(Q.)
—— —— —— For frugally They now liv’d on their Salary: Page 17. Line 3.
WHEN People have small comings in, and are honest withal, it is then
that the Generality of them begin to be frugal, and not before. Frugality
in Ethicks is call’d that Virtue from the Principle of which Men
abstain from Superfluities, and despising the operose Contrivances of Art
to procure either Ease or Pleasure, content themselves with the natural
Simplicity of things, and are carefully temperate in the Enjoyment of them
without any Tincture of Covetousness. Frugality thus limited, is perhaps
scarcer than many may imagine; but what is generally understood by it is a
Quality more often to be met with, and consists in a Medium between
Profuseness and Avarice, rather leaning to the latter. As this prudent
Oeconomy, which some People call Saving, is in private
Families the most certain Method to increase an Estate, so
some imagine that whether a Country be barren or fruitful, the same
Method, if generally pursued (which they think practicable) will have the
same Effect upon a whole Nation,1 and that, for Example, the
English might be much richer than they are, if they would be as frugal
as some of their Neighbours. This, I think, is an Error, which to prove I
shall first refer the Reader to what has been said upon this head in
Remark (L.) and then go on thus.
Experience teaches us first, that as People differ in their Views and
Perceptions of Things, so they vary in their Inclinations; one Man is
given to Covetousness, another to Prodigality, and a third is only
Saving. Secondly, that Men are never, or at least very seldom,
reclaimed from their darling Passions, either by Reason or Precept, and
that if any thing ever draws ’em from what they are naturally propense to,
it must be a Change in their Circumstances or their Fortunes. If we
reflect upon these Observations, we shall find that to render the
generality of a Nation lavish, the Product of the Country must be
considerable in proportion to the Inhabitants, and what they are profuse
of cheap; that on the contrary, to make a Nation generally frugal, the
Necessaries of Life must be scarce, and consequently dear; and that
therefore let the best Politician do what he can, the Profuseness or
Frugality of a People in general, must always depend upon, and will in
spite of his Teeth, be ever proportion’d to the Fruitfulness and Product
of the Country, the Number of Inhabitants, and the Taxes they are to bear.
If any body would refute what I have said, let him
only prove from History, that there ever was in any Country a National
Frugality without a National Necessity.
Let us examine then what things are requisite to aggrandize and enrich
a Nation. The first desirable Blessings for any Society of Men are
a fertile Soil and a happy Climate, a mild Government, and more Land than
People. These Things will render Man easy, loving, honest and sincere. In
this Condition they may be as Virtuous as they can, without the least
Injury to the Publick, and consequently as happy as they please
themselves. But they shall have no Arts or Sciences, or be quiet longer
than their Neighbours will let them; they must be poor, ignorant, and
almost wholly destitute of what we call the Comforts of Life, and all the
Cardinal Virtues together won’t so much as procure a tolerable Coat or a
Porridge-Pot among them:
For in this State of slothful Ease and stupid Innocence, as you need not
fear great Vices, so you must not expect any considerable Virtues. Man
never exerts himself but when he is rous’d by his Desires: While they lie
dormant, and there is nothing to raise them, his Excellence and
Abilities will be for ever undiscover’d, and the lumpish Machine, without
the Influence of his Passions, may be justly compar’d to a huge Wind-mill
without a breath of Air.
Would you render a Society of Men strong and powerful, you must touch
their Passions. Divide the Land, tho’ there be never so much to spare, and
their Possessions will make them Covetous: Rouse them, tho’ but in Jest,
from their Idleness with Praises, and Pride will set them to work in
earnest: Teach them Trades and Handicrafts, and you’ll bring Envy and
Emulation among them: To increase their Numbers, set up a Variety of
Manufactures, and leave no Ground uncultivated; Let Property be inviolably
secured, and Privileges equal to all Men; Suffer no body to act but what
is lawful, and every body to think what he pleases; for a Country where
every body may be maintained that will be employ’d, and the other Maxims
are observ’d, must always be throng’d and can never want People, as long
as there is any in the World. Would you have them bold and Warlike, turn
to Military Discipline, make good use of their Fear, and flatter their
Vanity with Art and Assiduity: But would you moreover render them an
opulent, knowing and polite Nation, teach ’em Commerce with Foreign
Countries, and if possible get into the Sea, which to compass spare no
Labour nor Industry, and let no Difficulty deter you from it: Then
promote Navigation, cherish the Merchant, and encourage Trade in every
Branch of it; this will bring Riches, and where they are, Arts and
Sciences will soon follow, and by the Help of what I have named and good
Management, it is that Politicians can make a People potent, renown’d and
flourishing.
