[1] The 18 millions sterling in circulation, as calculated in 1688, by
Dr. _Davenant_, were, in 1711, brought down to 12 millions, probably as
we reduce now to 20 or 25, the 40 millions and upwards which might be
supposed in _England_, were we to confine ourselves to the calculation
of the coin struck in the present reign, and of the old pieces preserved
on account of their weight being unimpaired. The sequel will shew, that
it is next to an impossibility for a country, tolerably governed, to
preserve, for any length of time, more or less money than its wants
require.
[2] I have mentioned the fatal tree, as a consequence of the miseries
attending war. This is more sensibly felt in _England_ than any where
else, for reasons obvious to every one. During the first years that
immediately follow a peace, a four-fold number of wretches, to what
are executed at other times, are brought to the gallows. It is with
much ado that a man returns within the sphere of the confined and daily
occupations of the handicrafts or husbandmen, when he has for some years
rioted in that licentiousness permitted, in a manner, to soldiers and
sailors, in every thing that does not concern their respective service.
[3] This idea is the more to be attended to, as, supposing it were
possible that an increase of coin, within the nation, should enhance
the produce of industry alone, the landed proprietors would certainly
be obliged to petition for an act of parliament, _prohibiting the
importation of bullion, for fear it should be turned into coin_; just
as they would be obliged to pray for a tax on the productions of the
earth, if none but the taxed articles were to increase in price.—We now
petition against taxes; we should then pray to be taxed. This would be
no bad subject for a Comedy, if attempted by a writer who would handle
it properly. I hope the labouring man would be allotted a very bustling
part; that is, he would engross the best wishes of all good men, and
command the attention of all those who do not think themselves entitled
to that appellation.
[4] Since my writing the above I have seen the account-book (_Bilan_) of
another nation; I shall notice it in its proper place.
[5] Under the idea of labour, I comprise all kinds of capitals necessary
to keep in action the labouring man; a stock, or capital, is but an
accumulation of savings, made from former labours, whether it represents
the savings of a certain number of years, in regard to one man, or those
of some centuries, in regard to the nation or some privileged individuals.
[6] One of the most respectable _English_ writers has been charged with
having entirely given up the _American_ cause, which he had hitherto
so strenuously supported; in my opinion it is a mistake. It was not to
the _Americans_ that the Doctor was attached, it was to certain maxims,
plain but fertile, by which they seemed to have been directed, and
which the said author, establishes and recommends as the only guides
for all Princes and Nations, to lead them to that point of prosperity
the limits of which can be prescribed by Nature alone; the _Americans_
most probably will return to those maxims, and I presume to think, that
they will instantly be restored to the favour of that worthy Divine; my
opinions so nearly approach to those of that honest man on every point
that truly concerns society, that I wish either to convert him, or to
be perverted by him, with regard to the reimbursement. I must confess,
that if the ideas which are the ground-work of my principles, be false,
the error is mine alone; if I am right, the mistake of the Doctor, (like
the imperfections in _Shakespeare_), is the fault of his age, not of
himself. I shall further add, that the reimbursement, according to the
principles I have laid down, is not a measure by any means material to
the State; it is only a trifling injustice done to very little purpose,
and not even suspected by those who sustain it, a _je ne sais quoi_
giving to one a little credit and a little uneasiness to others, keeping
_the bulls and bears_ in spirits and the writers of paragraphs in full
employ, but luckily productive of a light and transitory sensation only,
and even that in a small part of the machine: so little is reimbursed
at a time! so soon is one tired of reimbursing! Presently, the only
essential object, the price of every thing shapes itself so well by the
circumstances attending the reimbursement, that I should not hesitate
to ascribe the ordinary, the infallible reparation of all evil, to the
credit of one sole principle of all good, were it not my invariable maxim
(as it is the Doctor’s and his friend _M. Turgot_’s) not to scandalise
even those who do not believe in God.
