Scotland's free banking era from 1716 to 1844 delivered stable money, financial innovation, and zero bank runs. No government deposit insurance, no lender of last resort, no regulatory capture. Just competition and market discipline doing what they do best.
Three major Scottish banks- the Bank of Scotland, Royal Bank of Scotland, and British Linen Company- competed directly with dozens of smaller institutions. Each bank issued its own notes backed by gold and silver reserves. When you received notes from another bank, you could either accept them at face value (if you trusted that bank) or demand immediate conversion to specie. This created instant accountability. Banks that overissued notes or made bad loans watched their currency get rejected by the public and returned for redemption, draining their reserves fast.
The market developed elegant solutions that would make today's financial engineers weep. Banks formed clearing houses to settle daily note exchanges. They established correspondent relationships across Scotland, creating a payments network more efficient than anything government bureaucrats designed. Interest rates moved freely based on supply and demand for capital, not the whims of committee-driven monetary policy. Scottish banks pioneered overdraft facilities, small-denomination notes, and branch banking while their English counterparts remained trapped by regulations.
The results speak louder than any economic theory. Scotland experienced remarkable economic growth during this period, transforming from one of Europe's poorest regions into an industrial powerhouse. Bank failures were rare and contained; when institutions failed, shareholders lost money, not taxpayers.
Parliament killed this monetary paradise in 1844 with the Bank Charter Act, forcing Scotland into England's central banking straitjacket. The politicians called it "reform" while destroying 128 years of monetary evolution that had actually worked.
I’m sharing this for one reason and one reason alone, it needs to be entered into the historical record. Even if you don’t listen to the clip, please read on.
In an age where attention span in limited to the sound bite narratives, few will take the time to listen to this detailed report by the Independent Commission of Inquiry read by Chris Guinness, former chief spokesperson for The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees.
The Gaza conflict now officially has a name ‘THE PALESTINIAN GENOCIDE’. We can sit here all day and have a ping pong discussion with whataboutism, but that’s become a common tactic to distract from the uncomfortable truth.
Myself and a small group of others have long called this a genocide, but even after the International Criminal Court indicted Benjamin Netanyahu for war crimes, Western governments, along with many in the media have chosen to turn the other way as tens of thousands of innocent Palestinians have been murdered at the hands of a government seeking unparalleled retribution for a terrorist war crime against their own citizens.
Few would argue, that the October 7th 2923 attack was anything other than a barbaric act of terrorism against innocent Israelis, many of whom were sympathetic to the Palestinian cause. However, nothing, and I mean NOTHING will ever excuse the Israeli response supported by Western governments to embark upon a genocidal attempt to erase the Palestinians from Gaza.
The intention from the very outset was to embark on a campaign that would see the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from Gaza and the opening gambit of a campaign to deliver the long held ambition of a greater Israel masquerading as an act of self defense.
This has been a genocidal act of retribution that will remain a stain on the Israeli people that can never be erased.
The Iran War and the Israeli incursion into Southern Lebanon is all part of a carefully crafted plan of action that Benjamin Netanyahu has long dreamed of, but never been able to convince an American president to support until a useful idiot called Trump came along.
I know, as do those of us that were attempting to point out what was happening, it has been a long lonely road to get people to listen to the uncomfortable truth few were prepared to accept.
While we’re not there yet, far more people are awake to the truth, even though there remains a sense of reluctance to admit they were wrong.
Truth never shines brighter than when the impact shifts from a far away place to your doorstep, having an impact directly on those who chose to turn away until the result affects them at the grocery store or the petrol pump. Or when it’s their son or daughter is sent to fight an illegal war justified once again with lies and deceit.
The pieces of a dead child of a Palestinian mother carried by an in shock father in a carrier bag to the hospital in search of a dream of making his little girl whole again, become a casket of an American mother grieving over the pieces of her dead son sent to war on yet another lie, by a president who simply saw him as acceptable collateral damage in his quest for self enrichment.
A president who campaigned as a ‘no more wars’ president has now become drunk on the power and wealth that he believes endless conflicts can deliver as he takes America into an ‘end of days scenario’ where the only one left standing is China.
We are witnessing a slow motion economic and geopolitical car crash in real time, as we prepare for what seems to be an inevitable boots on the ground engagement with an insurgent army numbering a million, with a level of arrogance prepared to risk the slaughter of American service personnel.
Trump is a five times draft dodging president attempting to win an unwinnable war he claims to have already won, it is lunacy in action.
If you can make that make sense to yourself, can I respectfully suggest you seek some psychiatric help?
🎥 TikTok - https://t.co/9nMUPx8KsC
Belgium’s MEP Marc Botenga exposes Europe’s hypocrisy:
“You sanction Russia, which attacks Ukraine — but you support the United States when it bombs Iran.
You condemn Russia, which occupies Ukraine — but you support Israel occupying Palestine and Lebanon.
We blame our opponents for what we allow our allies to do — cheerfully — while smiling at Tel Aviv and Washington.
The double standard of this Europe is not only a shame — it creates a world of chaos and wars, a world in which we do not want to live, and in which we do not want our children to grow up.
Today, this Europe is not a force for good, but an accomplice to crime.
That’s enough.”
If you watch one thing today. Make it this 6 minute explanation why Scotland needs energy independence from uk
We hit the energy jackpot twice, yet we have fuel poverty
Ask yourself why that’s the outcome
Hannah Mary Goodlad, SNP MSP candidate for Shetland explains
#voteSNP