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lating in any one country, by the tendency | the amount of the money in circulation, that money has to find its own level, all help to increase, not to diminish the evil. other countries, with a celerity proportion- If displaced from the circulation, by lesed to the intercourse carried on with the sening the quantity of the circulating mecountry that first received this increment, dium, it palliates the evil producible by would feel the effects of it. The effect being fresh issues of paper-money. You, Sir, thus generally diffused, commodities in all too, appear to be peculiarly estopped countries would experience an increase of from complaining of this expulsion of price; the rise, after a while, not being gold as a grievance: in the present state greater in the country first receiving the of our relations with the rest of Europe, it money than in any other. A similar effect helps materially to obstruct the carrying is produced when the circulating medium on that foreign commerce that is so perni of all European countries consisting partly cious to this country, so profitable to of paper, partly of the precious metals, an others.-That of late years a considerable increase in any one is made to the quan- increase has taken place in the price of tity of paper currency. Our own country commodities, attributable, in a far greater affords an illustration of this process. By degree than to any other cause, to an inthe increased quantity of our paper circu- crease in the quantity of circulating paper, lation, the guineas have been expeiled from and that this increase is productive of very this, and have found their way into foreign disastrous results, is perfectly obvious. countries, where they have contributed What, however, is equally obvious is, that to cause a rise of prices in those countries, as a producer of this evil, the Bank of as the paper money has caused a rise of England, though standing most conspicuprices here. An analogous effect is pro- ous, does not stand alone.-Whatever adduced in this country by an addition made dition may come to be made to the mass to the quantity of paper money in any of paper-money in any given country, of other country: we receive their hard whatever materials that addition may be money, which contributes to produce a rise composed, whether of metal or of paper, of prices in this country, they retain their and whatever may be the nature of the paper, which contributes to produce a cor- paper, so long as it passes from hand to responding rise of prices in the country in hand for its nominal value, while the oriwhich it was issued. By fresh issues of ginal mass, and the increment thus made, paper money, however, any one European remain in the country, the effect produced country, having an uninterrupted inter- upon the prices of commodities will be course with neighbouring states, and while precisely the same. Thus, whether the retaining as a part of its circulating addition be made in the shape of Bank of medium a quantity of the precious metals, England or of country bank paper, a cormay accumulate within itself, a circu- responding rise of prices, proportioned to lating medium far greater in proportion the amount of the issue, and without any than what is possessed by the neighbouring regard to the source whence it proceeds, states. If it were not so, the prices of will immediately take place. As to the commodities, except in so far as influenced exact amount of the country bank notes in by taxes, would be the same, or very circulation, I have no materials for formnearly the same, in every country in Eu ing any conception: it certainly falls rope; the contrary of which is univer- materially short of the amount of Bank sally known to be the fact. To explain of England notes. What however is certhe causes of this aberration from the so tain is, that if it is not greater, we owe it universally acknowledged propensity in to nothing less than to any forbearance, or money to find its own level, would require regard to the public welfare, on the part of far more space than could possibly be af- the description of persons in question. A forded for it in your Register.-If what is circumstance that shows that, on the part said above be true, I see not how those of the Bank, there can have been no such who regard the rise of prices as an evil, exorbitant and excessive issue of their can, with any consistency, complain of the notes, as appears to have been imagined, expulsion of gold from the country as in- is the very existence of these country bank creasing that evil. The retaining it here notes. The principal means by which the under the present circumstances, were Bank of England, as well as the country that possible, not having the smallest ten- banks, introduce their notes into circuladency to prevent fresh issues of paper-lation, is by granting loans, and discounting money, would, by so much as it added to bills, which is nearly the same thing under

