ON COMMERCE, A Bullion and Coin, CIRCULATION AND EXCHANGES; WITH A VIEW TO OUR PRESENT CIRCUMSTANCES. BY GEORGE CHALMERS, F.R.S. S.A. THE COMPARATIVE STRENGTH OF GREAT BRITAIN, &c. "I would not wish to have it understood, in the City, that Printed by Luke Hansard & Sons, near Lincoln's-Inn Fields, FOR J. J. STOCKDALE, No. 41, PALL-MALL, 46928 04 ADVERTISEMENT. WHEN I was preparing for the press, a new Edition of my ESTIMATE, eight months ago, my attention was naturally drawn to the analogous topicks of Bullion and Coin, of Circulation and Exchanges, which then occupied the public attention, from the examinations of the Bullion Committee. I also engaged in similar enquiries, in order to satisfy my own judgment on those difficult questions, in our existing circumstances of Trade, at home, and Transactions, abroad. I published my Estimate; and I drew up what I had to say on all those topicks, for future publication, before the Report of that Committee was given in, and, of course, before it was 104746 iv was retailed, in Newspapers, and republished, as a Pamphlet. But, I have not found in it any facts, or seen any arguments, which have induced me, to change the opinions, that I had already formed, from my previous researches, and subsequent reflections. I have thought it necessary, to state the foregoing intimations, in this prefatory Advertisement; to account, for some of the matter, as well as the manner of the considerations, which I now submit to the Publick. OF THE URING the progressive prosperity of Great Britain, in all that constitutes opulence, and power, throughout the effluxion of half a century, the year 1809 was the most prosperous. This truth will, equally, appear, whether we consider our domestic industry, or our foreign trade. In that year of energy, the people of this country engaged in a thousand more enterprizes, within our several Shires, than they had ever done before, in any age of their efforts. There were, in fact, passed a greater number of laws, for local meliorations, than had ever been enacted, in the busiest period. Were we to examine the Parliamentary record, we should find that, in the eight years, which ended with 1809, there was a much greater number of such energizing statutes enacted, than in the eight years preceding; B that |