This 410-page book presents a new conception of finance, of the money system, that would definitely free society from purely financial problems. Its author, Louis Even, sets out the outlines of the Social Credit financial proposals, conceived by the Scottish engineer Clifford Hugh Douglas.

Contents

Preface (to the first edition in French)

This book talks about Social Credit, but it is far from being a general survey of Social Credit. Social Credit is actually a whole orientation of civilization, and deals with its social and political, as well as its economic, aspects. We even believe, with Douglas — to whom the world owes this enlightening doctrine — that putting right the economic order along Social Credit lines, is impossible without first putting right the political order.

In this volume, however — except for a few thoughts incidental to the repercussions of a flawed and dominating financial system on politics — we have confined our study to economic objectives and Social Credit financial proposals.

The title of this book — In This Age of Plenty — clearly shows that we are now dealing with an economy of plenty, in which the access to the huge possibilities of modern production is made easier for all.

“Old economics” was ruled by the presence of gold or any other rare commodity, when production itself was scarce. But it is to go against progress and logic, to want to keep an instrument linked to scarcity, to confer claims on automated production.

In the first part of this volume, we recall essential and very simple notions that everybody readily admits, but which are almost totally ignored in the present economic organism. The ends no longer direct the means. A short study of the present monetary system shows that money governs where it ought to serve. We present the Social Credit proposals as a remedy, explaining the outlines, without going into the methods of application. The problem, we believe, is not so much to develop a technique of operation, as to reach an agreement on ideas, which seem both too simple and too bold to the minds who are accustomed to losing sight of the ends, and to getting bogged down in the complexity of the means. So, several chapters are especially intended to justify the Social Credit doctrine.

The second part reproduces, without necessarily being linked with each other, certain speeches and articles which throw light on the various aspects of Social Credit.

In offering this book to the public, we have especially in mind the ordinary reader, who has no special knowledge of economics. Even in dealing with specific topics, we avoid technical terms as much as possible, since they are more likely to tire readers than to enlighten them. We strived to write in such a way as to be easily understood by the great majority of people — which, besides, is in the spirit of an economy of plenty to serve and everyone.

Montreal, May 1st, 1946.

Preface to the present edition (1996)

Fifty years after the publication of the first edition in French, Louis Even’s book, In This Age of Plenty, is now available in English. Louis Even began to make Social Credit known in French Canada in 1935, but now, in 1996, there are as many subscribers to his Movement’s English-language periodical, Michael, as to its French-language periodical, Vers Demain, in several countries in the world. (For more detail on the development of Louis Even’s Social Credit Movement, see the biographical notes.)

The present volume is the English translation of the fourth (revised and enlarged) edition in French, published in 1988. Ten chapters and six appendices have been added to this 1988 edition, to form the present volume. (These additions are mostly taken from issues of “Michael” published after 1988.)

In This Age of Plenty published in Polish

Louis Even’s book, “In This Age of Plenty”, was published in Polish in 1993 by Bishop Zigniew Jozef Kraszewski, then Vicar General of the Diocese of Warsaw-Prague, Poland. (Note: Bishop Kraszewski died on April 4, 2004.) Here is the translation from the preface to Louis Even’s book, written by Bishop Kraszewski:

“What Catholics learned in the social doctrine of the Church is the way between socialism and capitalism. For many years, this doctrine has been diffused in Canada, and known as the Social Credit theory. Louis Even’s book, In This Age of Plenty, that I introduce to the Polish readers, is an exposition of the Catholic social doctrine that is good not only for the Canadians; this book contains a lot of instructive topics for any person who reads it and who is open to social problems. This book has not been written only for great theoreticians and scholars, but for everybody. That is why this book is precious to the Poles, especially at the time of the second miracle of the Vistula River that we are presently experiencing. (The miracle of the downfall of Communism.)

“Poland miraculously succeeded in gaining its freedom and sovereignty. After the devastation of Communism that had been keeping us captive for so many years, we have the duty to choose the right path of social justice, based on Catholic doctrine. I think this book will largely help in achieving that. I entrust all the readers to the protection of Our Lady Victorious, who reigns in the co-cathedral of Kamionku, in Warsaw.”

Contents

PART I  — Goods at the service of needs through Social Credit

Social Credit: not  Socialism, not a political party

Chapter 1 — A Few Principles

Chapter 2 — Economics

Chapter 3 — The Consumers

Chapter 4 — Goods

Chapter 5 — Specialization — The Machine

Chapter 6 — Poverty amidst Plenty

Chapter 7 — The Symbol and the Thing

Chapter 8 — The Birth and Death of Money

Chapter 9 — The Monetary Defect

Chapter 10 — Putting the Monetary System Right

Chapter 11 — The Rights of Each One to the Bare Necessities of Life

Chapter 12 — What is a Dividend?

Chapter 13 — Heritage and Heirs

Chapter 14 — The National Dividend

Chapter 15 — Money and Prices

Chapter 16 — Price Adjustment

Chapter 17 — The National Credit

Chapter 18 — The Monetary Mechanism of Social Credit

Part II  — A Few Talks and Articles on Various Aspects of Social Credit

Chapter 19 — Society Exists For All Its Members

Chapter 20 — Minimum Security, Maximum Freedom

Chapter 21 — Politics at the Service of the People

Chapter 22 — A Superpower Dominates Governments

Chapter 23 — The Monetary Power Resides in the Banks

Chapter 24 — Liberal Leader Mackenzie King Said in 1935

Chapter 25 — Money, or Credit, Is a Social Instrument

Chapter 26 — The Goldsmith Who Became a Banker, a True Story

Chapter 27 — A Lesson From a Bank Account

Chapter 28 — What Would Social Credit Do For You?

Chapter 29 — Applied Science, a Common Good

Chapter 30 — A Corrupted Monetary System

Chapter 31 — Social Credit puts money in its proper place

Chapter 32 — Should Money Claim Interest?

Chapter 33 — Interest on Newly-Created Money Is Robbery

Chapter 34 — The Public-Debt Problem

Chapter 35 — The Labour Question, A Money Problem

Chapter 36 — There Is No Unemployment Problem

Chapter 37 — Full Income Instead of Full Employment

Chapter 38 — Equality Between Money-Figures and Price-Figures

Chapter 39 — The Environment — Where Money Is Concerned

Chapter 40 — The Government Must Create Its Own Money

Chapter 41 — To Caesar What Is Caesar's

Chapter 42 — For a Better Understanding of Social Credit

Chapter 43 — Social Credit and Foreign Trade

Chapter 44 — At the Retailer's

Chapter 45 — The Stocker's Lesson

Chapter 46 — The Monetization of Progress

Chapter 47 — 30 Million Capitalists

Chapter 48 — Men of the Right, Empty-Handed

Chapter 49 — The History of Banking Control in the United States

Chapter 50 — Social Credit in the United States in 1932

Chapter 51 — The Aim of the Financiers: a One-World Government

Chapter 52 — Social Credit and the teachings of the Popes

Appendix A — Social Credit and the Catholic doctrine, a study by theologians

Appendix B — The Bank of Canada Must Finance our Country, Debt-Free

Appendix C - Money, Questions and Answers, by Father Charles Coughlin

Appendix D — Words of Thomas Edison

Appendix E — Money Is Created by Banks, Evidence Given by Graham Towers

Louis Even — Biographical notes

About Clifford Hugh Douglas

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