Part 29

If it were admitted, that money is only the representation of value; that multiplying the sign, without multiplying the articles which it is calculated to represent, is debasing fruitlessly the representation; and that, on the contrary, multiplying the article is the most infallible means of attracting the sign and keeping it up to its value:

If it were acknowledged, that nothing contributes so much to the multiplying of the articles, as the multiplicity of the channels through which they can be introduced:

If it were acknowledged, that the multiplicity of channels in another nation, for the introduction of our own goods, is necessarily inseparable from the multiplicity of channels opened in our own country for the introduction of foreign goods:

If it were acknowledged, that with the fullest persuasion that money ought to be the sole aim of trade, it has only proved, hitherto, the means of supporting it:

If it were acknowledged, that notwithstanding the prejudices to the contrary, as deeply rooted in the heads of Ministers, as they are in the hearts of Merchants, and notwithstanding all the national cupidities, private interest in all countries has always proved sufficient to reject effectually all the useless, and procure all the necessary money:

If it should result, not from arguments, which very seldom contain what they ought to contain, in order to become uncontrovertible, but from the experience of a whole century, sufficient to estimate the effect of the passion the most ardent, and the most attached to its object, that contrary to the common ideas, and in spite of the general rage for money, the whole of commerce has, to this day, been ultimately confined to its true balance, i. e. to bartering goods for goods, except the little money which is wanted every where, and which has constantly penetrated every where, to answer either to the new productions when they had actually increased in their quantity, or to the advance of prices when the taxes had at last produced every where, and on the generality of prices, their effect, as equitable as it is necessary and harmless:

If the same experience should evince, that the richest individual, or he who becomes such the soonest, has no other advantage in point of commerce, than the choice of the men whom he is pleased to admit to a share of his wealth without impairing it; and that the inference to be drawn therefrom is, that such a man must be a dupe who confines his choice to ten, when he can make it from among thirty:

If it were acknowledged, that riches and ease, like the light, stand in want of no assistance whatever, to propagate themselves equally in every direction, as general interest requires; that the private interest of one man, or of a body of men, is always sufficiently opposed, protected, balanced, by the interest of another man, or of another body of men, wherever administration confines its attention to the maintenance of strict justice and good order; and that from this equilibrium in which they mutually keep, or soon replace one another, there results, for both, the greatest advantage they can hope for, and for the State the highest prosperity it can attain:

If it were acknowledged, that on all these various objects, no difference whatever can subsist between one nation and another:

If it were acknowledged also, that all Europe, as well as each State in particular, is essentially, finally, strictly, composed only of three kinds of capitalists, or proprietors, the landed capitalist, the capitalist of industry, and the proprietor of money, considered either as a dependant or as a capitalist:

If it were acknowledged, that those three interests center in the greatest quantity, as well as the greatest variety and best quality, of the products both of agriculture and industry, and in the greatest consumption of both at the most reasonable rate:

If it were acknowledged, that the Fisc, or Exchequer, owes the whole of its revenue to the produce of the taxes only; and that this produce rising of course as the productions and consumption increase, the interest of the Exchequer can no where be different from that of the three capitalists or proprietors:

If it were acknowledged, that at present nothing can result from several institutions, pretended very wise, but a great diminution in the products and consumption, as well as in the revenue of the Exchequer; because there is nothing so easy as to balance, every where, institutions pretended very wise, by others not less so:

If it were acknowledged, that the necessary expenditure of the Exchequer once ascertained, all diminution of its revenue, occasioned by the pretended very wise institutions, carries with it the necessity of imposing new taxes, in order to make up the deficit of former ones:

If it were acknowledged, that each new tax, increasing necessarily the price of every thing in the nation, for the purpose of supporting, at least, the interior consumption, on which depends the discharge of the taxes, would add to the inconvenience brought about by those pretended very wise regulations, and would soon lead to a decrease in the external consumption, which the nation might have preserved, if other countries did not raise their own prices accordingly, in order to pay with the same products the same quantity of articles which they used to take before the advance occasioned by the taxes; that therefore such a general propagation of increase in prices, being of a general interest to the production and consumption every where, would not fail to take place every where as it has always done, and to dwindle again into a childish play, much beneath the adolescence of the age we live in:

If it were acknowledged, that the general repeal of those pretended very wise institutions could, at the worst, be productive of no other effect within the State, but that of a general rise in the prices, wherever they are not in due proportion to the real values, and a general fall in all the prices, wherever they are fixed by monopoly, and not by the natural equilibrium; but that, whereas nothing but profit can accrue to those who raise their prices, it is very probable that the prices would increase much more almost every where, than they would decrease any where:

If it were, besides, acknowledged that such an increase, or decrease, (it matters not which) soon becoming general and proportionate, (without any other agent to work that miracle, but that reciprocal pressure which establishes a perfect symmetry in a bee-hive,) then no alteration could arise therefrom in the circumstances of the two essential capitalists, since it is perfectly indifferent whether we purchase the labour of others at 5 or 6 per cent. dearer, if we sell our own labour in proportion:

