Part 18

It is impossible to suppose, that in the space of 18 years there should have been carried out of the kingdom, either to _Ireland_, or in support of the smuggling trade, or for other purposes, less than the amount of the coin struck since that period. Let us add to the 30 millions coined from the beginning of this reign down to the year 1780, the 5 millions for the sixth part in old specie remaining of the former reigns (that sixth supposed, rather than acknowledged, to be actually in circulation), the total will be 35 millions; to which must be added, the value of silver plate, toys, &c. Admit, that all these articles together, circulation and silver wrought, amount to 50 millions sterling;—to those who may think that the sum of 15 millions, at which I rate the wrought silver of all kinds, is too trifling, I would recommend to observe, first, that these 15 millions constitute nearly the tenth part of the general revenue, both of the land and industry; secondly, that the third part of that revenue belongs to the peasants and mechanics, who have no such costly furniture; and thirdly, that as to the rest of the nation, if there exist a man who possesses the equivalent of one half of his revenue in plate, there are scores who are not possessed of so much as one tenth part.—Shall it be insisted upon, however, that, by adding the amount of plate and the mass in circulation to that which _must_ correspond with the demands that may be made upon the Bank, the whole amounts to 60 millions sterling?—Be it so;—but _England_ was certainly in possession of 20 millions at least, in cash and wrought silver, before the time at which Sir _Charles Whitworth_ began his Statements; for there existed then much less credit, and no paper to answer the purposes of cash:—forty millions, then, constitute the whole of what _England_ chose (I call it strictly a choice) to reserve, out of so many millions imported from _America_, which really went through her hands, in the space of 90 years.—I am fully persuaded that I could meet with some thousands of persons, even in _England_, who, from the sketch I have given, would think that I make a present to _England_ of 10 millions. It matters not, I shall be equally generous in regard to _France_, whose accounts I am about to lay open; and yet I shall have gold and silver enough left to extend my liberality all over _Europe_.

Mr. _Necker_ has but two reasons to suppose that there exists in the _French_ circulation a sum of 2,200,000,000 livres _tournois_. The first is the indubitable fact, that since, and including the general re-coining of the _French_ specie in 1726 to 1783, there have been struck, in the different mints of that kingdom, 2,500,000,000 of the same specie (the only one that is current in that country:) and, in the next place, the very questionable fact, that _France_ has preserved the whole, except 3 or 400 millions _tournois_, which may have passed into foreign hands, from the quantity of _French_ specie which must have been carried abroad, to answer her commercial and political purposes.

Say only 2000 millions of livres in the _French_ circulation, that I may not be troubled with 100 millions, which can neither weaken nor strengthen my reasonings.

When that general re-coinage of the year 1726 took place in _France_, there must have existed, at that time, 1000 millions _tournois_, to impart a proper circulation to a revenue, which, we may suppose, was less by one half than what it is at this time. _France_, therefore, had occasion to increase her specie, only by the additional thousand of millions, of which she is now in possession, even upon a supposition that she has now 2000 millions; and this want has been supplied in the space of 57 years, at the rate of 18 millions only, one year with another.

Let it be granted, now, that the annual wants, the personal wants of _France_, in articles of luxury, plate, gold and silver lace, trinkets, &c. amounted to 7 millions _tournois_, upon an average, in the course of the above 57 years.—By adding thereto the 18 millions I have spoken of, I can find but 25 millions overplus, one year with another, saved by _France_ upon all the treasures of _America_, which certainly must have passed through her hands from 1726 to 1783.

The reader must be sensible, that there is no occasion to speak of the sums annually exported to _India_, it matters not by whom; they no longer exist for _Europe_; and I have proved nothing hitherto, if it be still doubted that _Europe_ has lost nothing in that respect but the trifling advance in her prices, which 100 or 150 thousand pounds sterling, added annually to her general specie, would have given to all the productions, both of agriculture and industry. The return of those 150,000_l._ in _India_ goods has produced yearly to _Europe_ all the labour necessary to repay them; for it must be observed, that _labour pays every thing_, and that nothing is paid but by _labour_. The 150,000_l._ exported to _India_, are not lost therefore, as to their essential effect, as would be the case of sums laid up in the coffers of a Sovereign, who might be unacquainted, even at this day, with what was known to Queen _Elizabeth_ above 200 years ago, that _the Prince’s treasures are well placed no where, but in the hands of his subjects_, that is, of _such_ amongst his subjects _who do not lock them up in their own chests_.

