This method of considering men and things together, opens into a
large field for speculation, and affords me an opportunity of offering
some observations on the state of our currency, so as to make the
support of it go hand in hand with the suppression of disaffection and
the encouragement of public spirit.
The thing which first presents itself in inspecting the state of the
currency, is, that we have too much of it, and that there is a
necessity of reducing the quantity, in order to increase the value.
Men are daily growing poor by the very means that they take to get
rich; for in the same proportion that the prices of all goods on
hand are raised, the value of all money laid by is reduced. A simple
case will make this clear; let a man have 100 L. in cash, and as
many goods on hand as will to-day sell for 20 L.; but not content with
the present market price, he raises them to 40 L. and by so doing
obliges others, in their own defence, to raise cent. per cent.
likewise; in this case it is evident that his hundred pounds laid
by, is reduced fifty pounds in value; whereas, had the market
lowered cent. per cent., his goods would have sold but for ten, but
his hundred pounds would have risen in value to two hundred; because
it would then purchase as many goods again, or support his family as
long again as before. And, strange as it may seem, he is one hundred
and fifty pounds the poorer for raising his goods, to what he would
have been had he lowered them; because the forty pounds which his
goods sold for, is, by the general raise of the market cent.
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