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移除书签Chapter Of the Unreasonableness of those Restraints, even upon the
Part I—Of the Unreasonableness of those Restraints, even upon the Principles of the Commercial System.
To lay extraordinary restraints upon the importation of goods of almost
all kinds, from those particular countries with which the balance of trade
is supposed to be disadvantageous, is the second expedient by which the
commercial system proposes to increase the quantity of gold and silver.
Thus, in Great Britain, Silesia lawns may be imported for home
consumption, upon paying certain duties; but French cambrics and lawns are
prohibited to be imported, except into the port of London, there to be
warehoused for exportation. Higher duties are imposed upon the wines of
France than upon those of Portugal, or indeed of any other country. By
what is called the impost 1692, a duty of five and-twenty per cent. of the
rate or value, was laid upon all French goods; while the goods of other
nations were, the greater part of them, subjected to much lighter duties,
seldom exceeding five per cent. The wine, brandy, salt, and vinegar of
France, were indeed excepted; these commodities being subjected to other
heavy duties, either by other laws, or by particular clauses of the same
law. In 1696, a second duty of twenty-five per cent. the first not having
been thought a sufficient discouragement, was imposed upon all French
goods, except brandy; together with a new duty of five-and-twenty pounds
upon the ton of French wine, and another of fifteen pounds upon the ton of
French vinegar. French goods have never been omitted in any of those
general subsidies or duties of five per cent. which have been imposed upon
all, or the greater part, of the goods enumerated in the book of rates. If
we count the one-third and two-third subsidies as making a complete
subsidy between them, there have been five of these general subsidies; so
that, before the commencement of the present war, seventy-five per cent.
may be considered as the lowest duty to which the greater part of the
goods of the growth, produce, or manufacture of France, were liable. But
upon the greater part of goods, those duties are equivalent to a
prohibition. The French, in their turn, have, I believe, treated our goods
and manufactures just as hardly; though I am not so well acquainted with
the particular hardships which they have imposed upon them. Those mutual
restraints have put an end to almost all fair commerce between the two
nations; and smugglers are now the principal importers, either of British
goods into France, or of French goods into Great Britain. The principles
which I have been examining, in the foregoing chapter, took their origin
from private interest and the spirit of monopoly; those which I am going
te examine in this, from national prejudice and animosity. They are,
accordingly, as might well be expected, still more unreasonable. They are
so, even upon the principles of the commercial system.
First, Though it were certain that in the case of a free trade between
France and England, for example, the balance would be in favour of France,
it would by no means follow that such a trade would be disadvantageous to
England, or that the general balance of its whole trade would thereby be
turned more against it. If the wines of France are better and cheaper than
those of Portugal, or its linens than those of Germany, it would be more
advantageous for Great Britain to purchase both the wine and the foreign
linen which it had occasion for of France, than of Portugal and Germany.
Though the value of the annual importations from France would thereby be
greatly augmented, the value of the whole annual importations would be
diminished, in proportion as the French goods of the same quality were
cheaper than those of the other two countries. This would be the case,
even upon the supposition that the whole French goods imported were to be
consumed in Great Britain.
But, Secondly, A great part of them might be re-exported to other
countries, where, being sold with profit, they might bring back a return,
equal in value, perhaps, to the prime cost of the whole French goods
imported. What has frequently been said of the East India trade, might
possibly be true of the French; that though the greater part of East India
goods were bought with gold and silver, the re-exportation of a part of
them to other countries brought back more gold and silver to that which
carried on the trade, than the prime cost of the whole amounted to. One of
the most important branches of the Dutch trade at present, consists in the
carriage of French goods to other European countries. Some part even of
the French wine drank in Great Britain, is clandestinely imported from
Holland and Zealand. If there was either a free trade between France and
England, or if French goods could be imported upon paying only the same
duties as those of other European nations, to be drawn back upon
exportation, England might have some share of a trade which is found so
advantageous to Holland.
Thirdly, and lastly, There is no certain criterion by which we can
determine on which side what is called the balance between any two
countries lies, or which of them exports to the greatest value. National
prejudice and animosity, prompted always by the private interest of
particular traders, are the principles which generally direct our judgment
upon all questions concerning it. There are two criterions, however, which
have frequently been appealed to upon such occasions, the custom-house
books and the course of exchange. The custom-house books, I think, it is
now generally acknowledged, are a very uncertain criterion, on account of
the inaccuracy of the valuation at which the greater part of goods are
rated in them. The course of exchange is, perhaps, almost equally so.
