The Connecticut courant, and the weekly intelligencer — Hartford [Conn.], 1780-11-20 00:00:00, page 1

A Fifth ESSAY on FREE TRADE and
FINANCE.
Continued from our last.
IT may be objeded here, that our old
currency is got so much out of repute,
that it cannot be reformed, but may be
called in, and replaced with a new and
better one. I answer, all that ails the old
currency is, that it is not, it carries not in
it, a efficient certain security of any de
terminate value to the possessor ; and this
fame thing will ail the new currency, or
any currency we can make, unless we can
mena the public faith on which it de
pends, and connect it so manifeftly and
firmly with the real wealth of the states,
that the security may be undoubted. It
is impossible this can be done by any
thing but payment; either prefect or so
secured, that there will remain no doubt
in the mind of the possessor thatit will be
bona fide made. If this can be done, there
is no doubt but we may make ^ny cur
rency good, yea better than hard money,
because it is sooner counted; and more
easily conveyed. There is indeed one
reason for calling in the old currency, and
issuing a new one; which appears to m^
to have real and great weight,- viz.
Many of the bills of the present currency
are counterfeited, and it is very necessary
the public Should be freed from these im
positions; and to this another may be ad
ded, viz, It would be very defireablfe
to have a currency which should express
the true value of the bills in the face of
them. The present bills carry but a forti
eth part of the value expressed in their
face; and this holds out the feeble ener
vated and debilitated state of our public
credit in so glaring a light, and! publishes
our Shame and distress so very undeniably
and universally, that I should be willing
to have them out of fight, as people ge
nerally endeavour to keep out of view
brands and marks which indicate the dis
grace of their families: Besides there is
a fort of deception in the bills, which I
conceive to be hurtful; when a man gets
a great bundle of them, he is apt to be
cheated in spite of the convidiens of his
own heart, into an opinion that he is
richer than he his, and of course to abate
a little of that ceconomy which he would
think necessary if his mind was not dila
ted by that delusion; whilst, on the other
hand, the taxes appear more heavy and
terrible, when heightned under the enor
mous denomination of the currency, than
they would do were they offered and de
manded in a Shape that correspond to
their real value. These may perhaps by
general consent be allowed good reasons
for calling in the present bills and issuing
new ones, and this may be well enough ;
r U E 5 D A Y, November 29, 1780. t MgNUMBERS)
CONNECTICUT COURANT,-
AMBYMK
WEEKLY iNTELLiGENtER.
HARTFORD? Primtib BY HUDSON amb GOODWIN, miar the Great-Bridge:
if the mode and expectations of the mea
sure are limitted to its ufa; but the fu&.
fiance is yet wanting, every thing neces
sary to give fixture to the currency is still
to be done; and all remains to be done;
and will remain so, till we can fix the
funds of our currency so sure as to make
it a certain security of real value to the
possessor, and call it in so fa&by taxes as
to limit its quantity within the uses of
circulation, and prevent its increasing tp
such amount as to render the final redemp
tion difficult, improbable; or uncertain.
This is the grand gift of the whole mat
ter ; this will effedually save us ; less
than this will not ; all the rest is but Lift
ing the weights in the scale, without ad
ding a Single ounce to help a balance or
prependerat ion ; this therefore is our great
object, from which our attention must not
be diverted, no not for a moment ; on this
our fate depends.
2. It may be further objected; that no
nation of Europe can carry on a war with
out loans, or some way anticipating their
revenue, and running in debt, and how
can it be supposed that we can do it other
wise. I answer; their case differs from
-di!rivery materially, i. They have cre
dit to borrow on, which we lave not, un
less we allow such a ruinous difeount as
makes our affairs defperatt, and must soon
put it out of our power to preserve our
liberty. 1. Our country is richer, more
full of men and floras necessary in War,
than those of Europe in general; and of
course the carrying on the was without
running in debt is more practicable by us
than by them. 3. They have such sure
and eftabliffied systems of finance fixed and
fettled, on which they can issue internal
bills, as furnifh a certain security to the
possessor of payment, their bublic banks
are the fafeft repositories of their nations
wealth ; we have not these advantages, our
public bank has hitherto proved the dif
trudion of the wealth that has been trusted
to it, and of course every body is afraid
of it, and therefore loaning at home to a
ny great amount is impracticable, and
what can't be done, need not be urged as
politic, eligible or salutary. 4. If any
nation of Europe borrows specie, and
thereby increases and of course depreci
ates their cash but two or three per cent,
that difeount is enough to spread it all 0-
ver Europe, by which the balance is soon
restored, and the depreciation is checked ;
or if any nation, as Spain, imports money
from Peru, and makes it over plenty and
of reduced value, it spreads over Europe
diredly ; and so by covering a large fur
face the depreciation becomes infeaSible,
and the inconvenience little felt : But this
is not the case With us; uor currency
can't be exported; were it ever so good,
and any increase of quantity must have its
full effect by way of depreciation among
ourselves : and of course any increase of
the quantity destroys at once the very end
and use of such increase, as the value can't
be thereby .inereafed, but inflead of this,
the whole deluge of mifchiefs arising from
a fluctuating currency must flow in upon
tis.'g The very opperation of this me
thod of loaning and anticipation of the re
venue, adopted and praCtifed by the na
tions of Europe is in itfelf enough, were
it ever so practicable , by us, to deter. us
from following so fatal an example. See
Great Britain enervated and benum'd un
der the pressure of an enormous debt, the
very interest of which confutes the be±
part of the richest revenue which the
wealth, inddftr+jand oppression of the na
tion can produce. How dilheartning
must it be for that people to struggle
through the year merely to pay a corrod
ing interest, which brings them not the (
nearer to the end of their misery, but on
ly keeps alive that gnawing vulture that
must for ever feed on their very e: ^is.
I can't but wonder that any man in his
senses should hold up such a fad fpe&acle
for an example to the Americans. 6. The
nations of Europe never attempt to bor
row money, till they have firft raised all
the revenue they can within themselves,
and find it not fufficient; but this is so
f^gfrom our case, that we have never yet
faxed half enough to drain off that fur
plufage of money which the war has oc
casioned, and our capital distress and dif
ficulties have all along arisen from that
flood of money which has rendered it too
plenty for use ; even hard money will
not bring but little more than half so
much country produce as it would have
purchased before the war ; this' mifehief
can't be remedied by increase of the quan
tity by loans or any other way, but must
in its nature bedeck'd by draining off
and lessening that quantity^ and thereby
railing the demand sot it which is essen
tial to its use. From all this it appears to
be weak and filly as well as abfurdto urge
for our imitation the example of other na
tion's, the vtry^convenienee, necessity or
even pradability of which depends on cir
ctfrftances which do not apply at all to
our case ; and much more absurd and even
mad is it, when we fee the fatal operati
on o£i;befe exampl^in the nations who
have tried" them, and whilst we have in
view the richest and most powerful of
these nations thrown into convulsions, and
even gasping and breathing their last un
der the complicated and remedilefs dil
treffes introduced by this fatal practice.
It is not the Icafi danger of this practice