quarters of England and into a greater number of Hands according to the Exigences of Trade If Money were to be hired as Land is or to be had as Corn or Wooll from the Owner himself and known good security be given for it it might then probably be had at the Market which is the true Rate and would be a constant gauge of your Trade and Wealth But when a kind of Monopoly by consent has put this general Commodity into a few hands it may need Regulation though what the stated Rate of Interest should be in the constant change of Affairs and â—lux of Money is hard to determine Possibly it may be allowed as a reasonable Proposal that it should be within such Bounds 〈…〉 quite Lâ—t up the Merchants and Tradesmans profit and discourage their Industry nor on the other hand so low as should hinder Men from Risquing their Money in other Mens Hands and so rather chuse to keep it out of Trade than venture it upon so small profit When it is too high it so hinders the Merchants gain that he will not Borrow when too low it so hinders the Monied Mans profit that he will not Lend and both these ways it is a hindrance to Trade But this being perhaps too general and loose a Rule let me add that if one would consider Money and Land alone in relation one to another perhaps it is now at Six per Cent. in as good a proportion as is possible Six per Cent. being a little higher than Land at Twenty years Purchase which is the Rate pretty near that Land has generally carried in England it never being much over nor under For supposing 100 l. in Money and Land of 5 l. per Annum be of equal value which is Land at Twenty years purchase 'T is necessary for the making their value truly equal that they should produce an equal Income which the 100 l. at 5 l. per Cent. Interest is not likely to do 1. Because of the many and sometimes long intervals of Barrenness which happen to Money more than Land Money at Use when return'd into the Hands of the Owner usually lies dead there till he gets a new Tenant for it and can put it out again and all this time it produces nothing But this happens not to Land the growing product whereof turns to account to the owner even when it is in his Hands or is allow'd for by the Tenant antecedently to his entring upon the Farm For though a Man who Borrows Money at Midsummer never begins to pay his Interest from our Lady-Day or one moment backwards yet he who Rents a Farm at Midsummer may have as much reason to begin his Rent from our Lady-Day as if he had then entred upon it Besides the dead intervals of ceasing Profit which happen to Money more than Land there is another Reason why the Profit and Income of Money let out should be a little higher than that of Land and that is because Money out at Interest â—â—â—s a greater Risque than Land does The â—oâ—â—ower may break and run away with the Money and then not only the 〈◊〉 due but all the future Profit with the Principal is lost forever But in Land a Man can lose but the Rent due for which usually too the Stock upon the Land is sufficient security and if a Tenant run away in Arrear of some Rent the Land remains that cannot be carried away or lost Should a Man Purchase good Land in Middlesex of 5 l. per Annum at Twenty years Purchase and other Land in Rumney-Marsh or elsewhere of the same yearly value but so situated that it were in danger to be swallowed of the Sea and be utterly lost it would not be unreasonable he should expect to have it under twenty years Purchase suppose 16 ½ This is to bring it to just the case of Land at twenty years Purchase and Money at Six per Cent. where the uncertainty of securing ones Money may well be allowed that advantage of greater Profit and therefore perhaps the legal Interest now in England at Six per Cent is as reasonable and convenient a Rate as can well be set by a standing Rule especially if we consider that the Law requires not a Man to pay Six per Cent but ties up the Lender from taking more so that if ever it falls of it self the Monied man is sure to find it and his Interest will be brought down to it High Interest is thought by some a Prejudice to Trade but if we will look back we shall find that England never throve so well nor was there ever brought into England so great an increase of Wealth since as in Queen Elizabeth's and King Iames I. and King Charles I. time when Money was at 10 and 8 per Cent. I will not say high Interest was the Cause of it for I rather think that our thriving Trade was the Cause of high Interest every one craving Money to employ in a profitable Commerce But this I think I may reasonably infer from it That lowering of Interest is not a sure way to improve either our Trade or Wealth To this I hear some say That the Dutch Skilful in all Arts of promoting Trade to out do us in this as well as all other Advancements of it have observed this Rule That when we fell Interest in England from 10 to 8. they presently sunk Interest in Holland to 4 per Cent. and again when we lower'd it to 6 they fell it to 3 per Cent. thereby to keep the Advantage which the lowness of Interest gives to Trade From whence these