Franklin’s Contributions to a Pamphlet by George Whatley
Printed in [George Whatley,] Principles of Trade, Fredom and
Protection Are Its Best Suport: Industry, the Only Means
to Render Manufactures Cheap. Of Coins; Exchange; and
Bountys: Particularly the Bounty on Corn. By a Well-Wisher
to His King and Country. With an Appendix. Containing
Reflections on Gold, Silver, and Paper Passing as Mony. The
Second Edition Corrected and Enlarg’d.... (London,
1774). Copies in the library of the American Philosophical Society
and the Library of Congress.
March, 1774
<Trade is the intercourse between nations and individuals;
gain is the end to which all its methods are directed.>
In Transactions of Trade, it is not to be
supos’d, that like Gaming, what one Party gains the other
must necessarily lose. The Gain to each may be equal. If
A had more Corn than he can consume, but wants Catle; and
B has more Catle, but wants Corn; an Exchange is Gain
to each: hereby the comon Stock of Comforts in Life, is
increas’d.
<If restrictive laws were everywhere abandoned, trade would
thrive in those countries where geography, climate, and industrious
inhabitants provided the wherewithal to supply real and ideal
wants.>
When Princes make war by prohibiting Comerce,
each may hurt himself, as much as his Enemy. Traders, who by their
Business are promoting the comon Good of Mankind, as wel as
Farmers, and Fishermen, who labor for the Subsistence of al, shou’d
never be interupted, or molested in their Busines; but enjoy the
Protection of al in the Time of War, as wel as in Time of
Peace.
This Policy, those we are pleas’d to cal
Barbarians, have, in a great Measure, adopted: for the trading
Subjects of any Power, with whom the Emperor of Moroco may be at
War, are not liable to Capture, when within Sight of his Land,
going or coming; and have otherwise fre Liberty to trade and reside
in his Dominions.
As a Maritime Power, we presume it is not
thought right, that Great Britain shou’d grant such Fredom, except
partialy: as in the Case of War with France, when Tobaco is alow’d
to be sent thither under the Sanction of Pasports.
<Real wants are food and drink, clothing, fuel, and
habitation; any wealth beyond what is needed to procure these
essentials is used for ideal wants, or luxuries. The source of wealth
is land and industry, and the state must nourish both.>
Al that live must be subsisted. Subsistence
costs something. He that is industrios produces by his Industry,
something that is an Equivalent, and pays for his Subsistence. He
is therefore no Charge, or Burden, to Society. The Indolent are an
Expence, uncompensated.
There can be no Doubt but al Kinds of
Employment that can be folow’d without Prejudice from Interuptions;
Work that can be taken up, and laid down, often in a Day, without
Damage; such as Spining, Kniting, Weaving, &c. are highly
advantageous to a Comunity: because, in them, may be colected al
the Produce of those Fragments of Time, that ocur in Family
Busines, between the constant and necesary Parts of it, that usualy
ocupy Females; as the Time between rising, and preparing Breakfast;
between Breakfast, and preparing for Diner, &c. &c. The
Amount of al these Fragments, is, in the Course of a Year, very
considerable to a single Family; to a State proportionably. Highly
profitable therefore it is, in this Case also, to folow that divine
Direction, Gather up the Fragments that nothing be lost.
Lost Time is lost Subsistence; it is therefore lost Treasure.
Hereby in several Familys, many Yards of Linen
have been produc’d from the Employment of these Fragments only, in
one Year, tho’ such Familys were just the same in Number as when
not so employ’d.
It was excelent saying of a certain Chinese
Emperor, I wil, if possible, have no Idlenes in my
Dominions; for if there be one Man idle, some other Man must
sufer Cold and Hunger. We take this Emperor’s Meaning to be,
that the Labor due to the Public, by each Individual, not being
perform’d by the Indolent, and necesary to furnish his Subsistence,
must naturaly fal to the share of others, who must thereby
sufer.
<Only a change in the habits of the opulent can decrease the
importation of luxuries; laws and duties are powerless to do so.>
In Fact, the Produce of other Countrys
can hardly be obtain’d, unles by Fraud or Rapine, without giving
the Produce of our Land or our Industry in Exchange
for them. If we have Mines of Gold and Silver, Gold and Silver may
then be cal’d the Produce of our Land. If we have not, we can only
fairly obtain those Metals by giving for them the Produce of our
Land or Industry. When we have them, they are then only that
Produce or Industry in another Shape; which we may give, if the
Trade requires it, and our other Produce wil not suit, in Exchange
for the Produce of some other Country that furnishes what we have
more Ocasion for, or more Desire. When we have, to an inconvenient
Degre, parted with out Gold and Silver, our Industry is stimulated
afresh to procure more; that by its Means we may contrive to
procure the same Advantage.
<The acquisitive instinct drives the rich man to put his
riches to full use; hunger drives the poor man to put his labor to
full use. The wise government must provide sufficient provisions for
man the beast in order to sustain industry.>
The comon People do not work for Pleasure
generaly; but from Necesity. Cheapnes of Provisions makes them more
idle; les Work is then done; it is then more in demand
proportionaly, and of course the Price rises. Dearnes of Provisions
obliges the Manufacturer to work more Days and more Hours: thus
more Work is done than equals the usual Demand; of course it
becomes cheaper, and the Manufacturers in Consequence.
<Keeping bullion and coin at home does not promote the
welfare of a state. Spain now allows the export of silver, which had
previously been exported in spite of the law because it was needed to
pay for imports.>
Cou’d Spain and Portugal have succeded in
executing their foolish Laws for “hedging in the Cuckow,” as
Locke cals it, and have kept at Home al their Gold and Silver;
those Metals wou’d, by this Time, have been of litle more Valu than
so much Lead or Iron. Their Plenty wou’d have lesen’d their Valu.