money was wanting, the Bank-notes "progressively encreased and accumu"lated." Really, if what this gentleman says be correct, the amount of paper in circulation would be considerable indeed! Why, it would be at least equal to the amount of all the debt created, and all the taxes imposed since the Bank were restrained from exchanging their notes for specie. It is inconceivable that any man that can count his fingers should fall into such gross errors.-The truth is, the Bank of England derives no advantage from forcing their notes into circulation, unless in so far as they are paid in the shape of interest for making a fresh issue, with the prospect of receiving, at some future period, an equivalent in money. The Bank Directors might unquestionably, so long as the Restriction act remains unrepealed, without suffering any considerable present loss, manufacture, and hand over to the government, a quantity of their notes: but ministers have no motive for the asking such an advance, nor, if they had, have the Bank Directors for complying with it. On the contrary, a certain loss would thus be incurred. Each Bank Director being as much one of the public as any other individual, he would suffer in common with the rest of the community by the rise of prices that would thus be produced, and moreover, the concern in general upon the repeal of the Bank Restriction act, whea ever that event may take place, would be subjected to the obligation of exchanging these notes, as others, for specie.-When painful emotions have been excited in the human bosom, as in the present instance by the distress occasioned by the pressure of the public taxes, it is a sort of relief to give vent to the unpleasant sensations that are thus experienced. On this occasion, the

another name. Besides the advantage that "terest on the loan or money borrowed; it derives from the being a Bank of deposit," and so, each succeeding year, as more an advantage peculiar to itself in contradistinction to the country banks, working on a more extensive scale, the Bank of England could afford to work for smaller profits than the country banks, and might thus probably, were it not for the advantage possessed by the country banks in respect of their locality, engross the whole business of this description that is transacted in the country. How it has happened that with these obvious advantages, this result has not been more nearly or altogether produced, it is foreign to the present purpose to enquire. What, however, these considerations shew is this, that if the conductors of the Bank of England are just objects of our abhorrence, the conductors of the country banks are not less so.-A notion that appears very generally to have seized men's minds is, that there is a sort of identity between the government and the Bank of England, and that they are together carrying on a joint concern, by which they are the profiters, the public the losers. Nothing can be more shallow or mistaken than this idea. Need it really be said, then, that the Bank Directors and the king's ministers are a perfectly distinct set of persons? That no man ever united these two functions in himself? It seems to be supposed that the Bank is receiving every year out of the public taxes outrageously large sums of the public money: but for what purpose paid, or out of what fund it comes, the retention of the persuasion seems much too delightful to allow the broachers of such notions to stop for a moment to consider. The public accounts show precisely what is the amount of the sums that the Bank receives yearly from government. But perhaps it may be supposed that over and above the sum to which the interest, thus avowedly paid, corresponds, the Bank Di-Bank Directors have been pitched upon, rectors put into the hands of ministers, when called for, any quantity of this their paper-money, and that, when thus possessed of it, ministers employ it in paying the public creditors. Yes: this notion really is entertained, and here we have a gentleman stating himself as entertaining it. Hear your correspondent, Mr. Bernard (Register, vol. xvi. 537.) "When new "loans and fresh taxes were required to carry on the war, it became necessary on "every additional loan and tax to coin " and issue annually, a certain number of "new Bank notes, to the amount of the in

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as the most appropriate objects for bearing
the public odium, and, with the view of
giving colour to this imputation, it is at-
tempted to be shewn that they alone are
the public creditors, and that all the cost
that they have incurred to entitle them to re-
ceive, and put into their own pockets, all
the money that is now paid for the interest
of the debt, has been simply the expence
of manufacturing their notes.
Or at least
if this is not supposed, what is supposed is,
that upon the payment of every quarter's
dividend by the Bank, a fresh mass of
notes, equal to the amount of the dividend,

