ender any great
_Advance_: And had it not been for a new Practice, first begun by the
_South-Sea_ Company, of Lending Money on their _Stock_; had it not been,
I say, for their imitating (tho' with Caution) that _infamous Practice_,
their Dividends would have been reduc'd to _Seven per Cent._ or under.

And for the _East-India_ Company, their _Trade_ is so far extended,
especially at this Juncture, when they are forc'd to _over-trade_
themselves, in order to ruin the _Ostenders_, that it's look'd on
already as a _Grievance_: And yet by adding _Nine Millions_, they must
divide _Four Hundred and Fifty Thousand Pounds_ Profit more than before.
And notwithstanding their _Trade_ (as I said before) was then a
_Grievance_; to what an Extension must it be driven now, to _divide_
such a Profit; when hitherto they never _divided_ above _One Hundred
and Sixty Thousand Pounds_ a Year Profit?

But will it not be a Second _Injustice_ to the _Annuitants_, after so
great a _Diminution_ of their Estates, to have _Two Thirds_ of it
_ingrafted_ on a _precarious Bottom_? All Stocks having been suffer'd to
divide above the Value of the _Nett Produce_ of their Capital; a sure
Way to distress _Trade_: Especially when Corporations are suffer'd to
issue out _Bonds_, without Trading with the _Money_, but purely to
advance their _Stock_.

The _Two Ingraftments_ are brought in, in order to help the
_Proprietors_, by Advantages of _Dividends_, to a greater Income than
the Stock could make, if retain'd in the _South-Sea_; and so to raise
the Nominal Price of Stock. Whether it will do the former, is a Doubt;
but if so, the Stock had better been kept where it was; and if the
latter, it will be only a _New Bubble_, to ruin us.

Neither the _Bank_, nor the _East-India_ Company, seem fond of the
Project of this _Ingraftment_; and nothing can be argued, but that
Something must be done, at least to amuse People with _vain Hopes_:
Whereas, the true Interest of our _Country_ would have been, to have
laid the _Wound_ open to every one's View; to have shewn the World,
what _Dividend_ could be made out of the _Interest_, and what they might
expect. Then _Foreigners_ would have sat still; for they could no where
else make Five _per Cent._ of _One Hundred Pounds_; and their Money have
remain'd here.

But if we come to make _Dividends_ of Twelve _per Cent._ and by that
means advance the Stock to _Three Hundred_; then those Strangers that
had _Four Millions_ C