In playing this tune upon the lyre, Dion indeed fays, that you ftruck the outermoft ftring, or Saturn, first; then every fourth ftring inclusive in their order. But it appears by the old muficians, that there were feveral ways of beginning this tune, and that you might fet off from different ftrings. In reckoning the days of the week, they plainly began with the fourth: and it is allowed by the judges of mufic, that flriking the firft ftring laft would make the compofition more harmonious. dary deities, if this had been the ufual practice in that age. Reckoning the month, and confequently the year, by weeks, was very an. cient. Philo and Jofephus affure us, that this diftribution of time was univerfally received among all nations. The practice of affigning each day of the week to day of the week to a particular deity was, as Herodotus informs us, an invention of the Egyptians: from thence it came by flow advances into Italy and Rome. Moft of the Eyyptian cuftoms had been Dion's obfervation about the long held in great contempt by antiquity of this cuftom, feems to the Romans; but after Vefpafian be as well grounded. He fays, had affumed the purple, and eftathat the ancient Greeks knew no- blished himself in the empire, they thing of it. It is certain, that the began to be more fashionable at univerfal reception of it among the court. This invention, whenever Greeks and Romans could not be it was received there, came from long before his time. Ovid would thence to our ancestors the Saxons, fcarce have loft an opportunity of and is one inftance, among many embellishing his Fafti with the others, of their great difpofition ftory of fome of these hebdomato imitate the Roman customs. ESSAYS Thoughts on the Caufes and Confequences of the prefent high Price of Provifions. writers, or their malevolence, is fuperior; or, whether the abfurdity of their principles, or the mif chief of them, is the greateft : but one may venture to affirm, that our people, notwithstanding the prefent fcarcity, are ftill betof cella-doubtedly makes it neceffary, at ter fed than taught. This un Privatus illis cenfus erat brevis HE high price of provi THE ries of life, is an evil fo inconvenient to all conditions of men, and fo intolerable to fome, that it is not furprifing that all fhould fuffer it with much difcontent, and many be drove by it into defpair, or into riots, rapine, and all kinds of diforders. The latter, indeed, we cannot but expect, if we confider, that the enemies of all go. vernment and fubordination, fo numerous in this country, wiH not fail to avail themselves of this favourable opportunity, to fpread univerfal diffatisfaction, and inflame the minds of the people to feek redress by fuch infamous and dangerous methods. This they endeavour, too fuccefsfully, to effect, by daily reprefenting in the public papers, that this calamity arifes from the artifices of monopolizers, regraters, foreftallers, and engroffers, encouraged, or at leaft connived at, by minifters defirous of oppreffing the people, and parliaments unattentive to their complaints. It is hard to fay, whether the ignorance of these this time, that the true caufes of this evil fhould be explained to them; which, if it leffens not their wants, may in fome measure abate their ill-founded indignation. To this end I fhall endeavour to fhew, as concifely as poffible that the prefent high price of provifions arifes principally from two fources; the increase of our national debts, and the increase of our riches; that is, from the po verty of the public, and the wealth of private individuals. From what caufes thefe have been increased, and what have been the effects of that increafe, fhall be the subject of the few following pages. It will furely be unneceffary to inquire into the caufes of the late immenfe increase of our national debt; whoever remembers the many millions annually borrowed, funded, and expended, during the laft war, can be under no difficulty to account for its increase. To pay intereft for thefe new funds, new taxes were every year im M 3 pofed pofed, and additional burthens laid on every comfort, and almoft every neceffary, of life, by former taxes, occafioned by former wars, before fufficiently loaded. Thefe muft unavoidably increase the prices of them, and that in a much greater proportion than is ufually understood: for a duty laid on any commodity does not only add the value of that duty to the price of that commodity, but the dealer in it muft advance the price double or treble times that fum; for he muft not only repay himself the original tax, but mult have compenfation for his loffes in trade by bad debts, and lofs of intereft by his increased capital. Befides this, every new tax does not only affect the price of the commodity on which it is laid, but that of all others, whether taxed or not, and with which, at first fight, it feems to have no manner of connection. Thus, for in ftance, a tax on candles muft raife the price of a coat, or a pair of breeches; because, out of these, all the taxes on the candies of the wool-comber, weaver, and the tailor, muft be paid: a duty upon ale muft raife the price of fhoes; because from them all the taxes upon ale drank by the tanner, leather-dreffer, and fhoemaker, which is not a little, must be refunded. No tax is immediately Jaid upon corn, but the price of it muft neceffarily be advanced; be. caufe, out of that, all the innumerable taxes paid by the farmer on windows, foap, candles, malt, hops, leather, falt, and a thoufand others, must be repaid: fo that corn is as effectually taxed, as if a duty by the bufhel had been primarily laid upon it: for taxes, like the various ftreams which form a general inundation, by what. ever channels they feparately find admiffion, unite at laft, and overwhelm the whole. The man, therefore, who fold fand upon an afs, and raised the price of it during the late war, though abufed for an impofition, moft certainly acted upon right reafons; for, though there were no new taxes then impofed either on fand or affes, yet he found by experience, that, from the taxes laid on almoft all other things he could neither maintain himfelf, his wife, or his afs, as cheap as formerly; he was therefore under a neceffity of advancing the price of his fand, out of which alone all the taxes which he paid muft be refunded. Thus, I think, it is evident beyond all doubt, that the increase of taxes muft increase the price of every thing; whether taxed or not; and that this is one principal caufe of the prefent extraordinary advance of provifions, and all the neceffa. ries of life. The other great fource, from whence this calamity arifes, is certainly our vaft increafe of riches; the caufes and confequences of which I will now briefly confider. That our