815. COMPARISON

OF GREAT BRITAIN AND THE UNITED STATES

IN REGARD TO

THE BASIS OF CREDIT IN THE TWO COUNTRIES1 (L. C.)

In the Affair of Borrowing Money, a Man's Credit depends on some, or all, of the following Particulars.

1. His known Conduct with regard to former Loans, in the Punctuality with which he discharg'd them.

2. His Industry in his Business.

3. His frugality in his Expences.

4. The Solidity of his Funds, his Estate being good, and free of prior Debts, whence his undoubted Ability of paying. 5. His well-founded Prospects of greater future Ability, by the Improvement of his Estate in Value, and by Aids from others.

6. His known Prudence in Managing his general Affairs, and the Advantage they will probably receive from the present Loan he desires.

1 This paper was written in 1777 and was intended to increase the jealousy the Dutch and other moneyed people in Europe began to entertain of the English funds, and thereby to facilitate the loan of £2,000,000 sterling in compliance with the resolution of Congress, December 23, 1776. It was translated into several languages, and was widely circulated. It is here printed from the draft in L. C. Another autograph transcript exists in The University of Pennsylvania. A gentleman in Prague, Mr. Fritz Donebauer, has two Ms. copies of it, one in English, the other a translation by Ingenhousz into French; the latter evidently intended for Maria Theresa. —ED.

7. His known Virtue and honest Character, manifested by his voluntary Discharge of Debts, which he could not otherwise have been oblig'd to pay. The same Circumstances, that give a private Man credit, ought to have, and will have, their Weight with Lenders of Money to publick Bodies or to Nations. If then we consider and compare Britain and America in those several Lights, upon the Question, "To which is it safest to lend Money?" we shall find,

1. With regard to former Loans, that America borrowed Ten Millions Sterling during the last War, for the Maintenance of her Army of 25,000 Men and other Charges, had faithfully discharged and paid that Debt, and all her other Debts, in 1772. Whereas Britain, during those ten years of Peace and profitable Commerce, had made little or no Reduction of her Debt; but on the contrary from time to time diminish'd the Hopes of her Creditors by a wanton Diversion and Misapplication of the Sinking Fund which had been destin'd for the Discharging of it.

2. With Regard to Industry in Business; Every Man in America is employ'd; the greatest Number in cultivating their own Lands, the rest in Handicrafts, Navigation, and Commerce. An idle man there is a rarity; Idleness and Inutility is a character of Disgrace. In England the Quantity of that Character is immense; Fashion has spread it far and wide. Hence the Embarassment of private Fortunes, and the daily Bankruptcies, arising from the universal fondness for Appearance and expensive Pleasures; and hence, in some Degree, the Mismanagement of their publick Business: For Habits of Business, and Ability in it, are acquired only by Practice; and, where universal Dissipation and the perpetual Pursuit of Amusement are the Mode, the Youths

who are educated in it can rarely afterwards acquire that patient Attention and close Application to Affairs, which are so necessary to a statesman charg'd with the Care of national Welfare. Hence their frequent Errors in Policy, and hence the Weariness at Publick Councils, and the Backwardness in going to them, the constant Unwillingness to engage in any Measure that requires Thought and Consideration, and the readiness for postponing every new Proposition; which postponing is therefore the only Part of Business that they come to be expert in, an Expertness produced necessarily by so much daily Practice. Whereas, in America, men bred to close Employment in their private Affairs attend with habitual Ease to those of the publick when engag'd in them, and nothing fails through Negligence.

3. With regard to Frugality in Expences; the Manner of Living in America is in general more simple and less Expensive than in England. Plain Tables, plain Clothing, plain Furniture in Houses, few Carriages of Pleasure. In America an expensive Appearance hurts Credit, and is therefore avoided; in England it is often put on with a View of gaining Credit, and continued to Ruin. In publick Affairs, the Difference is still greater. In England Salaries of Officers and Emoluments of office are Enormous. The King has a Million Sterling per Annum, and yet cannot maintain his Family free of Debt; Secretaries of State, Lords of the Treasury, Admiralty, &c., have vast Appointments; an Auditor of the Exchequer has sixpence in the Pound, or a Fortieth Part, of all the public Money expended by the Nation, so that, when a War costs 40,000,000 there is a Million for him: an Inspector of the Mint, in the last new Coinage, received

as his Fees £65,000 Sterling a Year; to which Rewards no Service these Gentlemen can render the Public is by any means equivalent. This is all paid by the People, who are oppress'd by the Taxes so occasioned, and thereby rendered less able to contribute to the Payment of necessary national Debts. In America, Salaries, where indispensable, are extreamly low; but much of publick Business is done gratis. The Honour of serving the Publick ably and faithfully is deemed sufficient. Public Spirit really exists there, and has great Effects. In England it is universally deemed a NonEntity, and whoever pretends to it is laugh'd at as a fool, or suspected as a Knave. The Committees of Congress, which form the Board of War, the Board of Treasury, the Naval Board, the Committee for Accounts, the Board of Foreign Transactions for procuring Arms, Ammunition, Clothing etc., all attend the Business of their respective Functions without any Salary or Emolument whatever, tho' they spend in it much more of their Time, than any Lord of Treasury or Admiralty in England can afford from his Amusements. A late British Minister computed, that the whole Expence of the Americans in their civil Government, of 3,000,000 People, amounted to but £70,000 sterling per Annum, and drew from thence a Conclusion, that they ought to be taxed, 'till their Expence equalled in proportion to what it cost Britain to govern Eight Millions. He had no idea of a contrary Conclusion, that, if 3,000,000 may be well governed for £70,000, Eight Millions may be as well governed for 3 times that Sum, and therefore the Expence of his own Government should be diminished. In that corrupted Nation, no Man is ashamed of being concern'd in lucrative Government Jobs, in which the public money is Egregiously