PRINCIPLES 
 
 POLITICAL ECONOMY. 
 
1 lie lotiMTvutiou and secure enjoyment of our NATURAL RIGHTS 
 
 i Uie great and ultimate purpose of civil society; and all forms what- 
 
 *o'\er of government are only good as they are subservient to that 
 
 purpone, tu \vhich they tire entirely subordinate." BURKE. Tract on 
 
 i>rry LdtCS. 
 
PRINCIPLES 
 
 POLITICAL ECONOMY, 
 
 DEDUCED FROM THE 
 
 NATURAL LAWS OF SOCIAL WELFARE, 
 
 AND APPLIED TO THE 
 
 PRESENT STATE OF BRITAIN. 
 
 G. POULETT SCROPE, M.P. 
 
 ' % 
 
 F.R.S., $c. 
 
 "The rules of Political Economy arc as simple and harmonious as h? laws which 
 regulate the natural world, but the strands and -waj-v^rd policy ofmau -vould render 
 them intricate and difficult." Tracts by C. L . Ksq., '332 
 
 LONDON : 
 
 LONGMAN, REES, ORME, BROWN, GREEN, & LONGMAN, 
 PATE RNOSTER-ROW. 
 
 MDCCCXXX1II. 
 
LONDON : 
 
 PlUNTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES, 
 Duke Street, Lambeth. 
 
THE CONSTITUENCY 
 
 BOROUGH OF S T R U D. 
 
 BOOKS were formerly dedicated to some powerful 
 personage whom the Author coveted as a Patron, 
 whose name might confer honour on his work, or who 
 had laid him under weighty ohligations. These are 
 perhaps not the least among the motives which induce 
 me to inscribe this little volume to you, my kind 
 friends, from whom I have experienced so much 
 favour, and of whose confidence I feel so justly proud. 
 But I have other apologies to plead for the liberty 
 I am taking. The relation of representative and 
 constituent is now very different from what it was 
 when the privilege of making the laws which decide 
 the destinies of a great people was sold to the highest 
 bidder. Mutual regard, reciprocal confidence, and a 
 general agreement on political principles, now form 
 the bond of union between a parliamentary trustee and 
 those who appoint him. The most perfect openness, 
 the most candid exposure of his opinions on matters 
 
 377:101 
 
Vi DEDICATION. 
 
 of public interest, is what they have a right to expect 
 from him. Since to them he owes his public cha- 
 racter, to them he is accountable for his public con- 
 duct, whether in or out of parliament. On this ground 
 then, alone, I should feel justified in addressing 
 to you a volume which contains my sentiments on 
 many great questions of legislative policy. Nor can 
 a work, the main object of which is to set forth the 
 Rights of Industry to the full enjoyment of its fruits, 
 he more appropriately inscribed than to the inha- 
 bitants of a district distinguished for the honourable 
 and successful industry of an enlightened, and, I 
 sincerely believe, beyond that of other manufacturing 
 districts, an orderly, virtuous, and happy population. 
 
 I am, 
 With the truest respect and regard, 
 
 Gentlemen, 
 Your very obedient Servant, 
 
 THE AUTHOR. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 THE prevailing want of the present day seems to 
 be a want of correct information as to the true 
 interests of society. The progress of popular 
 education has already infused a mind into masses 
 heretofore but passive instruments in the hands 
 of those who were the exclusive possessors of 
 knowledge. The people now read; the people 
 reason ; the people think for themselves. What 
 do they read ? What are their thoughts ? From 
 what principles do they reason? These are ques- 
 tions of deep import. For the answers to them 
 must determine the ultimate result of the revolu- 
 tion, hitherto a tranquil and bloodless, but yet a 
 complete revolution, which has long since com- 
 menced, and is in active progress throughout 
 Europe. By education the people are everywhere 
 acquiring knowledge ; and knowledge is power. 
 
 Whilst education was nearly confined to the 
 few whose position led them to cultivate literature 
 as a recreation, an amusement, or a resource 
 against vacancy, the subjects which attracted the 
 greatest attention were naturally of a correspond- 
 
 b 2 
 
Vlll PREFACE. 
 
 ing character light, unsubstantial, and objectless. 
 The refinements of classical literature the charm 
 of poesy the studied graces of composition the 
 subtle logic of the schools the idealisms of 
 metaphysics the abstract speculations of exact 
 science and the nice distinctions of theological 
 dissent these were, in turn or together, the en- 
 grossing subjects of study and controversy. But 
 the thirst of the people for knowledge is not to be 
 slaked at such fountains. Those whose daily 
 labour wins their daily bread, with whom com- 
 forts are scarce, and necessaries not abundant ; 
 whose very means of existence are in the highest 
 degree precarious, this class no sooner begins to 
 read, to think, to reason, and to inquire, than their 
 reading, their thoughts, their reasoning, and 
 their inquiries run into channels of vital interest 
 to themselves, and immediately connected with 
 their own position. They ask themselves, they 
 interrogate each other, they consult all publications 
 to which they have access, upon the to them all- 
 important question, c How it happens that their 
 condition is so depressed their position so pre- 
 carious? Whether this state of things is necessary, 
 and, if so, why ? If not, then how it may be 
 ameliorated?' For to tolerate it any longer than 
 appears to them unavoidable, assuredly they will 
 not submit. 
 
 Hence it is that the subjects we have mentioned, 
 
PREFACE. 1X 
 
 as once engrossing the attention of the reading 
 public, are now comparatively neglected ; and 
 even the more useful branches of information on 
 natural history, and the arts and sciences, fail in 
 obtaining much regard, to the discomfiture of their 
 wondering teachers and professors. The prevail- 
 ing stream of thought arid argument sets towards 
 questions of deeper moment, of more urgent and 
 immediate bearing on the interests of mankind. 
 A strong, though as yet scarcely recognized feeling 
 has in fact begun to pervade society, that the well- 
 being of its component members is the object 
 most deserving of its attention, and should be its 
 first and most prominent study ; that the physical 
 and mental happiness of man may be most mate- 
 rially influenced by his social arrangements ; and 
 that these arrangements are susceptible of great 
 arid indefinite, if not infinite improvement, so as 
 to bring about a proportionate increase of hap- 
 piness to ,the individuals united under them, by 
 the simple application to their study and perfection 
 of the same sagacity, foresight, and powers of rea- 
 soning, which have effected such prodigious ad- 
 vances in the arts and sciences. 
 
 This feeling exhibits itself in the political ex- 
 citement, which more or less pervades every 
 nation of Europe ; and still more in the subjects 
 discussed by the periodical press of every state 
 where freedom of discussion is allowed. The 
 
X PREFACE. 
 
 questions agitated in all assemblies indeed, 
 wherever two or three are gathered together in 
 the hovel no less than in the palace in the village 
 pot-house, as in the brilliant circles of metro- 
 politan rank and fashion in the factory, as well 
 as the club have a direct practical relation to the 
 constitution and interests of society. The conduct, 
 the character, and the structure of governments 
 and legislatures the nature and probable results 
 of laws to be enacted or repealed taxation, the 
 public debt, poor-laws, free trade the condition 
 and prospects of the great leading interests of the 
 state, agricultural, commercial, and manufacturing 
 and, above all, of the labouring class, compre- 
 hending, as it does, the numerical majority, and, 
 consequently, the physical powers of the com- 
 munity these are now matters ' familiar to our 
 ears as household words,' the topics of daily, 
 hourly conversation and discussion, in every 
 corner of almost every land ; often ignorantly, 
 stupidly, blunderingly treated, it may be; but 
 still canvassed, spoken, written, read, THOUGHT 
 upon. 
 
 The spirit that so occupies and agitates the 
 general mind is not, as some pretend, one of 
 causeless and casually excited dissatisfaction ; it 
 is no paroxysm of feverish irritation or chronic 
 restlessness : it is the natural consequence of the 
 progress which the many have made in the know- 
 
PREFACE. XI 
 
 ledge of facts, and in the power of reasoning from 
 them. It is not symptomatic of disease, but 
 rather of that period in the growth of the human, 
 intellect when it passes from adolescence to 
 maturity : it indicates the approaching transition 
 of society into a state of greater health and 
 vigour. 
 
 The ideas of many who occupy themselves with 
 such subjects are, no doubt, vague and indistinct; 
 their opinions are fluctuating, and often contra- 
 dictory ; prejudice obscures the sight of numbers; 
 false lights and visionary alarms deceive and dis- 
 tract the attention of more ; the views of some are 
 narrow, mean, and selfish ; of others, wildly spe- 
 culative and theoretical ; of a few, destructive and 
 criminal ; but there is an average of correct ap- 
 prehension, sound judgment, arid virtuous inten- 
 tion, from which much may be expected. Above 
 all, there is a common desire, nay, a determination 
 to inquire into, and thoroughly sift the arrange- 
 ments of society, and a valuable acknowledgment 
 from all sides that the object of these arrangements f 
 and the end sought for in their discussion, is the 
 benefit, not of one, or a few individuals, but of 
 the mass of the associated community in the 
 quaint phrase of the Utilitarian sage, ' the 
 greatest happiness of the greatest number/ From 
 the concussion of such elements good can scarcely 
 fail to be elicited. Confiding, as I do, in the 
 
Xll^ PREFACE. 
 
 force and ultimate victory of TRUTH, and firmly 
 persuaded of its beneficial tendency, I augur well 
 of the struggle which is now going on, and en- 
 tertain sanguine expectations of its result. 
 
 This little work is an attempt to aid the solu- 
 tion of the great problem now undergoing such 
 general discussion. It is offered as an humble 
 contribution towards the great fund of knowledge 
 now in process of accumulation, (and dispersed 
 as fast as accumulated,) on the principles of social 
 welfare. It directs itself especially to investigate 
 and explain the laws that determine the supply 
 of a people with the necessaries, comforts, and 
 luxuries of physical existence. It is this branch 
 in particular of the science (if so it maybe called) 
 of social happiness, which appears to the writer 
 to be at present, if not the most neglected, at ail 
 events the least understood in theory, and the 
 most mismanaged in practice. 
 
 The character of nearly all governments is un- 
 dergoing a rapid improvement, even where their 
 forms remain unchanged. The welfare of the 
 people is now universally acknowledged as the 
 only legitimate end of state policy. The spirit of 
 conquest and the mad thirst after military glory 
 have subsided before the humanizing influence of 
 a lengthened personal, literary, and commercial 
 intercourse between nations. Education has taken 
 rapid strides in almost every quarter, and is 
 
PREFACE. Xlll 
 
 quickly dispelling the bigotry and intolerance 
 which cunning had engrafted upon ignorance. 
 The press, the organ at once and the guide of 
 public opinion, has widely extended its peaceful 
 but powerful sway. A community of thought 
 and feeling, a sense of kinsmanship and common 
 interest, a kind of cosmopolitan sympathy, is 
 establishing itself among bodies of men in every 
 region of the globe ; and millions of hearts now 
 vibrate to the same chord, in conscious unison, 
 from the Mississippi to the Ganges, from Torneo 
 to the Cape. The number of minds everywhere 
 occupied in the investigation of useful subjects, 
 and the means afforded for the intercommunication 
 of their respective discoveries, has prodigiously 
 multiplied. Art, science and literature have 
 made, and are daily making, corresponding- ad- 
 vances. The mechanical arts, especially, have 
 moved forward with unexampled celerity ; inven- 
 tion has succeeded invention, until the facilities 
 for producing objects which shall minister to the 
 ever-varying tastes and ever-augmenting wants 
 of man, seem almost boundless. 
 
 Still, amidst these bright and promising pro- 
 spects, some gloomy shadows are visible. Some- 
 thing still disturbs these elements of general 
 improvement, neutralizes their beneficial qua- 
 lities, and hinders them from combining, as 
 might be expected, to work out a general and 
 
XIV PREFACE. 
 
 uniform advance in happiness. Wealth, it is true, 
 has increased in certain quarters ; but poverty, 
 on the other hand, has increased likewise, or, at 
 least, has not proportionately diminished. There 
 is almost everywhere an actually overflowing sup- 
 ply of articles of luxury and refinement. But 
 there is, at the same time, almost everywhere, an 
 ominous and anomalous want of the very neces- 
 saries of subsistence. Knowledge is increasing 1 ; 
 discoveries in art and science are adding daily to 
 the stock of superfluities ; while food, the staff of 
 life, seems to be stationary, not to say retrograde, 
 in the rate of its supply. 
 
 This is not as it should be. There is something 
 wrong 
 
 ' When wealth accumulates as men decay.' 
 It is not merely an unhappy and a dangerous, 
 it is an unnatural and paradoxical state of things. 
 It can only be the result of culpable mismanage- 
 ment, mismanagement having its root either in 
 the fraud or the ignorance of those who model the 
 institutions, and administer the resources of na- 
 tions. Ignorance, rather than fraud, we believe 
 to be the main root of the evil. No statesman, 
 no despot even, in the present day, sets to work 
 knowingly to destroy his country and deteriorate 
 the condition of the people under his sway, for 
 his own selfish purposes. It is well understood 
 now that the interest of the governor lies in the 
 
PREFACE. XV 
 
 well-being of the governed; that political dis- 
 contents have their origin in physical distresses; 
 that the ease, the power, the wealth, the glory, 
 of a government depend on the prosperity of 
 the nation it presides over. It is to the ignorance 
 then of both governors and governed, as to the 
 just direction of their collective resources, and the 
 true principles of economical policy ; to the blun- 
 dering stupidity of power, rather than to its 
 knavery and wickedness, that we must trace the 
 defective arrangements, and consequently imper- 
 fect operation of the mechanism of most existing 
 societies. 
 
 This ignorance, like that of every other kind, 
 is to be dispelled by inquiry and discussion. The 
 rules for securing the physical well-being of com- 
 munities are simple, and, when sought in a spirit 
 of candour, almost self-evident. The writer has 
 endeavoured to clear the subject from the abstruse 
 and unnecessary mystification in which it has 
 been shrouded of late by some of its more popular 
 expounders ; and to bring its leading principles 
 within the comprehension of readers of all classes 
 possessed of plain common-sense understandings. 
 
 It has been thought advisable to introduce the 
 strictly economical part of the subject, by a pre- 
 liminary discourse on the rights, duties, and in- 
 terests of man in society, for the sake both of 
 thereby denning with greater accuracy the true 
 
XVI PREFACE. 
 
 scope and limits of political economy ; and also 
 of establishing a ground-work of axiomatic prin- 
 ciples, with respect to the rights of individuals 
 and the duties of governments, resting upon 
 which the maxims of political economy assume 
 the character, not of mere curious and interesting 
 speculations, but of rules of imperative duty on 
 the part of governments, and of unquestionable 
 right on the part of the governed. 
 
 One primary object which the writer has had 
 in view, in this as well as in other previous pub- 
 lications, he acknowledges to be the refutation of 
 that most pernicious dogma which has long been 
 palmed upon the public as the fundamental axiom 
 of political economy: namely, 'the tendency of 
 population to exceed the procurable means of 
 subsistence.' His desire has been to demonstrate, 
 in opposition to the heartless and paralyzing doc- 
 trines which this chimera has engendered, that 
 man's deficiency of subsistence is his own wilful 
 fault, that, in his aggregate capacity, he has 
 everywhere and always had within reach the 
 sources of an abundant supply for the satisfaction 
 of all his reasonable wants ; and that, so far from 
 any artificial limitation of numbers being needed 
 in the present mid-day blaze of knowledge appli- 
 cable to the improvement of his productive powers, 
 nothing more is wanting, in order to secure a con- 
 tinual increase of the means of physical enjoy- 
 
PREFACE. XVII 
 
 ment at the command of every individual^ how- 
 ever rapid the growth of numbers, than that 
 societies should exert, in the prosecution of their 
 collective interests, and the enlargement of their 
 collective resources, the same prudential foresight 
 which individuals are accustomed to employ in 
 advancing their particular interests, and extending 
 their individual means. 
 
 If he succeed only in obtaining the recognition 
 of this great truth, the author's most ardent wishes 
 will be amply fulfilled. It is pregnant with infer- 
 ences which cannot but lead to results of incal- 
 culable benefit to the whole human race. 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
 
 Page 
 
 PRELIMINARY DISCOURSE. ON the Coincidence of the 
 Rights, Duties, and Interests of Man in Society . 1 
 
 CHAPTER I Definition of Right some Rule of Right 
 necessary Moral and Legal Rules of Right should 
 coincide with Natural Right Rights and Duties cor- 
 relative . . . . ib. 
 
 CHAPTER II. Primary Natural Rights 1. To Personal 
 Freedom 2. To the common Bounty of Heaven 
 3. To Property 4. To good Government . .13 
 
 CHAPTER III. Duty of a Government, the securing to 
 Individuals the full Enjoyment of their Rights Means 
 for this end within its influence 1. Moral and Reli- 
 gious Education 2. Security from Personal Injury 
 3. The ahundant Production and general Distri- 
 bution of Physical Enjoyments The latter alone the 
 object of Political Economy, and of this work . 28 
 
 PRINCIPLES OF POLITICAL ECONOMY DEDUCED FROM 
 THE NATURAL LAWS OF SOCIAL WELFARE . 40 
 
 CHAPTER I. Definition of the Science The Study of 
 the Happiness of Societies so far as it depends on the 
 Abundance and Distribution of their Wealth Its 
 Principles capable only of moral, not mathematical 
 proof . . . . . ib. 
 
 CHAPTER II. Definition of Wealth and of Labour 
 
XX CONTENTS. 
 
 All Labour productive. Labour rather a pleasure 
 than a sacrifice must, however, be free and suffi- 
 ciently remunerated. Minimum of sufficient remune- 
 ration. Wealth no certain measure of happiness. 
 Test proposed ..... 
 
 CHAPTER IIT Conditions of the Production of Wealth 
 The Institution of private Property Labour Land 
 Capital ..... 
 
 CHAPTER IV. LABOUR Exchanges of its Produce 
 
 Right to Free Exchange Division of Labour Its 
 
 advantages Co-operation and mutual dependence of 
 
 s all Labourers Barter Money Its use Coin 
 
 Credit General use of . 
 
 CHAPTER V WAGES Ample and continually increas- 
 ing Wages secured to Labourers by the principles of 
 Free Labour and Free Exchange Inequality of 
 
 t Wages in different employments, and of different indi- 
 viduals Ability, even of the lowest class, increases, 
 and its reward ought to rise proportionately, with the 
 progress of civilization .... 
 
 CHAPTER VI. LAND Its appropriation essential to Pro- 
 duction History and causes of its appropriation in 
 different ages and countries In the East by the 
 Sovereign In Europe by the Aristocracy In Ame- 
 rica by the People Influence of these different sys- 
 tems on Production and National Welfare Natural 
 Laws of Property in .... 
 
 CHAPTER VII. CAPITAL. The result of previous Labour 
 Not affixed to Land Nor incorporated with human 
 ability Nor reserved for private Consumption But 
 employed, or reserved for Employment, in Production, 
 with a view to Profit from sale of its Produce. Ne- 
 cessity of so restricting the meaning of the term. 
 
CONTENTS. XXi 
 
 Page 
 Utility of Capital. Profit on Capital. Nature of 
 
 Profit, and natural right to its enjoyment. Mistaken 
 Views of those who declaim against the Profits of Ca- 
 pital. Fixed and Circulating Capitals. Elements of 
 Profit. Net Profit, or Interest of Money. Inequality 
 of Gross Profits. Equality of Net Profit, in the same 
 country . e . . .136 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. VALUE. Value necessarily relative 
 No real Value General Value Means ( Purchasing ' 
 Power' Elements of Value Monopoly Costs of 
 Production. Rent, the result of Monopoly Does not 
 enter into Price Distinction between good and bad 
 Monopolies Demand and Supply Their variations 
 and reciprocal action Cost of Production Consists 
 in Labour, Capital, Time, Monopoly, and Taxation. 
 Competition of Producers by which Supply and De- 
 mand are kept nearly Level Different Investments 
 of Capital and Labour Partial Glut General Glut 
 impossible, except through a Scarcity of Money . 164 
 
 CHAPTER IX. DISTRIBUTION OF WEALTH. Natural and 
 necessary inequality of Conditions and Property. 
 Adventitious advantages. Natural Right of Succes- 
 sion to Property by Will or Inheritance. Variety of 
 Conventional Rules. Test of their Equity. Natural 
 Distribution of new Wealth among Labourers, Land- 
 owners, and Capitalists Can be determined only by 
 the principle of free Exchange. The same principle 
 tends to the greatest increase of distributable Produce. 
 Limitation of interference of Government to the 
 security of Persons and Property . . 217 
 
 CHAPTER X. PRODUCTIVE INTERESTS. Agriculture 
 Manufactures Commerce. Progress, Subdivisions, 
 and utility of each. Their community of interest, and 
 equal importance. Preference awarded to Agricul- 
 
 c 
 
XX11 CONTENTS. 
 
 Page 
 
 ture owing to the unnatural existing relations of po- 
 pulation and subsistence . . . 233 
 
 CHAPTER XI. POPULATION AND SUBSISTENCE. History 
 of the supply of Food to an increasing People. Early 
 limitation of the numbers and resources of Man. 
 Hunting State. Pastoral State. Agricultural State. 
 Increased facilities for procuring Subsistence con- 
 sequent on every Improvement. Culture of inferior 
 Soils indicative of increased, not of diminished Re- 
 sources. Sure Resource of Migration. Coloniza- 
 tion Vast extent of rich Soil yet uncultivated. Un- 
 limited capacity of the Globe for the production of 
 Food. Misery the result of Crime and Folly, not of 
 any natural Law. Food can easily be made to in- 
 crease faster than Population as also Capital of every 
 kind. Folly, mischief, and impiety of the Malthusian 
 Doctrine. True direction of prudence to the Increase 
 of Food and Wealth, not the limitation of numbers 
 and happiness ..... 257 
 
 CHAPTER XII. CAUSES OF POVERTY. Mismanagement 
 of resources. Faulty Institutions. Economical struc- 
 ture and habits of nations. Errors in all Preca- 
 rious position of the bulk of the British people. His- 
 tory of the Labouring Class of Britain. Liberty and 
 Pauperism coeval. Origin, principle, means and re- 
 sults of the Poor-Law. Prejudice against it. Use 
 ' onfoini'led with abuse. Its mat-administration. 
 Allowance System. Reform of the Poor-Law. Pro- 
 posed Commutation of Poor-Tax for compulsory Mu- 
 tual Assurance Fund. Necessity of Poor-Law for 
 Ireland. General Scheme of Emigration. Summary 
 of means for extinguishing Pauperism . . 293 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. RESTRAINTS ON AGRICULTURE. Tithe 
 System. Local Taxation. Restrictions on Inclosures 340 
 
CONTENTS. xxiii 
 
 Page 
 CHAPTER XIV, RESTRAINTS ON MANUFACTURES. 
 
 Taxes on raw materials. Excise duties. Factory-bill 353 
 
 CHAPTER XV. RESTRAINTS ON COMMERCE. Restric- 
 tions on Exchanges. Fallacy of the Arguments against 
 Free Trade. History of the Protecting System. 
 Ruinous policy for a Commercial State Depresses 
 Industry and discourages Production. Taxation no 
 ground for protection Nor the absence of recipro- 
 city. True principle and limits of protection. Colo- 
 nial System. Advantage of Colonial over Foreign 
 Trade. Real use of Colonies. Should be considered 
 as extensions of cultivable Territory, and the Trade 
 with them assimilated to the Home Trade. Coloni- 
 zation. Corn Laws In principle unjust and impo- 
 litic, except to a very limited extent. Present Sys- 
 tem. Its removal should be preceded by a removal 
 of the restraints on Agriculture. Absenteeism. 
 Conclusion ..... 360 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. RESTRAINTS ON THE INSTRUMENT OF EX- 
 CHANGE. Injury of restrictions on the Instrument of 
 Exchange. Credit always employed as a medium for 
 circulating values to afar greater extent than Coin. 
 Credit should be free to take what form convenience 
 may dictate. Just limitations of Currency. The ob- 
 ject, convenience, security, and stability of Value 
 To be obtained either, 1. By complete freedom of 
 Note issue 2. By a National Bank. Vices of the 
 English System. Bank of England Monopoly. Va- 
 riations in Value of the Standard. Proposed mea- 
 sure of Variations. Their injustice and enormous 
 extent of late years. Suggestions for improvement 
 of Monetary System, Weights and Measures. 
 Usury Laws . . 397 
 
XXiv CONTENTS. 
 
 Page 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. RESTRAINTS ON THE CIRCULATION OF 
 LABOUR. Law of Settlement. To be counteracted 
 by giving facilities to Migration . . . 426 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. EXCESSIVE AND MISDIRECTED TAXA- 
 TION. History and Progress of Taxation in Britain. 
 Limited only by the resistance of the people. Fund- 
 ing System Its errors. Pressure of the National 
 Debt on Productive Industry. Financial mismanage- 
 ment. Extravagance. Misdirection of Taxation. 
 True principles of Taxation. Expediency of commut- 
 
 ' ing the Taxes on Industry and the Comforts of the 
 Poor for an Income Tax . . .431 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. Restraints on the Natural Distribu- 
 tion of Wealth . . , . .448 
 
 CHAPTER XX. Concluding Observations . . 451 
 
PRELIMINARY DISCOURSE. 
 
 CN THE COINCIDENCE OF THE RIGHTS, DUTIES, AND 
 INTERESTS OF MAN IN SOCIETY. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Definition of Right some Rule of Right necessary Moral 
 and Legal Rules of Right should coincide with Natural 
 Right Rights and Duties correlative. 
 
 THE axiom, that ' whatever is is right,' has been 
 said, sung, and upheld in various argument. But 
 though perfectly true in the sense that Providence 
 has, on the whole, ordered all things for the best, 
 it is evidently false if applied to individual actions ; 
 as, for example, cruelty, theft, and murder. Pro- 
 vidence, in arranging things ' on the whole for 
 the best,' has left to man the liberty of acting on 
 any occasion in a variety of ways ; of all which 
 but one only can be right, or ' for the best.* 
 
 In the conduct of man, therefore, and in the 
 circumstances by which he surrounds himself, it 
 seldom happens that what is ought to 6e, or is 
 * right.' 1 Caprice often urges him in one direc- 
 tion, prejudice in another, selfishness in a third, 
 sympathy in a fourth, fear in a fifth, habit in a 
 sixth, while force perhaps supervenes and compels 
 him to move in one totally distinct from all of 
 
 B 
 
2 . ' " ,^KELZM:NARY DISCOURSE. 
 
 these. Yet in whatever way he may be led to act 
 under the influence of such conflicting motives, 
 there has been all along one, and but one, right 
 course which he ' ought' to have taken, which 
 alone would have been ' for the best ;' that is, as we 
 interpret it, 4 most for the welfare of mankind. 9 
 
 Paley makes abstract or natural right to depend 
 on the will of God, directly revealed, or deduced 
 from His general intentions, as they are evidently 
 displayed in His works. And for those who be- 
 lieve with Paley, as we most firmly do, that God 
 wills the greatest attainable happiness of his sen- 
 tient creatures, and especially of mankind, the 
 will of God becomes an additional and most power- 
 ful sanction of ' the right ' in the sense here 
 assigned to it. But whether it can be proved or 
 not to the satisfaction of every one, by the evi- 
 dence of natural or revealed religion, that the 
 Creator does will the greatest attainable happiness 
 of mankind in this world, it must remain self- 
 evident to every reasonable mind, and will pro- 
 bably be disputed by none, that whatever course of 
 conduct makes most for the happiness of mankind 
 is, abstractedly, 4 for the best,' or right in man. 
 Abstract right, therefore, or, in other words, natural 
 justice, may be defined as * that disposition of the 
 circumstances within his power by man, which is 
 most for the welfare of mankind.' 
 
 Throughout all ages and nations there has been 
 more or less of direct reference to the good of man- 
 kind, the happiness of society, the public welfare, 
 and similar phrases, as the standard of right and 
 justice. And both the moral rules which have 
 been suggested at various periods by the best and 
 
RIGHT DEFINED. 
 
 wisest of men, and the laws which have been esta- 
 blished by power, with or without the assent of 
 the society for which they were intended, have 
 alike professed to aim at the promotion of this 
 great end. 
 
 These rules of morality or law have necessarily 
 partaken of the error incident to every human 
 achievement ; and, moreover, even if we could con- 
 ceive them to have been, in any instance, perfect 
 when first laid down, they will have required occa- 
 sional change to suit the changing circumstances 
 of man. From both which causes there must, 
 even in the best of times, have been some discre- 
 pancy between that which the legal or moral codes 
 of society recognized as right, and true moral or 
 natural right. This discrepancy it would be the 
 office of wisdom to discover and remove, so as to 
 bring the legal and supposed moral right to coincide 
 as completely as possible with natural right. 
 
