116. 2d. Speculation-commerce produces effects very dif. CHA P. ferent from commiffion-commerce. It does not tend fo di flaves; but who, were that traffic abolished, would not fail to find equivalents in It may be faid, that, feeing the western coaft of Africa, is reforted to for flaves. by the eaftern nations of that continent, and even by the Eaft Indians, that the abolition of that traffic does not depend on the Europeans. I anfwer that the flave market on the western coaft does entirely depend on the Europeans; and that this is the greatest market, would appear from the dealers coming fo far to frequent it; for they would not travel across the continent, if they could conveniently buy flaves nearer home. If, therefore, the Europeans abolish the flave-trade, it is plain that the emporium for it would be removed from the western coaft, and would. no longer difturb legitimate commerce there. VII. Speculation commerce. rectly VII. CHAP. rectly to supply the wants of a community, as to gratify the avidity of individual merchants, whom governments fuffer to take advantage of those wants. Nay, as if this were not enough, most governments have been prevailed on to make formal grants, of monopolies and exclusive privileges to bodies of merchants. Such grants are destructive of competition, the very foul of commerce, put the confumers compleatly in the power of foreftallers, and nourish the overbearing wealth and ambition of individuals, at the expenfe of the community.-The merchant who collects the products of distant countries in such quantities as have been previously ordered by his correspondents and customers, may be compared to a stream which gently irrigates and refreshes the fields. The monopolizing speculator in those products not unaptly resembles a refervoir which confines the waters till the fields are parched, and at last distributes them unseasonably and partially, overflowing some places, and miserably stinting others. Speculators unconnected with the 117. Speculators in exchanges and money-jobbers may, perhaps, love to be compared to conductors which convey community. the commercial fluid through the world. I fhall not object to the comparison, if they will permit me to mention, that the Jews have also been likened to those conductors, by an eminent orator*. Like the Ifraelites too, those gentlemen are unconnected with any community; and, like Jew pedlars, can, at any time, put their cash and bills in their kets, and flit, with the celerity of their own paper, from one end of the world to the other. For, I would ask any man who knows the world, what hold any community can have of perfons who, without property in lands, houses, or commodities, fit in their counting-houses, watching the course * Mr. Burke. poc of VII. Lord Chatham's opini on of them, of exchange, or the chance of a job *? I do not mean a mi- CHA P. nisterial job; although fome have fhrewdly fufpected that the gains of such men have been formerly fwelled by this kind of business,-a circumstance which perhaps the illustrious Chatham had in his eye when, in the honest fervor of his patriotic foul, he uttered the following language. 118. "There is," faid he, "a fet of men in London who are known to live in riot and luxury, upon the plunder of the ignorant, the innocent and the helpless; upon that part of the community which ftands in most need of, and best deserves, the protection of the legislature+. To me, my lords, whether they be miferable jobbers of Changealley, or the lofty Afiatic plunderers of Leadenhall-street, they are all equally deteftable. I care but little whether a man walks on foot, or is drawn by four or fix horses; if his luxury be supported by the plunder of his country, I defpife and abhor him. My lords, while I had the honour of serving his majesty, I never ventured to look at the treasury but from a distance. It is a business I am unfit for, and to which I never could have fubmitted. The little I know of it has not served to raise my opinion of what is vulgarly called the monied-intereft; I mean that blood-fucker, that muck-worm, which pretends to serve this or that admini * "The capitals," fays Dr. Smith, "employed in the agriculture and in the retail trade of any fociety must always refide within that fociety. The capital of a wholesale merchant, on the contrary" (and a fortiori that of a money-jobber) "feems to have no fixed refidence any where, but may wander about from place to place" (just like it's owner)" according as it can either buy cheap or fell dear." Wealth of Nations, Vol. II. p. 54. + Dr. Arbuthnot obferves, that " money-fcriveners are like your wire-drawing mills; if they get hold of a man's finger, they will pull in his whole body at last." CHA P. flration, but which may be purchased, on the fame terms, by any administration." VII. and Dr. Johnson's. Their operations tend to enflave mankind, "who, "These are the men," fays Dr. Johnson, 119. without virtue, labour or hazard, are growing rich as their country is impoverished. They rejoice when obstinacy or ambition adds another year to flaughter and devastation; and laugh from their desks at bravery and science, while they are adding figure to figure, and cipher to cipher, hoping for a new contract for a new armament, and computing the profits of a fiege or a tempeft." 120. It is to be hoped, however, that the nation, to which this noble orator and this fublime moralift were fuch shining ornaments, will never experience the evil consequences with which the influence of the monied intereft, if it continue to predominate over every other, may one day threaten their liberties. 121. To speak the truth, it appears to me, that a species of flavery, or dependence, very much like it, has gradually crept, with fpeculation-commerce and manufactures, into all countries where they prevail. Of this flavery or dependence, or whatever else it may be called, there are various degrees, from what we are pleased to style a gentle state of service in our families, down to the most abusive and boldly avowed flavery in our fugar colonies. I cannot give a fhorter inftance, than the ftate of celibacy in which our numerous menial servants are obliged to live, on pain of lofing their places; as few will employ a married fervant. Thus the one fex is feduced into prostitution, and the other has no other refource than in the annihilation of a natural and neceffary paffion, or in whoredom and debauchery for life. This is but one, out of a thousand inftances, which might be given of the inversion of social or der VII. der which now, more or less, prevails in all commercial na- CHA P. tions, and which ought to be particularly guarded against, in establishing a new colony. 122. I have thought much on these evils; and, on the whole, find my felf inclined to attribute them to a caufe which feems never to have been much, if at all, attended to by others. I have great reason, however, to suspect, that the degradation of a great portion of every mercantile community, arifes from the prevailing luft of accumulating money independent of commodities, of the value of which it is become the mere arbitrary fign, instead of being, as formerly, circulated and transferred as a commodity itself. In this unnatural innovation, I think I fee the fource of many of the grievous evils which now afflict commercial nations. Hac fonte derivata clades! Money, in early times, was wifely adopted as the medium of commerce, which gave it it's chief value as a commodity. But it has been evidently diverted from it's natural use, which was admirably calcu lated to promote the free interchange of other commodities, the increase of knowledge and virtue, and the wealth and prosperity of nations. This lamentable perversion appears to have been owing to the Italian invention of bills of exchange, the operations of grasping monopolifts, the arbitrary interference of governments, in attempting to establish between gold, filver, and copper, and between these metals and other commodities, an unnatural relative value; and, above all, to the modern fyftem of public credit and finance. To thefe we muft add, the enormous augmentation and wide circulation of paper, moftly of ideal value, re * By money I mean any thing coined, upon which an arbitrary value has been fixed, entirely unconnected with any commodity, in like manner as it's fabricators, the fpeculating merchants, are unconnected with any community. L 2 fulting and whyMoney independent of commodities. |