Essays · Chapter
The Decline and Fall of the English System of Finance explained
Paine argues that the English funding system, like all paper money systems, is doomed to collapse.
What happens
Paine argues that the English funding system, like all paper money systems, is doomed to collapse. He contrasts it with the American and French experiments, showing that while England's system lasts longer by keeping capital out of sight, it is fundamentally insolvent and approaching bankruptcy. He predicts the system will fail within Mr. Pitt's lifetime, exposes its fraudulent nature to neutral nations, and retorts Pitt's own phrase against him, declaring England's finances are on the verge of bankruptcy.
Themes in this chapter
Critique of the English Constitution and Funding System
Paine systematically attacks the English funding system as fraudulent and doomed, comparing it unfavorably to the American and French systems.
Economic Justice and Agrarian Reform
Paine argues that the funding system oppresses the present generation by forcing them to pay for past debts, and contrasts it with nature's principle of succession.
Revolution and the Right to Resist Oppression
Paine frames his exposure of the English system as an act of justice and retaliation against English depredations, implicitly justifying resistance to oppressive financial systems.
Characters to notice
- Thomas Paine
Author of the pamphlet, analyzing and condemning the English funding system from Paris in 1796.
- Mr. Pitt
Paine predicts the funding system will collapse before the end of Pitt's natural life, and retorts Pitt's phrase about France back at him.
- Boyd
Mentioned as one of two little-known men competing to lend money to the government, illustrating the farcical nature of the loan system.
- George Chalmers
Referenced indirectly as a writer on finance, though not by name in the excerpt; Paine contrasts his own data-driven approach with previous opinion-based predictions.
Key passages
“Nothing, they say, is more certain than death, and nothing more uncertain than the time of dying; yet we can always fix a period beyond which man cannot live, and within some moment of which he will die.”
Death is certain, but its timing is uncertain; however, we can always determine a maximum lifespan.
Paine uses this analogy to argue that the English funding system, like a living being, has a calculable end based on observable symptoms of decay.
“The progress of the enormous debts, which at present oppress, and will in the long run most probably ruin, all the great nations of Europe has been pretty uniform.”
The huge debts that burden Europe's great nations will likely ruin them, and their growth has followed a consistent pattern.
Paine quotes Adam Smith to show that even earlier economists predicted the ruinous effect of national debts, but without providing data.
“It is the last feather that breaks the horse's back.”
The final small addition causes a collapse.
Paine uses this proverb to illustrate how the accumulating debt will eventually cause the system to fail.
“Go, count the graves, thou idiot, and learn the folly of thy arithmetic!”
Look at the reality of death and learn how foolish your calculations are.
Paine ridicules the stock-jobber who believes the funding system can sustain perpetual growth, contrasting it with nature's cycle of life and death.
“The English system of finance is on the verge, nay even in the gulf of bankruptcy.”
The English financial system is at the brink, or even already in, bankruptcy.
Paine concludes by turning Pitt's own words against him, declaring England's finances are bankrupt.
