Part 13

Object. IV.

The Money of England will be too much for 300 Men to receive in one Day.

Answ. It is but 10000 l. a Man one with another; i. e. but 100 hundred Pound-bags, which may very well be weighed and seal’d up, and entered in a Book in 5 hours time; viz. 20 in an hour; and as for the great Banks and Cashes of England, such as the Royal Bank, East-India Company, and the like, they need not remove their Money at all; but Commissioners may be sworn and sent to their respective Treasuries, taking sufficient Security of the said Treasurers and Cashiers, that none of the said Money shall be remov’d or touch’d in 24 hours.

Object. V.

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.

Answ. Not at all: For if the Ballance of Trade shall continue after all, to our disadvantage, here’s nothing in all this matter that hinders our exporting Bullion.

But if ’tis absolutely necessary to export Bullion to make good the Ballance of Trade, then we should take the more care, not to export more than is absolutely necessary; and whilst we carry on our Trade abroad, not to let this at home be at a stand, but secure Money enough for the Nations In-land Trade, and to pay the Taxes without pretence of impossibility.

Object. VIII.

Five Millions will not be half enough for our In-land Trade.

Answ. And I am clearly of that Opinion; and that Ten Millions is little enough, or else what need had there been, to have Coin’d Fifteen Millions in three Reigns, as the most industrious Mr. Lounds hath delivered to us?

But we are providing for a present necessity and not abundance.

And yet should we Coin five Millions more, in all Ten Millions; less than 2 d. in the Pound Land-Tax, would pay Interest for all, and the Million gained out of it would save 2 s. in the Pound that Year, which is making a very good Bargain for the Government.

But you may vary the Postulata, as I said before, how you please.

Object. IX.

The new Coined Money will appear very small to the Eye.

Answ. Go which way you will, it must be smaller than it was, or of greater value, because Bullion is dearer than when the Mill’d Money was Coin’d, and if the new Coin’d Money were to have an Intrinsick Value, it must necessarily be ⅕ less than it now is, and according to these Proposals it will be but about ⅓.

Supposing Silver at this extraordinary Price, I don’t see how it can possibly be larger than as 8 to 10, and this Proposition is as 8 to 12.

Object. X.

The Mint is the Pulse of the Common-Wealth, and this would discover us to be in a weak Condition.