the frequent famines, which so much distress that fertile country.

The fame jealous fear, with regard to money, has alfo prevailed among feveral nations; and it required both reafon and experience to convince any people, that these prohibitions serve to no other purpose than to raise the exchange against them, and produce a ftill greater exportation.

These errors, one may fay, are grofs and palpable: But there still prevails, even in nations well acquainted with commerce, a ftrong jealoufy with regard to the balance of trade, and a fear, that all their gold and filver may be leaving them. This feems to me, almoft in every cafe, a groundless apprehenfion; and I fhould as foon dread, that all our springs and rivers should be exhaufted, as that money should abandon a kingdom where there are people and industry. Let us carefully preferve thefe latter advantages; and we need never be apprehenfive of lofing the former.

It is eafy to observe, that all calculations concerning the balance of trade are founded on very uncertain facts and fuppofitions. The cuftom-house books are allowed to be an infufficient ground of reafoning; nor is the rate of exchange much better; unless we confider it with all nations, and know also the proportions of the several fums remitted; which one may fafely pronounce impoffible. Every man, who has ever reasoned on this subject, has always proved his theory, whatever it was, by facts and calculations, and by an enumeration of all the commodities fent to all foreign kingdoms.

The writings of Mr. GEE ftruck the nation with an univerfal panic, when they faw it plainly demonftrated, by a detail of particulars, that the balance was against

them for fo confiderable a fum as must leave them withbut a single shilling in five or fix years. But luckily, twenty years have fince elapfed, with an expensive foreign war; yet is it commonly fuppofed, that money is fill more plentiful among us than in any former period.

Nothing can be more entertaining on this head than Dr. SWIFT; an author fo quick in difcerning the miftakes and abfurdities of others. He fays, in his fhort view of the fate of IRELAND, that the whole cafh of that kingdom formerly amounted but to 500,000l.; that out of this the IRISH remitted every year a neat million to ENGLAND, and had fcarcely any other fource from which they could compenfate themselves, and little other foreign trade than the importation of FRENCH wines, for which they paid ready money. The consequence of this fituation, which must be owned to be disadvantageous, was, that, in a courfe of three years, the current money of IRELAND, from 500,000l. was reduced to less than two. And at prefent, I fuppofe, in a course of 30 years, it is abfolutely nothing. Yet I know not how, that opinion of the advance of riches in IRELAND, which gave the Doctor fo much indignation, feems ftill to con tinue, and gain ground with every body.

In short, this apprehenfion of the wrong balance of trade, appears of fuch a nature, that it discovers itself, wherever one is out of humour with the miniftry, or is in low fpirits; and as it can never be refuted by a particular detail of all the exports, which counterbalance the imports, it may here be proper to form a general argument, that may prove the impoffibility of this' event, as long as we preferve our people and our industry.

Suppose four-fifths of all the money in BRITAIN to be annihilated in one night, and the nation reduced to the

fame condition, with regard to fpecie, as in the reigns of the HARRYS and EDWARDS, what would be the consequence? Muft not the price of all labour and commodities fink in proportion, and every thing be fold as cheap as they were in those ages? What nation could then dispute with us in any foreign market, or pretend to navigate or to fell manufactures at the fame price, which to us would afford fufficient profit? In how little time, therefore, must this bring back the money which we had loft, and raise us to the level of all the neighbouring nations? Where, after we have arrived, we immediately lose the advantage of the cheapnefs of labour and commodities; and the farther flowing in of money is stopped by our fulness and repletion.

Again, fuppofe, that all the money of BRITAIN were multiplied fivefold in a night, must not the contrary effect follow? Muft not all labour and commodities rife to fuch an exorbitant height, that no neighbouring nations could afford to buy from us; while their commodities, on the other hand, became comparatively fo cheap, that, in fpite of all the laws which could be formed, they would be run in upon us, and our money flow out; till we fall to a level with foreigners, and lose that great fuperiority of riches, which had laid us under fuch difadvantages?

Now, it is evident, that the fame causes, which would correct these exorbitant inequalities, were they to happen miraculously, muft prevent their happening in the common course of nature, and muft for ever, in all neighbouring nations, preferve money nearly proportionable to the art and industry of each nation. All water, whereever it communicates, remains always at a level. Ask naturalifts the reason; they tell you, that, were it to be

raised

raised in any one place, the superior gravity of that part not being balanced, muft deprefs it, till it meet a counterpoife; and that the fame caufe, which redreffes the inequality when it happens, must for ever prevent it, without fome violent external operation*.

Can one imagine, that it had ever been poffible, by any laws, or even by any art or induftry, to have kept all the money in SPAIN, which the galleons have brought from the INDIES? Or that all commodities could be fold in FRANCE for a tenth of the price which they would yield on the other fide of the PYRENEES, without finding their way thither, and draining from that immenfe treasure? What other reason, indeed, is there, why all nations, at prefent, gain in their trade with SPAIN and PORTUGAL; but because it is impoffible to heap up money, more than any fluid, beyond its proper level? The fovereigns of thefe countries have shown, that they wanted not inclination to keep their gold and filver to themselves, had it been in any degree practicable.

But as any body of water may be raised above the level of the furrounding element, if the former has no com. munication with the latter; fo in money, if the communication be cut off, by any material or phyfical impediment, (for all laws alone are ineffectual) there may, in such a cafe, be a very great inequality of money. Thus the immenfe diftance of CHINA, together with the monopolies of our INDIA companies, obftructing the communication, preserve in EUROPE the gold and filver, espe

There is another caufe, though more limited in its operation, which checks the wrong balance of trade, to every particular nation to which the kingdom trades. When we import more goods than we export, the exchange turns against us, and this becomes a new encouragement to export; as much as the charge of carriage and insurance of the money which becomes due would amount to. For the exchange can never rife higher than that fum. cially

Y 3

cially the latter, in much greater plenty than they are found in that kingdom. But, notwithstanding this great obftruction, the force of the causes above mentioned is ftill evident. The fkill and ingenuity of EUROPE in general furpaffes perhaps that of CHINA, with regard to ma nual arts and manufactures; yet are we never able to trade thither without great difadvantage. And were it not for the continual recruits, which we receive from AMERICA, money would foon fink in EUROPE, and rife in CHINA, till it came nearly to a level in both places. Nor can any reasonable man doubt, but that industrious nation, were they as near us as POLAND or BARBARY, would drain us of the overplus of our fpecie, and draw to themfelves a larger fhare of the WEST INDIAN treafures. We need not have recourfe to a phyfical attraction, in order to explain the neceffity of this operation. There is a moral attraction, arifing from the interefts and paffions of men, which is full as potent and infallible.

How is the balance kept in the provinces of every kingdom among themfelves, but by the force of this principle, which makes it impoffible for money to lose its level, and either to rife or fink beyond the proportion of the labour and commodities which are in each province ? Did not long experience make people eafy on this head, what a fund of gloomy reflections might calculations afford to a melancholy YORKSHIREMAN, while he computed and magnified the fums drawn to LONDON by taxes, abfentees, commodities, and found on comparifon the oppofite articles fo much inferior? And no doubt, had the Heptarchy fubfifted in ENGLAND, the legiflature of each state had been continually alarmed by the fear of a wrong balance; and as it is probable that the mutual hatred of thefe ftates would have been extremely violent on account of their clofe neighbourhood,

they