LI B R.AR.Y 
 
 OF THE 
 
 U N I VLR.SITY 
 
 or ILLINOIS 
 
 e>a7s 
 
 W.I7
 
 AN 
 
 ADDRESS TO THE PUBLIC 
 
 ON 
 
 THE PLJlN 
 
 PROPOSED BY 
 
 THE SECRET COMMITTEE 
 
 OF THE 
 
 HOUSE OP COMMONS 
 
 FOR EXAMIKXNa- TH£ 
 
 AFFAIRS OF THE BANK. 
 
 BY EDWARD COOKE, Esq. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 Printed for J.J. STOCKDALE, 41, Pall Mail. 
 
 1819. 
 
 PRICE TWO SHILLINGS AND SIXPENCE.
 
 M. Biowii, J'jlnter, 86, Si. Martinis Lane.
 
 ERRATA. 
 
 Page 12, linel, transpose the words Infports and E^orti. 
 16, line 5 from bottom, for cause, read /a//. 
 
 22, line 4, for /or read by. 
 
 23, line 10, for affected read effected. 
 
 25, lines 9 and 10 from bottom, for prudential and per* 
 nicious, read penurious.
 
 ikSr A I£> I£> Hi IE ^ 
 
 I RECENTLY published a short Tract, which is annexed, 
 with a view to rectify some manifest errors, by which 
 the public mind is deluded, m respect to the great ques- 
 tion of our domestic Currency. 
 
 I therein described the true nature oF the standard of 
 our gold coin, tinder the law and the royal prerogative. 
 
 I prosed, that the rise in the price of Gold could not 
 be attributed to an excess of Bank Notes in circulation ; 
 as the amount ofour circulation was extremely deficient 
 in comparison with the proportional circulation before 
 the war. 
 
 I suggested, that the increased price of Gold Bullion, 
 as the increased price of all other commodities, arose 
 from our augmented taxation. 
 
 I demonstrated y that any reduction of the quantity of 
 our currency; by increasing its value, would propor« 
 tionally increase the value and the pressure of our taxes, 
 and thereby prevent any decrease of prices, which such 
 a measure might seem to promise. 
 
 I pointed out the evils which were to be apprehended, 
 and which are already in a degree felt, from the reduc- 
 tion of the amount ofour currency, and that further re- 
 
 a ductions
 
 ( 4 ) 
 
 ductions could only lead to stagnation of credit, and 
 decrease of activity, and to general non-production. 
 
 And in order to prevent these evils, which apparently 
 must follow from a scarcity of currency, I suggested, 
 that the best line for the country to pursue, was to 
 follow tlie course of the market, and under wise regula- 
 tions, to enable the Bank of England to discharge their 
 Notes at all times in gold at market price. 
 
 According to the line which my duty pointed out, 1 
 caused my suggestions to be conveyed to the members of 
 the Committee, in order that before their ultimate de- 
 cision on the great questions before them, the value of 
 such suggestion^, if any, might be appreciated. .' 
 
 The long-expected REPORT of the Committee of the 
 House of Commons upon the State of our Currency, has 
 at length been made, ^.nd abstracts of it are before the 
 Public. If those abstracts, are true, I sorely apprehend 
 that the public, I mean the informed and intelligent 
 part of the public, will experience the most severe mor- 
 tification and disappointment; because in the midst of 
 great universal commercial distress, arising from the 
 ■want of circulating medium, a further reduction of that 
 medium is to be gradually and continually made, in or- 
 der to raise the value of Bank Paper to the exchange 
 price of gold, and keep it invariably at that price. 
 
 The first step oi the process is to repay by loan, a sum 
 of Exchec(iuer Bills, on which the Banlk had advanced 
 to Government 10 millions ; and which Bills are now in 
 deposit in the Bank; or, in other words, it is to annihi- 
 late, by successive payments, 10 millions of the present 
 currency ; the power of re-issuing, by means of discounts, 
 which sum, or such part of it as the Bank may think pro- 
 per, is to be left to the discretion of that Corporation. 
 
 •Since this Addieiss was comnieucecl, the Kejiort has appeared in extenso. 
 
 It
 
 ( ^'> ) 
 
 It is absolutely necessary for the public to be fully 
 informed of tlie nature of this transaction, which is not 
 obvious to persons unacquainted with currenipy and 
 finance questions. It appears from the Report of the 
 Committee, that previous to the Restriction Act, there 
 were in circulation 30 millions of Gold Coin and 10 or 11 
 millions of Bank Notes. Of this sum, the Bank possessed 
 in deposit about 5 or 6 millions, by which their Notes 
 were j^ayable. The remaining 2o millions had been gra- 
 dually, from time to time, brought into circulation by- 
 means of tbe Merchants, who had carried the Bullion 
 they had imported througli the balance of trade, to the 
 Mint, and had received the amount thereof again in coin. 
 Thus our active circulation consisted of 10 millions of 
 Bank Notes, and 25 millions of Gold Coin brought into 
 the market by the Merchants for public and commercial 
 convenience. When the demands of the war, panic at 
 home, and the continental system, drove all the gold 
 coin from circulation, it became the duty of Govern- 
 ment to provide a substitute for what I may call the free 
 and commercial portion of the coinage. They accord- 
 ingly persuaded the Bank to make issues of Bank Notes 
 in exchange for Exchecquer Bills, which were to remain 
 in deposit at the Bank, The quantity of this deposit 
 has varied at different times, and amounts now, as stated 
 by the Report, to 19,438,000/. though, in order to equal 
 the quantity of gold coin taken out of the market, it 
 ought to amount to 95 millions. 
 
 The portion of the circulation originating with the 
 Bank, and dependent upon it, before the Restriction 
 Acts, was 10 or 11 millions. Of this sum, they annu- 
 ally advanced to Government 3 millions on the Land 
 and Malt, and the remainder was circulated by dis- 
 counting commercial bills. It ap()ears, however, from 
 the Report, that other considerable advances were made 
 
 a 2 by
 
 by the Bank to Government, from 1790 to 1797 ,- \fH^ 
 always within the amount of the Notes outstanding. 
 
