directly and indirectly with those in the banks, the insurance companies, in canals, in tontines, in the widow and orphan fund associations, and in all the other republican and commonwealth associations with which this land of freemen abounds, are so numerous as to involve the entire nation, who are thereby so interlinked and entangled with these gold chains, they cannot get loose; not even those, (and those there are,) who cannot or will not see the beauties of their form of government, in the balancing of the powers of the ONE, the FEW, and the MANY, as they are illustrated by Voltaire, Montesquieu, Blackstone, de Lome, and for the purpose of transferring the republican essence without the defects, by John Adams, citizen of the United States.* In consequence of the mass of the people being less acquainted with all these invaluable works than with the novelties in the Age of Reason and the Rights of Man, England would have been revolutionized with France in 1793, if it had not been for the monied associations and public stocks of Great Britain. If, however, the economy of the British administration cannot always be within the bounds prescribed, let their financiers persevere in excluding the small and poor stockholders from the income tax, agreeably to the excellent policy of Mr. Pitt, and they may occasionally draw 5, 10, or even 20 per cent. from all income if they can offer good reasons for this temporary resource." Invaluable if it be not abused. Computation of the income of Great Brtiain, as stated by Mr. Pitt, in the house of commons, liable in case of necessity to a tax according to the exigencies of the state. Landlords' rents, 40,000,000 cultivated acres, es timated at 12s. 6d. per acre, Tenants profits at Tythes, Annual income. Pounds. 25,000,000 19,000,000 5,000,000 3,000,000 6,000,000 2,000,000 Proportion for Scotland, 5,000,000 Income from possessions beyond sea, 5,000,000 Interest on funds, after deducting foreign pro perty, and sums issued to commissioners as sinking fund and interest of capital redeemed, Profit on foreign trade, suppose 157. per cent. on 15,000,000 80,000,000l. capital insured, 12,000,000 Ditto, home trade, at 157. per cent. 18,000,000 Other.trade, 10,000,000 125,000,000 * See the late president Adams's defence of the American constitutions. Further to illustrate the use of public credit, Sir John Sinclair, in his late address to the British board of agriculture, offers the following estimate as the necessary result of eligible improvements yet to be effected by further CIRCULATIONS on the combined strength of the credit of his country: "The number of acres capable of improvement, are 22,35 1,000; the additional rent in consequence would be, on an average, nine shillings or two dollars an acre, and the additional produce, at treble the rent, six dollars: the additional national capital at 30 years purchase of the produce, 905,215,500 pounds;" raising the total income of Britain to more than one hundred and sixty millions, and the total valuation at four per cent. to about four thousand millions sterling. The whole increase of the PUBLIC DEBT to effect the entire improvement, was estimated, on actual experiments, to be at an average of four pound an acre on the twenty two millions, or but eighty eight millions, to give an increased national capital equal to more than nine hundred millions. This capital would increase, nominally, as fast as depreciation may reduce the value of all money, and the product of agriculture thus added to the national annual stock, would be equal to the maintainance of more than three millions, in addition to the present population of Great Britain. If such a plan was thought eligible in a country so near to its acme, what might be expected from an additional capital, of the same amount, for these United States? where, from the want of capital, lands equal to those that in Britain draw a rent of four and five pounds sterling, are now selling in fee by our general government at only two dollars. These facts are the more extraordinary when we observe the difference of opinion between agricultural gentlemen on different sides of the Atlantic. The whole British board of agriculture were of the opinion with sir John Sinclair. Why are our agricultural members of congress averse to similar modes of improvement for the public weal? Even Mr. Hume has in one instance given a fair statement of the existing character of the public loans of ingland. "Public securities (said Mr. Hume,) are with us become a kind of money, and pass as readily at the current price as gold or silver; wherever any profitable undertaking offers itself, however expensive, there are never wanting hands enough to embrace it; nor need a trader, who has sums in the public stocks, to fear to launch out into the most extensive trade; since he is possessed of funds which will answer the most sudden demand that can be made upon him. No merchant thinks it necessary to keep by him any considerable cash; bank stock or India bonds serve all the same purposes; because he can dispose of them, or pledge them to a banker in a quarter of an hour, and at the same time they are not idle, even when in his scrutoire, but bring him in constant revenue: in short, our national debts furnish our merchants with a species of money, that is continually multiplying in their hands, and produces sure gain, besides the profit of their commerce; this must enable them to trade upon less profit. The small profit of the merchant renders the commodity cheaper, causes Ꮓ a greater consumption, quickens the labour of the common people, and helps to spread arts and industry through the whole society. "There are also, we may observe, in England, and in all states, which have both commerce and public debts, a set of men, who are half merchants, half stock-holders, and supposed willing to trade on small profits; because commerce is not their principal or sole support, and their revenues in the funds are a sure resource for themselves. Were there no funds, great merchants would have no ex-. pedient for realizing or securing part of their profit; more men, therefore, with large stocks and incomes, may naturally be supposed to continue in trade where there are public debts; and this it must be owned is of advantage to commerce, by diminishing its profit, fromoting circulation, and encouraging industry." Yet such is the effect of party spleen, that Mr. Hume, at a former moment, would have wiped away all these public circulations with a sponge. When will our government view these subjects in a true light, and become more attentive to their financial duties? When will it be perceived that by the late extensive importations of slaves! there is an increased and an increasing necessity for further emigration of whites from the