But would you have a frugal and honest Society, the best Policy is to
preserve Men in their Native Simplicity, strive not to increase their
Numbers; let them never be acquainted with Strangers or Superfluities, but
remove and keep from them every thing that might raise their Desires, or
improve their Understanding.
Great Wealth and Foreign Treasure will ever scorn to come among Men,
unless you’ll admit their inseparable Companions, Avarice and Luxury:
Where Trade is considerable Fraud will intrude. To be at once well-bred
and sincere, is no less than a Contradiction; and therefore while Man
advances in Knowledge, and his Manners are polish’d, we must expect to see
at the same time his Desires enlarg’d, his Appetites refin’d, and his
Vices increas’d.
The Dutch may ascribe their
present Grandeur to the Virtue and Frugality of their Ancestors as they
please; but what made that contemptible Spot of Ground so considerable
among the principal Powers of Europe, has been their Political
Wisdom in postponing every thing to Merchandize and Navigation, the
unlimited Liberty of Conscience that is enjoy’d among them, and the
unwearied Application with which they have always made use of the most
effectual means to encourage and increase Trade in general.
They never were noted for Frugality before Philip II. of
Spain began to rage over them with that unheard-of Tyranny. Their Laws
were trampled upon, their Rights and large Immunities taken from them, and
their Constitution torn to pieces. Several of their Chief Nobles were
condemn’d and executed without legal Form of Process. Complaints and
Remonstrances were punish’d as severely as Resistance, and those that
escaped being massacred, were plundered by ravenous Soldiers. As this was
intolerable to a People that had always been used to the mildest of
Governments, and enjoy’d greater Privileges than any of the Neighbouring
Nations, so they chose rather to die in Arms than perish by cruel
Executioners. If we consider the Strength Spain had then, and the
low Circumstances those Distress’d States were in, there never was heard
of a more unequal Strife; yet such was their Fortitude and Resolution,
that only seven of those Provinces
uniting themselves together, maintain’d against the greatest, and
best-disciplin’d Nation in Europe, the most tedious and bloody War,
that is to be met with in ancient or modern History.
Rather than to become a Victim to theSpanish
Fury,
they were contented to live upon a third Part of their Revenues, and lay
out far the greatest Part of their Income in defending themselves against
their merciless Enemies. These Hardships and Calamities of a War within
their Bowels, first put them upon that extraordinary Frugality, and the
Continuance under the same Difficulties for above Fourscore Years, could
not but render it Customary and Habitual to them. But all their Arts of
Saving, and Penurious way of Living, could never have enabled them to make
head against so Potent an Enemy, if their Industry in promoting their
Fishery and Navigation in general, had not help’d to supply the Natural
Wants and Disadvantages they labour’d under.
The Country is so small and so populous, that there is not Land enough,
(though hardly an Inch of it is unimprov’d) to feed the Tenth Part of the
Inhabitants. Holland it self is full of large Rivers, and lies
lower than the Sea, which would run over it every Tide, and wash it away
in one Winter, if it was not kept out by vast Banks and huge Walls: The
Repairs of those, as well as their Sluices, Keys, Mills, and other
Necessaries they are forc’d to make use of to keep themselves from being
drown’d, are a greater Expence to them one Year with another, than could
be rais’d by a general Land Tax of Four Shillings in the Pound, if to
be deducted from the neat Produce of the Landlord’s Revenue.
Is it a
Wonder that People under such Circumstances, and loaden with greater Taxes
besides than any other Nation, should be obliged to be saving? But why
must they be a Pattern to others, who besides that they are more happily
situated, are much richer within themselves, and have, to the same Number
of People, above ten times the Extent of Ground? The Dutch and we
often buy and sell at the same Markets, and so far our Views may be said
to be the same: Otherwise the Interests and Political Reasons
of the two Nations as to the private Oeconomy of either, are very
different. It is their Interest to be frugal and spend little: Because
they must have every thing from abroad, except Butter, Cheese and Fish,
and therefore of them, especially the latter, they consume three times the
Quantity, which the same Number of People do here. It is our Interest to
eat plenty of Beef and Mutton to maintain the Farmer, and further improve
our
Land, of which we have enough to feed our selves, and as many more, if it
was better cultivated. The Dutch perhaps have more Shipping, and
more ready Money than we, but then those
are only to be considered as the Tools they work with. So a Carrier may
have more Horses than a Man of ten times his Worth, and a Banker that has
not above fifteen or sixteen Hundred Pounds in the World, may have
generally more ready Cash by him than a Gentleman of two Thousand a Year.
