Benjamin Franklin

B. FRANKLIN.

TO THE PRINTER OF THE LONDON CHRONICLE[76]

August 18, 1768.

QUERIES, _recommended to the Consideration of those Gentlemen who are for vigorous measures with the Americans._

1. Have the Colonists _refused_ to answer any reasonable requisitions made to their _a.s.semblies_ by the mother country?

2. If they have _not refused_ to grant reasonable aids in the way, which they think consistent with _liberty_, why must they be stripped of their property without their own _consent_, and in a way, which they think _inconsistent_ with liberty?

3. What is it for a people to be _enslaved_ and _tributary_, if this be not, viz. to be _forced_ to give up their property at the arbitrary pleasure of persons, to whose authority they have not _submitted_ themselves, nor _chosen_ for the purpose of imposing taxes upon them?

Wherein consisted the impropriety of King Charles's demanding s.h.i.+p money by his sole authority, but in its being an exercise of power by the King, which the people had not _given_ the King? Have the people of America, as the people of Britain, by sending representatives, _consented_ to a power in the British parliament to tax them?

4. Has not the British parliament, by repealing the stamp act, acknowledged that they judged it _improper_? Is there any difference between the stamp act, and the act obliging the Americans to pay _whatever we please_, for articles which they _cannot do without_, as gla.s.s and paper? Is there any difference as to justice between our treatment of the colonists, and the tyranny of the Carthaginians over their conquered Sardinians, when they obliged them to take all their corn from them, and at whatever price they pleased to set upon it?

5. If that be true, what is commonly said, viz. That the mother country gains _two millions_ a year by the colonies, would it not have been wiser to have gone on quietly in the _happy way_ we were in, till our gains by those rising and flouris.h.i.+ng countries should amount to _three_, _four_ or _five_ millions a year, than by these new fas.h.i.+oned vigorous measures to kill the goose which lays the golden eggs? Would it not have been better policy, instead of _taxing_ our colonists, to have done whatever we could to _enrich_ them; and encourage them to take off our articles of _luxury_, on which we may put our own price, and thus draw them into paying us a _voluntary_ tax; than deluge them in blood, thin their countries, impoverish and distress them, interrupt their commerce, force them on bankruptcy, by which our merchants must be ruined, or tempt them to emigrations, or alliances with our enemies?

6. The late war could not have been _carried on_ without America, nor without Scotland? Have we treated America and Scotland in such a manner as is likely in future wars to encourage their zeal for the common cause? Or is England alone to be the Drawcansir of the world, and to bully not only their enemies, but her _friends_?

7. Are not the subjects of Britain concerned to check a ministry, who, by this rage of heaping taxes on taxes, are only drawing into their own hands more and more wealth and power, while they are hurting the _commercial_ interest of the empire in general, at the same time that, amidst profound _peace_, the national debt and burden on the public continue undiminished?

N. M. C. N. P. C. H.

POSITIONS TO BE EXAMINED, CONCERNING NATIONAL WEALTH

Dated April 4, 1769.

1. All food or subsistence for mankind arises from the earth or waters.

2. Necessaries of life, that are not food, and all other conveniences, have their values estimated by the proportion of food consumed while we are employed in procuring them.

3. A small people, with a large territory, may subsist on the productions of nature, with no other labour than that of gathering the vegetables and catching the animals.

4. A large people, with a small territory, finds these insufficient, and, to subsist, must labour the earth, to make it produce greater quant.i.ties of vegetable food, suitable for the nourishment of men, and of the animals they intend to eat.

5. From this labour arises a _great increase_ of vegetable and animal food, and of materials for clothing, as flax, wool, silk, &c. The superfluity of these is wealth. With this wealth we pay for the labour employed in building our houses, cities, &c., which are therefore only subsistence thus metamorphosed.

6. _Manufactures_ are only _another shape_ into which so much provisions and subsistence are turned, as were equal in value to the manufactures produced. This appears

7. The produce of the earth, thus converted into manufactures, may be more easily carried to distant markets than before such conversion.

8. _Fair commerce_ is, where equal values are exchanged for equal, the expense of transport included. Thus, if it costs A in England as much labour and charge to raise a bushel of wheat, as it costs B in France to produce four gallons of wine, then are four gallons of wine the fair exchange for a bushel of wheat, A and B meeting at half distance with their commodities to make the exchange. The advantage of this fair commerce is, that each party increases the number of his enjoyments, having, instead of wheat alone, or wine alone, the use of both wheat and wine.

9. Where the labour and expense of producing both commodities are known to both parties, bargains will generally be fair and equal. Where they are known to one party only, bargains will often be unequal, knowledge taking its advantage of ignorance.

10. Thus, he that carries one thousand bushels of wheat abroad to sell, may not probably obtain so great a profit thereon, as if he had first turned the wheat into manufactures, by subsisting therewith the workmen while producing those manufactures; since there are many expediting and facilitating methods of working, not generally known; and strangers to the manufactures, though they know pretty well the expense of raising wheat, are unacquainted with those short methods of working, and, thence being apt to suppose more labour employed in the manufactures than there really is, are more easily imposed on in their value, and induced to allow more for them than they are honestly worth.