I join together the two balances of _France_ and _England_, which probably fall much below, and which cannot be above, what I have stated them to be; and I see that those two formidable bugbears, after having annually devoured, according to their own account, 7 millions sterling, have, in the end, and very fortunately too, only digested something less than 2 millions, viz. the bugbear of _France_, 12 or 1300 thousand pounds sterling; and the bugbear of _England_, about 5, 6, or 700 thousand.

Thank Heaven then, there remains, after _England_ and _France_ have been fully saturated, (including the general exportation to _India_) about 4 millions sterling, which the other States of _Europe_ have received, one year with another, partly in plate, partly in gold and silver-lace, partly in ingots, partly in guineas, and partly in louis-d’ors, of which those who gave them still think themselves in possession, and which those who received them do not think they possess.

But, it will be said, the louis d’ors, which are spent in _Germany_ during a war, revert to _France_ soon after a peace; the plenty in which they flow back, is known to every one who has the least concern in trade.—No doubt of it; when the _German_ circulation is overloaded, it must re-flow where it is beneath its level: the coin carried by the _French_ into _Germany_, in the time of war, was then indispensable there to supply the wants of those who carried the money into that country, and to increase the means of the ordinary circulation, _an increase occasioned by a circumstance that tertiated the price of every thing_. The circumstance subsiding, every thing takes its usual course; prices are reduced; the greatest part of the money which had been carried there, becomes useless on account of that reduction:—it is sent back; and why is it taken then by _France_? Because it is become necessary there;—for you must observe, that the money in question was useless in _France_, as soon as it was wanted in _Germany_.—During the war the commerce of _France_ was at a stand; her granaries overstocked with corn, her cellars with wine, her warehouses with goods, waited only for peace, to set a value on that corn, that wine, those goods, and of course, on that idol Money, which, during the war, could not, in regard to the _French_, be of any value, but on the very spot where the _French_ had themselves carried it.

Observe, above all, that _England_, who pretends to have the largest balance in money, is the very nation who, with respect to the extensiveness of her commerce and the mass of her industry, keeps the least part of that balance at home, and constantly preserves as little of it, as if she had been no less convinced than I am myself, of the futility of any other balance in bullion, but that which is necessary for the five articles above mentioned. What results now from the reduction of those two frightful _colossi_ to their proper dimensions?

It results, First, that every system of balance, founded on the supposition which served as a basis to the two balances I have spoken of, is as chimerical, as it would be pernicious to the nation who should regulate herself by it, and to such other nations as might be unfortunate enough to correspond with her:

Secondly, That the private interest of every merchant always militates, in this respect, against the pernicious dreams of trade in general:

Thirdly, That the case between nation and nation trading together, is similar to that which subsists between citizen and citizen; as there is but one way for a man to prevent the last penny of his wealth from being useful to some other member of his community; and that way is, _to bury under ground (as soon as he has received it) that last penny, the utility of which he grudges to share with other men_: in like manner, a nation can no otherwise prevent the surplus of her money being carried into another country when this latter is in want of it, than _by burying her balance as soon as she has received it_:

Fourthly, That the superiority of industry, activity, and _capitals_, in a nation, gives her no other advantage, than that of supplying those countries with which she trades, with further means of increasing their own industry and activity: Now,

Fifthly, The more you increase industry and activity amongst other nations, the more you increase their want of those signs which are to represent the products; the more you increase their want of those signs which you long to possess exclusively, if it were possible: Therefore,

Sixthly, If it be true, that money ought to be the only aim of commerce and exportation, all the favourite ideas on the pretended balance, being entirely destroyed by facts, even at the time when the world was more fully persuaded of the truth of those ideas, and of the wisdom of the measures which were to have perpetuated that balance, it would be necessary henceforth to resolve to hide money under ground, as fast as it comes in.—Would it not be better to question the principle itself, and seek for fresh information on the utility as well as the object of exportation?

