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RIESBECK’S TRAVELS THROUGH GERMANY. 187
fider that the whole income of the ftate is appropriated to particular and fpecific puxpofes,
according to the fettled and permanent order, never interrupted by any menus plaifirs ;
and that, according to the higheft calculation, the balance in favour of the Pruflian
trade produces only two hundred and fifty thoufand pounds, it will appear that the King
does not lay by half of what comes from foreign trade.
It is one of the nonfenfical maxims of the prefent age, which, like a great many others
of the fame kind, have crept into our modern political theories and romances, that all
the money of a country muft be employed in the circulation, and none of it be laid by
for cafes of neceflity ; but it was owing to the royal treafure that no taxes were raifed
in the laft war, and it is for this very purpofe that it was intended; for in the American
war, the increafe of taxes fell heavier on the French and Englifh than all the other pref
fures of the ftate put together. Schroeder, who is one of the oldeit and moft acute of
the German political writers, has long fhewn the falfity of this maxim. Befides, that,
taxes fall more heavily on the fubjeét, and are more difficult to raife in time of war than
in time of peace, they cannot be fo foon collected ; and if in confequence of this you
are compelled to add new ones, the refult will be’ what we have feen happen in France,
many provinces will be fo exhaufted in three or four years as not to recover for a whole
century. In thefe emergencies minifters have recourfe to ftate lotteries, loans, &c.
which finally produce the fine fyftem of debt, which annually confumes half the revenue
of Great Britain.
If the King of Pruffia had had no treafure, it would have been impoffible, after the
terrible war which lafted from 1756 to 1763, for his lands not only to recover, but to
be in a more flourifhing fituation than they were before. There is alfo a local con-
fideration, which makes the King of Pruifia’s treafure of peculiar confequence to that
country, which is, that as feveral parts of it lie open to the enemy, were it not for this
refource it would be poflible, at the breaking out of a war, to cut off a great part of the
revenue, by feizing upon a principal town. Indeed it is to the referved fupplies, which
have enabled him to parry every evil of this kind, that the King owes the fuccefs of
thofe operations which have rendered his name immortal. Nor is the treafury intirely
inactive at any period. At different times the King has lent very confiderable fums at
a very inconfiderable intereft to the ftates of feveral of his provinces; thefe fums are
in circulation, and all that the King requires, is the exact reimburfement at the time
fixed.
The Pruffian ftate, confidered as a ftate, is the richeft in Europe; and it is abfolutely
impoflible that it ever fhould be expofed to feel any inconvenience from the want of
money ; for its fy{tem of finance is eftablifhed upon fuch folid foundations, that if any
of the King’s fucceffors were to think of introducing a change, it would overturn the
whole building. You would hardly think it, but I can affure you, that the bank bills
of this place are bought up with avidity. Nobody has any opinion that they will ever
lofe their credit. ‘The Dutch are very happy when this bank will take their money, as
notwithftanding all the outcry about Pruflian defpotifm, they are convinced it cannot be.
more fecure any where than it is here. Upon the whole, it is eafy to fee, that moft of
our very wife declaimers again{t the government of Pruffia, draw their topics from the
difference they obferve between it and the other European governments; whereas if
they would give themfelves the trouble to lift up their eyes and give matters a little clofer
and nearer infpection, they would foon give up their prejudices, unlefs, indeed, their
felf love made them incapable of all judgment. I have known none of thefe gentlemen
but what have praifed, in fome part or other of their works, the very principles on
which the Pruflian government is built, though they overlooked them and could not
BB 2 fee
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