Meat is on the whole not exces
sively dear, whatever its price may be at particular times and from particular accidents.
sively dear, whatever its price may be at particular times and from particular accidents.
Edmund Burke
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
4,060,726
Increase in the last period . 165,667
Here is the effect of two such daring taxes as 3d. by the bushel additional on malt, and 3s. by the barrel additional on beer. Two impositions laid without remission one upon the neck of the other; and laid upon an object which before had been immensely loaded. They did not in the least impair the con sumption: it has grown under them. It appears that, upon the whole, the people did not feel so much inconvenience from the new duties as to oblige them to take refuge in the private brewery. Quite the contrary happened in both these respects in the reign of King William ; and it happened from much slighter impositions? " No people can long consume a com modity for which they are not well able to pay. An enlightened reader laughs at the inconsistent chimera
* Although the public brewery has considerably increased in this latter period, the produce of the malt-tax has been something less than in the former; this cannot be attributed to the new malt-tax. Had this been the cause of the lessened consumption, the public brewery, so much more burdened, must have felt it more. The cause of this diminution of the malt-tax I take to have been principally owing W the greater dearness of corn in the second period than in the first, which, in all its consequences, affected the people in the country much more than those in the towns. But the revenue from consumption was not, on the whole, impaired; as we have seen in the foregeiflg page.
? ? ? ? on THE PRESENT surn or rnn NATION.
317
of our author, of a people universally luxurious, and at the same time oppressed with taxes and declin ing in trade. For my part, I cannot look on these duties as the author does. He sees nothing but the burden. I can perceive the burden as well as he; but I cannot avoid contemplating also the strength that
it. From thence I draw the most comfort able assurances of the future vigor, and the ample resources, of this great, misrepresented country ; and can never prevail on myself to make complaints which have no cause, in order to raise hopes which have no foundation.
When a representation is built on truth and nature, one member supports the other, and mutual lights are given and received from every part. Thus, as our manufacturers have not deserted, nor the manu facture left us, nor the consumption declined, nor the revenue sunk ; so neither has trade, which is at once the result, measure, and cause of the whole, in the
least decayed, as our author has thought proper sometimes to affirm, constantly to suppose, as if it were the most indisputable of all propositions. The reader will see below the comparative state of our trade * in three of the best years before our increase of debt and taxes, and with it the three last years since the author's date of our ruin.
supports
? ? 24,607,870 ii
4' Total Imports, value,
Exports, ditto. . . ? 11,694,912
. 12,243,604
. . 11,787,828
35,726,344 24,607,870
. . 11,118,474 _ . ? 3,706,158
1752 . 1758 . 1754 .
T0t&l
. ? 7,ss9,as9 . 8,625,029 . 8,093,472
. . . . .
Exports exceed imports Medium balance . .
? ? ? 318 OBSERVATIONS ON A LATE PUBLICATION
In the last three years the whole of our exports was between 44 and 45 millions. In the three years preceding the war, it was no more than from 35 to 36 millions. The average balance of the former pe riod was 3,706,000l. ; of the latter, something above four millions. It is true, that whilst the impressions of the author's destructive war continued, our trade was greater than it is at present. One of the neces sary consequences of the peace was, that France must gradually recover a part of those markets of which she had been originally in possession. However, af ter all these deductions, still the gross trade in the worst year of the present is better than in the best year of any former period of peace. A very great part of our taxes, if not the greatest, has been imposed since the beginning of the century. On the author's principles, this continual increase of taxes must have ruined our trade, or at least entirely checked its growth. But I have a manuscript of Davenant, which contains an abstract of our trade for the years 1703 and 1704; by which it appears that the whole export from England did not then exceed 6,552,019l. It is now considerably more than double that amount. Yet England was then a rich and flourishing nation.
The author endeavors to derogate from the balance in our favor as it stands on the entries, and reduces
? Total Imports, value,
Exports, ditto. ? l6,l64,532 14,550,507
14,024,964
44,740,003 32,665,513
1764 . .
1765 . .
1766 . .
Total
? W10,3l9,946 10,889,742 11,475,825
? 32,605,513
. . . . . .
.
. . .
Exports exceed .
12,054,490
.
Medium balance for three last years ? 4,018,168
.
. .
.
.
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319
it from four millions, as it there appears, to no more than 2,500,000l. His observation on the looseness and inaccuracy of the export entries is just ; and that the error is always an error of excess, I readily admit. But because, as usual, he has wholly omitted some very material facts, his conclusion is as erroneous as
the entries he complains of.
On this point of the custom-house entries I shall
make a few observations. 1st. The inaccuracy of these entries can extend only to FREE Goons, that
to such British products and manufactures, as are ex ported without drawback and without bounty; which do not in general amount to more than two thirds at the very utmost of the whole export even of rmr heme
products. The valuable articles of corn, malt, leather, hops, beer, and many others, do not come under this objection of inaccuracy. The article of CERTIFICATE Goons re-exported, vast branch of our commerce, admits of no error, (except some smaller frauds which cannot be estimated,) as they have all drawback of duty, and the exporter must therefore correctly spe cify their quantity and kind. The author therefore
not warranted from the known error in some of the entries, to make general defalcation from the whole balance in our favor. This error cannot affect more than half, so much, of the export article. 2dly. In the account made up at the Inspector-General's oflice, they estimate only the original cost of British
products as they are here purchased and on foreign goods, only the prices in the country from whence they are sent. This was the method established by Mr. Davenant; and as far as goes, certainly good one. But the profits of the merchant at home, and
of our factories abroad, are not taken into the ac
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count ; which profit on such an immense quantity of goods exported and re-exported cannot fail of being
very great: five per cent, upon the whole, I should think, a very moderate allowance. 3dly. It does not comprehend the advantage arising from the em ployment of 600,000 tons of shipping, which must be paid by the foreign consumer, and which, in many bulky articles of commerce, is equal to the value of the commodity. This can scarcely be rated at less than a million annually. 4thly. The whole import from Ireland and America, and from the West Indies, is set against us in the ordinary way of striking a bal ance of imports and exports; whereas the import and export are both our own. This is just as ridiculous, as to put against the general balance of the nation, how much more goods Cheshire receives from London than London from Cheshire. The whole revolves and circulates through this kingdom, and so far as re gards our profit, in the nature of home _trade, as much as the several countries of America and Ireland were all pieced to Cornwall. The course of exchange with all these places fully sufficient to demonstrate that this kingdom has the whole advantage of their commerce. When the final profit upon whole sys tem of trade rests and centres in certain place, balance struck in that place merely on the mutual sale of commodities quite fallacious. 5thly. The custom-house entries furnish most defective, and, indeed, ridiculous idea of the most valuable branch of trade we have in the world,--that with New foundland. Observe what you export thither; lit tle spirits, provision, fishing-lines, and fishing-hooks. Is this export the true idea of the Newfoundland trade
in the light of beneficial branch of commerce?
