The ease this would bring to trade, the deliverance it would bring to the merchants from the insults of goldsmiths, &c., and the honour it would give to our management of public imposts, with the advantages to the Custom House itself, and the utter destruction of extortion, would be such as would give a due value to the bank, and make all mankind acknowledge it to be a public good. The grievance of exactions upon merchants in this case is very great, and when I lay the blame on the goldsmiths, because they are the principal people made use of in such occasions, I include a great many other sorts of brokers and money-jobbing artists, who all get a snip out of the merchant. I myself have known a goldsmith in Lombard Street lend a man £700 to pay the customs of a hundred pipes of Spanish wines; the wines were made over to him for security by bill of sale, and put into a cellar, of which the goldsmith kept the key; the merchant was to pay £6 per cent. interest on the bond, and to allow £10 percent. premium for advancing the money. When he had the wines in possession the owner could not send his cooper to look after them, but the goldsmith’s man must attend all the while, for which he would be paid 5s. a day. If he brought a customer to see them, the goldsmith’s man must show them. The money was lent for two months. He could not be admitted to sell or deliver a pipe of wine out single, or two or three at a time, as he might have sold them; but on a word or two spoken amiss to the goldsmith (or which he was pleased to take so), he would have none sold but the whole parcel together. By this usage the goods lay on hand, and every month the money remained the goldsmith demanded a guinea per cent. forbearance, besides the interest, till at last by leakage, decay, and other accidents, the wines began to lessen. Then the goldsmith begins to tell the merchant he is afraid the wines are not worth the money he has lent, and demands further security, and in a little while, growing higher and rougher, he tells him he must have his money. The merchant—too much at his mercy, because he cannot provide the money—is forced to consent to the sale; and the goods, being reduced to seventy pipes sound—wine and four unsound (the rest being sunk for filling up), were sold for £13 per pipe the sound, and £3 the unsound, which amounted to £922 together.
| £ | s. | d. | |
| The cooper’s bill came to | 30 | 0 | 0 |
| The cellarage a year and a half to | 18 | 0 | 0 |
| Interests on the bond to | 63 | 0 | 0 |
| The goldsmith’s men for attendance | 8 | 0 | 0 |
| Allowance for advance of the money and forbearance | 74 | 0 | 0 |
| 193 | 0 | 0 | |
| Principal money borrowed | 700 | 0 | 0 |
| 893 | 0 | 0 | |
| Due to the merchant | 29 | 0 | 0 |
| 922 | 0 | 0 |
By the moderatest computation that can be, these wines cost the merchant as follows:—
| First Cost with Charges on Board. | £ | s. | d. |
| In Lisbon 15 mille reis per pipe is 1,500 mille reis; exchange, at 6s. 4d. per mille rei | 475 | 0 | 0 |
| Freight to London, then at £3 per ton | 150 | 0 | 0 |
| Assurance on £500 at 2 per cent. | 10 | 0 | 0 |
| Petty charges | 5 | 0 | 0 |
| 640 | 0 | 0 |
So that it is manifest by the extortion of this banker, the poor man lost the whole capital with freight and charges, and made but £29 produce of a hundred pipes of wine.
One other office of this bank, and which would take up a considerable branch of the stock, is for lending money upon pledges, which should have annexed to it a warehouse and factory, where all sorts of goods might publicly be sold by the consent of the owners, to the great advantage of the owner, the bank receiving £4 per cent. interest., and 2 per cent. commission for sale of the goods.
A third office should be appointed for discounting bills, tallies, and notes, by which all tallies of the Exchequer, and any part of the revenue, should at stated allowances be ready money to any person, to the great advantage of the Government, and ease of all such as are any ways concerned in public undertakings.
A fourth office for lending money upon land securities at 4 per cent. interest, by which the cruelty and injustice of mortgagees would be wholly restrained, and a register of mortgages might be very well kept, to prevent frauds.
A fifth office for exchanges and foreign correspondences.
A sixth for inland exchanges, where a very large field of business lies before them.