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The Querist by George Berkley 1735
The Querist Containing Several Queries Proposed to the Consideration
of the Public
Part I
Query 1.
Whether there ever was, is, or will be, an industrious nation poor,
or an idle rich?
2. Qu. Whether a people can be called poor, where the common sort
are well fed, clothed, and lodged?
3. Qu. Whether the drift and aim of every wise State should not be,
to encourage industry in its members? And whether those who employ
neither heads nor hands for the common benefit deserve not to be
expelled like drones out of a well-governed State?
4. Qu. Whether the four elements, and man's labour therein, be not
the true source of wealth?
5. Qu. Whether money be not only so far useful, as it stirreth up
industry, enabling men mutually to participate the fruits of each
other's labour?
6. Qu. Whether any other means, equally conducing to excite and
circulate the industry of mankind, may not be as useful as money.
7. Qu. Whether the real end and aim of men be not power? And whether
he who could have everything else at his wish or will would value
money?
8. Qu. Whether the public aim in every well-govern'd State be not
that each member, according to his just pretensions and industry,
should have power?
9. Qu. Whether power be not referred to action; and whether action
doth not follow appetite or will?
10. Qu. Whether fashion doth not create appetites; and whether the
prevailing will of a nation is not the fashion?
11. Qu. Whether the current of industry and commerce be not
determined by this prevailing will?
12. Qu. Whether it be not owing to custom that the fashions are
agreeable?
13. Qu. Whether it may not concern the wisdom of the legislature to
interpose in the making of fashions; and not leave an affair of so
great influence to the management of women and fops, tailors and
vintners?
14. Qu. Whether reasonable fashions are a greater restraint on
freedom than those which are unreasonable?
15. Qu. Whether a general good taste in a people would not greatly
conduce to their thriving? And whether an uneducated gentry be not
the greatest of national evils?
16. Qu. Whether customs and fashions do not supply the place of
reason in the vulgar of all ranks? Whether, therefore, it doth not
very much import that they should be wisely framed?
17. Qu. Whether the imitating those neighbours in our fashions, to
whom we bear no likeness in our circumstances, be not one cause of
distress to this nation?
18. Qu. Whether frugal fashions in the upper rank, and comfortable
living in the lower, be not the means to multiply inhabitants?
19. Qu. Whether the bulk of our Irish natives are not kept from
thriving, by that cynical content in dirt and beggary which they
possess to a degree beyond any other people in Christendom?
20. Qu. Whether the creating of wants be not the likeliest way to
produce industry in a people? And whether, if our peasants were
accustomed to eat beef and wear shoes, they would not be more
industrious?
21. Qu. Whether other things being given, as climate, soil, etc.,
the wealth be not proportioned to the industry, and this to the
circulation of credit, be the credit circulated or transferred by
what marks or tokens soever?
22. Qu. Whether, therefore, less money swiftly circulating, be not,
in effect, equivalent to more money slowly circulating? Or, whether,
if the circulation be reciprocally as the quantity of coin, the
nation can be a loser?
23. Qu. Whether money is to be considered as having an intrinsic
value, or as being a commodity, a standard, a measure, or a pledge,
as is variously suggested by writers? And whether the true idea of
money, as such, be not altogether that of a ticket or counter?
24. Qu. Whether the value or price of things be not a compounded
proportion, directly as the demand, and reciprocally as the plenty?
25. Qu. Whether the terms crown, livre, pound sterling, etc., are
not to be considered as exponents or denominations of such
proportion? And whether gold, silver, and paper are not tickets or
counters for reckoning, recording, and transferring thereof?
26. Qu. Whether the denominations being retained, although the
bullion were gone, things might not nevertheless be rated, bought,
and sold, industry promoted, and a circulation of commerce
maintained?
27. Qu. Whether an equal raising of all sorts of gold, silver, and
copper coin can have any effect in bringing money into the kingdom?
And whether altering the proportions between the kingdom several
sorts can have any other effect but multiplying one kind and
lessening another, without any increase of the sum total?
28. Qu. Whether arbitrary changing the denomination of coin be not a
public cheat?
29. Qu. Whether, nevertheless, the damage would be very
considerable, if by degrees our money were brought back to the
English value there to rest for ever?
