rg2 
could be produced fince that period, to 
fhow that this depreciation of paper fe- 
eurities has always taken place, when 
the holders of them found a daficulty i in 
exebanging them fer money ; we’have 
recently fecn, in another country, that no 
law 1s fufficient to prevent it, and In our 
prefent circumfiances, nothing would be 
more un wife, than to attempt co fupport 
paper credit by any compulfive mea- 
fures; it would be in vain to attempt to 
perfuade the that the (dew 1s 
equal to the fubiiance 5 the only natural 
and effeétuel remedy is, to it ucreafe, by 
-every potlible means, the quantity of cir- 
culating coin. 
That we fhould labour under any diff- 
culty from the want of a fufficiency of fpe- 
cic, can only arile from its having been 
carried eut of the country ; for it appears, 
.that the value of money coined during 
the pre: fent reign, tothe 30th N overber, 
3796, is no lefs than £4,640, 845 |. from 
which deduéting 15,°63,5931. 
eonle 
Copic, 
bought 
m purfuant to the precemahen- for call- 
ing in the gold coin on the laf re-coin- 
age, which cannot be fuppofed to have 
‘been the who:e then in circulation, there 
ought at prefent to be at leaft forty mil- 
lions ef money in the country, though, 
probably, few perfons will be difpofed to 
admit that we aétually poflefs at prefent 
half this fum. The current coin is not 
exportable, except in fmall quantities ; 
yet it is evident. that a very confiderabie 
portion muft have found its way out of 
the country ; and this will/always be the 
cafe, when from a great demand fer bul- 
fion, the price of that article is raifed fo 
as to afford a confiderable profit on melt- 
ing down the coin; for in fuch circum- 
itances, no law will be found fufficient to 
counteract the temptation, while the de- 
te€tion remains almott impofhible. . In the 
year 1792, the quantity of filver export- 
ed amounted to 7,031,010 ounces, and 
the great demand for it raifed the price 
to 5s. sd. perounce; it cannot be dcubt- 
ed, but that if a new coinage of filver 
had been iffued at that period, it would 
have initantly difappeared; and we muft 
ceafe to wonder at the great {carcity of 
filver, when we find that though the ex- 
portation has been fo great, the total va~- 
tue of all the filver coined in fifteen years, 
ending with 1795, amounts to only 
56,2701, While fubfidies and foreign 
loans, 1n addition to the ordinary concerns 
of trade, have increafed the demand for 
bullion, nothing has contributed fo much 
to facilitate the means of fupplying this 
demand, as the great increafe of our pa- 
Ox the Bank, Public Credit, ee, 
[ March 
per-money, which ferving, in a vie 
meafure, as a dubititute for coin, may for 
fome time renderthe lofs of it impercep- 
tible, till particular circumftances induc- 
ing the people to prefer the fubftance 
to its reprefentative, they difcover, too 
te, that the former has difappeared. 
‘ What pity Lycurgus did not think of 
paper credit, when‘ he wanted to banifly 
gold ana filver from Sparta! It would 
have ferved his purpofe better than the 
ss of iron he made ufe of as money, 
and would alfo have prevented more ef- 
fectually ali commerce with ftrangers, as 
being of fo much Jefs real and intrinfic 
value *.”’ From the little circulation 
that the paper-money of any country can 
have in other fates, it is evident, that 
any pecuniary affiftance to a foreion 
power, muft be made principally in coin 
or bullion; and in a country where an 
immenfe fuperftruéture of paper-credit 
reits upon a comparatively fmall quantity 
of coin, fuch affiftance muft unavoidably 
be attended with peo confe- 
quences. Tt is probable, that the em- 
peror’s agents made a part of their re- 
mittances of the late loan in Spanifh dol- 
lars; but the affertion, thatall {uch remit- 
ranees inftead of creating a fcarcity of the 
current coin, muft rather tend to prevent 
its exportation, is very erroneous : the ex- 
portation of foteign coin or bullion, will, 
in the courfe of a “little time, have nearly 
the fame effect as the exportation of the 
coin of the country 5 for the demand for 
the former wiil neceflarily raife its price, 
and when the value of bullion beconres 
greater than elite of coin, the current fpe- 
cie will certainly find its way out of the 
country, though probably in a-different 
fhape from that in which it was cireu- 
lated, 
Whatever motives might induce 
the bank bas countenance the loan of 
4,500,000 |. to his Imperial Majeity, jutt 
after we eS given 7 zeuiegbal te the 
king of Prufiia, and at a time when the 
Trith government was borrowing confi- 
derable fums in this country, and fubfi- 
dies to foreign princes were incrcafing ; 
it is probable, they now entertain a very 
different opinion of the policy of fuch 
meafures ; for even fuppoliag the object 
of the war to ‘be juftihiable, the advan- 
tages to be expected from the afiiftance 
of a legion of mercenary troops would 
be but an ill compenfation for endamger- 
ing the whole fyftem of public credir, fo 
intimately conneéted with the Eonliok 

* Hume's Effays, vol. i. p. 288. 
; of 