When the exchange between two places, such as London and Paris, is at par,
it is said to be a sign that the debts due from London to Paris are
compensated by those due from Paris to London. On the contrary, when a
premium is paid at London for a bill upon Paris, it is said to be a sign
that the debts due from London to Paris are not compensated by those due
from Paris to London, but that a balance in money must be sent out from
the latter place; for the risk, trouble, and expense, of exporting which,
the premium is both demanded and given. But the ordinary state of debt and
credit between those two cities must necessarily be regulated, it is said,
by the ordinary course of their dealings with one another. When neither of
them imports from from other to a greater amount than it exports to that
other, the debts and credits of each may compensate one another. But when
one of them imports from the other to a greater value than it exports to
that other, the former necessarily becomes indebted to the latter in a
greater sum than the latter becomes indebted to it: the debts and credits
of each do not compensate one another, and money must be sent out from
that place of which the debts overbalance the credits. The ordinary course
of exchange, therefore, being an indication of the ordinary state of debt
and credit between two places, must likewise be an indication of the
ordinary course of their exports and imports, as these necessarily
regulate that state.
But though the ordinary course of exchange shall be allowed to be a
sufficient indication of the ordinary state of debt and credit between any
two places, it would not from thence follow, that the balance of trade was
in favour of that place which had the ordinary state of debt and credit in
its favour. The ordinary state of debt and credit between any two places
is not always entirely regulated by the ordinary course of their dealings
with one another, but is often influenced by that of the dealings of
either with many other places. If it is usual, for example, for the
merchants of England to pay for the goods which they buy of Hamburg,
Dantzic, Riga, etc. by bills upon Holland, the ordinary state of debt and
credit between England and Holland will not be regulated entirely by the
ordinary course of the dealings of those two countries with one another,
but will be influenced by that of the dealings in England with those other
places. England may be obliged to send out every year money to Holland,
though its annual exports to that country may exceed very much the annual
value of its imports from thence, and though what is called the balance of
trade may be very much in favour of England.
In the way, besides, in which the par of exchange has hitherto been
computed, the ordinary course of exchange can afford no sufficient
indication that the ordinary state of debt and credit is in favour of that
country which seems to have, or which is supposed to have, the ordinary
course of exchange in its favour; or, in other words, the real exchange
may be, and in fact often is, so very different from the computed one,
that, from the course of the latter, no certain conclusion can, upon many
occasions, be drawn concerning that of the former.
When for a sum or money paid in England, containing, according to the
standard of the English mint, a certain number of ounces of pure silver,
you receive a bill for a sum of money to be paid in France, containing,
according to the standard of the French mint, an equal number of ounces of
pure silver, exchange is said to be at par between England and France.
When you pay more, you are supposed to give a premium, and exchange is
said to be against England, and in favour of France. When you pay less,
you are supposed to get a premium, and exchange is said to be against
France, and in favour of England.
But, first, We cannot always judge of the value of the current money of
different countries by the standard of their respective mints. In some it
is more, in others it is less worn, clipt, and otherwise degenerated from
that standard. But the value of the current coin of every country,
compared with that of any other country, is in proportion, not to the
quantity of pure silver which it ought to contain, but to that which it
actually does contain. Before the reformation of the silver coin in King
William’s time, exchange between England and Holland, computed in the
usual manner, according to the standard of their respective mints, was
five-and twenty per cent. against England. But the value of the current
coin of England, as we learn from Mr Lowndes, was at that time rather more
than five-and-twenty per cent. below its standard value. The real
exchange, therefore, may even at that time have been in favour of England,
notwithstanding the computed exchange was so much against it; a smaller
number or ounces of pure silver, actually paid in England, may have
purchased a bill for a greater number of ounces of pure silver to be paid
in Holland, and the man who was supposed to give, may in reality have got
the premium. The French coin was, before the late reformation of the
English gold coin, much less wore than the English, and was perhaps two or
three per cent. nearer its standard. If the computed exchange with France,
therefore, was not more than two or three per cent. against England, the
real exchange might have been in its favour. Since the reformation of the
gold coin, the exchange has been constantly in favour of England, and
against France.