 What then is to be the state of things under the new; 
 plan ? — the circulation since 1797 having been reducec^ 
 from above 40 millions of Coin and Bank Notes, to 
 near 25 millions, the amount of Bank Notes at present 
 in the market, the Bank are to have the controul of 
 from 16 to 16 millions of this sum; and the free <-ir- 
 culation, independent of the Bank, is to be reduced 
 from 19,438,000/. to 9,000,000/. 
 
 The whole amount of free circulation, independent 
 of the Bank, by resorting to which the commtrcial 
 body gained a large part of their accommodations, and 
 which prevented a partial and monopolizing spirit in 
 the Bank Directors, and which amounted before the war 
 to 25 millions, and amounts now only to 19,438,000/. 
 is to be reduced to about 9 millions. When so small 
 a portion is thus to be left free, it is impossible to 
 expect that a merchant can procure any accommodation 
 at all, but at the Bank ; and the Bank will have the 
 absolute command of the whole commercial body, and 
 their whole transactions, without competition or appeal. 
 
 Distressing and degrading as this transfer of power 
 must be to the commercial body at lar^^e, it inust 
 render the Bank itself a continued object of suspicion 
 and odium. Why are these 10 n)illions to be repaid 
 the Bank ? What is the object ? It is, as specifically 
 stated, to give the Bank a greater controul over their 
 issues and discounts, so as to enable them to regulate 
 the diminution of the paper currency in such a manner 
 as to effect, with greater celerity and certainty, the 
 
 It is stated in the Report, that the Bank ulesire the repayment of these 10. 
 millions, hut this reqa«st was founded on the supposition that they were tor 
 jlpply large snms for accumulating Bullion. 
 
 objec^t
 
 ( 7 ) 
 
 abject of the Committee, viz. — The apparent reduction 
 of the price of Gold Bullion ; but in reality to increase 
 the value of Bank Paper. 
 
 The Bank, if they, by the desire of the proprietary, 
 who probably will be consulted on such a fundamental 
 change of system, shall consent to this new scheme, 
 will be placed in the most invidious and responsible 
 J ight possible. On the one hand possessing the entire and 
 absolute controul of commercial accommodation, they 
 will be continually pressed to increase their issues ac- 
 cording to the glowing wants and just claims of the 
 commercial body : on the other hand, they will be 
 bound by the new duty to be imposed on them by- 
 Parliament, to confine their issues to the mere varia- 
 tions in the price of gold, and to facilitate the pur- 
 chase of bullion. 
 
 Under the great principles of their Institution, their 
 predominant and primary duty is to maintain public 
 credit, increase the circulation, and to provide for the 
 demands of growing trade and prosperity. By this 
 novel measure, these great objects are to be considered 
 by them of inferior and secondary importance, and the 
 sole object of .their management, in future, is to be 
 conlined to gBBVi'!^' the value of Bank Notes by reduc- 
 
 tion of currency, and to the importation of bullion from 
 abroad. If in the progress of the proposed system, the 
 price of gold should rise, whilst commercial distresses 
 and demands increase at home, in whni a perilous and 
 odious predicament will they be placed ! If they 
 listen to the demands of the commercial body, over 
 whose welfare they are to have an entire controul, Chey 
 may be forced to disobey the injunctions of Parlia- 
 ment, and be made amenable to the House of Commons 
 for disobedience of the law. If they should feel them- 
 selves obliged to obey the law, wlwch they may ima- 
 
 erine
 
 ( 8 ) 
 
 giue to be percmpLoiy, tliey may be forced to reject 
 the bills of the best established houses, and destroy the 
 <;rcdit and fortunes of the most respectable firms, and 
 briny on a train of most unmerited "bankruptcy by a 
 reluctant, but what they may deem, a necessary obedi-^ 
 ence to power. 
 
 Surely this measure woidd be placing such a Cor- 
 poiation as the Bank in the most invidious situation 
 imaginable : first to impose upon them a monopoly of 
 the supply of conmiercial wants in discounts and ac- 
 commodation^:, and then to rob them of any discretion 
 with respect to this njonopol}', and to confine their 
 views to the sole purpose of purchasing Gold, and 
 lowering its price, by the refusal of those discounts 
 and accommodations of which the monopoly is forced 
 upon them, and which they only can supply. 
 
 Be it always considered, that the object of the mer- 
 chant is the quantity of the whole currency, not the 
 quantity that the Bank can controul. Whilst there is a 
 sufficient quantity in the market, the merchants can 
 gain discount from the Bankers, &c. as easily as from 
 the Bank, and they naturally prefer a compctitioa 
 against the Bank, in order to secure them against the 
 possibility of partiality : but when once tj^ajaaonopoly of 
 discounts is centered in the Bank, every merchant who 
 wants accommodation is made a slave to what he may 
 either truly or talsely conceive to be the prejudice, or the 
 caprice, or the self-interest of the Court of Directors. 
 
 further. — It seems to me that the great commercial 
 body will, by such a measuie, be robbed of a privilege 
 apj)roximating to a right. The commercial body, by 
 their success in trade, had procured for this Kingdom 
 and for their own particular advantage, a gold circula- 
 tion to the amount of 25 millions, independent of the 
 controul of the Bank. 
 
 Whpi
 
 ( ) 
 
 "When by the iinpnrnllclfd circunistances of the late 
 war, and the extraordinary demands of CoVernment, 
 these 2j millions were banished from circulation, the 
 Government, in justice and gratitude, were bound to 
 find them a substitute. The Government has found 
 them a substitute to the amount of 19 millions, by the 
 means of Exchecquer Bills. Is it an act of good faith 
 and justice to rob them often millions of this sum, and 
 by so doing to deliver their properties and transactions 
 into the sole dominion of the Bank, who are to be en- 
 joined to consider their interests, not as formerly, of pri- 
 mary concern, but as a matter of secondary and subor- 
 dinate consideration ? 
 
