have receiv'd so many deep Wounds in that tender and mortal part of our Body that it seems a Miracle how we subsist and survive it while any one who should presume to probe and search this Sore to the quick by nakedly stating the Fact in our Maritime History and Conduct since the War and tho' it should be never so well meant and merely in order to the Cure of the Malady he would be thought I fear to give too much Anguish to be indur'd and such an Enterprize let the Purpose be never so honest and inoffensive would taste too bitter and look too like a Libel to be suffer'd to pass uncensur'd of Authority Thus it is with us by Sea By Land the War rages more universally and with greater Violence tho' not so sensible to our feeling here in England because our situation has hitherto secur'd us from Hostilities at our Doors and our Fields and Farms are not yet forag'd and plunder'd as our Neighbours are but what we pay as I may say to be exempted from such Violence is almost tantamount and at a long run will as certainly impoverish and undo us And we may collect from manifold Symptoms that our Destiny without some almost miraculous Means to save us is not far off Now to give you a Reason how War impoverishes the World because captious and sceptical Contenders in such Disputes will be apt to say What do you mean by broaching such Opinions and maintaining Paradoxes Does War annihilate your Money Is your Gold and Silver dissolv'd or gone into the Earth from whence 't was taken This is Malice and Trifling and nothing else To these Gentlemen then and out of respect to Truth and plam Dealing these few following Reasons of the chief Causes of Poverty and scarcity of Money by War are tender'd Let us compute by the gross we have shewn that Riches are the Product of Arts and Industry whence is inferr'd That the greater Numbers there are of Men of Business and Traffick Artizans labouring and industrious People which are the procuring Cause of Wealth the greater will be the Effect But War is a mortal Foe to Arts and Industry and consequently produces Effects directly contrary We behold Europe at this day ingag'd in a bloody and wastful War which for ought I know to the contrary imploys a Million in Arms besides Horses and Beasts of Burden destin'd by Nature's Law to the Uses of Peace and humane Ease besides some hundreds of thousands who are exercis'd about Military Matters as Arms Ammunition Stores and Utensils of War Fortifications and the like All which mighty Numbers of Men and Things are not only imploy'd in the profitable Professions of Peace but are and must be sustain'd by purchase and paid for out of the Sweat and Industry of those that are who by degrees do not only grow too few for the work but are over and above Sufferers and molested a thousand ways in their peaceful Methods of Life as namely by the Violence Rapine Insolence and Iniquity of those very People whom they are honestly with great hardship pain and parcimony labouring to maintain till at length they come to cut down the very Bough that bears them and kill the Tree by whose Harbour they were sheltred and by whose Fruit they were fed Thus the Land comes to mourn and lie waste and the Means necessary to the Support of great Armies becoming exhausted Oppression Poverty and Calamity inevitably succeed Furthermore scarcity of Money is begotten in times of Hostility from great Summs falling into Hands where it is under no regulation being prodigally and voluptuously imploy'd squander'd and scatter'd carelesly about by which means it does not circulate so currently and make such regular returns into the Publick Coffers as in times of Peace when Business and Traffick is contain'd within their proper Channels Add to these one very great further Cause of the decay and scarcity of Treasure and that is the Caution and Jealousie People are put under every one to save his own private Stake For when Demands of Publick Supplies wax pressing and Taxes begin to be felt 't is very natural for Men to begin to meditate on Self-preservation to foresee and provide for the Storm e'er it overtake them Whence those who best can whose Fortunes principally consist in Money and Moveables withdraw their Effects to Countries as far as they can from Danger others hide and conceal by a thousand Arts every thing that is Money or Moneys-worth and cover from the World's Eye every appearance of Wealth profess Poverty and practise all the methods of Parcimony imaginable to disguise and shelter themselves from the Jealousie and Tyranny of Tax-gatherers and will chuse to abide the worst Treatment those cruel Ministers can inflict rather than discover Money which they are sure will yield them Comfort in better Times And this I know to have been the Practice time out of mind in the Kingdoms of Barbary where Tyranny reigns with a high Hand where the least suspicion of Wealth suffices to expose a Man to the utmost Peril where People therefore live under a perpetual Mask and no