30. Qu. Whether the English crown did not formerly pass with us for
six shillings? And what inconvenience ensued to the public upon its
reduction to the present value, and whether what hath been may not
be?
31. Qu. What makes a wealthy people? Whether mines of gold and
silver are capable of doing this? And whether the negroes, amidst
the gold sands of Afric, are not poor and destitute?
32. Qu. Whether there be any vertue in gold or silver, other than as
they set people at work, or create industry?
33. Qu. Whether it be not the opinion or will of the people,
exciting them to industry, that truly enricheth a nation? And
whether this doth not principally depend on the means for counting,
transferring, and preserving power, that is, property of all kinds?
34. Qu. Whether if there was no silver or gold in the kingdom, our
trade might not, nevertheless, supply bills of exchange, sufficient
to answer the demands of absentees in England or elsewhere?
35. Qu. Whether current bank notes may not be deemed money? And
whether they are not actually the greater part of the money of this
kingdom?
36. Qu. Provided the wheels move, whether it is not the same thing,
as to the effect of the machine, be this done by the force of wind,
or water, or animals?
37. Qu. Whether power to command the industry of others be not real
wealth? And whether money be not in truth tickets or tokens for
conveying and recording such power, and whether it be of great
consequence what materials the tickets are made of?
38. Qu. Whether trade, either foreign or domestic, be in truth any
more than this commerce of industry?
39. Qu. Whether to promote, transfer, and secure this commerce, and
this property in human labour, or, in other words, this power, be
not the sole means of enriching a people, and how far this may be
done independently of gold and silver?
40. Qu. Whether it were not wrong to suppose land itself to be
wealth? And whether the industry of the people is not first to be
consider'd, as that which constitutes wealth, which makes even land
and silver to be wealth, neither of which would have, any value but
as means and motives to industry?
41. Qu. Whether in the wastes of America a man might not possess
twenty miles square of land, and yet want his dinner, or a coat to
his back?
42. Qu. Whether a fertile land, and the industry of its inhabitants,
would not prove inexhaustible funds of real wealth, be the counters
for conveying and recording thereof what you will, paper, gold, or
silver?
43. Qu. Whether a single hint be sufficient to overcome a prejudice?
And whether even obvious truths will not sometimes bear repeating?
44. Qu. Whether, if human labour be the true source of wealth, it
doth not follow that idleness should of all things be discouraged in
a wise State?
45. Qu. Whether even gold or silver, if they should lessen the
industry of its inhabitants, would not be ruinous to a country? And
whether Spain be not an instance of this?
46. Qu. Whether the opinion of men, and their industry consequent
thereupon, be not the true wealth of Holland and not the silver
supposed to be deposited in the bank at Amsterdam?
47. Qu. Whether there is in truth any such treasure lying dead? And
whether it be of great consequence to the public that it should be
real rather than notional?
48. Qu. Whether in order to understand the true nature of wealth and
commerce, it would not be right to consider a ship's crew cast upon
a desert island, and by degrees forming themselves to business and
civil life, while industry begot credit, and credit moved to
industry?
49. Qu. Whether such men would not all set themselves to work?
Whether they would not subsist by the mutual participation of each
other's industry? Whether, when one man had in his way procured more
than he could consume, he would not exchange his superfluities to
supply his wants? Whether this must not produce credit? Whether, to
facilitate these conveyances, to record and circulate this credit,
they would not soon agree on certain tallies, tokens, tickets, or
counters?
50. Qu. Whether reflection in the better sort might not soon remedy
our evils? And whether our real defect be not a wrong way of
thinking?
51. Qu. Whether it would not be an unhappy turn in our gentlemen, if
they should take more thought to create an interest to themselves in
this or that county, or borough, than to promote the real interest
of their country?
52. Qu. Whether it be not a bull to call that making an interest,
whereby a man spendeth much and gaineth nothing?
53. Qu. Whether if a man builds a house he doth not in the first
place provide a plan which governs his work? And shall the pubic act
without an end, a view, a plan?
54. Qu. Whether by how much the less particular folk think for
themselves, the public be not so much the more obliged to think for
them?
55. Qu. Whether cunning be not one thing and good sense another? and
whether a cunning tradesman doth not stand in his own light?
56. Qu. Whether small gains be not the way to great profit? And if
our tradesmen are beggars, whether they may not thank themselves for
it?