 Unhappily wisdom has had but little to do with 
 the proceedings of most law -makers ; nor, had they 
 all been Solons in capacity, was their real object 
 always that which the/ professed to have in view. 
 While the public welfare has been on their lips, 
 their own private advantage, or the indulgence of 
 their selfish passions, was but too frequently up- 
 permost in their minds. In this way the discre- 
 pancies between legal and natural rights have 
 been widened, until at times all trace of the latter 
 has disappeared from the institutions of a society, 
 and been utterly lost sight of by those who enforce 
 or expound them ; until, in the maze of precedent 
 and prescription, the means have been mistaken 
 and worshipped for the end, and the law has been 
 
 if a 
 
4 PRELIMINARY DISCOURSE. 
 
 looked upon as an abstract something to be vene- 
 rated and pursued for its own sake, independent of 
 its bearing on the welfare of man; until it has 
 even been stoutly denied that there is, or can be, 
 any other right than that which is established 
 by law. 
 
 The absurdity of this not uncommon opinion 
 need hardly be exposed. If there is no right an- 
 tecedent to the establishment of law, then where 
 there are no laws, as in a newly-occupied country, 
 there are no rights ; and men may ill-treat, plun- 
 der, nay, murder one another without doing wrong. 
 If law is the only standard of justice, then there 
 must be as many such standards as there are 
 varying laws throughout the world ; and it must 
 be right and just that the emperor of Morocco 
 should cut off the heads of his subjects as an 
 amusement before breakfast, if it so pleases him ; 
 that the Brazilians should kidnap and make slaves 
 of as many Africans as they can catch, and that 
 the New Zealanders should kill and eat each other 
 with salt and lemon-juice. But it is quite evident 
 that justice is one and invariable ; that laws may 
 sanction wrong as well as right ; that there must 
 be therefore some other criterion of their justice 
 or ri^htfulness than their establishment by the 
 local authority of the day, or their antiquity ; and 
 this test can, in our opinion, be no other than 
 their tendency to promote to the utmost the welfare 
 of mankind*. 
 
 * There are two objections -which may be advanced 
 against this foundation of natural rights. 
 
 I. That there may be many different opinions as to what 
 lends most to the welfare of mankind ; and who is to decide 
 the point ? The answer is, that the same objection applies 
 
NATURAL SENTIMENT OF RIGHT. 5 
 
 Believing this object to be favourably regarded 
 by our gracious Maker, we are not surprised to 
 find that He has endowed man with an instinctive 
 sense of right, and a disposition to act in accord- 
 ance with it. That there is more or less of an 
 intuitive sentiment of justice present in every un- 
 prejudiced mind, is scarcely denied by any one,, 
 though some refer it to a modification of sym- 
 pathy, others of selfishness. All the three prin- 
 ciples are, indeed, intimately associated. To act 
 
 to any other supposed foundation of natural right, as the 
 will of God, or the instinctive sentiments of man. The appeal 
 must, in all cases, be to the reason of those who will think 
 upon the subject. It is to that tribunal that every writer 
 addresses himself. Those who do not acknowledge the au- 
 thority and unity of reason, calmly and impartially exer- 
 cised, may dispute the propriety of such reference; but 
 then the same persons must dispute, on the same grounds, 
 the existence of any essential distinction between right and 
 wrong, for none can be shown to exist but by an appeal to 
 reason, that is, to enlightened instinct. 
 
 II. The second objection is, that the welfare of mankind, 
 meaning thereby the entire species, is an expression so vagus 
 as to admit almost any latitude of interpretation. The an- 
 swer is, that wherever men are gathered together in a 
 social state, the interests of that society must be considered, 
 of course, to be that of the species, unless plain proof to the 
 contrary is made manifest. And again, that the interest 
 of the present generation must be supposed coincident with 
 that of the race, or of future generations, in the absence of 
 strong proof to the contrary. Where such proofs are acces- 
 sible and clear, then the balance must be struck in favour of 
 the mass and the species. But the welfare of distant na- 
 tions or ages may well be left by shortsighted mortals to 
 that creative Providence which has endowed them with a 
 power to control to a certain extent their own destiny and 
 that of their species, but has, no doubt, limited that power 
 within such bounds as will prevent their errors from perma- 
 nently affecting any of the works of His wisdom. 
 
^ PRELIMINARY DISCOURSE. 
 
 rightly is the surest way of benefiting ourselves 
 as well as our neighbours*. 
 
 But in the rude collisions of the world the fine 
 natural sentiment of right is apt to be rubbed off, 
 or incrusted with prejudices of various kinds, and 
 biassed by views of less enlightened selfishness ; 
 so that it becomes unsafe to depend on its judg- 
 ment alone, and necessary to establish fixed rules 
 for the guidance of human conduct in the path of 
 rectitude. 
 
 The expediency of some restraint on individual 
 freedom of action is easily seen. Man, by the 
 constitution of his nature, is a social animal. 
 "Wherever the species has been observed, it is 
 gathered into groups, composed of several fami- 
 lies. But in every society, however limited, the 
 will of the individuals composing it must, by the 
 very nature of things, be limited in its exercise. 
 There is, for example, a physical impossibility that 
 two individuals should stand or lie in the same 
 place, or eat th^ same fruit or piece of flesh. And 
 
 * ( Man has a law within himself to himself. He hath 
 the rule of right within. All that is wanting is only that he 
 honestly attend to it.' Butter's Treatise on Human Nature. 
 Hume, Reid, Brown, Lord Kames, and Dugald Stewart, as 
 well as Butler and Locke, uphold the c moral sense ' or social 
 instinct. A recent writer has well described its character. 
 ' There is in our nature an original and inward principle 
 of love to our kind, expressly designed by its Divine Author 
 to generate our mural sentiments and affections, and ulti- 
 mately constitute our social happiness.' Origin, Science, and 
 End of Mural Truth. It is to this principle we appeal when 
 we declare ' the right' to be whatever is most for the welfare 
 of mankind. It is this principle which alone impresses 
 us with the conviction that there is a right and a wrong, and 
 which, enlightened by knowledge and the most extensive ex- 
 perience, determines by the aid of reason our moral obligations. 
 
RULES OF RIGHT. 
 
 yet it must occasionally happen that two or more 
 individuals will feel a desire to occupy the same 
 place, or satisfy their appetites with the same 
 morsel of food. In all such cases one individual 
 must give way to the other. And what is to de- 
 termine who is to give way ? but one, it is 
 evident, of two things. Either the force of the 
 stronger individual, or some rule of right volun- 
 tarily acknowledged by him, or enforced upon 
 his observance by a still stronger party. 
 
 It is probable, as has been said, that some sim- 
 ple principles of natural right are instinctively 
 acknowledged by all sound and unwarped minds. 
 But they are, of course, liable to be frequently 
 clouded by prejudice and overborne by opposing 
 passions, A man may feel a consciousness of 
 doing wrong in ill-treating or destroying a fellow* 
 creature, or in forcibly taking from him the fruits 
 of his labour ; and yet passion, or the desire of 
 selfish indulgence, will occasionally overcome this 
 tendency to the right, and impel him to the com- 
 mission of wrong. The right, therefore, will but 
 seldom prevail, and wrong must continually be 
 perpetrated by the strong against the weak, unless 
 the right obtain some other support and sanction 
 than the mere instinctive sense of propriety in the 
 breasts of individuals. Now such a supporting 
 influence will naturally arise for the right in the 
 general opinion of the society, backed, as it will 
 usually be, when necessary, by its combined 
 power. 
 
 Though the passions of an individual, or his 
 desire for immediate gratification, may overcome 
 his instinctive sense of right in a question con- 
 
8 PRELIMINARY DISCOURSE. 
 
 cerning his own conduct, the by-standers, being 
 comparatively uninfluenced by passion or selfish- 
 ness, will probably see the question in its just light. 
 Or putting aside all notion of a moral sense, 
 whose existence is yet a matter of dispute, it is 
 evident that the majority of the members of a 
 society must always feel it to be against their 
 interest that the strong and crafty should do what 
 they please with the persons or acquisitions of the 
 weaker and incautious. Scarcely any individual 
 can feel secure or happy for a moment, so long 
 as he holds his life, and whatever he may possess, 
 only on the frail chance of no one stronger or 
 more cunning than himself being desirous to 
 terminate his existence or appropriate his pos- 
 sessions. The great body of every society must, 
 therefore, see almost instinctively (for the boun- 
 daries of instinct and reason are not easily definable) 
 the necessity of discountenancing the commission 
 of such wrongs, and of giving their approval to 
 some rule of right as a substitute for mere strength 
 or cunning in the determination of questions where 
 the wills of two or more individuals clash.* 
 
 I * l If self-love, if benevolence be natural to man, if rea- 
 son and forethought be also natural, then may the epithet 
 be applied to justice, order, fidelity, property, society. 
 Men's inclinations, their necessities, lead them to combine j 
 their understanding and experience tell them that this com- 
 bination is impossible where each governs himself by no 
 rule, and pays no regard to the possessions of others; and 
 from these passions and affections conjoined, as soon as 
 \ve perceive like passions and affections in others, the sen- 
 timent of justice, throughout all ages, has infallibly and 
 certainly had place, to some degree or other, in every indi- 
 vidual of the human species. In so sagacious an animal, 
 
LEGAL AND MORAL RULES. 9 
 
 But, moreover, it must soon be perceived that 
 the mere force of public opinion, however strongly 
 it operates upon one of the leading instincts of 
 man's disposition, the appetency for the approba- 
 tion and sympathy of his fellows, is not, in extreme 
 cases, sufficiently powerful to prevent the com- 
 mission of wrongs, and ensure the observance of 
 the acknowledged rule of moral right. The society 
 will, therefore, be led in its collective capacity, in 
 addition to the sanction of its approbation and 
 the threat of its disapproval, to enforce the ob- 
 servance of the rule they have laid down, by the 
 weight of their combined power, and the exaction 
 of penalties from offenders. 
 
 The rules according to which a society confers 
 its approbation or disapprobation on particular 
 actions constitute their notions of moral right and 
 wrong; and these, being spread by precept, and 
 confirmed by mutual communication, compose 
 what is called public opinion. The rules laid 
 down for the determination of cases in which the 
 society interferes compulsorily, or by penalty, con- 
 stitute the law, or established code of legal right 
 and wrong. 
 
 The interference of the latter is necessarily con- 
 fined to cases of a definite and determinate cha- 
 racter, and cannot be extended to a vast variety 
 of complicated and delicate relations in which 
 individuals are often placed towards each other, 
 and in which their conduct must be left more or 
 
 what necessarily arises from the exertion of his intellectual 
 faculties may justly be esteemed natural.' Hume ; Inquiry 
 concerning the Principles of Morals. Appendix 3. 
 
10 PRELIMINARY DISCOURSE. 
 
 less to their discretion, influenced only by the 
 power of public opinion over them, their own 
 sense of moral propriety, and the habit which al- 
 most all individuals will naturally have acquired of 
 thinking and acting in conformity with the re- 
 cognized code of moral fitness. 
 
 Since, however, there can be, at one time and 
 in one society, but one course or system of con- 
 duct most conducive to the general welfare, and, 
 therefore, right, both the moral and legal rules 
 ought, so far as the least comprehensive of the 
 two extends, to coincide, and, in all cases, to har- 
 monize with each other. They ought, at the same 
 time, to correspond with the principles of abstract 
 or natural justice, the only criterion of their cor- 
 rectness. That they do not always so agree in 
 the greater number of societies, savage or civi- 
 lized, perhaps wholly in none, is more a matter 
 of lamentation than of wonder to those who are 
 acquainted with the mode in which they are prac- 
 tically constructed and taught, and the conflicting 
 passions and interests which are continually at work 
 to bias and pervert them. 
 
 Every established rule, legal or moral, is an 
 expression of that course of conduct which society 
 claims of each individual ; who, in return for his 
 obedience to it, acquires on his side a claim to 
 have the observance of the same system of rules 
 enforced where he is concerned upon every other 
 individual by the society. His claim on society 
 is called his right , the claim of society on him, 
 to respect the rights of others, his duty. The 
 rights and duties of each individual are thus cor- 
 
RIGHT AND DUTY CORRELATIVE. 11 
 
 relative, or mutually dependent on each other, and 
 prescribed by the same rules.* 
 
 Natural or moral right being whatever con- 
 duces most to the welfare of mankind, the rights 
 of man in the aggregate are entirely identified 
 with his interests. Those of each individual coin- 
 cide with his interest only so far as it does not 
 interfere with that of the species or community of 
 which he forms an unit. Fortunately, or rather 
 by the contrivance of a beneficent Creator, the 
 human mind is so constituted that the pursuit of 
 "virtue, the conferring happiness on others, and 
 the acquisition of the esteem of society which is 
 sure to follow such a course of conduct, form 
 the most copious and inexhaustible sources of 
 pleasure ; so that the true interest of the individual 
 is, in almost every case, identified with that of his 
 kind. The exceptions are comparatively rare ; 
 and in their instance, we are taught by religion to 
 
 * The theory which derives rights exclusively from a 
 * social contract entered into by all parties concerned,' 
 though more than once exploded, has been revived in the 
 present day. Such a contract is avowedly a fiction; for 
 when or where did the members of any existing society 
 enter into any compact of the kind ? The submission of a 
 society cannot be taken as proof of agreement. We are 
 obliged to submit to many things against our consent. Sub- 
 mission does not even imply the consent of the majority, for 
 a small minority will often overawe and control a body 
 vastly superior to them in number. Even were it physically 
 possible for all the members of a society to deliberate and 
 agree upon the institutions under which they are to live, 
 such agreement would be no proof of the justice or riyhtful- 
 ness of these institutions. The passions, the prejudices, and 
 the ignorance of the multitude, or the influence of a few 
 crafty leaders, might induce them to agree to laws of the 
 most injurious tendency, and so to sacrifice their just rights. 
 
12 PRELIMINARY DISCOURSE. 
 
 believe that a compensation is reserved in another 
 state of existence for such as voluntarily sacrifice 
 their own immediate interests to those of their 
 fellow- creatures*. 
 
 * There exists a peculiar school of writers on morals, 
 politics, and jurisprudence, whose leading tenet is that every 
 action of man has necessarily a selfish motive, and that all 
 which is wanting to produce perfect and universal morality, 
 is for each individual to be taught what they declare to be 
 unexceptionably true: viz., that his interest is uniformly 
 identical with that of his kind, and, consequently, that he 
 will be most certain to secure his own greatest happiness, 
 by following the rules which lead to the greatest happiness of 
 his kind. 
 
 It is strange that the many fallacies latent in this the 
 doctrine of the ' Utilitarians' should be overlooked by rea- 
 soners, who especially pride themselves on their skill in 
 detecting the fallacies of others. Their error is threefold at 
 least : 
 
 1. If, in saying that man acts uniformly from sel/ish 
 motives, they only mean that every action supposes a pro- 
 pensity on the part of the agent, and a preference of that 
 over every other course of conduct, their proposition is 
 identical, and amounts to this, man's actions are always 
 the result of his volition; which is no discovery. But if they 
 use the term selfish in its ordinary sense, so as to imply 
 that the only motive of which individuals are conscious, is 
 a desire of self-gratification apart from any consideration 
 of the feelings of others, then the proposition is obviously 
 false. The truth is, they use the term in the first sense, 
 when they lay down their axiom ; and in the second, when 
 they employ it in argument. 
 
 2. It is not true that each individual is certain on every 
 occasion to secure his own greatest happiness, in this world 
 at least, (and surely the sect in question intend no refer- 
 ence to the next,) by acting in conformity with the rule of 
 moral right. Cases undoubtedly occur in which the in- 
 terests of individuals are positively opposed to that of 
 society. To take an extreme example, it is for the evident 
 good of society that a convicted and confirmed criminal 
 
13 
 
 PRIMARY NATURAL RIGHTS. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Primary Natural Rights 1. To Personal Freedom 2. To 
 the Common Bounty of Heaven 3. To Property 4. To 
 Good Government. 
 
 MAN'S natural rights may, perhaps, be usefully 
 classed under four simple and primary heads : 
 
 should be hanged. But it is as clearly his interest to escape 
 such a fate, if he possibly can. 
 
 3. But the greatest fallacy of all is, that the doctrine in 
 question assumes every individual to be capable of perceiv- 
 ing, even at the very commencement of his course of moral 
 education, (that is, while yet an infant,) and with infallible 
 accuracy, the real ultimate tendency of all actions to benefit 
 or injure mankind, and to be influenced accordingly to em- 
 brace or abstain from them. For without such supernatural 
 penetration, how is he to be operated on by a sense of their 
 moral or immoral character ? ' He is to be taught/ the Utili- 
 tarians would say, ' that such and such actions are moral, 
 and therefore conducive to his happiness.' But if he is taught 
 at the same time that the production of pleasure to himself 
 is the only reason why he should prefer the moral to the 
 immoral course, he will answer, and not without reason, 
 that he is a better judge than you of what pleases him he 
 will disbelieve what you tell him, but cannot prove to him, 
 of ultimate tendencies he will be actuated only by those 
 immediate contingencies that he is capable of perceiving ; 
 and those which require a difficult process of reasoning, and 
 a long course of experience and observation to develope, 
 will be to him as if they had no existence. Even if it were 
 true, therefore, (which we have shown it is not,) that the ulti- 
 mate interests of every individual are always identified with 
 those of society, a system of morals founded on a cultivation 
 of the selfish principle would be dangerously destructive of 
 
14 PRELIMINARY DISCOURSE. 
 
 1. The right to personal freedom ; 2. The right 
 to the common bounty of Heaven ; 3. The right 
 to property ; 4. The right to good government. 
 
 I. Of the Natural Right to Personal Freedom. 
 
 The first and most important of the natural 
 rights of mankind is that to personal freedom ; 
 
 all morality. There would be much risk that every one 
 would take his own propensities as the measure of his own 
 moral code. 
 
 All persons acknowledge that, in the great majority of 
 instances, the interests of individuals and of the mass are 
 the same; and, therefore, those who teach morality are 
 right in urging, in addition to all other sanctions, that its 
 habitual observance by all individuals would be to the in- 
 finite advantage of each. But to put forward self-interest 
 as the sole fit and proper motive for individual action, to 
 the exclusion of the desire of gratifying others, of the wish 
 for human or divine approbation, and of the hopes and fears 
 of future reward or punishment, here or hereafter, seems 
 to me about as likely a scheme for securing the general 
 observance of morality, as it would be for collecting the 
 public revenue to allow every one to drop his portion of the 
 taxes secretly into a box, freed from all other motive for 
 contributing his due share, than his sense of a common in- 
 terest in the full payment of the revenue. How many would 
 pay their taxes in full upon the strength of the conviction 
 that it is for the interest of each that all should pay ? How 
 many would keep their money in their pockets, and trust to 
 others for the plenishing of the Exchequer ? Suppose the 
 defaulters to be only one in a hundred by what process of 
 reasoning is this one to be persuaded that it is not his in- 
 terest to save his money, and be protected in his person and 
 property at the expense of his neighbours ? The old saw, 
 ' What is everybody's interest is nobody's interest,' ought 
 alone to have convinced the Utilitarians of the fallacy of 
 their leading principle. It is curious that the same pub- 
 lication which habitually puts forward this doctrine, often 
 unconsciously refutes itself in the most direct manner. Sec 
 Westminster Review, xxxiv. p. 422, 
 
RIGHT TO PERSONAL FREEDOM. 15 
 
 which is the right of every man to do whatever 
 does not injure, others more than it benefits him- 
 self; in other words, whatever is not inconsistent 
 with the general welfare, of which his own forma 
 an integral part. 
 
 This right follows directly from the definition 
 of natural justice ; since it evidently tends to aug- 
 ment the general happiness that every one should 
 please himself whenever he can do so without 
 taking from others more than he gains himself. 
 
 Nor is there any other natural liberty than this. 
 Absolute freedom of action can only be attained 
 by complete isolation from the rest of the species 
 a state unnatural to man. In order to reap 
 the advantages of social existence, he must re- 
 nounce a portion of his free will, and submit to- 
 such restraints as are necessary for the common 
 good. Slavery itself is a wrong, utterly opposed 
 to the principles of natural justice ; not because it 
 is an interference with the abstract freedom of man, 
 but because it is such an interference as cannot be 
 compensated by any benefit accruing to his master 
 or others, because the evil resulting from it to 
 mankind at large infinitely exceeds all the pos- 
 sible gain. 
 
 The determination of the specific acts which 
 are or are not permissible to a free member of 
 society, is the province of the codes of law and 
 morality, to which we have already adverted. A 
 just code of law and morals will restrain the free 
 action of each individual only so far as is clearly 
 necessary for the benefit of the whole, and will 
 therefore rob no one of the full extent of his na- 
 tural right to personal freedom. 
 
16 PRELIMINARY DISCOURSE. 
 
 II. Of the Natural Right to the Bounties of 
 Creation. 
 
 The second great natural right, coequal per- 
 haps with that of personal freedom, is the equal 
 right of all mankind to the common bounties of 
 the Creator. 
 
 Man is placed by his Maker on a world whose 
 surface abounds with a variety of spontaneous 
 natural productions, many of them more or less 
 useful and desirable to him, and evidently intended 
 for his use. It is perfectly clear that all men being 
 equal in the sight of their Creator, no one can 
 have any greater natural right to any of these 
 gifts than another. Therefore, the earth, the air, 
 the waters, and all their produce, must be common 
 property ; of which each individual has a right to 
 make such use as shall not prejudice the rest of 
 mankind in a greater degree than it benefits him- 
 self. And this right rests upon the same prin- 
 ciple to which we have referred every other. 
 Whatever limitation, therefore, is established to 
 the right of man to use or consume any natural 
 productions, can be justified (or shown to be con- 
 formable to natural justice) only by proof that such 
 limitation is necessary for the general welfare. 
 
 And this brings us to the third great natural 
 right the right to property, which constitutes 
 in itself the principal limitation here spoken of. 
 
 III. Of the Natural Right to Property. 
 
 In the same way as it is clearly perceivable by' 
 reason that the right of individuals to personal 
 freedom of action must be limited by regard for 
 
NATURAL RIGHT TO PROPERTY. 17 
 
 the general good, so is it with respect to their 
 right to the use of the desirable productions of 
 nature. Without such limitation practically en- 
 forced, there must arise perpetual strife between 
 individuals anxious to use the same thing, the 
 same fruit or wild animal, for instance ; and the 
 will of the stronger prevailing, the equal rights of 
 the weaker party would be overthrown. The 
 continual recurrence of such contests must be 
 completely destructive of the general happiness ; 
 and, therefore, the adoption of some rule is ab- 
 solutely necessary for limiting and determining 
 the right of individuals to the sole use or consump- 
 tion of natural products : in other words, to an 
 exclusive property in them. One simple rule of 
 this sort appears to have been universally adopted 
 by every fraction of the human family, in every 
 quarter of the globe, and from the first traces we 
 possess of their history. And it is this ; that what 
 a man obtains from nature by his own exertions 
 becomes his property. No tribes, even of naked 
 and wandering savages, have yet, we believe, been 
 discovered in which the right of private property 
 in the things each had appropriated by his labour, 
 was not recognized. ' Barbarians have been met 
 with, who had no ideas of religion or of God> 
 or only such as were fashioned upon their own 
 wretched existence and untamed passions ; but 
 even of their community each member was as sen- 
 sible that the stone hatchet he had made, the 
 canoe he had hollowed out with it, or the bow for 
 which he had exchanged a hatchet of his own 
 making, was his, as are the members of the most 
 law-regulated community, that they have a right 
 
18 PRELIMINARY DISCOURSE. 
 
 to enjoy what the law confirms in the possession 
 of each person*.' The ideas of meum and tuum, 
 founded on the natural law of appropriation by 
 labour, are as old as the union of any two or three 
 human beings in society. 
 
 It is true that there have been, and yet are, 
 many infractions of this rule. Brute force or 
 cunning has frequently prevailed over this as over 
 ether rights ; sometimes contenting themselves 
 with abstracting a portion of the produce of labour, 
 sometimes taking possession of the labourer him- 
 self, and compelling his exertions by the dread of 
 personal torture. But even in this extreme state 
 of degradation, a sentiment of their outraged 
 rights seems rarely to have been extinguished 
 among the slaves themselves ; nor could one slave 
 take from another what he had created or appro- 
 priated by his exertions, without committing an 
 acknowledged injustice. 
 
 The right in the labourer to the produce of his 
 toil, so universally acknowledged, may well be 
 supposed an intuitive perception common to all 
 sound minds, like the right to freedom of person 
 and action, of which it is a natural corollary. And 
 this is the opinion of Mr. Locke, as given in his 
 view of the origin and foundation of a right to 
 property. ' Every man/ he says, * has a property 
 in his own person, that nobody has any right to but 
 himself. The labour of his body, and the work of 
 his hands, are his property. Whatsoever, then, 
 he removes out of the state that nature hath left 
 it in, he hath mixed his labour with it, and joined 
 
 * The Natural and Artificial Right of Property con- 
 trasted, p. 37. 
 
NATURAL RIGHT TO PROPERTY. 19 
 
 something that is his own, and thereby makes it 
 his property. It being by him removed from the 
 common state nature has placed it in, it hath by 
 this labour something annexed to it that excludes 
 the common right of other men.- For the labour 
 being the unquestionable property of the labourer, 
 no man but he can have a right to what that is 
 joined to at least, where there is enough, and as 
 good, left in common for others*/ ' And amongst 
 those who are accounted the civilized part of 
 mankind, who have made and multiplied laws to 
 determine property, this original law of nature 
 for the beginning of property in what before was 
 common, still takes place ; and by virtue thereof, 
 what fish any one catches in the ocean that great 
 and still remaining common of mankind or what 
 ambergris any one takes up on its coasts, is, by 
 the labour that removes it out of the common state 
 nature has left it in, made his property who takes 
 that pains about it/ 
 
 In this view, the right to property acquired by 
 labour is derived from the right to personal free- 
 dom, which itself rests on the evident intention 
 of the Creator. But if this were disputed, none 
 at least can dispute that it is immediately and 
 immoveably based on the true foundation of all 
 right, expediency for the general welfare. If not 
 an intuitive perception, its justice and necessity 
 must have been suggested by the very earliest 
 lessons of experience. It must have been recog- 
 nized from the first, in every society, to be for the 
 common advantage that such a rule should be laid 
 down and adhered to, taught by the sages, sanc- 
 * Of Civil Government, book ii. chap. v. sec. 28. 
 
 c 2 
 
20 PRELIMINARY DISCOURSE. 
 
 tioned by public opinion, and, if need were, en- 
 forced by the common strength in order to prevent 
 the unhappiness which continual conflicts for the 
 possession of the produce of each other's labour 
 must otherwise unavoidably occasion to all. It 
 could not but have been felt that the absence of such 
 a rule would go far to check all productive labour 
 whatever, and reduce mankind to live, as the phrase 
 is, from hand to mouth, in a state of endless strife, 
 snatching for their daily sustenance whatever was 
 within their reach ; fighting among each other for 
 the chance-got fragments of their repasts ; and 
 exposed, like the beasts of prey to which, in this 
 condition, they would bear the closest analogy to 
 frequent famine from the failure of food. There- 
 fore it is that, even where force or fraud has tri- 
 umphed over the principles of natural justice, and 
 the weak have been compelled, against their will, 
 to labour for the strong there has yet been an 
 understanding on all sides, and a general sense of 
 the necessity, that the masters should at least pro- 
 tect the properties as well as the persons of their 
 slaves from the attacks of each Other. Tyrants 
 even have seen the protection of property to be 
 for their interest, as an essential condition to the 
 productiveness of their subjects ; and their sway, 
 though founded on usurpation, has been usually 
 submitted to more or less willingly by the patient 
 multitude, so long as they observed a decent show 
 of respect for the rights of property founded on 
 industrious acquisition. 
 
 The details of the right of property it is for 
 the law of each society to determine, and for its 
 moral code to sanction. We do not here mean 
 
RIGHT TO GOOD GOVERNMENT. 21 
 
 to advert to any of the branches of this great sub- 
 ject. It is sufficient to state that, to be consonant 
 to natural justice, these definitions must, in all their 
 details, tend to the promotion of the general 
 good. 
 
 IV. Of the Natural Right to Good Government. 
 
 Another important right is, the Right to Good 
 Government^ as the only security for the enjoy- 
 ment of any right whatever. 
 
 It has been shown that every society requires 
 laws to be laid down and enforced for prescribing 
 the boundaries of personal freedom and individual 
 appropriation. The power which lays down and 
 enforces these laws is called the governing power, 
 or Government^ of the society. 
 
