Money and trade considered : $b With a proposal for supplying the nation with moneyLaw, John
General
Money and trade considered : $b With a proposal for supplying the nation with money
Law, John
Banks and banking -- Scotland; Currency question -- Great Britain
And it seems strange that the administration of such a commission
should be doubted, when the parliament has the nomination of the
managers; when the managers are to be accountable to the parliament;
when the trust is to be so small, for more notes cannot be coin’d so
long as 25000 lib. is in the office; a committee of parliament is to be
appointed to inspect the management, the books are to be open to the
inspection of any member of parliament, and the state of the commission
is to be published in print.
Since the notes of the bank went upon a voluntary acceptance, tho’
there was no money in bank; ’tis reasonable to think the paper money
propos’d will at least have the same currency: being current by law
does not make it less valuable. he who took bank notes, could not be
sure the bank would be in a condition to give money for them; and
the person he was to pay money to, might refuse them: so he was more
uncertain, than if they had been current by law.
The silver money being to fall betwixt 8 and 9 per cent in 3 months,
it is not to be suppos’d that silver will be prefer’d to paper money;
since the notes of the bank, which is paper upon the same fund, went
at the ordinary interest: and tho’ the receiver was not certain of the
money at the time it was promised, or that the person he was owing to
would receive it.
It may be objected, that paper went because silver could be got for it
when demanded, or at a certain time.
That was very reasonable, but would not be so in this case: the
security pledg’d for that paper money, was silver. the security pledg’d
for this paper money, is land. this money has no relation to gold or
silver, more than to other goods. and it were more extravagant to say,
I won’t take a 100 lib. of such paper money for the goods I sell,
because I am not sure if 6 months hence it will buy me such a quantity
of silver; for silver may grow dearer: as it would be to say now, I
won’t take a 100 lib. in silver for the goods I sell; because I am not
sure if 6 months hence, it will buy me such a quantity of wine, for
wine may grow dearer.
4 Crowns won’t buy a guinea, tho’ they were coin’d for the same value;
nor won’t buy the 10th part of goods 4 crowns bought 200 years ago,
yet silver is received as a value, and contracted for, tho’ its value
lessens every year, and tho’ ’tis not perhaps worth above a third of
what ’tis given or contracted for, abstracted from the use of money.
this paper propos’d will not only keep its value; the encrease of the
quantity depending on the demand, and the quantity decreasing as the
demand decreases: but likewise the land pledg’d is as valuable as the
paper given out, abstract from its use as money, and encreases in value.
The objection may be made against silver money, and with good reason;
for it falls faster in its value than other goods, and may soon be
reduced to its value as a metal.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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