LONDON: REPRINTED BY CHARLES REYNELL, LITTLE PULTENEY STREET; AND PUBLISHED BY J CLEMENTS, AT 21 AND 22, IN THE SAME STREET. MDCCCXLII. INTRODUCTION. was Our author exhorts the Whigs to support the spirit. "Let the public affairs go into what hands they will," says he, "your concern for the nation must not lessen; nor must you do any thing that may let in a bloody, popish, and faithless tyrant upon Europe and upon the Protestant interest. I should be very sorry to see a Tory administration, and the old game of persecution revived among us; to see the Toleration broken, the Union invaded, the Whigs trampled upon, and the Dissenters harassed and plundered as I have seen them; but if it must come to that hard choice, I had rather see all this than France triumphant, the Queen dethroned, and the Pretender and popery established. In short, we have but one interest as Englishmen, whatever interest we may have as to parties; and though I abhor the tyrannical principles of some men among us, yet when it comes to this-England or France,the Queen or the Pretender,-the Church of England or the Church of Rome, the choice is easy to an honest man." It was the opinion of De Foe, that let the ministry be who or what they may, neither we nor they ought to do any. thing by way of party disgust that may endanger the public safety, and in support of this principle he published his Essay upon Public Credit,' which he immediately followed out with the THE turn of public affairs in 1710, when the Earl of Sunderland was replaced by Lord Dart-national credit by an appeal to their public mouth, and Harley became Chancellor of the Exchequer, gave a shock to credit that was as embarrassing to the ministers as it was injurious to all parties. Discouraging as were the prospects of De Foe, he was not for sacrificing his country to the interests of party, and therefore averse to any measure of annoyance that involved so serious a thing as public credit. That his motives might not be mistaken, he says:-"I believe no man will deny that this is the most critical time for a man that writes of public affairs. I know but one man in the world so qualified; and find him where you will, this must be his character-he must be one that, || searching into the depths of truth, dare speak her aloud in the most dangerous times; that fears no power, courts no favours, is subject to no interest, bigoted to no party, and will be a hypocrite for no gain. I will not say, 'I am the man,' I leave that to posterity. If I have had any friends, it is amongst those that are turned out; and if I had the power to lead, perhaps I should have them all in again. If Tories, Jacobites, High-flyers, and madmen are to come in, I am against them. I ask them no favour, I make no court to them, nor am 1 going about to please them; and yet I expect not to oblige those that I think the best of." De Foe here remonstrates with the Whigs for giving into the national power, by withdrawing their property from the funds whilst in a state of depression, and thus enriching the Tories at their expense. This was the more unwise, as the bulk of the stock was in their hands, and by contributing to a further depression, they assisted in their own impoverishment.' • Review, VII, 233-235. · Essay on Loans,' the object of which was to dispel the alarm which still continued in consequence of the backwardness of the Whigs to invest their money in government securities. At the close of the latter work, the author says, that " If he appears again in public, it may be upon the subject of the funds." But no such treatise of De Foe is known, and perhaps it was rendered unnecessary by the success of Harley's scheme for a lottery. UPON AN ESSAY PUBLIC CREDIT. THE world being so full of politicians, and so many authors having of late turned statesmen, it behoves me to lay everything down exceeding plain as I go on. The subject is nice, the age abusive, the town full of observers and reviewers, who write to please and content the notions of men, who, directed by their interest and parties, differ even with themselves. Reason, it is true, is dictator in the society of mankind; from her there ought to lie no appeal; but here we want a Pope in our philosophy, to be the infallible judge of what is or is not reason. I am to speak of what all people are busy about, but not one in forty understand; every man has a concern in it, few know what it is, nor is it easy to define or describe it. If a man goes about to explain it by words, he rather struggles to lose himself in the wood than bring others out of it. It is best described by itself; 'tis like the wind that blows where it lists; we hear the sound thereof, but hardly know whence it comes or whither it goes. Like the soul in the body, it acts on all substance, yet is itself immaterial; it gives motion, yet itself cannot be said to exist; it creates forms, yet has itself no form; it is neither quantity or quality; it has no whereness, or whenness, site, or habit. If I should say it is the essential shadow of something that is not, should I not puzzle | the thing rather than explain it, and leave you and myself more in the dark than we were before? To come at a direct and clear understanding of the thing, the best method will be to describe its operations rather than define its