 And this alarming measure is not to be carried into 
 eft'ect impune, without loss : the public are to pay a 
 considerable bonus to the Bank for accepting this odious 
 monopoly. At present the Bank do not receive from 
 Government S.\ per cent, on the average, for the Ex- 
 checquer Bills they hold: if they issue their amount 
 again in discount to the public, they will gain 5 per 
 cent, or an addition of 1^ per cent, that is £. 1.50,000 a 
 year on the 10 millions so taken from the free circu- 
 lating medium. 
 
 I do not enter into the profits which the Bank have 
 bitherto made, or are hereafter to make. I consider 
 those profits a matter of much indifference, provided 
 they are accompanied by extensive and growing benefits 
 to the public. If the increase of their profits, on the 
 other hand, is to be accompanied with injury to the 
 public, I must be jealous of them indeed. 
 
 I have ever lamented, that the subject of Bank profits 
 was id the slightest degree connected with the gie?t 
 question at issue, with which they have no real con. 
 ie:;ion whatever. It is of no more real consequence to 
 • he public whether such a great corporation as the Bank 
 
 make
 
 ( 10 ) 
 
 hiake 10 per cent, profit on tlieir capital instead of seven,' 
 than if 30 or 40 ;;>reat merchants make 10 per cent, in- 
 stead of seven per cent, upon their capitals. But, un- 
 fortunately, there are a great number of men whose igno- 
 rance and selfishness leads them to view all the gains 
 hf public bodies and of public men with an invklious eye,' 
 and conceive that tb« public can never be beneficially 
 served, so long as those who serve the public well de- 
 rive a liberal rehiuneration for those services. 
 
 If the Bank Biiifectbrtj had ever hitrbouTed a thought 
 of taking tin ad^'antage of the facilities ttieir situation 
 afforded, they naight; by artful and well founded publi- 
 cations, have wc»rked up the puljlic mind to deiiiand 
 ihe same anoouitt of circulating medium as took frtSce 
 before the Restriction Act: on the contrary, '.itt-y seem 
 to have done every thing in their povfifef, and at times 
 more than theif duty, in Usniting the circulation, and 
 reducing it nearly tO- 'S. naif of the amount which our 
 income, compared with its affliounit before the Restric- 
 tion Act, a«ems to require. 
 
 The Committee hate certainly done justice to the 
 Ban.k in one important instance, which indeed was never 
 <:)ydestioned. They have shewn, in the most satisfactory 
 tnaiiner, the solidity and solvability of the Bank, and 
 have abundantly prored that their means of discharging 
 all their issues have ever been, and continue to be, un- 
 impeachably adequate. 
 
 t do vmt understrmd the reasons which induced the 
 Committee to publish in their Report the comparative 
 views t)f the outstanding Bank Notes and advances to 
 Government at different periods. Unaccompanied, with- 
 out a very accurate and pellucid explication, they can^ 
 only serve to puszle the reader; and though I know 
 tolerably well the manner,^ of explaining them, as that 
 explanation would not elucidate the general object of
 
 ( 11 ) 
 
 my statement, I leave the labour to others. This ac- 
 count might have been confined to the Appendix, with 
 a just explanation of the transactions to which they 
 allude. Publishing extracts of a Bank Ledger on one 
 hand, and an Exchequer Ledger on the other, without 
 shewing how they are reconciled, merely confuses, and 
 does not instruct the Public. 
 
 The next process is, that on the 1st of February next 
 the Bank should, on demand, pay their Notes in Bullion, 
 at 4/. Is, per ounce, till the October following; — from 
 October to May 1821, at 3/. 19^. 6d. per ounce, — and 
 on May 1821 at Mint price ; and that in two years from 
 that period payments in Coin should be resumed. 
 
 The real purport of this Plan, when stripped of all its 
 graduated plausibility, is, that the Bank shall pay their 
 Notes, on demand, in Gold at 3/. 17^. lOld. an ounce, 
 the present Mint price, in two years from the present 
 time; for whether they are to pay them in Bullion of 
 pay them in Coin (sioce Coin and Bullion are of the 
 same standard purity), is of no consequence whatever; 
 and the world are not to be deceived by distinctions 
 without a difl'erence. 
 
 I pay little value to the machinery by which this mea- 
 sure is to be effected, or to the graduated scale of de- 
 scending prices with which it is to be Jiccompanied. 
 
 The real and sole proposition brought forward, what- 
 ever be the colour by which it is varnished, whatever 
 the mask by which it is disguised, is this, and this 
 only : — That the Bank shall be obliged and forced to 
 pay its Notes at mint price nominally, at market price 
 rca/ly, on the (irst of May, 1821. 
 
 The decision on this point is to be final, not con- 
 tingent ui)on circumstances, not limited by regard to 
 the distress of our trade and manufactures, or the decay 
 of revenue, — not susceptible of variation, not liable to 
 
 b revision ;
 
 ( 12 ) 
 
 revision ; — it is to be considered, if carried into a law, 
 as the matured, consummate, and ultimate mandate of 
 Parliament. 
 
 To secure this sole object, the Bank are to be em- 
 ployed in the purchase of Bullion, in order to fill their 
 cofl'ers with treasure; and in the gradual reduction of 
 the circulating medium for the purpose of raising its 
 value to the market price of Gold. 
 
 Here then is a systeu) of coercion and force, in order 
 to bring Bullion to the Bank, and raise the value of 
 Bank Notes : now I beg leave to submit a question, 
 whether on the supposition, that by contracting the 
 circulating medium, and by forced purchases of Bullion, 
 Bank Notes can be raised to the exchange-price of 
 Gold, and Gold Bullion be collected to a great amount 
 in the Bank: — whether on this supposition, it will b« 
 necessary, in order to preserve that high value in Bank 
 Notes, and to keep the Bullion within the kingdom, 
 to continue the system of restricted issues, which shall 
 have produced this result ? 
 
 The ordinary maxim is, cessante causa toUitur ef- 
 fectus. Will the Committee maintain on this subject 
 the contray conclusion, and assert, cessante caus<l 
 manebit effectus ? 
 
