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CHAPTER XII.: CONSTITUTIONAL ADVANTAGES. - Jeremy Bentham, The Works of Jeremy Bentham, vol. 3 [1843]

Edition used:

The Works of Jeremy Bentham, published under the Superintendence of his Executor, John Bowring (Edinburgh: William Tait, 1838-1843). 11 vols. Vol. 3.

Part of: The Works of Jeremy Bentham, 11 vols.

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CHAPTER XII.

CONSTITUTIONAL ADVANTAGES.

Among the effects resulting from the national debt in the early stages of its existence, was the security it afforded to the old established constitution, by engaging the purses and affections of the monied interest in the service and support of the new-established government. That was the great-monied interest. In other points of view, the institution of that debt has found many disapprovers: in this it has found none—among those, at least, by whom the existing constitution is regarded as fit to be preserved. The advantage resulting from the transmutation of that debt into the proposed form would be—the security to the constitution and government now grown into one, arising from its engaging the support of what may be called the little-monied interest by the same powerful tie.

The body politic, not less than the body natural, is subject to its constitutional diseases. Tyranny was the grand disease in prospect then: anarchy now. The danger then was, from a single person in respect of the sentiments of submission pointed to that person, and carried to excess: the danger now is from the great multitude—in respect of the disposition to unruliness which has been, and continues to be propagated with but too much success among the lower orders—among those (let it never be out of mind) of whom is composed the vast majority of the people.

If the name of great-monied interest, employed above for distinction’s sake, be well applied, it is with reference to money, and by reason of the greatness of the shares, but with reference to men, meaning multitude of men—and even with reference to money, if the magnitude of the total be the object of consideration—it is the little-monied interest that should be termed great.

As the disease changes its form, so should the remedy. Stock, in its large doses, served for the disorder of that time: paper, in its small doses, is the specific for the present.*

Admirable are the remedies that have already been applied: admirable, not more for their efficiency than for their gentleness. There remains this one—and perhaps another that might be named—remedies, not less efficient, and still more gentle.

Turning to Ireland, the demand for the remedy will be found the same in kind, but much more urgent in degree: the proportion of petty to great money-holders much greater: the bias to turbulence and anarchy (not to speak of idleness and drunkenness) beyond comparison more prone.

Turn, lastly, to British India:—What a sheet-anchor to British dominion—to the mildest, the most upright, the steadiest of all governments—if by insensible and voluntary steps the population of that remote, most expanded, and most expansive branch of the British empire, should be led to repose the bulk of their fortunes and their hopes on a paper bearing the image and superscription of a British governor! What a reduction in the rate of interest paid there by government!—what a remedy to the risks and embarrassments attendant on the interchange of so many debaseable and incommensurable modifications of metallic currency!—what an augmentation to the general mass of currency, capital, and wealth!

But all these are trifles in comparison with the additional pledge of popular attachment, and the increased assurance of internal peace. From the Zemindar to the Ryot, every Hindoo, every Mussulman, who possessed this money—every individual, in a word, who possessed money—might thus, by his own money, and to a great part of the amount of his own money—might thus, and without impeachment of probity—be converted into a pensioner of the British government. For a premium equal to the interest the paper yields, he would be underwriting—perpetually underwriting his allegiance to the amount of the principal.

[* ]To judge of the steadiment which an engine of this nature is capable of applying to established order, turn to France and see the support it lends to subversion: the affections of the people ebbing fast into the old channel; but the revolution in property operating as a barrier against the return of ancient monarchy, and as a sheet-anchor to the name of a commonwealth.

[]Irish debentures—price and value not less than £100—paper or parchment instruments as much out of the reach of the body of the people as exchequer bills—have to this purpose as little application as so much stock.

[]Though the debt is in loose paper, it is in large paper, and in that respect on a footing with stock. There seems therefore no bar to the introduction of the proposed plan, unless it be from local circumstances, such as without particular investigation and opportunities it lies not in a man’s way to be informed of.

Who can say but that the circulation of this paper might come to extend itself even beyond the sphere of British dominion?—the value of this paper in exchange having been once established and certified by experience.

“Narrainee is a base silver coin struck in Cooch Bahar, of the value of about tenpence, or one-third of a sicca rupee. The commodiousness of this small piece, the profits the people of Bootan derive from their commerce with Cooch Bahar, and some local prejudices against the establishment of a mint, have given the narrainee in these regions, as well as in those where it is struck, a common currency, though both countries are perfectly independent of each other, and totally different in their language and manner.”—Turner’s Thibet, 1800, 4to, p. 143.

The seal or other mark of the East-India Company on their packages (I remember hearing once from authority that appeared unquestionable) is received in China at vast distances from the factories, as satisfactory evidence of the quantities and qualities of the contents, to the value perhaps of some hundreds of pounds. Is it a supposition altogether chimerical, that a similar confidence might be brought in process of time to extend itself to the exchangeable value of a piece of paper, value a few pounds or a few shillings? In Africa, in more places than one, Park (as he tells us) made a paper money out of the Lord’s Prayer. Might not commercial experience give at length a value which was thus given by mere superstition without experience?