 Much has been written, and much spoken of 
 late, on the political rights of individuals ; and 
 especially has the right been loudly and frequently 
 asserted of every individual to self-government; 
 that is, to an equal share in the governing power. 
 We can recognize no abstract right of any kind, 
 but such as may flow from the one great principle 
 of expediency for the general welfare of man- 
 kind. That, on this principle, government of some 
 kind is indispensable to every society is easily 
 proved, if it have not been sufficiently proved al- 
 ready. 
 
 If men were beings of angelic dispositions and 
 perfect wisdom, so that they could act no otherwise 
 than inexact accordance with natural justice, no go- 
 vernment would be necessary, either to frame rules 
 of conduct, or to constrain their observance ; and 
 
22 ' PRELIMINARY DISCOURSE. 
 
 we might save all their trouble and cost. But we 
 are fallible creatures, and, moreover, when aware 
 of the right, are often led, by passion or caprice r 
 to take the wrong path. There can be, therefore, 
 no security to individuals for the enjoyment of 
 any of their rights, no chance of maintaining the 
 order and tranquillity essential to the general wel- 
 fare, but through the compulsory interference of 
 the collective power of society in controlling the 
 actions of those who would otherwise infringe the 
 rights of others and disturb the general happi- 
 ness. Laws, as we have seen, are necessary for 
 this purpose defining the rights of individuals; 
 and authority must be placed somewhere to frame, 
 to interpret, and to enforce obedience to these 
 laws. 
 
 For since the circumstances of societies are un- 
 dergoing continual alteration, their laws will need 
 corresponding changes, to adapt them to the new 
 relations of individuals to each other and to the ex- 
 ternal world. But such alterations must require the 
 exercise of profound sagacity, extensive expe- 
 rience, and mature deliberation ; which cannot be 
 obtained in general assemblies of the entire body of 
 any society. The task, therefore, of framing the laws 
 for the regulation of a society must be entrusted 
 to a select body of limited number. In the same 
 manner it is evident that the collective power of a 
 society cannot be usefully employed in a mass on 
 every occasion which may require the enforcement 
 of its laws. A similar selection, therefore, must 
 take place, of some party in whose hands autho- 
 rity must be lodged, to employ any portion of this 
 power which may be necessary for the purpose. 
 
RIGHT TO GOOD GOVERNMENT. 23 
 
 In other words, both the legislative and executive 
 functions of social government, to be effectual, 
 must be entrusted to a limited number of persons. 
 Now, were it demonstrable beyond the possibi- 
 lity of dispute, that the permanent interests of a 
 community (the only end and object of any go- 
 vernment, and the measure of the rights of the 
 individuals composing it) would be always best 
 promoted by conferring the absolute power of 
 making and executing laws on a single individual, 
 autocracy would be the form of government most 
 accordant with the natural rights of man. If, on 
 the contrary, it could be plainly proved that the 
 welfare of a community required every individual, 
 man, woman, and child, (the only true universal 
 suffrage) or every adult individual of both sexes 
 or every adult male or only a certain number 
 and class of adult males or any other select body 
 whatsoever to be entrusted with the legislative 
 or executive power, or with the choice of the 
 persons to whom that power is to be delegated 
 then, in any of these several cases, that form of 
 government would be the one most accordant with 
 natural right. In short, the right of every indi- 
 vidual in this matter is not to self-government^ but 
 to good government to that form of government 
 which is most highly conducive to the general wel- 
 fare a right to have his happiness consulted, and 
 his rights protected, by the authorities entrusted 
 with power, in the same degree with those of 
 every other person in the community. That this 
 is really what has been understood, though per- 
 haps confusedly, by even the most extravagant 
 theorists on the principle of self-government, is 
 
24 PRELIMINARY DISCOURSE. 
 
 shown by their stopping far short of universal 
 suffrage. None of them think of giving a vote 
 to children, madmen, or criminals ; few have even 
 proposed its extension to females ; yet, if the 
 right is anything inherent in the species, it must 
 belong equally to every individual from the mo- 
 ment of his birth, and can only quit him with his 
 life. If they defend their limitation of the suf- 
 frage, as without doubt they would, by asserting 
 the incapacity of women, children, lunatics, &c. 
 and that the interests of all, including these classes, 
 would be better secured by the suffrage being 
 exclusively entrusted to the adult males, the ques- 
 tion is then confessedly but one of degree between 
 one kind of limitation and another and to be 
 argued upon the same principle, and with reference 
 to no other abstract right than that we speak of; 
 namely, to good, or rather, to the best government. 
 And if we assume, what few in this country will 
 think of disputing, that representative institutions, 
 in some shape or other, are indispensable to good 
 government, the question will be simply what 
 limitation or extension of the electoral franchise, 
 and what checks upon its exercise, may be rea- 
 sonably expected to provide the best form of go- 
 vernment, and secure the greatest sum of general 
 happiness. 
 
 It is not, of course, our object here to enter 
 upon this question. All we wish to do is, to place 
 the subject ojf political rights in a clear light, and 
 on its proper footing ; and to show the grounds on 
 which all parties are bound in reason to argue it. 
 The solution of the problem in any individual in- 
 stance will necessarily vary much, according to 
 
POLITICAL RIGHTS AND DUTIES. 25 
 
 local and temporary circumstances. The extent 
 of suffrage which would be most for the benefit 
 of a highly intelligent and generally educated com- 
 munity must be prejudicial to a people in which 
 the vast majority are yet wrapped in almost brutal 
 ignorance. The same form of government which 
 is suited to England in the present day would 
 clearly not be equally advisable for Spain perhaps 
 even not for Ireland. 
 
 What has been said may also help to remove 
 the prevailing fallacy of supposing the elective 
 franchise, under a representative form of govern- 
 ment, to be of the nature of a right personal to 
 the voter. When individuals are selected to exer- 
 cise any power in a state, the legitimate object of 
 such selection being solely the promotion of the 
 general happiness, not the exhibition of any pecu- 
 liar favour or advantage to the individuals them- 
 selves, it follows that this power, whatever its 
 nature, whether regal, senatorial, or electoral, can 
 only be looked upon in the light of a sacred duty 
 imposed upon the individual, to be exercised 
 strictly and conscientiously for the benefit of the 
 people at large, and not for any purpose of private 
 or local interest. It follows as a necessary corol- 
 lary, that no one can have a property, or a private 
 interest, vested in any public trust or office ; or 
 any just ground of complaint if it is taken away 
 from him at any time for purposes of public be- 
 nefit. 
 
 The political rights of man may, therefore, be 
 defined as the claim of every individual to have 
 his interest promoted and protected to the sam.3 
 extent as that of every other member of society by 
 
26 PRELIMINARY DISCOURSE. 
 
 the combined power of the whole body : in other 
 words, it is aright to good government. Recipro- 
 cally, his duty to society is, to submit to, and co- 
 operate when required in the just exercise of its 
 power. The right is conditional on the fulfilment 
 of the duty the duty on the enjoyment of the right. 
 The denial of the right absolves from the duty 
 the refusal of the duty nullifies the right. Tyranny 
 justifies resistance from the individuals subjected 
 to it. Crime justifies the infliction by society of 
 punishment on the individuals guilty of it. 
 
 Government has been called a necessary evil. 
 Expensive, unjust, and tyrannical governments are 
 evils unquestionably of the most severe kind, since 
 they entail a train of unnecessary sufferings on those 
 who are subjected to them ; but a good govern- 
 ment is simply the establishment and maintenance 
 of a rule of order and justice for securing the 
 general welfare ; which can hardly be called an evil: 
 at least if any evils accompany it, they are compen- 
 sated by an infinitely preponderating balance of 
 good. 
 
 The right, therefore, to good government, 
 which we have placed last in the order of man's 
 natural rights, comprehends, in truth, all the rest. 
 It is only through the means of good government, 
 that individuals can enjoy their rights to personal 
 freedom, to the common bounty of Heaven, or to 
 the property which their toil has produced them; 
 and it is solely in order to secure to individuals the 
 enjoyment of these their natural rights, that govern- 
 ment is instituted. 
 
 I have declined, as foreign to the purpose of 
 this work, to enter into the question of the best 
 
POLITICAL RIGHTS AND DUTIES. 27 
 
 form of government, either abstractedly, or with 
 reference to any particular age and country. Such 
 an inquiry, indeed, it is at once apparent, cannot 
 properly be instituted until a complete knowledge 
 has been obtained of the duties of a government, 
 and the means by which it can best fulfil them. 
 Without a clear understanding of the nature of 
 these duties, any question as to the form of 
 government most likely to secure their effective 
 fulfilment would be palpably premature. 
 
23 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Duty of a Government^ the securing to Individuals the full 
 Enjoyment of their Rights Means for this end within its 
 influence 1. Moral and Religious Education *2 Secu- 
 rity from Personal Injury 3. The abundant Production 
 and general Distribution of Physical Enjoyments The 
 latter alone the object of Political Economy, and of this 
 work. 
 
 THE chief object for which government is insti- 
 tuted, and consequently its principal duty, is, as 
 has been said, to secure to all the individuals over 
 which it presides the full enjoyment of their natu- 
 ral rights ; in other words, as the great object of 
 those rights, to guarantee to each the greatest 
 attainable amount of happiness consistent with the 
 general welfare. 
 
 To fulfil this its duty, the members of a govern- 
 ment should not only possess a pure and single- 
 minded desire to accomplish their task, but like- 
 wise a thorough knowledge of the principles of 
 natural right, and of the circumstances which de- 
 termine the happiness of individuals and the gene- 
 ral welfare of societies. And not only they, but 
 every one who criticises the conduct of a govern- 
 ment, and passes an opinion upon any law, insti- 
 tution, or rule of society, should be equally in- 
 formed on these points ; or, in the absence of such 
 information, his decisions can be but mere guesses, 
 as devoid of reasonable foundation as those which 
 
DUTIES OF GOVERNMENTS. 29 
 
 a blind man may form upon a question of colours, 
 or a deaf person upon one relating to music. 
 
 And yet it is to be feared there are few out 
 of the. numbers who, in this and other countries, 
 habitually discuss and criticise the proceedings 
 of legislatures and the character of laws, 
 few, indeed, even of those who are occupied, or 
 seek to occupy themselves, as members of the 
 legislature or executive, in making, altering, and 
 enforcing laws, who possess any clear or correct 
 apprehension of even the first principles of natural 
 right, of the primary circumstances on which the 
 general welfare depends, or the means essential 
 to be taken for its promotion. Even in this coun- 
 try, the most advanced perhaps of any in such 
 studies, what is the fact ? A few vague general 
 notions caught up during a hasty perusal of Paley 
 or Blackstone ; a host of prejudices carefully im- 
 planted at school and college by teachers inte- 
 rested in maintaining the abuses of existing insti- 
 tutions ; mistaken but deeply-rooted impressions 
 upon private interests ; party attachments, and 
 personal caprices ; these compose the stock of 
 opinions and motives on which too many a legis- 
 lator commences and carries on his business. 
 Even the very best disposed and best qualified 
 have, it is to be feared, but a slight acquaintance 
 with the fundamental principles of social happi- 
 ness ; as is too often proved by the shallowness 
 of their reasonings, and their constant shrinking 
 from any recurrence to first principles. And yet 
 nothing is more certain than that all legislation or 
 action of government which does not proceed 
 upon a just knowledge of the true interests of 
 
30 PRELIMINARY DISCOURSE. 
 
 man in society, can be but a journey in the dark, 
 through an unknown country, without guide or com- 
 pass ; wherein the right road may by mere accident 
 be blundered on, but in which the chances are greatly 
 in favour of error and consequent misfortune. 
 
 The conventional avoidance by our modern 
 legislators of all reference to first principles 
 argues not merely an ignorance of them, but 
 some vague fear that the actual institutions of 
 society would be endangered by their acknow- 
 ledgment.* But this dread is happily as un- 
 founded as it is unwise. If, indeed, the mass of 
 
 * ' Pleased as we are with the possession of property, 
 we seem afraid to look back to the means by which it was 
 acquired, as if fearful of some defect in our title. Or, at 
 best, we rest satisfied with the decision of the laws in our 
 favour, without examining the reason or authority on which 
 those laws have been built. We think it enough that our 
 title is derived by the grant of the former proprietor, by 
 descent from our ancestors, or by the last will and testament 
 of the dying owner; not caring to reflect that (accurately 
 and strictly speaking) there is no foundation in nature or in 
 natural law, why a set of words upon parchment should 
 convey the dominion of land ; why the son should have a 
 right to exclude his fellow-creatures from a determinate spot 
 of ground because his father had done so before him ; or 
 why the occupier of a particular field or of a jewel, when 
 lying on his deathbed and unable to retain possession, 
 should be entitled to tell the rest of the world which of 
 them should enjoy it after him. These inquiries, it must 
 be owned, would be useless and even troublesome in common 
 life. It is well if the mass of mankind will obey the laws 
 when made, without scrutinizing too nicely into the reasons 
 for making them. But when law is to be considered 
 not only as a matter of practice, but also as a rational sci- 
 ence, it cannot be improper or useless to examine more 
 deeply the rudiments and grounds of these positive consti- 
 tutions of society.' Blackstone** Commentaries ,11. c t i. p. 2. 
 
DUTIES OF GOVERNMENTS. 31 
 
 the institutions of any state were opposed to the 
 first principles of justice, it would surely be far 
 better to examine and ascertain the extent of their 
 discordance, with a view to its correction, than 
 to endeavour to conceal or shut our eyes to their 
 defects. It is, however, quite wrong to imagine 
 that the great institutional landmarks of this country 
 are opposed to the principles of natural justice, or , 
 that they would not be confirmed and strengthened 
 in public opinion the firmest bulwark for any 
 institutions by a reference to these principles, 
 and the most open, full, and general discussion 
 upon their accordance or disagreement. The 
 danger in an inquiring age like the present, when 
 institutions have ceased to be respected because 
 they are established, and venerated because they are 
 ancient, when the people have begun to think and 
 to reason on such subjects, and are no longer con- 
 tented with what is, without satisfying themselves 
 whether it ought to be, the danger lies in the 
 general ignorance of the public as to the true 
 principles of public welfare, and in the general sus- 
 picion that the discordance of existing institutions 
 from these principles is far greater than it really is, 
 a suspicion which is generated by the unwilling- 
 ness of legislators to refer their conduct to first 
 principles, and nourished by those who are ready 
 at all times to imbue the multitude with opinions 
 which may dispose them for violence and plunder. 
 The chief object of this work, now that the 
 ground has been cleared by the determination of 
 the simple principles of natural justice, will be to 
 examine the circumstances within the influence of 
 a government upon which depends the general 
 
32 PRELIMINARY DISCOURSE. 
 
 welfare of communities ; and to compare with 
 them the legislative policy of this country, in order 
 to ascertain how far and in what particulars they 
 agree or disagree. 
 
 This inquiry will, I think, show that the great 
 body of the present owners of property have no 
 reason to dread the discussion of such questions ; 
 for that their real interests are not opposed to, but, 
 on the contrary, are identified with those of society 
 at large ; and that they may, therefore, safely, and 
 without apprehension, meet their adversaries on 
 the fair field of argument, and rest their cause on 
 the firm foundation of the first principles of natu- 
 ral justice. 
 
 The circumstances which determine the well- 
 being of a society, and are, more or less, within 
 the control of its government, may, it is consi- 
 dered, be classed under three great heads, viz. 
 
 1. The moral and religious disposition of its 
 
 members. 
 
 2. The degree in which they are individually se- 
 
 cured from personal injuries. 
 
 3. The degree in which they are individually sup- 
 
 plied with the necessaries, comforts, and phy- 
 sical enjoyments of life. 
 
 1. With respect to the moral and religious dis- 
 position of the members of a society. It can 
 scarcely be doubted that man is, by the constitu- 
 tion of his nature, disposed as well to love, to 
 sympathize with, and to benefit his fellow-crea- 
 tures, as to venerate the great Being to whom he 
 ascribes the creation of the universe with all that 
 is therein. This innate tendency to virtue and 
 
GENERAL EDUCATION". 33 
 
 piety may, however, on the one hand, be checked, 
 or even utterly destroyed ; on the other, fostered, 
 encouraged, and developed, by the favourable or 
 unfavourable circumstances which surround the 
 individual from his earliest years, in one word, 
 by his education. Now it is unquestionable that 
 the direction of these circumstances, or the educa- 
 tion of the mass of any people, is within the 
 power, and few can doubt that it therefore forms 
 one of the foremost of the duties, of their go- 
 vernment ; and this not only with the view of 
 inculcating a moral and religious disposition 
 amongst them, but likewise of eradicating, so far 
 as is possible, the root of all evil ignorance, and 
 widely disseminating the seed of all good know- 
 ledge. 
 
 I have no intention, however, of going into a 
 discussion of the mode and degree in which the 
 great business of general education should be un- 
 dertaken or superintended by a government. I 
 shall content myself with remarking, as bearing 
 upon our immediate subject, that, of the circum- 
 stances which indirectly influence the moral and 
 religious character of a nation, none are more 
 important than its economical condition, or the 
 degree in which its members are enabled to com- 
 mand the necessaries, comforts, and enjoyments 
 of life. A state of general misery is alike unfa- 
 vourable to the development of the social virtues 
 and the cultivation of national religion. In no 
 quarter of the globe do we see vice so confirmed, 
 crime so abundant, religion so grievously polluted 
 by impiety and superstition, as in those countries 
 where the physical wants of the people are most 
 
34 PRELIMINARY DISCOURSE. 
 
 meanly supplied ; where poverty, and its attendant, 
 recklessness, exasperate the evil passions of our 
 nature, and smother the germs of every generous 
 and noble sentiment 
 
 2. I shall pass over with equal brevity the con- 
 sideration of the means possessed by a government 
 for securing the members of the community it is 
 placed over from personal injury. This is noto- 
 riously one of the first duties of every government, 
 and is to be effected by laws expressly enacted for 
 the protection of the persons of individuals, both 
 from domestic and foreign aggression. That the 
 laws enacted for this purpose in most countries are 
 as yet far removed from perfection, is a matter 
 now of general acknowledgment ; but it would 
 be foreign from our present purpose to enter upon 
 the examination of their defects, or the means of 
 improving them. I proceed, therefore, to the 
 third class of circumstances within the influence of 
 a government, by which the happiness of every 
 community is determined, namely 
 
 3. The degree in which its members are indivi- 
 dually supplied with the necessaries, comforts, 
 and physical enjoyments of life. To promote to 
 the utmost this supply, is, or ought to be, the one 
 great object of all laws and institutions, civil or 
 criminal, which relate to property in any of its 
 shapes, which laws compose, indeed, the great 
 mass of legislation in every state. 
 
 It is therefore evidently most essential that the 
 members of every government and legislature, 
 and, under representative institutions, even the 
 persons by whom these trustees of the general in- 
 terests are chosen, should possess as general and 
 
POLITICAL ECONOMY. 35 
 
 correct a knowledge as possible of the means for 
 securing the greatest abundance and most liberal 
 distribution of the physical enjoyments of life 
 amo?ig the members of a society. 
 
 Now this important knowledge it is the business 
 of Political Economy to convey, 
 
 Much obloquy has of late been thrown upon the 
 science which assumes this name, and upon its cul- 
 tivators, obloquy not perhaps wholly unmerited 
 on the part of some of their number, who from 
 generalizing hastily upon insufficient facts, have 
 arrived at conclusions so opposed to the common, 
 sense and experience of practical men, that the 
 latter have been led to look upon the propounders 
 of these theories as Laputan philosophers, and on 
 the science as a mere bundle of mischievous para- 
 doxes. The ridicule which some of these hyper- 
 economists have justly incurred, in some in- 
 stances converted into indignation by the dog- 
 matism with which the most mischievous fallacies 
 were put forward and obstinately maintained by 
 them, has been unhappily shared by the science 
 which they professed to explain, but which, in fact, 
 they only obscured and mystified. So prevalent 
 are these impressions, that it has at times been 
 doubted whether it would not be advisable to dis- 
 card altogether the title of Political Economy, and 
 pursue our inquiries into this important subject 
 under some new and less obnoxious name. But 
 such a change would be the cause, probably, of 
 much confusion. The candour and enlightened 
 spirit of the age must be trusted to for dispelling 
 this unjust prejudice. The time is arrived when 
 
 D 2 
 
36 PRELIMINARY DISCOURSE. 
 
 the value of the true philosophy of wealth must be 
 recognised, and its claims to general attention 
 made manifest, in spite of the temporary discredit 
 it has suffered through the blunders and self- 
 sufficiency of some pretenders to its exclusive 
 interpretation. The science of medicine is not 
 the less esteemed because occasionally disgraced 
 by the St. John Longs and Van Butchells. Man- 
 kind is not the less indebted to chemistry because 
 its early history was stained by the knavery 
 and nonsense of the alchemists. Astronomy 
 is not despised because its grand truths have 
 been, in former ages, debased by the jugglery 
 of fortune-telling and judicial astrology. Neither 
 will Political Economy, the science which teaches 
 how to advance to the utmost possible extent 
 the production and general diffusion of the means 
 of enjoyment, and so improve, as far as is prac- 
 ticable, " the physical condition of every mem- 
 ber of society, be deprived of the consideration 
 which its paramount importance to mankind de- 
 serves, because empiricism may have momentarily 
 flourished, and mischievous errors been propa- 
 gated, under its name. On the contrary, it be- 
 comes, on this very account, the more necessary 
 for all who wish to arrive at a knowledge of the 
 truth on this important subject, and have an in- 
 terest in its dissemination, (as who has not ?) to 
 apply themselves to its study. Error must, in 
 such a matter, be more than commonly pernicious ; 
 and the more errors of the kind we believe to 
 have been propagated, the more incumbent it is 
 on all who have the requisite leisure to examine 
 
POLITICAL ECONOMY. 37 
 
 and sift the subject to the utmost, with the view 
 of purifying it from its mischievous fallacies, and 
 establishing its useful truths. 
 
 Nor are errors on this subject by any means 
 confined to those who have pursued its study in 
 their closets. On the contrary, the most perni- 
 cious fallacies and absurd paradoxes have been, 
 and still are, generally current among those who 
 pride themselves on being 4 practical' men, and on 
 despising theory. There are, indeed, few rasher 
 theorists than those who habitually declaim against 
 theory. The notions, for example, that a country 
 is enriched by what is called a favourable balance 
 of trade causing an influx of the precious metals ; 
 that the expenditure of taxes in employing the 
 people compensates them for the burthen of tax- 
 ation; that improvements in machinery are inju- 
 rious to the labouring class ; that one individual, 
 or one country, can only gain at the expense of 
 another ; that the outlay of an absentee's income 
 abroad, or the introduction for sale in this country 
 of an article of foreign manufacture, abstracts an 
 equal amount of employment from our native in- 
 dustry; these, and many others that might be 
 mentioned, are theoretical doctrines of the falsest 
 and most injurious character, taken up by nume- 
 rous persons on what they consider the authority 
 of ' common sense,' but which, in truth, is merely 
 crude induction from a very limited and imperfect 
 experience. No governments can, indeed, act, or 
 individuals form a judgment upon their action, 
 except upon theories of some kind, true or false, 
 with respect to questions within the province of 
 Political Economy ; and it would be quite con- 
 trary to general analogy to suppose that truth 
 
38 PRELIMINARY DISCOURSE. 
 
 is not to be ascertained on this, as on other sub- 
 jects, by careful and judicious inquiry ; or that 
 random conjecture and blind impulse are to be pre- 
 ferred in this, any more than in other matters, to 
 rules deduced from extensive and systematic inves- 
 tigation. In the economy of states, just as in the 
 management of human bodies, diseases have oc- 
 casionally been brought on or heightened, as well 
 by false theory as by ignorant guess-work ; but 
 no one will dispute that it is to the sedulous pro- 
 secution of scientific inquiry that we can alone look 
 for correct views and safe or beneficial treatment. 
 
 Neither should any one be deterred from this 
 study by a notion of its inherent difficulty or dry- 
 ness. True it is that crabbed and tiresome works 
 have been written upon it ; and many who have 
 looked into them may have laid down the books 
 in disgust at their dulness, or despair of being 
 able to comprehend their reasoning. There is, 
 however, good ground for suspecting that these 
 abstruse writers were themselves as much lost in 
 the maze of their arguments as their readers. 
 Truth, on this as on other subjects relating to the 
 daily business of mankind, is simple in itself, and 
 may be made clear and intelligible to all ordinary 
 capacities. And as to its presumed want of in- 
 terest, surely an examination of the means for 
 placing the greatest possible abundance of the 
 comforts and luxuries of life at the command of 
 every member of the community, must come home 
 to the bosoms and business of all men ; and, if 
 properly treated, afford a matter of pleasing as 
 well as useful speculation. 
 
 * Such inquiries, in truth,' as has been observed 
 by one of the most elegant writers on this subject, 
 
POLITICAL ECONOMY. 39 
 
 if not the least erring, ' cannot fail to excite the 
 deepest interest in every ingenuous mind. The 
 laws by which the motions of the celestial bodies 
 are regulated, and over which man cannot exer- 
 cise the slightest influence, are yet universally 
 allowed to be noble and rational objects of study ; 
 but the laws which regulate the movements of 
 human society, which cause one people to ad- 
 vance in opulence and refinement at the same time 
 that another is sinking into the abyss of poverty 
 and barbarism, have an infinitely stronger claim 
 upon our attention, both because they relate to 
 objects which exercise a direct influence over 
 human happiness, and because their effects may 
 be, and, in fact, are, continually modified by human 
 interference. National prosperity does not depend 
 nearly so much on advantageous situation, salu- 
 brity of climate, or fertility of soil, as on the 
 adoption of measures fitted to excite the inventive 
 powers of genius, and to give perseverance and 
 activity to industry. The establishment of a wise 
 system of public economy can compensate for 
 every other deficiency. It can render regions na- 
 turally inhospitable, barren, and unproductive, the 
 comfortable abodes of an elegant and refined, a 
 crowded and wealthy, population. But where it 
 is wanting, the best gifts of nature are of no value ; 
 and countries possessed of the greatest capacities 
 of improvement, and abounding in all the mate- 
 rials necessary for the production of wealth, with 
 difficulty furnish a miserable subsistence to hordes 
 distinguished only by their ignorance, barbarism, 
 and wretchedness */ 
 
 * M'Culloch's Political Economy, Preface, p. 25. 
 
40 
 
 PRINCIPLES OF POLITICAL ECONOMY DE- 
 DUCED FROM THE NATURAL LAWS OF 
 SOCIAL WELFARE. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Definition of the Sciences The Study of the Happiness of 
 Societies so far as it depends on the Abundance and Distri- 
 bution of their Wealth. Its Principles capable only of 
 moral, not mathematical proof . 
 
 POLITICAL Economy teaches the art of managing 
 the resources of a society to the best advantage of 
 its members. It does not, however, as has been 
 already explained, embrace the moral and reli- 
 gious education, the political constitution, or the 
 personal protection of a people, but concerns itself 
 solely with the artificial means of enjoyment, com- 
 posing the necessaries, comforts, and luxuries of 
 life things which are the result of labour and the 
 objects of exchange ; and which, when accumu- 
 lated to any considerable extent, are ordinarily 
 spoken of as wealth. 
 
 Hence it has been usually designated as the study 
 of ' the nature and causes of the wealth of nations/ 
 This definition is, however, incomplete, and has per- 
 haps led both to a false estimate of the objects of the 
 science, and an erroneous method of pursuing it, 
 by seeming to restrict inquiry to the means of 
 increasing the gross amount of national wealth, 
 without regard to its diffusion^ or to the influence 
 of different modes of production and distribution 
 
POLITICAL ECONOMY DEFINED. 4) 
 
 on national happiness. Again, it has been called 
 the science of 4 the happiness of states;' but this 
 would extend it over too wide a field. Its true 
 subject of inquiry is, we think, the happiness of 
 societies so far as it depends on the abundance and 
 distribution of their wealth. 
 
 The principles of Political Economy must ob- 
 viously be deduced from axioms relative to the 
 conduct and feelings of mankind under particular 
 circumstances, framed upon general and extensive 
 observation. But neither the feelings nor the con- 
 duct of a being like man, endowed with mental 
 volition, and infinitely-varying degrees of sensi- 
 bility, can, w r ith anything like truth, be assumed 
 as uniform and constant under the same circum- 
 stances. Hence the highest degree of certainty 
 which can belong to the principles of Political 
 Economy will amount only to moral probability, 
 and must fall far short of the accuracy that cha- 
 racterizes the laws of the physical sciences. This 
 consideration should have prevented the attempts 
 which have been made by many writers on Poll* 
 tical Economy to attribute the force of mathema- 
 tical demonstration to its conclusions. The fashion 
 just now among this class of inquirers is to desig- 
 nate their favourite study as ' Political Mathe- 
 matics ; ' but it would obviously be just as rea- 
 sonable to give the name of ' Ethical Mathematics' 
 to the sister science of morals. The rules of 
 economical policy are to be ascertained only 
 by studying the same variable course of human 
 action, and with a reference to the same indefinite 
 end the happiness of the species as the rules 
 of morality. Far from partaking of the character 
 
42 POLITICAL ECONOMY. 
 
 of an exact science, like the mathematics, which 
 deals in the qualities of abstract and imaginary 
 entities, it has not even the fixity of any of the 
 natural sciences to whose study the mathematics 
 are usually applied ; the facts of which it takes 
 cognizance consisting only of such variable, vague, 
 and uncertain essences as compose human pains 
 and pleasures, dislikes and preferences, 
 
 ' Hopes, fears, joys, sorrows, tears, and smiles.' 
 
