Tax laid upon it makes People less forward to buy must either have his Rent abated or else break and run away in his Landlord's Debt and so the yearly Value of the Land is brought down and who then pays the Tax at the years end but the Landlord when the Tenant not able to raise his Rent by his Commodities either runs away in his Landlords Debt or cannot be cotinued in the Farm without abatement of Rent For when the yearly charge in his Farm is greater by the increase of the Labourers Wages and yet his product Sells â—eaâ—er by reason of the Tax laid on his Commodities How will the Farmer be able to make up his Rent at Quarter Day For this may be worth our Notice that any Tax laid on Foreign Commodities in England raises its price and makes the Importer get more for his Commodity But on the contrary a Tax laid on your Native Product and home made Commodities lessens their price and makes them yield less to the first Seller The Reason whereof is plain For the Merchant Importing no Commodity but what the necessity or fashionable Wantonness of your People gives him Vent for will not only proportion his Gain to the Cost and Risque he has been at before Landing but will expect profit of his Money paid here for any Tax laid on it and take advantage from thence to raise his price above what his Tax comes to and if he cannot do that he will Trade no more in that Commodity For it being not the Product of his Farm he is not tied to bring it to Market if he finds its price not answer his Expectation there but turns himself to other Wares which he finds your Markets take off better A Merchant will never continue to Trade in Wares which the change of Fashion or humour amongst your People have made less vendible though he may be sometimes caught by a sudden alteration But that seldom happens in the course of Trade so as to influence the great bulk of it For things of Necessity must still be had and things of Fashion will be had as long as Men have Money or Credit whatever rates they cost and the rather because they are dear For it being Vanity not Use that makes the Expensive Fashions of your people the Emulation is who shall have the finest that is the dearest things not the most convenient or useful How many things do we value and buy because they come at dear rates from Iapan and China which if they were our own Manufacture or Product to be had common and for a little Money would be contemned and neglected Have not several of our own Commodities offered to sale at reasonable Rates been despised and the very same eagerly bought and brag'd of when sold for French at a double Price You must not think therefore that the raising their Price will lessen the vent of fashionable Foreign Commodities amongst you as long as Men have any way to purchase them but rather increase it French Wine is become a Modiâ—h Drink amongst us and a man is asham'd to Entertain his Friend or almost to Dine himself without it The Price is in the Memory of Man rais'd from 6 d. to 2 s. and does this hinder the drinking of it No the quite contrary a Man's way of Living is commended because he will give any rate for it and a Man will give any rate rather than pass for a poor Wretch or Penurious Curmudgeon that is not able or knows not how to live well nor use his Friends civilly Fashion is for the most part nothing but the Ostentation of Riches and therefore the high price of what serves to that rather increases than lessens its vent The contest and glory is in the Expence not the Usefulness of it and People are then thought and said to live well when they can make a shew of rare and foreign things and such as their Neighbours cannot go to the Price of Thus we see how Foreign Commodities fall not in their price by Taxes laid on them because the Merchant is not necessitated to bring to your Market any but Fashionable Commodities and those go off the better for their high rate But on the contrary your Land 〈◊〉 being forced to bring his Commodities to Market such as his Land and Industry affords them common and known things must sell them there at such price as he can get This the buyer knows and these home-bred Commodities being seldom the Favourites of your People or any farther acceptable than as great conveniency recommends them to the Vulgar or Downright necessity to all As soon as a Tax is laid on them every one makes as sparing a use of them as he can that he may save his Money for other necessary or creditable Expences whereby the price they yield the first seller is mightily abated and so the yearly value of the Land which produces them lessen'd too If therefore the laying of Taxes upon Commodities does as it is evident affect the Land that is out at Rack-rent it is plain it does equally affect all the other Land in England too and the Gentâ— will but the worst way increase their own Charges that is by lessening theiâ— Yearly Value of their Estates if they hope to ease their Land by charging Commodities It is in vain in a Country whose great Fund is Landâ— to hope to lay the publick charge of the Government on any thing else there at last it will terminate The Merchant do what you can will not bear it the Labourer cannot and therefore the Landholder must and whether he were best do it by laying it directly where it will at last settle or by letting it come to him by the sinking of his Rents which when they are once fallen every one knows are not easily raised again let him consider Holland is brought as an instance of laying the Charge of the publique upon Trade and 't is possible excepting some few small Free Towns the only place in the World that could be brought to favour this way But yet when examin'd will be found to shew the quite contrary and be a clear proof that lay the Taxes how you will Land every where in proportion bears the greater share of the burthen The publick Charge of the Government is 't is said in the United Provinces laid on Trade I grant it is the greatest part of it But is the Land Excus'd or Eas'd by it By no means but on the contrary so loaded that in many places ½ in others ¼ in others 1 â— of the Yearly value does not come in to the owners Pocket and if I have not been misinformed the Land in some places will not pay the Taxes so that we may say that the Charge of the Government came not upon Commodities till the Land could not bear it The burthen unavoidably settles upon the Land first and when it has pressed it so that it can yield no more Trade must be brought