 They are driven to this dilemma, either that the 
 system of a contracted circulation, which they enjoin, 
 is to be continued for ever ; or that Gold, when brought 
 into the country by forced measures and forced pur- 
 chases, against the natural tendency of the market 
 price, will, after all coercive measures shall have been 
 withdrawn, still continue in the home market, no|r 
 withstanding its natural tendency to the contrary ? 
 But whoever should venture on such an assertion 
 must be equal 13^ ready to argue, that if you force up 
 water from a low to a high level, you may then se- 
 curely
 
 ( 13 ) 
 
 curely draw up the sluices wliicli separate them i 
 because the water, when once separated by force into 
 the high level, will lose its descending propensities, 
 and fix itself by a new nature in the high level to 
 which it is forced. 
 
 If then, what the Committee may etfect bj'^ force can 
 only be maintained by force, let the public reflect that 
 the measure they are about to take is perpetual : if it is 
 not perpetual, it is utterly senseless. For if gold will 
 return hither by natural causes, and will )emain here by 
 natural causes, in the ordinary course of things, and 
 under ordinary precautions, what can be so aljsurd as to 
 force that result by a coercive system, which the natural 
 course of things will gradually effectuate of itself : — And 
 if they believe that gold will not return, but by a forced 
 operation, what can be so absurd as to expect that an 
 article, which has a peculiar tendency to find its general 
 level, will not return to that level, as soon as the ma- 
 chinery which shall elevate its price is taken away. 
 
 I leave the Committee upon the horns of this di- 
 lemma, and shall be happy in seeing, by what ingenuity 
 they can extricate themselves. 
 
 It is curious to observe the Committee's detail of the 
 various circumstances that have caused the exportation 
 of gold; — foreign loans; small importation from the 
 mines; great purchases of coj[n, &c. &c. which is fol- 
 lowed by an expression of their hopes that, when these 
 impediments have ceased, the price of gold will dimi- 
 nish. Why then do not the Committee recommend the 
 suspension of any forced measure, and enjoin the nation 
 to wait in patience till prices come round to their ordi- 
 nary level of themselves, as they exjiect to be the case ? 
 
 It is also very amusing to remark their anxiety to bring 
 into notice the total indiil'erence which was s'lewn bj 
 
 b 2
 
 ( 14 ) 
 
 the people for a gold currency, when the new Sove- 
 reigns were brought into the market. If the people are 
 so totally indifferent to a gold medium, if they would 
 prefer, as they seem to do from conviction of its superior 
 convenience, a Paper circulation, I cannot see the wis- 
 dom of that policy, which would force the re-introduc- 
 tion of a currency for which the people do not care, at 
 the risk of distressuig the commerce, diminishing the 
 revenue, and producing a general diminution of employ- 
 ment and production ? 
 
 But when the Committee thus state, that during the 
 influx of the Sovereigns in the market, the people 
 shewed a decided preference for Bank Notes ; they 
 seem most incautiously to forget that they admit 
 and establish by this fact, that Bank Notes are not 
 depreciated at all, that they are of the same estimation 
 and value now at which they always were, and are 
 equivalent in currency to Sovereigns at mint price : 
 let the public take notice, that those members of the 
 Committee of 1710, who asserted so boldly without 
 proof the depreciation of Bank Notes, have now 
 established by demonstration, that there is not and 
 never has been any depreciation at all, and that on 
 the contrary. Bank Notes are now preferred to Gold 
 Coin. And what is still more ridiculous, it is, we see 
 one of the objects of the Report, to jay down this 
 preference of Bank Notes to Coin, in order to support 
 their plan for a Bullion Bank. 
 
 Quid non mortalia pectora cogis auri sacra fames ? In 
 order to force back a Gold circulation, the Committee 
 apply, for the support o4^ their argument, to the superior 
 estimation of the paper currency in the public mind. 
 
 Having stated a leading, unanswerable and irremove- 
 able objection to the plan of the Committee, on account 
 
 of
 
 ( 1-5 ) 
 
 of its beiug founded upon and admiiristered by a system 
 oi force, I shall submit some other objections of not less 
 cogency. 
 
 It is an unprecedented i?twoi;cfi/o«. It is regulating the 
 currency — not hy a fixed denomination of value given, to 
 legal coin as at present — but by the variable price of 
 gold bullion, which is a mere commodity. It is perpe- 
 tual delusion, perpetual vacillation, under the mask of 
 perpetual identity. Gold may shift in price, as it does 
 from day to day : but the nominal price is, under this in- 
 novation, ever to be the same : because it is to be kept 
 at an uniform price, by varying the amount of currency. 
 If gold rises, currency is to be diminished; if gold falls 
 in price, currency is to be increased. 
 
 The 2nd vice of this system is, that as the price of 
 gold depends less on the circumstances of the home 
 market, than on those of the foreign market, this mea- 
 sure will make the quantity of our currency and the 
 accommodation of our merchants dependant not on their 
 own wants and interests, but on the wants and interests 
 of foreigners. 
 
 The 3rd vice is,— that it limits the currency by the 
 price of one article alone, and not by the wants of the 
 nation, and the amount of its income. 
 
 4th. That by forcing up the value of Bank Notes from 
 representing the Mint price to represent the market 
 price of gold, it alters the whole state of value through- 
 out the empire in all its relations. 
 
 Suppose the market price of gold 5 per cent, higher 
 than the Mint price, which Bank Paper represents, what 
 would be the effect of such a measure? 
 
 1. An addition in value of 40 millions to the capital of 
 the funded debt. 
 
 2. An addition of 1,500,000/. a year to the interest of 
 the debt. 
 
 3. An
 
 ( 1« ) 
 
 ■3. All addition cf 2p00,00()/. a year to the taxes. 
 
 4. A change iu the valueof all contracts to the amount 
 of 5 per cent. 
 
 5. Through the operation of our taxes upon prices, 
 there would be no corresponding change in home prices, 
 nor in the prices of our goods abroad, as their price 
 would Ix; measured, as now, by the prices of Gold Bul- 
 lion alone. 
 
