspicious of paper currency. This book comprises 32 letters originally written between 1810 and 1815, and originally published in Cobbett's Political Register. This is their first collection and separate publication.
FIRST EDITION. Kress B6891. Pearl 81.