Tea with refpeSl to the Export of Gold and Silver . 297 
and therefore it remains : but it does not follow that their gold 
leaves them ; they keep both. They receive moft silver for 
their ballance with spain, as we receive moft gold for our bal- 
lance with Portugal : but I have heard that France converts 
almoft all the foreign coin fhe receives, into her own fpecie ; 
and indeed one fees but few of our guineas in paris. If this is 
really the cafe, I am afraid but little of our own coin, or the 
gold of Portugal, which fhe gets of us, will ever revert to us. 
If by money we mean gold and ftlver coin - and if this, 
as well as good soldiers, is the sinews of war: and if war is 
hanging over our heads ; by fquandering our riches like pro- 
digals, we expofe ourfelves to the danger of feeding on husk,. 
or what is worfe, of wearing a gallic yoke. 
Preferving our gold and ftlver in the fenfe I conftder it, is 
preferving our wealth ; it is accumulating riches, not loftng 
opportunities of profit ; and, laftly, it is preferving respect* 
among the nations. If we were more virtuous and more va- 
liant in poverty than in riches, we might rife the higher in re- 
putation ; but we do not deftre reputation on such terms. On 
the contrary, gain is the great obje<ft of our purfuit ; and trade 
being the moft effe&ual means to obtain this end, we weigh 
almoft every thing in the commercial fcale. We fometimes 
think of the advantages of trade, in a direct view, more than 
is conftftent with the remoter issues of things, even with re- 
gard to the prefervation of our commercial interests. But 
to drop fo nice an enquiry, let us ftill purfue the conftderation 
how beft to difcountenance fo deftrucftive a branch of trade as 
this of tea. 
1 