Secondly, In some countries the expense of coinage is defrayed by the
government; in others, it is defrayed by the private people, who carry
their bullion to the mint, and the government even derives some revenue
from the coinage. In England it is defrayed by the government; and if you
carry a pound weight of standard silver to the mint, you get back
sixty-two shillings, containing a pound weight of the like standard
silver. In France a duty of eight per cent. is deducted for the coinage,
which not only defrays the expense of it, but affords a small revenue to
the government. In England, as the coinage costs nothing, the current coin
can never be much more valuable than the quantity of bullion which it
actually contains. In France, the workmanship, as you pay for it, adds to
the value, in the same manner as to that of wrought plate. A sum of French
money, therefore, containing an equal weight of pure silver, is more
valuable than a sum of English money containing an equal weight of pure
silver, and must require more bullion, or other commodities, to purchase
it. Though the current coin of the two countries, therefore, were equally
near the standards of their respective mints, a sum of English money could
not well purchase a sum of French money containing an equal number of
ounces of pure silver, nor, consequently, a bill upon France for such a
sum. If, for such a bill, no more additional money was paid than what was
sufficient to compensate the expense of the French coinage, the real
exchange might be at par between the two countries; their debts and
credits might mutually compensate one another, while the computed exchange
was considerably in favour of France. If less than this was paid, the real
exchange might be in favour of England, while the computed was in favour
of France.
Thirdly, and lastly, In some places, as at Amsterdam, Hamburg, Venice,
etc. foreign bills of exchange are paid in what they call bank money;
while in others, as at London, Lisbon, Antwerp, Leghorn, etc. they are
paid in the common currency of the country. What is called bank money, is
always of more value than the same nominal sum of common currency. A
thousand guilders in the bank of Amsterdam, for example, are of more value
than a thousand guilders of Amsterdam currency. The difference between
them is called the agio of the bank, which at Amsterdam is generally about
five per cent. Supposing the current money of the two countries equally
near to the standard of their respective mints, and that the one pays
foreign bills in this common currency, while the other pays them in bank
money, it is evident that the computed exchange may be in favour of that
which pays in bank money, though the real exchange should be in favour of
that which pays in current money; for the same reason that the computed
exchange may be in favour of that which pays in better money, or in money
nearer to its own standard, though the real exchange should be in favour
of that which pays in worse. The computed exchange, before the late
reformation of the gold coin, was generally against London with Amsterdam,
Hamburg, Venice, and, I believe, with all other places which pay in what
is called bank money. It will by no means follow, however, that the real
exchange was against it. Since the reformation of the gold coin, it has
been in favour of London, even with those places. The computed exchange
has generally been in favour of London with Lisbon, Antwerp, Leghorn, and,
if you except France, I believe with most other parts of Europe that pay
in common currency; and it is not improbable that the real exchange was so
too.
Digression concerning Banks of Deposit, particularly concerning that of
Amsterdam.
The currency of a great state, such as France or England, generally
consists almost entirely of its own coin. Should this currency, therefore,
be at any time worn, clipt, or otherwise degraded below its standard
value, the state, by a reformation of its coin, can effectually
re-establish its currency. But the currency of a small state, such as
Genoa or Hamburg, can seldom consist altogether in its own coin, but must
be made up, in a great measure, of the coins of all the neighbouring
states with which its inhabitants have a continual intercourse. Such a
state, therefore, by reforming its coin, will not always be able to reform
its currency. If foreign bills of exchange are paid in this currency, the
uncertain value of any sum, of what is in its own nature so uncertain,
must render the exchange always very much against such a state, its
currency being in all foreign states necessarily valued even below what it
is worth.
In order to remedy the inconvenience to which this disadvantageous
exchange must have subjected their merchants, such small states, when they
began to attend to the interest of trade, have frequently enacted that
foreign bills of exchange of a certain value should be paid, not in common
currency, but by an order upon, or by a transfer in the books of a certain
bank, established upon the credit, and under the protection of the state,
this bank being always obliged to pay, in good and true money, exactly
according to the standard of the state. The banks of Venice, Genoa,
Amsterdam, Hamburg, and Nuremberg, seem to have been all originally
established with this view, though some of them may have afterwards been
made subservient to other purposes. The money of such banks, being better
than the common currency of the country, necessarily bore an agio, which
was greater or smaller, according as the currency was supposed to be more
or less degraded below the standard of the state. The agio of the bank of
Hamburg, for example, which is said to be commonly about fourteen per
cent. is the supposed difference between the good standard money of the
state, and the clipt, worn, and diminished currency, poured into it from
all the neighbouring states.
