that proportion of her estimated exports. The exports of
Great Britain were swelled by the estimate of the minister,
very far beyond the official returns; and those of the United
States are rigidly confined to them; therefore it is highly
probable, that the value of exports. from the two countries,
in relation to the number of people. did not all short on the
part of the U. States. Britain then, with a vastly greater pro-
portion of this stimulating and enriching stock, exported
the same or a less value of commodities, in relation to the
number of people, than the United States. This is only to
be accounted for, by balancing the exclusive advantages she
possesses in fertility of soil, in manufactural perfection, in
machinery and in rich provinces; with a drawback, arising from paper currency Except for some drawback,
these immense advantages, ought to have been accounted
for in the comparison, by an immense superiority of exports
in relation to the numbers of people in the two countries.
As they are lost, it affords the strongest evidence against the
assertion, that paper currency will excite industry, enrich
manufactures or agriculture, or even benefit commerce.
How can it do either, when paper stock draws from the
national labour, more than the whole value of what it exports? How can it fail to be the most oppressive tax gatherer, when it is able to take from a nation more than it sells?
If it is admitted to be a tax when it takes all, does it cease to
be a tax, when it takes a part? The ten hundred millions
of bank and debt stock, has made every soul in England
worth to paper alone, eighty pounds sterling. Adding to
the drafts of paper, those of patronage, civil, military and
religious, the value of each soul to the system of paper and
patronage, is about one hundred and fifty pounds sterling.
The American and West-India slave owners are not task-
masters, if this system, which has made freeborn English-
men of threefold value to itself beyond African slaves, to
their masters, is not a task-master.
This stupendous mass of paper has been raised from a foundation as imaginary, as that of the earth in Indian