 Still, though the nature of the subject precludes 
 any approach to mathematical certainty, the ge- 
 neral laws of human action and human happiness 
 are to be ascertained with a correctness amply 
 sufficient for the formation of general rules. 
 Though the conduct of any individual man cannot, 
 with complete confidence, be predicted from a 
 knowledge of the circumstances surrounding him, 
 yet that of the generality of men of the great 
 masses of mankind may be determined before- 
 hand with all but absolute certainty ; and the ob- 
 ject of the political economist, like that of the 
 moralist, being to act upon the masses, this know- 
 ledge is sufficient for his purpose, and will enable 
 him to declare with confidence the combination of 
 circumstances necessary to bring about any de- 
 sired result within the range of his science. 
 
43 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Definition of Wealth and of Labour All Labour produc- 
 tive. Labour rather a pleasure than a sacrifice must, 
 however, be free and sufficiently remunerated. Mini- 
 mum of sufficient remuneration. Wealth no certain mea- 
 sure of happiness. Test proposed. 
 
 WEALTH, then, in its relation to happiness, is the 
 subject of the investigations of Political Economy; 
 and by wealth we profess to understand all the 
 necessaries, comforts, and luxuries of life which 
 are habitually bought and sold, or exchanged. If 
 a brief definition of wealth were desired, it might 
 be declared to comprehend all ' the purchaseable 
 means of human enjoyment.' 
 
 There are many things which contribute to the 
 enjoyment of man, such as air, water, the light 
 and warmth of the sun, the beauties of nature, the 
 blessings of health, and the exercise of the social 
 affections, which yet are never considered (un- 
 less metaphorically) as wealth. They are valuable 
 in the common sense of the term ; but they possess 
 no value in exchange. They are not capable of 
 being made the subject of purchase and sale, or of 
 being guaranteed by the law as property : the eco- 
 nomist, therefore, has no concern with them. The 
 range of his inquiries is limited to such objects of 
 human desire as are capable of appropriation by 
 the law, and of transfer by sale or exchange. The 
 regulation of those elements of happiness, phy- 
 sical or mental, over whose supply man exercises 
 
44 POLITICAL ECONOMY. 
 
 no control, he leaves to Providence ; to the mo- 
 ralist, the divine, the physician, he leaves the study 
 of those which fall within the sphere of their se- 
 veral influences. His peculiar object is to ascer- 
 tain the means of augmenting the happiness of 
 mankind, in as far as it is affected by the abun- 
 dance or distribution of those more tangible and 
 appreciable matters which compose the purchase- 
 able necessaries, comforts, and luxuries of life *. 
 
 One of two circumstances is necessary to confer 
 exchangeable value on an object, in addition to its 
 useful or desirable qualities, viz. that it require 
 some labour to produce it, or that it exist in less 
 quantity than is wanted, in technical terms, that 
 its supply be short of the demand for it. Water, 
 however useful, nay, necessary, to man however 
 valuable in the ordinary meaning of the word 
 
 * Mr. Malthus and other economists have much puzzled 
 themselves and their disciples by raising a needless debate 
 about some particular things, of which it is disputed whether 
 they are to be considered wealth, and therefore within the 
 range of Political Economy, or not. For example, the ser- 
 vices of menials, and of artists and actors, &c. have caused 
 much hot dispute. Mr. Malthus excludes them from the 
 category of wealth, on the ground that they are immaterial. 
 Inasmuch as they are habitually bought and sold, I should 
 consider them comprehended in the definition of wealth 
 given above. I can see no essential distinction between 
 the services of a nobleman's outrider and those of the horse 
 he rides : between the value conferred upon a piece of canvas 
 by an artist, and that conferred upon a piece of cotton by a 
 calico-printer : they are equally purchased in exchange for 
 wealth; they are equally reckoned as the signs of wealth 
 by the vulgar j they are equally enjoyed as wealth by their 
 possessor. But, in truth, the attempt to refine upon the sub- 
 ject with such minute accuracy of definition is much more 
 likely to lead to confusion than clearness. 
 
WEALTH PRODUCED BY LABOUR. 45 
 
 yet, wherever it is to be had in abundance without 
 trouble, as by the side of a river, has no exchange- 
 able value : it costs nothing, and will, therefore, 
 sell for nothing. But at a distance from springs 
 or rivers, as in a town, where water is not to be 
 obtained without some trouble, it acquires a value 
 in exchange, and that value will depend chiefly 
 upon the trouble or labour it costs to procure it. An 
 additional element in value is scarcity, or an insuf- 
 ficient supply to meet the demand. In the deserts 
 of Africa a skin of water may at times acquire a 
 value infinitely exceeding the cost of conveying- it 
 there from the nearest well. A rare jewel, or book, 
 or object of art, often obtains a value bearing 
 no relation to the labour by which it was pro- 
 cured or produced. But the primary element of 
 value in most things is cost of procurement ; and 
 the cost of procurement consists almost wholly of 
 the trouble or labour necessary for procuring 
 the article. 
 
 What, for example, gives their value to the fruits 
 of the earth? Not their adaptation to the appetite 
 of man. The finest fruits, if they grew spon- 
 taneously in such abundance over all the inhabited 
 earth, that every one might satisfy his longings 
 for them by the mere trouble of lifting his hand to 
 them, would have no selling value. But inas- 
 much as fruits grow only in particular situations, 
 and require much trouble in planting, protecting, 
 gathering, and bringing them to market, they 
 acquire a proportionate value, since those who 
 wish to obtain them must either take all the trouble 
 necessary for procuring them, or give something 
 in exchange for them which shall be considered a 
 
46 POLITICAL ECONOMY. 
 
 satisfactory equivalent for all this trouble by those 
 who have taken it in order to produce them. 
 
 All saleable property, or wealth, therefore, is 
 the produce of trouble or labour. And in order to 
 avoid confusion, it is desirable to confine this term 
 labour, to such exertion as is productive of wealth. 
 Men exert themselves for amusement, health, or 
 recreation, and may fatigue themselves as much in 
 so doing as a ploughman or a mason ; but their 
 exertion neither produces nor is intended to produce 
 anything which can be exchanged or sold, and it 
 will be desirable, therefore, not to call such exer- 
 tion labour. The limitation of the term labour to 
 such occupations as are productive of wealth, and 
 exerted for the sake of gain, will serve to put an 
 end to all the unprofitable and futile discussion, so 
 common in works on political economy, as to what 
 kinds of labour are productive and what unpro- 
 ductive.* 
 
 Though it is a law of nature that labour, in some 
 shape, is necessary for the support of man's exist- 
 ence, since even the necessaries of life are in no 
 quarter of the globe to be procured without it, yet 
 those persons are surely in error who consider this 
 condition as an evil, and labour as essentially a 
 
 * The difficulties with which the ultra refining and mathe- 
 matical school of political economists have to contend, are 
 well exhibited in the disputes between them as to the limits 
 of productiveness. Mr. Malthus denies that the labour of 
 a cook, a coachman, an author, or an actor is productive, 
 though asserting the productiveness of that of a butcher, a 
 coachmaker, a printer, and a scene painter. Mr. M'Culloch, 
 running into the other extreme, insists that the occupations 
 of billiard playing, blowing soap-bubbles, nay, of eating, 
 drinking, and sleeping, are productive ! 
 
LABOUR A PLEASURE. 47 
 
 sacrifice and privation. Eating and drinking are, 
 likewise, necessary for the maintenance of life; 
 but they are not on that account usually considered 
 as sacrifices. As has just been remarked, we often 
 see the amateur artist, gardener, farmer, or me- 
 chanic, fatigue himself as much for the mere plea- 
 sure afforded by the employment, as those who 
 do the same things for their daily bread, or for 
 gain. So far from complete inaction being perfect 
 enjoyment, there are few sufferings greater than 
 that which the total absence of occupation gene- 
 rally induces. Count Caylus, the celebrated French 
 antiquary, spent much time in engraving the plates 
 which illustrate his valuable works. When his 
 friends asked him why he worked so hard at such 
 an almost mechanical occupation, he replied ' Je 
 grave pour ne pas me pendre.' When Napoleon 
 was slowly withering away from disease and ennui 
 together, on the rock of St. Helena, it was told 
 him that one of his old friends, an ex-colonel in 
 his Italian army, was dead. 4 What disease killed 
 him?' asked Napoleon. ' That of having nothing 
 to do/ it was answered. * Enough/ sighed Na- 
 poleon, * even had he been an Emperor.' 
 
 Even severe manual labour is not necessarily a 
 sacrifice. There is an animal pleasure in toil. 
 It is questionable whether the mental or bodily 
 labour to which the highest and wealthiest classes 
 are driven to resort as a resource against ennui, 
 communicates, in general, so pleasurable an ex- 
 citement as the muscular exertions of the common 
 hind, when not overworked. Nature has likewise 
 beneficently provided, that if the greater proportion 
 of her sons must earn their bread by the sweat of 
 
48 POLITICAL ECONOMY. 
 
 their brow, that bread is far sweeter for the previous 
 efforts, than if it fell spontaneously into the hand 
 of listless indolence. It is scarcely to be ques- 
 tioned, then, that labour is desirable for its own 
 sake, as well as for the substantial results which it 
 affords; and, consequently, that it by no means 
 lessens, but rather adds to the general chance of 
 happiness, that nearly all the members of society 
 should, in some shape or other, be placed under an 
 obligation to labour for their support.* 
 
 Nor is it much to be regretted that some modes 
 of employment are less agreeable or more irksome 
 than others. Habit has a powerful effect in quali- 
 fying the disagreeableness of occupations, and of 
 converting them into sources of gratification. 
 Hundreds of facts might be adduced to prove that 
 the persons engaged in employments which to 
 others of different habits appear intolerably dis- 
 gusting or irksome, become after some practice 
 not merely reconciled, but attached to them. There 
 are few workmen who, if asked, will not declare 
 their preference for the branch of labour to which 
 they have been brought up or long accustomed, over 
 any other. It will appear, on examination, that 
 whether an individual ply his occupation by sea or 
 land, in the open air, in the interior of crowded 
 towns or manufactories, or in the bowels of the 
 earth, these circumstances in no degree influence 
 
 * In a popular farce, Deputy Figgins, a London shop- 
 keeper, when persuaded by the solicitation of his wife to 
 leave his shop for a day, and take an excursion to Richmond, 
 exclaims, l Well, my dear, since we must give up the day to 
 pleasure, let us make it as like business as possible.' And 
 the sentiment is so true to nature, that the hit always tells 
 through the theatre. 
 
LABOUR SHOULD BE FREE. ' 4 
 
 the pleasure he takes in his lahour, or the amount 
 of comparative happiness which falls to his lot. In 
 truth, whatever inconveniences do attend particular 
 employments are necessarily compensated by the 
 proportionately increased remuneration, which, 
 under a system of free labour, is sure to be awarded 
 to them; and that this compensation is complete in 
 the estimation of the labourers themselves, is proved 
 by there being as much competition for such em- 
 ployments as for any other. 
 
 This brings us to the important consideration 
 that, in order not to interfere with happiness, labour 
 must be FREE, that is to say, voluntarily exerted, 
 and left at liberty to take any direction that it may 
 please the individual labourer to give to it. Com- 
 pulsion is itself a privation, and a source often of 
 very considerable suffering ; and an occupation 
 which might be undertaken and exercised with 
 pleasure by any one of his free will, must be a 
 grievance and a hardship if forced upon him. 
 
 But not only is forced labour less pleasurabh 
 than free, it is likewise incomparably less productive. 
 All observation confirms what our instinctive senti- 
 ments will suggest, that to encourage a man to 
 put forth his powers to the utmost in any kind of 
 labour, he must be left free in his choice as to the 
 nature and quantity of his work. It is scarcely 
 necessary to refer, in proof of this, to the notorious 
 idleness, apathy, and obstinacy of the slave. But 
 it may be as well to advert to the decisive fact, 
 that by far the most productive labour of all is that 
 of the mind, which is not susceptible of compul- 
 sion. A man may be forced to dig a field, or spin 
 a web, but he cannot be forced to improve a plough 
 
50 POLITICAL ECONOMY. 
 
 or a loom, much less to invent a steam-engine or 
 a spinning-jenny. Nor even if compulsion could 
 extort such results of mental labour from those 
 who were capable of it, could a master know 
 beforehand where lay the dormant capacity. No 
 artificially prescribed contrivances can direct the 
 ingenuity of individuals into those lines of thought 
 or action for which they are by nature best quali- 
 fied. Perfect liberty in the choice of occupations 
 is absolutely necessary, to ensure the adoption of 
 such as are most suitable to the peculiar qualifi- 
 cations of the individual, and likely, in conse- 
 quence, to be most productive, as well as most 
 agreeable. And thus the freedom of labour be- 
 comes doubly important, as necessary for increas- 
 ing both the happiness of the labourer and the 
 productiveness of his toil. It is moreover, as we 
 have seen, one of the first natural rights of man, 
 which no government can justly intrench upon, 
 without the strongest proofs of the necessity of 
 such interference for the general welfare. 
 
 Neither must labour, to be pleasurable or pro- 
 ductive, be without an object. It is the cheering 
 anticipation of some gratifying result, and the hope 
 of enjoying this, which sweetens the toils of labour, 
 relieves its irksomeness, and appears to shorten its 
 duration. It is the produce of labour which forms 
 its natural reward. It is in the satisfaction of 
 man's wants that the sacrifices, if any, necessary 
 for that end, are more or less fully repaid. Though 
 labour is necessarily no evil, yet it is the pro- 
 spect of its reward that gives it much of its zest ; 
 and if this be scanty and inadequate, the toil en- 
 dured for its sake is embittered. If sufficiently 
 
LABOUR SHOULD BE REMUNERATIVE. 51 
 
 remunerated, labour cannot, under a system of 
 freedom, be a source of suffering. The temptation 
 of high wages may, it is true, induce some indivi- 
 duals to over-work themselves imprudently, and 
 exhaust their strength and health. But these are 
 rare exceptions. We deal only in generals ; and, 
 as a general rule, it cannot be doubted that where 
 a sufficient remuneration is to be obtained by 
 moderate labour, it may be most safely left to the 
 labourers themselves how far they will or will not 
 exceed that point.* 
 
 With respect to what constitutes a sufficient 
 remuneration for labour, there may be some un- 
 certainty. This, however, may be laid down as 
 unquestionable, that it must not be less than will 
 find the labourer and his family, if he have one 
 ay, even as large an one as he can possibly have, 
 in a sufficiency of wholesome and agreeable food, 
 
 * This assertion does not militate against the principle of 
 the sabbath, or that on which the ' Factory Bill' is founded. 
 The sabbath was instituted for a state of society in which 
 the labourers were principally slaves, and needed some pro- 
 tection from being overworked by their masters. It has 
 operated most beneficially in countries where slavery no 
 longer exists, but where the reward of labour, owing to a 
 bad system of public economy, is so scanty that the labourers 
 would otherwise have been driven to ceaseless toil, by sheer 
 want. As a moral and religious institution, the sabbath is 
 beyond all praise. But in an economical view, where labour 
 is free and well remunerated, it is clear no law can be 
 wanted to protect the labourer from overworking himself. 
 And, in fact, where wages are high, the workmen generally 
 take one, often two holydays in the week, in addition to the 
 Sunday. The same reasoning applies to the Factory Bill, a 
 measure which in a healthy state of society would be a need- 
 less interference, though in the existing circumstances of 
 this country, it seems to us highly desirable. 
 
 E 2 
 
52 POLITICAL ECONOMY. 
 
 warm and decent clothing, and convenient lodg- 
 ing, in short, in the means of comfortable sub- 
 sistence, besides enabling him to indulge in an 
 occasional holyday, and to lay by a provision 
 against sickness, casualty, and old age. 
 
 If, as we think will hardly be denied, these views 
 are correct, we arrive through them at something 
 like a general principle as to the fundamental 
 conditions essential to the general happiness ; 
 namely, that the labour, which we must believe 
 will always be necessary for the support and gratifi- 
 cation of the great mass of mankind, be volun- 
 tary and free in the choice of its direction; and 
 that by moderate exertion it obtain as its re- 
 compense at least a sufficiency of the necessaries 
 and principal comforts of life, both for the present 
 consumption of the labourer and his family, and 
 for a reserve against contingencies. 
 
 These conditions fulfilled, every further increase 
 of the comforts or luxuries which falls to be divided 
 among the members of a community, is an in- 
 crease to their general means of happiness, pro- 
 portionate, cceteris paribus, to the equality with 
 which they are distributed. But these conditions 
 must be fulfilled before an increase of the general 
 wealth can be assumed to be an addition to the 
 general happiness, and therefore a desirable object 
 in the eyes of the political economist; who, mindful 
 of the true end of his science, looks to wealth only 
 as a means of happiness, and declares against all 
 such measures as, though tending to augment the 
 mass of wealth, do not tend to distribute it in such 
 a manner as to augment the general happiness. 
 
 That every increase of wealth is not a propor 
 
WEALTH NO MEASURE OF HAPPINESS. 53 
 
 tionate increase of the aggregate means of enjoy- 
 ment nay, that some kinds of wealth may be 
 greatly augmented at a great sacrifice of human 
 happiness is easily demonstrable. Suppose, for 
 example, a race of absolute sovereigns to have a 
 taste for jewels, and to employ several thousands 
 of their subjects or slaves, generation after genera- 
 tion, in toiling to procure them : these treasures 
 will be wealth of enormous value, but add barely 
 anything to the aggregate means of enjoyment. 
 Suppose another race of sovereigns to have em- 
 ployed equal numbers of workmen during the same 
 time in making roads, canals, docks, and harbours 
 throughout their dominions, and in erecting hospi- 
 tals and public buildings for education or amuse- 
 ment : these acquisitions to the wealth of the 
 country, having cost the same labour, may be of 
 equal exchangeable value with the diamonds of the 
 other sovereign ; but are they to be reckoned only 
 equally useful equal accessions to the aggregate 
 of human gratification? Suppose two tracts of 
 ground of equal extent and fertility, one laid down 
 as a deer-park for the sole pleasure of a wealthy 
 individual, or sovereign, (as when the New Forest 
 was emparked by Rufus,) the other divided into 
 moderate- sized farms, each affording to the land- 
 lord a fair rent, to an honest farm'er and a tribe of 
 contented cottagers employment and maintenance, 
 to the community an enlarged supply of food. 
 Such tracts may be equally valuable, if sold in 
 the market, but are they equal in their influence 
 on the sum of human enjoyment ? Even Slavery 
 itself may be in all probability, to a certain extent, 
 a means of increasing the quantity of exchange- 
 
54 POLITICAL ECONOMY. 
 
 able wealth in the world ; but will any one recom- 
 mend it as a means of augmenting the mass of 
 human happiness ? No ! wealth may be pur- 
 chased at too high a price, if that price be the 
 degradation and suffering of those who produce it. 
 Wealth is only to be measured by its exchangeable 
 value. In this sense increase of wealth assuredly 
 is no true measure of the increase of enjoyment; 
 and the science of wealth, if the attention be con- 
 fined to the means of increasing its aggregate 
 amount, may just as frequently lead to what will 
 injure as to what will benefit the human race. If 
 the greatest happiness of the community is the 
 true and only end of all institutions, it follows that 
 a government which should take political economy 
 of this kind as a guide to its legislation, without 
 continually correcting its conclusions by reference 
 to the principles on which the happiness, not the 
 wealth of man depends, must often sacrifice the 
 real interests of the people it presides over for a 
 glittering fiction. 
 
 It may be said that such inquiries would be diffi- 
 cult and complicated ; that it is impossible to 
 mete out happiness, or establish a graduated scale 
 by which to ascertain the utility of legislative mea- 
 sures towards this end. But the same argument 
 might evidently be urged with equal force against 
 all moral science. The happiness of society is the 
 only end of every moral as of every economic 
 precept. If it be, as we readily admit, impossible 
 to ascertain to a fraction the precise extent in 
 which any given measure is likely to affect the 
 happiness of a community still this can be no 
 reason for adopting so obviously false a standard 
 
TEST OF PUBLIC HAPPINESS. 55 
 
 as the increase of its aggregate wealth alone. 
 There are other tests which there can be no good 
 reason for neglecting; there are, in the pursuit of 
 economic as of moral policy, some broad landmarks 
 to which it would be folly to shut our eyes some 
 palpable boundaries which it would be madness to 
 cross some clear general rules which point the 
 direction of our path, and reduce the chances of 
 error within very trifling limits, if we do not madly 
 refuse to walk by their light. 
 
 One of these criteria, and by far the most im- 
 portant, is the proposition, which we do not hesi- 
 tate to lay down as a fundamental truth, that the. 
 amount of human enjoyment principally depends 
 on the number of human beings enabled, without 
 excessive toil, to obtain a comfortable subsistence,, 
 with satisfactory security for its continuance. 
 
 That the happiness of individuals does not neces- 
 sarily increase with their wealth, is attested by the 
 combined authority of all the philosophers and 
 moralists of past ages. The most cursory obser- 
 vation of mankind proves that there is often as 
 much enjoyment of life beneath a straw roof as a 
 painted ceiling, under a smock frock as a silken 
 robe. Nay there are who very plausibly urge that 
 
 ' Quei che felici son non han camicia.'* 
 
 * Casti, La Camicia delF Uomo Felice ; one of the few of 
 his Novelle that can be read with a relish for the philosophy* 
 undisturbed by disgust at the profligacy, of this clever satirist. 
 A sick sovereign is recommended, as an infallible specific 
 for his disorder, the application of ' the shirt of a happy 
 man.' His emissaries in vain ransack all countries in search 
 of such a being. At last they discover an individual who 
 acknowledges himself to be happy, in the shape of a wild 
 
5*6 POLITICAL ECONOMY. 
 
 tlie cares of life increase with the increase of 
 property. 
 
 Without heaping together commonplaces on the 
 subject, it will be disputed by few that, beyond a 
 certain point, the amount of enjoyment shared by 
 the different classes of society is pretty equal. 
 * Life,' says a shrewd writer, herself of the most 
 elevated class, ' affords disagreeable things in 
 plenty to the highest ranks, and comforts to the 
 lowest ; so that, on the whole, things are more 
 equally divided among the sons of Adam than they 
 are generally supposed to be.'* * Whoever enjoys 
 health/ says Jean Jacques, ' and is in no want of 
 necessaries, is rich enough; 'tis the aurea medio- 
 critas of Horace.' 
 
 This last passage states truly what that point is, 
 at which an increase of wealth ceases to be a pro- 
 portionate increase of enjoyment. Had Rousseau's 
 language possessed the word, instead of neces- 
 saries, he probably would have said ' comforts/ 
 Our own poet confines the real wants of man to 
 4 Meat, fire, and clothes : what more ? clothes, meat, and fire.' 
 These, or in other words, the means of comfort- 
 able subsistence, compose the competence which 
 admits of perhaps as keen and complete enjoyment 
 of life as any fortune can bestow. That this com- 
 fortable subsistence is to be procured only by 
 labour, so that it be voluntary, free in its direction, 
 and not excessive, is, as I have attempted to show, 
 
 mountain shepherd. But alas! he has no shirt ! on which 
 the tale ends with the above exclamation, ' Those only are 
 happy who have no shirts to wear. 1 So D'Alembert used 
 to say, ' Qtii est ce qui est heureux ? Quelque miserable !' 
 . * Letters of Lady M. W. Montague. 
 
TEST OF NATIONAL HAPPINESS. 57 
 
 no detraction from the enjoyments it affords, but 
 rather, if anything, an addition to them. 
 
 If, however, we come to the conclusion, that an 
 individual who has within his easy reach the means 
 of comfortable subsistence enjoys as fair a chance 
 pf happiness as those who occupy stations in the 
 common opinion of the world more enviable, it is 
 very clear that less than this will not afford the 
 same chance. Though the enjoyments of wealth 
 may be, on the whole, counterbalanced by the 
 cares that accompany it, the evils of poverty are 
 real and uncompensated. An individual who wants 
 the means of subsistence, nay, of comfortable 
 subsistence, together with satisfactory security for 
 its continuance, is in a state of suffering ! Coarse 
 diet may please the hungry appetite of the peasant 
 as much, or more, than do costly viands the palate 
 of the rich gourmand, and a frieze coat may be as 
 pleasant wear as superfine, but scanty, unvaried, 
 and ill-flavoured food, or deficient clothing and 
 fuel, if it does not entirely prevent, must greatly 
 detract from the enjoyment of life. 
 
 The conclusion then is, that every individual 
 who has assured to him the means of comfortable 
 subsistence without excessive toil, has a tolerably 
 equal chance for happiness with those who possess 
 a larger share of wealth; but that any falling off 
 from this condition will proportionably lessen the 
 individual chance of enjoyment. Consequently, 
 the means of enjoyment possessed by any society 
 must be judged of principally by the number of those 
 who possess the means of comfortable subsistenc3 
 on these terms, compared with that of those who 
 
58 POLITICAL ECONOMY. 
 
 fail in obtaining them. And we thus acquire a 
 primary measure of national happiness indepen- 
 dent of the aggregate amount of wealth in its pos- 
 session which cannot but be of service in the 
 study of the domestic economy of communities. 
 
 The inference we deduce from this position is, 
 that the first economical object with every govern- 
 ment ought to be the securing to every individual 
 member of the community it regulates, the means 
 of comfortable subsistence in return for his labour, 
 and the certainty of its continuance ; and that 
 until this is effected, no general augmentation of 
 the national wealth no signs of increased luxury 
 among the higher or middle classes no swelling 
 of the import or export lists, or other supposed 
 tests of national prosperity, can be depended on. 
 The increase of wealth may add to the means of 
 gratification of the few who have already more than 
 they can possibly enjoy, but it may be accompanied 
 by a falling off in the means of the many, who 
 even now have less than the minimum necessary 
 to save them from positive suffering. 
 
 Under such circumstances and they are found 
 not in this only, but, with the exception of the 
 United States and some of our colonies, in nearly 
 all civilized countries the aim of the economical 
 policy of their rulers should be, not simply to 
 obtain the greatest possible production of wealth, 
 but to obtain it in such a shape, and by such 
 means, as will distribute the greatest possible share 
 of it among the greatest number of people so as 
 to afford to each individual, at least, a sufficiency 
 for his comfortable subsistence. 
 
TEST OF NATIONAL WELFARE. 59 
 
 How this great object is to be accomplished 
 what are the steps which should be taken to pro- 
 mote so desirable a state of things, can only be 
 discovered by a study of the natural laws which 
 determine the production and distribution of wealth, 
 and particularly of those things which compose 
 the necessaries of subsistence and the primary 
 comforts of life. To this study we now proceed. 
 
60 
 
 CHAPTER III. 1 
 
 Conditions of the Production of Wealth The Institution of 
 private Property Labour Land Capital. 
 
 IT appears that man has everywhere and always 
 from the first traces we possess of his history, 
 laboured in the production of wealth on that 
 simple principle of appropriation, which, as we 
 have seen, is the natural foundation of the right to 
 property ; namely, that whatever an individual 
 creates or redeems from a state of nature by his 
 labour, is his, and ought to be at his sole disposal. 
 In some rare instances, however, this prin- 
 ciple of private property has been exchanged for 
 that of a community of goods between all the 
 members of a society. But the experiment may 
 be pronounced to have never succeeded in prac- 
 tice. Indeed, it will appear upon reflection to 
 be irreconcilable with the most elementary prin- 
 ciples of human nature. One of the strongest 
 of these is the desire of individual appropriation. 
 Sympathy is no doubt a very powerful sentiment ; 
 but it is provided by Nature, with a view, as 
 we may well believe, to the preservation of the 
 species, that the instinct of self- gratification should, 
 for the most part, prevail over it. In the common 
 phrase, one's-self stands as number one. In 
 the extremity of want or danger this instinct 
 betrays itself most conspicuously. Next to a 
 
INSTITUTION OF PRIVATE PROPERTY. 61 
 
 man's own self, in his estimation, usually stand 
 his children, his parents, and the wife of his 
 bosom. These are almost a part of himself; 
 and their gratification is nearly as strong a motive 
 for exertion as his own. But the sentiment be- 
 comes diluted by an attempt to expand it^over a 
 wide circle. And it is certain that, as a general 
 rule, man will not labour for others than his imme- 
 diate family, or for the increase of any common 
 fund to be shared in alike by the members of a 
 large community, with anything like the zest and 
 willingness, the assiduity and perseverance, with 
 which he will toil for himself. 
 
