tinues, "are now employed in the Guinea and American trade, which trade in those days was inconsiderable. The quantity of wines imported was not then near so great as now. And, in short, the customs did not then yield one-third of the present value. The number and splendour of coaches, equipages, and household furniture have much increased since that period. The postage of letters is increased from one to twenty. And his majesty's revenue is now trebled." The exact amount specified in some of these necessarily in part conjectural estimates may not be entitled to absolute confidence; but there can be no question that the general bearing of the facts is correctly given.
But the most comprehensive view of the progress of the commerce and wealth of England during the present period is that given by Dr. Davenant in one of his Discourses on Trade.[1] Davenant, we may premise, has not the clearest notions on some of the fundamental points of political economy; but he has sense to perceive the absurdity of the principles advanced by some writers of his time, whose assertions, indeed, might well have startled the dullest understanding. Mr. Pollexfen, to a publication by whom Davenant particularly addresses himself, had actually maintained gold and silver to be "the only things that deserve the name of treasure, or the riches of a nation;" and to this Davenant answers, very well, "that, in truth, money is at bottom no more than the counters with which men, in their dealings, have been accustomed to reckon;" adding, "When a country begins to thrive by trade, it must not be imagined that the increase and profit is presently converted into coin or bullion; and a great ready cash is not the only sign of a thriving people, but their growing wealthy is to be discerned by other symptoms." Just before, however,
- ↑ Discourse First, "That Foreign Trade is beneficial to England," in the Second Part of "Discourses on the Public Revenues and on Trade," first published in 1698, in answer to Mr. Pollexfen's "England and East India inconsistent in their Manufactures;" in Lord Whitworth's edition of Davenant, vol. i. pp. 346-393.