 I suppose it will be contended that this allegation, 
 Yiz. that the intended Plan will be a fundamental and 
 unprecedented Innovation, is an injurious defamation of 
 the project. But I hope the Committee will allow it to 
 be their own defamation, not mine? It is the Coni- 
 mittee that have proved that Bank Notes have never 
 been depreciated. It is the Committee that have proved 
 that they are preferred to legal coinage. If then they 
 admit that Bank Notes do now actually represent our 
 legal coin, what do they mean by plans for lessening 
 their amount in order to increase their value, unless it 
 is to render them at all times equal to gold at market 
 price? which, in other words, is to change the standard 
 of value from Mint price to market price. Let us here 
 be careful: latet anguis in herba. It is intended, by 
 contraction of the amount of currency, to preserve the 
 Mint price denominations of value, hut by limitation of the 
 quantity of currency, to make those denominations repre^ 
 sent higher valves than before. Thus, 3/. l?.^. 10|f/. is to 
 he made equal to 4/. in value, or 41. Is, in value, and to 
 be called 3/. l?^. 10|(/. still. The value of our currency- 
 is to be raised, and because the same denominations are 
 to be preserved, the rise of value is not to be felt, but 
 to be concealed — not purposely, not industriously in- 
 deed, for that would argue in the Committee a preme- 
 ditated design to deceive the public, of which they are 
 utterly incapable. When I at first considered this sub- 
 ject*
 
 ( 17 ) 
 
 ject, it struck me that the stratagem of raising the value 
 of a currency, without altering its relative denominationSy 
 was an act of necessary delusion ; and to avoid this de- 
 lusion, I proposed that Mint price and Market price 
 should he always kept separate in our minds and in our 
 measures, and that as our currency was now actually 
 equivalent to gold at Mint price, it should be always 
 liable to be paid on demand at the Bank in such 
 quantity of Bullion estimated at the market price, as 
 would be equal to the nominal value of the Bank Note 
 estimated at Mint price. By this mode no delusion 
 could be ever imposed on the public, who wouHd always 
 be aware of the difference ; but by the scheme pro> 
 posed, there can be nothing but delusion. 
 
 It is, I suppose, from this and other circumstances, 
 that no country ever founded its coin or currency upon 
 the market price of gold — but all nations have regulated 
 their currency by a fixt price or rate of value attached 
 to the coin, as has been the invariable practice of our 
 ancestors. The Plan of the Committee is an unprece- 
 dented innovation ; for by it, though the market price 
 of gold may be always called by the Mint price denomif 
 nations, the value of our cusrency being hereafter to be 
 denoted by its quantity alone, it will be in a state of per- 
 petual fluctuation, in order to preserve the delusion of 
 market price. 
 
 If this new plan be framed upon true scientific prin- 
 ciples, it must act uniformly well under all circum- 
 stances, and the phenomena, in all circumstances, will 
 agree to the theory. 
 
 I find then from 1792 to 1797, Cold was at Mint 
 price, but Bank Notes varied from about 8 millions to 
 13 millions. Here then Gold admitted a variation of 
 6 millions in Bank Notes, without being affected in 
 price at all. 
 
 I find
 
 ( 18 ) 
 
 I find Gold. in 180S and 1S09 was at 5/. 5^. an ounce, 
 and Bank Notes anuninted to IG or 17 millions. 
 ■ I then find I'hat in 1S17 viud 1818, Gold was at 
 3/. lS>f. (Jd. and 3/. ly.v. an ounce, and that the amount 
 of Bank Notes was about 27 niiilions; and the Com- 
 mittee state, that unless the Bank had acted inju- 
 diciously, the price of Gold would have been at 
 Mint price. 
 
 Here then we find that Gold may be at Mint price, 
 when only S millions of Notes are in the market; and 
 may be also at Mint price when there are 27 millions 
 of Notes in the market; and also that Gold may be at 
 5l. 5s. an ounce, when there are 17 millions of Notes 
 in the market. 
 
 Thus, either 8 millions or 27 millions of Notes equally 
 produce 3/. 17^. 10|rf. an ounce ; and 17 millions of 
 Bank Notes produce 5/. 5s. an ounce. Is it upon these 
 phenomena that the new theory has been constituted ^ 
 that the policy not only of our ancestors, but of all 
 civilized states is to be rejected ? and are we to be 
 placed under a novel system, which is to be followed 
 by perpetual fluctuations, without any sensible criterion 
 for forming those fluctuations, or any possible scale 
 for adjusting them ? Merely because some ingenious 
 oentlemen insist, that Gold is Gold, and that Gold is 
 the universal equivalent, we are to embrace this new 
 theory in defiance of a set of phenomena which covers 
 it with contradiction and ridicule. We are, it seems, 
 to fix the market price of Gold, and to calculate from 
 day to day the value of the currency by the amount of 
 its quantity; which I consider just as ingenious an 
 expedient as an invention for ascertaining the variations 
 of the wind by fixing the weathercock. 
 
 If I have shewn a few of the objections to what the 
 Committee have done, I may now proceed to observe on 
 what they have not done.
 
 ( 19 ) 
 
 In the first place, they have not adverted to those 
 bold and unproved assertions vt^ith which the tovirn has 
 been pestered, " that our Currevcy is depreciated, and 
 ** depreciated by excess of Issues" The Committee blinks 
 the subject, though it refutes those rash assertions by a 
 side-wiud proof. The amount of currency is now 2p 
 millions: previous to the Restriction Act the Committee 
 state it at 40 millions. Upon reference, therefore, to 
 the comparative income of the country at the two pe- 
 riods, our currency has experienced at least a diminu- 
 tion of one half in amount. The Committee also having 
 stated, that while Soxjereigns were in the market. Bank 
 Notes were esteemed before them, (most inconsistently 
 indeed with their views) establish the fact, as I have 
 already observed, of the non-depreciation of Bank Notes. 
 
 One cannot but smile to find several members of the 
 Committee of 1810, so incidentally and glidingly ad- 
 mitting the contradiction of those facts, which they had 
 assumed as the foundation of all their doctrines. Whilst 
 they issue new editions of their publications upon these 
 points, it is very candid in them to subscribe their 
 names to the refutation of the facts which their publica- 
 tions take for granted. 
 