is issued, and that by so much the
Bank Directors profit. This appears ex-
tremely absurd when stated; but such, or
something analogous, must be the notions
of those who thus lustily deal out their
invectives against the Bank Directors.
The operation that is thus attempted to be
confounded is in itself extremely simple
and intelligible. Whatever is paid to the
public creditors as interest upon the loan,
has first been raised upon the people in the
shape of taxes. Upon this occasion the
Bank is the mere agent of government.
It first receives the money from govern-
ment, then pays it away for government:
just as a private London banker, having
received from a private individual, a mass
of money in deposit, pays it away in de-
tail to his order; in the one case the re-
ceipt for the dividend being the voucher,
in the other case the draft.-It is said,
that the public creditors would be no
sufferers, by government ceasing at once
to pay their dividends. This appears to
be an assertion so extravagant, and so ex-
clusively dictated by blind passion, that I
cannot think it will be persisted in, after
any the smallest consideration. Besides,
Sir, you yourself, in almost the same
breath in which the assertion is made,
depict in the strongest terms, the suffer-
ing that would thus be produced. [Regis
ter, v. xvi. p. 531.] A man losing half his
income, no words can paint the indigna-
tion felt, at the folly of his exposing him-
self to this suffering: losing the whole of
it, he is not to be pitied, nor is he any suf-
ferer. The Bank Directors are in your
view of the matter a very wicked set of
people, and have done, and are now
doing, very serious mischief to the coun-
try. But, how would you have them
treated for this their evil-doing? Let the
result you are invoking take effect, you re-
ward, not punish them. Perhaps, as was
done in Ireland, by way of taking revenge
upon these blood-suckers for their mis-
deeds, you would joyfully join in collect-
ing together a mass of these nasty dirty
ill-looking bits of paper, and set fire to
them, provided you yourself were not
called upon, to contribute any thing to-
wards the formation of the pile. This
really is a most notable and effectual
contrivance for relieving the poor dis-
tressed and oppressed people of this af-
flicted country. Would you, Sir, pray
let me ask you, find yourself very great-
ly punished or impoverished, if, after hav-
ing issued a number of bills, the amount
of which, at some subsequent period,

you thus imposed on yourself the obligation of paying in money, or money's worth, the holders of those bills should unaccountably take it into their heads to destroy them? Or would the holders of those bills, having paid, and expecting again to receive, valuable consideration for them, be greatly enriched by any such operation? Do pray, Sir, take a one hundred pound Bank of England note in your hand, that you may have received in exchange for a hundred pounds worth of wheat, and ask yourself whether, if that note were at once to lose its exchangeable value, you would not be in precisely the same condition as if your wheat had been burnt, or by any other means destroyed. Did it never happen to you to hear, Sir, that great distress was occasionally produced by the failure of country bankers? But perhaps you may be prepared to shew that all this suffering is not real, but purely imaginary, and that what people thus mistake for loss is a real gain to them. If this be so, Sir, and I really see not how with any consistency you can think otherwise, the stating on this subject your ideas to the public appears to press upon you with peculiar emphasis, since it would teach those that were persuaded by your arguments, to see advantages, when before nothing was visible but distress. What is expected from you, then, is this: to shew that a given individual, you yourself for example, being possessed of 1,000l. worth of the notes of a country bank, for which you had paid a valuable consideration, and that bank happening to fail, without leaving any assets, you would not be any the poorer by that 1,0007. worth of notes ceasing at once to be of any value. What, it is hoped, will not escape your penetration is, that by mere transference of property, the nation at large is no gainer. It is quite clear that there are many persons that would be gainers by the destruction of the paper currency of the country; but the gainers bear no proportion to the losers: they are not perhaps as one in a hundred thousand.-As to the remedy proposed, or rather the leaving the evil to cure itself, it seems not in the smallest degree calculated to produce any such effect, as that which appears to be expected from it. It is asserted that the gold coin, if it has not already all of it quitted the country, yet, from the rapidity with which it disappears, there will very shortly be none of it remaining. The return of this gold coin is the thing desired. No such effect as this seems,

