The Pennsylvania packet, or, The general advertiser — Lancaster, Pa.;Philadelphia, Pa., 1781-04-07 00:00:00, page 1

This E EENING,
At SIX o'clock, at the Coffee.houfe,
WILL BE SOLD,
The Prize Brigantine Amelia,
With all her Tackle, Apparel and Furniture, agreea
ble to an Inventory to be fecn at the Place of Sale.
By Order of the Court of Admiralty,
April 7. CLEMENT BIDDLE, Ma&l.
3=— ——— —— ■■ — - cil I. .——ice
just come to hand, and to be fold, by
Robert Aitken,
PRINTER and BOOKSELLER^
At Pope's Head, three doors above the Coffee house, in
Ma ket-ftreet,
A new Map of the western Parts
of Virginia, Pennsylvania, Maryland and North-Caro
liana: Comprehending the river Ohio, ^nd all the ri
vers which fall into it; part of the river Miffifippi, the
whole of the Illinois river, lake Erie, part of the lakes
Huron, Michigan, &c. and all the country bordering
on the Ukrs and r ; vers ; together with a large o&avo
PAMPHLET, of 72 pages; Containing,
A Topographical Description of Virginia,
Pennsylvania, Maryland and North-Carolina; Com.
pretending the rivers Ohio, Kerhawa, Sioto, Chero
kee, Wabash, Illinois, Miffifippi, &c. The climate,
foil and produce, whether animal, vegetable or mineral ;
the mountains, creeks, roads, diftancee, latitudes, &c.
and of every part laid down in said Map, by
THOMAS HUTCHINS,
Late a Captain in the 60th British regiment of lost :
With a Plan of the Rapids of the Ohio, a
Plan of the Several villages in the Illinois country, a
Table of the diftanecs between Fort-Pitt and the mouth
es the Ohio; all engravel on copper: Alfe, An AP-,
PENDIX; Containing Mr. Patrick Kennedy's
Journal up the Illinois river, an! a correct Lift of the
different nations and tribes of Indians ; with the num
ber of fighting men, &c.
N. B. The Publisher has the heft authority for fly
ings That it is the most beautiful and correct Map, of
its kind, hitherto offered to the Public.
At the above Store may be had, Wholesale
and Retail,
A general Collection of modern
BOOKS; together with Testaments, Watts's Psalms
and Hymns, Art of Speaking, CroxaU's Fables, Dr.
Lowth's English Grammar, Ruddiman's and Witten
hall's Larin Grammars, Baptist Confeffion of Faith,
and Catechisms of various kinds, Dilworth's Spelling
Books, New-England Primers, Stationary; &c.
Printing Work done, and Books Bound, as
, . • ufuil.
The highest PRICE given for any Quantity of clean
Linen RAGS.
Morel a^d Company,
At their store inThird street, the corner of Arch-h'eet,
have for Sale, Wholefalp and Retail, a Variety of
GOODS, Suitable for the present and ensuing feafen;
Among which are,
gOTTON Velvets, plain and spotted
Jeans, cotton Linings of all colours, white Densi
ties, Cambists, furniture Chintzes, India ditto 6-4
wide, Bengals of all kinds, Calicoes, plain and flower
ed Mullins, Cambricks and Lawns, India Hindkerrhief,
Gauzes assorted, gauze Handkerchiefs, a neat Assort
ment of Silks, black and white Blond Lace, Btdticks
and matrafs Checks, hat Linings and Trimmings,
Sheetings and Oznabrigs, Linens of all for's, fuperfiue
Holland, Diaperand Napkins, Marseilles Qiltinp, fu
pesfiae figured Damask for tablecloths, 2 ells and 1-3
wide' 7 breads assorted, marking Cotton, thread Lace
mens Ruffles, muffin ditto, gold and silver embroider
ed Button, silk Handkerchiefs, black and white fiik
Mitts, an Assortment of Pins and Need'es.
T O B~E "
A convenient Wharf and Lot of
GROUND, with a two story Frame HOUSE, situate
on he east fide of Svanfon-ftreet, Southwark, extend
ing to the river D.-laware, Suitable for a lumber or
hoard yard. For terms apply to REUBEN HAINES.
VOL. X. 1
SATURDAY,
^0^OBBW&
O R, THE
GENERAL ADVERTISER.
Published every TUESDAY and SATURDAY.