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Nothing less. Examine our imports from thence ; it seems upon this vulgar idea of exports and imports, to turn the balance against you. But your exports to Newfoundland are your own goods. Your import is your own food; as much your own, as that you raise with your plonghs out of your own soil; and not your loss, but your gain; your riches, not your poverty. But so fallacious is this way of judging, that neither the export nor import, nor both together, supply any idea approaching to adequate of that branch of business. The vessels in that trade go straight from Newfoundland to the foreign market;
and the sale there, not the import here, is the meas ure of its value. That trade, which is one of your greatest and best, is hardly so much as seen in the custom-house entries; and it is not of less annual value to this nation than 400,000l. 6thly. The qual ity of your imports must be considered as well as the quantity. To state the whole of the foreign im
as loss, is exceedingly absurd. All the iron, hemp, flax, cotton, Spanish wool, raw silk, woollen and linen-yarn, which we import, are by no means to be considered as the matter of a merely luxurious consumption; which is the idea too generally and loosely annexed to our import article. These above
mentioned are materials of industry, not of luxury, which are wrought up here, in many instances, to ten times, and more, of their original value. Even where they are not subservient to our exports, they
still add to our internal wealth, which consists in the stock of useful commodities, as much as in gold and
In looking over the specific articles of our ex
silver.
vot. 1. 2|
port and import, I have often been astonished to see
for how small a part of the supply of our consump
321
? port
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tion, either luxurious or convenient, we are indebted to nations properly foreign to us.
These considerations are entirely passed over by
the author; they have been but too much neglected
by most who have speculated on this subject. But they ought never to be omitted by those who mean to come to anything like the true state of the British trade. They compensate, and they more than com pensate, everything which the author can cut off with any appearance of reason for the over-entry of 'British goods; and they restore to us that balance of four millions, which the author has thought proper on such a very poor and limited comprehension of the object to reduce to 2,500,000l.
In general this author is so circumstanced, that to support his theory he is obliged to assume his facts: and then, if you allow his facts, they will not support his conclusions. What if all he says of the state of this balance were true ? did not the same objections always lie to custom-house entries? do they defalcate more from the entries of 1766 than from those of 1754? Ifthey prove us ruined, we were always ruined. Some ravens have always indeed croaked out this kind of song. They have a malignant delight in presaging mischief, when they are not employed in doing it: they are miserable and disappointed at
every instance of the public prosperity. They over look us like the malevolent being of the poet : --
Tritonida conspicit arcem
Ingeniis, opibusque, et festa pace virentem; Vixque tenet lacrymas quia nil lacrymabile cernit.
It is in this spirit that some have looked upon
those accidents that cast an occasional trade. Their imaginations entail these
? damp upon accidents
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upon us in perpetuity. We have had some bad har vests. This must very disadvantageously affect the balance of trade, and the navigation of a people, so large a part of whose commerce is in grain. But, in knowing the cause, we are morally certain, that,
according to the course of events, it cannot long sub sist. In the three last years, we have exported scarce ly any grain; in good years, that export hath been worth twelve hundred thousand pounds and more; in the two last years, far from exporting, we have been obliged to import to the amount perhaps of our former exportation. So that in this article the bal ance must be 2,000,000l. against us; that one million in the ceasing of gain, the other in the in crease of expenditure. But none of the author's promises or projects could have prevented this mis
fortune; and, thank God, we do not want him or them to relieve us from it; although, his friends should now come into power, doubt not but they will be ready to take credit for any increase of trade or excise, that may arise from the happy circum
stance of good harvest.
This connects with his loud laments and melan
choly prognostications concerning the high price of the necessaries of life and the products of labor. With all his others, deny this fact; and again call upon him to prove it. Take average and not
accident, the grand and first necessary of life cheap in this country; and that too as weighed, not against labor, which its true counterpoise, but against money. Does he call the price of wheat at this day, between 32 and 40 shillings per quarter in London dear He must know that fuel (an object
* It dearer in some places, and rather cheaper in others but must soon all come to level.
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of the highest order in the necessaries of life, and of
the first necessity in almost every kind of manufac
ture) is in many of our provinces cheaper than in any part of the globe.
Meat is on the whole not exces
sively dear, whatever its price may be at particular times and from particular accidents. If it has had anything like an uniform rise, this enhancement may easily be proved not to be owing to the increase of taxes, but to uniform increase of consumption and of money. Diminish the latter, and meat in your markets will be sufficiently cheap in account, but much dearer in effect: because fewer will be in a condition to buy. Thus your apparent plenty will be real indigence. At present, even under tempo rary disadvantages, the use of flesh is greater here than anywhere else; it is continued without any in terruption of Lents or meagre days; it is sustained and growing even with the increase of our taxes.
But some have the art of converting even the signs of national prosperity into symptoms of decay and ruin. And our author, who so loudly disclaims pop ularity, never fails to_lay hold of the most vulgar popular prejudices and humors, in hopes to capti vate the crowd. Even those peevish dispositions which grow out of some transitory suffering, those passing clouds which float in our changeable atmos phere, are by him industriously figured into fright
ful shapes, in order first to terrify, and then to govern the populace.