57. Qu. Whether some way might not be found for making criminals
useful in public works, instead of sending them either to America,
or to the other world?
58. Qu. Whether we may not, as well as other nations, contrive
employment for them? And whether servitude, chains, and hard labour,
for a term of years, would not be a more discouraging as well as a
more adequate punishment for felons than even death itself?
59. Qu. Whether there are not such things in Holland as bettering
houses for bringing young gentlemen to order? And whether such an
institution would be useless among us?
60. Qu. Whether it be true that the poor in Holland have no resource
but their own labour, and yet there are no beggars in their streets?
61. Qu. Whether he whose luxury consumeth foreign products, and
whose industry produceth nothing domestic to exchange for them, is
not so far forth injurious to his country?
62. Qu. Whether, consequently, the fine gentlemen, whose employment
is only to dress, drink, and play, be not a pubic nuisance?
63. Qu. Whether necessity is not to be hearkened to before
convenience, and convenience before luxury?
64. Qu. Whether to provide plentifully for the poor be not feeding
the root, the substance whereof will shoot upwards into the
branches, and cause the top to flourish?
65. Qu. Whether there be any instance of a State wherein the people,
living neatly and plentifully, did not aspire to wealth?
66. Qu. Whether nastiness and beggary do not, on the contrary,
extinguish all such ambition, making men listless, hopeless, and
slothful?
67. Qu. Whether a country inhabited by people well fed, clothed and
lodged would not become every day more populous? And whether a
numerous stock of people in such circumstances would? and how far
the product of not constitute a flourishing nation; our own country
may suffice for the compassing of this end?
68. Qu. Whether a people who had provided themselves with the
necessaries of life in good plenty would not soon extend their
industry to new arts and new branches of commerce?
69. Qu. Whether those same manufactures which England imports from
other countries may not be admitted from Ireland? And, if so,
whether lace, carpets, and tapestry, three considerable articles of
English importation, might not find encouragement in Ireland? And
whether an academy for design might not greatly conduce to the
perfecting those manufactures among us?
70. Qu. Whether France and Flanders could have drawn so much money
from England for figured silks, lace, and tapestry, if they had not
had academies for designing?
71. Qu. Whether, when a room was once prepared, and models in
plaster of Paris, the annual expense of such an academy need stand
the pubic in above two hundred pounds a year?
72. Qu. Whether our linen-manufacture would not find the benefit of
this institution? And whether there be anything that makes us fall
short of the Dutch in damasks, diapers, and printed linen, but our
ignorance in design?
73. Qu. Whether those specimens of our own manufacture, hung up in a
certain public place, do not sufficiently declare such our
ignorance? and whether for the honour of the nation they ought not
to be removed?
74. Qu. Whether those who may slight this affair as notional have
sufficiently considered the extensive use of the art of design, and
its influence in most trades and manufactures, wherein the forms of
things are often more regarded than the materials?
75. Qu. Whether there be any art sooner learned than that of making
carpets? And whether our women, with little time and pains, may not
make more beautiful carpets than those imported from Turkey? And
whether this branch of the woollen manufacture be not open to us?
76. Qu. Whether human industry can produce, from such cheap
materials, a manufacture of so great value by any other art as by
those of sculpture and painting?
77. Qu. Whether pictures and statues are not in fact so much
treasure? And whether Rome and Florence would not be poor towns
without them?
78. Qu. Whether they do not bring ready money as well as jewels?
Whether in Italy debts are not paid, and children portioned with
them, as with gold and silver?
79. Qu. Whether it would not be more prudent, to strike out and
exert ourselves in permitted branches of trade, than to fold our
hands, and repine that we are not allowed the woollen?
80. Qu. Whether it be true that two millions are yearly expended by
England in foreign lace and linen?
81. Qu. Whether immense sums are not drawn yearly into the Northern
countries, for supplying the British navy with hempen manufactures?
82. Qu. Whether there be anything more profitable than. hemp? And
whether there should not be great premiums for encouraging our
hempen trade? What advantages may not Great Britain make of a
country where land and labour are so cheap?
83. Qu. Whether Ireland alone might not raise hemp sufficient for
the British navy? And whether it would not be vain to expect this
from the British Colonies in America, where hands are so scarce, and
labour so excessively dear?
