We may, therefore, here repeat what we have said above, that the more difficulty is found in paying a balance, the greater is the loss to the nation.
This being admitted, I shall here enumerate all the difficulties which occur in paying of balances. Most of them have been already mentioned from their relation to subjects already discussed; and could it be supposed, that every reader has retained the whole chain of reasoning already gone through, a repetition in this place would be superfluous: but as that cannot be expected, I shall, in as short and distinct a manner as possible, recapitulate, under four articles, what I hope will be sufficient to refresh the memory upon each of them.
1mo, The first difficulty which occurs in paying a balance, is to determine exactly the true and intrinsic value of the metals or coin in which it is to be paid; that is to say, the real par.
2do, How to remove the domestic inconveniences which occur in paying with the metals or coin.
3tio, How to prevent the price of exchange from operating upon the whole mass of reciprocal payments, instead of affecting only the balance.
The remedies and palliatives for these three inconveniencies once discovered, comes the last question, viz. How, when other expedients prove ineffectual for the payment of a balance, the same may be paid by the means of credit, without the intervention of coin; and who are those who should conduct that operation.
CHAP. II.
How to determine exactly the true and intrinsic value of the Metals, Coin, or Money, in which a Balance to foreign Nations is to be paid.
This first question regards the whole mass of reciprocal payments, as well as that of the balance.
Every payment to be made of a determinate and fixed value; that is to say, of a liquidated debt, must be paid in a value equally determinate in its nature.