I intend to make a more strict Examination of this Reason.
And first for a most clear understanding of the Case,Let us suppose that al the commodities,any way exported out of this Kingdom in one year,be worth one Million of pounds sterling,and that the Commodities imported,be worth but 900,000pound,and that this Proportion,or near thereabouts,be constant;then of necessity,it follows,That an hundred thousand pounds must be brought in in gold and silver,what price soever Money bear.
But if it shall appear that the Low values of our Money doth cause the Kingdom to vent more forrein Commodities than otherwise it would vent;and,that where otherwise it would vent 900,000pound,the Low values of Money cause it to vent a Million or more:then is the force of this argument lost;and it follows,That the low values are the cause why the Materials of Gold and Silver,or less of them than otherwise would do,come not in.
Now when this may come to pass several ways,First,If the value of your Moneys be so low as the Merchant shall lose by bringing you gold and silver,he will rather return you forrein Commodities,though he sell them as cheap as he bought them,and so gain nothing by them,than bring you Gold and Silver by which he shall loose.
As for Example,the Merchant trading into Muscovia,will rather return his Cloth in Furr,or in Silk of Persia,though he sell them as cheap as he bought them there,than in Silver and Gold,by which he shall loose the fourth part.Now the cheapness of forrein Commodities makes the greater quantity of them to be spent,as we see of Calico's,of which few or none were heretofore vented in this Kingdom,the cheapness of them making greater Quantities of them to be spent.
And again,the Lowness of the values of Money may cause a greater Proportion of Forrein Commodities to be consumed,though not in quantity,yet in value.
As for Example,Though the Lowness of the value of Money should not make a greater quantity of Silver to be spent in England,than otherwise would be,yet it would make a greater Proportion in value to be spent,by reason that the Merchant,who in the return of his Commodities brings such a quantity of Silk as he judgeth may be vented here,if he find an over value of his Commodities exported,to those he doth import,he will rather,instead of raw Silks,return Silks by which he shall loose.As if our Gold were as our Silver in prices,by which the Turkey Merchant shall loose as much by bringing Gold from thence,as he should if he brought Silver,is it not manifest,that instead of Gold,which he now brings with his raw Silk,in return of his Commodities,he would carry both Gold and Silk into Italy,and imploy them in manufactured Silks,though he should sell them here almost as cheap as he bought them,rather than return the overvalue in Gold,by which he should loose?And so though the same Proportion in quantity were vented here in Silk,yet a greater Proportion in value would be vented.
At the same time may be said of divers other Commodities:and for confirmation of this,it is to be observed,That from Italy,France and the Low Countries,and the East Indies,in all which places the values of Money are as high or higher than with us,we draw hardly any Commodities but fully manufactured,and they receive none of our Commodities but either not manufactured at all,or,but so much manufactured as the Severity and Penalty of the Laws do otherwise prohibit to be exported:But in Spain where the Moneys are yet of a lower value than with us,it is clean contrary.
And although it may be Objected that this Observation doth not hold in Turkey and Muscovie,though in Turky the Silver,and in Muscovie both Gold and Silver be much higher valued than here in England;To that it may be answered,That these barbarous Countries receive our Manufactures by Necessity,because they afford none of their own.