It was not enough for the author's purpose to give this false and discouraging picture of the state of his own country. It did not fully answer his end, to ex aggerate her burdens, to depreciate her successes, and to vilify her character. Nothing had been done, 1111
. . . ,,,_",
? ? ? ? ON THE PRESENT STATE OF THE NATION. 325
less the situation of France were exalted in propor tion as that of England had been abased. The reader will excuse the citation I make at length from his book; he outdoes himself upon this occasion. His confidence is indeed unparalleled, and altogether of the heroic cast: --
"If our rival nations were in the same circum stances with ourselves, the augmentation of our taxes would produce no ill consequences : if we were obliged to raise our prices, they must, from the same causes, do the like, and could take n0 advantage by under selling and under-working us. But the alarming consideration to Great Britain that France not in the same condition. Her distresses, during the war, were great, but they were immediate; her want of credit, as has been said, compelled her to impover
? ish her people, by raising the greatest part of her sup plies within the year; but the burdens she imposed on them were, in a great measure, temporary, and must be greatly diminished afew years peace. She could procure no considerable loans, therefore she has mort gaged no such oppressive taxes as those Great Britain has imposed in perpetuity for payment interest. Peace must, therefore, soon re-establish' her commerce and
manufactures, especially as the comparative lightness of taxes, and the cheapness of living, in that country, must make France an asylum for British manufac turers and artificers. " On this the author rests the merit of his whole system. And on this point will join issue with him. If France not at least in the same condition, even in that very condition which the author falsely represents to be ours,--if the very re verse of his proposition be not true, then will admit
his state of the nation to be just; and all his inferen
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cos from that state to be logical and conclusive. It is not surprising, that the author should hazard our opinion of his veracity. That is a virtue on which great statesmen do not perhaps pique themselves so much; but it is somewhat extraordinary, that he should stake on a very poor calculation of chances, all credit for care, for accuracy, and for knowledge of the subject of which he treats. He is rash and inaccurate, because he thinks he writes to a public 1gnorant and inattentive. But he may find himself in that respect, as in many others, greatly mistaken.
In order to contrast the light and vigorous condi tion of France with that of England, weak, and sink ing under her burdens, he states, in his tenth page, that France had raised 50,314,378l. sterling by taxes within the several years from the year 1756 to 1762 both inclusive. An Englishman must stand aghast at such a representation: To find France able to raise within the year sums little inferior to all that we were able even to borrow on interest with all the resources of the greatest and most established credit in the world! Europe was filled with astonishment when they saw England borrow in one year twelve millions. It was th'ought, and 'very justly, no small proof of na tional strength and financial skill, to find a fund for the payment of the interest upon this sum. The in terest of _this, computed with the one per cent annu ities, amounted only to 600,000l. a year. This, I say, was thought a surprising effbrt even of credit. But this author talks, as of a thing not worth proving, and but just worth observing, that France in one yea1 raised sixteen times that sum without borrowing, and continued to raise sums not far from equal to it for
several years together. Suppose some Jacob Hen
__-F,'
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r1ques had proposed, in the year 1762, to prevent a perpetual charge on the nation by raising ten mil lions within the year: he would have been consid ered, not as a harsh financier, who laid a heavy hand on the public; but as a poor visionary, who had run mad on supplies and taxes. They who know that the whole land-tax of England, at 4s. in the pound, raises but two millions, will not easily apprehend that any such sums as the author has conjured up can be raised even in the most opulent nations. France owed a large debt, and was encumbered with heavy
establishments, before that war. The author does not formally deny that she borrowed something in every year of its continuance; let him produce the funds for this astonishing annual addition to all her vast preceding taxes ; an addition equal to the whole excise, customs, land and malt-taxes of England taken together.
But what must be the reader's astonishment, per haps his indignation, if he should find that this great financier has fallen into the most unaccountable of all errors, no less an error than that of mistaking the identical sums borrowed by France upon interest, for supplies raised within the year! Can it be conceived that any man, only entered into the first rudiments of finance, should make so egregious a blunder; should write should print it; should carry to second edition; should take not collaterally and incidentally, but layit down as the corner-stone of his whole system, in such an important point as the comparative states of France and England? But will be said, that was his misfortune to be ill-in formed. Not at all. A man of any loose general knowledge, and of the most ordinary sagacity, never
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could have been misinformed in so gross a manner; because he would have immediately rejected so wild and extravagant an account.
The fact is this: the credit of France, bad as it might have been, did enable her (not to raise within the year) but to borrow the very sums the author mentions; that is to say, 1,106,916,261 livres, mak ing, in the author's computation, 50,314,378l. The credit of France was low; but it was not annihilated. ' She did not derive, as our author chooses to assert,' any advantages from the debility of her credit. Its consequence was the natural one: she borrowed; but she borrowed upon bad terms, indeed on the
most exorbitant usury.
In speaking of a foreign revenue, the very pretence
to accuracy would be the most inaccurate thing in' the world. Neither the author nor I can with oer-_ tainty authenticate the information we comm1micate to the public, nor in an affair of eternal fluctuation arrive at perfect exactness. All we can do, and this we may be expected to do, is to avoid gross errors and blunders of a capital nature. We cannot order the proper officer to lay the accounts before the House. But the reader must judge on the probability of the accounts we lay before him. The author speaks of
France as raising her supplies for war by taxes with in the year; and of her debt, as a thing scarcely worthy of notice. I affirm that she borrowed large sums in every year ; and has thereby accumulated an immense debt. This debt continued after the war infinitely to embarrass her affairs; and to find some means for its reduction was then and has ever since been the first object of her policy. But she has so little succeeded in all her efforts, that the per
? ? ? ? ON THE PRESENT STATE OF THE NATION.
329
petual debt of France is at this hour little short of 100,000,000l. sterling; and she stands charged with at least 40,000,000 of English pounds on life-rents and tontines. The annuities paid at this day at the Hotel de Ville of Paris, which are by no means her sole payments of that nature, amount to 139,000,000 of livres, that is to 6,3-18,000l. ; besides billets au porteur, and various detached and unfunded debts, to a great
amount, and which bear an interest.