Body enjoys the least good thing whatever he may possess but by stealth from which Cause as I have been often assur'd from the Natives themselves the better half of the Treasure of those Countries is hid in Holes and cover'd under Ground Insomuch that it is grown into a habit even among their Princes who take a Pride and Pleasure to bury their Gold This I say is another great Cause of the scarcity of Money in dangerous and hostile Times and if we may allow but a fifth or sixth part of the Treasure which would otherwise appear among us here on this side the World to have been so withdrawn and diverted there would be no doubt but such a diminution would work a good part of the Effect we are searching after To these common and evident Causes of the Evils incident to War in general we may here subjoyn why War is of late more Burthensome than heretofore and that is by the over-grown Greatness of the French Monarch that aspiring Prince who would put a Yoak on the neck of Europe conceiving that by the force of an immense Treasure whereby being inabled to bring greater Bodies of strength into the Field than was ever before practis'd in our Hostilities on this side the World he was given to hope perhaps thereby to overwhelm us which Design though we see hitherto to want the effect we are from thence nevertheless instructed in the Causes of this over-burthensome warfare whereby we are put under an invincible necessity of providing an equal Force which produces an equal Charge to withstand him which I thought necessary to Note Lastly and over and above the Impediments to our general Commerce and the Interruption thereby of our general Supplies of what we need whereby the price of Money is inhanc'd and every thing comes harder to us The Mines themselves of
Gold and Silver I am well assur'd are exhausted and yield not the Species in so great Plenty as heretofore to which adding the wide use Silver and Gold every day obtains by spreading further into the North and the Inland Countries The great Exportations to the Indies Turkey c. from whence none returns must to any judicious thinking Man be concluded to be among the Causes of that general scarcity of Gold and Silver here in Europe in comparison of what was observ'd to circulate amongst us in Twenty or Thirty Years ago which has rais'd the value of the Species and begotten that difference in price you enquire after Q. You have sufficiently explain'd the general Causes of the decay of Gold and Silver in the World abroad and in gross would it be amiss to bring the Question home by asking you how we here in England seem at least to share a greater degree of the Smart of this Evil than most other Nations Wherefore if it would not take up too much room for I observe our Subject begins to run into a longer Argument than I expected I should be glad you would instruct me a little Ans Your Question is reasonable and I am ready to gratifie you by recounting a few of the many causes of this evil felt by us here at home in a greater Degree of late than ordinary I shall begin with Trade which is a rich cunning and coy Mistress must have much Art and Address to acquire and great Attention and Assiduity to retain when gotten This Lady seems to have been neglected and ill treated by us of late We do not I fear reflect enough that her Favors once lost are hardly recovered because we have many Rivals who are jealous wise and wary and will be sure to stop the least gap we leave and hit every blot we make in our Conduct There are loud Lamentations in our Streets on this single Article of Trade Let Authority be pleas'd at whose Door it lyes to lend some Attention to these Cries and sift and search the Causes to the Bottom and they will find Sluts Corners enough Let them in their Debates and Deliberations take knowing Men to their Assistance using such caution in their Choice as that when they wou'd penetrate and cure the Evils and Errors of one Branch of Commerce to hear their Reasons with a more willing Ear who are sufferers by such Faults than those of others who are gainers by them be their Parts and Talents otherwise never so Superior For Interest is a Passion and Passion is both Deaf and Blind The Turky-Merchant exclaims against the East-India Company and these against them while perhaps both Trades may need Reformation with respect to the Publick The Art is well to distinguish for Trade though it be the publick Mistress is courted by particulars for private gain which may and do often interfere with the general good so that there is a less Mystery and a greater to be discover'd for private Men go as much in the dark and in cuvert to their profit as they can and to find out and detect these bad intricate and bye ways seems to be the behoof of those who would go in earnest upon this work which requires more Judgment and Pains to execute well then perhaps is practis'd by our Physicians In short 't is from this great Fountain Trade that all our Wealth flows If that be