It will be a great Trouble to carry 100 l. 10 Miles for 20 s.
Answ. It may not be 100 Men’s Case in all the Nation, and no Man is forc’d to carry it; and he who don’t carry it, hath lost nothing but what he might have gained.
For this is all clear Gains to every Man, who as soon as he has received his 20 s. can keep the 20 s. and pay a Debt with the 100 l.
Object. VI.
The want of a less Intrinsick Value, than 20 l. per Cent. will answer all the aforesaid Ends.
Answ. Less will not secure it against Exportation.
Foreigners have a knack at raising the price of Silver to draw over our Money to ’em; and I hear they can afford what they now daily do, viz. To Export, rather than fail, Clipt Money; and the only way to keep our Money at Home, Is to fix, during the War, one considerable part of its Value to the Kingdom; and when those Foreigners who must deal with us, cannot Export our Money, but with great disadvantage, they will be forced to take our Commodities in lieu of it, and be as industrious to make ’em valuable abroad as we are. And as to that Notion that we must not glut the Markets abroad with our Commodities, it is a Vulgar Errour unless we make this distinction, That ’tis dangerous when our English Factories glut the Market; for when Foreigners see the Market full, they combine together to keep down the Price, knowing that we must Sell; but then Foreigners who are better acquainted with their own Markets and Fairs than we are, and can spread a Trade much farther than our Factories can do, when they Export our Commodities and cannot Trade at all with us without exporting ’em; they can shift from one place to another, and open secret Passages of Commerce, not yet found out.
If the Portugueses for instance could not have Money for their Wine, would they (I desire to know) rather leave of Trading with us, than take our Cloth for their Wine. Or if heretofore we had drank no French Wine, but what we had paid for in Tin, would they have found a Vent for our Tin, or ploughed up their own Vineyards?
Object. VII.
This will be forcing Foreigners then, to Export our Commodities.