At the end of the war, the interest payable on her
debt amounted to upwards of seven millions sterling. M. de la Verdy, the last hope of the French finances, was called in, to aid in the reduction of an interest, so light to our author, so intolerably heavy
? upon those who are to pay it. After many unsuccessful efforts towards reconciling arbitrary reduction with public credit, he was obliged to go the plain high road of power, and to impose a tax of 10 per cent upon a very great part of the capital debt of that kingdom; and this measure of present ease, to the
destruction of future credit, produced about 500,000l. a year, which was carried to their Caisse d'amortisse ment or sinking fund. _But so unfaithfully and un steadily has this and all the other articles which compose that fund been applied to their purposes, that they have given the state but very little even of present relief, since it is known to the whole world that she is behind-hand on every one of her establish ments. Since the year 1763,there has been no oper ation of any consequence on the French finances; and in this enviable condition is France at present with regard to her debt.
Everybody knows that the principal of the debt is but a name ; the interest is the only thing which can distress a nation. Take this idea, which will not be
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disputed, and compare the interest paid by England with that paid by France:
Interest paid by France, funded and
unfunded, for perpetuity or on lives,
after the" tax of 10 per cent . . . ? 6,500,000
330
Interest paid by England, as stated by the author, p. 27 . . . . . . .
4,600,000
Interest paid by France exceeds that
paid by England . . . . . . . ? 1,900,000
The author cannot complain, that I state the inter est paid by England as too low. He takes it himself as the extremest term. Nobody who knows anything of the French finances will affirm that I state the in terest paid by that kingdom too high. It might be easily proved to amount to a great deal more: even this is near two millions above what is England.
There are three standards to judge of the good con dition of a nation with regard to its finances. 1st, The relief of the people. 2nd, The equality of sup plies to establishments. 3rd, The state of public credit. Try France on all these standards.
Although oiir author very liberally administers relief to the people of France, its government has not been altogether so gracious. Since the peace, she has taken off' but a single oingtie? me, or shilling in the pound, and some small matter in the capitation. But, if the government has relieved them in one point, it has only burdened them the more heavily ill another. The Taillef' that grievous and destructive imposition, which all their financiers lament, without being able to remove or to replace, has been aug
* A tax rated by the intendant in each generality, on the presumed fortune of every person below the degree of a gentleman.
? paid by
? ? ? ON rnn PRESENT smrn or rrrn NATION. 331
mented no less than six millions of livres, or 270,000 pounds English. A further augmentation of this or other duties is now talked of; and it is certainly ne
cessary to their affairs: so exceedingly remote from either truth or verisimilitude is the author's amazing assertion, that the burdens of France in the war were in a great measure temporary, and must be greatly diminished by a few years ofpeaoe.
In the next place, if the people of France are not lightened of taxes, so neither is the state disburdened of charges. I speak from very good information, that the annual income of that state is at this day thirty millions of livres, or 1,350,000l. sterling, short
? of a provision for their ordinary peace establishment ; so far are they from the attempt or even hope to dis charge any part of the capital of their enormous debt. Indeed, under such extreme straitness and distrac tion labors the whole body of their finances, so far does their charge outrun their supply in every par
ticular, that no man, I believe, whohas considered their affairs with any degree of attention or informa tion, but must hourly look for some extraordinary convulsion in that whole system: the effect of which on France, and even on all Europe, it is difficult to
conjecture.
In the third point of view, their credit. Let the
reader cast his eye on a table of the price of French
fiLI1dS, as they stood a few weeks ago, compared with the state of some of our English stocks, even in their present low condition : --
French. British.
5 per cents . . . . 63 Bank stock, 5? . 159 4 per cent (not taxed) 57 4 per cent cons. 100 3 per cent " " 49 3 per cent cons. 88
? ? ? '0BSERVATIONS on A LATE PUBLICATION
This state of the funds of France and England is sufficient to convince even prejudice and obstinacy, that if France and England are not in the same con dition (as the author afiirms they are not) the dif ference is infinitely to the disadvantage of France.
This depreciation of their funds has not much the air of a nation lightening burdens and discharging debts.
Such is the true comparative state of the two king doms in those capital points of view. Now as to the nature of the taxes which provide for this debt, as well as for their ordinary establishments, the author has thought proper to affirm that " they are compara tively light "'; that " she has mortgaged no such op pressive taxes as ours " ; his effrontery on this head is intolerable. Does the author recollect a single tax
in England to which something parallel in nature, and as heavy in burden, does not exist in France; does he not know that the lands of the noblesse are still under the load of the greater part of the old feudal charges, from which the gentry of England have been relieved for upwards of a hundred years, and which were in kind, as well as burden, much worse than our modern land-tax? Besides that all the gentry of France serve in the army on very slender pay, and to the utter ruin of their fortunes, all those who are not noble have their lands heavily taxed. Does he not know that wine," brandy, soap, candles, leather, salt
petre, gunpowder, are taxed in France? Has he not heard that government in France has made a monop oly of that great article of salt? that they compel the people to take a certain quantity of and at certain rate, both rate and quantity fixed at the ar bitrary pleasure of the imposer? "' that they pay in
* Before the war was sold to, or rather forced on, the consumer
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France the Taille, an arbitrary imposition on pre sumed property? that a tax is laid in fact and name, on the same arbitrary standard, upon the acquisitions of their industry ? and that in France a heavy capita tion-taa: is also paid, from the highest to the very poorest sort of people? Have we taxes of such weight, or anything at all of the compulsion, in the
article of salt? do we pay any taillaye, any faculty taz, any industry-tax? do we pay any capitation-tax whatsoever? Ibelieve the people of London would fall into an agony to hear of such taxes proposed upon them as are paid at Paris. There is not a sin gle article of provision for man or beast which enters that great city, and is not excised ; corn, hay, meal,
? butcher's-meat, fish, fowls, everything. I do not here mean to censure the policy of taxes laid on the con sumption of great luxurious cities. I only state the fact. We should be with difficulty brought to hear of a tax of 50s. upon every ox sold in Smithfield. Yet this tax is paid in Paris. Wine, the lower sort of wine, little better than English small beer, pays 2d. a bottle.
We, indeed, tax our beer; but the imposition on small beer is very far from heavy. In no part of England are eatables of any kind the object of tax ation. In almost every other country in Europe they are excised, more or less. I have by me the state of the revenues of many of the principal nations on the Continent; and, on comparing them with ours, I think I am fairly warranted to assert, that England is the most lightly taxed of any of the great states
at 11 sous, or about 5d. the pound. What it is at present, I am not informed. Even this will appear no trivial imposition. In London, salt may be had at a penny farthing per pound from the last retailer.