For the PENNSYLVANIA PACKET.
AFTER France had experienced the distress and
confufion occasioned by Mr. Law's scheme of the
Miffifippi company ; after private property had been
convulsed in England by the impofi'ions and frauds
of the Sou th sea scheme ; every one was guarded against
such schemes of iniquity. Each [offerer, £ck and fore
after being thus deluded and deprived of his honest ac
quisitions becamequick lighted and watchful to pre
vent a repetition of devices of this kind. No one, since
that time, has attempted to beguile those nations in
like manner. But in North America, notwithstanding
we have been scourged with a depreciation of money,
which has beggared great numbers, who, by a long
and painful induflry, had provided for their families;
which has undone the widow and the orphan ; and o
verturned all the fences and barriers of private proper
ty; banishing, at the fame time, honefly and sense of
fllame from among us; yet there is, as it should seem,
a dilpofition flill for new practices of this fort. The
people are supposed, after all they have fuffered, to be
weak enough, to submit to a renewal of the former bub
ble. It will be readily conceded, that ignorance of the
nature of paper credit, the want of funds, the weight
and neteffity of the war, the pubEc Spirit, and en
thusiasm ot the whigs, and even accident, contribu
ted to form and carry through this firfi mode of defence,
adopted by the United States. Whatever may have
been the success of the paper money scheme, yet it has
certainly been attended with hardships, frauds, and
miseries, which no good man can with to fee affed'o
ver again. One would think, that our public credit
has been too much shaken, to admit of another fyflem
of this kind ; at least not immediately. No real poli
tician indeed, would attempt it. Recourse must there
fore be had to other methods of supplying the public
necessities.
These reflections were occasioned by hearing that our
legislature are debating whether the sum of three hun
dred thousand pounds, of additional paper money,
shall be issued at this time. If it be their design to emit
so large a quantity, they muff mean it, as a borrow
ing so much from the people; and we muff suppose,
that the fund whereon it shall be rested is not only ad
equate, but simple and intelligible; and that it will
not be liable to depreciate with the money, like that
provided for the new bills of credit emitted for this
state by Congress. For if the fund of the intended pa
per be of this nature, or be dark or intricate, it is not
probable, that such money will ever pass at all. No
laws, no coercions, can operate in these matters, against
the public opinion. But should this money be estab
lished on the most solid grounds, and the people be in
duced to believe that it will be redeemed with gold and
silver, yet it must, as it comes into circulation, fink
in value, till it becomes an object for monied men to
buy and lay up for the advantage of carrying it into
the treasury, in due time; thus it will be issued at an
under value, and must defraud those wh.o receive it,
to the future profit of the leeches of the community.
Yet the confidence of individuals in public securities,
must be greatly improved before ever this can happen.
We fee how the state money of April 1780 has depre
ciated, tho' issued upon land security, accafioned in
a great measure by quacking with it ; and that the sol
diers certificates, declared to be for fp^cie, fell for less
than one quarter of their nominal values. It isinderd,
almost certain, that depreciation w>uld proceed upon
this intended emission, till all the p per in circulation
should fink to the value, which our dealings and trade
would hear, and that this depreciation would so far de
base our bills of credit, as to cause a farther debasement,
like that which befel the firft paper issued by Congress,
for the fall of this ideal money, is somewhat like t e
fall of a stone, which increases in rapidity, every inch of
space it passes through. Such an event would be at
tended with divers inconveniencies. If this money
should be funded upon solid security, and be re
deemed with hard money, it will be a most extravagant
mode of purchasing the supplies. If it be intended to
depreciate, and redeemed accordingly, it will be a mod
shocking fraud, big with all the mifehiefs we have al
ready endured. It will vitiate our taxes, on which the
public defence depends. For taxables, who fliall be
late in paying, will be enabled to rub off the feene, at
half, perhaps less, of the real value, contributed by
those, who nave performed this most essential duty in
proper time. Suppose that the quota of the county of
Cumberland, for instance, has been adjured witn
equality in our monthly taxes, yet, as this and other
remote counties are now in arrear some millions of
dollars, their inhabitants, by the operation of depre
ciation, do, nominally, acquit themselves, at less than
half the prise, at which the people of Philadelphia,
Bucks and Chester, have paid theirs, some time since.