 Even within the limits of a family circle the 
 same rule holds good among those who have at- 
 tained to an age rendering them capable of labour. 
 History presents us with many examples, and 
 some are yet to be found existing, of patriarchal 
 families in which all the members, comprehending 
 several generations, labour for one common fund. 
 But though these instances frequently offer en- 
 gaging pictures of domestic happiness, yet it is 
 certain that such communities have been rarely, if 
 ever, observed to make any advance in the arts of 
 production or the accumulation of wealth, or even 
 to increase in numbers ; but are found to stagnate 
 in a condition barely removed above want, until 
 something occurs by which they are broken up, 
 and the strong stimulus of individual gratification 
 is substituted for the less cogent one of the gene- 
 ral benefit. 
 
 An additional objection to a community of pro- 
 perty is that it necessarily puts an end to all in- 
 dividual liberty of choice as to the direction, 
 
62 POLITICAL ECONOMY. 
 
 or amount of labour. Each labourer must have 
 his specific task allotted to him by some superior 
 power established for the purpose, which task 
 he must be compelled to execute under pain 
 of some forfeiture or privation. But we have 
 already shown that to encourage the utmost pro- 
 ductiveness of labour, as well as to render it plea- 
 surable, the labourer must be left free to choose 
 both the nature and quantity of his work. 
 
 It is the neglect of these principles which is 
 even now betraying many ardent and benevo- 
 lent investigators of the public happiness into 
 signal and mischievous absurdities. The followers 
 of Owen in this country, and of St. Simon in 
 France, with other similar sects which are spread- 
 ing through Germany and the United States of 
 America, struck by the remarkable fact that the 
 vast advance made of late years by civilised 
 nations in the arts of production, though it has 
 increased the wealth of a few, has added propor- 
 tionately little to the share of enjoyment that falls 
 to the great body of the people, whose labour is 
 the primary instrument of all production have 
 hastily jumped to the conclusion that, in order to 
 ensure the more equal distribution of the products 
 of industry, all that is wanting is a new arrange- 
 ment of society on the basis of a community of 
 property. Now nothing can look more pleasing 
 upon paper, or sound more enchanting! y in a 
 lecture upon social happiness, than a proposal to 
 put an end to all the struggles of individual com- 
 petition, and the painful contrast of contiguous 
 wealth and poverty to substitute love, friendship, 
 and common enjoyment, for hatred, jealousy, and 
 
INSTITUTION OF PRIVATE PROPERTY. 63 
 
 exclusive self- gratification. No picture can be 
 more pleasing than that of men dwelling together 
 in unbroken harmony and untiring union. No 
 assertion can be more plausible than that were all 
 the efforts of the industrious combined in one 
 common direction, and all the rubs and jostling, 
 and cross purposes, and mutual interference pre- 
 vented, which now check and retard the progress 
 of each, the general advance would be greatly 
 accelerated. But is it possible to realise this 
 beatific vision ? There is not the slightest ground 
 for supposing so. Its designers forget that the 
 industry, of which in the present advanced state of 
 society they witness the fruits, has been brought 
 into being, and has hitherto grown and thriven, 
 only under the shelter of the institution of private 
 property and the stimulus of competition; and 
 that neither history nor observation warrants, 
 in the least degree, the assumption, that in- 
 dustry could exist at all except on these con- 
 ditions. The establishment of a community of 
 property would most probably, by damping indus- 
 try and discouraging production, shortly leave no 
 property whatever to divide. The desire of indivi- 
 dual acquisition has hitherto been the main motive 
 to every exertion. Take it away, by sharing the 
 results of a man's labours equally, or in certain 
 proportions, fixed by others, among his neigh- 
 bours so that he himself shall not be benefited, 
 except in an infinitesimal degree, by its increase, 
 and who will guarantee the continuance of his 
 exertions with the same vigour and energy which 
 he now evinces, if he even continue them at all, 
 when sure of a maintenance, at all events, from 
 
64 POLITICAL ECONOMY. 
 
 the labours of others? Experience has proved 
 the constitution of the human mind to be such, 
 that freedom in the direction of labour, and secu- 
 rity for the personal enjoyment or disposal of its 
 products, are the conditions on which alone industry, 
 will be effectually put forth, and production ad- 
 vanced. That the opposite conditions will admit 
 of the same results is not merely not in accordance 
 with, but directly opposed to the analogy of our 
 experience. The proposal of a community of 
 goods as a remedy for their present unequal distri- 
 bution is like an attempt to cure a horse of stum- 
 bling by cutting off his legs. We are not sur- 
 prised that the same philosophers generally advo- 
 cate a community of wives and children, with a 
 view, it must be supposed, to the increase of the 
 conjugal and parental affections. 
 
 That the products of industry are, at present, too 
 unequally and therefore unfairly distributed, is most 
 true; but surely means may be devised for remedy- 
 ing this, short of the complete annihilation of the 
 principle itself of production individual acquisi- 
 tion. That such means are attainable indeed, and 
 this by the simplest exertion of fore-thought and 
 pre-arrangement, I trust to be able shortly to 
 show. 
 
 Enough has been said here, perhaps, to prove 
 that since the main object of all regulations re- 
 specting wealth is to obtain the greatest possible 
 amount of production consistently with a sufficient 
 remuneration to the producers, the principle of a 
 community of property must be rejected as un- 
 friendly to the voluntary increase of production ; 
 and the natural right of every individual both to 
 
LABOUR CREATES NOTHING. 63 
 
 choose the direction, and dispose of the produce 
 of his labour, (under reservations to which I 
 shall hereafter advert,) admitted as the only true 
 foundation of economical polity. We proceed to 
 consider the other essential conditions of produc- 
 tion. 
 
 All wealth is the product of labour ; but not of 
 labour alone. Labour can create nothing. All 
 that it does, is to alter the disposition of things 
 already existing in what is usually called a state 
 of nature. To produce anything, the labourer 
 must operate upon some natural substance, and 
 call in the ever-active powers of nature to his aid. 
 The agriculturist, for example, does not create 
 corn ; he only applies the seed after a certain 
 method which his knowledge, obtained through 
 experience or precept, teaches him to be best 
 adapted for causing the growth of the greatest 
 quantity of corn ; and the powers of the soil and 
 the atmosphere, the moisture of the heavens, and 
 the genial warmth of the sun bring about the pro- 
 duction of his crop. These powers, therefore, of 
 earth, air, water, and fire, (which the ancients in 
 their ignorance of chemistry considered, and in 
 their equally ignorant, though pardonable grati- 
 tude, worshipped as primary elements,) or to speak 
 more correctly, the natural affinities of the material 
 substances occurring on the surface of the earth 
 must co-operate with the labourer, or his toil is 
 utterly unproductive. 
 
 Nor is this generally enough. There are few 
 things which an individual, though availing himself 
 of all the powers of nature within his reach, can 
 produce by himself, or by a single effort of labour. 
 
 F 
 
66 POLITICAL ECONOMY. 
 
 He must call in the aid of others ; and lie must, 
 likewise, exert himself at repeated intervals ; he 
 must avail himself of the results of his previous 
 labour, or that of others generally of both. 
 Take the simplest case the labour by which a 
 man may sometimes satisfy his hunger by gather- 
 ing berries from a bush. Even here nature must 
 have first produced and ripened the fruit to his 
 hand. Wild fruits, however, are but scantily sup- 
 plied by nature. If then, to supply his wants, a 
 man desire animal food, he must provide himself 
 with some product of previous labour (his own, 
 or of others), a club, a bow, a trap, or a gun ; and 
 he must acquire, moreover, by previous labour, 
 both of mind and body, a knowledge of the 
 haunts and habits of the animals he wishes to 
 take, or he has but a small chance of breaking 
 his fast upon them. If wild fruits and animals 
 become equally scarce, and he is led by Necessity, 
 the fertile mother of Invention, to sow or plant 
 the herbs and trees which produce the former, and 
 to domesticate the latter for the supply of his 
 wants still more observation, forethought, con- 
 trivance, and preparation are necessary on his part. 
 He must acquire a knowledge of the habits and 
 characters of the useful plants of the best 
 methods of cultivating and storing them ; he 
 must provide the proper seeds and plants tools 
 with which to dig up the soil, clean it, and gather 
 his crops, fences to keep off wild animals, and 
 confine his tame ones, with a store of fodder for 
 their sustenance. All these preparations are the 
 result of previous labour, accumulated for the 
 purpose of aiding him in the production of food. 
 
LABOUR LAND CAPITAL. 
 
 67 
 
 Similar provisions will be required to supply him 
 with clothing, shelter, and other desirable ob- 
 jects. 
 
 The results of labour so accumulated, or pro- 
 vided beforehand for productive purposes, are 
 called by the general term capital. 
 
 It is thus made clear that labour can produce 
 nothing, or scarce anything, without the aid both 
 of capital and the useful qualities of those natural 
 substances which are scattered over the surface of 
 the earth. These, then, are the primary and 
 essential elements of human production ; Labour, 
 Capital, and the natural products of the earth's 
 surface, which, so long as they are affixed to 
 that surface, and not severed from it by in- 
 dustry, are all classed in the language of politi- 
 cal economists, (following in this the language of 
 the law of property) under the somewhat vague 
 title of Land*. And if, as would seem proper, we 
 comprehend under the term labour all the ability, 
 or productive capacity of man, natural or acquired 
 under that of capital all the substantial results 
 of labour, stored up and employed in furthering 
 production and under that of land, all the natu- 
 ral qualities of those substances met with on the 
 face of the earth, which can be appropriated and 
 rendered available for productive purposes, we 
 shall embrace under these several heads every 
 
 * " The word 6 land ' includes not only the face of the 
 earth, but everything under it, or over it. Therefore, if a 
 ihan grants all his lands, he grants thereby all his mines 
 of metal and other fossils, his woods, his waters, and his 
 houses, as well as his fields and meadows." Blackslone's 
 Commentaries, ji. c. ii. p, 18. 
 
 F 2 
 
68 POLITICAL ECONOMY. 
 
 tiling that in any shape co-operates in the pro- 
 duction of wealth, or in satisfying the wants of 
 man in every phase of his condition, from the 
 extreme of barbarism to the acme of civiliza- 
 tion. These elements of production we now pro- 
 ceed to consider separately, in the order in which 
 they have been mentioned, namely, Labour, Land, 
 and Capital. 
 
69 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Labour Exchanges of its Produce Right to Free Ex- 
 change Division of Labour Its advantages Co-opera- 
 tion and mutual dependence of all Labourers Barter 
 Money Its use Coin Credit General use of. 
 
 THE first essential towards production is labour. 
 To play its part efficiently in this great business, 
 the labour of individuals must be combined, or, 
 in other words, the labour required for producing 
 certain results must be divided among several 
 individuals. 
 
 If a man were to attempt to raise from the 
 earth's surface all the food required by himself and 
 his family, and all the materials for their clothing, 
 furniture, and shelter, and likewise to prepare them 
 for use, it is clear, that the food, clothing, furni- 
 ture, and lodging he could obtain in this way 
 would only be of the very poorest and scantiest 
 description ; not, under the most favorable cir- 
 cumstances, equal to those which Robinson .Crusoe 
 is described as having provided for himself in his 
 island solitude ; for Crusoe had attained a know- 
 ledge of many of the arts of civilized life, by edu- 
 cation in a society where exchanges of labour had 
 long been practised. Had all men persisted in 
 labouring on a system of isolation, each for him- 
 self only, all must have remained in a state of 
 barbarism. None of the useful arts could have 
 
70 ' POLITICAL" ECONOMY. 
 
 existed. The metals would have slept untouched 
 in the rock ; the timber would have rotted un- 
 hewn in the forest ; the soil would never have 
 been turned up by the plough or spade. A few 
 raw fruits stripped from the wild bushes, and the 
 precarious produce of the chase for food clothing 
 of skins, and the rude shelter of the cave or 
 branch-hut, would have made up the sum total of 
 human possessions. Under this system, the 
 members of mankind must have been kept within 
 very narrow limits by disease and a continual 
 dearth of subsistence. Countries which now con- 
 tain millions of civilized men, enjoying for the 
 most part an abundance of comforts, could scarcely 
 have supported as many hundreds of half-starved 
 savages. 
 
 But it is contrary to the inherent tendencies of 
 human nature that such a state of things should 
 long continue. Man is formed to live in society ; 
 and, as we have seen, necessity suggests to every 
 society the general recognition of the right of each 
 individual to freedom in the direction of his indus- 
 try and a private property in its produce. Now, 
 wherever, and so soon as these two fundamental 
 principles of society are acknowledged, exchanges 
 of the produce of labour immediately must com- 
 mence among individuals. One, for instance, has 
 gathered more fruits than he can consume, and 
 meets with another who has a larger stock of 
 skins fit for clothing than he can himself make use 
 of. The first is in want of clothing, the latter of 
 fruit, and each finds his advantage in exchanging 
 the excess of the article he possesses for that of 
 the other. The exchange being wholly voluntary 
 
FREEDOM OF EXCHANGE. ~7l 
 
 on both sides, the advantage is mutual, and equal 
 to both parties, or it would not be agreed to by 
 both ; and the same is true even in the most arti- 
 ficial state of society. So long as exchanges are 
 free and voluntary, so long it is evident that the 
 benefit to the exchanging parties is mutual and 
 equal, or each would not agree to them. 
 
 The right to freedom of exchange is included 
 in the right to a free disposal of the produce of 
 labour, and rests on the same ground of expe- 
 diency ; since it is evident that in whatever degree 
 the labourer is at any time prevented from ex- 
 changing the produce of his industry with others, 
 for whatever he can obtain for it most desirable 
 to himself to that extent are his exertions 
 damped and discouraged, their productiveness 
 diminished, and their reward lessened; at the 
 same time that his personal freedom of action is 
 needlessly, and therefore wrongfully, interfered 
 with. 
 
 The adoption of this system of exchanging the 
 products of labour makes it exceedingly con- 
 venient and advantageous for each labourer to 
 confine himself to the production of one, or at 
 most, only a few commodities, and to exchange 
 all that he produces beyond his consumption with 
 others who in their turn do the same. Each is 
 thus enabled to avail himself of any peculiar 
 natural advantages he may possess, whether of 
 personal powers or of position, for the production 
 of a particular commodity ; and, likewise, to ac- 
 quire by the force of habit and undivided attention 
 a high degree of skill in the performance of his 
 peculiar task. By help of these natural and 
 
72 POLITICAL ECONOMY. 
 
 acquired advantages, he is enabled to produce far 
 more, and, consequently, to obtain in exchange 
 for the produce of his labour, a far greater quan- 
 tity of the things he desires to consume, than he 
 could by any possible efforts directly produce of 
 himself. 
 
 It is by this division of labour among a variety 
 of classes of labourers, each of which takes a 
 different branch of industry, that the gross amount 
 of production is infinitely augmented. Under the 
 sanction of just and well-administered laws en- 
 forcing the fulfilment of contracts for the exchange 
 of labour or of goods, and giving security to 
 private property, this division is carried in some 
 countries to an extraordinary extent; and its effect 
 in augmenting the general production, and con- 
 sequently the wealth and comforts of all classes, 
 is almost incalculable. 
 
 Dr. Smith was the first writer who called atten- 
 tion to the extraordinary increase in the productive 
 powers of industry caused by the division of em- 
 ployments, and his mode of treating and illus- 
 trating the subject has been but little improved 
 upon by any succeeding writer. He classes the 
 advantages gained as, 
 
 First, increased skill and manual dexterity 
 in workmen. A nail-maker, for example, by con- 
 fining himself exclusively to the manufacture of 
 that article, will make two or three thousand nails 
 in a day; where an ordinary smith, who only 
 turned his hand occasionally to this process, could 
 make but as many hundreds. A man who wanted 
 Euch a common thing as a few pins, might, if he 
 attempted to fabricate them for himself, spend a 
 
DIVISION OF LABOUR. 73 
 
 day in making a dozen of very bad ones ; whereas 
 by giving their attention exclusively to this branch 
 of industry, and subdividing its various processes 
 among themselves, ten men will, in a pin manu- 
 factory, make in one day as many as 50,000 
 well-finished pins, and their cost to the consumer 
 is proportionately reduced. The rapidity with 
 which the operations of some manufactures are 
 performed, exceeds what the human hand could, 
 by those who had never seen them, be supposed 
 capable of acquiring. 
 
 Secondly, the saving of time. An individual who 
 carries on many different employments in places 
 often necessarily far apart, must waste much time 
 in moving from one to the other, which will be 
 saved by attaching himself exclusively to one oc- 
 cupation. This is Adam Smith's argument, but he 
 might have thrown a far stronger light on the 
 economy of time that results from a well-regulated 
 division of labour, if he had noticed the power it 
 frequently gives to one individual to do the work 
 of numbers, quite as effectually as they could do 
 it themselves. An excellent illustration of this 
 benefit is given by Dr. Whately* in the establish- 
 ment of a post-office and letter-carriers, without 
 which every letter would require a special mes- 
 senger to convey it to its destination. A postman 
 who carries a thousand letters from the city, and 
 delivers them in the vicinity of Chelsea in the 
 course of a few hours, may be said to do the work 
 which, without such a contrivance, would engage 
 a thousand persons for nearly the same time. The 
 carriage of goods of all kinds by persons who 
 
 * Lectures on Political Economy, Oxford, 1831. 
 
74 POLITICAL ECONOMY. 
 
 specially addict themselves to that calling, whether 
 by sea or land, is, of all branches into which em- 
 ployment is divided, one of the most generally 
 useful ; because it operates to a vast extent in 
 economising the time and labour of individuals. 
 At what rate would production of any kind ad- 
 vance, if every labourer were obliged to proceed 
 in person to fetch every article he required from 
 the spot where it was raised, and to carry every 
 thing he produces to the place where it is to be 
 consumed ? 
 
 It is evident that, by these and many other con- 
 trivances, there is not only effected a vast economy 
 oti?ne, but of power likewise, through the division 
 of labour. Without it a man would be often em- 
 ployed in doing what a child could equally well 
 perform ; and a workman of consummate skill or 
 natural capacity for some particular branch of in- 
 dustry would be forced to let his great powers of 
 production remain dormant for the greater part 
 of his time, while he was providing for his varied 
 necessities in a number of occupations, which 
 might be as well done by those who are capable 
 of nothing else. 
 
 Thirdly, the invention of tools, machines, and 
 processes for shortening labour and facilitating 
 production. It is evident that a man who is 
 eternally shifting from one occupation to another, 
 for the direct supply of all his various wants by 
 his individual exertions, will not be near so likely 
 to invent ingenious methods for shortening or 
 saving his labour, as one whose attention is de- 
 voted exclusively to a particular branch of industry. 
 In fact, by far the greater number of improve- 
 
DIVISION OF LABOUR. 75 
 
 ments in tools and machinery have been pro- 
 duced by the efforts of workmen and artificers to 
 economize their time and trouble, and increase 
 the productiveness of their peculiar employments. 
 
 Perhaps in no trade has the division of labour 
 been successfully carried to so great an extent as 
 in that of watch -making 1 . In an examination 
 before a committee of the House of Commons, it 
 was stated, that there are a hundred and two dis- 
 tinct branches of this art, to each of which a boy 
 may be apprenticed. 
 
 An equal gain results from the division of the 
 labour of the head, as from that of the hands. 
 * As society advances, the study of particular 
 branches of science and philosophy becomes the 
 principal or sole occupation of the most ingenious 
 men. Chemistry becomes a distinct science from 
 natural philosophy ; the physical astronomer sepa- 
 rates himself from the astronomical observer ; the 
 political economist from the politician ; and each 
 meditating exclusively or principally on his pecu- 
 liar department of science, attains to a degree of 
 proficiency and expertness in it which the general 
 scholar seldom or never reaches. And hence, in 
 labouring to promote our own ends, we all neces- 
 sarily adopt that precise course which is most 
 advantageous for all. Like the different parts of 
 a well-constructed engine, the inhabitants of a 
 civilized country are all mutually dependent on, 
 and connected with each other. Without any 
 previous concert, and obeying only the powerful 
 and steady impulse of self-interest, they univer- 
 sally conspire to the same great end ; and con- 
 tribute, each in his respective sphere, to furnish 
 
76 POLITICAL ECONOMY. 
 
 the greatest supply of necessaries, luxuries, con- 
 veniences, and enjoyments.'* 
 
 The system of the division of labour might be 
 equally called the combination of labour, since its 
 effect is the co-operation of many labourers to 
 produce a common result. In fact, wherever this 
 system has made any considerable progress, the 
 society assumes emphatically a co-operative cha- 
 racter. Every member is dependent on the aid of 
 others in everything that he does, and for every- 
 thing that he enjoys. The ploughman cannot 
 turn a furrow without the help of the wheelwright 
 and smith ; these can do nothing without that of 
 the timber and iron merchant, the miner, and the 
 smelter. These again must be assisted by the 
 rope-maker, the powder manufacturer, the en- 
 gineer, the carrier, and several others ; while all 
 depend upon the baker, the mealman, the butcher, 
 the farmer, the grazier, &c. for their supplies of 
 food, and on the tailor, the cotton and cloth 
 weavers, the flax and wool grower, the importer of 
 cotton, fee. for their clothing. All society is, in 
 fact, one closely-woven web of mutual dependence, 
 in which every individual fibre gains in strength 
 and utility from its entwinement with the rest. But 
 while all the members of society co-operate for a 
 common purpose, the increase of the general wel- 
 fare, each individual is still strictly occupied in pur- 
 suing what he considers his own private and exclu- 
 sive interest in whatever way he likes best. 
 
 And here is to be seen the vast superiority of the 
 principle of freedom over that of compulsion of 
 the system of co-operation which springs naturally 
 * Macculloch, Political Economy, p. 95. 
 
CO-OPERATION OF LABOURERS. 77 
 
 and spontaneously from the mutual wants of men, 
 over that artificial, forced, and premeditated system 
 of co-operation, which of late has been put forward 
 as the true rule of social arrangement, by the 
 erratic and visionary philanthropist, Mr. Owen, 
 and some of his followers. Had the wisest of 
 mortals, at any former period in the history of 
 this country, been entrusted with full powers to 
 frame and organize a co-operative system, assign- 
 ing to each individual in the state the task he was 
 to perform for the common welfare, and distri- 
 buting to each the share considered to belong to 
 him of the common produce can it be supposed 
 for a moment that he would have been able to 
 devise arrangements capable of securing anything 
 like the efficacy and perfection with which the 
 principles of free labour, private property, and 
 free exchange perform at present the supply of 
 all the varied and complicated wants of this vast 
 population ? 
 
 If we confine our attention to the mode in 
 which the inhabitants of the metropolis are pro- 
 vided with the necessaries of life, we' may see in 
 it a wonderful phenomenon strongly illustrative of 
 the benefits of the actual system of co-operation, 
 founded on these great principles. If the manage- 
 ment of this important business were entrusted to 
 a few individuals, a neglect, a mistake, an indis- 
 cretion on their part, might occasionally bring 
 upon this mighty centre of wealth and industry 
 all the horrors of famine, and compromise the 
 existence of a million and a half of people. 
 What is it, then, that performs this important 
 function that supplies this great population with 
 
78 POLITICAL ECONOMY. 
 
 its daily food, so quietly, and so effectually, 
 without bustle, without even organization, with- 
 out excess, as without waste the supply so 
 equally adjusted to the demand, that the prices of 
 butchers' meat and bread do not perhaps suffer a 
 variation of a farthing throughout the year, which 
 is not to be accounted for by natural causes 
 affecting the original sources of supply ? What is 
 it that performs this daily miracle, which only 
 does not excite our continual admiration because 
 it is self-effected with all the order, ease, and cer- 
 tainty of a great natural process ? Why, the prin- 
 ciple of competition ; the free and open rivalry of 
 thousands of individuals, each acting according to 
 his own discretion in his own self-appointed 
 sphere ; each actuated by the unerring instinct of 
 self-interest, which prompts him to produce as 
 much as he can sell, but no more ; to sell as 
 much as he can with a profit, but to provide no 
 more than he can dispose of without loss ; to keep 
 the supply full, but to prevent excess. An abun- 
 dant supply causes each producer to lower his 
 prices, and thus enables the public to enjoy that 
 abundance, while he is guided only by the appre- 
 hension of being undersold; and, on the other 
 hand, an actual or apprehended scarcity causes 
 him to demand a higher price, or to keep back 
 his goods in expectation of a rise. * For doing 
 this the dealers of provisions are often exposed to 
 odium, as if they were the cause of the scarcity ; 
 while in reality they are performing the important 
 service of husbanding the supply in proportion to 
 its deficiency, and thus warding off the calamity 
 of famine. The dealers deserve neither censure 
 
BARTER ITS INCONVENIENCE. 795 
 
 for the scarcity they are ignorantly supposed to 
 produce, nor credit for the important public ser- 
 vice they in reality perform. They are merely 
 occupied in gaining a fair livelihood. And in the 
 pursuit of this object, without any comprehensive 
 wisdom, or any need of it, they co-operate, un- 
 knowingly, in conducting a system, which, we 
 may safely say, no human wisdom directed to that 
 end could have conducted so well ; the system by 
 which this enormous population is fed from day 
 to day*.' 
 
 The advantages of the division and combination 
 of labour will still further appear, when we come 
 to treat of the several classes into which society 
 divides itself as civilization advances. 
 
 The direct exchange of goods of any kind for 
 goods is called barter; and, as it is the most 
 simple mode of exchange, so we find it still the 
 only method in use among some uncivilized na- 
 tions. But its excessive inconvenience must sug- 
 gest, even to a very low degree of intelligence, 
 the advantage of improving upon it. Suppose a 
 savage, for example, to have taken and killed a 
 bullock, or other large animal, which he would 
 find a difficulty in consuming alone. He is de- 
 sirous of exchanging the surplus beyond his own 
 consumption for a variety of other objects which 
 he is in want of. His neighbours, on their side, are 
 anxious to purchase his meat, but it is highly im- 
 probable that each should have by him, and can 
 spare, just that quantity of any of the peculiar 
 articles of which the owner of the meat stands 
 in need, which will enable the former to obtain 
 * Whately's Lectures, p. 108. 
 
SO POLITICAL ECONOMY. 
 
 in exchange the precise quantity of meat which 
 he desires. To obviate this difficulty, which must 
 be continually recurring, one or other of two 
 very simple methods would suggest themselves : 
 the one, that he who had the meat or other ob- 
 ject to dispose of, should give credit to him 
 who wanted it, on his engagement to repay him 
 either the same or such other object as may be 
 agreed upon, when able to do so, or at some defi- 
 nite time ; the other, that individuals should gene- 
 rally keep by them a stock of some peculiar 
 article in general request, a portion of which 
 would be readily taken by every seller in exchange 
 for his commodity. The first of these methods 
 of facilitating exchanges is that of credit, the second 
 of money. Both were probably coeval in their 
 origin. Both have continued in use with more or 
 less of improvement among all nations, civilized 
 as well as uncivilized, to the present day. 
 
 Of the commodities that have been, and in some 
 instances still are, in use as money by different 
 nations, we may instance oxen, shells, salt, lea- 
 ther, and iron, &c. But in nearly all countries 
 men seem to have been at an early period deter- 
 mined by irresistible reasons to employ in prefer- 
 ence for this purpose the more valuable metals, 
 copper, silver, and gold. These reasons are, their 
 possessing qualities fitting them for this peculiar 
 office, in a far superior degree to any other commo- 
 dity of intrinsic worth. They maybe kept almost 
 any time without loss ; they are of such rarity, 
 and so much esteemed (that is, of such great 
 intrinsic value), that small portions of them, easy 
 to be carried about (more especially of the two 
 
MONEY COIN CREDIT. 81 
 
 precious metals) will exchange for comparatively 
 large quantities of most other goods ; and they 
 may be divided without loss into any number 
 of parts, and re-united again, through their 
 fusibility, with the same ease. The only dif- 
 ficulty was that of ascertaining their precise quan- 
 tity and quality. For this purpose it would be 
 necessary both to weigh and assay them. But as 
 the process of weighing and assaying each piece 
 of metal every time it was taken in exchange 
 would have been an endless one, wholly destructive 
 of all the convenience to be derived from its use 
 as money, it seems to have been very soon dis- 
 covered that the government of every country, in 
 order to prevent imposition as to their weight or 
 quality, should affix a certain stamp on the bits of 
 metal to be employed as money, indicative of its 
 quantity and fineness ; at the same time prohibit- 
 ing by law the issue, or mintage, as it is called, 
 of money by private individuals, punishing the 
 imposition on the public of false money, when 
 detected, by the heaviest penalties. So stamped, 
 money is called com; and on the faith of this 
 government stamp, and the laws by which its imi- 
 tation is prohibited, coined money passes current 
 by tale, without the troublesome process of weigh- 
 ing or assaying. It is in this form that the pre- 
 cious metals, gold and silver, have become the 
 universal measure of the value of other commodi- 
 ties, and the principal instrument or medium for 
 their exchange. 
 