otherwise to employ their Money accepted his Terms and changed their Obligations into 4 per Cent. whereas before they were at 5. and so the great Loans of the Country being to the State it might be said in this sense That the Rate of Interest was reduced lower at that time but that it was done by a Law forbidding to take higher Interest that 4 per Cent. that I deny and require any one to shew Indeed upon good Security one might lately have borrowed Money in Holland at 3 and 3 ½ per Cent. but not by vertue of any Law but the natural Rate of Interest And I appeal to the men learned in the Law of Holland whether last year and I doubt not but it is so still a man might not lawfully lend his Money for what Interest he could get and whether in the Courts he should not recover the Interest he contracted for if it were 10 per Cent. So that if Money be to be borrowed by honest and responsible Men at 3 or 3 ½ per Cent. it is not by the force of Statutes and Edicts but the natural Course of things which will always bring Interest upon good Security low where there is a great deal of Money to be lent and little good Security in proportion to be had Holland is a Country where the Land makes a very little part of the Stock of the Country Trade is their great Fund and their Estates lie generally in Money so that all who are not Traders generally speaking are Lenders Of which there are so many whose Income depends upon Interest that if the States were not mightily in Debt but paid every one their Principal instead of the 4 per Cent. Use which they give there would be so much more Money than could be used or would be ventured in Trade that Money there would be at 2 per Cent. or under unless they found a way to put it out in foreign Countries Interest I grant these Men is low in Holland but not as an effect of Law nor the politick Contrivance of the Government to promote Trade but as the Consequence of great Plenty of ready Money when their Interest first fell I say when it first fell For being once brought low and the Publick having borrowed a great part of private Mens Money and continuing in Debt it must continue so though the Plenty of Money which first brought Interest low were very much decayed and a great part of their Wealth were really gone For the Debt of the State affording to the Creditors a constant yearly Income that is looked on as a safe Revenue and accounted as valuable as if it were in Land and accordingly they buy it one of another and whether there be any Money in the publick Coffers or no he who has 10000 l. owing him from the States may sell it every day in the week and have ready Money for it this Credit is so great an advantage to private Men who know not else what to do with their Stocks that were the States now in a condition to begin to pay their Debts the Creditors rather than take their Money out to lie dead by them would let it stay in at lower Interest as they did some years since when they were call'd on to come and receive their Money This is the state of Interest in Holland Their plenty of Money and paying their publique Debts some time since lowered their Interest but it was not by Law nor in consequence of our reducing it here by Law to 6 per Cent. For I deny that there is any Law there yet to forbid lending of Money for above 3 or 6 or 10 per Cent. What ever some here suggest every one there may hire out his money as freely as he does any thing else for what rate he can get and the Bargain being made the Law will inforce the Borrower to pay it I grant low Interest where all men consent to it is an advantage to Trade if Merchants will regulate their Gains accordingly and men be perswaded to lend to them but can it be expected when the Publique gives 7 8 or 10 per Cent. that private men whose Security is certainly no better shall have it for 4 And can there be any thing stranger than that the same Men who look on and therefore allow high use as an encouragement to lending to the Chequer should think low Use should bring Money into Trade The States of Holland some few years since paid but 4 l. per Cent. for the Money they owed if you propose them for an example and Interest be to be regulated by a Law try whether you can do so here and bring Men to lend it to the Publique at that rate this would be a benefit to the Kingdom and abate a great part of our publique Charge If you cannot confess that 't is not the Law in Holland has brought the Interest there so low but something else and that which will make the States or any body else pay dearer now if either their Credit be less or Money there scarcer An infallible sign of your decay of Wealth is the falling of Rentâ— and the raising of them would be worth the Nations Care for in that and not in the falling of Interest lies the true advantage of the Landed Man and with him of the Publick It may be therefore not besides our present business to enquire into the cause of the falling of Rents in England 1. Either the Land is grown barrenner and so the Product is less and consequently the Money to be receiv'd for that Product is less for it is evident that he whose Land was wont to produce 100 Bushels of Wheat communibus annis if by long Tillage and bad Husbandry it will now produce but 50 Bushels the Rent will be abated half But this cannot be suppos'd general 2. Or the Rent of that Land is lessen'd 1. Because the use of the Commodity ceases as the Rents must fall in Virginia were taking of Tobacco forbid in England 2. Or because something else supplies the room of that Product as the rate of copis-Copis-lands will fall upon the discovery of Coal mines 3. Or because the Markets are supplied with the same Commodity cheaper from another place As the breeding Countries of England must needs fall their Rents by the importation of Irish Cattle 4. Or because a Tax laid on your Native Commodities makes what the Farmer sells cheaper and Labour and what he buys dearer 3. Or the Money in the Country is less For the exigencies and uses of Money not lessening with its quantity and it being in the same proportion to be imploy'd and distributed still in all the parts of its circulation so much as its quantity is lesseâ—'d so much must the share of every one that has a right to this Money be the less whether he be Landholder for his Goods or Labourer for his Hire or Merchant for his Brokage Though the Land-holder usually finds
