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Front Page arrow Titles (by Subject) arrow CHAP. V.: The East-India Trade is the way to Increase our Bullion. - A Select Collection of Early English Tracts on Commerce from the Originals of Mun, Roberts, North, and Others

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CHAP. V.: The East-India Trade is the way to Increase our Bullion. - John Ramsay McCulloch, A Select Collection of Early English Tracts on Commerce from the Originals of Mun, Roberts, North, and Others [1856]

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A Select Collection of Early English Tracts on Commerce from the Originals of Mun, Roberts, North, and Others, with a Preface and Index (London: Printed for the Political Economy Club, 1856).

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CHAP. V.

The East-India Trade is the way to Increase our Bullion.

BUT if without regard to quantity, Bullion shall be esteem’d more valuable than Manufactures,The East-India Trade the most likely way to import more Bullion. because these are to be consum’d, and that may be preserv’d; it must be affirm’d, That the exchange of Bullion for Indian Manufactures, is the most likely way to procure more, by enabling us to export more Manufactures than were exported for so much Bullion.

For this does not grow in England, ’tis imported from abroad; it is receiv’d in exchange for the Manufactures which are exported; these are exported and Bullion is return’d. Thus, for an Hundred Yards of Cloth carried into Spain, an Hundred Pounds in Money are return’d: so, for Three Hundred Yards of Cloth or equivalent Silks and Callicoes, more Silver is return’d; therefore the more Manufactures shall be exported, more Bullion will be imported. By the exportation of this into India for Manufactures, we have more of these than were carried out to procure this Bullion; we are therefore enabled to export more Manufactures, and consequently to import more Bullion. And thus the exportation of Bullion into India for the Manufactures of that Country, is the most likely way to increase it.

And indeed,And has actually increas’d the Bullion. by whatsoever means the Bullion is increas’d, more Plate is seen in Churches, more in Private Houses, more Goldsmiths, and Men who deal in Bullion, than ever heretofore. Besides, the plenty of Money is greater, more Money is given for Lands, more for Merchandizes, more for all manner of Purchaces. Before the noise of a War with France, the Joint-stocks and Funds were rising every day; the credit of the Government was very much increas’d. Money lyes at less interest, it Trades for less profit, it makes a greater shew than ever; all this is demonstration that Bullion is increas’d. And, what other thing is so likely to be the cause of this, as the East-India Trade? It exchanges the Bullion gain’d by one for more and better Manufactures; it increases our Plenty, it must needs increase our Exportations, it must consequently be the cause of importing more Bullion.