 But we have already mentioned the existence 
 and general use of another medium for conducting 
 exchanges besides money of intrinsic value ; 
 
 Q 
 
82 POLITICAL ECONOMY.- 
 
 namely, Credit, or the confidence placed by 
 one individual in the engagement of another 
 to pay him at a certain time a certain quantity 
 of goods or money. This mode of conducting 
 exchanges has one great and evident advantage 
 over the use of money, namely, that it saves 
 individuals the necessity of keeping by them a 
 stock of an expensive commodity, for no other 
 purposes than that which their credit, if unques- 
 tionable, would answer equally well. On the other 
 hand, the drawback to the use of credit, as a me- 
 dium of exchange, is its insecurity. Every one 
 may know in the circle of his neighbours and ac- 
 quaintance, individuals whom, from their character 
 for rectitude and honesty, he would trust, to any 
 extent, ' with untold gold 3* but, unfortunately, 
 our moral nature is by no means so perfect as to 
 admit of such confidence being universal, or any 
 thing like it. In order, therefore, to prevent, as 
 far as possible, frauds upon the over- credulous, 
 it has been found necessary, in all countries, for 
 the government to enforce by laws the fulfilment 
 of engagements a necessity parallel to that which 
 led, as just explained, to the laws for regulating 
 the coinage of money. Supported by this guaran- 
 tee, credit has performed its part as an instrument 
 of exchange in all ages and countries where 
 commerce has made any progress, and that to an 
 extent seldom perhaps fully recognized by writers 
 on these subjects. Because the precious metals, 
 coined or uncoined, have been almost always and 
 everywhere employed as the measure of value, 
 they have been hastily concluded to have been 
 likewise the principal, if not the only, instrument 
 
EXTENSIVE USE OF CREDIT. & 
 
 vf exchange. But these two tilings are perfectly 
 distinct, and a very little examination would suf- 
 fice to convince us that the employment of credit 
 in commerce, as a medium of exchange, has heen 
 very considerably underrated that it has always 
 carried on a much larger amount of business than 
 money, and indeed that, without it, commerce 
 could have made but very little progress, cramped 
 and fettered as it would have been by the disad- 
 vantages incident to the use of metallic money, 
 which is, in truth, only a somewhat superior kind 
 of barter. 
 
 This inquiry, however, may be better reserved 
 for a future occasion. I will only mention here 
 three facts, illustrative of the vastly superior ex- 
 tent to which in commercial countries credit is 
 necessarily employed as an instrument of ex- 
 change, beyond real or metallic money. These 
 are, first, that the entire commerce of Scotland, 
 foreign and domestic, is carried on without the 
 practical use of a single gold piece. Secondly, 
 that, at the banker's clearing-house in London, ex- 
 change transactions are daily settled to the extent 
 of five millions sterling on some days of thirteen 
 millions without the intervention of any coin 
 whatever, and by the employment of a floating 
 balance of only about 200,000/. in Bank of England 
 notes, themselves merely representing the credit of 
 that establishment. Thirdly, that there is at every 
 moment in existence an aggregate mass of trans- 
 ferable credit in the shape of book debts, foreign 
 and inland bills of exchange, mortgages, annui- 
 ties, and other monied liabilities, including the 
 great national debt itself, to an extent, as regards 
 
 G 2 
 
84 POLITICAL ECONOMY. 
 
 the whole empire, certainly of several thousand 
 millions in value, the whole of which is strictly in 
 continual employment as a medium of exchange 
 an instrument, that is, whereby one individual 
 obtains possession by consent of the produce or 
 property of another ; while the amount of real or 
 metallic money circulating through the same coun- 
 tries does not perhaps exceed thirty millions, and 
 might probably, as in Scotland, be dispensed with 
 altogether, without affecting in the least the extent 
 of this prodigious mass of transactions on credit. 
 
85 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Wages Ample and continually increasing Wages secured 
 to Labourers by the principles of Free Labour and Free 
 
 '_ Exchange Inequality of Wages in different employments, 
 and of different individuals Ability, even of the lowest 
 class, increases, and its reward ought to rise proportion- 
 ately, with the progress of civilization, 
 
 HOWEVER directed, the motive to labour, freely 
 exercised, must always be the result accruing to 
 the labourer. This is technically called his wages. 
 And since the more productive labour is rendered 
 by the subdivision of employments and facilitation 
 of exchanges we have been describing, the greater 
 must be the aggregate quantity of the good things 
 of life produced, it seems self-evident that the 
 share falling to the lot of each individual labourer, 
 as his recompense or wages, ought to be propor- 
 tionately augmented. That it will be so, seems 
 equally obvious, if the several labourers and the 
 several owners of the elements of production are 
 left free to settle terms with each other, whence 
 there must result a fair adjustment of their relative 
 claims on the joint produce. The great principles, 
 in short, of free labour, and free disposal of its 
 produce, would seem amply sufficient to secure an 
 equitable distribution of property among the se- 
 veral classes who contribute to its creation. 
 
 And this we believe to be an unquestionable 
 truth. Under institutions securing freedom in 
 
6 POLITICAL ECONOMY. 
 
 the direction of labour, and in the enjoyment, 
 disposal, and consequently exchange of its products 
 in the home or foreign markets, the products of 
 industry will divide themselves spontaneously in 
 the most equitable manner among the several 
 classes whose labour or property co-operates in 
 any way in their production ; and the benefits they 
 thence derive will so stimulate the exertions of the 
 several classes of producers, as to cause a con- 
 tinued cumulative increase, not merely in the 
 wealth of the society so organized, but also in the 
 share of that wealth falling to the lot of any indi- 
 vidual member. We believe that if, in some socie- 
 ties which have reached a highly artificial and com- 
 plicated state, this, its natural and legitimate con- 
 sequence, has not always followed every improve- 
 ment in the division of labour and facilitation of 
 exchanges, it must necessarily be owing, and can 
 in every case, by some little attention, be traced 
 to the interference of erroneous institutions with 
 these simple natural principles of production and 
 distribution, an interference adopted sometimes, 
 perhaps, in ignorance of its mischievous effects to 
 the community at large, but generally with more 
 or less of a fraudulent intention of diverting the 
 produce of industry into other hands than those 
 into which the just system of free labour and free 
 exchange would distribute it. On such inter- 
 ferences, and the means whereby their ill effects 
 can be most safely and speedily corrected, we shall 
 have the opportunity of dwelling more at length 
 hereafter. 
 
 But under a system of free exchange the recom- 
 pense (wages) of every labourer will be by no 
 
INEQUALITY* OF ABILITY AND OF ITS REWARD. 87 
 
 means equal ; nor even exactly proportioned to the 
 severity or duration of his employment. It must 
 be determined by the value of his produce in the 
 market. And this will increase in proportion to 
 the talent, skill, and application of the labourer, or 
 any other circumstances which may render his 
 labour more productive than that of another. A 
 man whose natural powers of body or mind enable 
 him to contribute more efficiently to the general 
 work of production than another, may equitably 
 expect, and will, under the system of free exchange, 
 receive a larger share of the gross general produce. 
 The same is true of one who by advantages of edu- 
 cation or continued application, has acquired a supe- 
 rior degree of skill or knowledge in any of the arts 
 of industry. And the increased reward thus ob- 
 tained by increased productiveness, is the motive 
 and necessary stimulus to those efforts for rendering 
 labour more productive, which have carried man- 
 kind forward from the savage to the civilized state, 
 and can alone be depended upon for inciting him 
 to yet further advances. Every attempt to equalize 
 the wages of different employments or individuals 
 by compulsory arrangements has the certain effect 
 of damping the ardour of industry, putting a stop 
 to improvement, and checking the march of pro- 
 duction. 
 
 The powers of an individual to produce, or co- 
 operate in the production of wealth, may be called 
 his ability. The lowest degree of ability consists 
 of the rude, unskilled, untutored, muscular powers 
 of the human frame. The great body of labourers 
 in all countries are possessed of little more than 
 this inferior ability. - But the recompense (wages) 
 
83 POLITICAL ECONOMY. 
 
 of this lowest class of labourers, varies, notwith- 
 standing, very much in different countries. In a 
 savage state of society, for example, mere human 
 strength can do but little, for want of tools with 
 which to work, and instructions how to employ 
 them. By practice, and the exercise of his native 
 ingenuity in contriving expedients and fabricating 
 instruments, a clever savage may increase the 
 productiveness, and consequently the reward of 
 his labour far beyond that of his companions ; but 
 even under the most favorable circumstances, his 
 exertions will not be near so productive as those 
 of the most stupid clown in a civilized country, 
 armed with the instruments which the accumulated 
 ingenuity of ages has contrived, and applying them, 
 however mechanically, after those methods which 
 the stored wisdom of others has proved to be most 
 efficient. On this account the inferior degrees of 
 ability will obtain far higher wages in a highly 
 advanced, than in the earlier stages of society. 
 The produce of the daily labour of an English 
 ploughman, shepherd, or common mechanic, is at 
 present probably three times as much as that of 
 the similar classes of labourers in the time of Eli- 
 zabeth, and six times as much as at the period of 
 the conquest. If their wages, or the amount of 
 the necessaries and conveniences of life which they 
 obtain in return for their labour, have not increased 
 quite in the same proportion, it must be in conse- 
 quence of the faulty direction given to the distri- 
 bution of the produce of labour by the artificial 
 circumstances to which we have already alluded, 
 and which we shall hereafter explain. In the same 
 way the productiveness of an English day-labourer 
 
VARIOUS DEGREES OF ABILITY. 89 
 
 is perhaps twice as great as that of a Frenchman, 
 four times that of a Russian, and six or eight times 
 that of a Hindoo. His wages ought therefore to 
 be proportionate, and probably would be so under 
 an equitable system of economical policy. 
 
 The reward of the industry of the higher classes 
 of labourers will in the same manner rise with its 
 productiveness. An artisan of superior natural 
 abilities, who has had the advantage of the instruc- 
 tions of a master in some peculiar business, and 
 has applied himself assiduously to acquire the 
 manual dexterity and the practical arts of his trade, 
 has gained a degree of ability, which, as contri- 
 buting much more largely than that of an inferior 
 workman to the marketable means of enjoyment, 
 is enabled to command in the market a propor 
 tionately larger share of the general stock. The 
 wages, or market value, of personal ability of any 
 kind, will depend partly on the degree of study or 
 application and the expenditure of time required 
 on the average to produce it. But it is, moreover, 
 influenced in a great degree by monopoly, i.e. the 
 more or less exclusive possession of ability of any 
 description, whether consisting in secret processes, 
 the craft and mystery of particular trades, or of 
 peculiar qualifications, natural, or acquired under 
 more or less extraordinary combinations of circum- 
 stances. It is the rarity of particular kinds of 
 talent that confers the greater part of their value 
 upon them. The average wages of fiddlers is per- 
 haps, taking into consideration the time spent in 
 acquiring the art, little more than that of plough- 
 men; but when the combination of rare genius 
 with equally rare assiduity creates a Paganini, he 
 
99 POLITICAL ECONOMY. 
 
 is able to command almost any price in return for 
 his exertions. There occurs but one Lawrence in 
 a century, and this it is which enables such an 
 artist to put a value on his productions, perhaps a 
 hundred times what an ordinary dauber is happy 
 to get for the same quantity of paint, canvass, time 
 and trouble. 
 
 But the possessor of superior ability, in any line 
 of industry, is not only enabled to put a monopoly 
 value on the produce of his labour directly exerted, 
 he has it likewise in his power to communicate to 
 others, by instruction, his own superior qualifica- 
 tions ; and whilst he requires, of course, payment 
 from them in exchange for these instructions, he 
 puts it in their power to obtain in turn a proportion- 
 ately high recompense for their industry in con- 
 sideration of its comparative rarity. The value of 
 such instructions is sometimes heightened by the 
 communication of secret processes, which give to 
 their possessor a decided advantage over his com- 
 petitors in the same line of art. In general, how-' 
 ever, it consists in the communication of a variety 
 of delicate and difficult manipulations ; such as cari 
 only be learnt by actual exhibition and repeated 
 experiment under the eye and tuition of an experi- 
 enced master*. The high premiums of apprentice- 
 
 * A remarkable instance in proof of the necessity of per- 
 sonal instruction in some of the useful arts, was related by 
 Mr. Ostler, a manufacturer of glass beads and other toys, to 
 the Committee of the House of Commons on artizans and 
 machinery ; and is quoted in Mr. Babbage's valuable work 
 on the Economy of Manufactures. Mr. Ostler, it seems, had 
 received some years since, an order for upwards of five hun- 
 dred pounds worth of doll's eyes. But notwithstanding his 
 having some of the most ingenious glass toy-makers in the 
 
IMPROVEMENTS OF ABILITY. 91 
 
 ship taken by those who are engaged in the superior 
 departments of the useful and ornamental arts, arise 
 chiefly from this source ; and the proportionately 
 high wages that are earned by journeymen or 
 masters in these several callings follow neces- 
 sarily from the expensive course of instruction 
 they have undergone, the assiduity with which they 
 have endeavoured to perfect themselves in their 
 art, and the more or less rare excellence to which 
 by these means, aided perhaps by superior natural 
 abilities, they have attained in its practice. 
 
 In this way the skill or acquired ability of one 
 man is handed down from father to son, or from 
 master to pupil, through successive stages, accumu- 
 lating as it passes on by the added improvements 
 of its various possessors. But as every pupil or 
 
 kingdom in his service, he could not succeed in making the 
 article, and was obliged to renounce the order. " About 
 eight months ago," he continues, u I accidentally met with 
 a poor fellow who had impoverished himself by drinking, 
 and who was dying in a consumption, in a state of great 
 want. I showed him ten sovereigns ; and he said he would 
 instruct me in the process. He was in such a state that he 
 could not bear the effluvia of his own lamp ; but though I 
 was very conversant with the manual part of the business, 
 and it related to things I was daily in the habit of seeing, I 
 felt I could do nothing from his description. (I mention 
 this to show how difficult it is to convey by description the 
 mode of working.) He took me into his garret, where th 
 poor fellow had economised to such a degree, that he actually 
 used the entrails and fat of poultry from Leadenhall market,, 
 to save oil, (the price of the article having been latterly so 
 much reduced by competition at home.) In an instant,, 
 before I had seen him make three, I felt competent to make 
 a gross ; and the difference between his mode and that of 
 my own workmen was so trifling, that I felt the utmost 
 astonishment." 
 
92 POLITICAL ECONOMY. 
 
 apprentice is enabled to instruct a considerable 
 number of others, there is a constant tendency in 
 every improved process or secret to spread through 
 a wider circle. There are, moreover, many pro- 
 cesses of art which can be communicated by 
 written directions, without personal exhibition ; and 
 these, sooner or later, get wind and become dis- 
 seminated very extensively wherever the blessing 
 of a press, more especially a free . press, exists. 
 Once committed to printing, a receipt or peculiar 
 process travels in all directions, not only through 
 the country where it was invented, but many others 
 likewise, and is handed down, with little or no 
 chance of loss, to distant ages and generations. It 
 is to the splendid inventions of letters and printing 
 that we owe the rapidity with which the process of 
 mutual instruction in the productive arts is now 
 daily increasing the wealth of modern societies. 
 AVithout their aid, example and precept might hand 
 down some improvements in human ability ; but 
 they would be subject to frequent loss and destruc- 
 tion ; and the intercourse of minds must, under such 
 circumstances, be slow, torpid, and unfruitful of 
 those inventions which are now rapidly augmenting 
 the efficiency of skill and industry, and multi- 
 plying the aggregate of production, in countries 
 blest with just and free institutions, where every 
 valuable piece of information is allowed to circulate 
 with unlimited freedom. 
 
 These are the things that constitute ' useful 
 knowledge/ The vast superiority in the produc- 
 tiveness of a Watt, an Arkwright, or a Wedge- 
 wood, over that of a clever savage, is almost en- 
 tirely owing to the influence of accumulated ability 
 
REAL AND MONEY WAGES. 93 
 
 of tin's nature stored up in books, and operating 
 in the development of intellectual powers, which 
 would otherwise have remained dormant and useless 
 towards either the enrichment of the individual, 
 or, as in the case of the three great men we have 
 named, the lasting benefit of the whole human 
 race. Such wonderful inventions, when thus pro- 
 claimed to the world, become public property, a 
 gratuitous addition of vast amount to the ability 
 of all present and future labourers in the peculiar 
 arts to which they are applicable. 
 
 It may, it is true, be long before the Calmucs 
 or Chinese avail themselves of the increased power 
 such inventions put at their disposal, but in the 
 mean time even these distant nations profit from 
 them through the greater cheapness of the com- 
 modities with which they are supplied, by the 
 growing ability of Europeans. And we, too, in 
 the mean time are improving even upon these 
 inventions far more rapidly than other nations can 
 adopt them ; so that the superiority we have once 
 obtained over them is continually increasing rather 
 than diminishing. When we come to trace the 
 principle and effects of foreign commerce, we shall 
 be able to show how futile are the fears entertained 
 by some, of our being shortly left behind in the 
 race of industry by other nations, or losing the pre- 
 eminence this country has acquired in productive- 
 ness over every other on the face of the globe. 
 
 We have hitherto spoken of wages, (real wages,) 
 in the sense of the quantity of the necessaries and 
 conveniences which the labourer can command in 
 the market in exchange for his services. Such 
 appears to be the most correct meaning of the 
 
94 POLITICAL ECONOMY. 
 
 expression. But in common language, wages is 
 generally understood as referring to the sum in 
 money (money-wages) which the labourer ob- 
 tains. These two meanings are, of course, very 
 distinct. The money-wages of a labourer may 
 rise, whilst the quantity of necessaries and com- 
 forts he can obtain in exchange for them, and 
 upon which alone his condition in fact depends, 
 is decreasing. This was notoriously the case in 
 Britain in the early part of the present century, 
 when owing to a succession of bad harvests, the 
 money-price of necessaries reached an exorbitant 
 elevation ; and though the money-wages of nearly 
 every class of labourers rose likewise, their pur- 
 chasing power was greatly lessened ; so much so 
 indeed, that the inadequacy of the current wages 
 of agricultural labour to maintain a family was 
 the cause of their being then, for the first time, 
 supplemejited out of the parish rate in the southern 
 counties of England, a baneful practice, for the 
 adoption of which, if there were any excuse as a 
 measure of temporary expediency at that moment, 
 there can be at least none for its continuance in 
 the present day, when experience has so fatally 
 proved its mischievous effects on the morals, 
 habits, and circumstances of our peasantry when 
 it has been universally recognized as equally unjus- 
 tifiable in principle and in law. 
 
 Enough has been said to shew, that in a country 
 \vhich has already made a great progress in the 
 arts of production, and is still daily improving upon 
 them, the remuneration for labour, even of the 
 lowest kind, ought to be considerable, as compared 
 with earlier periods, and ought, likewise, always to 
 
WAGES OUGHT PROGRESSIVELY TO INCREASE. 95 
 
 be on the increase ; never, unless locally and tem- 
 porarily, to fall off in its amount. 
 
 If, therefore, in such a country, the wages of 
 "the mass of labourers are at any time not sufficient 
 to command for them a competence of the neces- 
 saries and comforts of life, if wages are found 
 during periods of considerable duration, through 
 extensive districts, and in a variety of occupations, 
 to decrease in amount instead of advancing, we 
 may rest assured that such a state of things can 
 only be the result of a faulty arrangement of the 
 political institutions which determine the distri- 
 bution of the produce of industry. And the study 
 of the naturally just and equitable principles on 
 which such institutions ought to have been mo- 
 delled and when proved to be in fault, ought to 
 be corrected becomes one of the most important 
 and interesting subjects of inquiry to which the 
 attention of any reasonable friend to humanity can 
 be addressed. 
 
 Before, however, we can prosecute our researches 
 into the nature of such errors and the mode of cor- 
 recting them, we must first examine the other 
 elements which co-operate with labour in the great 
 business of production ; and the owners of which 
 have, of course, an equal right with the labourers 
 to share in the joint produce. 
 
 These are, as we have seen, Land and Capital. 
 
96 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 d" 'Its appropriation essential to Production History and 
 causes of its appropriation in different ages and cotmtries 
 In the East by the Sovereign In Europe by the Aristo- 
 cracy In America by the People. Influence of these dif- 
 ferent systems on Production and National Welfare.* 
 Natural Laws of Property in. 
 
 POLITICAL Economists, we have said, following the 
 example of lawyers, comprehend under the term 
 land, when speaking of it as the sole original 
 source of wealth, all the natural powers of the 
 surface of the globe which can be made available 
 for the use of man, including, together with its 
 soils, mines, quarries, and waters, the animals and 
 vegetables found thereon in a wild state. 
 
 These gifts of Nature, our common mother, are 
 
 Eoured forth in all but infinite profusion upon the 
 ice of the teeming earth, for the common use of 
 mankind. But in order to avail himself of them 
 for his various purposes, man must, as has been 
 shown, appropriate them by his labour; and, 
 having done so, he acquires an equitable title to 
 their possession founded on the labour he has ex- 
 pended in their appropriation. If fruit grew spon- 
 taneously on herb or tree, in sufficient abundance 
 to supply the wants of all, the labour of gathering 
 it would be all that were necessary to give an indi- 
 vidual an equitable property in fruit. With the 
 fish of the sea, and many of the fowls of the air, 
 and some wild animals, this rule indeed holds good 
 in law at the present day, even in countries where 
 society has in many respects attained a most arti- 
 
ORIGIN OF PROPERTY IN LAND. 97 
 
 ficial and complicated condition.* But of the fruits 
 of the earth, and the animals most fitted for food, 
 there is no such spontaneous abundance ; and in 
 order to ensure the production of a sufficiency of 
 these for the wants of man, it is necessary that 
 much pains should be taken by some one, that 
 the soil be inclosed with fences to prevent the 
 ravages of wandering animals, broken up by til- 
 lage, planted and sown with the fitting vegetables, 
 and the growing crops protected, as well as 
 gathered. Now no one, it is plain, would take 
 the trouble to inclose and cultivate a piece of 
 ground, and plant or sow it several months, per- 
 haps years, before the crop can be fit to gather, 
 unless he were secured (so far at least as human 
 confidence can be secured) in the exclusive privilege 
 of gathering and appropriating the fruits of his 
 labour when ready for use. And the same may be 
 said of the land employed for breeding, rearing, 
 and fattening domestic animals. For this simple 
 reason, it becomes absolutely necessary in order to 
 admit of the production of artificial crops or stocks 
 of cattle, to secure in the strongest possible man- 
 ner a property in land to him who incloses and 
 cultivates it, or in any way renders it productive. 
 And this necessity has been perceived and acted 
 on throughout all the known and cultivated regions 
 of the globe, though under a great variety of 
 
 * Our law maxims with regard to fish, game, and such 
 things as are * ferce natures ,' assert that they are ' nullius in 
 bonis,' or no man's goods ; and that of them ' Capiat qui 
 capere possit,' catch who catch can. A qualified property is 
 still to be acquired in these and some other things ( per t/z- 
 dustriam.' See Blackstone, ii. 391. 
 
 H 
 
98 HISTORY AND CAUSES OF 
 
 modifications in the customs and laws by which the 
 tenure or occupation of the land is regulated.* Some 
 of these modifications afford more, some less, encou- 
 ragement than others to production. That system 
 is evidently to be preferred which affords the most. 
 It has, indeed, seldom been sufficiently remarked 
 by those who have studied the nature and causes 
 of national wealth, to what a pre-eminent degree 
 the social and economical condition of a people is 
 influenced by the laws and customs that prevail 
 among them respecting the occupation and owner- 
 ship of land. There is no exaggeration in the 
 assertion that, by these circumstances almost alone, 
 the position of any nation in the scale of civiliza- 
 tion is practically determined. Nor will any one 
 be inclined to doubt this, when he adverts to tha 
 simple consideration that it is from the land, and 
 the land alone, that nations derive as well the 
 whole of the food on which they are supported, as 
 the raw materials out of which by their industry 
 and ingenuity they elaborate all the other neces- 
 saries, comforts, and luxuries of life; so that it 
 must entirely depend upon the more or less easy 
 
 * The exclusive property in wells appears from Scripture 
 to have been established in the first digger or occupant, even 
 in places where the ground and herbage remained yet in 
 common. See Btackstone, ii. c. i. p. 5 ; who also states, 
 ' It is agreed upon all hands that occupancy gave the ori- 
 ginal right to the permanent property in the substance of the 
 earth, which excludes every one else but the owner from the 
 use of it.' Occupancy by use, that is, full and complete 
 utilization, (if the word is allowable,) must be intended ; 
 though Blackstone does not clearly express this. It is not 
 probable that any individual would have been allowed to ap- 
 propriate more land than he could occupy in this sense. Id.p. 
 
THE APPROPRIATION OF LAND. 99 
 
 and equitable terms on which the cultivation of the 
 soil by those who possess the means, is permitted 
 or encouraged by those who own it, whether the 
 production of every kind of wealth be restrained 
 within the narrowest limits, or developed to the 
 utmost extent of which human industry is capable 
 under the most favourable circumstances. 
 
 The terms on which the cultivators of the soil 
 are admitted to its occupation vary materially 
 in different parts of the globe ; and a review of 
 these different customs and of their effects during 
 a series of ages, as unfolded both in history and 
 from recent observation, exhibiting their respec- 
 tive merits and defects, and the influence they 
 severally exercise over the moral, economical, and 
 political condition of the countries in which they 
 prevail, would in itself be a work of great interest. 
 The space we can afford to this branch of our sub- 
 ject, perhaps the most important division of the 
 whole field of inquiry which is subjected to the 
 social economist, is less than it deserves, but we 
 will endeavour to compress all the prominent points 
 into a manageable compass. 
 
 The natural and equitable title to property in 
 land which arises from its appropriation 4 per in- 
 dustriam,' by the labour necessary to render it pro- 
 ductive, must always have required the sanction 
 and support of the law, that is to say, of what- 
 ever supreme authority was set up in a state for 
 the purpose of securing the common welfare by 
 restraining individual rapacity. But power, once 
 established, seldom contents itself with promoting 
 the legitimate objects of its appointment. l Quis 
 custodiet ipsos custodes?' Those who were en- 
 
 H2 
 
dOO HISTORICAL SKETCH OF 
 
 /trusted with the regulation of the terms on which 
 the land of a country with all its natural produc- 
 tions might be appropriated, have very naturally 
 availed themselves of this authority, when they 
 -could, to appropriate as much as possible of it, or 
 ->f its produce, to themselves. 
 
 The origin of the peculiar political institutions 
 of most nations is buried in considerable obscurity. 
 It has even been disputed which of the two great 
 principles of government is the most ancient and 
 natural, the despotic, under which one claims a 
 'Tight to supreme power over the many, or the 
 free, under which the many claim the right to be 
 .governed only by officers of their own choice. 
 But it is so perfectly obvious that one individual 
 -can never have acquired power over a numerous 
 society except with the consent of the majority,- 
 x>r, at least, of an overwhelming body of supporters, 
 that the question of priority does not appear to us 
 -to admit of a doubt. It is, however, of little mo- 
 ment. Referring to fact, we find that the earliest 
 .authentic accounts we possess of human societies 
 generally agree in describing their infant condition 
 as one of great simplicity, very similar to that of 
 .most savage tribes at the present day, in which, 
 while the rights of each individual, at least of each 
 -full grown male, are considered equal, a power is 
 .lodged, by common consent, in some officer or 
 -.body of officers, to make and enforce the laws 
 necessary for the general welfare. Among hunting 
 -tribes, the personal activity requisite for the sup- 
 port of each individual, and the state of constant 
 warfare in which they necessarily lived, through 
 unavoidable conflict of neighbouring tribes for 
 
THE APPROPRIATION OF LA*|D. JG'F 
 
 their hunting-grounds as game became scarce, anc 
 even occasionally of individuals for their prey 
 must have rendered every male a warrior, andf 
 might enable him, if he chose, to claim and ex- 
 ercise an equal share of power. Yet, if we are 
 to judge by the analogy of modern instances^ 
 the authority of chiefs and elder warriors an 
 authority obtained partly by superior strength and 
 activity, partly by superior sagacity and expe- 
 rience would, even in such a state of society, bs> 
 generally recognized. But as men settled down 
 into pastoral and agricultural occupations, and the 
 division of labour commenced, the duty of pro- 
 tecting the society from external aggression would 
 naturally be confided to a class selected for this 
 purpose; and, in like manner, the business of 
 making and executing the laws necessary for the 
 common good would be entrusted to another body 
 of functionaries. The most experienced elders 
 would be probably chosen for the latter purpose ; . 
 the most vigorous, active, and energetic in middle 
 life, for the former. Now subordinatioii and obe- 
 dience are the essentials of military success. To. 
 be effective, therefore, every army must have had 
 its leaders. Unfortunately, the command of an 
 army too often confers a power not only of repel- 
 ling foreign aggression, but of securing domestic 
 domination. A successful general, whom his sol- 
 diers, trained to military duty, have been long 
 accustomed implicitly and unhesitatingly to obey, 
 is enabled, if he chooses, to put down all othei? 
 authority, and establish his will as sole law through- 
 out the country of which he was chosen, and still, 
 perhaps, affects to consider himself the protector. 
 