We see the Foly of these Edicts; but are not our own prohibitory
and restrictive Laws that are profesedly made with Intention to
bring a Balance in our Favor from our Trade with Foreign Nations to
be paid in Mony, and Laws to prevent the Necesity of exporting that
Mony, which, if they cou’d be thoroughly executed, wou’d make Mony
as plenty, and of as litle Valu; I say are not such Laws akin to
those Spanish Edicts; Folys of the same Family?
<Government should consider whether any proposed regulation
of trade promotes the general good, and should seek information not
only from those directly concerned but also from those with
theoretical knowledge.>
Perhaps, in general; it wou’d be beter if
Government medled no farther with Trade, than to protect it, and
let it take its Cours. Most of the Statutes, or Acts, Edicts, Arets
and Placaarts of Parliaments, Princes, and States, for regulating,
directing, or restraining of Trade; have, we think, been either
political Blunders, or Jobbs obtain’d by artful Men, for private
Advantage, under Pretence of public Good. When Colbert asembled
some wise old Merchants of France; and desir’d their Advice and
Opinion, how he cou’d best serve and promote Comerce; their Answer,
after Consultation, was, in three Words only, Laissez
nous faire. Let us alone. It is said, by a very solid Writer
of the same Nation, that he is wel advanc’d in the Science of
Politics, who knows the ful Force of that Maxim Pas trop
gouverner: Not to govern too strictly. Which, perhaps, wou’d be
of more Use when aply’d to Trade, than in any other public Concern.
It were therefore to be wish’d, that Comerce were as fre between al
the Nations of the World, as it is between the several Countys of
England: so wou’d al, by mutual Comunication, obtain more
Enjoyments. Those Countys do not ruin one another by Trade; neither
wou’d the Nations. No Nation was ever ruin’d by Trade; even,
seemingly, the most disadvantageous.
Wherever desirable Superfluitys are imported,
Industry is excited; and thereby Plenty is produc’d. Were only
Necesarys permited to be purchas’d, Men wou’d work no more than was
necessary, for that Purpose.
<France has recently changed its policy to permit internal
free trade in grain and export in French bottoms. Now that other
nations are abandoning destructive restrictions we must look to our
essential interests.>
In Inland high Countrys, remote from the Sea,
and whose Rivers are smal, runing from the Country, not
to it, as is the Case of Switzerland, great Distres may
arise from a Cours of bad Harvests, if public Granarys are not
provided, and kept wel stor’d. Antiently too, before Navigation was
so general; Ships so plenty; and comercial Conections so wel
establish’d; even Maritim Countrys might be ocasionaly distres’d,
by bad Crops. But such is now the Facility of Comunication between
those Countrys, that an unrestrain’d Comerce can scarce ever fail
of procuring a Suficiency for any of them. If indeed any Government
is so imprudent, as to lay its Hands on imported Corn; forbid its
Exportation; or compel its Sale, at limited Prices; there, the
People, may sufer some Famin, from Merchants avoiding their Ports.
But wherever Comerce is known to be always fre, and the Merchant
absolute Master of his Comodity, as in Holand, there wil always be,
a reasonable Suply.
When an Exportation of Corn takes Place,
ocasion’d by a higher Price in some Foreign Country, it is comon to
raise a Clamor, on the Suposition that we shal thereby produce a
domestic Famin. Then folows a Prohibition; founded on the imaginary
Distres of the Poor. The Poor, to be sure, if in Distres, shou’d be
reliev’d; but if the Farmer cou’d have a high Price for his Corn,
from the foreign Demand; must he, by a Prohibition of Exportation,
be compel’d to take a low Price, not of the Poor only, but of every
one that eats Bread, even the richest? The Duty of relieving the
Poor is incumbent on the Rich; but, by this Operation, the whole
Burden of it is laid on the Farmer; who is to relieve the Rich, at
the same Time. Of the Poor, too, those who are maintain’d by the
Parishes, have no Right to claim this Sacrifice of the Farmer: as,
while they have their Alowance, it makes no Diference to them,
whether Bread be cheap, or dear. Those working Poor, who now mind
Busines only five or four Days in the Week, if Bread
shou’d be so dear, as to oblige them to work the whole six,
requir’d by the Comandment, do not seem to be agriev’d, so as to
have a Right to public Redres. There wil, then, remain,
comparativly, only a few Familys in every District; who, from
Sicknes, or a great Number of Children, wil be so distres’d, by a
high Price of Corn, as to need Relief: and these shou’d be taken
Care of, by particular Benefactions, without restraining the
Farmers Profit.
Those who fear, that Exportation may so far
drain the Country of Corn, as to starve ourselves; fear, what never
did, nor ever can, hapen. They may, as wel, when they view the Tide
ebing towards the Sea, fear, that al the Water wil leave the river.
The Price of Corn, like Water, wil find its own Level. The more we
export, the dearer it becomes at Home. The more is receiv’d Abroad,
the cheaper it becomes there, and as soon as these Prices are
equal, the Exportation stops of Cours. As the Seasons vary in
diferent Countrys, and Calamity of a bad Harvest, is never
universal. If then, al Ports were always open, and al Comerce fre;
every Maritim Country wou’d generaly eat Bread at the medium Price,
or Average, of al the diferent Harvests; which wou’d probably be
more equal, than we can make it, by our artificial Regulations; and
therefore, a more steady Encoragement to Agriculture: The Nations
wou’d al have Bread at this middle Price; and that Nation, which at
any Time, inhumanly, refuses to relieve the Distreses of another
Nation, deserves no Comparison, when in Distres itself.
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