General

stock. Common or ordinary stock; see Common stock. George Smith’s money. The name applied to a circulating medium (in this case a substitute for money) devised by George Smith, who came to the United States from Scotland in 1834 and who died in London in 1899 in his ninety-second year, leaving a fortune estimated at £10,000,000 (about $50,- 000,000). In 1839 Smith procured the incorporation of the Wisconsin Marine and Fire Insurance Company and made himself its president. The company did not and it was not Smith’s intention that it should do much of an insurance busine . It proceeded to i ue what were termed certificates of deposit in denominations of $1 and upward in similitude of bank bills. These certificates said on their face that the amount of them had been deposited with the company and that they were payable to the bearer on demand. The whole Northwest had been denuded of currency by the financial disturbance of 1837 and there was ready employment for George Smith’s money, which, by reason of the fact that it was promptly redeemed on presentation, pa ed everywhere without discount, or in other words, at its full face value. It was wildcat or red dog money, but it was good. 225