Before 1609, the great quantity of clipt and worn foreign coin which the
extensive trade of Amsterdam brought from all parts of Europe, reduced the
value of its currency about nine per cent. below that of good money fresh
from the mint. Such money no sooner appeared, than it was melted down or
carried away, as it always is in such circumstances. The merchants, with
plenty of currency, could not always find a sufficient quantity of good
money to pay their bills of exchange; and the value of those bills, in
spite of several regulations which were made to prevent it, became in a
great measure uncertain.
In order to remedy these inconveniencies, a bank was established in 1609,
under the guarantee of the city. This bank received both foreign coin, and
the light and worn coin of the country, at its real intrinsic value in the
good standard money of the country, deducting only so much as was
necessary for defraying the expense of coinage and the other necessary
expense of management. For the value which remained after this small
deduction was made, it gave a credit in its books. This credit was called
bank money, which, as it represented money exactly according to the
standard of the mint, was always of the same real value, and intrinsically
worth more than current money. It was at the same time enacted, that all
bills drawn upon or negotiated at Amsterdam, of the value of 600 guilders
and upwards, should be paid in bank money, which at once took away all
uncertainty in the value of those bills. Every merchant, in consequence of
this regulation, was obliged to keep an account with the bank, in order to
pay his foreign bills of exchange, which necessarily occasioned a certain
demand for bank money.
Bank money, over and above both its intrinsic superiority to currency, and
the additional value which this demand necessarily gives it, has likewise
some other advantages, It is secure from fire, robbery, and other
accidents; the city of Amsterdam is bound for it; it can be paid away by a
simple transfer, without the trouble of counting, or the risk of
transporting it from one place to another. In consequence of those
different advantages, it seems from the beginning to have borne an agio;
and it is generally believed that all the money originally deposited in
the bank, was allowed to remain there, nobody caring to demand payment of
a debt which he could sell for a premium in the market. By demanding
payment of the bank, the owner of a bank credit would lose this premium.
As a shilling fresh from the mint will buy no more goods in the market
than one of our common worn shillings, so the good and true money which
might be brought from the coffers of the bank into those of a private
person, being mixed and confounded with the common currency of the
country, would be of no more value than that currency, from which it could
no longer be readily distinguished. While it remained in the coffers of
the bank, its superiority was known and ascertained. When it had come into
those of a private person, its superiority could not well be ascertained
without more trouble than perhaps the difference was worth. By being
brought from the coffers of the bank, besides, it lost all the other
advantages of bank money; its security, its easy and safe transferability,
its use in paying foreign bills of exchange. Over and above all this, it
could not be brought from those coffers, as will appear by and by, without
previously paying for the keeping.
Those deposits of coin, or those deposits which the bank was bound to
restore in coin, constituted the original capital of the bank, or the
whole value of what was represented by what is called bank money. At
present they are supposed to constitute but a very small part of it. In
order to facilitate the trade in bullion, the bank has been for these many
years in the practice of giving credit in its books, upon deposits of gold
and silver bullion. This credit is generally about five per cent. below
the mint price of such bullion. The bank grants at the same time what is
called a recipice or receipt, entitling the person who makes the deposit,
or the bearer, to take out the bullion again at any time within six
months, upon transferring to the bank a quantity of bank money equal to
that for which credit had been given in its books when the deposit was
made, and upon paying one-fourth per cent. for the keeping, if the deposit
was in silver; and one-half per cent. if it was in gold; but at the same
time declaring, that in default of such payment, and upon the expiration
of this term, the deposit should belong to the bank, at the price at which
it had been received, or for which credit had been given in the transfer
books. What is thus paid for the keeping of the deposit may be considered
as a sort of warehouse rent; and why this warehouse rent should be so much
dearer for gold than for silver, several different reasons have been
assigned. The fineness of gold, it has been said, is more difficult to be
ascertained than that of silver. Frauds are more easily practised, and
occasion a greater loss in the most precious metal. Silver, besides, being
the standard metal, the state, it has been said, wishes to encourage more
the making of deposits of silver than those of gold.
Deposits of bullion are most commonly made when the price is somewhat
lower than ordinary, and they are taken out again when it happens to rise.