troubled and infected the Streams cannot be pure every Branch and Channel will gather filth run thicker and slower and in the end the Stream will stand still and the Circulation cease But the most visible and grievous Disease of which our Commerce languishes seems to me to be the heavy Burthens of all Kinds laid on Navigation which is the very bottom on which all our Prosperity is built Surely we should be more cautious if we consider'd that we are running a Race with our Rivals in Trade and a Prize of unspeakable Value is set before us where he who carries least weight is surest to win the Course Our New-Market Gentlemen tell us That barely an Ounce or two in the weight of a Sett of Horse-shooes suffices to lose the four Mile Course Shall we want the Discretion of a Jocky in our Deliberations about the most solemn Thing that belongs to the Government I could wish this Point were better weigh'd that we might discern better and lay it more to Heart and that our Friends and Neighbours the Dutch might be our Teachers and Examples in the Arts and Wisdom they Practice to further Foreign Trade in the Ease and Incouragement they give to Navigation which being the great Wheel that regulates all the lesser Movements of the Machine of Business and Profit should be watch'd with a wakeful Eye that nothing might clog or disturb its Motion Q. While we are on this Article of Trade I pray instruct me a little in the Mystery of Exchange which seems to me to have a great in fluence on Money-Matters which is the principal Subject of our Enquiries Ans Your Questions grow harder and harder and I honestly here own my Ignorance of abundance of Arts or rather Tricks that are introduc'd and practis'd by crafty Traders in this dark way of Dealing But thus far I may observe That Exchange is a kind of Usury or lending and borrowing Money at Interest wherein Usance as they call it governs and the Premium is proportion'd to the hazard and time of Payment And forasmuch as Credit on which this Intercourse is founded is a less solid Security than Land the Profit thereby does therefore excel that of ordinary Usury In a word Exchange is lending and borrowing in one Place to pay and receive in another and was invented to facilitate the Motion of Commerce but is grown to an Art of setting the Dice on Necessity and making every Man fine for his Wants which is as much as to say That the more these Money-Dealers are let into the Secrets of your Streights the higher they will raise the Price of your Redemption Time was when Exchange was regulated here by Publick Authority and establish'd on an exact and solemn Scrutiny into the Nature and Value of all Foreign Coin wheresoever we had any Dealings to the end in exchanging Money for Money the Par as they call it being known and adjusted which was the Proportion between the Value of Sterling and Foreign Money they knew to a trifle the comparative Intrinsic Difference of their respective Coins and so rated and govern'd their Exchange by that Rule out of a jealousie lest we might part with more of our Bullion for less of theirs in this kind of Intercourse which at a long run might prejudice and exhaust the capital Stock of Treasure But these wise Cautions are long since ceas'd Q. But have not you bin silent in one very essential Point in the Vse of this Mystery of Exchange as namely that of being apply'd to even the Scales and Balance the Inequality
Licence and so come to be call'd a Grievance and the cause of Discontents and Murmures in so free and noble a Constitution as ours is Ans I think King Charles the Second quitted his Right to the Profits accruing by the Mint for some valuable Consideration which at that time by reason of great Coinage amounted to thirty or forty thousand Pounds per Annum Since when we are I presume at liberty to consult and determine by the best Rules that Wisdom and Science can suggest about such Laws and Regulations for the Mint as may be found most easie and beneficial for the State Q How did that Profit arise to King Charles the Second c. by the Mint A. I suppose diverse ways but principally this namely that Bullion in those days being much lower in Value than now because more plentiful and the Standard Establish'd to such a weight and sineness which was not to be alter'd a proportional Profit came by that means of course to the King through the cheapness of the Material out of which the Coin was Manufactur'd in so much that the Merchant or Goldsmith had a Merchantable Profit to incourage them to send their Bullion to the Mint and the King a competent share of Gain in the overplus But pray note upon this Question which helps to unsold the Mystery that since those days through the causes we have endeavour'd to explain the Material of your Money is risen in Value it may be a fifth part at least and that Batgain which was thought and it may be really was so profitable to the King then shou'd his Majesty have enter'd into Covenants with his People to Coin a