however, likely to be produced, though double or treble the quantity of Bank notes, that are now in circulation, were issued, and consequently prices double or treble beyond what they are at present. Besides, Sir, though the disorder were thus capable of being cured, the process would be an extremely gradual one, and the mass of suffering produced proportionably great. Neither the Bank of England, nor country banks, have the power of introducing their notes into circulation, but in proportion as a demand is made for them by individuals. Nobody, you least of all, Sir, will accuse the Bank of England, or the country bankers, of not seizing every such opportunity of giving currency to their notes: this is among the complaints against them: we now see the amount of the effect that has thus been produced, and the time that has been taken to produce it. The restriction on the Bank took place in the latter end of the year 1796, or beginning of 1797. The issues cannot be expected to be more rapid hereafter, than they were in the interval between that period, and the present. They will be less rapid; and that from two causes; 1. The stagnation of commerce, and transactions in general, thence a diminution of the number of occasions, on which the discounting of bills has heretofore been required; e. The discounting of bills by individuals, this they will be enabled to do, by the quantity of capital that will have been thrown out of employment. We see then, Sir, how long we should have to wait for the relief in question, did it really contribute to produce the desired effect.-So incorrigibly dull has the public hitherto been, that though the process is obvious enough, and easily traceable, they have never yet been able to comprehend, how it has happened that guineas have disappeared as paper money has increased. A fresh mode of reasoning is necessary to make it intelligible to them. Here we have it (Register, xvi, 524). They" [Guineas] "will not stay to circulate "6 amongst so much dirty, ill-looking, "worthless paper." Now, this is probably designed as a fair, legitimate, persuasive, convincing mode of argument. It speaks to the senses, and is intelligible to the meanest capacity. Guineas are endowed with feeling they feel the passions of aversion and love, they love England, but their hatred to paper is greater than their affection to their country: they therefore quit their country, when ex

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posed to the contamination of paper; return to it when the paper has vanished. I am afraid, however, Sir, that to ensure the return of these sensitive guincas, we must have something more substantial to offer in exchange for them, than the mere absence of the objects of their aversion. To those, who possess them, we must pay an equivalent for their return. And how is this to be effected in the present little less than annihilated state of our commerce with the Continent? If we get them back, it must be by commerce that it will, if at all, be accomplished. As to this purpose therefore, you, Sir, will scarcely declare that Britain is independent of commerce.-This letter has already extended to such a length, that I shall only add, that the conclusion from what has been said above, is, that the only true remedy for our present calamitous condition, is by an act of the legislature to prohibit, both on the part of the Bank of England, and of country bankers, the issuing of any fresh notes, or the reissue of those, that in the course of business, may be returned upon them, till the number in circulation has been reduced to a given amount. This is the only sure and safe course of gradually preparing the way for the return of guineas into the circulation; of enabling Parliament after a time, without endangering the production of some violent concussion, to repeal the Bank restriction act; of reducing the prices of commodities to the level they were at on some given anterior period, and thus affording relief to fixt incomists; and of preventing thenceforward any such calamitous consequences from advance of prices, as those that we now labour under.

I am, Sir, yours, &c. DECIUS.

WEST INDIA CUSTOM-HOUSE FEES.

St. Pierre, Martinique, 20th Aug. 1809. SIR;-Among the numerous subjects which require reform, there is none which more imperiously requires the attention of government than the exorbitant amount of the Fees, extorted by the CustomHouses throughout the West Indies. In the old established English islands, the Fees, which are demanded, are considerably more, than they are authorized by the act of parliament to receive; but it is in the colonies and islands recently captured, that this evil has reached its full extent, as the following Table of Fees received in the Custom-House at St. Pierre, (and authorized by Sir George Beckwith, K. B.) will plainly shew:

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On Permits and Cockets for above Vessels, three Dollars are charged for each; on all Produce shipped, the Waiters and Searchers receive five Stivers for each Package or Box; and also, sixteen Dollars for two general Manifests for an European Vessel. Fees on Registers.

From 20 Tons and under .

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N. B. The Governor's Fees are not included in the above Table.

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