This country is more capable of an extended trade than any other country of Europe, yet it is reduc’d to a very low state. trade is ruin’d; the national stock is wasted; the people forsake the country; the rents of land are unpay’d; houses in towns, and farms in the country are thrown upon the owners hands; the creditor cannot have the interest of his money to live upon; and the debitor’s person and estate are expos’d to the law. The landed man, by having engaged his person and estate for the payment of a species, which is not in his power to perform; and having no alternative: by the law his person is at the mercy of the creditor, and his estate to be sold for so much of that species as it will yield. if 2 or 3 money’d men call in their money, with a design to force their debitors to part with their estates, at what prices they please to impose: they may bring the price of land to 15 or 10 years purchase. for they would not take bonds in payment, and few or none would be in a condition to buy with money. If victual should prove scarce, as we have not goods or money for any value to send out for corns; so only a part of the people could be maintained: the better part would have bread, but the more necessary part, the labouring men, would be forc’d to leave the country, or to starve in it. nor would they fare better in England; for as the scarcity of money has set idle many of the people of England, so there are more already than there is employment for: and our people, at least many of them, would meet the same fate they had endeavoured to evite. The landed men would want people to labour the ground; they would perhaps get food and cloathing for themselves and families, but these they were owing to, in all appearance, would get nothing: for the case being general, and the landed men the stronger party; they would not suffer their liberty and estates to be taken from them. but tho’ the law could be put in execution, and the estates of the landed men were put to sale; as there would be few purchasers, the price of land would fall very low. suppose the land were sold or given among the creditors for 15 years purchase, or less; it would be sold for more than it were worth, for they would not find people to labour it: so many would be sufferers, and none gainers. If neither of these cases happen; yet this country cannot well subsist in the condition ’tis in: if this opportunity is neglected, if wrong or ineffectual measures are taken, in all appearance we will be in confusion before we have another opportunity. To raise or allay the money, to coin the plate, or regulate trade, are offer’d as measures to supply the want of money: and ’tis thought any one of them will bring us out of our difficulties. when they come to be examin’d, raising or allaying the money will be found no help but a hurt to the country, whatever our circumstances are. the others may prove ineffectual.