102 NATU'P.E AND OK!G?N OF 
 
 Such an usurpation is as easy as it is probable, 
 under the circumstances of strong temptation in 
 which military leaders are often placed. And 
 these tricks have, in fact, full often 4 been played 
 before high heaven;' so often, as almost to justify 
 the ostracising jealousy of the classical republics. 
 History proves that all absolute governments, of 
 which the origin is recorded, commenced in some 
 circumstance of this character, which may be con- 
 sidered as the natural generation of despotism. 
 
 Wherever despotic power exists, whether the 
 result of domestic treachery or foreign invasion, 
 there property, as well in land, as of all other 
 kind, and even life itself is, of course, held only 
 at the will of the ruler. And, accordingly, we find 
 in countries which appear to have been subjected 
 to this form of government, that the exclusive pro- 
 prietorship of the land, as the primary source of 
 all wealth, has been claimed by the sovereign. 
 
 In some parts of the world this claim has been 
 practically exercised up to the present day, in 
 others but nominally; the usufruct of the soil 
 having been transferred by grant of the sovereign 
 to inferior holders, and his claim continued, per- 
 haps, only in some mere formality, itself often 
 obsolete and disregarded. Throughout all Asia, 
 from China to Turkey, (excepting only the Russian 
 provinces,) the revenue of the ruler is still, and 
 always has been, raised from the cultivators of the 
 soil by a sort of land tax, consisting of a propor- 
 tion of the produce, which varies, as may naturally 
 be imagined, with the tyranny or mildness of the 
 reigning sovereign, and the greater or less powers 
 of exaction with which the intermediate collectors 
 
LANDED PROPERTY IN ASIA. 103 
 
 are armed. The cultivator is by some persons con- 
 sidered to be, throughout this large portion of the 
 globe, the legal owner of his plot of land. And 
 indeed he has some of the supposed characteristics 
 of ownership, since he is empowered, in general, 
 to mortgage, sell, or alienate it, and that it de- 
 scends at his decease, if not otherwise disposed of, 
 in equal portions to his heirs. There is, however, 
 an almost infinite variety in the local customs 
 which determine this tenure ; every petty province 
 having some minute peculiarity. And it is even 
 yet a matter of dispute among writers who have 
 deeply studied the institutions of our Indian empire, 
 which of the three parties who have everywhere 
 a joint interest in the land, the peasant- cultivator 
 (or ryot), the tax-collector (or zemindar), and the 
 sovereign, is its real legitimate proprietor. In 
 practice, each has a lien upon its produce, and 
 to that extent each may be reckoned its owner. 
 The tax-collector, like the ryot, has an hereditary 
 and transferable interest in his post, which brings 
 him a revenue in a per centage of the sum he 
 collects from the ryots for the sovereign. 
 
 The question would perhaps have offered fewer 
 difficulties, had due attention been paid to the 
 simple principles on which land is originally appro- 
 priated from a state of waste, by the industry of the 
 labourer, and subsequently when it has become, 
 through his agency, a valuable possession, seized 
 on as their property by any party sufficiently power- 
 ful to support such a claim. The ancient institu- 
 tions of the Hindoos, which have scarcely varied 
 during four thousand years, strongly illustrate and 
 confirm what we have already urged on this point. 
 
104 NATURE AND ORIGIN OF 
 
 The Institutes of Menu, a work of immense anti- 
 quity, expressly declare that ' cultivated land is 
 the property of him who cut away the wood, or 
 who cleared and tilled it.' And indeed if this rule 
 did not follow from the most obvious principles of 
 natural justice, its policy, as encouraging the 
 improvement and cultivation of waste land in a 
 new and little occupied country, would lead to its 
 enactment even under the most unnatural and 
 barbarous tyranny.* But every society must have 
 a government of some sort for its protection from 
 domestic anarchy and external attack ; and a 
 government necessitates a general contribution or 
 taxation for its support, which in an early and 
 agricultural state can only be raised off the land. 
 Hence a certain proportion of the produce of the 
 soil has been almost everywhere required for this 
 purpose from its cultivators. In ancient Egypt, 
 one- fifth of the crops was so taken. Among the 
 Jews, a tenth ; and in the Grecian likewise and 
 Bom an states a similar proportion was the contri- 
 
 * In Persia, where, from the peculiar nature of the soil, 
 a very expensive system of artificial irrigation by means of 
 wells is absolutely necessary for the production of crops, the 
 ancient and inalterable law confers on the person who so- 
 digs such wells the perpetual ownership of the land fertilized 
 by him, (with the sole reservation of the quit-rent or tax of 
 one-fifth of the produce to the Shah;) and so necessary is 
 the inviolability of this rule felt to be, for securing a due 
 supply of food in the country, that throughout the scenes of 
 anarchy, rapine, and licentiousness of which Persia has 
 been so often the theatre, property of this character has been 
 invariably respected. In the same manner, as we find from 
 the Holy Scriptures, in the very earliest ages a well in the 
 desert was held to be the property of him who dug it, and 
 of his descendants for ever. 
 
LANDED PROPERTY IN ASIA. 105 
 
 bution generally required for the use of the state. 
 In Persia, a fifth; in Hindostan, from one-eighth 
 to one- seventeenth appears to have been levied in 
 the earliest ages. In the Institutes of Menu the 
 sovereign is expressly permitted to double this tax, 
 raising it to one-fourth, during war. Such was 
 the tax paid to Porus when Alexander invaded him. 
 Whether this latter regulation acted among 
 sovereigns as a premium on war, or not, it is but 
 too notorious that the Eastern world has very 
 rarely enjoyed the blessings of peace. And in 
 the convulsed and desolating state which almost 
 perpetual warfare induces, amid alternating inva- 
 sions, revolts, conspiracies, and conquests, it may 
 be easily imagined how, through all these phases, 
 the poor cultivator, whom, after all, the rival fac- 
 tions were but contending for the power of plun- 
 dering, was ground to the earth by continued 
 exactions, and could profit little by the barren 
 honour, even if it were conceded to him, of a 
 nominal ownership in the soil. Its produce, when 
 cultivated by his toil, was sure to be claimed by 
 some party or other, the temporary sovereign, 
 or his subordinate chieftains. The ryot might 
 esteem himself fortunate who was allowed to pre- 
 serve his life and a bare sufficiency for its main- 
 tenance, as the requital of his toil. The question, 
 therefore, as to whether the Asiatic ryot, the 
 zemindar, or the sovereign, is the legal owner of the 
 soil, seems to us susceptible of a very simple 
 solution. Throughout the East, the will of the 
 sovereign has always been law so that to hold 
 land by that will was to hold it by law. It is only 
 when law acquires a power above that of the so- 
 
106 TENURE OF LAND IN ASIA. 
 
 vereign that private property in its true sense can 
 be said to exist. We must not ask then, with 
 regard to Asia, what is the law, but what is the 
 custom and the fact ; and the answer is, that the 
 necessity of affording to the peasant-cultivator 
 some guarantee for his continued occupation of the 
 soil he ploughs and sows, in order to induce him 
 to plough and sow it, has compelled the Asiatic 
 despots to allow him a partial and limited proprie- 
 torship ; that is to say, they have permitted him 
 and his descendants to occupy and cultivate his 
 spot of ground on condition of paying whatever 
 proportion of its produce the sovereign chooses 
 (directly, or through his officers, to exact, And he 
 has seldom, or never, been content to take less 
 than could by threat, torture, or violence, be 
 squeezed from the miserable cultivator, leaving him 
 a most inadequate subsistence. The cultivator is, 
 then, in law, custom, and fact, the slave of his 
 sovereign,* and his property is wholly at the com- 
 mand of the latter. If, therefore, as seems pre- 
 sumable, the owner of land can only be defined as 
 one who has the right of profiting by whatever 
 circumstances may improve the value of his land ; 
 the ryot has been always considered, in theory, the 
 landowner, never in practice. He was conti- 
 nually promised this right by sovereigns or their 
 collectors, who wished to tempt him to improve his 
 land ; but who, so soon as it was improved, raised 
 
 * He is punishable with stripes if he neglect to cultivate 
 duly his land his pretended property. He is, therefore, 
 not even master of his own limbs and actions, but essen- 
 tially a slave. 
 
TENURE OF LAND IN ASIA. 107 
 
 their demands on him in proportion, so as to leave 
 him none of the benefit. 
 
 The Asiatic system is evidently a compromise 
 between the usurped and unlimited power of the 
 despot, and the ancient and natural privilege of 
 private property as the result of appropriation by 
 private labour; a concession extorted from the 
 chief by the necessity of persuading his people to 
 exercise their industry, lest he should prove, like 
 Sultan Mahmoud, in the Arabian Nights, a ruler 
 only over owls and ruins, barren plains and dead 
 carcasses. 
 
 Even under our comparatively mild and peaceful 
 sway it is to be feared that the peasant-cultivators of 
 our Eastern empire have suffered severely from the 
 weight of direct taxation imposed upon them, and 
 the exactions of the intermediate parties who are 
 intrusted with the collection of the revenue from 
 the poor ryot. 
 
 There is nothing necessarily mischievous in the 
 theory of the Eastern forms of land occupation. 
 On the contrary, it approximates to that which we 
 consider the most natural, equitable, and beneficial 
 arrangement, namely, the securing a permanent 
 property in the land to him who renders it pro- 
 ductive, and to his heirs, subject only to a pay- 
 ment to the state proportioned to the value of the 
 produce, for the purpose of defraying the expenses 
 necessary for the protection of this and other pro- 
 perty. The misery suffered by the land- cultivators 
 of Asia and the wretched state of their agriculture 
 are a consequence not of the original rule of the 
 country, but of its continual infraction. It is their 
 exposure to the desolating violence of almost per- 
 
108 NATURE AND ORIGIN OF THE 
 
 petual warfare, the insatiate tyranny of despotic 
 power, and the extortionate rapacity of its minions, 
 that have dried up the naturally abundant sources 
 of production throughout Asia, repressed industry, 
 and prevented the acquisition of skill or capital 
 by its miserable and degraded cultivators. Had 
 there existed in India any defined legal rights 
 any power beyond the mere arbitrary caprice of 
 an individual, by which the demands of the state 
 upon the cultivators could have been so far re- 
 strained as to leave the latter the power of bettering 
 their condition by their industry, the vast quan- 
 tity of waste but exuberantly fertile land in that 
 country, and the luxuriance of its climate, would 
 have admitted of an increase of production which 
 must have raised the prosperity of the natives and 
 the resources of the government to an almost 
 incalculable extent. The regulations which, with 
 the most humane intentions, have been lately 
 enforced for securing to the ryots the legal owner- 
 ship of their land, and permanently fixing the pro- 
 portion of their contribution to the state, are 
 likely in no long time to change the entire face of 
 the country, and benefit all parties in an extraor- 
 dinary degree.* 
 
 The remarks we have been led to make at some 
 length on the systems of land occupation in the 
 East will enable us to understand the more easily 
 the origin and real character of those which pre- 
 vail in Europe and the western states of the civi- 
 
 * Mr. Jones's work ' On the Distribution of Wealth* 
 contains in its Appendix some valuable information from 
 Col. Tod's Rajast'han and other sources, upon the inte- 
 resting topic of the land-tenure of our Indian possessions. 
 
TENURE OF LAND IN EUROPE. 109 
 
 lized globe. Through all their vicissitudes of 
 peace and warfare, the institutions of the Orientals 
 have experienced little change ; remaining, like 
 their manners and customs, almost identically the 
 same in the present day as we know them to have 
 been, from authentic records, twenty centuries at 
 least before Christ. Not so those of the nations 
 of Europe. The latter, whether from an inherent 
 difference in their organization, or from fortuitous 
 circumstances, have passed through a process of 
 , more or less gradual change in their habits, social 
 arrangements, and national character; a change 
 which, though fluctuating occasionally from good 
 to ill, may, we hope, be characterized generally as 
 a progressive amelioration, and may be looked upon 
 as opening to the speculative philanthropist the 
 cheering prospect of a further indefinite, but con- 
 tinual, improvement in the general condition of 
 mankind at large, over whose history Europe, 
 the heart of civilization, seems destined to exercise 
 so mighty an influence. 
 
 In Europe, as in Asia, when a military chief 
 had, by usurpation, conquest, or consent, acquired 
 absolute power, the entire soil of the country, as 
 well as the lives of its inhabitants, would, we might 
 suppose, be considered his property, to be dealt 
 with at his will and pleasure. This, however, 
 does not appear to have been the case; and we 
 have, therefore, to account for the circumstance, 
 that while in Asia absolute despotism has flou- 
 rished everywhere down to the present day, and 
 the sovereign can still command the entire pro- 
 duce of^the land and labour of the community, 
 
110 NATURE AND ORIGIN OF THE 
 
 in Europe, on the contrary, the power of a con- 
 queror or chieftain has always been more or less 
 limited, and his claim to the exclusive property of 
 the soil restricted to a mere nominal title. 
 
 The solution of the problem is to be sought in 
 the same circumstance which has tempered the 
 power of the sovereign in other respects as well as 
 in his claim to the ownership of the land, namely, 
 the continual existence of an hereditary aris- 
 tocracy, or intermediate class of powerful indivi- 
 duals between the throne and the mass of the 
 people. Such a class has never shown itself in 
 Asia. There the officers of state, nobles, and 
 inferior authorities, derived their power, wealth, 
 and importance, from the sovereign alone, who 
 made and unmade them at his pleasure, and never 
 permitted them to acquire sufficient strength and 
 consistency to claim any privileges from a source 
 independent of his will. It is an interesting ques^ 
 tion, what occasioned the existence of such a class 
 in Europe and their absence in Asia ? There must 
 have been some general predisposing cause, or so 
 broad and universal a distinction could scarcely 
 have grown up and permanently rooted itself 
 throughout two extensive continents. 
 
 It appears to us that the origin of this impor- 
 tant distinction is to be looked for in the peculiar 
 occupations of the primitive settlers who were the 
 ancestors of the people of the north of Europe, 
 The Scythian hordes, whose overflowing increase 
 seems to have been continually drafted off in a 
 westerly direction, were originally pastoral tribes, 
 led to adopt that mode of life by the peculiar 
 
TENURE OF LAND IN EUROPE. HI 
 
 character of the elevated, open, and wide- spreading 
 grass-plains they occupied in Tartary, Persia, Ara- 
 bia, and the Russias, European and Asiatic. The 
 inhabitants of southern and eastern Asia were, 
 from the same cause, viz. the superficial nature of 
 their territory, which consisted of deep and rich 
 alluvial soils, devoted to agriculture. Now in an 
 agricultural territory, as we have already observed, 
 a successful invader or usurper has no difficulty in, 
 establishing and securing the power of a despotic 
 sovereign, and enforcing a claim of absolute right 
 over the land, persons, and property of all his 
 subjects. Such a ruler, as has also been noticed, 
 would naturally find his advantage in permitting 
 the agricultural population to continue their culti- 
 vation of the soil in any way they chose, and to 
 extend it to any hitherto untilled spot they pleased, 
 on condition of their paying him whatever portion 
 of their crops he might choose to demand ; which 
 portion would, of course, usually be all that could 
 be wrung from them without absolutely forcing 
 them to discontinue their labours. Hence the ryot 
 system of the Asiatics. 
 
 But pastoral and nomad tribes, on the contrary, 
 are with difficulty reduced to such prostrate sub- 
 jection. Their wandering habits naturally imbue 
 them with a love of freedom, and a spirit and 
 vigour with which to assert their independence. 
 And they possess, moreover, an easy resource, in 
 the power of escape by migration from any attempt 
 to enslave them. Whether such attempts occa- 
 sioned the migrations of the successive swarms 
 which, first passing from Asia into the north of 
 Europe, afterwards deluged the entire surface of 
 
112 TENURE OF LAND IN EUROPE. 
 
 the latter continent, or that they were owing, as 
 is more probable, to the multiplication of numbers 
 and the want of room, to which pastoral nations 
 are so soon exposed, it is certain, from all 
 the accounts remaining to us of these tribes, 
 that they enjoyed a degree of freedom scarcely 
 compatible with the subordination necessary for 
 the maintenance of the social union in a settled 
 agricultural state. What difference of rank or 
 property subsisted among them was of that nature 
 only which still prevails among nomad tribes, 
 each of which recognizes a chief, with perhaps 
 a few subordinate officers ; and in which an 
 inferior class of slaves are sometimes found, con- 
 sisting of captives taken in war ; the remaining 
 freemen being their own masters, and on a perfect 
 footing of equality, after arriving at a mature age. 
 Such were the German tribes in the time of 
 Tacitus; the chase and pasturage their chief 
 sources of subsistence ; without cities, or even 
 contiguous dwellings; occupying the land in com- 
 mon ; obeying chiefs elected out of particular fami- 
 lies ; and having some few subordinate distinctions 
 of military rank. Such too were the barbarians 
 who, three centuries after the Christian era, over- 
 ran the entire Koman empire, and settled them- 
 selves as conquerors in every corner of western 
 Europe. They are described by cotemporary 
 writers as great bodies of armed men, with their 
 wives, children, slaves, and /locks, migrating in 
 quest of new settlements, which they wrested by 
 their barbarian vigour from the effeminate and 
 degenerate Romans. The lands they had conquered 
 were probably divided equally among the free 
 
ALLODIAL AND FEUDAL TENURES. 11 S3" 
 
 warriors, the chief retaining the largest share, and- 
 were cultivated principally by their slaves. But,, 
 as they in turn adopted some of the habits of the 
 people they had dispossessed, fixed themselves in. 
 particular spots, began to occupy themselves in 
 agriculture, and to build permanent habitations,, 
 they became more exposed to the domination of 
 their military chieftains. During the turbulent 
 middle ages these several clans were incessantly 
 engaged in mutual warfare under their respective 
 leaders; and the authority which, in a state sa 
 circumstanced, the chief necessarily exercised over 
 his body of military companions, was recom- 
 pensed by a division among them of the lands he,, 
 with their aid, wrested from their neighbours. 
 There existed at that time little wealth of a- 
 portable nature, and the reward, therefore, of mili- 
 tary service could only be a share of the land which 
 the chieftain's conquests enabled him to command,. 
 These lands, cultivated by the slaves taken in war r 
 could easily be made a source of wealth. And 
 such grants, when they escaped the grasp of a still 
 stronger tyrant or invader, were allowed to become 
 hereditary, on condition of the continuance of the: 
 same military services in consideration of which, 
 they were originally bestowed. In this manner, 
 grew up a distinction between allodial lands, or: 
 those which belonged to freemen, (the descend- 
 ants, probably, of the original free invaders among, 
 whom the land was partitioned upon their first 
 migratory settlement on it,) and the lands held by 
 feudal tenure of a military chief, on condition o 
 military service. 
 
 The several chiefs in their turn recognized a_ 
 
114 FEUDAL SYSTEM. 
 
 supreme lord or suzerain, under whom they mar- 
 shalled themselves in expeditions of importance, 
 and from whom they likewise held feudal fiefs 
 granted as a reward for their past, and a gage for 
 their future services, on the same terms as those 
 they divided among their own particular sup- 
 porters, or vassals. 
 
 The power of the sovereign, through this gra- 
 duated chain of dependence, never became absolute 
 in Europe as in Asia. His principal vassals were 
 always more or less independent of him. Each 
 had his own clan, or body of vassals, who looked 
 up to him as their only head, and were ready to 
 obey his orders at any time, whether to act for, or 
 against, his suzerain. And a league of these 
 chieftains could often overawe, and occasionally 
 succeeded in dethroning their sovereign. The 
 entire history of Europe, in fact, is but the narra- 
 tive of continued struggles between sovereigns 
 and some of their vassal nobles ; in which now 
 one, now another party obtained the mastery. 
 Under the immediate successors of Clovis, the 
 Frank conqueror of Gaul, the royal authority was 
 uppermost. But the nobles soon contrived to 
 regain the power which their negligence alone had 
 allowed the sovereign to usurp, and which that of 
 the contemptible kings of the line of Clovis 
 enabled them easily to resume. The chief vassals 
 of the crown succeeded in obtaining a full recog- 
 nition of their hereditary right to their patrimonial 
 possessions, to which the royal investiture gave 
 more of ornament than sanction. ' From the 
 death of Charlemagne the kingdom of France was 
 a bundle of fiefs, and the king little more than one 
 
PREDIAL SLAVERY. 115 
 
 of a number of feudal nobles, differing rather in 
 dignity than in power from the rest.'* 
 
 The independence of the German aristocracy 
 reached its height towards the middle of the thir- 
 teenth century. Since that period the sovereigns 
 found it necessary to strengthen themselves 
 against their nobles by calling in the aid of their 
 people, and particularly of the commercial and 
 manufacturing towns, which, with this view, they 
 fostered by immunities, privileges, and protection 
 from the extortions of the neighbouring counts 
 and barons. From these elements sprung the 
 political condition of the European states ; which, 
 unquestionably, owe what freedom they enjoy to 
 the necessity which drove the sovereign to conci- 
 liate the mass of the people, as a counterpoise to a 
 powerful aristocracy. 
 
 The land, meantime, was cultivated almost 
 wholly by slaves, who were bred and treated in 
 all respects like cattle. Their numbers were also 
 recruited by the prisoners taken in war, and to a 
 certain extent, in the most turbulent times, by free- 
 men, who were actually driven to enrol themselves 
 among the slaves of powerful chieftains in order to 
 preserve their lives ; a petty freeman being a 
 common prey to all parties, whereas the slaves of 
 one chief were of course protected by him from all 
 others. There were some distinctions among 
 slaves not, however, of much importance. Some 
 were certainly saleable like cattle, and might be 
 severed from the land ; others were, by custom, 
 or perhaps in virtue of the original bargain under 
 
 *Hallara,i,p.244. 
 
 i 2 
 
116 SERFSHIP. 
 
 which they or their ancestors had submitted them- 
 selves as slaves to the chief, attached to the soil, 
 (adscripti gleba,) and could only be alienated with 
 it. They derived their subsistence by cultivating 
 for their own use small tracts of land allotted to 
 them by the lord for this purpose, (a cheap con- 
 trivance for making them maintain themselves;) 
 and for the remainder of their time they laboured 
 on the demesne land, or portion reserved for the 
 lord's own use, the produce of which formed his 
 revenue. Even the kings of France and Lom- 
 bardy supplied the expenses of their rude courts 
 from their demesne lands. Charlemagne himself 
 was a farmer, and regulated the economy of his 
 farms with the minuteness of a steward.* 
 
 Nearly the whole of Europe was at one time 
 cultivated in this manner by slaves, or, as they are 
 generally called, serfs. But the labouring classes 
 of the western states have by slow degrees con- 
 trived to emancipate themselves from personal 
 bondage, and obtain the invaluable natural right 
 of either working on their own account, or dis- 
 posing of their services to the highest bidder. 
 Among the northern and eastern nations serfship 
 still prevails ; in some, as Russia for example, in 
 its unmitigated form ; the owner having almost 
 unlimited power over the persons of his serfs; 
 beating, mutilating, and even putting them to 
 death at his will. 
 
 The mode in which the lord in these countries 
 obtains a revenue from his estate is still by em- 
 ploying his serfs to cultivate and manage his 
 
 * Hallam, chap. ii. part ii. 
 
GRADUAL MITIGATION" OF SERFSHIP. 117 
 
 demesne lands under a superintendent ; each serf 
 having permission, in return for his labour, to 
 maintain himself and his family, by tilling certain 
 portions of land allotted to him for the purpose. 
 Usage has by degrees established for the serfs 
 something like rights, which the humane genius 
 of modern law has learnt to respect. Their hold- 
 ings are considered hereditary; and in many 
 districts the amount of labour which the serf is 
 required to perform for the lord is fixed. Attempts 
 have likewise been made of late years to substitute 
 a better form of land-occupation than serfship 
 under any modifications can ever be ; and, by 
 affording the peasant a hope of improving his con- 
 dition by his own exertions, to stimulate his torpid 
 industry. 
 
 The progress of this change from serfship to 
 free tenancy, as it has taken place by slow degrees 
 in the west of Europe, may be illustrated from the 
 example of England. During the Saxon era, 
 predial slavery was universal. Even at the end of 
 the thirteenth century, two hundred years after 
 the occupation of the country by the Normans, a 
 very large proportion of the body of cultivators 
 was still precisely in the condition of the Russian 
 serf. During the next three hundred years, the 
 unlimited amount of labour exacted from the 
 villeins (as they were then called) in return for 
 the lands allotted to them, was gradually com- 
 muted for definite services, and they acquired a 
 legal right to the hereditary occupation of what 
 were termed their copyholds. Two hundred years 
 have scarcely elapsed since the change to this 
 extent became quite universal, or since the per- 
 
118 EVILS OF SERFSHIP. 
 
 sonal bondage of the villeins ceased to exist 
 among us. The last claim of villeinage recorded 
 in our courts was in the fifteenth of James I. 1618. 
 Bare instances, perhaps, existed some time after 
 this. In the mean time the stipulated services 
 silently and imperceptibly ceased to be exacted, 
 or were commuted for annual money -payments. 
 Similar changes are now taking place throughout 
 Germany. They are perfected nowhere, and in 
 some large districts exhibit themselves in very 
 backward stages. 
 
 The disadvantages of a system of serfship or 
 villeinage are obvious, and are attested by the low 
 state of civilization, the poverty, and imperfect 
 cultivation of the countries in which it prevails. 
 The labour compulsorily exacted from tenants on 
 the grounds or on behoof of their landlords, is 
 sure to be performed in a very slovenly manner. 
 Men do not exert themselves with spirit or effect 
 unless they are working on their own account, 
 and are allowed themselves to reap all the advan- 
 tages of their superior industry. It has been 
 proved that one Middlesex mower will cut as 
 much grass in a day as three Russian serfs. And 
 the necessary absence under such a system of all 
 improved implements or processes of husbandry, 
 augments the comparative inefficiency of serf- 
 labour. Indolence and carelessness are the habi- 
 tual characteristics of a peasantry in this condition; 
 their want of skill, means, and energy, must have 
 a disastrous influence on the annual produce of 
 the land and labour of their territory, and tend to 
 keep the country they inhabit in a state of 
 poverty and political feebleness, from which it will 
 
METAYER SYSTEM. 119 
 
 be impossible for it to emerge while so deleterious 
 a system is suffered to prevail. These disadvan- 
 tages are, in fact, very generally recognized by all 
 the enlightened classes in serf countries, and have 
 given rise to the numerous attempts now going on 
 to substitute payments of produce, or money, in 
 lieu of labour, as the rent of land, that is, the con- 
 ditions upon which the owner allows the cultivator 
 to occupy. The great end in view is, of course, 
 to encourage the industry of the cultivator by 
 placing him in a position to improve his own cir- 
 cumstances, as well as those of his landlord, by 
 increased skill and exertion. For the details of 
 these efforts, and their varied success, we must 
 refer to the valuable work of Mr. Jones.* 
 
 The system of serf- cultivation, though formerly 
 common through a very large extent of Europe, 
 was not universally practised. In some countries 
 a different plan has been acted on from a very 
 early period by the landowners, who have ac- 
 cepted from the cultivators of their estates a share 
 of the produce as rent. The existence of such a 
 state of things indicates a more advanced condition 
 of society than that which accompanies the serf 
 system. The serf, in fact, is a mere slave, com- 
 pelled to till his master's land, and cheaply main- 
 tained by the permission to cultivate for himself a 
 patch of soil, barely enough to provide himself 
 with subsistence. The metayer on the contrary 
 is, in all respects, a voluntary tenant, who enters 
 into a sort of joint- stock partnership with his land- 
 lord; the latter finding the land, and the seed, 
 
 * Jones on Rent. 1831. 
 