grand source whence we all have emanated; till checked by the increased and disproportionate operation of our sinking funds, we daily saw an industrious race of friends continually attracted and emigrating, with their certificates of the public loans obtained in Europe, and exchanging these obligations in the public land offices. By thus converting useless acres into gold, we might yet arrive at our desirable acme even in our own times: then why are congress now so lost to the general weal! who are bound by their constitutional oath, TO PROVIDE FOR THE COMMON DEFENCE AND GENERAL WELFARE OF THEIR COUNTRY? Will the impressions, the prejudices, imbibed from our forefathers, continue always in force now WE ARE FREEMEN? Are the habits and feelings of the ancient British barons* and of the principal slave-holding families of our provincial times still to firevail? Are we yet to be told there are other reasons, and yet to be put off with the mere opposition stuff, with the second handed nonsense of the electioneering demagogues of Britain, on the dangers of a debt and of taxes in a monarchy, when we are talking only of BENEFICIAL LOANS and of provident CIRCULATIONS IN A REPUBLIC in anticipation of our dormant and useless funds, now in an immense desert, but convertable at pleasure into rich gardens! to be inhabited and defended by brethren with the same affections for the same commonwealth....a commonwealth secured by the very means that may bring about the invaluable change, with no alloy to the proposition or fruition of the duty we owe to ourselves and to our posterity. Shall they, shali posterity accuse us with having forever wrapped our talents in a napkin? We hope not. * See Mr. Hume's reasoning against transferable wealth, page 167 of this book." We regret that the rest of the old world will afford but little to illustrate correct financial principles. Great Britain had not the foresight till the time of sir William Petty, to understand much either of statistics or of true financial policy, against which the shafts of their enemies have been for more than a century unsuccessfully aimed. That the British policy has faults we know, and we therefore know how we may avoid them. They draw on every taxable ability for their loans: we only on a dormant fund, that otherwise would be lost to the treasury, for the principal of the sums borrowed; and chiefly on luxuries for the interest. The British waste in their monarchial pensions that which we can always employ on our roads, on inland canals for the length and breadth of the continent; for the national university, first endowed by Washington; for a defensive navy, and for other good and responsible objects at present innumerable. Perhaps PUBLIC CREDIT is deservedly cried down, by every friend to the people, in an arbitrary monarchy; because it is there liable to be abused, both in the modes of distribution and by an indifference respecting the returns due to creditors, either of the principal or interest; where the royal debtor despises the ignoble commercial class to whom he is indebted. He is generally superior to every claim but that of his own royal will and pleasure. Law's famed Mississippi scheme flourished, till the duke of Orleans touched it, and so did the new national bank of France, till the emperor, while on his way to Vienna, was pleased to over draw it, and to order the directors to furnish more bills than their own discretion would have dared to throw into circulation: but in a government where, by frequent elections and by annual statements of the public receipts and expenditures, the people may be so fully acquainted with the conduct of their officers, there can be nothing to apprehend from an abuse of PUBLIC CREDIT; but much from the neglect to use the talents, the benefits of which it is the exclusive privilege of REPUBLICANS to reap, with no alloy to the inestimable treasure. There are however, in a mixed government like that of Great Britain, favourable opportunities for the employment of deep financial skill by the management of public credit. In that country we have seen a minister open subscriptions to the monied interest of Holland for ways and means to capture a Dutch fleet: this has recently been tried with success; and at this moment many of the principal officers of the French and Spanish governments are large stockholders in the British funds; hence secrets of the French cabinet are often known in England, that in the days of Louis XIV, would have remained inviolable. When the British administration gave a license to spoliations on our commerce, in 1794, our creditors in England alone obtained for us a reverse of the severe order, for fear our losses would reach and greatly injure their purses. This is a modern mode of defence, which no country ever yet enjoyed to the extent of our United States; but we remembered to forget it in 1793, and prematurely paid off the principal of a French loan even before it was dve, on which, (agreeably to the predictions of some of the principal patri ots of the day,) the French began to capture our ships, by which we lost near five millions; and so again the British may treat us whenever our debts are sufficiently reduced; especially if a non importation law should be then in force against them, and thus leave no solid argument again to plead in our favour. Who can doubt that similar commercial habits with those we derive from Britain, would have preserved the Grecian states? A great national bank at Athens, if instituted by, or in the time of PERICLES, with the money the confederates had left after the Persian war, if composed of small shares, might have persuaded all the Greeks to become stockholders, and would have done more than all the agrarian laws that ever were thought of. If to this were added as many other monied institutions as the English now enjoy, and if to all these were united THE BOND OF COMMON SENSE, (see page 168) an efficient national debt, in which their money loving neighbour Philip might have been a stockholder, neither he nor his hair brained son would have had the same unqualified inducements to kill a bird that laid such golden eggs. Great events have often sprung from trivial causes. The cackling of a few feathered centinels once saved Rome haps even the slight hints contained in these short notes may stimulate some 66 unfeathered biped,"* in our capitol, again to save a commonwealth. Per Although the British financial practice is nearer our own, it may not be improper to take a view of the French receipts and expenses of government for the last return, viz. General result of the accompts of the treasury of France for the year X11. Produce of effects negociated or recovered, By the sinking fund, . By the administration of enregistrement * Plato's definition of man. |