I would, therefore, have left the notes in circulation under this regulation, viz. that such as should be presented to the bank should have had a transfer of 2 _per cent._ paid quarterly; or a value, in actions, at 10,000 livres _per_ action; which is the capital answering a dividend of 200 livres at 2 _per cent._ at the option of the holder: and in case interest had come to fall still lower, the price of actions might have been augmented. I would have set before the public a full and exact account of the company’s funds. I would have banished all mystery from the affairs of credit. I would have registred a declaration in parliament, setting forth, 1_mo_, That all future changes either upon the denominations of paper or coin, were contrary to the maxims of good government. 2_do_, That all stipulations between the King and his creditors were to be inviolable. And, 3_tio_, That the parliament of Paris should for ever remain invested with an exclusive right to watch over those regulations in time to come; and I would have bound the parliament by a special oath for that purpose. I would even have had the King to take the same oath: and he might have ratified it at his coronation in 1725. By these steps I should have vested a new power in the Kings of France which they never had before: a power of having money from their subjects, from their allies, and from their enemies: a power they have not, nor ever will have, until the principles of credit be better understood among them. Had such a plan been followed, I have not the least doubt, but that, 1. The actions would have been sold at a very great advanced value above the standard of 5000 livres, at which the Regent had bought them: 2. That money would have come back to 2 _per cent._ and then, 3. Had banks been established upon a proper plan, ease, with industry, would long ere now have appeared in every corner of that kingdom. How infinitely more easy would it have been to establish such a plan in 1720 than at present? At that time the most difficult part of the whole was executed. The creditors had taken notes for their claims: the credit then was given. There was nothing to be done but to support it. The creditors were then at the mercy of the state: at present the state is at the mercy of the creditors. Were such operations on coin to take place at present, as were then familiar; were the King at present to attempt to turn the constitutions of rent, perpetual and life-annuities, into any other form than what they have, the credit of France would be undone for a long time; and who knows what views of ambition a situation so deplorable might not stir up in certain courts of Europe. What state would pay its debts, if it _durst_ do otherwise? And what state can diminish its debts in any other way than by lowering the interest upon them? But of this more in the proper place. ------------------------------------------------------------------------