The Pennsylvania packet, or, The general advertiser — Lancaster, Pa.;Philadelphia, Pa., 1780-01-06 00:00:00, page 1

THURSDAY, 1 r JANU AR Y 6, ;,&>,
THE
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^OfflM^^w^ m%
&^O^C^^^V7o|&M^^tf^G^O^
GENERAL ^^^^ ADVERTISER
The HIGHEST PRICE
IS GIVEN FOR
CLEAN LINEN RAGS,
BY
JOHN D U N LA P.
TO BE SOLD BY
JOHN D U N L A P,
( Bound or unbound )
ANY QUANTITY OF
DILWORTH'S SPELLING BOOK,
Printed on fine strong paper and a new type.
N. B. Those who buy by the thousand (hall have a
large allowance.
HENRY DEBERGER,
At the corner of Coats's Alley, in Second street, above
Race-ltreet, and opposite to Col. Farmer's,
HAS for SALE,
TH E heft London Fiddles in cases, German Flutes
in ditto, English regimental Fifes in sets, of the
btft kind; also a freih assortment of the best Fiddle-
Strings of all kinds ; green and white ivory and buck
handled Knives and Forks, Carvers of di&, mens gilt
Watch Chains, fieri ditto of the best fort, Keel and iron
bladed Hind-Saws, an assortment of the best White
chapel and other Needles, Pins, and many other articles
of Hard Ware too r^ibus to enumerate.
N. B. Said Debhroer has also for bale, a set of Chi
ns, consisting of a large tureen, dishes and plates of v^
rious fizts, butter boats, &c. &c. alio a complcat set of
Tea China.
CAME to the plantation of the fubferiber,
on Nether Providence, Cheftir county, about the
latter end of Odober last, a bright roan M A R E,
three years old >ft spring, about thirteen and a half
binds high. The owner is desired to come, prove his
property, pay charges and tfo her aaay.
THOMAS VERNON.
4 s+4§4§§ Ho #4,4 § *# 04.4- ft
For the PENNSYLVANIA PACKET.
A Third E SSA Y on FREE TRADE and
FINANCE S,humbly offered to the cenfideration
oft the Public.
Bya CITIZEN of Philadelphia.
Philadelphia, December 24, 1779.
CREDIT, either public or private, may always be
kept good, where there is a fufficient estate to support
it. Therefore, if private persons, a company of mer
chants, or a State, fuffer their credit to decay, when they
have a fufficient stock to support it, their management
muff be bad, but their affairs can ^ver be defterate so
long as their stock or estate continues fufficient to difeharge
all demands on them, their bad management only need
becorreded, and a good one adopted, and their affairs
may be retrieved, and their credit restored. Therefore
the Thirteen United States are not bankrupt, nor are their
affairs desperate, tho' their credit runs/very low, and
their finances are in the worst condition. We have men
enough for every purpose—We have provisions and flores
enough. Our houfet, lands, and stock on the lands, are
little diminished, and in many places increased, Since the
war begun ; yet our credit runs so low, that 'tis with
great difficulty fufficient supplies can be obtained. The
error lies in our finances, or management of the public
stock, and must be mended, or we are ruin'd, in the
midst of the most desirable plenty. We already fuffer the
want of all things. The firft thing necessary to correaiog
an error, is to difeover it, and the next.is to confess it, and
the last to avoid it. Perhaps neither of these three things
are easy in the present case. An error in finances, like a
leak in a Ship, may be obvious in the fa&, alarming in its
effeas, but difficult to find. The faft in view affords
perhaps the strongest proof of this. Our finances have
for five years past been under the management of fifty men,
•f the best abilities and most spotless integrity, that could
THE MEMBERS of the LIBRARY
COMPANY of Philadelphia are earntftly
requested to appear personally or by proxy at the Libra
ry Apartments in Carpenters Hall, on Thursday, the
6th day of Ja uary, at Three o'clock in the afternoon,
to eonfider of the propriety of palling a Law to enable
the Directors to raise the yearly payments of the Mem
bers; it being found on experience imponbie to support
the incidental expends of the Library on the present
gftabbfhmenv By order of the Board,
Dec. 14. ANDREW ROBESON, Sec.
A LIBRARIAN is wanted. Any person in
clining to irirve may apply to cne of the Directors.