_Exportations and Importations considered as a Game. Such a Game is as rational as any other, to whosoever will not content himself with playing at Cards, or with his own ~Thoughts~._

A world of unanswerable arguments start up at once, tending to demonstrate the superiority of civilization over the wild state of nature. Yet, methinks, a savage may overturn them all by these few words: _I know nothing of what you say, and I am not inquisitive_.—I readily confess at least, that I do not see what reply can be made to such an answer, more than I did with regard to the four questions put in the Upper House to the manufacturer of whom I have spoken; yet this manufacturer was not stronger in argument on all that was foreign to the essential point of the four questions, than I might be to convince my savage of that delight, which a man fully persuaded of the excellence of his own conceits, and of the happiness there is in making them known to all the world, feels, without allay, without interruption, in staining some reams of paper, scribbling sometimes an hypothesis, sometimes a comedy, a romance, a ballad, &c.; for it is very true, that the work I now lay before the public, has, in the space of 12 or 15 years, undergone all those metamorphoses in my hands, and that during that time my heart rankled with the ambition of being read in antichambers, given for premiums in colleges, tolerated in nunneries, mentioned in the _boudoirs_ of the fair, noticed in the memory of Ministers, revolved in the hearts of Sovereigns, and every day sung about the streets and in cottages, through which all princes must sometimes pass, if they wish to discover some decisive difference between the interesting illusions of humanity and the deep speculations of politics. Yet with all that stock of words, if not of reasons, that I must have acquired beforehand, to justify, in some measure, the extravagance of such an ambition, I own that I should be confounded by the answer of my savage.—But this could not be the case, if a civilised man, after having convinced me, that the advantage of commerce between man and man, as well as between nation and nation, consists in supplying each other’s wants, when it is possible to effect it by an exchange of surplusses, would next undertake to prove to me, that the advantage of a State, which is nothing else but a nation, an aggregation of men, consists in keeping as much as possible of that money which they have in too great abundance, though the inevitable consequence would be, that they would procure to themselves so much less of some article in which they might be deficient, but which it would at the same time be very convenient to them to possess.—It is hard that the compendium of prohibitions, restrictions, &c. so much commended, and which have kept so many great men so long on the watch, dwindles finally into the assertion of the two contradictory propositions which I have just now dated.

Two articles are necessary and sufficient to man—bread and water; let not meat be called in as a third; it is too well known, that three fourths of _Europe_ seldom eat any, and doubtless no one will contend that three fourths of a whole are less valuable than the fourth remaining, in the eyes of Him who created that whole, and who probably takes some concern in its preservation. Exchanges of any other articles besides bread and water, are therefore, strictly speaking, _exchanges of mere superfluities_. Now, what inconvenience can there be in bartering one superfluity against another?

I shall first of all, display in their full force, the most solid reasonings that can possibly be adduced, in order to demonstrate, that _the choice and price of all superfluities must be left to the discretion of one set of men only_. The chymist is not to blame if he can extract nothing but a fetid oil from the matter which he undertakes to decompound.

That set of men, as estimable, as worthy as any in the world, will perhaps wonder when they see the analysis of those ideas, which, probably, they never submitted but to a superficial examination.

_Prohibitory Laws against Exportation._

_Query._ Why do you solicit a prohibitory law against the exporting of such an article of national product?

_Answer._ That I may get it _cheaper_.

_Q._ Can you buy it _cheaper_, without wronging the man who might sell it _dearer_?

_A._ No.

_Q._ As it is impossible to prove that such a conduct is equitable, how will you be able to prove it to be advantageous to the State?

_A._ It is advantageous to the State, that all its internal productions should receive at home, all such forms and preparations as may increase their value.

_Q._ Is the quantity of productions useful to the State?

_A._ The question is almost ridiculous.

_Q._ If the _productor_ be discouraged by the low price set upon his productions, and take proper measures to produce _less_, in order to save the expence attending a _greater_ production, and in the mean time to gain by producing _less_ as much as he could gain by producing _more_, will you not then be guilty of having wronged the State of all the productions which you crush in the very bud, by the prohibition you sue for?

_A._ No; Smuggling will give to the parties injured by the prohibitory law, a fully sufficient means of extricating themselves.

_Q._ Your hopes then are, that Smuggling will make up for the injuries you propose to do to the _productors_; but how will you compensate to the State for the loss it sustains by a clandestine exportation?

_A._ Our only business is to mind our own interest; besides, the State may easily procure, by means of a land-tax, what it may lose by the clandestine exportation: and we are so far from expecting that Smuggling should turn out to our advantage, that we petition it may be made a capital offence, and prohibited under pain of mutilation, the galleys, or at least the entire ruin of the smuggler.