nature; to show how it acts, rather than how it exists; and what it does, rather than what it is. Trade, as the author of the Review' has told us, and who I can better submit to learn of on that subject than some other he talks more about, "was derived by convenience from the profitable exchanging of goods from nation to nation, and from place to place, as people increasing found their neighbours possessed of what they wanted, and themselves having to spare of what their neighbouring countries did not produce." This we now call barter, and it is not so much in use as it was in the infancy of commerce in the world. The Britons inhabiting this island were found to exchange their block tin with the Phenician merchants for spices, wines, and oils, even long before Julius Cæsar set his foot upon this island. But as trade increased, two accidents fell in as effects, being the great mediums of universal commerce, the vehicle in which trade is preserved or administered throughout the world; these were money and credit. This thing, called commerce, flourishing and extending every way into all the corners of the world, the nations fell generally into dealing with one another; yet trade found itself unsufferably straitened and perplexed for want of a general species of a complete intrinsic worth, as the medium to supply the defect of exchanging, and to make good the balance, where a nation, or a market, or a merchant demanded of another a greater quantity of goods than either the buyer had goods to answer, or the seller had occasion to take back. This nothing could be found in the world of universal and intrinsic worth enough to answer but metals, as being neither consuming in quality, bulky in carriage, or useless in nature. Of these metals several nations adhered a long time to such as their own country produced; but gold and silver, by their mere intrinsic worth, prevailed; and they alone retain the universal character, as it may be called, in all payments of whatever kind in the world. The course of trade being thus turned from exchanging of goods for goods, or delivering and taking to selling and paying, all the bargains in the world are now stated upon the foot of a price in money; and though it be at any time an exchange of goods for goods, yet even those goods are on either side rated at a price in money. Though this was a great assistance to trade, and gave a liberty to the increase of commerce more than ever it had before, yet such was the great increase of trade that it even overrun the money itself, and all the specie in the world could not answer the demand, or be ready just at the time trade called for it. This occasioned that when A bought more goods of B than A had money to pay for, and B having no need of any goods that A had to sell, it behoved that A should leave his goods with B for a certain time, in which A was to provide the money for the said goods; and this was done both from the occasion B had to sell his goods, the occasion A had to buy them, and the opinion B had of A's integrity and ability for payment. And this is the great thing called credit. effect of a substance, not a substance; 'tis the sunshine, not the sun; the quickening something, call it what you will, that gives life to trade, gives being to the branches, and moisture to the root; 'tis the oil of the wheel, the marrow in the bones, the blood in the veins, and the spirits in the heart of all the negoce, trade, cash, and commerce in the world. It is produced and grows insensibly from fair and upright dealing, punctual compliance, honourable performance of contracts and covenants; in short, 'tis the offspring of universal probity. than a private gentleman; nay, than one of the bourgeois; I had almost said than a shoemaker in the city. On the other hand, S-- is a gentleman of a moderate fortune, compared to the other, but is also a man of quality; he lives nobly, though frugally; keeps a good equipage, a handsome family; does not lay up much, his generous nature will not permit it; but he pays punctually; no man comes twice for his money: if a tradesman leaves his bill, he buys no more of him till he comes for his money; he never dines till his wine is paid 'Tis apparent, even by its nature, 'tis no way for; he wears no clothes that the tailor or mercer dependent upon persons, parliaments, or any par- can reproach him for, and call theirs as he goes ticular men or set of men, as such, in the world, along the street. Instead of having his door but upon their conduct and just behaviour. Cre- crowded with duns, and his steward bribed to pay, dit never was chained to men's names, but to he is rather crowded with shopkeepers to petition their actions; not to families, clans, or collections for his custom; his servants are teazed to proof men; no, not to nations: 'tis the honour, the cure their lord to buy here or there, and every justice, the fair dealing, and the equal conduct of one studies to leave his goods for approbation. men, bodies of men, nations, and people, that The tradesmen are ready to fight who shall get raise the thing called credit among them: where-in his goods, and sell often to loss, to undersoever this is found, credit will live and thrive, rate one another. What's the matter? Credit grow and increase; where this is wanting, let all stands at