Page:Thoughts on the causes and consequences of the present high price of provisions.djvu/15

[ 7 ] Great Britain; whoever will look into the possessions and expences of individuals, their houses, furniture, tables, equipages, parks, gardens, cloaths, plate, and jewels, will find every where round him sufficient marks to testify to the truth of this proposition. This great increase of private opulence is undoubtedly owing to the very same cause which increased our national debt; that is, to the enormous expences and unparalleled success of the late war; and indeed very much arises from that very debt itself. Every million funded is in fact a new creation of so much wealth to individuals, both of principal and interest; for the principal being easily transferable, operates exactly as so much cash; and the interest, by enabling so many to consume the commodities on which taxes are laid for the payment of it, in a great measure produces annually an income to discharge itself. Of all the enormous sums then expended, little besides the subsidies granted to German princes, was lost to the