_Q._ But the law will either succeed, or fail in its effect. If the law succeed, will you not be the author of that diminution of the products, which the low price you intend to set upon those products must unavoidably occasion? And if the law fail in its effect, do you not uselessly deprive the State, 1st, of the produce of the smuggler’s labour, whom you hope to see hanged, or at best, mutilated; and, 2dly, of the produce of that labour which would have been performed by that army, partly composed of rogues, partly of idle fellows, now to be set upon the watch to detect and apprehend the smuggler, keep him in close confinement, and lead him finally to the _gallows_, or to the _galleys_?—Who is to pay those rogues and idle fellows?

_A._ The State, to be sure.

_Q._ What are the essential parts of the State?

_A._ Industry that goes in search of money, and Agriculture in as much as she feeds Industry _at the cheapest rate_.

Agriculture, impoverished by your prohibitory law, will then lose, not only what she should get by being at liberty to export, but also what she must find to assist you in procuring her impoverishment, by paying the land-tax necessary to pay those very rogues and idle fellows, whose business it is to destroy her only remaining resource against your cupidity—SMUGGLING.

_Prohibitory Laws against, or excessive Duties imposed upon Importation._

_Q._ Why do you petition against the liberty of importing such or such another article?

_A._ Because we manufacture it, and wish to sell it dearer to the national consumers.

_Q._ Of how many orders of men is the class of national consumers composed?

_A._ Of two, the land proprietor, and all persons not wholly destitute of money.

_Q._ That is to say, _in all cases_, of the whole kingdom, against the small number of individuals who humbly petition for the prohibition of an article;—be it so. Have you devised any means to increase in the consumer the ability of purchasing, whilst you advance the price of your goods?

_A._ Not we;—on the contrary, it is our intention to have as much as we can of his commodities and money, for as little of our goods as possible.

_Q._ How can men of probity and knowledge be blind to the iniquity of such a scheme?—Will not at least its execution be somewhat impeded by the greatest part of those who follow the same trade?

_A._ No—that is impossible: our _corporations_ have already provided against the inconvenience you allude to: not one of their members would dare to sell his merchandise below the price fixed by his _corporation_: and we have made, as it were, the _impossibility_ of any such measure, _doubly_ so, by the difficulties we have devised to prevent a ready admittance into our _corporations_; all our bye-laws tend to reduce our associates to the smallest number possible. But one single expedient is now wanted to put the finishing hand to that grand work; it is the absolute prohibition of importing all those commodities which foreign nations might offer at a cheaper rate, than we are determined to sell them at.

_Q._ So then, if you succeed in your plan—if by means of the solicited prohibition, the legislature enable you to extort, with your 16 in merchandise, the goods and money, which, in the case of a foreign competition, you could not have procured with less than 20, what do you intend to do with the remaining part of what you shall have extorted?

_A._ We shall send it abroad.

_Q._ With what view?

_A._ Of increasing the balance in money.

_Q._ Have you hitherto acted confidently with that idea?

_A._ We have—and it is known to all the world that it is the dearest idea of an _Englishman_—an idea which the nation holds (if properly attended to) as the only bulwark against a national bankruptcy.

_Q._ What have you got by that idea, if it be probable that there is not above 25 or 30 millions in specie within the kingdom, and if it be proved evidently that it is impossible you should have more than 35?

_A._ The reason is, no doubt, that foreign importation has been too freely permitted; a criminal, a traiterous indulgence which we are incessantly at work to remove: and it is on that account, that besides the absolute prohibition we now pray for in regard to such and such articles, we also petition that the duties be laid double and treble on all other foreign articles which are not yet totally prohibited.

_Q._ Do you not fear that foreigners, whose merchandise you would cause to be prohibited, should play the same trick with yours? Do you not fear that those on whose goods you mean to increase the duties, should in their turn overload those which they will receive from you?—For this is all the conjuration requisite to counteract and balance the effect of those sublime regulations which you petition for.

_A._ We shall carry on a smuggling trade in their country, and they will pay dearer for our goods; they cannot do without them.

_Q._ They will, no doubt, follow your example: therefore new recruits will be wanted for that army of rogues and idlers, designed to lay hold of, and ruin whoever should dare to oppose your ransoming the owners of lands, and proprietors of some money; but be it so:—you will besides be equally successful in obliging the poor ransomed individuals, to pay for the additional and necessary reinforcement of your standing army of rogues and idlers, and for those light troops of informers so well fitted for the noble purpose you are carrying on;—be it so again.—But, after all, what are you to do with that immense balance in money?—Shall you bury it under ground?