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of Europe.
Increase in the last period . 165,667
Here is the effect of two such daring taxes as 3d. by the bushel additional on malt, and 3s. by the barrel additional on beer. Two impositions laid without remission one upon the neck of the other; and laid upon an object which before had been immensely loaded. They did not in the least impair the con sumption: it has grown under them. It appears that, upon the whole, the people did not feel so much inconvenience from the new duties as to oblige them to take refuge in the private brewery. Quite the contrary happened in both these respects in the reign of King William ; and it happened from much slighter impositions? " No people can long consume a com modity for which they are not well able to pay. An enlightened reader laughs at the inconsistent chimera
* Although the public brewery has considerably increased in this latter period, the produce of the malt-tax has been something less than in the former; this cannot be attributed to the new malt-tax. Had this been the cause of the lessened consumption, the public brewery, so much more burdened, must have felt it more. The cause of this diminution of the malt-tax I take to have been principally owing W the greater dearness of corn in the second period than in the first, which, in all its consequences, affected the people in the country much more than those in the towns. But the revenue from consumption was not, on the whole, impaired; as we have seen in the foregeiflg page.
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of our author, of a people universally luxurious, and at the same time oppressed with taxes and declin ing in trade. For my part, I cannot look on these duties as the author does. He sees nothing but the burden. I can perceive the burden as well as he; but I cannot avoid contemplating also the strength that
it. From thence I draw the most comfort able assurances of the future vigor, and the ample resources, of this great, misrepresented country ; and can never prevail on myself to make complaints which have no cause, in order to raise hopes which have no foundation.
When a representation is built on truth and nature, one member supports the other, and mutual lights are given and received from every part. Thus, as our manufacturers have not deserted, nor the manu facture left us, nor the consumption declined, nor the revenue sunk ; so neither has trade, which is at once the result, measure, and cause of the whole, in the
least decayed, as our author has thought proper sometimes to affirm, constantly to suppose, as if it were the most indisputable of all propositions. The reader will see below the comparative state of our trade * in three of the best years before our increase of debt and taxes, and with it the three last years since the author's date of our ruin.
supports
? ? 24,607,870 ii
4' Total Imports, value,
Exports, ditto. . . ? 11,694,912
. 12,243,604
. . 11,787,828
35,726,344 24,607,870
. . 11,118,474 _ . ? 3,706,158
1752 . 1758 . 1754 .
T0t&l
. ? 7,ss9,as9 . 8,625,029 . 8,093,472
. . . . .
Exports exceed imports Medium balance . .
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In the last three years the whole of our exports was between 44 and 45 millions. In the three years preceding the war, it was no more than from 35 to 36 millions. The average balance of the former pe riod was 3,706,000l. ; of the latter, something above four millions. It is true, that whilst the impressions of the author's destructive war continued, our trade was greater than it is at present. One of the neces sary consequences of the peace was, that France must gradually recover a part of those markets of which she had been originally in possession. However, af ter all these deductions, still the gross trade in the worst year of the present is better than in the best year of any former period of peace. A very great part of our taxes, if not the greatest, has been imposed since the beginning of the century. On the author's principles, this continual increase of taxes must have ruined our trade, or at least entirely checked its growth. But I have a manuscript of Davenant, which contains an abstract of our trade for the years 1703 and 1704; by which it appears that the whole export from England did not then exceed 6,552,019l. It is now considerably more than double that amount. Yet England was then a rich and flourishing nation.
The author endeavors to derogate from the balance in our favor as it stands on the entries, and reduces
? Total Imports, value,
Exports, ditto. ? l6,l64,532 14,550,507
14,024,964
44,740,003 32,665,513
1764 . .
1765 . .
1766 . .
Total
? W10,3l9,946 10,889,742 11,475,825
? 32,605,513
. . . . . .
.
. . .
Exports exceed .
12,054,490
.
Medium balance for three last years ? 4,018,168
.
. .
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319
it from four millions, as it there appears, to no more than 2,500,000l. His observation on the looseness and inaccuracy of the export entries is just ; and that the error is always an error of excess, I readily admit. But because, as usual, he has wholly omitted some very material facts, his conclusion is as erroneous as
the entries he complains of.
On this point of the custom-house entries I shall
make a few observations. 1st. The inaccuracy of these entries can extend only to FREE Goons, that
to such British products and manufactures, as are ex ported without drawback and without bounty; which do not in general amount to more than two thirds at the very utmost of the whole export even of rmr heme
products. The valuable articles of corn, malt, leather, hops, beer, and many others, do not come under this objection of inaccuracy. The article of CERTIFICATE Goons re-exported, vast branch of our commerce, admits of no error, (except some smaller frauds which cannot be estimated,) as they have all drawback of duty, and the exporter must therefore correctly spe cify their quantity and kind. The author therefore
not warranted from the known error in some of the entries, to make general defalcation from the whole balance in our favor. This error cannot affect more than half, so much, of the export article. 2dly. In the account made up at the Inspector-General's oflice, they estimate only the original cost of British
products as they are here purchased and on foreign goods, only the prices in the country from whence they are sent. This was the method established by Mr. Davenant; and as far as goes, certainly good one. But the profits of the merchant at home, and
of our factories abroad, are not taken into the ac
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count ; which profit on such an immense quantity of goods exported and re-exported cannot fail of being
very great: five per cent, upon the whole, I should think, a very moderate allowance. 3dly. It does not comprehend the advantage arising from the em ployment of 600,000 tons of shipping, which must be paid by the foreign consumer, and which, in many bulky articles of commerce, is equal to the value of the commodity. This can scarcely be rated at less than a million annually. 4thly. The whole import from Ireland and America, and from the West Indies, is set against us in the ordinary way of striking a bal ance of imports and exports; whereas the import and export are both our own. This is just as ridiculous, as to put against the general balance of the nation, how much more goods Cheshire receives from London than London from Cheshire. The whole revolves and circulates through this kingdom, and so far as re gards our profit, in the nature of home _trade, as much as the several countries of America and Ireland were all pieced to Cornwall. The course of exchange with all these places fully sufficient to demonstrate that this kingdom has the whole advantage of their commerce. When the final profit upon whole sys tem of trade rests and centres in certain place, balance struck in that place merely on the mutual sale of commodities quite fallacious. 5thly. The custom-house entries furnish most defective, and, indeed, ridiculous idea of the most valuable branch of trade we have in the world,--that with New foundland. Observe what you export thither; lit tle spirits, provision, fishing-lines, and fishing-hooks. Is this export the true idea of the Newfoundland trade
in the light of beneficial branch of commerce?
