CHA P. I. Of the Principle of the commercial, or mercantile THAT wealth confifts in money, or in gold CHA P. and filver, is a popular notion which naturally arifes from the double function of money, as the inftrument of commerce, and as the measure of value. In confequence of its being the inftrument of commerce, when we have money we can more readily obtain whatever elfe we have occafion for, than by means of any other commodity. The great affair, we always find, is to get money. When that is obtained, there is no difficulty in making any fubfequent purchafe. In confequence of its being the measure of value, we estimate that of all other commodities by the quantity of money which they will exchange for. We fay of a rich man that he is worth a great deal, and of a poor man that he is worth very little money. A frugal man, or a man eager to be rich, is faid to love money; and a careless, a generous, or a profufe man, is faid to be indifferent about it. To grow rich is to get money; and wealth and money, in fhort, are, in common language, confidered as in every respect fynonymous. A RICH Country, in the fame manner as a rich man, is fuppofed to be a country abounding in money; and to heap up gold and filver in any country BOOK country is fuppofed to be the readiest way to enIV. rich it. For fome time after the difcovery of America, the firft enquiry of the Spaniards, when they arrived upon any unknown coast, used to be, if there was any gold or filver to be found in the neighbourhood? By the information which they received, they judged whether it was worth while to make a fettlement there, or if the country was worth the conquering. Plano Carpino, a monk fent ambassador from the king of France to one of the fons of the famous Gengis Khan, fays that the Tartars ufed frequently to ask him, if there was plenty of sheep and oxen in the kingdom of France? Their enquiry had the fame object with that of the Spaniards. They wanted to know if the country was rich enough to be worth the conquering. Among the Tartars, as among all other nations of fhepherds, who are generally ignorant of the use of money, cattle are the inftruments of commerce and the measures of value. Wealth, therefore, according to them, confifted in cattle, as according to the Spaniards it confifted in gold and filver. Of the two, the Tartar notion, perhaps, was the nearest to the truth. MR. Locke remarks a diftinction between money and other moveable goods. All other moveable goods, he fays, are of fo confumable a nature that the wealth which confifts in them cannot be much depended on, and a nation which abounds in them one year may, without any exportation, but merely by their own wafte and extravagance, be in great want of them the НА next. Money, on the contrary, is a fteady friend, CHA P. which, though it may travel about from hand to hand, yet if it can be kept from going out of the country, is not very liable to be wafted and confumed. Gold and filver, therefore, are, according to him, the most folid and substantial part of the moveable wealth of a nation, and to multiply thofe metals ought, he thinks, upon that account, to be the great object of its political œconomy. OTHERS admit that if a nation could be fepárated from all the world, it would be of no confequence how much, or how little money circulated in it. The confumable goods which were circulated by means of this money, would only be exchanged for a greater or a smaller number of pieces; but the real wealth or poverty of the country, they allow, would depend altogether upon the abundance or fcarcity of thofe consumable goods. But it is otherwise, they think, with countries which have connections with foreign nations, and which are obliged to carry on foreign wars, and to maintain fleets and armies in diftant countries. This, they fay, cannot be done, but by sending abroad money to pay them with; and a nation cannot fend much money abroad, unless it has a good deal at home. Every fuch nation, therefore, muft endeavour in time of peace to accumulate gold and filver, that, when occafion requires, it may have wherewithal to carry on foreign wars. IN confequence of these popular notions, all the different nations of Europe have ftudied, though to little purpose, every poffible means of accumulating 13 BOOK mulating gold and filver in their respective counIV. tries. Spain and Portugal, the proprietors of the principal mines which fupply Europe with those metals, have either prohibited their exportation under the feverest penalties, or fubjected it to a confiderable duty. The like prohibition feems anciently to have made a part of the policy of moft other European nations. It is even to be found, where we fhould leaft of all expect to find it, in fome old Scotch acts of parliament, which forbid under heavy penalties the carrying gold or filver forth of the kingdom. The like policy anciently took place both in France and England. WHEN thofe countries became commercial, the merchants found this prohibition, upon many occafions, extremely inconvenient. They could frequently buy more advantageously with gold and filver than with any other commodity, the foreign goods which they wanted, either to import into their own, or to carry to fome other foreign country. They remonftrated, therefore, against this prohibition as hurtful to trade. THEY reprefented, firft, that the exportation of gold and filver in order to purchase foreign goods, did not always diminish the quantity of thofe metals in the kingdom. That, on the contrary, it might frequently increase that quantity; becaufe, if the confumption of foreign goods was not thereby increased in the country, thofe goods might be re-exported to foreign countries, and, being there fold for a large profit, might bring back much more treafure than 1. than was originally fent out to purchase them. C HA P. Mr. Mun compares this operation of foreign trade to the feed-time and harvest of agriculture. "If we only behold," fays he, "the actions of "the husbandman in the feed-time, when he "cafteth away much good corn into the ground, we fhall account him rather a madman than a husbandman. But when we confider his la"bours in the harveft, which is the end of his "endeavours, we shall find the worth and plenti"ful increase of his actions." THEY reprefented, fecondly, that this prohibition could not hinder the exportation of gold and filver, which, on account of the fmallness of their bulk in proportion to their value, could eafily be fmuggled abroad. That this exportation could only be prevented by a proper attention to, what they called, the balance of trade. That when the country exported to a greater value than it imported, a balance became due to it from foreign nations, which was neceffarily paid to it in gold and filver, and thereby increased the quantity of those metals in the kingdom. But that when it imported to a greater value than it exported, a contrary balance became due to foreign nations, which was neceffarily paid to them in the fame manner, and thereby diminished that quantity. That in this cafe to prohibit the exportation of thofe metals could not prevent it, but only by making it more dangerous, render it more expenfive. That the exchange was thereby turned more againft the country which owed the balance, than it otherwife |