In Holland the market price of bullion is generally above the mint price,
for the same reason that it was so in England before the late reformation
of the gold coin. The difference is said to be commonly from about six to
sixteen stivers upon the mark, or eight ounces of silver, of eleven parts
of fine and one part alloy. The bank price, or the credit which the bank
gives for the deposits of such silver (when made in foreign coin, of which
the fineness is well known and ascertained, such as Mexico dollars), is
twenty-two guilders the mark: the mint price is about twenty-three
guilders, and the market price is from twenty-three guilders six, to
twenty-three guilders sixteen stivers, or from two to three per cent.
above the mint price.
The following are the prices at which the bank of Amsterdam at present
{September 1775} receives bullion and coin of different kinds:
SILVER
Mexico dollars ................. 22 Guilders / mark
French crowns .................. 22
English silver coin............. 22
Mexico dollars, new coin........ 21 10
Ducatoons....................... 3 0
Rix-dollars..................... 2 8
Bar silver, containing 11-12ths fine silver, 21 Guilders / mark, and in
this proportion down to 1-4th fine, on which 5 guilders are given. Fine
bars,................. 28 Guilders / mark.
GOLD
Portugal coin................. 310 Guilders / mark
Guineas....................... 310
Louis d’ors, new.............. 310
Ditto old.............. 300
New ducats.................... 4 19 8 per ducat
Bar or ingot gold is received in proportion to its fineness, compared with
the above foreign gold coin. Upon fine bars the bank gives 340 per mark.
In general, however, something more is given upon coin of a known
fineness, than upon gold and silver bars, of which the fineness cannot be
ascertained but by a process of melting and assaying.
The proportions between the bank price, the mint price, and the market
price of gold bullion, are nearly the same. A person can generally sell
his receipt for the difference between the mint price of bullion and the
market price. A receipt for bullion is almost always worth something, and
it very seldom happens, therefore, that anybody suffers his receipts to
expire, or allows his bullion to fall to the bank at the price at which it
had been received, either by not taking it out before the end of the six
months, or by neglecting to pay one fourth or one half per cent. in order
to obtain a new receipt for another six months. This, however, though it
happens seldom, is said to happen sometimes, and more frequently with
regard to gold than with regard to silver, on account of the higher
warehouse rent which is paid for the keeping of the more precious metal.
The person who, by making a deposit of bullion, obtains both a bank credit
and a receipt, pays his bills of exchange as they become due, with his
bank credit; and either sells or keeps his receipt, according as he judges
that the price of bullion is likely to rise or to fall. The receipt and
the bank credit seldom keep long together, and there is no occasion that
they should. The person who has a receipt, and who wants to take out
bullion, finds always plenty of bank credits, or bank money, to buy at the
ordinary price, and the person who has bank money, and wants to take out
bullion, finds receipts always in equal abundance.
The owners of bank credits, and the holders of receipts, constitute two
different sorts of creditors against the bank. The holder of a receipt
cannot draw out the bullion for which it is granted, without re-assigning
to the bank a sum of bank money equal to the price at which the bullion
had been received. If he has no bank money of his own, he must purchase it
of those who have it. The owner of bank money cannot draw out bullion,
without producing to the bank receipts for the quantity which he wants. If
he has none of his own, he must buy them of those who have them. The
holder of a receipt, when he purchases bank money, purchases the power of
taking out a quantity of bullion, of which the mint price is five per
cent. above the bank price. The agio of five per cent. therefore, which he
commonly pays for it, is paid, not for an imaginary, but for a real value.
The owner of bank money, when he purchases a receipt, purchases the power
of taking out a quantity of bullion, of which the market price is commonly
from two to three per cent. above the mint price. The price which he pays
for it, therefore, is paid likewise for a real value. The price of the
receipt, and the price of the bank money, compound or make up between them
the full value or price of the bullion.