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Nothing less. Examine our imports from thence ; it seems upon this vulgar idea of exports and imports, to turn the balance against you. But your exports to Newfoundland are your own goods. Your import is your own food; as much your own, as that you raise with your plonghs out of your own soil; and not your loss, but your gain; your riches, not your poverty. But so fallacious is this way of judging, that neither the export nor import, nor both together, supply any idea approaching to adequate of that branch of business. The vessels in that trade go straight from Newfoundland to the foreign market;
and the sale there, not the import here, is the meas ure of its value. That trade, which is one of your greatest and best, is hardly so much as seen in the custom-house entries; and it is not of less annual value to this nation than 400,000l. 6thly. The qual ity of your imports must be considered as well as the quantity. To state the whole of the foreign im
as loss, is exceedingly absurd. All the iron, hemp, flax, cotton, Spanish wool, raw silk, woollen and linen-yarn, which we import, are by no means to be considered as the matter of a merely luxurious consumption; which is the idea too generally and loosely annexed to our import article. These above
mentioned are materials of industry, not of luxury, which are wrought up here, in many instances, to ten times, and more, of their original value. Even where they are not subservient to our exports, they
still add to our internal wealth, which consists in the stock of useful commodities, as much as in gold and
In looking over the specific articles of our ex
silver.
vot. 1. 2|
port and import, I have often been astonished to see
for how small a part of the supply of our consump
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tion, either luxurious or convenient, we are indebted to nations properly foreign to us.
These considerations are entirely passed over by
the author; they have been but too much neglected
by most who have speculated on this subject. But they ought never to be omitted by those who mean to come to anything like the true state of the British trade. They compensate, and they more than com pensate, everything which the author can cut off with any appearance of reason for the over-entry of 'British goods; and they restore to us that balance of four millions, which the author has thought proper on such a very poor and limited comprehension of the object to reduce to 2,500,000l.
In general this author is so circumstanced, that to support his theory he is obliged to assume his facts: and then, if you allow his facts, they will not support his conclusions. What if all he says of the state of this balance were true ? did not the same objections always lie to custom-house entries? do they defalcate more from the entries of 1766 than from those of 1754? Ifthey prove us ruined, we were always ruined. Some ravens have always indeed croaked out this kind of song. They have a malignant delight in presaging mischief, when they are not employed in doing it: they are miserable and disappointed at
every instance of the public prosperity. They over look us like the malevolent being of the poet : --
Tritonida conspicit arcem
Ingeniis, opibusque, et festa pace virentem; Vixque tenet lacrymas quia nil lacrymabile cernit.
It is in this spirit that some have looked upon
those accidents that cast an occasional trade. Their imaginations entail these
? damp upon accidents
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upon us in perpetuity. We have had some bad har vests. This must very disadvantageously affect the balance of trade, and the navigation of a people, so large a part of whose commerce is in grain. But, in knowing the cause, we are morally certain, that,
according to the course of events, it cannot long sub sist. In the three last years, we have exported scarce ly any grain; in good years, that export hath been worth twelve hundred thousand pounds and more; in the two last years, far from exporting, we have been obliged to import to the amount perhaps of our former exportation. So that in this article the bal ance must be 2,000,000l. against us; that one million in the ceasing of gain, the other in the in crease of expenditure. But none of the author's promises or projects could have prevented this mis
fortune; and, thank God, we do not want him or them to relieve us from it; although, his friends should now come into power, doubt not but they will be ready to take credit for any increase of trade or excise, that may arise from the happy circum
stance of good harvest.
This connects with his loud laments and melan
choly prognostications concerning the high price of the necessaries of life and the products of labor. With all his others, deny this fact; and again call upon him to prove it. Take average and not
accident, the grand and first necessary of life cheap in this country; and that too as weighed, not against labor, which its true counterpoise, but against money. Does he call the price of wheat at this day, between 32 and 40 shillings per quarter in London dear He must know that fuel (an object
* It dearer in some places, and rather cheaper in others but must soon all come to level.
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of the highest order in the necessaries of life, and of
the first necessity in almost every kind of manufac
ture) is in many of our provinces cheaper than in any part of the globe.
Meat is on the whole not exces
sively dear, whatever its price may be at particular times and from particular accidents. If it has had anything like an uniform rise, this enhancement may easily be proved not to be owing to the increase of taxes, but to uniform increase of consumption and of money. Diminish the latter, and meat in your markets will be sufficiently cheap in account, but much dearer in effect: because fewer will be in a condition to buy. Thus your apparent plenty will be real indigence. At present, even under tempo rary disadvantages, the use of flesh is greater here than anywhere else; it is continued without any in terruption of Lents or meagre days; it is sustained and growing even with the increase of our taxes.
But some have the art of converting even the signs of national prosperity into symptoms of decay and ruin. And our author, who so loudly disclaims pop ularity, never fails to_lay hold of the most vulgar popular prejudices and humors, in hopes to capti vate the crowd. Even those peevish dispositions which grow out of some transitory suffering, those passing clouds which float in our changeable atmos phere, are by him industriously figured into fright
ful shapes, in order first to terrify, and then to govern the populace.