There is a prejudice much more unaccountable in _England_, in the
proud _England_, than the whim of a national reimbursement; it is that
prejudice which all the _hired_ writers, _pro_ and _con_, endeavour
to propagate from age to age in all countries, a prejudice, on the
destroying of which every unhired writer can never be too intent, that
prejudice stating, that _the prosperity of a State depends on one single
individual_. Where is that _Phœnix_ to be found? There are always two
pretenders at least, who cry at once, I AM THE MAN, and a thousand voices
exclaiming together, HE IS THE MAN. _The prosperity of a State, be its
extent what it may, solely depends on its agriculture, its industry, its
knowledge, and on that degree of liberty with which those three objects
can exert themselves in every way._ This is the grand truth which ought
to be impressed on every mind.⸺Let one great man die in a country where
great men are appreciated⸺stamp on the ground, and ten such men will
start up: many more will start up when every body, without respect either
to face or mask, is at liberty to stand as a candidate.
[7] Let the question on this very point be asked of any one, who can
remember, and compare. I except no article whatsoever of industry, which
is brought to perfection.
[8] It is truly farcical to hear and _see_ the deep-fetched sigh of a
tradesman, when he is reminded by a purchaser, that the subject matter of
the bargain is dearer than it used to be: “Alas! Sir, (says he) this very
article is taxed one shilling; and, Sir, I say nothing of that cursed
shop-tax.” But _why_? If the purchaser has some kind of labour, no matter
what, and no matter how, to dispose of, it is evident that, as soon as
the sigh will have gone round, the tax will be paid, _without any expence
but that of some thousands of sighs exchanged by the community at large_.
[9] I must confess I wish also that a little time could be spared to
examine whether all kinds of taxes, already devised or to be devised,
already established or to be established, on any other object but
_consumption_, whatever may be the appellation with which they may be
honoured or disgraced, from the land-tax down to the shop-tax, _are not
in fact so many poll-taxes_:—that is to say, I wish they would be pleased
to examine, whether that man whose _hand_ is obliged, _under pain of
distress_, to give at such a day such a sum, can, upon due recollection,
disguise to himself that his _head_ is as really taxed, as if the subsidy
to be paid was called _a poll-tax_, or _la taille_. If I am not mistaken,
the case is this: the shopkeeper feels that he ought not to pay a tax
upon his shop; he pays it and cries out like an eagle; he is right: the
land proprietor does not know that he ought not to pay a tax upon his
land; he pays it and says nothing; he is wrong: the Minister wanted
money; he thought that nothing remained untaxed; he suspected that the
land proprietor would at last cry out as loud as the shopkeeper, if the
land-tax was increased; he taxed the shops: a shop, in truth, does not
appear (very evidently at least) more sacred than the land upon which it
is erected.—It is not at all impossible, but that in some few years all
these misunderstandings will be talked of with as little reverence as
witchcraft; but till then, the good mother Nature must work underhand, as
she ever did, and probably ever will.
[10] In the Political Arithmetic of Mr. _Young_, may be seen the
accounts, year by year, whence I have drawn the inferences here submitted
to the Reader. It is but a few days ago that I thought of comparing with
my own ideas the result of the whole of those accounts.
[11] It is a very good idea, according to the Navigation-Act, to
restrain, as much as possible, the _English_ sugar-colonies, _which their
strongest interests attach for ever to England_,—to restrain, I say,
those sugar-colonies, in order to enlarge the faculties of some relics
of timber, tar, and wheat-colonies, _which their strongest interests
will detach from ~England~ as soon as_ they shall be strong enough to
make the best of their timber, tar, and wheat. It is said in _England_,
that the sugar-cane planters are so immensely rich, that they can well
afford to pay 20 _per cent._ dearer to their _dutiful_ brethren, for
what they could purchase 20 _per cent._ cheaper from their _revolted_
ones.—A sugar-cane planter, with a clear revenue of one or ten thousand
pounds sterling in sugar, is neither more nor less rich than a freeholder
in _Great-Britain_, with a clear revenue of one or ten thousand pounds
sterling in wheat or grass; the one, as well as the other, is every day
rich by the 2 or 4 pounds weight of food he can digest, and by the 6 or
10 or 15 _lb._ of cloaths he can wear; the one, as well as the other,
picks out those 10 or 20 pounds from the materials that best suit his
taste or fancy.—To the shame of thy power, ô Opulence, here thou must
stop! _huc usque venies_.—Such is the truth, no greater is the truth, no
less trivial is the truth, before which that _great globe itself_, that
immense and _baseless fabric_ of premiums, prohibitions, restrictions,
and so many other financiering _visions_—_shall dissolve, and leave not
a wreck behind_!