Essays of Benjamin Franklin

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Monograph

Identifikator:: 1752429486

URN:: urn:nbn:de:zbw-retromon-127700

Document type:: Monograph

Author:: Franklin, Benjamin http://d-nb.info/gnd/118534912

Title:: Essays of Benjamin Franklin

Place of publication:: New York

Publisher:: G. P. Putnam's Sons

Year of publication:: 1927

Scope:: xi, 273 Seiten

Digitisation:: 2021

Collection:: Economics Books

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Document type:: Monograph

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Title:: XX. Comparison of Great Britain and the United States in regard to the basis of credit in the two countries

Collection:: Economics Books

1 Essays hence the weariness at public councils, and back- wardness in going to them, the constant unwilling- ness to engage in any measure that requires thought and consideration, and the readiness for postponing every new proposition; which postponing is, there- fore, the only part of business they come to be expert in, an expertness produced necessarily by so much daily practice. Whereas, in America, men bred to close employment in their private affairs attend with ease to those of the public when engaged in them, and nothing fails through negligence. 3. Respecting frugality; the manner of living in America is more simple and less expensive than in England; plain tables, plain clothing, and plain fur- niture in houses prevail, with few carriages of pleas- ure. There an expensive appearance hurts credit, and is avoided; in England it is often assumed to gain credit, and continued to ruin. Respecting pub- lic affairs, the difference is still greater. In England the salaries of officers and emoluments of office are enormous. The king has a million sterling per an- num, and yet cannot maintain his family free of debt *; secretaries of state, lords of the treasury, admiralty, etc., have vast appointments; an auditor of the exchequer has sixpence in the pound, or a fortieth part of all the public money expended by * On the 13th of April of this year, Lord Worth had asked for and ob- tained from Parliament $3,000,000 to liquidate the pressing demands of his sovereign, and an addition of $500,000 to his yearly income. Many of the tradesmen who supplied the palace with common neces- saries had not been paid for years. The coal merchant’s bill had reached $30,000. Charles Knight says the annual expense for wax candles was $50,000. The menial servants were nearly two years in arrears. The king had received $4,000,000 annually ever since his Ti 201

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