It was not enough for the author's purpose to give this false and discouraging picture of the state of his own country. It did not fully answer his end, to ex aggerate her burdens, to depreciate her successes, and to vilify her character. Nothing had been done, 1111
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? ? ? ? ON THE PRESENT STATE OF THE NATION. 325
less the situation of France were exalted in propor tion as that of England had been abased. The reader will excuse the citation I make at length from his book; he outdoes himself upon this occasion. His confidence is indeed unparalleled, and altogether of the heroic cast: --
"If our rival nations were in the same circum stances with ourselves, the augmentation of our taxes would produce no ill consequences : if we were obliged to raise our prices, they must, from the same causes, do the like, and could take n0 advantage by under selling and under-working us. But the alarming consideration to Great Britain that France not in the same condition. Her distresses, during the war, were great, but they were immediate; her want of credit, as has been said, compelled her to impover
? ish her people, by raising the greatest part of her sup plies within the year; but the burdens she imposed on them were, in a great measure, temporary, and must be greatly diminished afew years peace. She could procure no considerable loans, therefore she has mort gaged no such oppressive taxes as those Great Britain has imposed in perpetuity for payment interest. Peace must, therefore, soon re-establish' her commerce and
manufactures, especially as the comparative lightness of taxes, and the cheapness of living, in that country, must make France an asylum for British manufac turers and artificers. " On this the author rests the merit of his whole system. And on this point will join issue with him. If France not at least in the same condition, even in that very condition which the author falsely represents to be ours,--if the very re verse of his proposition be not true, then will admit
his state of the nation to be just; and all his inferen
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cos from that state to be logical and conclusive. It is not surprising, that the author should hazard our opinion of his veracity. That is a virtue on which great statesmen do not perhaps pique themselves so much; but it is somewhat extraordinary, that he should stake on a very poor calculation of chances, all credit for care, for accuracy, and for knowledge of the subject of which he treats. He is rash and inaccurate, because he thinks he writes to a public 1gnorant and inattentive. But he may find himself in that respect, as in many others, greatly mistaken.
In order to contrast the light and vigorous condi tion of France with that of England, weak, and sink ing under her burdens, he states, in his tenth page, that France had raised 50,314,378l. sterling by taxes within the several years from the year 1756 to 1762 both inclusive. An Englishman must stand aghast at such a representation: To find France able to raise within the year sums little inferior to all that we were able even to borrow on interest with all the resources of the greatest and most established credit in the world! Europe was filled with astonishment when they saw England borrow in one year twelve millions. It was th'ought, and 'very justly, no small proof of na tional strength and financial skill, to find a fund for the payment of the interest upon this sum. The in terest of _this, computed with the one per cent annu ities, amounted only to 600,000l. a year. This, I say, was thought a surprising effbrt even of credit. But this author talks, as of a thing not worth proving, and but just worth observing, that France in one yea1 raised sixteen times that sum without borrowing, and continued to raise sums not far from equal to it for
several years together. Suppose some Jacob Hen
__-F,'
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r1ques had proposed, in the year 1762, to prevent a perpetual charge on the nation by raising ten mil lions within the year: he would have been consid ered, not as a harsh financier, who laid a heavy hand on the public; but as a poor visionary, who had run mad on supplies and taxes. They who know that the whole land-tax of England, at 4s. in the pound, raises but two millions, will not easily apprehend that any such sums as the author has conjured up can be raised even in the most opulent nations. France owed a large debt, and was encumbered with heavy
establishments, before that war. The author does not formally deny that she borrowed something in every year of its continuance; let him produce the funds for this astonishing annual addition to all her vast preceding taxes ; an addition equal to the whole excise, customs, land and malt-taxes of England taken together.
But what must be the reader's astonishment, per haps his indignation, if he should find that this great financier has fallen into the most unaccountable of all errors, no less an error than that of mistaking the identical sums borrowed by France upon interest, for supplies raised within the year! Can it be conceived that any man, only entered into the first rudiments of finance, should make so egregious a blunder; should write should print it; should carry to second edition; should take not collaterally and incidentally, but layit down as the corner-stone of his whole system, in such an important point as the comparative states of France and England? But will be said, that was his misfortune to be ill-in formed. Not at all. A man of any loose general knowledge, and of the most ordinary sagacity, never
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could have been misinformed in so gross a manner; because he would have immediately rejected so wild and extravagant an account.
The fact is this: the credit of France, bad as it might have been, did enable her (not to raise within the year) but to borrow the very sums the author mentions; that is to say, 1,106,916,261 livres, mak ing, in the author's computation, 50,314,378l. The credit of France was low; but it was not annihilated. ' She did not derive, as our author chooses to assert,' any advantages from the debility of her credit. Its consequence was the natural one: she borrowed; but she borrowed upon bad terms, indeed on the
most exorbitant usury.
In speaking of a foreign revenue, the very pretence
to accuracy would be the most inaccurate thing in' the world. Neither the author nor I can with oer-_ tainty authenticate the information we comm1micate to the public, nor in an affair of eternal fluctuation arrive at perfect exactness. All we can do, and this we may be expected to do, is to avoid gross errors and blunders of a capital nature. We cannot order the proper officer to lay the accounts before the House. But the reader must judge on the probability of the accounts we lay before him. The author speaks of
France as raising her supplies for war by taxes with in the year; and of her debt, as a thing scarcely worthy of notice. I affirm that she borrowed large sums in every year ; and has thereby accumulated an immense debt. This debt continued after the war infinitely to embarrass her affairs; and to find some means for its reduction was then and has ever since been the first object of her policy. But she has so little succeeded in all her efforts, that the per
? ? ? ? ON THE PRESENT STATE OF THE NATION.
329
petual debt of France is at this hour little short of 100,000,000l. sterling; and she stands charged with at least 40,000,000 of English pounds on life-rents and tontines. The annuities paid at this day at the Hotel de Ville of Paris, which are by no means her sole payments of that nature, amount to 139,000,000 of livres, that is to 6,3-18,000l. ; besides billets au porteur, and various detached and unfunded debts, to a great
amount, and which bear an interest.
At the end of the war, the interest payable on her
debt amounted to upwards of seven millions sterling. M. de la Verdy, the last hope of the French finances, was called in, to aid in the reduction of an interest, so light to our author, so intolerably heavy
? upon those who are to pay it. After many unsuccessful efforts towards reconciling arbitrary reduction with public credit, he was obliged to go the plain high road of power, and to impose a tax of 10 per cent upon a very great part of the capital debt of that kingdom; and this measure of present ease, to the
destruction of future credit, produced about 500,000l. a year, which was carried to their Caisse d'amortisse ment or sinking fund. _But so unfaithfully and un steadily has this and all the other articles which compose that fund been applied to their purposes, that they have given the state but very little even of present relief, since it is known to the whole world that she is behind-hand on every one of her establish ments. Since the year 1763,there has been no oper ation of any consequence on the French finances; and in this enviable condition is France at present with regard to her debt.