men readily conclude That the falling of Interest will aâ—â—ance Trade in England To which I answer 1. That this looks like an Argument rather made for the present Occasion to mislead those who are credâ—lous enough to swallow it than arising from 〈◊〉 Reason and matter of Fact For if lowering Interest were so advantageous to Trade why did the Dutch so constantly take their measures only by us and not as well by some other of their Neighbours with whom they have as great or greater Commerce than with us This is enough at first sight to make one suspect this to be Dust only rais'd to throw in Peoples eyes and a Suggestion made to serve a Purpose For 2. It will not be found true That when we abated Interest here in England to 8. the Dutch sunk it in Holland to 4 per Cent. by Law or that there was any Law made in Holland to limit the Rate of Interest to 3 per Cent. when we reduced it in England to 6. It is true Iohn De Witt when he managed the Affairs of Holland setting himself to lessen the publick Debt and having actually paid some and getting Money in a readiness to pay others sent notice to all the Creditors That those who would not take 4 per Cent. should come and receive their Money The Creditors finding him in earnest and knowing not how
it so difficult with all the security he can bring to take up 1000 l All which proceeds from the scarcity of Money and bad Security two Causes which will not be less powerful to hinder Borrowing after the lowering of 〈◊〉 and I do not see how any one can imagine how reducing Use to Four per Cent should abate their force or how lessening the Reward of the Lender without diminishing his Risque should make him more forward and ready to Lend So that these Mâ—n whilst they talk that at Four 〈…〉 Mâ—n would take up and â—mploy more Money to the publick advantage do but 〈◊〉 to multipâ—y the number of Borrowers among us of which it is certain we have too many already Whilst they thus set Men a longing for the Golden days of Four per Cent methinks they use the poor indigent Debtor and needy Tradesman as I have seen pratling Jack-Daws do sometimes their young who kawing and fluttering about the Nest set all their young ones a gaping but having nothing in their empty Mouths but Noise and Air leave them as hungry as before 'T is true these Men have found out by a cunning project how by the restraint of Law to make the price of Money â…“ cheaper and then they tell Iohn a Nokes that he shall have 10000 l. of it to employ in Merchandise or Cloathing and Iohn a Stiles shall have 20000 l. more to pay his Debts and so distribute this Money as freely as Dego did his Legacies which they are to have even where they can get it But till these Men can instruct the forward Borrowers where they shall be furnished they have perhaps done something to increase Mens desire but not made Money one jot easier to come by And till they do that all this sweet gingling of Money in their Discourses goes just to the Tune of If all the World were Oatmeal Methinks these Undertakers whilst they havâ— put Men in hopes of Borrowing more plentifully at easier Rates for the supply of their Wants and Trades had done better to have bethought themselves of a way how Men need not Borrow upon Use at all for this would be much more advantageous and altogether as Feisible For I am sure 't is as easie to contrive in a Country that wants Money in proportion to its Trade how every Man shall be supplied with as much Money as he needs i. e. can employ in Improvement of Land paying his Debts and return of Trade for nothing as for Four per Cent As it is as easie to distribute Twenty pair of Shooes amongst Thirty men if they pay nothing for them at all as if they paid 4 s. a pair Ten of them notwithstanding the Statute rate should be reduced from 6 s. to 4 s. a pair will be necessitated to sit still Barefoot as much as if they were to pay nothing for Shooes at all Either we have already more Money than the Owners will Lend or we have not If part of the Money which is now in England will not be Lent at the rate Interest is at present at will Men be more ready to Lend and Borrowers be furnished for all those brave Purposes more plentifully when Money is brought to Four per Cent If People do already lend all the money they have above their own occasions whence are those who will borrow more at 4 per Cent to be supplied Or is there such plenty of Money and scarcity of Borrowers that there needs the reducing of Interest to 4 per Cent to bring Men to take it All the imaginable ways of increasing Money in any Country are these two Either to dig it in Mines of our own or get it from our Neighbors That 4 per Cent is not of the nature of the Deâ—sing-rod or Virgila Divina able to discover Mines of Gold and Silver I believe will easily be granted me The way of getting from Foreigners is either by force borrowing or Trade And whatever otherways besides these men may fansie or propose for increasing of Money except they intend to set up for the Philosophers Stone would be much the same with a destracted man's device that I knew who in the beginning