Some Considerations of the Lowering of Interest [10]
quantity. The Necessity therefore of a Proportion of Money to Trade, depends on Money not as Counters, for the Reckoning may be kept, or transferred by Writing; but on Money as a Pledge, which Writing cannot supply the place of: Since the Bill, Bond, or other Note of Debt, I receive from one Man will not be accepted as Security by another, he not knowing that the Bill or Bond is true or legal, or that the Man bound to me is honest or responsible; and so is not valuable enough to become a current Pledge, nor can by publick Authority be well made so, as in the Case of Assigning of Bills. Because a Law cannot give to Bills that intrinsick Value, which the universal Consent of Mankind has annexed to Silver and Gold. And hence Foreigners can never be brought to take your Bills, or Writings for any part of Payment, though perhaps they might pass as valuable Considerations among your own People, did not this very much hinder it, viz. That they are liable to unavoidable Doubt, Dispute, and Counterfeiting, and require other Proofs to assure us that they are true and good Security, than our Eyes or a Touchstone. And at best this Course, if practicable, will not hinder us from being Poor; but may be suspected to help to make us so, by keeping us from feeling our Poverty, which in Distress will be sure to find us with greater disadvantage. Though it be certain it is better than letting any part of our Trade fall for want of current Pledges; and better too than borrowing Money of our Neighbours upon Use, if this way of Assigning Bills can be made so easie, safe and universal at home, as to hinder it. To return to the business in hand, and shew the necessity of a Proportion of Money to Trade. Every Man must have at least so much Money, or so timely Recruits, as may in hand, or in a short distance of time, satisfie his Creditor who supplies him with the necessaries of Life, or of his Trade. For no body has any longer these necessary Supplies, than he has Money, or Credit, which is nothing else but an Assurance of Money in some short time. So that it is requisite to Trade that there should be so much Money, as to keep up the Landholders, Labourers and Brokers Credit: And therefore ready Money must be constantly exchang'd for Wares and Labour, or follow within a short time after. This shews the necessity of some Proportion of Money to Trade: But what Proportion that is, is hard to determine; because it depends not barely on the quantity of Money, but the quickness of its Circulation. The very same Shilling may at one time pay Twenty Men in Twenty days, at another, rest in the same Hands One hundred days together. This makes it impossible exactly to Estimate the quantity of Money needful in Trade: But to make some probable guess, we are to consider, how much Money it is necessary to suppose must rest constantly in each Man's Hands, as requisite to the carrying on of Trade. First therefore the Labourers, living generally but from hand to mouth, and indeed, considered as Labourers in order to Trade, may well enough carry on their part, if they have but Money enough to buy Victuals, Cloaths, and Tools: All which may very well be provided, without any great Sum of Money lying still in their Hands. The Labourers therefore, being usually paid once a Week, (if the times of Payment be seldomer, there must be more Money for the carrying on this part of Trade) we may suppose there is constantly amongst them, one with another, or those who are to pay them, always one Weeks Wages in ready Money. For it cannot be thought, that all, or most of the Labourers pay away all their Wages constancy, as soon as they receive it, and live upon Trust till next Pay Day. This the Farmer and Tradesman could not well bear, were it every Labourer's Case, and every one to be trusted: And therefore they must of necessity keep some Money in their Hands, to go to Market for Victuals, and to other Tradesmen as poor as themselves, for Tools; and lay up Money too to buy Cloaths, or pay for those they bought upon Credit. Which Money thus necessarily resting in