It now only remains to offer some conjectures why, after this period, money was not found to regorge, as after the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle, so as to furnish an opportunity of reducing the rate of interest upon all redeemable debts, and by that of raising the amount of the sinking fund, and more firmly establishing the national credit. After the fall of the credit of France towards the end of 1759, Great Britain had the command of all the money to be lent in Europe; and accordingly amazing sums were borrowed in 1760, 1761, and 1762. Of the sums borrowed, a great part, no doubt, was the property of strangers; but they, not being so well acquainted with the affairs of this nation as the English themselves, instead of subscribing to the loans, lent the money to our own country people, who, in hopes of a great rise upon the return of peace, filled the subscriptions with borrowed money. The consequence was, that no sooner did the funds begin to rise after the peace, than every creditor demanded his money of those who had invested it in the public funds. This obliged the latter to bring their stock to market, and this again had naturally the effect of keeping the funds very low. Some, more prudent than the rest, had borrowed upon a long term of repayment; which had the effect of putting off still longer the settlement of the funds in the hands of the real proprietors, and of taking them out of those who only held them nominally. Besides this accidental cause of the low price of the funds, other circumstances, no doubt, greatly contributed to produce the same effect. However great the balance of trade, that is, of exportations above importations, may have been of late in favour of England, still the mighty sums drawn out by strangers have certainly, upon the whole, prevented much money from coming home on the general or grand balance of payments. While that remains the case, it is impossible money should regorge at home in the hands of the natives, and until this happens, there is no hope of seeing the 3 _per cents._ above par. But then the rise, small as it is, since the peace, may encourage us to hope that that time is not far off: for had the profits of our trade been quite unable to balance the loss upon our foreign debts, the funds would undoubtedly still continue to fall, which is demonstrably not the case from the circumstances of the loan in April 1766, obtained by government, with the assistance of a lottery indeed, at 3 _per cent._[30] Footnote 30: The loan of 1766, was 1 500 000_l._ at 3 _per cent._ Every subscriber for 100_l._ had an annuity of 3 _per cent._ on 60_l._ and 4 lottery tickets, valued to them by government at 10_l._ each, in all 100_l._ The prizes and blanks in the lottery amount to 600 000_l._ and bear 3 _per cent._ paid by government. The annuities amount to 900 000_l._ and bear also 3 _per cent._ The number of tickets are 60 000. Hence, at 10_l._ each, they amount to 600 000_l._