What is done in that City, I humbly hope may be carried on by the same Steps throughout the Kingdom; the Poor may be set at Work, their Wages advanced without Danger to our Manufacturers, and they thereby enabled to live on their own Labours, whereby the Charge of the Poor’s Rates may be saved, and a great many worthy Benefactors encouraged to give, when they shall see their Charity so well disposed of. This I have great reason to hope, because we have had near one Thousand Pounds freely given to us within the Compass of one Year, and much thereof by Gentlemen who dwelt at a Distance from us, only were willing to encourage a Work they saw likely to be carried on, which might be of good Example to the Nation. I am, Right Honourable And Honourable, Your Honours most Obedient Servant, JOHN CARY. AN ESSAY Towards Settling a NATIONAL CREDIT. By John Cary, Esq; The Fifth Edition, Corrected. LONDON: Printed in the Year M.DCC.XLV. To the Right Honourable the LORDS Spiritual and Temporal, and to the Honourable the Commons of ENGLAND in Parliament Assembled. HAVING lately presented your Honours with _An Essay on Coin and Credit_, the chief Design whereof was to shew the Necessity of Settling a well-grounded Credit in this Nation, for Support of the Government, and carrying on its Trade; I do now with all Humility lay before you Proposals to answer that End, which I have not clogg’d with Compulsion to the Subject, supposing nothing of this Nature can be good, where a common Consent, grounded upon Interest, doth not make it valuable. Banks, as I humbly conceive, ought chiefly to be calculated for the Use of Trade, and modeled so as may best content the Traders. What gives them Satisfaction, will answer all other Occasions of the Kingdom. Money passes through the Hands of the Nobility and Gentry, only as Water doth through Conduit-Pipes into the Cistern, but Centers in the Hands of Traders, where it circulates, and may be said to be used; and among these, Ease, Profit, and Security, are Arguments to keep a Bank always full: Besides, when the Streights of the Government are taken of, greater Sums will come into Trade, which are now drawn out, in order to make Advantages, above what the Profits of Trade will bring in. The Heads whereon I propose to build this National Credit, are these which follow: That a Bank be erected on the Credit of Parliament, the Profit or Loss thereof to redound to the Nation, whose chief Chamber shall be settled in _London_, but lesser Chambers in other Places of this Kingdom, at such Distances, as may best answer the Occasions of the Country, which Chambers to account with that of _London_, and that to Commissioners appointed by Parliament.