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498 SWEDENBORG IN THE HOUSE OF NOBLES. [Doc. 174.
power to preserve a proper state of exchange as the intrinsic
value of coined money, inasmuch as they are merchandize,
and are in the hands of only a certain number of persons, who
alone have money abroad, and have it thereby in their power,
either by an arrangement among themselves, or by other ex
pedients they may think of, to set whatever price they choose
upon the exchange ; and this they are able to do, because the
coin of other merchants has no influence in regulating the
price of exchange.
When the cause, by which exchange has been forced to
its present unreasonable height, is known, the following three
points come to be considered : 1. What injury is inflicted
thereby upon the country; 2. What has been the cause of a
paper currency taking the place of coined money possessing
an intrinsic value ; 3. How is this difficulty to be remedied .
I. The injury inflicted upon the country by the exchange
having been forced to its present high rate, is to some extent
known, from the universal complaint about it; but it may
briefly be stated: 1. That all the necessaries of life which
are imported from abroad, as the raw material for most
manufactures, grain and eatables, and other merchandize subject
to what is called wear and tear, must be paid for at the rate
of exchange ; likewise all home produce as oxen, cows, calves,
cattle generally, sheep, fowls, butter, tallow, fish, wood, timber,
deal, and other things which follow the course of exchange, and
are still rising in price; 2. Whence it follows that all the
requisitions from the public exchequer for the requirements
of the Royal Court, the clothing of the army, fortifications, the
construction of ships, the fitting out and maintenance of vessels,
the pay of ambassadors and resident ministers, must be bought
and paid for at the rate of exchange, and thus at double the
prices heretofore ; 3. Wherefore all taxes and rates must be
increased, for which in time but few resources will remain, in
asmuch as most of the owners of real estate render themselves
indigent by mortgaging their lands ; 4. All labourers and workmen,
of whom the chief sinew and strength of the country consists,
are deprived of power, and they decrease in number on account
of the rise in the price of everything which they need for
their nourishment and maintenance; inasmuch as their wages
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