The Financiers' Little Game, or The Shape of Things to Come

In the Financiers’ Little Game, the Duke of Bedford (b. Hastings William Sackville Russsell) claims that the financiers' power is derived from their control of the creation and issue of money, which allows them to dominate the Administration, Industry, and the Press (p. 3). He then describes what the financiers want: a gold standard, the use of gold in foreign trade, and an international currency related in amount to gold, the "freedom of the exchanges" (i.e., the ability to buy and sell another country’s currency), and an International Police Force used to suppress money reformers like the Duke. This is followed by a list of what they don’t want: a money-supply related to the supply of goods & services, loss of control of the creation of money, money creation that leads to no interest or dividends, the abandonment of gold, no freedom of the exchanges, or barter trade. The Duke of Bedford, previously Lord Tavistock, was a noted ornithologist and naturalist who became an ardent supporter of Social Credit. His economic reformist tendencies informed his pacifism, of which he was a lifelong proponent of. In 1939 he became a founding member and President of the British People's Party, a Social Credit-influenced, anti-war group, which included prominent ex-members of the British Union of Fascists. He went to great lengths to negotiate for peace with Germany during the war and never renounced his pro-German tendencies. He died in 1953 at age 64 of a disputed self-inflicted gunshot wound. Bizarrely, his pamphlets were published by The Strickland Press, founded by the British anarchist-communist, Guy Aldred (1886-1963), who received posthumous patronage from the eccentric 'anarchist baronet', Sir William Strickland (1851-1938). Stapled wrappers (6 ½" x 4 ½"), 18 p. Stamp of A. Studer, Elmhurst, N.Y. to the front wrapper, else near fine. This pamphlet was originally published in 1944 by Strickland Press, with this reprint published three years later in Rome, Italy.…