e earth had contained a population of ten
billions, each one making a million dollars a second, then to pay for
that cent it would have required their combined earnings for
26,938,500,000,000,000,000,000 years.

Anyone can figure on this and see if it be correct.

Had Peter only thought to put one cent at interest, there would be no
call now for Peter's pence.

With any accretion allowed, the concentration of wealth is
irresistible. However small the amount of capital, if permitted to
grow at any rate of increase it will ultimately absorb everything. Any
finite quantity permitted any finite rate of increase, will, in finite
time, gather all that is less than infinite.

The only difficulty in this accretion is to secure debtors that will
not die. We inherit the property of our fathers, but fortunately we do
not inherit their personal debts. This difficulty is being overcome by
bonds of corporations and nations that live on, though the individuals
composing them may, age after age, pass away. This makes the increase
perpetual. Generations may come and go, but the concentration of
wealth goes uninterruptedly on.

This is not visionary theory, but is shown in the practical results
everywhere apparent.

The usurers of England, a little over two hundred years ago, secured a
charter for a bank on the condition that they loan the crown or
government 1,200,000 pounds sterling, about six million dollars.

This was a perpetual loan, never to be repaid, but annual interest at
eight per cent. was to be paid by the government forever. This
constant annual interest paid to this bank has made it such a
financial power that it reaches and draws to itself of the resources
of all lands. The aggregated wealth of the institution, if the
accretions were continuous, would now be $25,165,824,000,000. The
wealth of the United Kingdom is estimated at fifty billions, and all
Europe two hundred billions, the United States seventy billions, and
the whole world's wealth at five hundred billions.

Were the accretions of the bank at eight per cent. undisturbed and
unconsumed, it would now take fifty worlds as rich as ours to pay that
debt. It is sometimes wondered how there can be such an accumulation
of wealth in one institution as to control the finances of the world.

It is often attributed to superior wisdom or some profound, occult
manipulation. It is but the natural operation of the principle of
interest--accretion from age to age.