If it were acknowledged, that in regard to the money proprietor, whether dependant or capitalist, nothing can result from it but the certainty of procuring henceforth and for ever, at the most equitable price, that which he had paid for hitherto according to the rate set on it by monopoly, and often by a scarcity cunningly prepared and managed:

If it were acknowledged, that as to the external interests of the State, no other effect can result from the general repeal of those pretended very wise institutions, but the facilitating of all the branches of foreign correspondence, the opening of new channels of consumption, the encouragement of all kinds of production, of which consumption is the very soul, and the power of obtaining every where, at the most equitable prices, by means of competition, the most equitable share we have a right to expect in those gifts which nature, in all probability, has not bestowed on any part of the world, to confine them to that particular spot:

If all the foregoing points, I say, were acknowledged, it would be a hard matter to conceive that there is, not only in Europe, but all over the globe, any other enemy to destroy but Monopoly, or any other interest to favour but Labour.

FINIS.

The judgement of the Public, on the ideas thrown out in this Essay, will determine the fate of some others, which are nothing else but the consequences or developement of these.

PRÉFACE DE L’ÉDITEUR.

Ce n’est point un Traité que l’Auteur annonce: ce n’est rien de plus que des Considérations sur le Méchanisme des Sociétés. Un pareil titre n’astreint point à un plan régulier, & sauve même le risque de préparer les Lecteurs à un enchaînement d’idées qui n’échappera point à leur sagacité, s’il existe; & sur lequel on ne les abuseroit point, s’il n’existe pas. Mais dans un tableau consacré au monde comme à la patrie, aux peuples comme à leurs maîtres, il falloit que l’objet saillant, l’objet sur lequel on dirigeoit leur première attention, fût d’un intérêt assez général pour les engager progressivement à l’examen de tous ceux de ses détails qui méritent d’être approfondis, & dont les rapports sont méconnus ou mal jugés.

L’objet qui fixe aujourd’hui l’attention de tous les États de l’Europe, tous débiteurs & créanciers, c’est la dette publique de l’Angleterre, & les mesures que va prendre à ce sujet, l’Assemblée du monde la plus éclairée sur les intérêts du peuple, la plus jalouse de ses droits, & la plus libre du moins dans ses débats. C’est par l’examen de cette formidable dette, & de son influence sur la richesse de l’État & l’aisance du peuple, que l’Auteur ose commencer. Mais avant d’en expliquer le méchanisme, dont le résultat présente des idées trop contraires à l’opinion générale, l’Auteur tàche de familiariser peu à peu ses Lecteurs avec la sienne, par des Réflexions générales sur la situation actuelle de l’~Angleterre~; ces réflexions ne lui permettant pas de douter, que la nation ne fût en 1779, malgré la dette nationale, plus riche qu’au commencement du siècle, du quadruple, ou du double seulement, suivant le calcul de population auquel on sera le plus attaché.—On voit que l’Auteur, relativement à son plan, n’attache aucune importance à la différence des opinions sur cet article.

Une vue plus particulière du sujet, présente à l’Auteur de nouvelles raisons qui lui paroissent capables de tranquilliser le créancier le plus inquiet.—Ce n’est à la vérité que par le moyen des épargnes faites & à faire journellement sur 8 sols, portion exacte qui revient à chaque individu dans le revenu général, qu’on a pu parvenir à l’opulence, & qu’il est possible de s’y maintenir; mais l’Auteur cherche les épargnes qu’on ne peut méconnoître dans l’agriculture & dans l’industrie: il trouve que celles de l’agriculture ont suffi depuis un siècle, non-seulement pour satisfaire aux charges publiques, mais encore pour doubler le revenu territorial; & il détaille ensuite une quantité d’objets, faciles à vérifier, qui semblent démontrer le même progrès dans l’industrie.

Ici l’Auteur commence à se croire assez ferme sur son terrein, pour convenir qu’il ne voit rien dans la situation actuelle de l’Angleterre qui puisse justifier l’idée d’une banqueroute, quoique les papiers publics de cette nation en insinuent très-souvent la commodité. L’Auteur s’oublie même jusqu’à examiner sérieusement, s’il seroit avantageux de rembourser ou de ne pas rembourser, même dans la supposition que les 238 millions empruntés & disparus, reparoîtroient dans les coffres de l’Échiquier.

Après avoir présenté la question sous plusieurs points de vue, l’Auteur n’hésite point à se décider pour la négative, & tâche ensuite de prouver qu’une Thésaurisation antérieure qui eût mis la Nation en état de soutenir la dernière guerre sans imposer aucune taxe additionelle, auroit fait beaucoup plus de mal que les nouvelles taxes n’ont été capables d’en faire.