 Nothing, however, can be more ingenious than the 
 crane-neck turns of the Bullionists. Being forced to 
 give up the arguments resulting from alledged deprecia- 
 tion and excess of currency, they now insist that no- 
 thing is so wholesome, so beneficial, as a small amount, 
 of medium, and they refer, with great complacency, to 
 the excessive small amount of our currency as well 
 during the great levies of the war as at present ; from 
 whence they infer, that a further small diminution of it, 
 in order to insure the return of gold, cannot possibly be 
 injurious; and this is the main and palmary argument 
 on which they noiv rely. Thus, first they build an ar- 
 
 c gument
 
 ( 90 ) 
 
 gument against our currency, because it is excessively 
 great, and now they erect another against it, because it 
 is excessively small. 
 
 Neither do I find that the Committee dwell very par- 
 ticularly upon the cause of the rise of prices, which I 
 attributed to taxation. In theory, prices will rise or 
 fall in the ratio of the amount of currency: as then our 
 currency has been diininished one half, the prices of all 
 articles ought, accord ng to theory, to have lowered 
 one half; on the contrary they are doubled: to account 
 for this contradiction to the laws of theory in a quad- 
 rupled proportion, I can find no adequate or efficient 
 cause but increased Taxation. And if some persons 
 doubt of the vast effect of taxation upon prices, I will 
 illustrate my position that taxes generally increase 
 prices in a double ratio to the tax, by adducing the 
 common article of salt. 
 
 When I was at Nantwich about twenty years ago, the 
 price of salt at the pan was about 3|f/. a bushel. The 
 duty upon salt is 155. per bushel. What then should be 
 the price? I asked this morning (the 8th May) at a 
 retail shop in Castle-street, the price of a bushel of 
 salt of SGIbs. and was i«formed it was forty shini?igs / 
 Such is the effect of taxation iipon price, since every 
 one endeavours to shift the tax from himself upon 
 the last consumer. 
 
 Let us suppose it were possible to tax Bullion itself, 
 and to leave other articles untaxed, and that we taxed 
 Bullion three times as high as the Continent: Bullion 
 then would be dearer in England than on the Conti- 
 nent by the amount of the higher taxation, and of course 
 would have a tendency to go to the Continent, where 
 being less taxed, it would be of higher value. What 
 does it signify in general result whether an equal tax 
 raising prices ten per cent, be put upon all articles ge- 
 nerally.
 
 { 91 ) 
 
 nerally, without any tax upon Bullion; or a tax to the 
 same amount be put i;pon Bulhon, taking off all taxes 
 upon all other articles. 
 
 It is known and felt by every man, that when taxes 
 are placed upon a great number of the leading articles of 
 any country, they affect the taxed articles in a partiailar 
 ratio, and all other articles in a general ratio. There is 
 no particular tax on wheat, or oats, or hay, but their 
 prices have been doubled within these last twenty years. 
 Can we think that Bullion alone will escape the general 
 law ? 
 
 It is this effect of taxation upon price which is the 
 insurmountable obstacle to the plan of the Committee. 
 We have reduced circulation in vain already, and 
 prices have doubled upon us: let us reduce circulation 
 more, prices will still increase. And with a diminishing 
 currency, and the same amount in nominal quantity 
 of taxes, they will further increase though production 
 may diminish. If we are deceived by our theories, 
 let us make use of our senses ; they, if we are honest 
 and docile, will never deceive us: but if we are deter- 
 mined to kick against the pricksy sooner than abandon 
 false theories, I can only deprecal*^ for alas ! I cannot 
 prevent the consequences. 
 
 Little as the Committee have noticed the effect of 
 this measure upon prices, as little have they adverted 
 to the effect of their measure upon taxes. Must they 
 not admit that if their scheme shall at any time raise 
 the value of our currency 5 per tent, it will raise the 
 value of our taxes 5 per cent,; and that such an ele- 
 vation of price will operate as an addition of 2,500,000/. 
 to the real pressure, though not to the nominal 
 amount of the taxes ? Do they not know that the 
 landed proprietors, being the last eonsttmers^ feel all 
 
 c 2 taxes
 
 ( 22 ) 
 
 taxes in a double ratio to the active and acquiring classes 
 of mankind ; and that raising the value of taxes gene- 
 rally 3 per cent, will raise the value of the taxes paid 
 by the landed gentry 10 per cent. ? And is it not an 
 object worth noticing, is it an object to be passed over 
 in silence, that if their measure should increase the 
 value of currenc}' by its scarcity 5 per cent, that the 
 landed gentry will experience a rise in the pressure 
 of taxes of 10 per cent, although no persons but the 
 Government and the fund-holders will receive any 
 benefit by this novel mode of imposing taxes by dimi- 
 nution of currency ; with great general pressure, and 
 no public benefit. 
 
 There are some allusions in the Report to the effect of 
 a reduction of currency upon manufactures and com- 
 merce; but any injury, which may result from such an 
 operation, they confine to rapid and immediate reduc- 
 tion, not to a reduction gradual and progressive. This 
 method of reasoning is diametrically opposite to the 
 doctrines of all writers on the subject of currency. They 
 argue, that provided the currency of a country becomes 
 steady and stationary, the amount will be of trifling con- 
 sequence, as all transiiitions will silently be adjusted to 
 it: but that during the variations of a currency and its 
 transactions from one state to another, all bargains and 
 transfers will be in a state of unceriainty and confusion, 
 and the greatest distress must be apprehended. Now I 
 should be desirous of being informed by the Committee, 
 upon what principles any sensible merchant would invest 
 his capital in any transaction which requires a long pe- 
 riod for its ultimate winding up and completion, if the 
 Parliament shall enact that for a particular object the 
 money market shall be placed in a gradual state of con- 
 traction for several years, and that the difficulties of 
 
 procuring
 
 ( 23 ) 
 
 procuring acconimodatioiY are to be greater in proportion 
 as the termination of his adventure approaches, when 
 his want of accommodation will be always the greatest. 
 
