The Sun.
London, England, 1839-11-16 00:00:00

their transactionF sire infnit
.equiri,d prodigiously large ; such

America or any other

Id th

e.kse Wtt

The good effects of an ample currency in raising
wages, in reviving confidence, and in lightening the
taxes, that is, the debt—were seen during the war ;
the evils of falling prices are obvious, for who would
work on falling wages and have the same enor-
mous taxes and debts to pay ? Possibly, a
rise of prices and of wages might go on con-
tinually among and the pi v
country follow diem tro.n inabily) to compete with I's.
Possibly the gold se-, free and the gre ex.imple
credit and confidence would give a tu.l currency to
to the Cordillera, and produce an affect similar to what
the humble Scotch banks have led to in Eligieind. Be
this as it may, our ptesent scarcity of mangy is a
izonsens. and prices should be a:lowed to ri,c till th.
annual 29 mil ions will not be worth ouch :►n immetisity
thankless labour. It 'Li detest dale to say that an

eat currency is connected either as cause or eff., t wit it
accommodation : bank notes advanced on fictitious cretin
return immediately to the bank of issue, and no power
can keep them out. But it may be said that specu
lation flouts them for a time : this depends much on the
law of debtor and creditor : it also depends on thn
banker's taking good bills ; with a real plenty of money
such bills would always be offered, and they must be
supposed to understand their own business better than
to refuse them. Analyze the declamations in support 01
an arbitrary scarcity of money, and they will be found
to rest on the enormous fallacy of presuming that banks
of issue make a general rule of preferring bad bills to
good ones.
Such a circulation of 100 millions would be one sort of
plenty of money. Look on this picture and on that. The
Peel currency of 18 millions barely suffices to pay half a
year's dividend to fundholders and other annuitants, none
of whom, as such, can be in business. To these were added
Lord Stanley's rash 20 millions, the purchase of the
" dead weight," and other sums, none of which, like the
issues of the French or Scotch banks, were for the pro-
motion of trade ; for in those countries, if one may use
the expression, every bill has its billet, and habilitates a
specific object of well-directed industry. In 1832 Mr.
A. Baring stated that money might be had in Lom-
bard-street at two per cent. ; but such plenty of money,
whether loaned to Carlist and Christino or buried in the
funds, is merely scarcity of profit, paucity of transactions,
plenty not of circulating but of buried money, undis-
tinguishable from the bricks of the vault containing it :
such plenty had the Dey of Algiers, doing no one any
good, as Rothschild pithily remarked.
A full currency among other advantages would enable
us to pay off a large portion of the public debt, and thus
provide for a very obscure and cloudy future. During the
three last years of the war 225 millions sterling besides
loans were paid into the Exchequer : this amount exceeds
one quarter of the debt. In nzagnis voluisse sat est, but
with the present currency such an effort would be ridicu-
lous. The landholders at present area mere plutarchy,and
even the Savings Banks cannot palliate the odiousness of
their claim so long as they absorb the whole currency.
but be liberal to trade also and no one will grudgc them
the letter of their bond. It is difficult to imagine hoe
little money would circulate, and consequently how little
business be done, if we merely suppose the remote case
that the fundholders were to decline drawing dividend:
during a year. The frequent contractions when money
most wanted, besides the injury to the parties r,°
fused, generally the most solvent, because the mos,
formidable rivals, fall with the greater severity, inasmuci
as the whole operation takes place on the trifling surplu-
remaining to trade after the pound of flesh is delivered
to fundholders, who contribute little to the welfart
of society, and still less to its burthens. Traci,
and manufactures only exist to make them comfort-
able : the funds are a great market of idleness, when

money may be had at three per cent. ; the poor bill o
exchange pays six, even when the jus vague: of th,
bank, and the evident, caprice, if not partiality, of three
tors, allow it the good fortune of being " approved."
In the case of Fauntleroy, they refused to dis
count his acceptances and thus converted him int.
a demon vowing revenge. If they had any particula
reason for distrusting him, why give him a ileens•
as to powers of sale which they ought not to hay.
allowed a Secretary of State ? Then, when hi,
schemes had destroyed their profit for many year&•
they paid dividends out of their capital : what woub
they say now if a joint-stock bank should follow thei,
example in any respect ? Considering the bankruptcie!
and quasi bankruptcies which have occurred among th
Directors, it seems dangerous to intrust them with° th,
dispensing money at discretion without the shadow o
law or even system. The private bankers are grew
holders of Bank stock ; these as constituehts refuse to
question or disturb the management which makes
money so scarce, because the fundholders, as trustee:
and otherwise, lodge vast sums with them on which ne
interest is paid.
In all this policy the Bank of Ireland coincides : Mr.
Wilson, its Governor, confessed that in 1836 he hag

lowered discounts to 311, while the Bank of England raised
their's to 5 (not 41 as stated ). He was merely blamed
for n'ot supporting his correspondents in their assumed
public duty of regulating exchanges : but in their private
and real policy—contracted currency, partial distribu
tion, the giving no interest on deposits, and the neglect

inn induitry-J-he co-operated but too well.