his door; honour lives there, and credit the power and wit of man join together, they can is her handmaid. The count deals justly, pays neither give her being, or preserve her life. punctually; every man's demands are answered; credit courts him; he shall have her favour whether he will use her or no. It is needless to enlarge; experience tells us the same thing in all cases, whether private or public, personal or national. Arts have been tried on various occasions in the world to raise credit; art has been found able, with more ease, to destroy credit than to raise it: the force of art, assisted by the punctual, fair, and just dealing above said, may have done much to form a credit upon the face of things; but Credit is the consequence of just and honourwe find still the honour would have done it with-able dealing; fair proposals punctually performed out the art, but never the art without the honour. Nor will money itself, which Solomon says answers all things, purchase this thing called credit, or restore it when lost. It is in vain to talk of credit without this probity; honesty will raise credit without money; but all the money in the world will not raise creIdit without the principle. D was a prince of high birth, a great character for wit, gallantry, and all the perfections of a duke and peer of one of the politest nations in Europe; he had, besides, a noble fortune, built great edifices, purchased great houses, maintained a vast equipage, and did everything with the air of an exquisite and most accomplished gentleman; he had a vast fortune, great offices at court, nor did he ever want money; his stewards were never without 20,000 pistoles in cash; if any sum, however great, was wanting to support any point of honour for his play, or to purchase what he had his eye upon, he knew how to produce it; yet the barber would not trust him for a periwig; the coachmaker would not let his chariot go home with a new set of wheels. What was the matter? He would pay nobody generously or honourably; he would be surrounded with duns as he came out of his palace, and would go incognito to court to prevent being insulted: the sbirri, or provost's men at Paris, would stop his coach in the street; he has been forced to call a chair, and leave his coach and horses in their possession. will bring credit, let the person or people be who they will. How do we trade among the Turks, and trust the Mahometans, one of whose doctrines in the Alcoran is, not to keep faith with Christians? They have obtained it by a just, punctual, and honourable practice in trade, and you credit them without scruple; nay, rather than a Christian. Upon this foundation I build what I am in hand with, and bring it down to the present case: I know no persons or parties in my argument: this Lord Treasurer, or another Lord Treasurer, or no Lord Treasurer, it is the same thing to me; a bank or no bank, 'tis all one; I'll sell none of my tallies or annuities, I'll discount no exchequer bills. Dissolve the parliament or not dissolve the parliament, 'tis all one to me; I neither fear, desire, or am anxious about either; nor can I see so much cause for an alarm among our people that have money as if credit was pinned to the girdle of a man, or waited at the door of the House of Commons: the thing is a mistake, credit attends the honourable management of your treasurers, your exchequers, your parliaments, whether past, present, or to come. I do not examine what politic reasons may induce her Majesty to change or remove her great men in the ministry; I inquire not whether her Majesty purposes to dissolve parliament, or to let them sit; these things are not concerned in our case. The late Lord Treasurer, I allow, has The thing was plain; he had no credit; his done honourably, has managed the finances great estate, his high birth and quality, his equi- with great and unusual dexterity, and has page, his vast quantity of gold plate, his large acquired thereby the fame of the best officer cash, they would not add one inch to the stature that has for many years acted in that post;. I of his credit; but he lived as if he was poor, and could be content to spend a whole page in is was less esteemed in the shops of the marchands||praise; the nation is infinitely obliged to him, and his royal mistress, no doubt, has received infinite satisfaction in his conduct, as appears by rejecting all attempts against him, and keeping him so long in a post of so great trust. T But after this is said, Credit, which has been for some years the nation's happy guest, by whose aid such mighty things have been done, cannot be said to be the sole property of my Lord --r personally: it is not singly entailed upon his family, or his name; this would be to go a length his lordship himself has more modesty than to claim; nor would his lordship be well pleased with any that could think such coarse kind of flattery would oblige him. Our credit in this case is a public thing; it is rightly called by some of our writers, national credit; the word denominates its original; 'tis produced by the nation's probity, the honour and exact performing national engagements. In this the great officers of the treasury and exchequer are, as we may say, perfectly passive; their business is indeed active; so the wheels of a clock, their