of his distemper first discover'd himself to be out of his Wits by getting together and boiling a great number of Groats with a design as he said to make them plim and grow thicker That 4 per Cent will raise Armies Discipline Soldiers and make Men valiant and fitter to conquer Countries and enrich themselves with the spoils I think was never pretended And that it will not bring in more of our neighbours Money upon Loan than we have at present among us is so visible in it self that it will not need any proof the contenders for 4 per Cent looking upon it as an undeniable Truth and making use of it as an Argument to shew the advantage it will be to the Nation by lessening the Use paid to Foreigners who upon falling of Use will take home their Money And for the last way of increasing our Money by promoting of Trade how much lowering of Interest is the way to that I have I suppose shew'd you already Having lately met with a little Tract Intituled A Letter to a Friend concerning Usury Printed in the year 1690 which gives in short the Arguments of some Treatises Printed many years since for the lowering of Interest It may not be amiss briefly to consider them 1. A High Interest decays Trade The advantage from Interest is greater than the Profit from Trade which makes the rich Merchants give over and put out their Stock to Interest and the lesser Merchants Break. Answ. This was Printed in 1621 when Interest was at 10 per Cent. And whether England had ever a more flourishing Trade than at that time must be left to the judgment of those who have consider'd the growing Strength and Riches of this Kingdom in Q. E. and King I. the 1st Reigns Not that I impute it to high Interest but to other Causes I have mentionâ—d wherein Usury had nothing to do But if this be thought an Argument now in 1690 when the legal Interest is 6 per Cent I desire those who think fit to make use of it to name those rich Merchants who have given over and put out their Stocks to Interest 2. Interest being at 10 per Cent and in Holland at 6 our neighbor Merchants undersell us Answ. The legal Interest being here now at 6 per Cent and in Holland not limited by Law our neighbor Merchants under-sell us because they live more frugally and are content with less profit 3. Interest being lower in Holland than in England their Contributions to War works of Piety and all Charges of the State are cheaper to them than to us Answ. This needs a little Explication Contributions greater or less I understand but Contributions cheaper or dearâ—r I confess I do not If they manage their Wars and Charges cheaper than we the blame is not to
of Money fansie what you will 't is but in respect of something you 〈…〉 it for and is only 〈…〉 make a less quantity of the 〈…〉 Money is made of change 〈…〉 quantity of that thing 〈…〉 to you make a Law 〈…〉 of that If your Law 〈…〉 that as much as you 〈…〉 Gold for they are 〈…〉 things puâ— in 〈…〉 the one 〈…〉 clear loss to the Kingdom as you raise Silver and debase Gold by your Law below their natural value If you raise Gold in proportion to Silver the same effect follows The effect and ill consequence indeed is not so easily observed in the one as in the other Because your accounts being kept and your reckonings all made in Pounds Shillings and Pence which are denominations of Silver Coins or numbers of them if Gold be made current at a rate above the free and Market value of those two Metals every one will easily perceive the inconvenience But there being a Law for it you cannot refuse the Gold in payment for so much And all the Money or bullion People will carry beyond Sea from you will be in Silver and the Money or bullion brought in will be in Gold And the same just will happen when your Silver is raised and Gold debased in respect of one another beyond their true and natural proportion Natural proportion or value I call that respective rate they find any where without the prescription of Law For then Silver will be that which is brought in and Gold will be carried out and that still with loss to the Kingdom answerable to the over-value set by the Law Only as soon as the mischief is felt people will do what you can raise their Gold to its natural value For your accounts and bargains being made in the denomination of Silver-money if when Gold is raised above its proportion by the Law you cannot refuse it in payment as if the Law should make a Guinea current at 22 s. and 6 d. you are bound to take it at that rate in payment but if the Law should make Guineas current at 20 s. he that has them is not bound to pay them away at that rate but may keep them if he pleases or get more for them if he can yet from such a Law one of these 3 things follow Either 1st the Law forces them to go at 20 s. and then being found passing at that rate Foreigners make their advantage of it Or 2 ly People keep them up and will not part with them at the legal rate understanding them really to be worth more and then all your Gold lies dead and is of no more use to Trade than if it were all gone out of the Kingdom Or 3 ly it passes for more than the Law allows