Great Throughts Treasury

This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.

Josiah Stamp, fully Sir Josiah Stamp, 1st Baron Stamp of Shortlands

British Civil Servant, Industrialist, Economist, Statistician, Writer and Banker

"It is easy to dodge our responsibilities, but we cannot dodge the consequences of dodging our responsibilities."

"Banking was conceived in iniquity and was born in sin. The Bankers own the earth. Take it away from them, but leave them the power to create deposits, and with the flick of the pen they will create enough deposits to buy it back again. However, take it away from them, and all the great fortunes like mine will disappear and they ought to disappear, for this would be a happier and better world to live in. But, if you wish to remain the slaves of Bankers and pay the cost of your own slavery, let them continue to create deposits."

"Banking was conceived in iniquity and born in sin."

"But if you want to continue to be slaves of the banks and pay the cost of your own slavery, then let bankers continue to create money and control credit."

"The Government are very keen on amassing statistics - they collect them, add them, raise them to the nth power, take the cube root and prepare wonderful diagrams."

"The modern banking system manufactures money out of nothing."

"The individual source of the statistics may easily be the weakest link."