He that keeps three or four Stage-Coaches to get his Bread, is to a
Gentleman that keeps a Coach for his Pleasure, what the Dutch are
in comparison to us; having nothing of their own but Fish, they are
Carriers and Freighters to the rest of the World, while the Basis of our
Trade chiefly depends upon our own Product.
Another Instance, that what makes the Bulk of the People saving, are
heavy Taxes, scarcity of Land, and such Things that occasion a Dearth of
Provisions, may be given from what is observable among the Dutch
themselves. In the Province of Holland there is a vast Trade, and
an unconceivable Treasure of Money. The Land is almost as rich as Dung it
self, and (as I have said once already) not an Inch of it unimprov’d. In
Gelderland and Overyssel there’s hardly any Trade, and very
little Money: The Soil is very indifferent, and abundance of Ground lies
waste. Then what is the Reason that the same Dutch in the two
latter Provinces, tho’ Poorer than the first, are yet less stingy and more
hospitable? Nothing but that their Taxes in most Things are less
Extravagant, and in proportion to the Number of People, they
have a great deal more ground. What they save in Holland, they save
out of their Bellies; ’tis Eatables, Drinkables and Fewel that their
heaviest Taxes are upon, but they wear better Clothes, and have richer
Furniture, than you’ll find in the other Provinces.
Those that are frugal by Principle, are so in every Thing, but in
Holland the People are only sparing in such Things as are daily
wanted, and soon consumed; in what is lasting they are quite otherwise: In
Pictures and Marble they are profuse; in their Buildings and Gardens they
are extravagant to Folly. In other Countries you may meet with stately
Courts and Palaces of great Extent that belong to Princes, which no body
can expect in a Commonwealth, where so much Equality is observ’d as there
is in this; but in all Europe you shall find no private Buildings
so sumptuously Magnificent, as a great many of the Merchants and other
Gentlemen’s Houses are in Amsterdam, and some other great Cities of
that small Province; and the generality of those that build there, lay out
a greater proportion
of their Estates on the Houses they dwell in than any People upon the
Earth.
The Nation I speak of was never in greater Straits, nor their Affairs
in a more dismal Posture since
they were a Republick, than in the Year 1671, and the beginning of 1672.
What we know of their Oeconomy and Constitution with any Certainty has
been chiefly owing to Sir William Temple, whose Observations
upon their Manners and Government, it
is evident from several Passages in his Memoirs, were made about that
time.
The Dutch indeed were then very frugal; but since those Days and
that their Calamities have not been so pressing, (tho’ the common People,
on whom the principal Burthen of all Excises and Impositions lies,
are perhaps much as they were) a great Alteration has been made among the
better sort of People in their Equipages, Entertainments, and whole manner
of living.
Those who would have it that the Frugality of that Nation flows not so
much from Necessity, as a general Aversion to Vice and Luxury, will put us
in mind of their publick Administration and Smalness of Salaries, their
Prudence in bargaining for and buying Stores and other Necessaries, the
great Care they take not to be imposed upon by those that serve them, and
their Severity against them that break their Contracts. But what they
would ascribe to the Virtue and Honesty of Ministers, is wholly due to
their strict Regulations, concerning the management of the publick
Treasure, from which their admirable Form of Government will not suffer
them to depart; and indeed one good Man may take another’s Word, if they
so agree, but a whole Nation ought never to trust to any Honesty, but what
is built upon Necessity; for unhappy is the People, and their Constitution
will be ever precarious, whose Welfare must depend upon the Virtues
and Consciences of Ministers and Politicians.
The Dutch generally endeavour to promote as much Frugality among
their Subjects as ’tis possible, not because it is a Virtue, but because
it is, generally speaking, their Interest, as I have shew’d before; for as
this latter changes, so they alter their Maxims, as will be plain in the
following Instance.
As soon as their East-India Ships come home, the Company pays
off the Men, and many of them receive the greatest Part of what they have
been earning in seven or eight, and some fifteen or sixteen Years time.
These poor Fellows are encourag’d to spend their Money with all
Profuseness imaginable; and considering that most of them, when they set
out at first, were Reprobates, that under the Tuition of a strict
Discipline, and a miserable Diet, have been so long kept at hard Labour
without Money, in the midst of Danger, it cannot be difficult to make them
lavish as soon as they have Plenty.
