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“ Does not this Proposal give Fifty Pounds for One Hundred, with a double Advantage to all; and at the same Time pays a great Part of our Debt, and settles our Credit on a solid Foundation?
A Nation cannot flourish without Virtue; nor Virtue without good Conscience. Sudden Ways of growing rich, must be ruinous to the Publick: There are of late those who have too suddenly got vast Estates, and others as soon stripp'd of great Fortunes. ”

“ I shall offer some few Heads, necessary to promote Trade, and to put us in a Way speedily to pay our Debts, and prevent Stock-Jobbing, or else Trade can never flourish.
[Pg 12] We must Recoin our Money, and make the Agio so large, as will prevent its being exported; and thereby hinder the East-India Company from purchasing Bullion in Holland: For if they are suffer'd to buy Bullion there, we had better by the Half give them free Liberty to export our Coin, unless the Exchange is Eight per Cent. in our Favour, (which is now so much to the contrary) we shall at all Times be Losers. ”

“ For at present the Stock is precarious.
And the same may be said, in some Measure, both of the East-India Company, and the Bank: Which strengthens the Reasons against the Government's trusting any more to Corporation Credit.
That Trade cannot easily extend it self in this Kingdom, unless all Corporations are ty'd down from Dividing (I say) more than Common Interest. Persons will never go on to encourage Trade, so long as a Profit can be made by the frequent Rise and Fall of Stocks, the Bane of all Industry. ”

“ Let us shake off then those plaguy Sores that corrupt our Vitals; and if we intend to be a Happy and Flourishing People, we must promote Piety, which admits of no Corruption; Honesty, that listens to no Temptation; Sincerity, which never deceives his Neighbour; Sobriety is the Way to Honour, and Industry brings Riches, which Frugality preserves: He therefore that desires to be truly Great, must possess these Virtues, and prefer Publick to Private Interest.
What is the Reason that all Inferior Places of Profit and Trust are bought and sold, and true Merit wants its Reward? ”

“ And are Corporation-Pillars a good Foundation?
The Method already propos'd, is seemingly calculated for the Service of Stock-Jobbing, and a Parcel of I know not who, (Sharpers,) to reap the Benefit of it: And if so, the Nation will be utterly ruin'd. For God's Sake, then, let us not run any more Hazards, but prudently take such Measures as are most safe and advantageous.
If the Government will forgive the South-Sea Company the Debt of Seven Millions, Five Hundred Thousand Pounds, and put them in Statu quo; they ought to sit down contented, and be easy and thankful. ”

“ Trade will ever increase? And without Liberty be given to all Bodies Corporate and Collective, to have a Book, wherein every Person may transfer their Properties, such Bodies will be never able to raise Money to carry on a Trade, or extend it. ”

“ While our Money, which is the Blood of the Body Politick, is suffer'd to run out, and there is no Supply, all Projects for restoring Credit, and keeping up the Spirits of the People, will prove abortive. ”

“ Before I conclude, I shall enlarge a little concerning the Poor of our Country; who will never be brought to Labour, so long as they are maintain'd by the Parish, and suffer'd to beg about the Country, or in the Streets.
If proper Places were provided, on Navigable Rivers, where Land is reasonable; with good Management, and by the Improvement of those Lands, the Expence of our Poor would not be so great by the one Tenth Part of what it is, and what we now pay towards their Relief. And by such a prudent Management, what an inestimable Benefit would it be to this Nation ”

“ Such an Advantage would it be to the Nation, as would be better to us than the Mines of Peru and Mexico to the Spanish Monarchy. It would introduce Industry, reduce Idleness and Luxury; encourage and promote the Trade of the Kingdom, increase our Exports, and lessen our Imports; by providing of Hands useful in making all Sorts of Utensils, for Army and Navy, Soldiers and Sailors, that, when their Country have no Service for them, they may return to their Livelihood they were bred to, and by their honest Industry find a Maintenance. ”

“ But will it not be a Second Injustice to the Annuitants, after so great a Diminution of their Estates, to have Two Thirds of it ingrafted on a precarious Bottom? All Stocks having been suffer'd to divide above the Value of the Nett Produce of their Capital; a sure Way to distress Trade: Especially when Corporations are suffer'd to issue out Bonds, without Trading with the Money, but purely to advance their Stock. ”

“ The Directors of any Corporation, if not truly honest, may impose at all Times upon the rest of the Proprietors, by making a Dividend above the intrinsick Value of the Nett Produce of Profit; and the Legislature would do well to provide against such Practices for the future. ”

“ The Foreigners have taken an Alarm since our late unhappy Mismanagement; and are only waiting for some New Project, to sell out, and strip us entirely: So that if we will consider our own Preservation, we must rather depretiate our Stocks, than seek Means to augment them. ”

“ And our Poor being very numerous, all of 'em may be provided for that way.
Our Trade has decay'd ever since we have promoted Stock-Jobbing, that easy Way of getting Money: Our Manufactories have diminish'd; which have increas'd our Poor, and lessen'd our Imports and Exports ”

“ We ought to consult those Methods that will increase our Exports, and lessen the Importation of such Goods as takes away our Bullion, and prevent our Coin from being exported, in the best Manner we can. ”

“ We have within our selves, and in America, an inexhaustible Fund to supply our selves, and perhaps Europe, with what we are now beholden to Foreigners for, and that at the Expence of our Silver and Gold ”