Currency fallacies refuted, and paper money ... - University Library

90 PAPER MONEY VINDICATED.or houses, but parchment chains seldom preventdespairing fugitives : therefore, the number ofpeople in any country, as well as their wellbeing, depends entirely on trade." The landholder hath an immoveable property,valuable only to some few of hisneighboursor countrymen ;the produce of which, iftrade carries not off, nor brings in people to consume,but on the contrary, by its decay driveshis consumers away ; his tenants must decay,break, fly ; his lands be untenanted : he mayindeed sell at one price or another ; but whenthe bulk of his neighbours are in as bad a situationas himself, and all rents declining, thevalue of untenanted farms and empty housesmust be very low,** The traders are, indeed, the first pinched ;but then they have the first warning to avoidthe calamity, which, coming but by degrees tothe ultimate, the landholders, they are thelonger lulled in a deceitful security.*' Who, then, is most concerned in point ofinterest with regard to trade ; he whose propertyis in moveables, who hath the firstwarning,and the greatest choice of purchasers ?he, whose property is immoveable, who feelsnot the danger until it is far advanced, hath theleast choice of purchasers,orand those decliningones,too, like himself?" As men rationally pursue their own interest,this indifference in our landholders is mon-