so traded for on borrowed Money be but the ovâ—â—ballance of our Exportation to our Importation the Kingdom gets by this Borrowing so much as whatsoever the Merchant's Gain is above his Use. But if we borrow only for our own Expences we grow doubly poor by paying Money for the Commodity we consume and Use for that Money though the Merchant gets all this while by making Returns greater than his Use. And therefore Borrowing of Foreigners in it self makes not the Kingdom rich or poor for it may do either but spending more than our Fruits or Manufactures will pay for brings in Poverty and Poverty Borrowing For Money as necessary to Trade may be doubly considered first as in his hands that pays the Labourer and Land-holder for here its motion terminates and through whose hands soever it passes between these he is but a Broker and if this man want Money as for Example the Clothier the Manufacture is not made and so the Trade stops and is lost Or secondly Money may be considered as in the hands of the Consumer under which Name I here reckon the Merchant who buys the Commodity when made to export and if he want Money the value of the Commodity when made is lessened and so the Kingdom loses in the Price If therefore Use he lessenedâ— and you cannot tye Foreigners to your Terms then the ill effects fall only upon your own Landholders and Artisans If Foreigners can be forc'd by your Law to Lend you Money only at your own Rate or not Lend at all is it not more likely they will rather take it home and think it safer in their own Country at Four per Câ—nt than abroad Nor can their over-plus of Money bring them to Lend to you on your Terms for when your Merchants want of Money shall have sunk the price of your Market a Dutchman will find it more gains to buy your Commodity himself than Lend his Money at Four per Cent. to an English Merchant to Trade with Nor will the Act of Navigation hinder their coming by making them come empty since even al-already there are those who think that many who go for English Merchants are but Dutch Factors and Trade for others in their own Names The Kingdom therefore will lose by it if it makes Foreigners withdraw any of their Money as well as if it hinders any of your People from Lending theirs where Trade has need of it In a Treatise writ on purpose for the bringing down of Interest I find this Argument of Foreigners calling away their Money to the prejudice of our Trade thus Answer'd That the Money of Foreigners is not brought into the Land by read 〈◊〉 Bullion but by Goods or Bills of Exchange and when it is paid must be returned by Goods or Bills of Exchange and there will not be the less Money in the Land I could not but wonder to see a Man who undertook to write of Money and Interest talk so directly besides the matter in the business of Trade Foreigners Money he says is not brought into the Land by ready Coin or Bullion but by Goods or Bills of Exchange How then do we come by Pullion or Money For Gold grows not that I know in our Country and Silver so little that One Hundred Thousandth part of the Silver we have now in England was not drawn out of any Mines in this Island If he means that the Monied Man in Holland who puts out his Money at Interest here did not send it over in Pullion or Specie hither that may be true or false but either way helps not that Authors purpose For if he paid his Money to a Merchant his Neighbour and took his Pills for it here in England he did the same thing as if he had sent over that Money since he does but make that Merchant 〈◊〉 in England the Money which â—e has Due to him there and otherwise would carry away 〈◊〉 says our Author 〈…〉 I must not be paid and exported in ready Money so says our Law indeed but that is a Law to hedge in the Cookoe and serves to no purpose For if we Export not Goods for which our Merchants have Money due to them in Holland How can it be paid by Bills of Exchange And for Gâ—ods 100 l. worth of Goods can no where pay 200 l. in Money this being that which I find many Men deceive themselves with in Trade It may be worth while to make it a little plainer Let us suppose England Peopled as it is now and its Woollen Manufacture in the same State and Perfection that it is at present and that we having no Money at all trade with this our Woollen Manufacture for the value of 200000 l. yearly to Spain where there actually is a Million in Money Let us suppose that we bring back from Spain yearly in Oyl Wine and Fruit to the value of 100000 l. and continue to do this Ten years together 't is plain we have had for our two Millions value in Woollen Manufacture carried thither one Million return'd in Wine Oyl and Fruit but what is become of â— other Million Will the Merchants be content to lose it That you may be sure they would not nor have Traded on if they had not every year Returns made answering their Exportation How then were the Returns made In Money it is evident For the Spaniards having in such a Trade no Debts nor the possibility of any Debts in England cannot pay one Farthing of that other Million by Bills of Exchange And having no Commodities that we will take off above the value of 100000 l. per Annum they cannot pay us in Commodities From whence it necessarily follows that the 100000 l. per Annum wherein we over-ballance them in Trade must be paid us in Money and so at the Ten years end their Million of Money though their Law make it Death to Export it will be all brought into Englâ—nd as in truth by this over-ballance of Trade the greatest part of our Money hath been brought into England out of Spain Let us suppose our selves now possessed of this Million of Money and Exporting yearly out of England to the several parts of the Worldâ— consumable Commodities to the value of a Million but Importing yearly in Commodities which we consume amongst us to the value of 1100000 l. If such a Tâ—â—de as this be managed amongst us and continue Ten yâ—â—â—s it is evident that our Million of Money will at the end of the Ten years be inevitably all gone from us to them by the same way that it came to us that is by their over-ballance of Trade For we Importing every year 100000 l. worth of Commodities more than we Export and there being no Foreigners that will give us 100000 l. every year for nothing it is unavoidable that 100000 l. of our Money must go out every year to pay for that over-plus which our Commodities do not pay for and 't is ridiculous
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