11. Thus the advantage of having manufactures in a country does not consist, as is commonly supposed, in their highly advancing the value of rough materials, of which they are formed; since, though six pennyworth of flax may be worth twenty s.h.i.+llings, when worked into lace, yet the very cause of its being worth twenty s.h.i.+llings is, that, besides the flax, it has cost nineteen s.h.i.+llings and sixpence in subsistence to the manufacturer. But the advantage of manufactures is, that under their shape provisions may be more easily carried to a foreign market; and, by their means, our traders may more easily cheat strangers. Few, where it is not made, are judges of the value of lace. The importer may demand forty, and perhaps get thirty, s.h.i.+llings for that which cost him but twenty.

12. Finally, there seem to be but three ways for a nation to acquire wealth. The first is by _war_, as the Romans did, in plundering their conquered neighbours. This is _robbery_. The second by _commerce_, which is generally _cheating_. The third by _agriculture_, the only _honest way_, wherein man receives a real increase of the seed thrown into the ground, in a kind of continual miracle, wrought by the hand of G.o.d in his favour, as a reward for his innocent life and his virtuous industry.

TO MISS MARY STEVENSON

Sat.u.r.day Evening, Sept^r 2, 1769.

Just come home from a Venison Feast, where I have drank more than a Philosopher ought, I find my dear Polly's chearful, chatty Letter that exhilerates me more than all the Wine.

Your good Mother says there is no Occasion for any Intercession of mine in your behalf. She is sensible that she is more in fault than her Daughter. She received an affectionate, tender Letter from you, and she has not answered it, tho' she intended to do it; but her Head, not her Heart, has been bad, and unfitted her for Writing. She owns, that she is not so good a Subject as you are, and that she is more unwilling to pay Tribute to Cesar, and has less Objection to Smuggling; but 'tis not, she says, mere Selfishness or Avarice; 'tis rather an honest Resentment at the Waste of those Taxes in Pensions, Salaries, Perquisites, Contracts, and other Emoluments for the Benefit of People she does not love, and who do not deserve such Advantages, because--I suppose--because they are not of her Party.

Present my Respects to your good Landlord and his Family. I honour them for their conscientious Aversion to illicit Trading. There are those in the World, who would not wrong a Neighbour, but make no Scruple of cheating the King. The Reverse, however, does not hold; for whoever scruples cheating the King, will certainly not wrong his Neighbour.

You ought not to wish yourself an Enthusiast. They have, indeed, their imaginary Satisfactions and Pleasures, but these are often ballanc'd by imaginary Pains and Mortifications. You can continue to be a good Girl, and thereby lay a solid Foundation for expected future Happiness, without the Enthusiasm that may perhaps be necessary to some others. As those Beings, who have a good sensible Instinct, have no need of Reason, so those, who have Reason to regulate their Actions, have no Occasion for Enthusiasm. However, there are certain Circ.u.mstances in Life, sometimes, wherein 'tis perhaps best not to hearken to Reason. For instance; possibly, if the Truth were known, I have Reason to be jealous of this same insinuating, handsome young Physician;[77] but, as it flatters more my Vanity, and therefore gives me more Pleasure, to suppose you were in Spirits on acc^t of my safe Return, I shall turn a deaf Ear to Reason in this Case, as I have done with Success in twenty others. But I am sure you will always give me Reason enough to continue ever your affectionate Friend,

B. FRANKLIN.

P.S. Our Love to Mrs. Tickell. We all long for your Return. Your Dolly was well last Tuesday; the Girls were there on a Visit to her; I mean at Bromley. Adieu. No time now to give you any acc^t of my French Journey.

TO JOSEPH PRIESTLEY

London, Sept. 19: 1772.

DEAR SIR,

In the Affair of so much Importance to you, wherein you ask my Advice, I cannot for want of sufficient Premises, advise you _what_ to determine, but if you please I will tell you _how_. When those difficult Cases occur, they are difficult, chiefly because while we have them under Consideration, all the Reasons _pro_ and _con_ are not present to the Mind at the same time; but sometimes one Set present themselves, and at other times another, the first being out of Sight. Hence the various Purposes or Inclinations that alternately prevail, and the Uncertainty that perplexes us.

To get over this, my Way is, to divide half a Sheet of Paper by a Line into two Columns; writing over the one _Pro_, and over the other _Con_.

Then during three or four Days Consideration, I put down under the different Heads short Hints of the different Motives, that at different Times occur to me, _for_ or _against_ the Measure. When I have thus got them all together in one View, I endeavour to estimate their respective Weights; and where I find two, one on each side, that seem equal, I strike them both out. If I find a Reason _pro_ equal to some two Reasons _con_, I strike out the three. If I judge some two Reasons _con_, equal to some three Reasons _pro_, I strike out the five; and thus proceeding I find at length where the Ballance lies; and if after a Day or two of farther Consideration, nothing new that is of Importance occurs on either side, I come to a Determination accordingly. And, tho' the Weight of Reasons cannot be taken with the Precision of Algebraic Quant.i.ties, yet, when each is thus considered, separately and comparatively, and the whole lies before me, I think I can judge better, and am less liable to make a rash Step; and in fact I have found great Advantage from this kind of Equation, in what may be called _Moral_ or _Prudential Algebra_.

Wis.h.i.+ng sincerely that you may determine for the best, I am ever, my dear Friend, yours most affectionately,

B. FRANKLIN.

TO MISS GEORGIANA s.h.i.+PLEY[78]

London, September 26, 1772.

DEAR MISS,