[ Published every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. ]
be elected out of the Thirteen States, yet they are in a
ruin'd condition.We have fuffered more from this than from
every other cause of calamity; it has killed more men,
pervaded and corrupted the ch< iceft interests or our coun
try more, and done more injuff than even the arms and
artifices of our enemies ; fliil thf fatal error continues unto
mended, and perhaps unexplored. Our admiration and
censure will be greatly diminished here, when weconfider
that the dodrine of finances, or the nature, effects and 0-
peration of money may be placed among the most ab
struse and intricate fubjeds, which we ever have occasion
to examine. Not one in ten thousand is capable of un
derstanding it, and perhaps not one man in the world was
ever compleat master of it. 1 As a full proof of this, I ad
duce the many fruitlefs attempts to flop the depreciation
of @ur currency, which have been adopted both in and
out of Congress; all of which have failed of the expected
fucceffy and many of them have greatly increased the mil
chief they were intended to remedy. The various schemes
and plans for the fame purpose, which have been termed
and proposed by many men of most acknowledged abili
ties, warmly adopted by some, and as warmly opposed by
others, are a further p oof of the great difficulty and ab
struse nature of the fubjeft. The universal distress of the
country, arising from this error ip dtir finances, makes it
a fubjeft of the most interring importance, and the most
universal enquiry, yet the intellectual powers of the Con
tinent, tho' wound up to the highest pitch of attention,
have not yet been able to find a remedy. The evil still con
tinues as unchecked as ever, it seems impossible to con
troul or compute its force, it baffles all calculation. Yet
so are we situated, and so critical is the present mo
ment, thata remedy must be found, or we perish. The
morality and industry of our people are declining faft.
Our Laws become iniquitous, and the worst of all fin is
that iniquity which is framed by a Law, for it fixes the
mifehief in the very place where a remedy ought always
to be fought and found. The confidence of our people in
the government is lessened; our army fuffers, and our
credit and character abroad is in danger of contempt. All
tfefe, and no man can tell how mariy more evils, bang
like a thick cloud over us, the hurtling of which will o
verwhelm us. But this is no time or place for declamati
on, a remedy is the thine to be fought, a remedy or ruin
are the only two alternatives before us.
I have twice effay'd to throw some light on this dark
fubjed, with very little effect, my fyfiem, however some
of .ts parts were approved, has not been adopted. My
arguments, perhaps, were not thought conclusive, or were
not fufficieurly clear, and therefore were little attended
to; I will nevertheless, once more attempt to lay before
the public, feme principles and propositions which appear
to me to have great weighty and which I fliall ground oil
fad as much as I can, for in this as in natural philofphy,
one experiment I conceive better and stronger proof than
an hundred theorems.
I. In every State where the occasions of money continue
unvaried, the incomes and expenditures ought to be k&pt
equal, otherwise the value of monvy will fluctuate, i. e. in
crease, or decrease, by which every money contra^, as
well as all legacies, salaries, fees of public offices, rents,-
&c. will be altered, and the money when paid, will be ei
ther more or less than was intended in the contra^, in the
law,&c. in this case it matters little whether the increase of
money, proceeds from foreign loans or gifts, from opening
mines, or presses; an increase of money in any of these
or any other way, will, with great injustice, alter the va
lue of the payment, to the manifeft wrong and injury of
the receiver, by which the law itfelf, as well as the con
trast or donation becomes perverted and corrupted, and is
made to enure contrary to the original intention of all the
parties concerned; this is proved by very fad experiment
among oerfelvesi Hence it appears from plain experiment
that any method that tends to increase or decrease,
the quantity of circulating cafli, will not prove a remedy,
but will increase the evil, or run us into the contrary
extreme, equally unjust and mifehievous, or perhaps
more fatal. Hence it,fa!lows, that our true remedy must
in the nature of the thing, lie not in appreciating, more
than in depreciating the currency, but in fixing the value
of it, where it is, and keeping it so fixed, that any man
who makes a money contrast, may find, when the day of
payment comes, that the money paid is just the fame, as
it was at the time of contrad, that so the money paid,
may exactly correspond with the intention of the contrail,
and be of course a just fulfilment of it without increase or
decrease, which cannot possibly happen where there is any
fluctuation of currency between the times of contrast arid
payment.
Hence, wh^n the value of money is fixed and can be
kept so, it is in the most perfect state its nature is capable
of, and does in the most perfect manner answer all the
purposes and uses which are desired or expe&ed from it ;
for it is impossible that money should exist in higher 'per
feaion, than when it is of such fixed and certain value that
all other articles may be compar I with it, and their va
lue fafely estimated from that comparison.
Hence it follows clearly, that as far as money deviates
from a fixed value and becomes fluctuating, it lases its use,
and becomes dangerous to the possessor if its value de
creafa, and this, without any regard to its quantity, les
sens its value or increases its depreciation, and this may
be assigned as one great cause of the present depreciation
of our currency beyond what its quantity would require.
