Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 10.djvu/289

Rh to a corncutter. But I stopped him short, as I would have done a better man; because it is too gross a practice to pass at any time, and especially in this age, where we all know one another so well. Yet, whoever proposes any scheme, which may prove to be a publick benefit, I shall not quarrel, if it prove likewise very beneficial to himself. It is certain, that, next to the want of silver, our greatest distress in point of coin is the want of small change, which may be some poor relief for the defect of the former, since the crown will not please to take that work upon them here, as they do in England. One thing in Culla's book is certainly right, that no law hinders me from giving a payable note upon leather, wood, copper, brass, iron, or any other material (except gold or silver) as well as upon paper. The question is, whether I can sue him on a copper bond, where there is neither hand nor seal, nor witnesses to prove it. To supply this, he has proposed, that the materials upon which this note is written, shall be in some degree of value equal to the debt. But that is one principal matter to be inquired into. His scheme is this:

He gives you a piece of copper for a halfpenny or penny, stamped with a promissory note to pay you twenty pence for every pound of copper notes, whenever you shall return them. Eight and forty of these halfpenny pieces are to weigh a pound; and he sells you that pound, coined and stamped, for two shillings: by which he clearly gains a little more than 16 per cent, that is to say, two pence in every shilling.

This will certainly arise to a great sum, if he should circulate as large a quantity of his notes as the kingdom, under the great dearth of silver, may very bably