Has not the easy Way of getting Money prevented the South-Sea Company from Carrying on their Trade, and the Fishery, that Noble and Profitable Branch; which if they would heartily set their Shoulders to, they might increase their Stock a Hundred per Cent. and not set it above its intrinsick Value? And our Poor being very numerous, all of 'em may be provided for that way.
Our Trade has decay'd ever since we have promoted Stock-Jobbing, that easy Way of getting Money: Our Manufactories have diminish'd; which have increas'd our Poor, and lessen'd our Imports and Exports; and the King, in Time, will lose his Customs.
I shall offer some few Heads, necessary to promote Trade, and to put us in a Way speedily to pay our Debts, and prevent Stock-Jobbing, or else Trade can never flourish.
We must Recoin our Money, and make the Agio so large, as will prevent its being exported; and thereby hinder the East-India Company from purchasing Bullion in Holland: For if they are suffer'd to buy Bullion there, we had better by the Half give them free Liberty to export our Coin, unless the Exchange is Eight per Cent. in our Favour, (which is now so much to the contrary) we shall at all Times be Losers. By which it appears, how great Losers we are at present, by not making our Coin of a Value, as it may be exported without Damage to the Nation.
Our Government may have Bullion in Plenty, if they will be the Merchant for that Commodity, and give but a small Matter more for it than our Neighbours; which we may very well afford to do, if we settle a like Agio.
One great Help to Trade in the Nation, would be to have Sixpences (nay, even Shillings) coined with a much greater Allay than our present Coin; as also Groats, Three-pences, and Twopenny Pieces: The Government would receive such a Benefit thereby, as cannot be well here express'd. And I dare answer to find a Method, with fine Copper so intermix'd with Silver, that it shall not be worth any Person's Time, Trouble and Hazard, to counterfeit it.
Our Silver being coined with so great an Allay as will prevent its being exported, will in a short Time cause a Currency of Cash: The Gentry will not hoard it; whereby Traders will be better paid, and our Manufactures encourag'd, and carry'd on to a greater Degree.
I remember when there was a great deal of Clipt and Counterfeit Money, and very Plenty of both, that every one that had either a Counterfeit Piece, or Money that was cut very small, always studied what to buy with it, that they might pass the one away, or part with the other.
The Difference to the East-India Company, in buying Bullion, or Pieces of Eight, in Holland, is Seven or Eight per Cent. more than what it stands them in when they can be supply'd with it at Home; and if they were prohibited the Exportation of Bullion from Foreign Countries, and suffer'd to export our own Coin, or such Ingots as shall have the Tower-Mark, our Government would have the Advantage which the Dutch now gain, and no Loss to the East-India Company. For it will be then equally the same to them, whether they export it from hence, or from Holland, to India.