[Jocelyn], from An Essay on Money and Bullion (1718)

The central tenet of British mercantile economic theory at this point in the eighteenth century is attested by this pamphlet’s emphasis on the ‘circulation’ of gold and silver (and money and goods). ‘Circulation’ was also a metaphor for the nature of trade, reflected in the images of blood and water. Here, it was also used to point up the perceived contrast between the stasis of the Spanish empire and nation and the British empire of circulation and prosperity.1