The Stratford Murder by Mike Hollow (love books to read txt) 📕

unable to explain, but she said you would know all about it. Do you think you could shed some light on it for us? Just the bare bones.’

‘How touching,’ said Pemberton. ‘It’s flattering to discover the staff think I know everything, but I can’t claim that’s really true. If it will help you, though, I’ll happily try to explain as best I can. It’s all to do with economics, and it’s an idea put forward some years ago by a man called C. H. Douglas.’

His voice had become animated, which suggested to Jago that the bank manager relished opportunities to explain economic subjects.

‘In layman’s terms, please, if you can, Mr Pemberton,’ said Jago, eager to forestall complicated musings. ‘Simple enough for a policeman to understand.’

‘Of course, yes,’ Pemberton replied, his voice now slowing and taking on a schoolmasterly emphasis. ‘You have to look at it in the context of the economic problems the world’s had since the last war. Take the great depression we had in the early thirties, for example. Many people say that was caused by overproduction – too many goods being manufactured for the market to absorb. Douglas said the real problem was that in our kind of economy the costs of production are greater than the purchasing power that people have from their incomes. I confess even I don’t understand the ins and outs of his economic argument, but to put it simply, I think he meant people just don’t have enough money to buy all the things we produce.’

‘And social credit is the answer?’

‘Yes. He said the solution to all the economic problems we’ve seen in recent years is to introduce what he called a national dividend – an amount of money given to each person by the state to augment their purchasing power. Enough for them to choose whether to work or not, in fact. He claimed this would bring about an age of leisure, with prices stable or even falling, and an end to inflation. It would increase the freedom of the individual and make everyone more prosperous, regardless of whether they had a job or not. You might ask, of course, whether this wouldn’t lead people to take advantage, and many would agree with you. The theory, though, assumed that all people are fundamentally good.’

‘Not an easy conclusion to come to these days.’

‘Indeed, but Douglas believed wars were inevitable as long as political leaders tried to achieve full employment, because the only way to do that was to increase exports by capturing foreign markets. I remember him giving a talk about it on the wireless five or six years ago – he said it’s economic war that leads to military war. But who knows whether he was right? Either way, he said there’s enough wealth in the country for everyone, but the problem is not everyone has access to it.’

‘So we give everyone this national dividend and they have the money they need to buy things?’

‘I think so, yes.’

‘Is that the same as communism?’

‘I don’t think Douglas was a communist or even a socialist – he thought his ideas would give power to the individual, not to the state. I’m not really sure which category he fits into, I’m afraid, or whether he fits into any of them. I think he believed that in the future machines would do the work, and he may well be right. In banking we now have accounting machines instead of the old handwritten ledgers, and there’s even talk of having robots instead of staff. Douglas believed automation would mean fewer jobs, but with social credit people wouldn’t necessarily need a job to be economically secure and happy. Whether he thought we’d still need policemen I don’t know. What do you think?’

Jago said nothing. As far as he was concerned, until such time as policemen were no longer required, his job was to ask questions, not to offer opinions on matters of public policy.

‘Actually,’ Pemberton continued, ‘I don’t think he was naive enough to think we’d ever have no need of police officers or armed forces. He argued that his social credit policy would remove the need for Britain to start wars, but that didn’t mean other countries would never attack us, so I don’t think he was calling for unilateral disarmament, for example, unlike some of our politicians in recent years. He said that that would be like saying a bank would never be robbed if it had paper walls – you’ll understand why I remember that particular allusion.’

‘So basically he was saying the government should give everyone a certain amount of money, regardless of whether they already have a job, and this money wouldn’t have to be repaid?’

‘I think that’s it. Good news for people without a job, and bad news for loan sharks, you might say.’

‘You might indeed. So that’s what the Social Credit Party believes – the ones they call the Greenshirts?’

‘Roughly, I think, but I’m not an expert, so I may be wrong. The main problem is that Douglas’s system is so complicated, hardly anyone can understand it.’

‘And what’s your view of it as a banker, as far as you understand it?’

‘My view is simple. I’d say it’s not the kind of notion any serious banker would entertain for a moment.’

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

‘That’s interesting,’ said Jago as they emerged from the bank onto the High Street. He strode off, heading in the direction of the town hall and West Ham Lane.

‘What – all that stuff about economics? I didn’t understand a word of it,’ Cradock replied, hurrying to keep up and hoping they were returning to the police station, where at last he could say goodbye to the suitcase.

‘I’m not sure I grasped every detail myself,’ said Jago, ‘but it’s interesting because of what it tells us about the family. According to Audrey, Richard takes after his dad, but if we’re to believe what Carol’s just told us they’re actually like chalk and cheese. You’ve got Charlie Lewis making a fortune out of