But if I would search for a cause from whence it comes to pass that
this age swarms with such a multitude of projectors more than usual,
who--besides the innumerable conceptions, which die in the bringing
forth, and (like abortions of the brain) only come into the air and
dissolve--do really every day produce new contrivances, engines, and
projects to get money, never before thought of; if, I say, I would
examine whence this comes to pass, it must be thus:

The losses and depredations which this war brought with it at first
were exceeding many, suffered chiefly by the ill-conduct of
merchants themselves, who did not apprehend the danger to be really
what it was: for before our Admiralty could possibly settle
convoys, cruisers, and stations for men-of-war all over the world,
the French covered the sea with their privateers and took an
incredible number of our ships. I have heard the loss computed, by
those who pretended they were able to guess, at above fifteen
millions of pounds sterling, in ships and goods, in the first two or
three years of the war--a sum which, if put into French, would make
such a rumbling sound of great numbers as would fright a weak
accountant out of his belief, being no less than one hundred and
ninety millions of livres. The weight of this loss fell chiefly on
the trading part of the nation, and, amongst them, on the merchants;
and amongst them, again, upon the most refined capacities, as the
insurers, &c. And an incredible number of the best merchants in the
kingdom sunk under the load, as may appear a little by a Bill which
once passed the House of Commons for the relief of merchant-
insurers, who had suffered by the war with France. If a great many
fell, much greater were the number of those who felt a sensible ebb
of their fortunes, and with difficulty bore up under the loss of
great part of their estates. These, prompted by necessity, rack