I join together the two balances of France and England, which probably fall much below, and which cannot be above, what I have stated them to be; and I see that those two formidable bugbears, after having annually devoured, according to their own account, 7 millions sterling, have, in the end, and very fortunately too, only digested something less than 2 millions, viz. the bugbear of France, 12 or 1300 thousand pounds sterling; and the bugbear of England, about 5, 6, or 700 thousand.
Thank Heaven then, there remains, after England and France have been fully saturated, (including the general exportation to India) about 4 millions sterling, which the other States of Europe have received, one year with another, partly in plate, partly in gold and silver-lace, partly in ingots, partly in guineas, and partly in louis-d’ors, of which those who gave them still think themselves in possession, and which those who received them do not think they possess.
But, it will be said, the louis d’ors, which are spent in Germany during a war, revert to France soon after a peace; the plenty in which they flow back, is known to every one who has the least concern in trade.—No doubt of it; when the German circulation is overloaded, it must re-flow where it is beneath its level: the coin carried by the French into Germany, in the time of war, was then indispensable there to supply the wants of those who carried the money into that country, and to increase the means of the ordinary circulation, an increase occasioned by a circumstance that tertiated the price of every thing. The circumstance subsiding, every thing takes its usual course; prices are reduced; the greatest part of the money which had been carried there, becomes useless on account of that reduction:—it is sent back; and why is it taken then by France? Because it is become necessary there;—for you must observe, that the money in question was useless in France, as soon as it was wanted in Germany.—During the war the commerce of France was at a stand; her granaries overstocked with corn, her cellars with wine, her warehouses with goods, waited only for peace, to set a value on that corn, that wine, those goods, and of course, on that idol Money, which, during the war, could not, in regard to the French, be of any value, but on the very spot where the French had themselves carried it.
Observe, above all, that England, who pretends to have the largest balance in money, is the very nation who, with respect to the extensiveness of her commerce and the mass of her industry, keeps the least part of that balance at home, and constantly preserves as little of it, as if she had been no less convinced than I am myself, of the futility of any other balance in bullion, but that which is necessary for the five articles above mentioned. What results now from the reduction of those two frightful colossi to their proper dimensions?
It results, First, that every system of balance, founded on the supposition which served as a basis to the two balances I have spoken of, is as chimerical, as it would be pernicious to the nation who should regulate herself by it, and to such other nations as might be unfortunate enough to correspond with her:
Secondly, That the private interest of every merchant always militates, in this respect, against the pernicious dreams of trade in general:
Thirdly, That the case between nation and nation trading together, is similar to that which subsists between citizen and citizen; as there is but one way for a man to prevent the last penny of his wealth from being useful to some other member of his community; and that way is, to bury under ground (as soon as he has received it) that last penny, the utility of which he grudges to share with other men: in like manner, a nation can no otherwise prevent the surplus of her money being carried into another country when this latter is in want of it, than by burying her balance as soon as she has received it:
Fourthly, That the superiority of industry, activity, and capitals, in a nation, gives her no other advantage, than that of supplying those countries with which she trades, with further means of increasing their own industry and activity: Now,