Part 63 (1/2)

B. FRANKLIN.

TO THE PRINTER OF THE LONDON CHRONICLE[76]

August 18, 1768.

QUERIES, _recommended to the Consideration of those Gentlemen who are for vigorous measures with the Americans._

1. Have the Colonists _refused_ to answer any reasonable requisitions made to their _a.s.semblies_ by the mother country?

2. If they have _not refused_ to grant reasonable aids in the way, which they think consistent with _liberty_, why must they be stripped of their property without their own _consent_, and in a way, which they think _inconsistent_ with liberty?

3. What is it for a people to be _enslaved_ and _tributary_, if this be not, viz. to be _forced_ to give up their property at the arbitrary pleasure of persons, to whose authority they have not _submitted_ themselves, nor _chosen_ for the purpose of imposing taxes upon them?

Wherein consisted the impropriety of King Charles's demanding s.h.i.+p money by his sole authority, but in its being an exercise of power by the King, which the people had not _given_ the King? Have the people of America, as the people of Britain, by sending representatives, _consented_ to a power in the British parliament to tax them?

4. Has not the British parliament, by repealing the stamp act, acknowledged that they judged it _improper_? Is there any difference between the stamp act, and the act obliging the Americans to pay _whatever we please_, for articles which they _cannot do without_, as gla.s.s and paper? Is there any difference as to justice between our treatment of the colonists, and the tyranny of the Carthaginians over their conquered Sardinians, when they obliged them to take all their corn from them, and at whatever price they pleased to set upon it?

5. If that be true, what is commonly said, viz. That the mother country gains _two millions_ a year by the colonies, would it not have been wiser to have gone on quietly in the _happy way_ we were in, till our gains by those rising and flouris.h.i.+ng countries should amount to _three_, _four_ or _five_ millions a year, than by these new fas.h.i.+oned vigorous measures to kill the goose which lays the golden eggs? Would it not have been better policy, instead of _taxing_ our colonists, to have done whatever we could to _enrich_ them; and encourage them to take off our articles of _luxury_, on which we may put our own price, and thus draw them into paying us a _voluntary_ tax; than deluge them in blood, thin their countries, impoverish and distress them, interrupt their commerce, force them on bankruptcy, by which our merchants must be ruined, or tempt them to emigrations, or alliances with our enemies?

6. The late war could not have been _carried on_ without America, nor without Scotland? Have we treated America and Scotland in such a manner as is likely in future wars to encourage their zeal for the common cause? Or is England alone to be the Drawcansir of the world, and to bully not only their enemies, but her _friends_?

7. Are not the subjects of Britain concerned to check a ministry, who, by this rage of heaping taxes on taxes, are only drawing into their own hands more and more wealth and power, while they are hurting the _commercial_ interest of the empire in general, at the same time that, amidst profound _peace_, the national debt and burden on the public continue undiminished?

N. M. C. N. P. C. H.

POSITIONS TO BE EXAMINED, CONCERNING NATIONAL WEALTH

Dated April 4, 1769.

1. All food or subsistence for mankind arises from the earth or waters.

2. Necessaries of life, that are not food, and all other conveniences, have their values estimated by the proportion of food consumed while we are employed in procuring them.

3. A small people, with a large territory, may subsist on the productions of nature, with no other labour than that of gathering the vegetables and catching the animals.

4. A large people, with a small territory, finds these insufficient, and, to subsist, must labour the earth, to make it produce greater quant.i.ties of vegetable food, suitable for the nourishment of men, and of the animals they intend to eat.

5. From this labour arises a _great increase_ of vegetable and animal food, and of materials for clothing, as flax, wool, silk, &c. The superfluity of these is wealth. With this wealth we pay for the labour employed in building our houses, cities, &c., which are therefore only subsistence thus metamorphosed.

6. _Manufactures_ are only _another shape_ into which so much provisions and subsistence are turned, as were equal in value to the manufactures produced. This appears from hence, that the manufacturer does not, in fact, obtain from the employer, for his labour, _more_ than a mere subsistence, including raiment, fuel, and shelter; all which derive their value from the provisions consumed in procuring them.

7. The produce of the earth, thus converted into manufactures, may be more easily carried to distant markets than before such conversion.

8. _Fair commerce_ is, where equal values are exchanged for equal, the expense of transport included. Thus, if it costs A in England as much labour and charge to raise a bushel of wheat, as it costs B in France to produce four gallons of wine, then are four gallons of wine the fair exchange for a bushel of wheat, A and B meeting at half distance with their commodities to make the exchange. The advantage of this fair commerce is, that each party increases the number of his enjoyments, having, instead of wheat alone, or wine alone, the use of both wheat and wine.

9. Where the labour and expense of producing both commodities are known to both parties, bargains will generally be fair and equal. Where they are known to one party only, bargains will often be unequal, knowledge taking its advantage of ignorance.