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Page 45
B. Ah! now I am beginning to see ... the corn which is allowed to come
in ... a bright idea strikes me ... the contrivance is ingenious, the
means infallible; I am coming to it now.
F. Now, I, in turn, must ask you--to what?
B. Why, to a means of increasing the quantity of cash.
F. How would you set about it, if you please?
B. Is it not evident that if the heap of money is to be constantly
increasing, the first condition is that none must be taken from it?
F. Certainly.
B. And the second, that additions must constantly be made to it?
F.. To be sure.
B. Then the problem will be solved, either negatively or positively,
as the Socialists say, if on the one hand I prevent the foreigner from
taking from it, and on the other I oblige him to add to it.
F. Better and better.
B. And for this there must be two simple laws made, in which cash will
not even be mentioned. By the one, my subjects will be forbidden to buy
anything abroad; and by the other, they will be required to sell a
great deal.
F. A well-advised plan.
B. Is it new? I must take out a patent for the invention.
F. You need do no such thing; you have been forestalled. But you must
take care of one thing.
B. What is that?
F. I have made you an absolute king. I understand that you are going
to prevent your subjects from buying foreign productions. It will be
enough if you prevent them from entering the country. Thirty or forty
thousand custom-house officers will do the business.
B. It would be rather expensive. But what does that signify? The money
they receive will not go out of the country.
F. True; and in this system it is the grand point. But to ensure a
sale abroad, how would you proceed?
B. I should encourage it by prizes, obtained by means of some good
taxes laid upon my people.
F. In this case, the exporters, constrained by competition among
themselves, would lower their prices in proportion, and it would be like
making a present to the foreigner of the prizes or of the taxes.
B. Still, the money would not go out of the country.
F. Of course. That is understood. But if your system is beneficial,
the kings around you will adopt it. They will make similar plans to
yours; they will have their custom-house officers, and reject your
productions; so that with them, as with you, the heap of money may not
be diminished.
B. I shall have an army and force their barriers.
F. They will have an army and force yours.
B. I shall arm vessels, make conquests, acquire colonies, and create
consumers for my people, who will be obliged to eat our corn and drink
our wine.
F. The other kings will do the same. They will dispute your conquests,
your colonies, and your consumers; then on all sides there will be war,
and all will be uproar.
B. I shall raise my taxes, and increase my custom-house officers, my
army, and my navy.
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