to leave
them quite out than to touch but lightly upon them.

I had also designed one chapter or letter to my inland tradesmen, upon
the most important subject of borrowing money upon interest, which is
one of the most dangerous things a tradesman is exposed to. It is a
pleasant thing to a tradesman to see his credit rise, and men offer him
money to trade with, upon so slender a consideration as five per cent.
interest, when he gets ten per cent. perhaps twice in the year; but it
is a snare of the most dangerous kind in the event, and has been the
ruin of so many tradesmen, that, though I had not room for it in the
work, I could not let it pass without this notice in the preface.

1. Interest-money eats deep into the tradesman's profits, because it is
a payment certain, whether the tradesman gets or loses, and as he may
often get double, so sometimes he loses, and then his interest is a
double payment; it is a partner with him under this unhappy
circumstance, namely, that it goes halves when he gains, but not when he
loses.

2. The lender calls for his money when he pleases, and often comes for
it when the borrower can ill spare it; and then, having launched out in
trade on the supposition of so much in stock, he is left to struggle
with the enlarged trade with a contracted stock, and thus he sinks under
the weight of it, cannot repay the money, is dishonoured, prosecuted,
and at last undone, by the very loan which he took in to help him.
Interest of money is a dead weight upon the tradesman, and as the
interest always keeps him low, the principal sinks him quite down, when
that comes to be paid out again. Payment of interest, to a tradesman, is
like Cicero bleeding to death in a warm bath;[4] the pleasing warmth of
the bath makes him die in a kind of dream, and not feel himself decay,
till at last he is exhausted, falls into convulsions, and expires.

A tradesman held up by money at interest, is sure to sink at last by the
weight of it, like a man thrown into the sea with a stone tied about his
neck, who though he could swim if he was loose, drowns in spite of all
his struggle.

Indeed, this article would require not a letter, but a book by itself;
and the tragical stories of tradesmen undone by usury are so many, and
the variety so great, that they would make a history by themselves. But
it must suffice to treat it here only in general, and give the tradesmen
a warning of it, as the Trinity-house pilots warn sai