B sides, as in this process, he that pays latest will pay
least, a most mtfeheivous bribe is held forth to indivi-
THE
duals, t@ fhuffle off payment as long as may be, and
colleaors are laid under an irrefi stale temptation to
detain the money to (peculate upon; a most dangerous
evil this, which undermines and corrupts every essay
at taxation, and makes it the interest of every one
Concerned, to debase and injure the paper. This plan
mutt also involve and depre-iate the new money, emit
ting by Congress; the almost only fund, which we
have for the supply of our army. After dwelling 011
these topicks, it will be thought immaterial to menti
on the unavoidable depreciation which must of course
take place upon the fix yearly taxes to be levied for
bringing in the bills last mentioned; being the small
remnant of two hundred millions of old continental
money, which our landed men have born, or mean to
bear, a thare of the red, having fallen entirely upon
the holders of the bills; that is to fay, chiefly upon
persons in trade, and those whole property was in mo
ney.
These predictions, concerning the proposed em^ffion,
depend not on meer opinion. They are founded ora
principles as certain as the proposition, that two and
two make four. Money is not wealth. It is but the
sign of it. It cannot be multiplied to an equality with,
the capital of property which it represents, but can on
ly extend to the value of that part of the property
of the Late which is for sale, or at market, at any
given time. In proportion to the commerce of any
country, ought the sign of riches, that is to fay, the
money, to be. All beyond this is worse than useless;
and in such case the whole mass must be depreciated
down to rhe proper quantity. By way of illustration,
it may be observed, that before the opening of the
mines of America, a bushel of wheat was fold in Eng
land for eight-pence or ten-pence; since that period,
the Kings of Spain, having imported into Europe ma
ny hundred millions of gold and silver, and imcreafed
the monies of the civilized nations to a prodigious de
gree, the price of wheat has gradually risen to five or
fix (hillings fierling ; or, to (peak more properly, the
fall of money has produced this alteration. In faft,
wheat, at this day, is much cheaper than it was for
merly, as the culture of it is better underffood. No,
minal prices are no rule to judge by in this case; the
relative rates es necessaries, being the true measure of
dearness or cheapness. This depreciation of gold and
filter, to which some assign an intrinsic value, would
have run to a much greater length, had not a constant
and large exportation of silver to Asia taken place -
whilst a gradual and most extensive civilization ink
Europe, found employ for immense sums. In the mean
time, the charges of digging and refining continue the
fame, though the price of these metals has so much
decre fed, infomucn, that the King of Spain has re
duced his royalty of a fifth of the produce of the silver
mines to a tenth, and must, before long, it is thought,
content himfelf with a twentieth; unless mines, more
rich than any heretofore known, be discovered. But
this would contribute only to the more rapid fall of
silver, till, at length, the one would not countervail
the coll*. Then money might become liable; or might
even appreciate from the constant wafle ^nd loss of
these metals.
These principles are admitted and afled upon
throughout Europe. It must therefore affunifh all per
sons there, who attend to our internal affairs, to find
us groping in the dark on the fubjefts of commerce
and finance. One while, absurdly, trying to fix the
prices of merchandizes; another, regulating moneys
contrary to the nature of things, and enforcing these
impracticable plans by extravagant and impofli ble
penalties. The failure of one visionary scheme of this
fort after another for a series of years, hardly pro
duces any improvement in opr measures. We derive
little wisdom from experience however dearly bought.
I mar, the Europeans, who watch our steps narrowly;
begin to confider us as a nation of knaves, and de
cide that so ly has little share in our seeming blun
ders ; for, struck with our public manifefto's and
private performances in the depute with Britain, they
must have viewed us as an enlightened people. But
on these fubjeas, it certainly is the interest of the
great majority to return to common fenfeand honefly,
as the bell policy. Our present fafety, our future
well being, urge us firongly to adopt found and solid
schemes of finance.
The plan of finance for Pennsylvania is simple. As
the general money of the United States is now calling
ig, we ihall soon have our little fyflem within our own
management. After thia, We should reduce ,ur bills
of credit under the value of two hundred thoufu d
pounds of gold and silver ; and mud it in the best and
most fatisfaaory manner. Toefe bi Is tfiould pass on
their own intrinsic goodness, rmi not requ re the aid,
* This is the ea son why Fierohw, m s Europe once
thought rich, ire cisfelt
APRIL 7, 1781:
[ NUMB. 722.