 In this gene!.:l theory, that the amount of a cur- 
 rency is not so great a consequence as its steadiness, I 
 am ready to acquiese, as true within certain limits, and 
 in states wljose policy is severe and parsimonious; but 
 in our particular situation, I consider it as totally false. 
 For as we are under the necessity of raising 30 inillions 
 of taxes to preserve us from being retrograde, and re- 
 quire 10 millions more to place us in a true position 
 for meeting all our difficulties ; an extensive circulation 
 is essential to all our financial facilities, if not to our 
 political existence. I assert, without the slightest dan- 
 ger of contradiction from any man who seriously con- 
 siders our burthens and the means of relieving them, 
 that, upon every principle of true policy, our currency 
 ought to be extended as far as it possibly can be ex- 
 tended without real depreciation. We have a capital 
 of 800 millions of debt to encounter : a revenue of 50 
 millions to raise. Are we to facilitate or to obstruct 
 the means of reducing or alleviating the pressure of 
 such burthens? — Can that measure then be wise and 
 politic in our situation, which, however plausible, 
 though disputable in theory, would to a country over- 
 loaded with debt and taxes be uselessly oppressive and 
 ruinous ? 
 
 As to the effects then of the measure in narrowing the 
 money market, by annihilating a considerable portion 
 of currency, they are too obvious and too disastrous to 
 enlarge upon. If money is power, if production is the 
 natural consequence of money ; if wealth and revenue 
 are the natural consequences of production ; if without 
 money and production the poor can neither be employed 
 nor maintained, nor revenue raised nor taxes levied ; 
 
 those
 
 ( 24 ) 
 
 those who diminish currency with a view to sustain and 
 increase industry, productions, revenue and prosperity, 
 will act as absurdly as the husbandman, who to double 
 his crop should diminish by a moiety the quantity of 
 seed. 
 
 Let me attempt a concise statement of the general 
 policy to be pursued as to prices, taxation, production, 
 and prosperitij. I think the argument stands thus : — 
 iJecrease in the amount of a currency lowers general 
 prices, but increases the value of taxes: on the other 
 hand, increase of the value of taxes augments general 
 prices. When therefore currency and taxation are 
 equal in amount, they counteract each other : but 
 decreasing the quantity of currency has a tendency to 
 produce stagnation ; and increasing its quantity tends 
 to lighten taxation and increase production. If then, 
 in a country highly taxed, the reduction of prices is 
 counteracted by taxation, whenever a decrease of the 
 currency is made; and increase of prices is counteracted 
 by the decreased value of taxation whenever an increase 
 of currency is made : and if thus the reduction or in- 
 crease of prices is reciprocally counteracted by the effects 
 of taxation, whether we increase or decrease the cur- 
 rency ; it follows, that a currency ought to be gradually- 
 increasing, because, ceteri paribus, such increase tends 
 to augment industry and prosperity ; and not to be 
 diminished, because diminution tends to produce non- 
 employment and impoverishment. 
 
 It will become the Legislature most seriously to ex- 
 amine the state of the present currency, before it con- 
 curs in any measure for reducing its amount. At present, 
 the national currency (exclusive of private notes, which 
 are not applicable to the payment of taxes) amounts only 
 to Qb millions. Five millions of this sum are always in 
 deposit (to answer the calls of private banks) : and as 
 
 our
 
 { 25 ) 
 
 our revenue is payable quarterly, and amounts to up- 
 -wards of 50 millions, theexjiense of collecting included, 
 1?,500,000/. are allotted quarterly to the payment of taxes, 
 and only 7,500,000/. remain for the other transactions of 
 the kingdom. Tlie Committee now propose to take gra- 
 dually out of circulation 10 millions, by repaying the 
 Exchequer Bills deposited with the Bank. In what a 
 situation then must the country be placed, distressed as 
 it is at present for circulation, unless the amount of the 
 sjums withdrawn from the market by repaying Exche- 
 quer Bills be forthwith replaced, and unless the Bank 
 be permitted to make their purchases of bullion by ad- 
 ditional emission of Bank Notes. 
 
 I recoil from expatiating upon the baleful operation 
 which this great Innovation must have upon the amount 
 of our taxes. They produced last year nearly 50 mil- 
 lions, and they afford a surplus of about 2,500,000/. net 
 for the reduction of debt: — if the circulation be reduced 
 5 per cent, and the same real produce continue, though 
 reduced in nominal amount, there will be no surplus at 
 all, and we must bid adieu to any hope of establishing a 
 real sinking fund for ever. 
 
 The Committee judiciously and wisely forbear to enter 
 into the eftect of the value of currency upon exchanges. 
 The doctrine assumed by the Committee of 1810, that 
 exchanges are altered and governed by currencies, and 
 not by balances of payments, is universally exploded 
 and given up. But there is an observation made by the 
 Committee respecting the very slight variation in ex- 
 changes and the prices of gold, which has taken place 
 in France in consequence of their contributions, which 
 seems really most unexpected and unaccountable, when 
 we consider the ground for the Committee's first Re- 
 port and the second Restriction Act. What was the 
 ground of this measure but a statement, that within the 
 
 last
 
 ( ^ ) 
 
 last year, 7 millions of pur Gold Coin had disappeared^ 
 and that probably the whole was gone to the Paris Mint, 
 as there was satisiaclory proof that a great part had ac- 
 tually done so ? Is it then a matter of surprise that the 
 export of money from France for contributions should 
 not have lowered the exchanges and raised the price of 
 gold, when they were enabled to replace the sums they 
 exported, by the treasures of the Bank of England at 
 Mint price? And surely it was becoming the Commit- 
 tee t0 have noticed this obvious and notorious fact, and 
 not to have converted a circumstance, which is decisive 
 against their measure, into an argument in support of 
 it? What does this fact prove, but that our Gold Coin 
 is at the mercy of the Paris Mint? And if we should 
 now or two years hence, without a total change in our 
 domestic situation, open the doors of our treasure house 
 again, whilst gold is dearer in France in respect to all 
 commodities than in England, in consequence of our 
 quadruple taxation, the same events will take place, and 
 a similar exportation of our Bullion or our Coin will 
 follow. 
 
