A Discourse on Trade, and Other Matters Relative to it

by John Cary

4ly, The Mints may be kept Imployed, and the Kingdom thereby filled with Coin.

5ly, Our Wool may be kept at home, which I humbly conceive can never be done, till a good Credit be settled, any thing less will not be large enough to cover the Sore intended to be cured.

6ly, The Plantation Trade may be better secured, especially that of Tobacco, and Methods may be proposed to render it more profitable, both to the King, and also to the Subject.

7ly, The Bank of England’s Notes may be brought to Par, and Tallies of all sorts in a short time be paid off at their full Value, which I humbly conceive will be difficult to be done, any other way, the settling a Credit on either, or grafting them both together, seem improbable Methods to answer those ends.

I humbly hope to make Proposals in this present Sessions for putting these into practise, if a good Credit be timely settled.

Besides these, many other Advantages will accrue to the Nation, many of which I have set forth in my before recited Essay on Coin and Credit. Pag. 27, 28, 29.

III. The third Thing is to make some Comparison between the Credit here proposed, and the present Bank of England; which I humbly conceive is so shaken in its Reputation, as hath rendred it uncapable to be made the Foundation of a national Credit; and whilst we labour to recover it, we may run the hazard of destroying our Trade, disturbing the Government, and keeping our selves under a lingring War, whilst we encourage the French King, to try his utmost Efforts, hoping, that our Difficulties at home, will force us to accept of a dishonourable Peace.

’Tis certain, nothing can be the Support of a National Credit, which is not better, or at least so good as Money; and this is not to be found in the Bank of England, whose Notes whilst they are One per Cent. worse than Specie, will always keep their Coffers empty, because no Man will put into it a hundred Pounds in Money, when he can purchase a Note of the same Value for Ninety-nine; and the Consequence will be this, that the Lender, or rather the Jobber, will never rest till he is repaid, that so he may be making advantage by a new Purchase; and if this will be the Effect of a Credit worse only by One per Cent. than Money, what will it be when ’tis sunk to sixteen; Whereas, on the other side, when a Credit is better than Money, the Coffers will ever be full, because all Men will endeavour to put in their Money, and be impatient till ’tis done; and thus it will be, when the Lender thinks himself secure, and makes more Profit by having his Money in the Bank then in his Chest, who will therefore receive out no more at a Time, then his Necessities shall require, and for the same Reason, those to whom he pays it, will endeavour to return it thither again so soon as they can.

IV. As to the fourth Thing proposed, The Necessity the Nation lies under to have its Credit settled this present Sessions, it will appear, if we consider, how London now stands in Competition with all England besides, as to the Specie of Money, and how it will stand before another Sessions: ’Tis generally agreed, that about one Moiety of the Money of England is already Center’d in that great City, and the rest is not enough to pay the Debts owing to it, together with his Majesty’s Revenues, Bonds already entered into, and Taxes now to be given, for Six Months longer, besides the Foreign Bills, which are generally made payable there, all which must be return’d in Specie; for though by an Act of this present Sessions: Intituled, An Act for the farther Remedying the ill State of the Coin of this Kingdom, it is among other things provided, That all Money that shall be brought in upon Account of Taxes, or Revenues, or Loans, at Five Shillings and Eight Pence per Ounce, shall be carried to the next adjacent Mint, in order to be Re-coined, yet this will no way be Serviceable to the Country, unless a Credit be settled, it must otherwise be sent up to London after coined for want of Returns, the Debts due to the Country being paid there in Bank, which is Sixteen per Cent. worse than Money, and those due from the Country demanded in Specie, so that the Money of England is every Week brought up thither; and then, if it be next considered, what Methods are left to the Country to draw it back again, viz. by Provisions and some few other Things, ’twill be reasonable to believe, that seeing the supply made from that City to the Country is greater than what is made from the Country thither, all the Cash of England will center there in a short Time, to the Ruining of the other Trading Cities, and disabling of the Country to pay future Taxes; and this will make the dependence on London still greater, till by its own Bloatiness it must at last burst, when the Estates of the Traders shall consist only in Debts due from the Country, which must still lye out for want of a Specie to pay them in; so that all the Advantage London will receive, is, that it will be last ruined.

Now if a good Credit be settled out of Hand, and the Mints continued in the Country, the Money that is now there, may be still kept there, and Methods found out to increase it, and the Trade of England carried on with an equal Circulation in all places; this will keep up the Rents of the Lands of England, which must otherwise fall in their Values, suitable to the distance they stand in from that great Metropolis.