The more simple any plan of political oeconomy is, the more it is easy to govern by general rules; the more complex it becomes, the more it is necessary for a statesman to enter into combinations. But when general rules have been long established, they gain such an authority over the minds of a people, that any deviation from them appears like heresy in religion: and how seldom does it happen, that a people is blessed with a governor, who has both penetration to discover, art to persuade, and power to execute a plan adapted to every combination of circumstances.
No change can happen in a state, but what is advantageous to some class or other, and when the public good requires that a stop should be put to such advantages, numbers of discontented people will always be found. Circumstances, therefore, ought to be well weighed before new plans of administration are entred upon; and when once adopted, those who pretend to criticise, must suppose themselves provided with superior talents and better informations as to every circumstance, than the author of the innovation. For this reason, there is little danger in censuring a statesman’s opinion, when he delivers it; but a great deal in finding fault with his conduct, when his motives are not known.
In the former chapters, we have been treating of the nature and consequences of circulation, the effects of augmentations and diminutions of specie, and the doctrine of Mr. Hume concerning the balance of trade. The perspicuity with which this author writes, renders his ideas easy to conceive; and when people understand one another, most disputes are soon at an end.
In order, therefore, to throw a little more light upon the nature of the balance of trade between nations, let me examine the following questions while we have the subject of the last chapter fresh in our memory.
Quest. 1. Can any judgment be formed concerning the state of the balance of trade of a nation, barely from the quantity of specie that is found in it?
I answer in the negative. A great proportion of all the specie of Europe, may be found in a country against which the balance of trade has stood regularly for many years. An inconsiderable proportion of it may be found in another, which has had it as regularly in its favour for the same time.
The balance upon every article of trade, may be favourable to a nation which squanders away more than the returns of it, upon foreign wars.
The balance of every article of trade, may be against a country which receives more than all the loss incurred, either from her mines, from countries tributary to her, or who willingly furnish subsidies upon many political considerations.
Besides these varieties, there are still other combinations, relative to the specie itself. The money found in a country, may either be said to belong absolutely to the country, when neither the state itself, or the particular people of it, are in debt to foreigners; or only so by virtue of a loan. Now, whether it is borrowed or not, the property of it belongs to the country; but the difference consists in this, that when it is borrowed, the acquisition of the metals adds nothing to the national patrimony, that is to say, there is no acquisition of wealth thereby made; but when it is gained by industry, the money adds to the real value of the country, in consequence of the principles laid down in the 26th chapter.
May not a nation then, having very little gold and silver, open a subscription for millions, at so much per cent? Will not strangers lend to her; when her own subjects cannot? May she not yearly, by paying away the interest of the money borrowed, and by a heavy balance of trade against her, be constantly diminishing her specie, and yet by new contracts, keep up, and even increase the mass of the circulating value, to such a degree, as to be possessed of a greater proportion of specie than any of her neighbours? Farther,