84. Qu. Whether, if our own people want will or capacity for such an
attempt, it might not be worth while for some undertaking spirits in
England to make settlements, and raise hemp in the counties of Clare
and Limerick, than which, perhaps, there is not fitter land in the
world for that purpose? And whether both nations would not find
their advantage therein?
85. Qu. Whether if all the idle hands in this kingdom were employed
on hemp and flax, we might not find sufficient vent for these
manufactures?
86. Qu. How far it may be in our own power to better our affairs,
without interfering with our neighbours?
87. Qu. Whether the prohibition of our woollen trade ought not
naturally to put us on other methods which give no jealousy?
88. Qu. Whether paper be not a valuable article of commerce? And
whether it be not true that one single bookseller in London yearly
expended above four thousand pounds in that foreign commodity?
89. Qu. How it comes to pass that the Venetians and Genoese, who
wear so much less linen, and so much worse than we do, should yet
make very good paper, and in great quantity, while we make very
little?
90. Qu. How long it will be before my countrymen find out that it is
worth while to spend a penny in order to get a groat?
91. Qu. If all the land were tilled that is fit for tillage, and all
that sowed with hemp and flax that is fit for raising them, whether
we should have much sheep-walk beyond what was sufficient to supply
the necessities of the kingdom?
92. Qu. Whether other countries have not flourished without the
woollen trade?
93. Qu. Whether it be not a sure sign or effect of a country's
inhabitants? And, thriving, to see it well cultivated and full of;
if so, whether a great quantity of sheep-walk be not ruinous to a
country, rendering it waste and thinly inhabited?
94. Qu. Whether the employing so much of our land under sheep be not
in fact an Irish blunder?
95. Qu. Whether our hankering after our woollen trade be not the
true and only reason which hath created a jealousy in England
towards Ireland? And whether anything can hurt us more than such
jealousy?
96. Qu. Whether it be not the true interest of both nations to
become one people? And whether either be sufficiently apprised of
this?
97. Qu. Whether the upper part of this people are not truly English,
by blood, language, religion, manners, inclination, and interest?
98. Qu. Whether we are not as much Englishmen as the children of old
Romans, born in Britain, were still Romans?
99. Qu. Whether it be not our true interest not to interfere with
them; and, in every other case, whether it be not their true
interest to befriend us?
100. Qu. Whether a mint in Ireland might not be of great convenience
to the kingdom; and whether it could be attended with any possible
inconvenience to Great Britain? And whether there were not mints in
Naples and Sicily, when those kingdoms were provinces to Spain or
the house of Austria?
101. Qu. Whether anything can be more ridiculous than for the north
of Ireland to be jealous of a linen manufacturer in the south?
102. Qu. Whether the county of Tipperary be not much better land
than the county of Armagh; and yet whether the latter is not much
better improved and inhabited than the former?
103. Qu. Whether every landlord in the kingdom doth not know the
cause of this? And yet how few are the better for such their
knowledge?
104. Qu. Whether large farms under few hands, or small ones under
many, are likely to be made most of? And whether flax and tillage do
not naturally multiply hands, and divide land into small holdings,
and well-improved?
105. Qu. Whether, as our exports are lessened, we ought not to
lessen our imports? And whether these will not be lessened as our
demands, and these as our wants, and these as our customs or
fashions? Of how great consequence therefore are fashions to the
public?
106. Qu. Whether it would not be more reasonable to mend our state
than to complain of it; and how far this may be in our own power?
107. Qu. What the nation gains by those who live in Ireland upon the
produce of foreign Countries?
108. Qu. How far the vanity of our ladies in dressing, and of our
gentlemen in drinking, contributes to the general misery of the
people?
109. Qu. Whether nations, as wise and opulent as ours, have not made
sumptuary laws; and what hinders us from doing the same?
110. Qu. Whether those who drink foreign liquors, and deck
themselves and their families with foreign ornaments, are not so far
forth to be reckoned absentees?
111. Qu. Whether, as our trade is limited, we ought not to limit our
expenses; and whether this be not the natural and obvious remedy?
112. Qu. Whether the dirt, and famine, and nakedness of the bulk of
our people might not be remedied, even although we had no foreign
trade? And whether this should not be our first care; and whether,
if this were once provided for, the conveniences of the rich would
not soon follow?
