instead of a common poverty . . . to receive his dole of, annually:
Note from the Letter Charitas by John Ruskin

The existence of a National Debt in a rich nation seemed to Ruskin a profound condemnation of an economy based on interest. In 'Fors Clavigera', Letter 1, he advocates 'a National Store instead of a National Debt', a proposal earlier made in Munera Pulveris (XVII, 164 et seq .). He had argued there that — wealth being intrinsic —a nation's currency should be based on the store of preservable goods (food and clothing) that, through labour, it is able to accumulate.