Further Reasons why all Ideas of a favourable Balance in Money, different from that which I have supposed, should be rejected.
Great-Britain is not the only nation that claims a right to that kind of favour, which would reduce all Europe, in all transactions, to the use of paper-money; but I only speak of England in this place.
Money is not hid under ground in a country where administration is convinced, both of the impossibility of the people paying exorbitant taxes, without proportionable riches, and of the impossibility of being as rich as is requisite for the discharge of enormous taxes, when individuals are compelled to appear less rich, that they may be less burdened with imposts.
Money is not laid under ground in a country, where the smallest sum, as it were, equally with the largest, may be placed most securely, till the very moment, when, led by fancy or want, one may think well to withdraw it, and which, from the time when it has been placed, to that of recalling it, produces nevertheless a sure interest, which never was delayed a single minute; an interest, which is a matter neither of reproach nor of shame.
Money is not laid under ground in a country, where the reputation of being rich exposes not the subject to an arbitrary taxation, nor to demands equally ruinous, to informations, extortions, or at least to some injustice in case of a refusal.
Money is not laid under ground in a country, where regard is the appendage not only of wealth, but of credit also, which carries the appearance of, and can procure the former.
Nor is money hid under ground in a country, where it shews the value of a man as positively as that of a piece of goods; in a country, where it is frankly said, this man is worth a million; whether this expression be made use of to signify that the possessor of a million is, at least, by the whole extent of that million, far from being guilty of meanness and injustice, or that it be understood that nothing but the offer of another million could tempt him to commit anything base or unjust. Money is never buried under ground in a country, where it acts so essential a part; it cannot then be its fate in England: all the money in the possession of England stands in full evidence; it consists,—1st, in objects of private luxury, the quantity of which is by no means extravagant;—2dly, in the mass of cash in circulation. Now this very mass is despotically determined by the number of affairs transacted, and likewise by the prices and quantity of the property which is to be circulated; yet this mass is, perhaps, in England one half less than it would prove any where else, supposing the same objects to be attained; that universal mobile is too justly appreciated there, to be lavished, that is to say, to be turned into cash, beyond what is required to give credit to the paper currency substituted to cash.
I shall therefore ask, In what public funds abroad the English merchants vest annually the four or five millions of that pretended favourable balance in money, since they do not bury it at home?—There might, it is true, still exist another resource; the general balance is only the aggregate of all private balances.—But is it very certain that, upon an average, the private balances of all the merchants in Europe, who correspond with England, are annually charged by one fourth of the amount accruing from that correspondence? For if the English send them 16 every year, and every year import only 12, their correspondents are consequently indebted to them annually 4 more than they were the preceding year.
The favourable balance, as it is commonly understood, is then a mere chimera, which, if realised, would produce no other effect than to advance, at some period or other, the price of a pound of bread to that of a pound weight of gold; yet it results, methinks, from the exports of England, almost trebled within a century, that each nation, with whom the former has trebled her trade, has increased her own, at least, by the whole amount of the balance due by her to England; for it is beyond a doubt, that one must have three times more to sell, in order to be able to purchase constantly, and pay three times more than he used to do. But from this principle may it not be inferred also, that every nation, wishing to increase her trade, is interested in an increase of the commerce of all those with whom she means to correspond?—If, in order to reduce into practice, if to establish on the most equitable and most solid foundation, a system so truly advantageous to society, Nature had nothing more to combat than private cupidities—they balance each other. But how many national prejudices, how many maxims sacred to each nation, how many absurd regulations, springing from those very maxims and prejudices, is she not obliged to modify, as it were, underhand, in their effects! What a number of smugglers does that good mother employ, for the purpose of bringing all things nearer to that equilibrium, from which many are still persuaded it is so very material to deviate!