certain Sum of Money yearly of the Establish'd Standard weight and fineness which he cou'd not alter He might have liv'd to see himself a great deal more a looser by such a Contract then he had been a Gainer and behold all his Money to vanish as fast as it was Minted as we have plainly enough shewn Question I am now at length every way convinc'd that our Money ought to be all new Coin'd And that by reason of the new and exorbitant price of your Bullion you must have a new Standard and Proportion for your Mint But how that can be found and setled is a new Question to which I stand in need of your Answer Ans We have travel'd a great way to arrive fairly at this single Question and if we have gone somewhat about and made our Journey seem longer then might be thought necessary to some I Answer That it was for the sake of the Majority that this Voyage was taken and therefore but just to go their pace Our Subject lies in the dark to the Multitude and therefore we cannot open too many Windows to let in the Light to the end the weakest Sihht may be enabled to discern and make some Judgment whereby to determine in a matter that so nearly touches every Body Question Your Apology is reasonable and I believe will be thought so by most Men but let us come now to an Issue and decide this arduous Question How and by what Methods and Rules of Proportion our Mint may be Reform'd Answer I will not trouble you with References to what has been said that we may not multiply Words and will take for granted you bear in Mind that our Hypothesis is fram'd upon Reasons drawn from abroad as well as at home wherefore we must take Foreign as well as Domestick Considerations to our Ayd Your Money I have shewn is subject to these two chief Diseases of being too Rich which is containing more worth than it goes for in Coin which begets a Consumption and wasting by re-converting it into Bullion exporting and the like too Poor when it is either Coined by Authority through mistaken measures of State with too great an extrinsick allowance or corrupted clipt and salsify'd by others so as to become notoriously diminish'd in the intrinsick Value Which raiseth the Price of all things by the like proportion begets doubts Difficulties and Vexation in your common Traffick and enhaunses the rates of Exchange with your Neighbours which hath a mighty Influence on your Trade abroad encourages bad People at home to diminish and falsifie it every day more and more because there is no rule left to compare and know your Money by And invites the Nations round about you who may do it with more safety to import and utter it in such quantities and still worse and worse till in the end all your Silver Coin the unclipp'd and the clipp'd shall be gone out of the Kingdom and what a calamitous State such a People must be in needs no Exaggeration here Q. I am glad you have repeated and renewed in my Memory these two chief Diseases of Money and given so reasonable a Prognostick of the Effects because I reckon you will now come to propose the remedy for Restoring and Establishing the Health of our Coin by such Rules as may seem as just as your Argument hitherto has appear'd to me reasonable Ans To arrive then at that right Rule of proportion you require and which we have been thus long in quest of I first propose that we should look a little back here at home and inquire and be at a certainty what Price Bullion bore when our last mill'd Money was coined And we will suppose it here about the round summ of Five Shillings the Ounce then let us grant it to be risen and advanced in Price from Five to Six Shillings or thereabouts the Ounce which shall be the Value we will give it at this day Both which Prizes may be more or less without damage to our reasoning about the Rule which I wou'd propose for our Government in this great Question Now pray note that while the King had his Profit by the Mint which was indefinite and Silver was at an Under-rate no great difficulty cou'd occur in the Coinage for as long as that gain lasted be it little or much the King had it who was enabled over and above still to allow the Merchant or Goldsmith One or more per Cent profit to invite them to bring their Bullion to the Mint that is their Silver became so much more worth to them when manufactur'd into Money which they cou'd presently utter and employ than when inthe Masse in their Ware-house Upon which Motive namely their Gain they carried it to the Mint But that incitement ceasing from the reasons I have given there is not only no more Money now coin'd but even the Mill'd Money which in those days was minted from the same Motive Gain is melted down again and reconverted into Bulloin as we have noted and cannot too often repeat If this be true who can with any shadow of Rcason gainsay the necessity we are under of changing the proportions of our Mint which must inevitably and for ever change rise and fall by a Scale of proportion rectify'd to the rising and falling Value