Upon deposits of the coin current in the country, the bank grant receipts
likewise, as well as bank credits; but those receipts are frequently of no
value and will bring no price in the market. Upon ducatoons, for example,
which in the currency pass for three guilders three stivers each, the bank
gives a credit of three guilders only, or five per cent. below their
current value. It grants a receipt likewise, entitling the bearer to take
out the number of ducatoons deposited at any time within six months, upon
paying one fourth per cent. for the keeping. This receipt will frequently
bring no price in the market. Three guilders, bank money, generally sell
in the market for three guilders three stivers, the full value of the
ducatoons, if they were taken out of the bank; and before they can be
taken out, one-fourth per cent. must be paid for the keeping, which would
be mere loss to the holder of the receipt. If the agio of the bank,
however, should at any time fall to three per cent. such receipts might
bring some price in the market, and might sell for one and three-fourths
per cent. But the agio of the bank being now generally about five per
cent. such receipts are frequently allowed to expire, or, as they express
it, to fall to the bank. The receipts which are given for deposits of gold
ducats fall to it yet more frequently, because a higher warehouse rent, or
one half per cent. must be paid for the keeping of them, before they can
be taken out again. The five per cent. which the bank gains, when deposits
either of coin or bullion are allowed to fall to it, maybe considered as
the warehouse rent for the perpetual keeping of such deposits.
The sum of bank money, for which the receipts are expired, must be very
considerable. It must comprehend the whole original capital of the bank,
which, it is generally supposed, has been allowed to remain there from the
time it was first deposited, nobody caring either to renew his receipt, or
to take out his deposit, as, for the reasons already assigned, neither the
one nor the other could be done without loss. But whatever may be the
amount of this sum, the proportion which it bears to the whole mass of
bank money is supposed to be very small. The bank of Amsterdam has, for
these many years past, been the great warehouse of Europe for bullion, for
which the receipts are very seldom allowed to expire, or, as they express
it, to fall to the bank. The far greater part of the bank money, or of the
credits upon the books of the bank, is supposed to have been created, for
these many years past, by such deposits, which the dealers in bullion are
continually both making and withdrawing.
No demand can be made upon the bank, but by means of a recipice or
receipt. The smaller mass of bank money, for which the receipts are
expired, is mixed and confounded with the much greater mass for which they
are still in force; so that, though there may be a considerable sum of
bank money, for which there are no receipts, there is no specific sum or
portion of it which may not at any time be demanded by one. The bank
cannot be debtor to two persons for the same thing; and the owner of bank
money who has no receipt, cannot demand payment of the bank till he buys
one. In ordinary and quiet times, he can find no difficulty in getting one
to buy at the market price, which generally corresponds with the price at
which he can sell the coin or bullion it entitles him to take out of the
bank.
It might be otherwise during a public calamity; an invasion, for example,
such as that of the French in 1672. The owners of bank money being then
all eager to draw it out of the bank, in order to have it in their own
keeping, the demand for receipts might raise their price to an exorbitant
height. The holders of them might form extravagant expectations, and,
instead of two or three per cent. demand half the bank money for which
credit had been given upon the deposits that the receipts had respectively
been granted for. The enemy, informed of the constitution of the bank,
might even buy them up, in order to prevent the carrying away of the
treasure. In such emergencies, the bank, it is supposed, would break
through its ordinary rule of making payment only to the holders of
receipts. The holders of receipts, who had no bank money, must have
received within two or three per cent. of the value of the deposit for
which their respective receipts had been granted. The bank, therefore, it
is said, would in this case make no scruple of paying, either with money
or bullion, the full value of what the owners of bank money, who could get
no receipts, were credited for in its books; paying, at the same time, two
or three per cent. to such holders of receipts as had no bank money, that
being the whole value which, in this state of things, could justly be
supposed due to them.
Even in ordinary and quiet times, it is the interest of the holders of
receipts to depress the agio, in order either to buy bank money (and
consequently the bullion which their receipts would then enable them to
take out of the bank ) so much cheaper, or to sell their receipts to those
who have bank money, and who want to take out bullion, so much dearer; the
price of a receipt being generally equal to the difference between the
market price of bank money and that of the coin or bullion for which the
receipt had been granted. It is the interest of the owners of bank money,
on the contrary, to raise the agio, in order either to sell their bank
money so much dearer, or to buy a receipt so much cheaper. To prevent the
stock-jobbing tricks which those opposite interests might sometimes
occasion, the bank has of late years come to the resolution, to sell at
all times bank money for currency at five per cent. agio, and to buy it in
again at four per cent. agio. In consequence of this resolution, the agio
can never either rise above five, or sink below four per cent.; and the
proportion between the market price of bank and that of current money is
kept at all times very near the proportion between their intrinsic values.
