A LETTER TO A MEMBER OF PARLIAMENT Concerning the BANK OF SCOTLAND And the Lowering of Interest of MONEY.  
EDINBURGH, Printed by John Reid, and to be sold by Robert alan, at his Shop, over foregainst the Court of Guard, 1696.   

Letter to a Member of Parliament concerning the ●… ank of Scotland, And the Lowering of Interest of MONEY.  
SIR,  
OF late, that every Body was talking of Trade, and of Enriching the Nation thereby, you may remember, how often you and I have Discoursed about the African and Indian Company, and considered what Advantages might accresce to the whole Kingdom by it, and how glad we were to see our countrymen fall into that Road of Trading, which they had so long neglected. On this Occasion we also talked of the Bank, but you did not seem so satisfied about that, and thought that it might be a Cheat and Contrivance of some People to bubble the Nation out of its Money; And consequently, that it ought to be discouraged. You may remember also, that I undertook the Defence of it several times, but in the Hurry of Company, and Heat of Discourse, People do generally mistake one another, which was the Occasion of my giving you the Trouble of this at a time, that it may be useful, it being the Common Talk that the present Parliament is to have it under their Consideration.  
It is a received Maxim by all who understand the Good of a Kingdom, that the Abatement, or Lowering of Interest of Money, is the Advancing of Trade, this Sir Josiah Child has sufficiently demonstrated, and it is certainly true, that we may guess at the Condition a Nation is in, by inquiring only at what Interest the Money goes. That thereby the Value of Land Estates will become greater, and consequently that of the whole Kingdom is evident, and which must be an Effect of the Increase of Riches, and of foreign Trade, they always going of necessity together, as Sir Josiah has very well observed; But the bringing down of Interest of Money by Law, is a thing that will neither do the one or the other; On the contrary, that it will be pernicious to the Kingdom, can be easily made out, notwithstanding of all the bustle that Gentle-Men makes about it: The Ingenious Mr. Lock has done it, t●… have not seen his Book, however it seems to be so clear, that I sh●… easily convince you of it in very few words.  
Money is nothing else but a Commodity agreed upon by the unanimous Consent of most Nations, to be the common Barter of all others, the price whereof, like that of any other Commodity, doth rise and fall in a place in proportion to it's scarcity and plenty, and what we call the Interest of Money, is nothing but a price for the use of that Commodity. Now they that can or will give the best price for any Commodity, will have it notwithstanding the opposition of any Laws, or interposition of any Power: Of such Force, subtlety and Power is the General course of Trade. This Sir Josiah has upon another account, but I wonder he would not apply it to the business in question, which would have satisfied him of his Error, if he had. We see when there is scarcity of Grain, that no Law can bring it to such a price as the Poor can afford, nor when there is great plenty, can any Law keep it up at such a Standard as Country-Gentlemen would be at: In a word, all things of that Nature will keep their own Natural course, we may stop their Current for a while, but they must at last in spite of all opposition come to their own Level, tho with a great deal of more confusion and disturbance. Suppose there was a Law made for low interest, the effect of it would be, That honest plain-dealing people would lose by it, and the Crafty Jewish Traffiquers in Money, a set of men that never deserved of the Country, and in well governed places were always discou●aged by Laws, would be the only gainers by it, they borrowing Money by virtue of the Law at low interest, and lending it out at high, which never could be prevented as long as people stood in need of Money when there was scarcity of it. As for example, How easy were it to give a Bond for 100 lib: bearing the Legal interest, when in effect there was no more given by the lender then 90? We saw lately in England a thing very like this, When the Guineas were brought down from the Extravagant Rate they went for, by an Act of Parliament, which was as carefully and cautiously made as the Wisdom of that Nation could contrive: But how ineffectual it was, ●… very body now knows, and might have foreseen as long as there was scarcity of other good Current Money. One common way they had to elude the Act, was, By laying a Wager with one you knew had Guineas of 15 lib; For Example, That he should not get you a hundred for 22 shillings, He that had them won his wager, which was the same as if he had got 25 for the piece of them. Besides, if Money were by a Law at a low Interest, by no equity could people be restrained from raising it, that they might lay it out to better Advantage, which would break most of the Landed Men, unless Money were a great deal more plentiful, which will only be the true and genuine cause of a low interest.  
What I have said is in order to prove the usefulness of the Bank to the Nation, that being the main Scope of my Letter, and which would be too tedious if I should insist upon what I hinted at before, to wit, That a low interest of Money would advance Trade, it being certain, that when people could not live upon the common interest of their Stock, they would apply it to Trade, or if they did not, they must retrench their way of living, and spend less of foreign Commodities and Manufactories, which how much that would contribute to the enriching of the Nation, every body knows that considereth what is laid out that way; So I shall prove that the Bank can do that which the Parliament can never do, other ways then by preserving the privileges of it.  