113. Qu. Whether comfortable living doth not produce wants, and
wants industry, and industry wealth?
114. Qu. Whether there is not a great difference between Holland and
Ireland? And whether foreign commerce, without which the one could
not subsist, be so necessary for the other?
115. Qu. Might we not put a hand to the plough, or the spade,
although we had no foreign commerce?
116. Qu. Whether the exigencies of nature are not to be answered by
industry on our own soil? And how far the conveniences and comforts
of life may be procured by a domestic commerce between the several
parts of this kingdom?
117. Qu. Whether the women may not sew, spin, weave, embroider
sufficiently for the embellishment of their persons, and even enough
to raise envy in each other, without being beholden to foreign
countries?
118. Qu. Suppose the bulk of our inhabitants had shoes to their
feet, clothes to their backs, and beef in their bellies, might not
such a state be eligible for the public, even though the squires
were condemned to drink ale and cider?
119. Qu. Whether, if drunkenness be a necessary evil, men may not as
well drink the growth of their own country?
120. Qu. Whether a nation within itself might not have real wealth,
sufficient to give its inhabitants power and distinction, without
the help of gold and silver?
121. Qu. Whether, if the arts of sculpture and painting were
encouraged among us, we might not furnish our houses in a much
nobler manner with our own manufactures?
122. Qu. Whether we have not, or may not have, all the necessary
materials for building at home?
123. Qu. Whether tiles and plaster may not supply the place of
Norway fir for flooring and wainscot?
124. Qu. Whether plaster be not warmer, as well as more secure, than
deal? And whether a modern fashionable house, lined with fir, daubed
over with oil and paint, be not like a fire-ship, ready to be
lighted up by all accidents?
125. Qu. Whether larger houses, better built and furnished, a
greater train of servants, the difference with regard to equipage
and table between finer and coarser, more and less elegant, may not
be sufficient to feed a reasonable share of vanity, or support all
proper distinctions? And whether all these may not be procured by
domestic industry out of the four elements, without ransacking the
four quarters of the globe?
126. Qu. Whether anything is a nobler ornament, in the eye of the
world, than an Italian palace, that is, stone and mortar skilfully
put together, and adorned with sculpture and painting; and whether
this may not be compassed without foreign trade?
127. Qu. Whether an expense in gardens and plantations would not be
an elegant distinction for the rich, a domestic magnificence
employing many hands within, and drawing nothing from abroad?
128. Qu. Whether the apology which is made for foreign luxury in
England, to wit, that they could not carry on their trade without
imports as well as exports, will hold in Ireland?
129. Qu. Whether one may not be allowed to conceive and suppose a
society or nation of human creatures, clad in woollen cloths and
stuffs, eating good bread, beef and mutton, poultry and fish, in
great plenty, drinking ale, mead, and cider, inhabiting decent
houses built of brick and marble, taking their pleasure in fair
parks and gardens, depending on no foreign imports either for food
or raiment? And whether such people ought much to be pitied?
130. Qu. Whether Ireland be not as well qualified for such a state
as any nation under the sun?
131. Qu. Whether in such a state the inhabitants may not contrive to
pass the twenty-four hours with tolerable ease and cheerfulness? And
whether any people upon earth can do more?
132. Qu. Whether they may not eat, drink, play, dress, visit, sleep
in good beds, sit by good fires, build, plant, raise a name, make
estates, and spend them?
133. Qu. Whether, upon the whole, a domestic trade may not suffice
in such a country as Ireland, to nourish and clothe its inhabitants,
and provide them with the reasonable conveniences and even comforts
of life?
134. Qu. Whether a general habit of living well would not produce
numbers and industry' and whether, considering the tendency of human
kind, the consequence thereof would not be foreign trade and riches,
how unnecessary soever?
135. Qu. Whether, nevertheless, it be a crime to inquire how far we
may do without foreign trade, and what would follow on such a
supposition?
136. Qu. Whether the number and welfare of the subjects be not the
true strength of the crown?
137. Qu. Whether in all public institutions there should not be an
end proposed, which is to be the rule and limit of the means?
Whether this end should not be the well-being of the whole? And
whether, in order to this, the first step should not be to clothe
and feed our people?
138. Qu. Whether there be upon earth any Christian or civilized
people so beggarly, wretched, and destitute as the common Irish?
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