and then your Law signifies nothing and had been better let alone Which way ever it succeeds it proves either prejudicial or ineffectual If the design of your Law take place the Kingdom loses by it if the inconvenience be felt and avoided your Law is eluded Moâ—ny is measure of Commerce and of the rate of every thing and therefore ought to be kept as all other measures as steady and unvariable as may be But this cannot beâ— if your Money be made of two Meâ—â—lâ— whose proportion and consequently whose price constantly varies in respect of one another Silver for many Reasons is the 〈◊〉 of all Metals to be this measure and therefore generally made use of for Money But then it is very unfit and inconvenient that Gold or any other Metâ—l should be made current legal Moneyâ— at a standing settled Rate This iâ— to do by Law what justly cannot be done set a Rate upon the varying value of Things and isâ— aâ— I have shew'd as far 〈◊〉 it 〈◊〉 a constant damage and prejâ—dice to the Country where it is pracâ—ised Suppose Fifteen to One be now the exact pâ—r between Gâ—ld and Siâ—ver 〈…〉 make it lasting and establish it so thaâ— next year or twenty years 〈…〉 just value of Gold to Silverâ— and that one Ounce of Gold shall be 〈…〉 Ounces of Silver neither more nor lesâ— â—Tis possible the 〈…〉 Trade sweeping away great 〈◊〉 of Gold may make it scarcer in 〈◊〉 Peâ—haps the Guinea Trade and Mines of Peru affording it in a greater abundance may make it more plentiful and so its value in respect of Silver come on the one side to be as sixteen or on the other as fourteen to one And can any Law you shall make alter this proportion here when it is so every where else round about you If your Law set it at fifteen when it is at the free Market Rate in the Neighbouring Countries as sixteen to one Will they not send hither their Silver to fetch away your Gold at 1 16 loss to you Or if you will keep its Rate to Silver as fifteen to one when in Holland France and Spain its Market value is but fourteen Will they not send hither their Goldâ— and fetch away your Silver at 1 1â— loss to you This is unavoidable if you will make Money of both Gold and Silver at the same time and set Rates upon them by Law in respect of one another What then Will you be ready to say would you have Gold kept out of Englâ—nd Or being here would you have it useless to Trade and must there be no Money made of it I answer Quite the contrary 'T is sit the Kingdom should make use of the Treasure it has 'T is necessary your Gold should be Coin'd and have the Kings Stamp upon it to secure Men in receiving it that there is so much Gold in each piece But 't is not necessary that it should have a fixed value set on it by publick Authority 'T is not convenient that it should in its varying proportion have a settled price Let Gold as other Commodities find its own Rate And when by the Kings Image and Inscription it carries with it a publick Assurance of its weight and fineness the Gold Money so Coin'd will never fail to pass at the known Market Rates as readily as any other Twenty 〈◊〉 though designed at first for 20 l go now as current for 21 l. 10 s. as any other Money and sometimes for more as the Rate varies The value or price of any thing being only the respective estimate it bears to some other which it comes in Competition with can only be known by the quantity of the one which will exchange for a certain quantity of the other There being no two Things in Nature whose proportion and use does not vary 't is impossible to set a standing regular price between them The growing plenty or scarcity of either in the Market whereby I mean the ordinary places where they are to be had in Traâ—fick the real Use or changing fashion of the place bringing either of them more into demand than formerly presently varies the respective value of any two Things You will as fruitlesly endeavour to keep
two different Things steadily at the same price one with another as to keep two Things in an Aequilibrium where their varying weights depend on different Causes Put a piece of Spunge in one Scale and an exact counterpoise of Silver in the other you will be mightily mistaken if you imagine that because thâ—t they are to day equal they shall always remain so The weight of the Spunge varying with every change of moisture in the Air the Silver in the opposite Scale will sometimes Rise and sometimes Fall This is just the state of Silver and Gold in regard of their mutual value Their proportion or use may nay constantly does vary and with it their price For being estimated one in Reference to the other they are as it were put in opposite Scales and as the one rises the other falls and so on the contrary Farthings made of a baser Metal may on this account too deserve your Consideration For whatsoever Coin you make current above the Intrinsick value will always be dammage to the publick whoever get by it But of this I shall not at present enter into a more particular Enquiry Only this I will confidently affirm That it is the Interest of every Country that all the current Money of it should be of one and