Hence it follows, that if money can obtain a fixed value,
it is es ne manner of cohfequence what the quantity is, for
its value will ever fix at that rate or proportion to the oc
casions for money, yvhich will make the one equal to the
other, and of course our Continental money will have just
the fame use, if the value of it fixes at 2d the dollar, as at
any other sum that can be named ; but if that value of 2d
is variable arid like to be reduced to a penny, every man
would prefer 2d of fixed money to it ; but if that value of
2d is fixed, it will be considered by every man just as
good, apd no better than id of any other fat of fixed
money.
1 11. As the use anddefign of money is to be a medium
of all trade, 'tis necessary that the demand for money
mould be at least equal to the demand for every thing else
which is to be bought or fo'd, for if there is one t ing to
be fold, which money will not purchase, the use of
money is not so great as it would be if it would buy every
thing, and therefore its value is so far depreciated. Trade
is carried on by the medium of money easier than in any
other way, and for that reason it was introduced. An
overplenty or scarcity of money introduces barter, which
takes away the use of money so far as it extends, and
consequently depreciates it, and perhaps the great practice
of bartering one fcarte article for another, which has been
introduced by the great plenty of money among us, may be
assigned as one great caufirof the depreciation of our Cur
rency beyond what the quantity would require.—Hence
it follows thdt the only possible way to reftere our money
to its true value and use, is to increase the demand for it,
but this cannot be done by opening mines or presses,
by foreign Loans or importations of money, but may be
done by faxes, which make a demand for money all over
the Thirteen States, and from every taxable in it. In
this every one is agreed. The only question is, How far
tills demand is to be increased? The answer is easy, viz.
'Till all supplies which we need can be purchased for mo
ney, which will certainly be the case, when the demand
for money is Efficiently great ; this demand may be rai
sed at any time and to any pitch we please by taxer, f^
that the true and only poffibie remedy of the gnat mif
ehief lies conftaritly in our power, and may be put in prac
tice whenever we please. But it must be put into aßual
practice; talking about it, voting about it, making ffeff
ments, aX tax bills, will not do ^ithoutan actual and sea
sonable cohesion and payment into the Treasury, that
this may be done, so as to give a fixed and eflablilhed
permanency to our Currency,and thereby save the States,
and at the fame time relieve every individual from the
danger, damage and anxiety be now fuffers from the de
ficiency of our Currency, and avoid oppression of indivi
duals, and thereby put and end to all uneasinesses in the
government : The several things following must be flri&ly
attended to.
I. That the taxation be fair and e^teble, so as to
bring the burthen equally or in due proportion on each
State, and on the individual of each State. The firfl is the
business of Congress, the second of every particular State.
As to the firft, 'tis absolutely necessary, that there be an
estimate made o^he abilities of each State, on which the
quotas are to winded, and this I think can't be done
better than by making the number of fouls in each State
the rule of it. This can easily be obtained with exa&nef&
and certainty, and will be as certain a measure of the abi-.
lities of each State as can be obtained. If more need tube
said on this, it may be deferred to another time.
2. It is further absolutely necessary, that the quotas of
each State be estimated in hard money, payable in Continen
tal money at the exchange which exists in each particular
State at the time they pay their tax into the Continental
Treasury ; hard money is a fixed flandard of value, and can
never vary much here from its value in Europe, and there
fore fixing the quotas by this standard, will prevent any
irregularities which will arise from depreciation of our Cu
rrency between the time ofthe demand oftbequotas, and the
time of payment by each State, otherwise this depreciation
flight afford an inducement,tho' a very wicked one, to
some States, to make their collections and payments dila
tory, for there would be an advantage in delaying payment
of taxes, as well as of every other debt, because the sum
lessens every day, and it has been found in fad, tho' lit
tle to the honour of the tardy States, that some States
have paid their quotas, when the exchange was four to one.
whilst others have paid tneir quotas of the fame tax at the
exchange of twenty for one,i. e. just one fifth part ofthe just
debt. I said that the payments ought to be madeat the
exchange that subsists in the State that pays the money at
rhe time of payment, for all supplies which are purchaf d
for the use of the public in tl:at State, are purchased at that
exchange, and there ore it is reaf enable that their quotas of
taxes thould be paid at the fame exchange, whether it be
higher or lower than that which exists in the otter States
at the fame time; BefiJes if the quotas demanded of each
rte be net made in fixed money, it is not at all certain,