It
crossed one river as a forty foot high aqueduct. He refused to use
the beds of small rivers, whose sluggish flow gave no adequate
security against silting. Coal at the destination point of
Manchester fell to half its former price. After Wedgwood headed a
campaign to persuade Parliament to construct a certain canal, he
bought adjacent land on which he built a great factory.
In 1713, the maximum interest rate that could be charged was
reduced to 5% for the advancement of trade and improvement of
lands because that rate was the norm in foreign lands. Thus the
maximum interest rate fell from 10 to 8 to 6 and then to 5%. When
Issac Newton was Master of the Mint, he noted that too restricted
a currency caused a high interest rate to prevail, which was bad
for commerce and the plans to set the poor to work, but that too
large a quantity of money in circulation caused interest rates to
fall, which encouraged luxury imports and the export of bullion.
The Bank of England provided a safer deposit and lower interest
than goldsmiths or scriveners. It also issued notes for 10 and 15
(since 1759), and 20 pounds. Outside retail trade and wages
payments, business was conducted on a credit basis with a paper
promise to pay at some future date. Check use was still formal and
rare. Tradesmen typically authorized their apprentices to "write
off or draw" from their accounts, bringing their bank books.
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