They squander away in Wine, Women and Musick, as much as People of
their Taste and Education are well capable of, and are suffer’d (so they
but abstain from doing of Mischief) to revel and riot with greater
Licentiousness than is customary to be allow’d to others. You may in some
Cities see them accompanied with three or four lewd Women, few of them
sober, run roaring through the Streets by broad Day-light with a
Fidler before them: And if the Money, to their thinking, goes not fast
enough these ways, they’ll find out others, and sometimes fling it among
the Mob by handfuls. This Madness continues in most of them while they
have any thing left, which never lasts long, and for this Reason, by a
Nick-name, they are called, Lords of six Weeks, that being
generally the time by which the Company has other Ships ready to depart;
where these infatuated Wretches (their Money being gone) are forc’d to
enter themselves again, and may have leisure to repent their Folly.
In this Stratagem there is a double Policy: First, if these Sailors
that have been inured to the hot Climates and unwholesome Air and Diet,
should be frugal, and stay in their own Country, the Company would be
continually oblig’d to employ fresh Men, of which (besides that they are
not so fit for their Business) hardly one in two ever lives in some Places
of the East-Indies, which would often prove a great Charge as well
as Disappointment to them. The second is, that the large Sums so often
distributed among those Sailors, are by this means made immediately to
circulate throughout the Country, from whence, by heavy Excises
and other Impositions, the greatest Part of it is soon drawn back into the
publick Treasure.
To convince the Champions for National Frugality by another
Argument, that what they urge is impracticable, we’ll suppose that I am
mistaken in every thing which in Remark (L.) I have said in
behalf of Luxury, and the necessity of it to maintain Trade: after that
let us examine what a general Frugality, if it was by Art and Management
to be forc’d upon People whether they have Occasion for it or not, would
produce in such
a Nation as ours. We’ll grant then that all the People in Great Britain
shall consume but four Fifths of what they do now, and so lay by
one Fifth part of their Income: I shall not speak of what Influence this
would have upon almost every Trade, as well as the Farmer, the Grazier and
the Landlord, but favourably suppose (what is yet impossible) that
the same Work shall be done, and consequently the same Handicrafts be
employ’d as there are now. The Consequence would be, that unless Money
should all at once fall prodigiously in Value, and every thing else,
contrary to Reason, grow very dear, at the five Years end all the working
People, and the poorest of Labourers, (for I won’t meddle with any of the
rest) would
be worth in ready Cash as much as they now spend in a whole Year; which,
by the by, would be more Money than ever the Nation had at once.
Let us now, overjoy’d with this increase of Wealth, take a View of the
Condition the working People would be in, and reasoning from
Experience, and what we daily observe of them, judge what their Behaviour
would be in such a Case. Every Body knows that there is a vast number of
Journey-men Weavers, Tailors, Clothworkers, and twenty other Handicrafts;
who, if by four Days Labour in a Week they can maintain themselves, will
hardly be persuaded to work the fifth; and that there are Thousands of
labouring Men of all sorts, who will, tho’ they can hardly subsist, put
themselves to fifty Inconveniences, disoblige their Masters, pinch their
Bellies, and run in Debt, to make Holidays. When Men shew such an
extraordinary proclivity to Idleness and Pleasure, what reason have we to
think that they would ever work, unless they were oblig’d to it by
immediate Necessity?
When we see an Artificer that cannot be drove to his Work before
Tuesday, because the Monday Morning he has two Shillings left
of his last Week’s Pay; why should we imagine he would go to it at all, if
he had fifteen or twenty Pounds in his Pocket?
What would, at this rate, become of our Manufactures? If the Merchant
would send Cloth Abroad, he must make it himself, for the Clothier cannot
get one Man out of twelve that used to work for him. If what I speak of
was only to befal the Journeymen Shoemakers, and no body else, in less
than a Twelve-month half of us would go barefoot. The chief and most
pressing use there is for Money in a Nation, is to pay the Labour of the
Poor, and when there is a real Scarcity of it, those who have a great many
Workmen to pay, will always feel it first; yet notwithstanding this great
Necessity of Coin, it wou!d be easier, where Property was well secured, to
live without Money than without Poor; for who would do the Work? For this
Reason the quantity of circulating Coin in a Country ought always to be
proportion’d to the number of Hands that are employ’d; and the Wages of
Labourers to the Price of Provisions.
From whence it is demonstrable, that whatever
procures Plenty makes Labourers
cheap, where the Poor are well managed; who as they ought to be kept from
starving, so they should receive nothing worth saving. If here and there
one of the lowest Class by uncommon Industry, and pinching his Belly,
lifts himself above the Condition he was brought up in, no body ought to
hinder him; Nay it is undeniably the wisest course for every Person in the
Society, and for every private Family to be frugal; but it is the Interest
of all rich Nations, that the greatest part of the Poor should almost
never be idle, and yet continually spend what they get.