the same Metal That the several Species should be all of the same Alloy and none of a baser mixture And that the Standard once thus settled should be Inviolably and Immutably kept to perpetuity For whenever that is alter'd upon what pretence soever the publick will lose by it Since then it will neither bring us in more Money Bullion nor Trade nor keep that we have here nor hinder our weighty Money of what Denomination soever from being melted to what purpose should the Kingdom be at the charge of Coining all our Money a-new For I do not suppose any Body can propose that we should have two sorts of Money at the same time one heavier and the other lighter as it comes from the Mint That is very absurd to imagine So that if all your old Money must be Coin'd over again it will indeed be some advantage and that a very considerable one to the Officers of the Mint For they being allow'd 3 s. 6 d. for the Coinage of every Pound Troy which is very near 5 ½ per Cent If our Money be Six Millions and must be Coin'd all over again it will cost the Nation to the Mint 330000 l. If the câ—ipt Money must scape because it is already as light as your new Standard do you not own that this design of new Coinage is just of the Nature of Câ—ipping This business of Money and Coinage is by some Men and amongst them some very Ingenious Persons thought a great Mystery and very hard to be understood Not that truly in it self it is so but because interessed People that treat of it wrap up the Secret they make advantage of in mystical obscure and unintelligible ways of Talking Which Men from a preconceiv'd opinion of the difficulty of the subject taking for Sense in a matter not easie to be penetrated but by the Men of Art let pass for Current without Examination Whereas would they look into those Discourses enquire what meaning their Words have they would find for the most part either their Positions to be false their Deductions to be wrong or which often happens their words to have no distinct meaning at all Where none of these be there their plain trueâ— honest Sense would prove very easie and intelligible if express'd in ordinary and direct Language That this is so I shall shew by examining a Printed Sheet on this Subject Intituled Remarks on a Paper given in to the Lords c. Remarks 'T is certain That what place soever will give most for Silver by weight it will thither be carried and Sold And if of the Money which now passes in England there can be 5 s. 5 d. the Ounce given for Standard Silver at the Mint when but 5 s. 4 d. of the very same Money can be given elsewhere for it it will be certainly brought to the Mint and when Coined cannot be Sold having one Penny over-value set upon it by the Ounce for the same that other Plate may be bought for so will be left unmelted at least 't will be the Interest of any Exporters to buy Plate to send out before Money whereas now 't is his Interest to buy Money to send out before Plate Answ. The Author would do well to make it intelligible how of the Money that now passes in England at the Mint can be given 5 s. 5 d. the Ounce for Standard Silver when but 5 s. 4 d. of the same Money can be given elsewhere for it Next How it has one Penny over-value set upon it by the Ounce So that When Coin'd it cannot be Sold. This to an ordinary Reader looks very Mysterious and I fear is so as either signifying nothing at all or nothing that will hold For 1. I ask who is it at the Mint that can give 5 s. 5 d. per Ounce for Standard Silver when no body else can give above 5 s. 4 d Is it the King or is it the Master Worker or any of the Officers For to give 5 s. 5 d. for what will yield but 5 s. 4 d. to any body else is to give 1 â—5 part more than it is worth For so much every thing is worth as it will yield And I do not see how this can turn to account to the King or be born by any body else 2. I ask How a Penny over-value can be set upon it by the Oâ—neâ— so that it cannot be sold This is so Mysterious that I think it near impossible For an equal quantity of Standard Silver will always be just worth an equal quantity of Standard Silver And it is utterly impossible to make 64 parts of Standard Silver equal to or worth 65 parts of the same Standard Silver which is meant by setting a Penny over-value upon it by the Ounce if that has any meaning at all Indeed by the Workmanship of it 64 Ounces of Standard Silver may be made not only worth 65 Ounces but 70 or 80. But the Coinage which is all the Workmanship here being paid for by a Tax I do not see how that can be reckon'd at all Or if it be it must raise every 5 s and 4 d Coin'd to above 5 s. 5 d. If I carry 64 Ounces of Standard Silver in Bullion to the Mint to be Coin'd shall I not have just 64 Ounces back again for it in Coin And if so Can these 64 Ounces of Coin'd Standard Silver be possibly made worth 65 Ounces of the same Standard Silver uncoin'd when they cost me no more and I can for barely going to the Mint have 64 Ounces of Standard Silver in Bullion turn'd into Coin Cheapness of Coinage in England where it costs nothing will indeed make Money be sooner