Everybody knows that the principal of the debt is but a name ; the interest is the only thing which can distress a nation. Take this idea, which will not be
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disputed, and compare the interest paid by England with that paid by France:
Interest paid by France, funded and
unfunded, for perpetuity or on lives,
after the" tax of 10 per cent . . . ? 6,500,000
330
Interest paid by England, as stated by the author, p. 27 . . . . . . .
4,600,000
Interest paid by France exceeds that
paid by England . . . . . . . ? 1,900,000
The author cannot complain, that I state the inter est paid by England as too low. He takes it himself as the extremest term. Nobody who knows anything of the French finances will affirm that I state the in terest paid by that kingdom too high. It might be easily proved to amount to a great deal more: even this is near two millions above what is England.
There are three standards to judge of the good con dition of a nation with regard to its finances. 1st, The relief of the people. 2nd, The equality of sup plies to establishments. 3rd, The state of public credit. Try France on all these standards.
Although oiir author very liberally administers relief to the people of France, its government has not been altogether so gracious. Since the peace, she has taken off' but a single oingtie? me, or shilling in the pound, and some small matter in the capitation. But, if the government has relieved them in one point, it has only burdened them the more heavily ill another. The Taillef' that grievous and destructive imposition, which all their financiers lament, without being able to remove or to replace, has been aug
* A tax rated by the intendant in each generality, on the presumed fortune of every person below the degree of a gentleman.
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? ? ? ON rnn PRESENT smrn or rrrn NATION. 331
mented no less than six millions of livres, or 270,000 pounds English. A further augmentation of this or other duties is now talked of; and it is certainly ne
cessary to their affairs: so exceedingly remote from either truth or verisimilitude is the author's amazing assertion, that the burdens of France in the war were in a great measure temporary, and must be greatly diminished by a few years ofpeaoe.
In the next place, if the people of France are not lightened of taxes, so neither is the state disburdened of charges. I speak from very good information, that the annual income of that state is at this day thirty millions of livres, or 1,350,000l. sterling, short
? of a provision for their ordinary peace establishment ; so far are they from the attempt or even hope to dis charge any part of the capital of their enormous debt. Indeed, under such extreme straitness and distrac tion labors the whole body of their finances, so far does their charge outrun their supply in every par
ticular, that no man, I believe, whohas considered their affairs with any degree of attention or informa tion, but must hourly look for some extraordinary convulsion in that whole system: the effect of which on France, and even on all Europe, it is difficult to
conjecture.
In the third point of view, their credit. Let the
reader cast his eye on a table of the price of French
fiLI1dS, as they stood a few weeks ago, compared with the state of some of our English stocks, even in their present low condition : --
French. British.
5 per cents . . . . 63 Bank stock, 5? . 159 4 per cent (not taxed) 57 4 per cent cons. 100 3 per cent " " 49 3 per cent cons. 88
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This state of the funds of France and England is sufficient to convince even prejudice and obstinacy, that if France and England are not in the same con dition (as the author afiirms they are not) the dif ference is infinitely to the disadvantage of France.
This depreciation of their funds has not much the air of a nation lightening burdens and discharging debts.
Such is the true comparative state of the two king doms in those capital points of view. Now as to the nature of the taxes which provide for this debt, as well as for their ordinary establishments, the author has thought proper to affirm that " they are compara tively light "'; that " she has mortgaged no such op pressive taxes as ours " ; his effrontery on this head is intolerable. Does the author recollect a single tax
in England to which something parallel in nature, and as heavy in burden, does not exist in France; does he not know that the lands of the noblesse are still under the load of the greater part of the old feudal charges, from which the gentry of England have been relieved for upwards of a hundred years, and which were in kind, as well as burden, much worse than our modern land-tax? Besides that all the gentry of France serve in the army on very slender pay, and to the utter ruin of their fortunes, all those who are not noble have their lands heavily taxed. Does he not know that wine," brandy, soap, candles, leather, salt
petre, gunpowder, are taxed in France? Has he not heard that government in France has made a monop oly of that great article of salt? that they compel the people to take a certain quantity of and at certain rate, both rate and quantity fixed at the ar bitrary pleasure of the imposer? "' that they pay in
* Before the war was sold to, or rather forced on, the consumer
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France the Taille, an arbitrary imposition on pre sumed property? that a tax is laid in fact and name, on the same arbitrary standard, upon the acquisitions of their industry ? and that in France a heavy capita tion-taa: is also paid, from the highest to the very poorest sort of people? Have we taxes of such weight, or anything at all of the compulsion, in the
article of salt? do we pay any taillaye, any faculty taz, any industry-tax? do we pay any capitation-tax whatsoever? Ibelieve the people of London would fall into an agony to hear of such taxes proposed upon them as are paid at Paris. There is not a sin gle article of provision for man or beast which enters that great city, and is not excised ; corn, hay, meal,
? butcher's-meat, fish, fowls, everything. I do not here mean to censure the policy of taxes laid on the con sumption of great luxurious cities. I only state the fact. We should be with difficulty brought to hear of a tax of 50s. upon every ox sold in Smithfield. Yet this tax is paid in Paris. Wine, the lower sort of wine, little better than English small beer, pays 2d. a bottle.
We, indeed, tax our beer; but the imposition on small beer is very far from heavy. In no part of England are eatables of any kind the object of tax ation. In almost every other country in Europe they are excised, more or less. I have by me the state of the revenues of many of the principal nations on the Continent; and, on comparing them with ours, I think I am fairly warranted to assert, that England is the most lightly taxed of any of the great states
at 11 sous, or about 5d. the pound. What it is at present, I am not informed. Even this will appear no trivial imposition. In London, salt may be had at a penny farthing per pound from the last retailer.
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of Europe.
