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to pay, at the opening of his system, at Mint price, but at the rate of 4 l. 1 s. an ounce; and that this rate is to be reduced gradually to 3 l. 17 s. 10½ d. If Mr. Ricardo states the truth, a few questions are to be asked before any possible judgment can be made on his scheme.—
And the main question before which all others sink and vanish in importance, is this.—Is the circulation of the country to be left free; is the quantity of it to be accommodated to the full wants and demands of the community upon mere reference to those demands? Or is it to be gradually diminished, in order with less open and apparent violence to force the price of Gold down to the Mint price of coin and Bank Notes?
Till it can be known whether force and compulsion, as has been threatened, are actually to be used in the working of Mr. Ricardo's plan, all discussion of it is useless; and if it is to depend for its success, not upon its intrinsic merit, but upon the accessory fulcrum of legislative violence, I fear his plan will be as ultimately ruinous as the assumption of excess of our currency is demonstratively false, and the excess of our taxes is lamentably true.
In stating this, I by no means intend to express any disapprobation of any scheme for supporting the value of our paper circulation, by the Bank making its payments in bullion; provided such a scheme will admit a full and almost redundant circulation, which is essential to the progress of our prosperity. But in a reduced, stinted, and crippled circulation, I can look for nothing but decreased power of production, diminished exertion, abridged employment, increased pressure of taxes, and augmented beggary.
I have stated, and repeat the statement, that the present quantity of Bank Notes in circulation, compared with taxes, is not in the proportion of 1 to 2: whereas
