Middlemen in English Business 407 



his mercenary associates and henchmen. A contemporary wrote: 

 "Bank bills, Places, Lyes, Threats, Promises, Entertainments are 

 everywhere employed to corrupt Men's Affections, and mislead their 

 Judgments. Boroughs are rated on the Royal Exchange, Hke Stocks 

 and Tallies; the Price of a Vote is as well known as an Acre of Land; 

 and it is no secret who are the monied Men and consequently the best 

 Customers. ""^ The Septennial Act by extending the length of Parlia- 

 ments from three to seven years gave the monied interests more 

 opportunity to effect their organizations. During their parliamentary 

 careers, Osborne, Churchill, Walpole, and a dozen others built up 

 fortunes.- Efforts were made to stem the tide of corruption but 

 in vain: the legislative inquiry in 1694-5 unearthed many monstrosi- 

 ties in the relations of the officers of the trading companies to those o 1 

 the government; Leeds, Cooke, and others were disgraced; but the 

 same course of operations continued. The property qualification of 

 members of Parliament aimed at reducing corruption and bribery^ 

 by keeping out the monied class; but the law only caused perjury and 

 e\'asion. 



There were many obvious tests of the power of the mercantile and 

 financial interests. In the last decade of the seventeenth century 

 they had such dominion as to be able to submit to the House of Com- 

 mons the greatest part of the "Ways and Means. ''^ In 1732 Walpole 

 sought to conciUate the landed interests by enacting a system of 

 excises and of bonded warehouses: but the power of the mercantile 

 class was unequivocably demonstrated by their successful resistance 

 to these measures.^ They showed their irresistibilit\' by forcing the 

 Walpole government, contrary to his pet and long used pohcy of 

 peace, to enter upon a war with Spain, a war rightly denominated the 

 " Merchants' War.""^ And Mahan says, "It was the boast of London 

 Merchants that under Pitt commerce was united with and made to 

 flourish by war; and this thriving commerce was the soul also of the 

 land struggle, by the money it la\ashed on the enemy of France."^ 

 So, then, it is evident that in all the great economic events of the 

 centurv the influence of the merchant and tradesman was second to 



' "English Advice," 4. 

 - Rogers, Ec. Int., 466. 

 ^ Coad, Trade and Plantations, 40-1. 

 ^ Defoe, Projects, 34. 



* Smith, Wealth of Nations, preface, XXXIX. 

 '' See Latimer, Mer. Ad. 188-9; "A Short .\ccount," 50 et seq. 

 ■ !Mahan, Influence, 297. This is a paraphrase of a verse on a monument erected 

 to Pitt in London. 