First then, It is plain that there can be no other way of Lowering of interest of Money, than by making it more plentiful, and this I say is really done by the Bank, the Money of the Nation being actually multiplied by Bank-bills, And that this is not at all an imaginary but a real multiplication of Money is evident, if we consider that so much of the current Money of the Nation, as is necessary for the making of payments between Man and Man, is in effect so much dead and lost stock to the place, let the Money be never so good, when it is confined to the passing amongst ourselves, it is no better than Counters or Taillies. Now the Bank-bills supplying the place of Money in making of payments, that which was a dead actionless Stock before is now capable to be Traded with, and may be re●…ned as so much really added to the Riches of the Nation. We 〈…〉 bring it to a pretty near computation of how much is gained by 〈…〉 if we suppose, and that I think safely enough, that one Third a●… most of the Money is sufficient to make the small payments which cannot be so conveniently done by Bank-bills; Now if we reckon all the Money in this Kingdom to be about 8, or 900000 lib: Starl: which Judicious Men do reckon it will amount to 300000 lib. may do the business of small payments, and 600000 lib: may be traded with, or in effect added to the Stock, if any Body quarrel this account, I am content to call our whole Money but 600000 lib: and so 400000 lib: will be gained, which is as much as is Signed for in the Books of the african and Indian Company, and which is look't on as a very considerable part of the Riches of the Nation. And by the by, I cannot but wonder that any Body that doth wish Well to our foreign Trade, should exclaim against the Bank, it being most evident, that nothing can or will better advance it than a low Interest of Money, which cannot be better effectuated, than by keeping up of the Bank; Neither can ever the Notes or Bills of any Trading Company supply the place of Money, except it be for a small sum, and a very short time, for besides the possibility of their Breaking, it does not seem so convenient for their own Good, for certain it is, that as soon as any unlucky hit fell out, that every Body that had their Bills, would bring them upon them, which must inevitably cause great Confusion in their Business, and vast Disadvantage to the Company. Now this cannot be supposed of the Bank, which can never break, unless it should be the Fate also of the whole Nation, it being always intrinsically and really worth more than the Bills given out by it, so that as long as there is Money in the Nation, they may have it, If the Bank were supposed( which is not very credible) to be put to a pinch, upon the same real Securitys the Bills were given out upon by the Directors.  
2ly. There is another very great Advantage by it, and which I judge is very obvious to every Body, and that is the Facilitating of ●… yments thereby, and the saving a Man of a great deal of time ●… trouble in receiving of Money, which is so considerable, that ●… e are few who would not give ½ or l⅓ per cent, to be saved of ●… time in Counting, and Ensureing of good money, in taking of ●… y considerable sum.  
There is another Way by which the Bank Enriches the Nation, and which is an easy Consequence from what is said, and that is by augmenting the Currency of Money, which it must necessarily do, both by Facilitating Payments, and making it more Plentiful, so that a Merchant may raise his Stock to Trade with it anew in half the time he could do before, which is in effect, the doubling it to him; It being certain that he that returns his Stock twice in one year, gains as much as if he returned the double of it only once in the same time.  
There is also a very considerable encouragement to Thriftiness by it, and consequently of advantage to the Nation, which is, that the Bank is content to be payed back again in partial payments, by which a man that lives within his yearly Revenues, may insensibly crumble away his debt, which he cannot so easily do when he is owing any considerable sum to a private person, who will not readily take it, unless he have it altogether, which the debtor cannot do in a great many years, so that he even lays aside thoughts of it, and spends yearly what he has of free Incomes, and is Chamberlain for the rest to his Creditors.  
Now Sir, The Objections against the abatement of intetest of Money by any sort of method, are so trifling, that I think them scarcely worth answering, however they are buzzed in every bodys Ears, by the Rich Usurer sort of men, the only Drons of the Nation, who without doing any thing for the good of the public, or having any other business than that of persecuting their wretched Creditors, do suck the very Vitals of the Kingdom, to the utter ruin of Trade, And consequently to the impoverishing of every body in the Nation besides themselves. These make a heavy clamour about Widows and Orphans, that lowering their Interest, is taking their bread from them: Now what a small part of the peop●… in the Nation, such make, it is easy to compute? Sir Josiah Chil●… calls them a twentieth, and I'm sure they are no more, and of these another twentieth will lose nothing, having either nothing at all left them, or at least so little, that their loss cannot be considered, on the contrary they will gain by it, a low Interest advancing Trade, and all sorts of Imploymens, so that they may much easier get a livelihood, than when money is at a higher Interest. But suppose a few should lose by it, which by his computation would not be above one of 400, were it not hard that all the rest should loss such an advantage, only for the behoof of so inconsiderable a number of themselves.  
There be a great many others who have a grudge at the Bank, only because they neglected to be Sharers in it, these do not own their Objections openly, Envy being a Passion that every Body is ashamed of; However to comfort them, it is certain, that if they have any Shares in the African and Indian company, they will gain more by the Advantage a low Interest will bring to that Trade, than if they had put in what they could spare to the Bank and neglected the Other.  
Sir, I have now done with what I proposed, was to be the Subject of my Letter 〈◇〉 which for want of patience, I have neither made so clear as the ●●tter might have allowed of, nor put in so handsome a dress, as p●●●●ps with a little more time I could have done; But I considered ●●●t it was written to One more concerned about that which is re●●●●& truly conducible for his Country, than the glittering varnish of ●●rds; And who I am certain will go hearty along with the revivi●● and making effectual of Sumptuary Acts, or any other Prop●●●s for the Good of the Kingdom, which I hope shall be made 〈◇〉 ●he Committee for Trade and Parliament, by those who have bot●●●pacity and Experience in such Affairs. I am  
SIR, Your most Humble, &c.  
FINIS.