This regulation must appear equitable in the eyes of all Europe, and the strongest proof of it will be, that it will not produce the smallest effect prejudicial to the interest of the foreign creditors. The course of exchange with regard to them will stand precisely as before.
A Dutch, French, or German creditor, will receive the same value for his interest in the English stocks as heretofore. This must silence all clamours at home, being the most convincing proof, that the new regulation of the coin will have made no alteration upon the real value of any man’s property, let him be debtor or creditor.
The interest of every other denomination of creditors, whose contracts are of a fresh date, may be regulated upon the same principles. But where debts are of an old standing, justice demands, that attention be had to the value of money at the time of contracting. Nothing but the stability of the English coin, when compared with that of other nations, can make such a proposal appear extraordinary. Nothing is better known in France than this stipulation added to obligations, argent au cours de ce jour, that is to say, that the sum shall be repaid in coin of the same intrinsic value with what has been lent. Why should such a clause be thought reasonable for guarding people against arbitrary operations upon the numerary value of the coin, and not be found just upon every occasion where the numerary value of it is found to be changed, let the cause be what it will.
Interest of trade examined.
The next interest we shall examine is that of trade, when men have attained the age of twenty one, they have no more occasion for guardians. This may be applied to traders: they can parry with their pen, every inconvenience which may result to other people from the changes upon money, provided only the laws permit them to do themselves justice with respect to their engagements. This class demands no more than a right to convert all reciprocal obligations, into denominations of coin of the same intrinsic value with those they have contracted in.
The next interest is that of buyers and sellers; that is, of manufacturers, with regard to consumers, and of servants, with respect to those who hire their personal service.
Interest of buyers and sellers examined.
The interest of this class requires a most particular attention. They must, literally speaking, be put to school, and taught the first principles of their trade, which is buying and selling. They must learn to judge of price by the grains of silver and gold they receive. They are children of a mercantile mother, however warlike the father’s disposition may be. If it be the interest of the state that their bodies be rendred robust and active, it is no less the interest of the state, that their minds be instructed in the first principle of the trade they exercise.
For this purpose, tables of conversion from the old standard to the new must be made, and ordered to be put up in every market, in every shop. All duties, all excises, must be converted in the same manner. Uniformity must be made to appear every where. The smallest deviation from this will be a stumbling block to the multitude.
Not only the interest of the individuals of the class we are at present considering, demands the nation’s care and attention in this particular; but the prosperity of trade and the well being of the nation, are also deeply interested in the execution.