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

PAPER MONEY VINDICATED. 91strous. Is it pride which makes them think thesubject beneath them ? All foreign courts arenow studying it attentively. Is it the fear that thesubject is too intricate ? A little attention willmake it as easy to them as to foreigners. Is ittheir places that engross all their time ? Whatthey think they get by these, they may doublylose in their lands. Is it their pleasures theynow make their chief business ? Alas ! theyare paying very dear forthem, and deservedlytoo, if that is the case. — These causes mayaffect some few ; but the general one I take tobe the craft, covetousness, or false notions ofinterest in our ancestors, who thought to laythe burden of taxes as remote as possible fromtheir lands, by laying them on trade, and tobuttress that up by prohibitions ; both whichhave had quite contrary effects, and their children'sfeet are catched in the traps their forefatherslaidfor others.'' *A difference of exchange between gold andpaper, of from 16 to 22 per cent, during thewar, and from 30 to 40 since, would have savedus the greater part, if not the whole, of theseimmense losses, — would have prevented ourgoods from becoming a drug in every part ofthe world, — would have spared the lives ofmillions who have prematurely found a grave* Sir Matthew Decker's Essay on the Causes of the Declineof Foreign Trade. Preface. Edinb. 1756.