 Upon the whole what are to be the results of this 
 Innovation .? 
 
 We are to defraud the mercantile body of the greater 
 part of the free currency to which they have almost a 
 right. 
 
 We are to subject the whole commercial concerns of 
 the country to the monopoly of the Bank. 
 
 We are to enjoin the Bank to consider the purchase 
 and the price of gold as their primary object, and the 
 wants of commerce as subordinate. 
 
 We are injuriously to reduce the circulating medium. 
 
 We are to alter the standard of value of the realm to 
 the fluctuating price of a commodity^ and to keep that 
 weathercock fixed by variations in the amount of cur- 
 rency.
 
 ( 27 ) 
 
 ^ »4* •'■- 
 
 Our cunvtK.y is to be always the same nominaii}/, and 
 in reality to be pevpeXuviWy Jiuctuating in value. 
 
 We are to have, it is said, less trade, but of a better 
 quality. 
 
 Less manufacture probably, but I suppose of greater 
 Talue. 
 
 Less currency, but of greater value. 
 But we aie to j)ay the same taxes, but of greater value. 
 We are to pay the saine interest on the debt, but it 
 is to be of greater value. 
 
 And we are to have the same capital of debt, but it 
 is to be of greater value. 
 
 I entertain the highest respect for the Comniittee, and 
 hold in the highest estimation their personal sincerity ; 
 but I think tlie country will universally exclaim, a« 
 soon as they understand the Report, 
 
 Tanti 
 
 Non est, ut placeam tibi, perire. 
 In closing this short Address, I beg the Public to 
 consider, that the main drift of my argument was, first, 
 to f)rov'c that Excess of Issues, which was for many 
 years alledged to be the sole cause of the high price 
 of Gold, was at no time a cause at all; and this alle- 
 gation is now abandoned by the Committee, as utterly 
 unfounded and untenable. Secondly, to shew lliat 
 the cause of the high price of Bullion arises from our 
 augmented taxation, which has increased and doubled 
 the prices pf almost every article uncheapened by 
 machinery — a point which the Committee abstain from 
 discussing. Thirdly, that Gold Bullion, like every 
 other Commodity, has a tendency towards that market 
 where the greatest quantity of commodities can be 
 procured for it — another point which the Committee 
 are pleased to avoid. Fourthly, that as our taxes and 
 currency are equal in amount ; in proportion as the 
 
 d •
 
 { -28 ) 
 
 reduction of curFi^cy tends to lower prices, the con- 
 sequent increased value of taxes tends to raise tliem — 
 another point wliich the Conniiittee do not think 
 worth enquiring into. Fifthly, that if by it forced 
 reduction of currency, we attempt to raise Bank Notes 
 to the market price, such an attempt will probably 
 fail from the counteractinof pressure of our taxes, hovv' 
 great soever may be the internal distress of our trade, 
 liow great soever the diminution of our revenue — 
 another point which the Committee wholly disregard. 
 And lastly, that if by forced measures we bring Gold 
 into the countr}^ and open the door to its exportation, 
 it will immediately quit our market for the French 
 or other markets, where it can conimand a greater 
 quantity of value in commodities — another point which 
 it is deemed wise to pass over in silence. 
 
 These arguments have not been touched upon, either 
 because they are irrefutable or contemptible : — -if con- 
 temptible, let them be exposed artd exploded : if irrefu- 
 table, surely they are too nearly allied, too intimately 
 united with the subject of discussion, not to deserve a 
 consideration of their weight and a fair appreciation of 
 their value* 
 
 If no weight is to be given to these arguments, what 
 weight, I ask, is to be given to the argument of the 
 Committee respectmg the effect of the quantity of our 
 currency upon its value ? 
 
 The whole system is built upon this sole principle, 
 that hy contracting the issue of Bank NoteSy and gwing . 
 complete controul of them to the Bank for that purpose, the 
 Bank will be enabled to raise the value of their Notes to 
 the market price of gold, and by vigilant regard to their 
 quantity in future, to keep them at that price for even 
 Is it not therefore more than extraordinary, that the 
 Committee should terminate their labours with a con- 
 clusion
 
 ( 29 ) 
 
 elusion diametrically opposite to the very principle which 
 they make the basis of their plan ? Let me lay before 
 you their own peroration 
 
 " Y'^oiir Committee have forborne from entering into anxj 
 ** reasoning upon the effects produced upon the value of 
 *' oar currency by the variations in the numerical amounts 
 *' of the Xutes issued by the Bank of England. So many 
 *' circumstances contribute to affect that value, such, for 
 " instance, as the varying state of commercial credit and 
 *' confidence — the fiuctuations in the amount of country 
 ** bank paper — the different degrees of rapidity ivith which 
 ** the same amount of currency circulates at different pe- 
 *' riods — that your Committee are of opinion that no satis- 
 *' factory cunclusiojis can be drawn from a mere reference 
 ** to the numerical amounts of the Bank of England out- 
 ** standing at any given time" 
 
 Thus, after the fullest review, and the most elaborate 
 investigation into the state of outstanding Notes a t 
 different periods, the perpetual fluctuation of their 
 quantity, and the effect of that fluctuation upon value ; 
 and after the most decided declaration, that no satis- 
 factory conclusion can be drawn from any inquiry or 
 comparison ; they make this very numerical fluctuation 
 of Notes the real standard of value, and the sole index 
 of the price of their golden weathercock ; and they 
 boast of be\ng able to fix it by the variations of the 
 numerical quantity of Paper, which numerical quan- 
 tity, at any given period, they are at the same time 
 pleased to assure us, can satisfactorily decide nothing 
 fipon the subject. They lay down premises which 
 they admit to be so contradictory as to prove nothing 
 at all ; and then advise Parliament to erect upon this 
 sandy and shifting foundation, a solid and immutable 
 system. 
 
 THK AurnoH.