All Men, as Sir William Temple observes very well,
are more prone to Ease and Pleasure than they are to Labour, when they are
not prompted to it
by Pride or Avarice, and those that get their Living by their daily
Labour, are seldom powerfully
influenc’d by either: So that they have nothing to stir them up to be
serviceable but their Wants, which it is Prudence to relieve, but Folly to
cure. The only thing then that can render the labouring
Man industrious, is a moderate quantity of Money; for as too little will,
according as his Temper is, either dispirit or make him Desperate, so too
much will make him Insolent and Lazy.
A Man would be laugh’d at by most People, who should maintain that too
much Money could undo a Nation. Yet this has been the Fate of Spain;
to this the learned Don Diego Savedra ascribes the Ruin of his
Country.
The Fruits of the Earth in former Ages had made Spain so rich, that King
Lewis XI. of France being come to the Court of Toledo,
was astonish’d at its Splendour, and said, that he had never seen any
thing to be compar’d to it, either in Europe or Asia; he
that in his Travels to the Holy-Land had run through every Province
of them. In the Kingdom of Castille alone, (if we may believe some
Writers) there
were for the Holy War from all Parts of the World got together one
hundred thousand Foot, ten thousand Horse, and sixty thousand Carriages
for Baggage, which Alonso III.
maintain’d at his own Charge, and paid every Day as well Soldiers as
Officers and Princes, every one according to his Rank and Dignity: Nay,
down to the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella,
(who equipp’d Columbus) and some time after, Spain was a
fertile Country, where Trade and Manufactures flourished, and had a
knowing industrious People to boast of. But as soon as that mighty
Treasure, that was obtain’d with more Hazard and Cruelty than the World
’till then had known, and which to come at, by the Spaniard’s own
Confession,
had cost the Lives of twenty Millions of Indians; as soon, I say,
as that Ocean of Treasure came rolling in upon them, it took away their
Senses, and their Industry forsook them. The Farmer left his Plough, the
Mechanick his Tools, the Merchant his Compting-house, and every body
scorning to work, took his Pleasure and turn’d Gentleman. They thought
they had reason to value themselves above all their Neighbours, and now
nothing but the Conquest of the World would serve them.
The Consequence of this has been, that other Nations have supply’d what
their own Sloth and Pride deny’d them; and when every body saw, that
notwithstanding all the Prohibitions the Government could make against the
Exportation of Bullion, the Spaniard would part with his Money, and
bring it you aboard himself at the hazard of his Neck, all the World
endeavoured to work for Spain. Gold and Silver being by this Means
yearly divided and shared among all the trading Countries, have made all
Things dear, and most Nations of Europe industrious, except
their Owners, who ever since their mighty Acquisitions, sit with their
Arms across, and wait every Year with impatience and anxiety, the arrival
of their Revenues from Abroad, to pay others for what they have spent
already: and thus by too much Money, the making of Colonies and
other Mismanagements, of which it was the occasion, Spain is from a
fruitful and well-peopled Country, with all its mighty Titles and
Possessions, made a barren and empty Thoroughfare, thro’ which Gold and
Silver pass from America to the rest of the World; and the Nation,
from a rich, acute, diligent and laborious, become a slow, idle, proud and
beggarly People; so much for Spain. The next Country where Money
may be called the Product is Portugal, and the Figure which that
Kingdom with all its Gold makes in Europe, I think is not much to
be envied.
The great Art then to make a Nation happy and what we call flourishing,
consists in giving every Body an Opportunity of being employ’d; which to
compass, let a Government’s first care be to promote as great a variety of
Manufactures, Arts, and Handicrafts, as Human Wit can invent; and the
second to encourage Agriculture and Fishery in all their Branches, that
the whole Earth may be forc’d to exert it self as well as Man; for as the
one is an infallible Maxim to draw vast Multitudes of People into a
Nation, so the other is the only Method to maintain them.
It is from this Policy, and not the trifling Regulations of Lavishness
and Frugality, (which will ever take their own Course, according to the
Circumstances of the People) that the Greatness and Felicity of Nations
must be expected; for let the Value of Gold and Silver either rise or
fall, the Enjoyment of all Societies will ever depend upon the Fruits of
the Earth, and the Labour of the People;
both which joined together are a more certain, a more inexhaustible, and a
more real Treasure, than the Gold of Brazil, or the Silver of
Potosi.