The decline and fall of the English system of finance
Contributions
- Thomas Paine
- author
- Hartley, Adlard & Son
- publisher
- Daniel Isaac Eaton
- bookseller
- Victor Desenne
- bookseller
Related resources
- has other edition
- The decline and fall of the English system of finance translation
- has translation
- Décadence et chute du système des finances de l'Angleterre par Th. Paine. Traduit de l'anglais par F. Lanthenas translation has translation has paratext
- has translation
- Decadenza del sistema di finanze dell'Inghilterra di Tommaso Paine translation has paratext
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Notes
This edition was printed by Hartley, Adlard & Son in Paris with two imprints, one listing the seller in Paris (Victor Desenne), the other the seller in London (Daniel Eaton). Another London edition was reprinted for T. (Thomas) Williams. American editions were published in Philadelphia by Robert Campbell and Benjamin Franklin Bache (printed by John Page), and in New York by John Fellows (printed by William A. Davis).
There is some confusion over the identity of 'Hartley, Adlard and Son' (not registered on the CERL Thesaurus) which may have been a false imprint for printing done in London to avoid prosecution.
Altogether there were at least 14 editions (according to Worldcat) and five refutations published in England during 1797, with further re-editions after 1817 (by W.T. Sherwin, T. Batchelar and Richard Carlile).
The British government took it seriously enough to sponsor a refutation in French by S.A. Joersson, 'Essai de critique publié dans tous les langues de Adam Smith […] et Thomas Payne […] (1796, ‘Germania’). Joersson compared Paine unfavourably to Smith and accused him of ignoring the facts of political economy and plotting the downfall of the British government in order to reduce “an amiable and enlightened people” to French “barbarism”! See John Keane, 'Thomas Paine: A Political Life' (1995), p.428.
Paine's pamphlet expanded on the economic argument he first developed in his series, 'The American Crisis' (1176-77) following advice with his friend (Sir) Robert Smyth, the banker and former M.P. now living in Paris. In it, he argued that English finance was different from the American and French systems, as its funding system of capital was largely "kept out of sight" and based on worthless banknotes: "I have now exposed the English system of finance to the eyes of all nations, for this work will be published in all languages. In doing this, I have done an act of justice to those numerous citizens of neutral nations who have been imposed upon by that fraudulent system".
Paine's attempt at economic forecasting predicted that the Bank of England would collapse under the pressure of inflation, claiming that Britain's foreign debt was now around £400m while the Bank of England only held £1m. The AAS catalogue of Paine's writings suggested this attack on the principles of paper money caused a run on the Bank of England forcing it to briefly close.
Its most radical argument can be traced from the following lines: “It is worthy of observation, that every case of failure in finances, since the system of paper began, has produced a revolution in governments, either total or partial. A failure in the finances of France produced the French revolution. A failure in the finance of the assignats broke up the revolutionary government, and produced the present French Constitution… If, then, we admit of reasoning by comparison of causes and events, the failure of the English finances will produce some change in the government of that country”.