266 Whether the sea-ports of Galway, Limerick, Cork, and Waterford are not to be looked on as keys of this kingdom? And whether the merchants are not possessed of these keys; and who are the most numerous merchants in those cities?
267 Whether a merchant cannot more speedily raise a sum, more easily conceal or transfer his effects, and engage in any desperate design with more safety, than a landed man, whose estate is a pledge for his behaviour?
268 Whether a wealthy merchant bears not great sway among the populace of a trading city? And whether power be not ultimately lodged in the people?
269 Whether, as others have supposed an Atlantis or Utopia, we also may not suppose an Hyperborean island inhabited by reasonable creatures?
270 Whether an indifferent person, who looks into all hands, may not be a better judge of the game than a party who sees only his own?
271 Whether there be any country in Christendom more capable of improvement than Ireland?
272 Whether we are not as far before other nations with respect to natural advantages, as we are behind them with respect to arts and industry?
273 Whether we do not live in a most fertile soil and temperate climate, and yet whether our people in general do not feel great want and misery?
274 Whether my countrymen are not readier at finding excuses than remedies?
275 Whether the wealth and prosperity of our country do not hang by a hair, the probity of one banker, the caution of another, and the lives of all?
276 Whether we have not been sufficiently admonished of this by some late events?
277 Whether a national bank would not at once secure our properties, put an end to usury, facilitate commerce, supply the want of coin, and produce ready payments in all parts of the kingdom?
278 Whether the use or nature of money, which all men so eagerly pursue, be yet sufficiently understood or considered by all?
279 What doth Aristotle mean by saying --"Coin seems to be something trivial." - De repub., ix. 9?
280 Whether mankind are not governed by Citation rather than by reason?
281 Whether there be not a measure or limit, within which gold and silver are useful, and beyond which they may be hurtful?
282 Whether that measure be not the circulating of industry?
283 Whether a discovery of the richest gold mine that ever was, in the heart of this kingdom, would be a real advantagetous?
284 Whether it would not tempt foreigners to prey upon us?
285 Whether it would not render us a lazy, proud, and dastardly people?
286 Whether every man who had money enough would not be a gentleman? And whether a nation of gentlemen would not be a wretched nation?
287 Whether all things would not bear a high price? And whether men would not increase their fortunes without being the better for it?
288 Whether the same evils would be apprehended from paper-money under an honest and thrifty regulation?
289 Whether, therefore, a national bank would not be more beneficial than even a mine of gold?
290 Whether without private banks what little business and industry there is would not stagnate? But whether it be not a mighty privilege for a private person to be able to create a hundred pounds with a dash of his pen?
291 Whether the wise state of Venice was not the first that conceived the advantage of a national bank?
292 Whether the great exactness and integrity with which this bank is managed be not the chief support of that republic?
293 Whether the bank of Amsterdam was not begun about one hundred and thirty years ago, and whether at this day its stock be not conceived to amount to three thousand tons of gold, or thirty millions sterling?
294 Whether all payments of contracts for goods in gross, and letters of exchange, must not be made by transfers in the bank-books, provided the sum exceed three hundred florins?
295 Whether it be not owing to this bank that the city of Amsterdam, without the least confusion, hazard, or trouble, maintains and every day promotes so general and quick a circulation of industry?
296 Whether it be not the greatest help and spur to commerce that property can be so readily conveyed and so well secured by a compte en banc, that is, by only writing one man's name for another's in the bank-book?
297 Whether, at the beginning of the last century, those who had lent money to the public during the war with Spain were not satisfied by the sole expedient of placing their names in a compte en banc, with liberty to transfer their claims?
298 Whether the example of those easy transfers in the compte en banc, thus casually erected, did not tempt other men to become creditors to the public, in order to profit by the same secure and expeditious method of keeping and transferring their wealth?
299 Whether this compte en banc hath not proved better than a mine of gold to Amsterdam?
300 Whether that city may not be said to owe her greatness to the unpromising accident of her having been in debt more than she was able to Pay?
301 Whether it be known that any State from such small beginnings, in so short a time, ever grew to so great wealth and power as the province of Holland hath done; and whether the bank of Amsterdam hath not been the real cause of such extraordinary growth?
302 Whether the success of those public banks in Venice, Amsterdam and Hamburg would not naturally produce in other States an inclination to the same methods?
303 Whether it be possible for a national bank to subsist and maintain its credit under a French government?
304 Whether our natural appetites, as well as powers, are not limited to their respective ends and uses? But whether artificial appetites may not be infinite?
305 Whether the simple getting of money, or passing it from hand to hand without industry, be an object worthy of a wise government?
306 Whether, if money be considered as an end, the appetite thereof be not infinite? But whether the ends of money itself be not bounded?