business is to go round; but they are subject to the influence of their position, the operation of the springs and wheels that guide their motion, by which they act passively, if that may be said, that is, of mere necessity; and the punctual pointing of the hand to the lines showing the hour, the minutes, and the seconds, are consequences of these motions. These indeed tell us that the wheels are good, perfectly made, exactly placed, and move to a truth; but the honour redounds to the workman, who placed them in that exact order, adapted them to their several uses, and placed such springs and wheels about them, which by their like exactness, but all derived from the same original, oblige every part punctually to perform the end of the whole movement. Credit is not the effect of this or that wheel in the government moving regular and just to its proper work; but of the whole movement, acting by the force of its true original motion, according to the exquisite design of the director of the whole frame. Thus the honour, the probity, the exact, punctual management which has raised our credit to the pitch it is now arrived at, has not been merely the great wheel in the nation's clock-work, that turned about the treasure, but the great spring that turned about that wheel, and this is the queen and the parliament. The one the spring (still keeping to the allegory) that gives motion or life to the whole; the other, the balance or pendulum that regulates that motion, keeps it true to, and exact in, the performance of the general work, viz., the equal and punctual dividing the smallest measures of time. This nice case requires me a little to descend to particulars, and touch matter of fact nearer than was intended; what is it has restored and recovered the nation's credit from the breaches made in it? The answering this necessarily requires that I should also ask what made the former breaches in our credit? I shall do this as modestly as I can; for it is not the present work to open sores, but to heal them, to prevent more from breaking out. Some of the reasons which sunk our credit and made the breaches in it in the late reign, were the settling funds that were in themselves deficient, and making no provision to supply those deficiencies. Some would perhaps go farther, and say, it was settling funds that were not probable, and whose deficiencies were visible. I shall not go that length; the error was in the original; it would be unjust to charge the deficiency of these funds upon the commissioners of the treasury for the time being, it would be still harder to blame them for the parliament not supplying those deficiencies. Some may have said they were to blame in the first act, because it was their work to provide funds, and the parliament only gave what they asked; that they took them and went away satisfied, as sufficient for the supply of the occasion, and that they were judges of the probability: I am not of that mind, though it is not to my purpose here to debate it. But this is certain, the not supplying the deficiencies upon the repeated application of the persons whose estates lay in those deficiencies, seemed wholly to lie at the door of the parliament, and this brought the tallies on those funds to intolerable, unheard-of discounts, to the ruin of all that we called credit. What then has raised this credit? I hope I do not detract from the just character of him whom one calls the great guide of the nation's treasure, if I say it was something else than lordships' management; something prior to it, in which that national honour and justice, resolution of punctual payment, and concern for the means of it, appeared, which put life into the nation, and made those people that had money think it as safe, as well deposited, and the principal in as good hands as in their own; so that they were perfectly easy in adventuring their money, and the longer this went on, the forwarder were the people to bring in their money. Nay, so forward, that the faster the government lowered their interest, the more eager were the people to bring in their money Let us see where this began, and this will tell us whose doing it was. After the first session of parliament of her present majesty, the queen acquainted the house that the funds had more than answered the sums they were given for: there was the capital wound of deficiency healed at once. That the overplus should be applied, &c. There was an assurance that all defciencies, if any happened, should be made good. This gave the parliament part a brightness that revived the spirits of the people, helped open their purses, which had been so long closed, and caused taxes to be raised without murmuring. The queen acted the next part; her majesty gave constant assurances that everything given should be rightly applied; and to encourage her people, and show she was willing to bear a part of their burthen, the queen generously threw in a hundred thousand pounds of her own money, appropriated for the civil list, to ease the nation of so much in that year's burthen. These were steps no prince ever was known to take before. After this you never heard a complaint of the heavy burthen of the taxes, though greater far than any raised in the former reign: on the contrary, the more you raised, the easier they were |