Page:Thoughts on the causes and consequences of the present high price of provisions.djvu/29

[ 21 ] sums which she is obliged to borrow; and this by a chain of causes and consequences, which the efforts of no human power or wisdom are able to disunite. New debts require new taxes; and new taxes must increase the price of provisions: new acquisitions of wealth, by decreasing the value of money, still aggravate this evil, and render them still dearer; this dearness of provisions must augment the price of labour; this must advance the price of all manufactures; and this must destroy trade; the destruction of trade must starve the poor, expel the manufactures, and introduce universal bankruptcy, riot, and confusion. Artificers of all kinds will, by degrees, migrate into cheaper countries: the number of clergy, whose education must grow more expensive, and incomes less valuable, will be insufficient for parochial duty: the pay of navies and armies must be augmented, or they will no longer defend a country which cannot maintain them;