Money Answers All Things [35]
such Goods ourselves, which they must be, or we shall not import them; I say, it's plain the Consumption of any such Goods cannot occasion so great an Expence, as they would if we could shut them out, by an Act of Parliament, to raise them ourselves. If therefore it would be true, as the Objection allows, that the Gentry would be the richer for executing this Proposal, if all the Goods they consume and use were the natural Produce of our own Country, they must be so, notwithstanding their Consumption of any Quantity of foreign Goods, which we can import and sell at cheaper Rates than we can possibly raise them ourselves; for none but such cheaper foreign Goods, can ever find a Vend in any Nation, except they be the Peculiarities of other foreign Nations; to which I have given a full Answer above. From hence therefore it must appear, that it is impossible any body should be the poorer, for using any foreign Goods at cheaper Rates than we can raise them ourselves, after we have done all we possibly can to raise such Goods as cheap as we import them, and find we cannot do it; nay this very Circumstance makes all such Goods come under the Character of the Peculiarities of those Countries, which are able to raise any such Goods cheaper than we can do; for they will necessarily operate as such. 8thly, The full and sufficient Execution of this Proposal, is the only Means by which Property can be reasonably and sufficiently diffused amongst all Ranks of People. For whilst the working People have not sufficient and full Employment,(23*) their Labour, like all other Things, whose Quantity is greater than the Demand for them, must be disposed of below its true and just Value; which I have shewn is, or ought to be, as near as possible, so much as will produce a comfortable Subsistence for a Family, suitable to that Rank of Life: Now so long as these in general work so considerably below this Point, that their Wages are generally insufficient to support such a Family, as the Estimate supposes them to have, Property is evidently not so much diffused, as in the Nature and Reason of Things it ought to be; which will necessarily be attended with many Kinds of Evils, in Proportion to the Degree, which the working Peoples Wages fall short of the Point abovementioned: For hence the Wealthy having the working Peoples Labour and Skill so much too cheap, do not only engross that Property, in which the labouring People have a just and natural Right, so far as their Wages fall short of the End aforesaid, but they hereby accumulate a great deal of Wealth, in which the middling People have a reasonable and natural Property; and many of them who understand Trade, are enabled by the Force of such unequal Wealth, to trade on Terms too low to admit many of the middling People to get a Livelihood, suitable to their Rank and Station: For instance, suppose a Man in Trade worth 10000 l. and the Reduction of Interest hath actually brought too many such into several Retail Trades; I say, suppose such a one, in order to turn his Stock once in the Year, will vend his Goods at 10 per cent profit, this will produce 1000 l. per annum; now let another in the same Way of Trade worth 1000 l. sell at the same Rate (as he must, or have very little Business) and let him be supposed (because a less Stock may commonly be oftener return'd than a greater) to turn his Stock twice a Year; which, since giving Credit is become so general, is as often as such a Stock in Retail Trade can generally be returned; this though it produces 20 l. per Cent on this Capital, or 200 l. per Annum, shall hereafter be shewn to be very insufficient to bear all Charges of Trade, and support a middling Family, so as it is undoubtedly reasonable such a Family should live, for whose Support 1000 l. of their own Money is employed in Trade: Whilst the other making 10 per Cent on his large Capital, may still more and more encrease it, at the same time that he is bringing on the Ruin of many that have but middling Capitals. Hence therefore it must appear, that not only the labouring Mechanicks,