Before this resolution was taken, the market price of bank money used
sometimes to rise so high as nine per cent. agio, and sometimes to sink so
low as par, according as opposite interests happened to influence the
market.
The bank of Amsterdam professes to lend out no part of what is deposited
with it, but for every guilder for which it gives credit in its books, to
keep in its repositories the value of a guilder either in money or
bullion. That it keeps in its repositories all the money or bullion for
which there are receipts in force for which it is at all times liable to
be called upon, and which in reality is continually going from it, and
returning to it again, cannot well be doubted. But whether it does so
likewise with regard to that part of its capital for which the receipts
are long ago expired, for which, in ordinary and quiet times, it cannot be
called upon, and which, in reality, is very likely to remain with it for
ever, or as long as the states of the United Provinces subsist, may
perhaps appear more uncertain. At Amsterdam, however, no point of faith is
better established than that, for every guilder circulated as bank money,
there is a correspondent guilder in gold or silver to be found in the
treasures of the bank. The city is guarantee that it should be so. The
bank is under the direction of the four reigning burgomasters who are
changed every year. Each new set of burgomasters visits the treasure,
compares it with the books, receives it upon oath, and delivers it over,
with the same awful solemnity to the set which succeeds; and in that sober
and religious country, oaths are not yet disregarded. A rotation of this
kind seems alone a sufficient security against any practices which cannot
be avowed. Amidst all the revolutions which faction has ever occasioned in
the government of Amsterdam, the prevailing party has at no time accused
their predecessors of infidelity in the administration of the bank. No
accusation could have affected more deeply the reputation and fortune of
the disgraced party; and if such an accusation could have been supported,
we may be assured that it would have been brought. In 1672, when the
French king was at Utrecht, the bank of Amsterdam paid so readily, as left
no doubt of the fidelity with which it had observed its engagements. Some
of the pieces which were then brought from its repositories, appeared to
have been scorched with the fire which happened in the town-house soon
after the bank was established. Those pieces, therefore, must have lain
there from that time.
What may be the amount of the treasure in the bank, is a question which
has long employed the speculations of the curious. Nothing but conjecture
can be offered concerning it. It is generally reckoned, that there are
about 2000 people who keep accounts with the bank; and allowing them to
have, one with another, the value of £1500 sterling lying upon their
respective accounts (a very large allowance), the whole quantity of bank
money, and consequently of treasure in the bank, will amount to about
£3,000,000 sterling, or, at eleven guilders the pound sterling, 33,000,000
of guilders; a great sum, and sufficient to carry on a very extensive
circulation, but vastly below the extravagant ideas which some people have
formed of this treasure.
The city of Amsterdam derives a considerable revenue from the bank.
Besides what may be called the warehouse rent above mentioned, each
person, upon first opening an account with the bank, pays a fee of ten
guilders; and for every new account, three guilders three stivers; for
every transfer, two stivers; and if the transfer is for less than 300
guilders, six stivers, in order to discourage the multiplicity of small
transactions. The person who neglects to balance his account twice in the
year, forfeits twenty-five guilders. The person who orders a transfer for
more than is upon his account, is obliged to pay three per cent. for the
sum overdrawn, and his order is set aside into the bargain. The bank is
supposed, too, to make a considerable profit by the sale of the foreign
coin or bullion which sometimes falls to it by the expiring of receipts,
and which is always kept till it can be sold with advantage. It makes a
profit, likewise, by selling bank money at five per cent. agio, and buying
it in at four. These different emoluments amount to a good deal more than
what is necessary for paying the salaries of officers, and defraying the
expense of management. What is paid for the keeping of bullion upon
receipts, is alone supposed to amount to a neat annual revenue of between
150,000 and 200,000 guilders. Public utility, however, and not revenue,
was the original object of this institution. Its object was to relieve the
merchants from the inconvenience of a disadvantageous exchange. The
revenue which has arisen from it was unforeseen, and may be considered as
accidental. But it is now time to return from this long digression, into
which I have been insensibly led, in endeavouring to explain the reasons
why the exchange between the countries which pay in what is called bank
money, and those which pay in common currency, should generally appear to
be in favour of the former, and against the latter. The former pay in a
species of money, of which the intrinsic value is always the same, and
exactly agreeable to the standard of their respective mints; the latter is
a species of money, of which the intrinsic value is continually varying,
and is almost always more or less below that standard.
