Page:Sir William Petty - A Study in English Economic Literature - 1894.djvu/67

68 might be more judicious to raise the value of foreign coins. We gain in the last case foreign specie, in the other foreign commodities.

Copper and tin money made "ad valorem" is not debased. Money to be good need not be exclusively made of gold and silver (76). The number of copper coins ought, however, to be limited to actual necessity of making small change. The tokens used in exchange for retail by particular men are not base, if the credit of those who issue them is good, and if they can be changed for silver.

Finally he takes up the whole question of money exports, and treats it by a new method (Quant.). The laws against export of money are not natural. Countries which abound in money have no such laws. Countries that forbid export are alike destitute of money and merchandise. Besides, as we have already seen, it does not follow that a country is poor because it has little money. We know that private individuals thrive without hoarding. They turn their money into merchandise.

Interest is a "reward for forbearing the use of your own money" for a term of time agreed upon (Quant.). In another place he calls it a compensation for the inconvenience of not having one's money back "until a certain time to come" (34). There is no reason why the laws should prohibit usury. If exchange is allowed, why should interest be restricted? The two are closely related in principle. Exchange is the reward given for the convenience of having money in the place you wish, and interest is the reward for having it for the time you wish (35). The reason for allowing interest lies in the natural order of things, against which civil positive laws are