But lest any should think my laying such Stress on cultivating so much Land is any way extravagant, I would desire them to consider, that this also will find its natural bounds;for the cultivating Land will stop of itself, when the Plenty becomes too great to answer and turn to Account; which can only arise from too high Rents, or employing too many of the People this Way; of which last I apprehend there never can be any Danger, as I will shew hereafter. But if this could be, since the People make a Shift to live now, there is an evident Necessity to cultivate a great deal more Land to employ them, and thereby to make Money plentiful, and Trade to flourish. How profitable and advantageous would all other Trades, etc. become, by being thus in fewer Hands than they would require;(11*) to which the great Plenty and Cheapness of Necessaries, which is ultimately what all work for, would so mightily contribute, that the People would naturally fall into them, and so hold that Proportion in all Trades, Manufactures, and Professions, as well as Cultivation of Land, that the Nature of Things themselves would plainly and sufficiently point out! And the Rise of Rents of late Years, which like all other Things could only rise from the extraordinary Demand for Lands, is a Demonstration that all Things would certainly thus work of themselves, just as they should do, and as the Author of Nature designed, if the People could have had more Land, instead of raising the Rents, as they wanted it; for this is really that Course of Providence, which is established in the Nature of Things, for the Provision and Happiness of Mankind.
I shall now proceed to shew that the prohibiting the current Coin to be exported is certain Loss to the Nation. For we can have no Occasion to send Money, or Bullion, or foreign Coin to any Nation, unless we receive more Goods in value from them than they have from us; in which Case they must have our Money or Bullion, or foreign coin, sent them, or we must cease to trade with them, which I think is impossible. Now if I must buy Bullion or foreign coin, because the Exportation of our Coin is prohibited, it's certain that the Seller of Bullion or foreign Coin must and will have a Profit; that is, I must give more in Coin for less in Bullion or foreign Coin, which when my Correspondent receives, he will value it just as if it were our own Coin of like Weight and Fineness: Wherefore if the Demand continues here for Bullion or foreign Coin, to pay the Balance of Trade to any Nation, he will send it back to this Market, where it must and will in this Case fetch more, by all Charges of Freight, and Risque of the Sea, and Postage of Letters, and Commission, and some Profit to himself; unless our Coin be melted to save this Loss. Now suppose all this should make but 2 per cent it's evident that in 50 Returns of the Bullion of foreign Coin, we must have paid a whole Capital more than if we were admitted freely to send our own current Money, where the Balance of Trade requires it. And this must cause our current Money to be melted both at home and abroad, since it will thus be worth more the Ballance of Trade lies against us with any particular Nation, so much the quicker will these disadvantageous Returns be made, and our Specie undoubtedly be so much the faster melted. But if we let our current Coin come and go freely, Bullion or foreign Coin will not be worth so much as our Coin, because its Fineness and Value cannot be so easily and universally known; and therefore if the Balance of Trade be in our Favour, that is, brings us Gold and Silver, it must and will go to the Mint to be coined, to ascertain its Fineness and Value, provided the government not only coin it at their own Charge, but immediately deliver as many Ounces of Coin as they receive of foreign Gold and Silver; for it's no less absurd for the Government to fix the Price they will give for Gold and Silver brought to be coined, than it would be to make a Law to fix and ascertain the Prices of every other Commodity.
And it's further certain, that as the Balance of Trade is a fluctuating Thing, if our Money be suffered to go and come freely as the Balance of Trade may require, (and otherwise it neither can go nor come) as Bullion will then certainly be of somewhat less Value than Coin, the People in foreign Nations will buy up what Money of ours they can easily find, because it will hardly be of so much Value amongst them as their own, and they can pay more with it in the Nation it properly belongs to than with Bullion of their own coin; and this will certainly in a great Measure prevent the melting our Money at home, and in foreign Nations, and consequently will save the Trouble and Charge of coining a great deal of Money, and bring a great deal of our Money back from those Nations where the Balance of Trade had before carried it, provided our Trade stands on such a Foot with those Nations, that the Balance be in our Favour: And I have shewn how it may certainly be made so, viz. by making our Produce and manufactures so plentiful, and thereby (which is inseparable)so cheap and good, as to cause foreign Nations to take abundance more of them; which Plenty and Cheapness of our Produce and manufactures will prevent the Importation of abundance of foreign Commodities; and thus the Balance will be in our Favour, and that Balance must be paid us in Money: By this Means only it is we have any Gold and Silver, i.e. Money amongst us; nor is there any other in Nature, for any Nation that hath not Mines: Wherefore this deserves the utmost Regard of every Trading Nation, not only for the Sake of the Money they will thus get, but to make their Trade flourish, and their People happy, and their Government powerful; for without this, Trade must languish, the People become poor, which will make the Taxes an insupportable Burthen, and consequently make the Government weak.
