Money Answers All Things [48]
comfortably. Another Point, whence I argue the State of Trade to be worse than it formerly was, is the great Number of empty Houses, not only in the Suburbs and new Buildings, but in the Strand, Fleet-Street, Ludgatehill, Cheapside, and Cornhil: For I think Houses shut up in Cheapside and Cornhil, ar an unanswerable Proof of the bad State of Trade in this City; and I suppose, if the new Buildings were extended further than they are like to be, Cornhil could hardly be affected by them; since so long as the Royal Exchange stands there, and Ships can't sail thro' London Bridge, it should, I think, be the Seat of Trade, as it is certain it hath heretofore been. But how is its State of Trade alter'd! How many Milliners, Pastry-Cooks, and other inconsiderable Trades fill the Houses, where opulent wholesale Dealers dwelt, whilst several other Houses have been shut up for some Time! And to me it appears absurd, to impute this to any other Cause than the different State of the Trade of this Metropolis,(31*) which I shall always regard as an Index of the State of Trade of the whole Kingdom. I have before taken Notice, that the great Number of empty Houses is ascribed to the new Buildings of late Years. But I can't conceive the Buildings in the last forty Years, to have been near equal to what they must have been in the preceding forty Years, when the Buildings must have been so numerous as to equal the whole Number standing in London, Westminister, and the Suburbs thereof before that Time; because the People having doubled in the next forty Years (as appears by the Bills of Mortality) must needs have double the Habitations to reside in. and here I wave the Buildings which the Fire of London occasion'd, tho' that must have been prodigious, for it happen'd in this Period of doubling. Nay, it must be evident, the Building this last forty years, can't have been near equal to the Buildings in the preceding forty years, because abundance more Houses wou'd now be empty than there are, if this were the Case, since the People have not increased above 1/7, or thereabout in the last forty Years, tho' they doubled in the preceding 40 Years, or thereabouts, as hath been shewn. Another Point, whence I argue, that Trade is in a much worse state than it formerly was, is that we send Money to Spain, whence we ought most certainly to receive it: For Spain having the Mines of Peru and Mexico, and being so very careful to keep the Riches of them to themselves, that they search all Ships in those Parts, and if they find any Money on Board, confiscate them, and bring all the Treasure of those Mines home to Old Spain, in the King's Ships call'd Galleons, Register-Ships, etc. Therefore Spain being the great Receiver of this vast Treasure, consequently must have the Prices of all Commodities at as much higher Rates than other Nations, as the Wealth of these Mines continually furnish, is greater than any other nation can receive, who have no Mines but their Trade. And as it is this which doth, and which in the very Nature of the Thing should give us and other Nations, who have no Mines, the Advantage of vending Goods to Spain, so as to have the Balance on them, and every Country that hath Gold and Silver Mine: so it will follow, that our Trade is really in a bad condition, if we pay them any Money at all. And yet by our Bills of Entries it appears, that we Exported to Cadiz in Spain, September 7, 1732.... 2000 Ounces of Gold 9, 2000 Novemb. 4 2000 Decemb. 16 3000 19 1000 January 7 3000 In all 13000 Ounces of Gold or about L. 50,00 in so short a time. I could produce many more instances from the bills of Entry; but these are sufficient to prove that the State of our Trade is not only worse than it formerly was, when we undoubtedly had the Balance in our favour on Spain, but that the Trade of this Nation is in a very bad Way indeed; unless it can be proved that Gold in Spain is so much more valuable in respect of Silver, than it is with us, that it will purchase