riches are in fact amazingly increafed within a few years, no one, who is in the leaft acquainted with this country, can entertain a doubt: whoever will caft his eyes on our public works, our roads, our bridges, our pave. ments, and our hofpitals, the prodigious extenfion of our capital, and in fome proportion that of every confiderable town in Great Britain; whoever will look into the poffeffions and expences of individuals, their houfes, furniture, tables, tables equipages, parks, gardens, cloaths, plate, and jewels, will find every where round him fufficient marks to testify to the truth of this propofition. The great increase of private opulence is undoubtedly owing to the very fame caufe which increased our national debt; that is, to the enormous expences and unparalleled fuccefs of the late war; and indeed very much arifes from that very debt itfelf. Every million funded is in fact a new creation of fo much wealth to individuals, both of principle and intereft; for the principal, being eafily transfer able, operates exactly as fo much cafh; and the intereft, by enabling fo many to confume the commodities on which taxes are laid for the payment of it, in a great meafure produces annually an income to difcharge itfelf. Of all the enormous fums then expended, little, befides the fubfidies granted to German princes, was loft to the individuals of this country, though the whole was irrecoverably alienated from the public: all the reft annually returning into the pock ets of the merchants, contractors, brokers, and stock-jobbers, enabled them to lend it again to the public on a new mortgage the following year. Every emiffion of paper-credit by bank-notes, exchequer and navy bills, fo long as they circulate, anfwers all the purposes of fo much additional gold and filver, as their value amounts to. If we add to thefe the immenfe riches daily flowing in, fince that period, from our commerce, extended over every quarter of the globe, from the new channels of trade opened with America, and the amazing fums imported from the Eaft-Indies, it will not fure be difficult to account for the opulence of the prefent times, which has enabled men to increafe their expences, and carry luxury to a pitch unknown to all former ages. The effects of this vaft and fud. den increase of riches are no lefs evident than their caufe; the first and moft obvious effect of the increafe of money is the decrease of its value, like that of all other commodities; for money being but a commodity, its value must be relative, that is, dependent on the quantity of itfelf, and the quantity of the things to be purchafed with it. In every country where there is great plenty of provifions, and but little money, there provifions must be cheap, that is, a great deal of them will be exchanged for a little money on the contrary, where there are but little provifion in proportion to the number of confumers, and a great plenty of money, or what paffes for money, there they will inevitably be dear; that is, a great deal of money must be given to purchase them. Thefe effects muft eternally follow their caufes in all ages and in all countries; and that they have done fo, the history of all countries in all ages fufficiently inform us. The value of money at the time of the Norman conqueft was near twenty times greater than at prefent; and it has been gradually decreafing from that pe. riod, in proportion as our riches have increafed: it has decreased not lefs than one third during the prefent century; and I believe one half at leaft of that third fince the commencement of the last war, which, I doubt not, could it be M4 exactly exactly computed, would be found to be in due proportion to the in. crease of its quantity, either in real or fictitious cafh; and that the price of provifions-is advanced in the fame proportion during the fame period." The increase of money does not only operate on the price of provifions by the diminution of its own value, but by enabling more people to purchase, and confequently to confume them; which muft unavoidably likewife increafe their fcarcity, and that must still add more to their price. Twenty rich families will confume ten times as much meat, bread, butter, foap, and candles, as twenty poor families confifting of the fame number; and the prices of all thefe muft certainly rife in proportion to the demand. This effect of the increase of wealth, in many countries of Europe, is very vifible at this day, and in none more than in the northern parts of this ifland, who, having of late acquired riches by the introduction of trade, manufactures, and tillage, can now well afford to eat roast beef, and therefore confume much of thofe -cattle, with which they were formerly glad to fupply us; and will not part with the reft but at prices greatly advanced. The confumption of every thing is alfo amazingly increafed from the increafe of wealth in our metropolis, and indeed in every corner of this kingdom; and the manner of living, throughout all ranks and conditions of men, is no lefs amaz. ingly altered: the merchant, who formerly thought himfelf fortunate, if, in a courfe of thirty or forty years, by a large trade and trick œconomy, he amaffed toge ther as many thoufand pounds, now acquires in a quarter of that time double that fum, or breaks for a greater, and vies all the while with the first of our nobility, in his houfe, table, furniture, and equipage: the shopkeeper, who ufed to be well contented with one dish of meat, one fire, and one maid, has now two or three times as many of each; his wife has her tea, her card-parties, and her drefing-room; and his prentice has climed from the kitchen-fire to the front-boxes at the play. houfe. The lowest manufacturer and meaneft mechanic will touch nothing but the very beft pieces of meat, and the fineft white bread; and, if he cannot obtain double the wages for being idle, to what he formerly received for working hard, he thinks he has a right to feek for a redrefs of his grievances, by riot and rebellion, Since then the value of our money is decreafed by its quantity, our confumption increafed by univerfal luxury, and the fupplies, which we ufed to receive from poorer countries, now alfo grown rich, greatly diminished, the prefent exorbitant price of all the neceffaries of life can be no wonder. From what has been here offered, I think this may be readily accounted for, without having recourfe to foreftallers, regraters, engroffers, monopolizers, higglers, badgers, bounties, poft-chaifes, turnpike-roads,enlarging of farms, and the extenfion of the metropo lis, with all the ridiculous catalogue of caufes, which have been affigned by effay-writers to this evil, and frequently adopted by the abfurdity of their readers. How far all or any of thefe |