The evils which result from sudden changes in the value of
money will perhaps become more sensible, if we trace their
effects in particular instances. Assuming, as we are quite at
liberty to do, an extreme case, let us suppose three persons,
each possessing a hundred pounds: one of these, a widow advanced
in years, and who, by the advice of her friends, purchases with
that sum an annuity of twenty pounds a year during her life: and
let the two others be workmen, who, by industry and economy, have
each saved a hundred pounds out of their wages; both these latter
persons proposing to procure machines for calendering, and to
commence that business. One of these invests his money in a
savings' bank; intending to make his own calendering machine, and
calculating that he shall expend twenty pounds in materials, and
the remaining eighty in supporting himself and in paying the
workmen who assist him in constructing it. The other workman,
meeting with a machine which he can buy for two hundred pounds,
agrees to pay for it a hundred pounds immediately, and the
remainder at the end of a twelvemonth.
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