both of hoarding and of concealing the hoard.
Treasure-trove was then considered as an important
branch of the revenue of the sovereign.
All the treasure-trove of the kingdom
would scarce, perhaps, in the present
times, make an important branch of the revenue
of a private gentleman of a good
estate.
The same disposition, to save and to hoard,
prevailed in the sovereign, as well as in the
subjects. Among nations, to whom commerce
and manufactures are little known, the
sovereign, it has already been observed in the
fourth book, is in a situation which naturally
disposes him to the parsimony requisite for
accumulation. In that situation, the expense,
even of a sovereign, cannot be directed by
that vanity which delights in the gaudy finery
of a court. The ignorance of the times affords
but few of the trinkets in which that
finery consists. Standing armies are not
then necessary; so that the expense, even of
a sovereign, like that of any other great lord,
can be employed in scarce any thing but
bounty to his tenants, and hospitality to his
retainers. But bounty and hospitality very
seldom lead to extravagance; though vanity
almost always does. All the ancient sovereigns
of Europe, accordingly, it has already
been observed, had treasures. Every Tartar
chief, in the present times, is said to have
one.
In a commercial country, abounding with
every sort of expensive luxury, the sovereign,
in the same manner as almost all the great
proprietors in his dominions, naturally spends
a great part of his revenue in purchasing
those luxuries. His own and the neighbouring
countries supply him abundantly with all
the costly trinkets which compose the splendid,
but insignificant, pageantry of a court.
For the sake of an inferior pageantry of the
same kind, his nobles dismiss their retainers,
make their tenants independent, and become
gradually themselves as insignificant as the
greater part of the wealthy burghers in his
dominions. The same frivolous passions,
which influence their conduct, influence his.
How can it be supposed that he should be
the only rich man in his dominions who is insensible
to pleasures of this kind? If he does
not, what he is very likely to do, spend upon
those pleasures so great a part of his revenue
as to debilitate very much the defensive power
of the state, it cannot well be expected that
he should not spend upon them all that part
of it which is over and above what is necessary
for supporting that defensive power.
His ordinary expense becomes equal to his
ordinary revenue, and it is well if it does not
frequently exceed it. The amassing of treasure
can no longer be expected; and when
extraordinary exigencies require extraordinary
expenses, he must necessarily call upon his
subjects for an extraordinary aid. The present
and the late king of Prussia are the only
great princes of Europe, who, since the death
of Henry IV. of France, in 1610, are supposed
to have amassed any considerable treasure.
The parsimony which leads to accumulation
has become almost as rare in republican
as in monarchical governments. The
Italian republics, the United Provinces of the
Netherlands, are all in debt. The canton of
Berne is the single republic in Europe which
has amassed any considerable treasure. The
other Swiss republics have not. The taste for
some sort of pageantry, for splendid buildings,
at least, and other public ornaments, frequently
prevails as much in the apparently sober
senate-house of a little republic, as in the
dissipated court of the greatest king.
The want of parsimony, in time of peace,
imposes the necessity of contracting debt in
time of war. When war comes, there is no
money in the treasury, but what is necessary
for carrying on the ordinary expense of the
peace establishment. In war, an establishment
of three or four times that expense becomes
necessary for the defence of the state;
and consequently, a revenue three or four
times greater than the peace revenue. Supposing
that the sovereign should have, what
he scarce ever has, the immediate means of
augmenting his revenue in proportion to the
augmentation of his expense; yet still the
produce of the taxes, from which this increase
of revenue must be drawn, will not begin to
come into the treasury, till perhaps ten or
twelve months after they are imposed. But
the moment in which war begins, or rather
the moment in which it appears likely to begin,
the army must be augmented, the fleet
must be fitted out, the garrisoned towns must
be put into a posture of defence; that army,
that fleet, those garrisoned towns, must be
furnished with arms, ammunition, and provisions.
An immediate and great expense
must be incurred in that moment of immediate
danger, which will not wait for the gradual
and slow returns of the new taxes. In
this exigency, government can have no other
resource but in borrowing.
The same commercial state of society which,
by the operation of moral causes, brings government
in this manner into the necessity of
borrowing, produces in the subjects both an
ability and an inclination to lend. If it commonly
brings along with it the necessity of
borrowing, it likewise brings with it the facility
of doing so.
A country abounding with merchants and
manufacturers, necessarily abounds with a set
of people through whose hands, not only their
own capitals, but the capitals of all those who
either lend them money, or trust them with
goods, pass as frequently, or more frequently,
than the revenue of a private man, who,
without trade or business, lives upon his income,