lowered rate of discount was intended to ruin the Joint-
stock Banks there, by first urging them into impru-
dent extension of business and then refusing advances ;
while, on this side the water, the Bank of England
was campaigning against the very same rivals, and re
fusing most unexpectedly to discount the best paper if
it had accidentally passed through their hands. These
rivals are supplying, more especially in Ireland, what
they have already supplied in Scotland—An aflluen•
currency distributed on fixed principles of business ; and
they are also paying interest on deposits, which the pri-
vate bankers refuse.
The nobility are the greatest losers by the old
system, from the vast amount of fixed sums which
they owe, half of their estates being often mort-
gaged to purchase the other half, but they are
too much in the power of their bankers to com-
plain ; on the other hand, the Jews must have smiled
when Rothschild deposed before the Committee of
1832 that he believed the management was good be-
cause his own business prospered under it ; he also
stated, truly if not candidly, that if money be abundant
this country gets all the trade of the world, but if it
gets scarce then the trade goes elsewhere.
He meant that industry is what commands the ex-
.

changes ; but the soi-disant policy of the Bank f,
correcting the exchange is, to refuse the usual ad-
vances, to exhibit poor old Bull " selling off at
and
tremendous sacrifice." Their theory, so simple
so false, is, that scarcity of money lowers price-
but it
is f
and induces foreigners to take our goods ; ac
and history that whenever the Bank has been frightened
and relaxed the contracting screw, trade has revived,
consignments have been made, the bills drawn on them
have been purchased and sent abroad instead of gold,
and so the exchanges have turned. And even suppo,-
ing that this Celestial Chinese policy gets the goods out,
it does not keep the gold in : Sir R. Peel observe,:
very appositely that in 1838-9 the exports had increased
immensely—but that did not prevent the gold from
going also. Falling prices not only excruciate trade by
taking away the instrument of exchange, but they also
falsity contracts to the disadvant tge of the debtor, and
prevent him from ever getting beyond his fixed charge,
which even at best are intolerable.
Why then torment that industry which alone eau
bring the balance of trade in our favour? In India
the ingenious native converts a few handsful of wool
into a shawl worth a hundred guineas ; in Tuscany
two acres of straw suffice to fabricate all the " Leg-
horns" and " Tuscans" in the world ; accordingly, in
botn countries there is a tendency to influx of specie
produced by such skill as other nations cannot rival,
and which leaves the balance of trade permanently in
their favour : but how different are the two governments !
The rajahs and maharajahs of the East secure their bar-
baric pearls and gold on hilts of swords and daggers. or
hide it in the earth ; but in the parallel case of Tus-
cany, a country which is known to command the ex-
changes, their acute good sense forbids the idea of losing
a real profit for the pleasure of hoarding gold, as we
do, as Jackson did, as the Dey of Algiers did, til,
Marshal Bourmont handed it over to his own account
with Laffitte ! Suppose the Tuscans were so situated
as to establish a credit currency, in that case more in-
dustry would be created by such facilities, the payment of
notes, in silver of course, would be as rare as the demand
of specie in Scotland : the prices incidentally would rise,
but would Europeans go without silk, or olive oil, or
marble ? No ; the payment of 1,000 and 1,200 per cent.
duties on particular articles is enough to show that no
enhancement, such as can proceed from the most ample
currency, will prevent foreigners from paying a price so
far increased, for objects which they require and can
get no where else.

The retention of specie being a great object with
Chinese as well as English statesmen at the present mo•
meent, it behoves us to "examine and judge." The indus-
try of bounties, and drawbacks, and protection, never can
command exchanges. Thus the antique system holds
together, and hence the feeling which has made the
Tories secede from politics, namely, that their principles
if once touched must fall. Conscious of deserving little
from an essentially industrious people, they do not like
the chapter of accidents which may follow.
Some think, manufactures ought never to have ex-

isted, others forget, they do exist and must be fed ;
si Nan paristi, occidisti. Nothing shows the failure of the
Reform Bill more than the outrages on trade acid trading
towns which it professed to admit into the constitution.
The Morning Post vociferates bon myatie to manufac-
tures ; Sir J. Graham echoes the shout—hut will the
Chartists submit so easily to han;shment ? What political
reverses have ever happened which might not be traced to
reiterated pecuniary errors, and what else ean explain the
various insults our Sag receives from foreigners, as well
tho plans seriously attributed to Russia, because they
know we cannot afford new topmasts or a few suits of
sails ? And yet we are cautioned against a little %Tar !"
Nothing less than h grande guerre el la haute
the legacies of Bonaparte, is good enough for John. Te-
dious debates smother .41 contemporary history, prolix