METAYER SYSTEM 
 
 <fcools, and stock, necessary for its cultivation ; the 
 former the equally necessary labour. The product; 
 Is divided between them, generally in equal shares, 
 from which division the name (metayer, medie- 
 tarius) is derived. This form of holding is to be 
 'traced very clearly to Greece, whence it was intro- 
 duced among the Romans, and has perpetuated 
 itself, in some degree, in most of the countries 
 which were formerly provinces of that empire ; 
 though partly superseded by that of serfship and 
 -villeinage, which, as we have seen, grew up under 
 ^the feudal system. In Italy, Savoy, France, and 
 Spain, metayer tenancy is common, and has a 
 ^very decided influence on the methods of cultiva- 
 tion, and all those important relations between the 
 different orders of society which originate in the 
 .appropriation of the soil and the distribution of its 
 produce. In France, before the revolution, four- 
 sevenths of the whole surface was occupied en 
 metairie. Even now, in spite of the multiplication 
 of small proprietors consequent on the revolution, 
 .-this class of tenants are supposed to cultivate one- 
 half of France, and the greater part of Italy and 
 ->Spain. 
 
 Though the metayer has many apparent advan- 
 tages over the serf, in his personal freedom, and 
 the power he enjoys of cultivating his farm as he 
 pleases, freed from the tyranny and irksome super- 
 intendence of the proprietor, yet he is found, in 
 -practice, to be very little, if at all, more advan- 
 tageously situated. It would seem, at first sight, 
 .that the reward of his toil, consisting in a definite 
 share of the produce, would increase with his 
 industry and skill, and therefore stimulate him to 
 
ITS DISADVANTAGES. 121 
 
 exertion. But the shortsighted covetousness of 
 the proprietors has almost everywhere prevented 
 this, by inducing them, when they could not by 
 agreement directly increase their share, to do so 
 indirectly, by throwing the government taxes on 
 the tenant, and claiming for themselves an exemp- 
 tion from all imposts. By this and other similar 
 contrivances, the share of the metayer has been 
 generally so reduced as to leave him but a bare 
 subsistence, and no hope of bettering his condition 
 by any exertion of industry. The metayers of 
 France are described by Turgot before the revolu- 
 tion, and by other writers of the present day, as 
 existing in the depth of misery, always in arrear 
 to their landlord, and consequently entirely at his 
 mercy, from their utter inability even to live upon 
 their half of the produce of their farms. This 
 misery of course reacts injuriously upon their 
 landlords' interests, by giving a careless, slovenly 
 character to their mode of cultivation, and putting 
 anything like energy or a spirit of improvement 
 out of the question. 
 
 Again, the divided interest which exists in 
 the produce is a bar to improvement. The tenant 
 is unwilling to listen to the suggestions of his 
 landlord ; the landlord to intrust additional means 
 to an ignorant, prejudiced, and careless tenant. 
 When stock is to be advanced by one person and 
 used by another, some waste and neglect in the 
 receiving party, great jealousy and reluctance in 
 the contributing party, naturally ensue. Hence 
 the implements and stock placed at the disposal of 
 the metayers are, in general, very scanty, and of an 
 indifferent quality ; and their land on the whole is 
 
122 TENURE OF LAND IN ENGLAND. 
 
 very imperfectly cultivated. These disadvantages 
 must continue severely to affect the condition of 
 countries in which this imperfect system of land- 
 occupation prevails. Their agriculture must be 
 exceedingly unproductive, as compared with the 
 capacity of the soil and the amount of labour 
 existing upon it ; and since the produce of land 
 forms, as we have seen, the substratum of all other 
 wealth, the production of the aggregate stock of 
 the means of enjoyment must be proportionately 
 slow, languid, and contracted. 
 
 Such, with very trifling variations, are the imper- 
 fect systems on which land is occupied for the 
 purpose of cultivation throughout the entire con- 
 tinent of Asia, and nearly the whole of Europe. 
 In Great Britain, Holland, and the Netherlands, 
 a different mode has been adopted, to which in a 
 great measure is to be ascribed the extraordinary 
 comparative progress which agriculture has made 
 in this corner of Europe. 
 
 At a very early period, as has been already men- 
 tioned, the stipulated services of the villeins or 
 manorial tenants in England began to be com- 
 muted for annual payments in money. About the 
 same time it became not uncommon for the lord 
 to lease out for the duration of certain lives, or 
 for a term of years, portions of the manorial 
 waste, upon payment of a money fine, to such 
 persons as were desirous and able to reduce it to 
 tillage. As these leases expired, the lands, whose 
 value had increased through the cultivation be- 
 stowed on them, were relet for an augmented fine, 
 
ORIGIN OF COPY AND LEASEHOLDS. 123 
 
 or at an annual money -rent ; frequently for both. 
 And the lord in time found it much more con- 
 venient to lease out in this manner his demesne 
 lands likewise, than to farm them himself through 
 a bailiff. In this manner the greater portion of 
 the land of England came to be occupied by 
 tenants on lease. Many small plots were still cul- 
 tivated by their owners, the liberi tenentes, or free- 
 holders, who had acquired them by purchase, or 
 by descent from the freemen and military tenants 
 of the feudal era. Other estates still remained in 
 the hands of the descendants or purchasers from 
 the ancient villeins, holding, as it was called, at 
 the will of the lord by copy of court roll, (the 
 record of such grants.) To the latter tenure cus- 
 tom, and the indulgence of the lords of manors in 
 never resuming the grant, in process of time gave 
 a prescriptive right, recognized by the courts as 
 a valid claim according to the common (or custom- 
 ary) law of the land. But even of these smaller 
 properties, many, when they fell into the hands of 
 minors or women, or were purchased by persons 
 engaged in trade or otherwise, were in their turn 
 leased out to tenants willing to pay their owners a 
 money-rent for their occupation. So that, by 
 degrees, nearly the whole surface of England, as 
 well the small estates of the inferior class of land- 
 owners, as the extensive domains of the lords of 
 manors, the nobles, the crown, or the church, 
 came to be cultivated in portions of moderate ex- 
 tent, by tenants who undertook to farm these 
 portions on leases for certain terms, stipulating 
 for payment to the owner of an annual rent. 
 Now it is immediately evident that such a 
 
124 LEASEHOLD SYSTEM 
 
 system of occupation must afford scope for the 
 development of those principles of industry and 
 economy which are implanted in the bosoms of all 
 men, and want but the slightest encouragement to 
 expand and perform their valuable functions. A 
 cultivator, secured by a lease in the possession of 
 all that he can raise off his farm over and above 
 the rent he has stipulated to pay its owner, stands 
 for the term of his occupation in the position of 
 its owner, and is urged by the inducement of direct 
 interest to labour in every possible way to increase 
 the productiveness of his holding. It is to the 
 assiduous industry of these leasehold tenants, and 
 the smaller occupying freeholders, that we are 
 indebted for the great advances this country has 
 made in agricultural skill, and for the fertilization 
 of almost every corner of its surface where the 
 plough can enter. To their steady economy we 
 owe the accumulated mass of agricultural capital 
 which renders the labour of British farmers so 
 greatly more effective than that of the continental 
 cultivators. 
 
 The advantages inherent in the leasehold system 
 of occupation would, however, have been ineffec- 
 tual, but for the protection which the law extended 
 to the tenants from the rapacity of their landlords, 
 and the countenance which the courts of Britain 
 have, with very rare exceptions, at all times 
 liberally afforded to the efforts of the industrious 
 classes of society to emancipate themselves from 
 the thraldom in which they had been bound by the 
 feudal system. On the Continent the worst fea- 
 tures of that system remained almost in their 
 integrity up to a very recent epoch, when its bar- 
 
ITS ORIGIN AND ADVANTAGES. 125- 
 
 barous customs and unjust inflictions were at 
 length repudiated by a people among whom intel- 
 ligence had partially penetrated ; and the first 
 shock of the French revolution put an end to the 
 absolute power of the great landowners over their 
 peasantry, which had till then been usually exer- 
 cised with the most arbitrary severity. Perhaps it 
 is to the spirit of independence and love of liberty 
 uniformly inspired by commercial pursuits, that 
 we are to attribute the success which at so much 
 earlier a period attended the efforts of the English, 
 the Dutch, and some other maritime states, to free 
 themselves from the shackles of feudalism and the 
 galling yoke of the landed aristocracy, under 
 which the inhabitants of the more purely agricul- 
 tural states of the Continent continued, till very 
 lately, to groan. We have already seen that serf- 
 ship was almost wholly extinguished in England 
 in the time of Elizabeth. While the cultivators 
 of nearly all Europe were abject slaves, subjected 
 to the whip, knot, or gallows of their feudal lords, 
 the merry and stalwart yeomen of England had 
 rights recognized by law, which they well knew, 
 and, * knowing, dared maintain,' They tilled the 
 fields of proud and wealthy barons, not on such 
 terms as a master imposes on his slave, but on 
 those of free contract for mutual benefit, such as 
 left the lord as much indebted to his tenant, as the 
 tenant to his lord. In gaining this high compa- 
 rative condition, the cultivators of England were 
 assisted by the sovereign, who felt the advantage 
 of being backed by their honest and hearty loyalty 
 in his disputes with disloyal nobles, and by the 
 judges of the law-courts appointed by him, them- 
 
126 LEASEHOLD SYSTEM 
 
 selves sprung from the people, and naturally in- 
 clined to favour the liberty of the subject. Black- 
 stone truly says that * the law of England has 
 always been ready to catch at anything in favour 
 of liberty.' 
 
 One other remarkable circumstance contributed 
 to favour the advance of the class of English 
 farmers in wealth and independence, namely, the 
 continued fall in the value of money during the 
 three successive centuries which followed the dis- 
 covery of America. The abundance of gold and 
 silver flowing from the new world into the old 
 lowered their value, and with them that of money. 
 The sovereigns during the same period frequently 
 resorted to the trick of debasing the coin of the 
 realm, in order to pay their old debts in money of 
 less intrinsic worth. And the consequence was, 
 that leasehold tenants who had contracted at 
 the beginning of a long term of occupation for 
 payment of a fixed annual rent, proportioned 
 in amount to the value of money at that time, 
 profited greatly as its value was subsequently less- 
 ened, and the money-price of every produce of 
 their farms proportionately increased. The land- 
 owners were, of course, losers in the same propor- 
 tion. But the nation at large benefited to an 
 extraordinary degree. For had this difference 
 passed into the hands of the landlords, to whom 
 in equity, perhaps, it was due, it would have been 
 spent by them as revenue on more sumptuous 
 clothing, furniture, or feasting, and larger trains 
 of menials ; whereas in the hands of their tenants 
 it was economized, and accumulated into capital, 
 being expended by them in the more vigorous 
 
ITS ORIGIN AND ADVANTAGES. 127 
 
 cultivation of their farms, in bringing fresh lands 
 under culture, in the erection of farm buildings, 
 and other permanent improvements, by which the 
 general productiveness of the national soil was 
 increased. 
 
 It is to these combined causes that we must 
 refer the remarkable superiority of the agriculture 
 of Britain over that of the Continent. They 
 resolve themselves into circumstances, more or 
 less casual in their nature, which conferred on 
 the cultivators of land an advantage, which they 
 are always sure to employ to the furtherance of 
 agriculture and the enrichment of the state. Had 
 they not been aided by such adventitious circum- 
 stances, had they been left at the discretion of the 
 legal owners of the soil, these latter would, no 
 doubt, have mistaken their real interest, in Eng- 
 land, as they have done everywhere else, in the 
 west as well as in the east, and by grinding the 
 peasantry to the very earth, exacting from them 
 all the fruits of their labour beyond the barest 
 pittance on which life can be supported, would have 
 put it out of their power to accumulate the stock, 
 and acquire the skill, and exert the energy which 
 were the indispensable elements of that immense 
 improvement in agriculture from which the land- 
 lords of England, even though in spite of them- 
 selves, have been ultimately the greatest gainers. 
 
 Nothing can be more certain than that the 
 interests of the landowners of any country are 
 indissolubly bound up with those of their tenantry 
 and of the community at large. The interest of 
 the state obviously requires that its territory be 
 brought into a state of the utmost possible pro- 
 
128 INTEREST OF LANDLORDS 
 
 ductiveness. But this can only be effected by a 
 body of cultivators possessed of ample capital, and 
 occupying their farms under such conditions as 
 will make it their interest to manage them in the 
 most perfect manner. That the landowner is 
 equally interested in this state of things is con- 
 vincingly demonstrated by a comparison of the 
 rent of land of equal natural qualities in England 
 and throughout the Continent. But the experience 
 of every age and country has proved, we fear, that 
 if it be left to the wisdom and foresight of the 
 landowner to encourage the growth of such a 
 tenantry, it will never take place. The miserable 
 scantiness of the produce of the greater part of the 
 cultivated earth is manifestly owing to the want of 
 capital and skill, the poverty and degradation 
 of the peasant cultivators ; a condition which is di- 
 rectly caused by the extortionate rapacity of those 
 persons, whether kings, nobles, or lesser proprie- 
 tors, who have established a claim to the owner- 
 ship of the soil. Wheresoever circumstances have 
 compelled a relaxation of the gripe in which the 
 cultivators are generally held by these terrarum 
 domini, they have uniformly been found to take 
 advantage of it for the extension and improve- 
 ment of agriculture. The forcible emancipation 
 of the great body of cultivators in France, by her 
 first revolution, from the oppressive bondage in 
 which they were previously held by their land- 
 lords, has, in spite of the destructive circumstances 
 by which that revolution was attended, and for a 
 long period followed in spite of the desolating 
 effects of the conscriptions of Napoleon, occasioned 
 so vast an increase in the revenues of the great 
 
THE PROSPERITY OF TENANTS. 129 
 
 body of agriculturists, that France consumes now 
 more than three times the quantity of manu- 
 factured commodities she did before that epoch, 
 and her non-agricultural population has doubled. 
 These facts tell how much she lost in wealth by 
 the feebleness of the agricultural efforts of the 
 peasantry under the old regime. 
 
 We repeat, that from the landowners of a 
 country it must not be expected that they will spon- 
 taneously afford that immediate relaxation of their 
 power over their tenantry which is necessary to 
 allow the latter to emerge from a state of poverty, 
 and cultivate with spirit and effect. This has ever 
 been, and must be, the work of a superior power, 
 whether proceeding from above or from below, 
 acting with the calmness of deliberate wisdom, or 
 the convulsive reaction of turbulent despair, by 
 which the landowner is compelled to take those 
 steps which are as necessary for his own as for 
 the general benefit. 
 
 A striking illustration of the truth of this posi- 
 tion, which, harsh as it may sound, is in accord- 
 ance with every known fact, as well as the recog- 
 nized principles of human conduct is presented 
 by the actual condition of Ireland. In that 
 country we may see the natural effects of uncon- 
 trolled power in a landed aristocracy to dictate the 
 terms on which the soil shall be cultivated by the 
 native population. There the far greater propor- 
 tion of the land is tenanted by the very lowest class 
 of peasantry, possessed of neither skill nor capital, 
 each occupying in fact but a rude turf cabin and a 
 plot of potato ground, with perhaps the run of a 
 cow in the neighbouring common or bog. And 
 
 K 
 
130 IRISH COTTIER SYSTEM, 
 
 these cottier tenants (as they are called) are 
 driven by the competition of their continually in- 
 creasing numbers, to offer for this miserable 
 holding a money rent so high as to leave them but 
 an inadequate supply of the coarsest fare. The 
 condition of the Irish peasantry proves that even 
 where usurpation has not proceeded to the extreme 
 length of claiming a property in the persons of its 
 subjects, still the exclusive ownership of the soil - 
 which the bulk of the people must obtain leave to 
 cultivate, or starve, enables the land proprietors 
 of a poor but populous country to impose on them 
 any terms they are pleased to exact, and thus 
 virtually, if not nominally, to enslave them. The 
 cottier is, in fact, an instrument which the Irish 
 landlord employs to wring from his estate the ut- 
 most return an imperfect system can produce, and 
 when it has served his turn, flings away to rot on 
 the nearest dunghill. The law mocks the Irish 
 peasant with the title of freeman. He is free only 
 to starve, for the same law confers an uncondi- 
 tional monopoly of the soil of his native island on 
 a few individuals, and he must accept the terms 
 they choose to offer, however hard, or perish of 
 famine. And there, as elsewhere, it happens that 
 the over-reaching avarice of the landowner, by 
 clutching at all hazards an immediate gain, keeps 
 the peasant cultivator in a state of misery, de- 
 gradation, and helplessness, which totally inca- 
 pacitates him from developing the productiveness 
 of the land entrusted to him, to the great ultimate 
 loss of its proprietor. Hence it is that a country 
 blest by nature with a soil of unexampled fertility, 
 intersected by magnificent navigable rivers, situated 
 
OCCUPATION OF LAND IN AMERICA. 131 
 
 in the most favourable climate, and inhabited by 
 an active, spirited, and energetic population, within 
 reach of all the advantages of the highest civiliza- 
 tion, and protected from external injury by a 
 wealthy and powerful government, offers a pic- 
 ture of discontent and turbulence, of moral degra- 
 dation and physical want, probably unequalled in 
 any other quarter of the globe. 
 
 Even in England the mistaken selfishness of the 
 landlord class is exemplified, in their attempts by 
 means of the corn laws to confine the increasing 
 population of the country to food grown on her 
 limited soils. The injury which they themselves 
 sustain by thus checking the extension of oar 
 manufacturing industry, and pauperizing a large 
 portion of the population which might maintain 
 itself if it were allowed to exchange the produce 
 of its labour with the foreigner for food, is easily 
 demonstrable, and will be reverted to in a subse- 
 quent chapter. 
 
 In the northern division of the New World, and 
 in some of our Australian colonies, we may see a 
 system in practice very different from any of those 
 we have been employed in contemplating, a sys- 
 tem approaching perhaps as nearly as is desirable 
 to the natural and equitable law of land proprietor- 
 ship. Those vast territories, throughout which 
 man was, up to a very late period, a comparative 
 stranger, offered an almost boundless extent of 
 surface for his occupation. The adventurers that 
 migrated from the old world to settle on these fair 
 shores, bringing with them both a knowledge of 
 the arts of civilized life, and the habits and maxims 
 of regulated freedom, found there on their arrival 
 
132 LAND TENURE IN MODERN COLONIES. 
 
 no powerful monopolists claiming, on the plea of 
 ancient grants or modern conquest, to exclude 
 them from their just place at the bosom of mother 
 earth no arbitrary despot proclaiming himself, 
 by right divine, lord of Heaven and earth and all 
 that is therein, and urging them to toil only that, 
 like the bee-master, he might despoil them of the 
 honey they should store ; they had 
 
 * The world before them where to choose, 
 And Providence their guide.' 
 
 Each took possession of as much land as he found 
 it convenient to cultivate, and rejoiced to find 
 -others fixing their choice in his immediate vicinity, 
 and sharing with him the well-known advantages 
 -of a division and exchange of labour. As the 
 settlements advanced, and it was found to be for 
 the common interest that the occupation of fresh 
 land should be regulated in a systematic manner, 
 for the sake of more effectually securing proper 
 ^communications and measures for internal security 
 and external defence, the state was appointed pro- 
 prietor of all the unoccupied lands, but only with 
 the view of their being dealt out to all who might 
 wish to settle, upon such terms and in so regu- 
 lated a manner as would ultimately be most con- 
 ducive to the benefit of the settlers themselves. 
 
 Here was a practical adoption through an ex- 
 tensive tract of country of those simple and natural 
 principles which we have shown ought every 
 where to regulate the appropriation of land, the 
 common bounty of the Creator. We see its 
 results in the extraordinarily rapid increase of 
 wealth and population among the settlers wherever 
 
ITS ADVANTAGES. 133* 
 
 they enjoy internal tranquillity, as in the United 
 States and the British Colonies. In the provinces 
 formerly colonized by Spain and Portugal, civil 
 dissension, the natural fruit of the despotic prin- 
 ciples introduced from the mother countries, has 
 unhappily marred, in some degree, the lot of their 
 inhabitants. 
 
 Political economists are in the habit of ex- 
 plaining the high wages and prosperous condition 
 of the cultivators of North America and our 
 Australian possessions, by the single circumstance 
 of these newly-settled countries possessing vast 
 tracts of uncultivated land, from which it is easy 
 for any industrious man by the labour of his own 
 arm to procure a comfortable subsistence for him- 
 self and his family. But the fact is, that many of 
 the most ancient states of the old world contain* 
 an almost equal abundance of waste and untilled. 
 lands, of high natural fertility, and provided by 
 nature with every requisite quality for the occupa- 
 tion and enjoyment of man, upon the sole con- 
 dition that he exert the powers with which she has 
 furnished him in the development of their pro- 
 ductiveness. It is to the vices of the governments- 
 and institutions of the old world, not to the- 
 deficiency or exhaustion of its rich, and, through a. 
 vast extent, yet virgin soils, that we must attribute 
 whatever is to be found of misery in the condition 
 of their people. It is by the strong remaining" 
 taint of feudal slavery, the weight of despotic 
 tyranny, and the ignorance and bigotry which a, 
 long course of systematic oppression has engen- 
 dered in both people and rulers, that the develop- 
 ment of their natural resources is impeded, in- 
 
134 COLONIAL CULTIVATION. 
 
 dustry, economy, and foresight prevented from 
 expanding themselves, and the gifts of a bountiful 
 Providence turned but too frequently into curses. 
 Nor can there be a stronger proof of this assertion 
 than the comparatively unimproved condition in 
 which the Spanish and Portuguese colonies have 
 stagnated, though new and highly fertile states, 
 for several centuries ; whilst the northern states 
 of America have made, in a third part of the time, 
 such rapid progress in improvement, as to present 
 already to the delighted contemplation of the 
 friend of humanity one of the most powerful, 
 wealthy, prosperous, and civilized nations of the 
 globe, spread over a territory where little more 
 than a century back there wandered only some 
 scattered hordes of barbarous savages. The dif- 
 ference can be attributed to nothing but the 
 different political institutions of these settlements, 
 the one having been modelled on the peninsular 
 despotisms, the other an emanation of the stern 
 and independent spirit inherited from the ancient 
 Scythian tribes, and which, even in the worst of 
 times, still struggled for existence in some angle 
 or other of the old world. There is nowhere a 
 more striking proof of the relative advantages of 
 free and despotic institutions, and of the habits, 
 ways of thinking and acting, in a word, the social 
 disposition, respectively generated in nations by 
 such institutions, than is afforded by a comparison 
 of the actual condition and past history of the 
 American states of British origin, with those of 
 Spanish and Portuguese derivation. 
 
 In countries where erroneous institutions by 
 
AGRICULTURAL LABOURERS AND CAPITALISTS. 135 
 
 giving to an arbitrary sovereign, or equally arbi- 
 trary aristocracy, the exclusive property of the 
 soil, have retained the cultivators in a state of 
 poverty and helplessness, each individual peasant, 
 with his family, occupies a separate plot of ground, 
 and the share of the produce which is allowed to 
 remain with him constitutes his wages, or the re- 
 turn for his labour. We have seen how scanty 
 and insufficient under such circumstances this 
 return will always be. Where, as in Britain, a 
 better system of cultivation prevails, the occupier 
 is in the habit of employing labourers to assist 
 him, advancing to them their subsistence, or wages, 
 and providing the tools, seed, and stock, necessary 
 for carrying on his agricultural operations on tha 
 extensive scale which is proved by experience to 
 be most favourable to production. Such a culti- 
 vator is a capitalist, that is to say, an owner and 
 employer of capital, or stock productively engaged. 
 Before, therefore, we can appreciate all the results 
 of this peculiar system of land occupation, we 
 must endeavour to obtain a correct notion of the 
 characteristics of that which has been already 
 mentioned as the third great and almost indis- 
 pensable element of production, viz. capital. 
 
136 
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 CAPITAL. 
 
 The result of previous Labour Not affixed to Land Nor 
 incorporated with human ability Nor reserved for pri- 
 vate Consumption But employed, or reserved for Em- 
 ployment^ in Production^ with a view to Profit from sale 
 of its Produce. Necessity of so restricting the meaning 
 of the term. Utility of Capital. Profit on Capital. 
 Nature of Profit, and natural right to its enjoyment. 
 Mistaken Views of those who declaim against the Profits 
 of Capital. Fixed and Circulating Capitals. Elements 
 of Profit. Net Profit, or Interest of Money. Inequality 
 of Gross Profits. Equality of Net Profit, in the same 
 country. 
 
 LABOUR, as we have seen, without the assistance 
 of the powers of nature as developed on the sur- 
 face of the earth, can do nothing. But neither 
 can labour do much, even with the possession of 
 land, and the aid of all the powers of nature, in 
 the absence of much previous preparation, the 
 result of preceding labour ; and especially of a 
 stock of tools to work with, of materials to work 
 upon, and of food, clothing, and other necessaries 
 for the maintenance of the labourer while at work. 
 A few berries from the bush, water from the spring, 
 and now and then a stray animal, taken by superior 
 swiftness of foot, must compose the sole subsistence 
 of the man who has within reach no prepared 
 reserve, either of food, or of instruments for ob- 
 
ACCUMULATED LABOUR. 137 
 
 taining it. The poorest savage generally possesses 
 some stores of this nature, the products of previous 
 labour, nor always depends for his daily meal upon 
 the chance of obtaining it by his daily exertion. 
 But in an advanced state of society, few things 
 can be produced and prepared for consumption 
 except by processes which require much time 
 days, months, often years during which the 
 labourers employed must be supplied with food, 
 clothing, and other necessaries of subsistence. A 
 variety of tools, instruments, and machinery, are 
 equally necessary, as well as a stock of materials ; 
 all of which things have to be provided at an ex- 
 pense of much time and labour, before any of the 
 ordinary operations of industry can commence. 
 Stocks of all these things, it is evident, must be 
 accumulated somewhere at hand, for the use of 
 the various classes of labourers, or production of 
 no kind could be carried on. The agricultural 
 labourer could neither turn the soil, nor deposit a 
 grain in it, if he were unprovided with his spade, 
 plough, harrow, and other implements of husbandry. 
 The smith and the carpenter must cease to work 
 unless they can find somewhere a stock of iron 
 and timber prepared to their hands, as well as the 
 fuel, forge, and workshop, with the tools and 
 instruments peculiar to their trades. And these, 
 and all other classes of labourers, depend likewise 
 for their daily sustenance and comforts, on the due 
 provision of food, clothes, furniture, and houses, 
 either in their own possession or within their 
 reach. 
 
 The results of previous labour, accumulated in 
 any country, constitute its stock of wealth or of the 
 
138 STOCK INVESTED IN LAND 
 
 materials for producing wealth. But of this 
 aggregate stock a very considerable portion is so 
 far incorporated with, or affixed to, the soil, as 
 to be by law, custom, or necessity, inseparable 
 from it. Such are the permanent improvements 
 which have been made upon the land at various 
 times since its first occupation, with the view of 
 augmenting its productiveness such as fences, du- 
 rable manures, roads, canals for irrigation or traffic, 
 plantations of fruit or forest trees, and buildings 
 of different kinds ; all of which are ranked by law 
 and custom, together with the land to which they 
 are affixed, in the general class of ' immoveables,' 
 or landed property ; and the returns derived from 
 them are merged in rent. Nor can Political 
 Economy when taking a general view of the sources 
 of wealth, without inextricable confusion, depart 
 in this generic nomenclature from the established 
 usage. 
 
 Another portion of the accumulated results of 
 labour resides in the acquired skill and knowledge 
 of individuals, in the acquisition of which much 
 time and trouble has been expended. The entire 
 body of the useful arts and sciences forms a part, 
 and the most valuable part of the stock of society. 
 It is the accumulated result of intense preceding 
 labour on the part of the great benefactors of man- 
 kind for ages back, preserved to us through suc- 
 cessive generations, and with continual improve- 
 ments, by tradition or in writing. These treasures 
 of knowledge, however, before they can be pro- 
 ductively applied, must be appropriated by indi- 
 viduals with additional labour on their part, and 
 so far mixed up with their natural qualifications 
 
IN ABILITY IN MOVEABLES. 139 
 
 as to become personal to them. This kind of stock, 
 therefore, enters into the category of ability or hu- 
 man powers of production, under which head we 
 have already considered it. Its returns properly 
 fall under the appellation of wages. 
 
 The third and remaining portion of the aggre- 
 gate stock of a community consists of the material 
 products of previous labour, that are separable 
 from the soil as well as from individuals ; and it 
 is therefore properly designated as i moveables ' or 
 moveable stock. 
 
 Moveable stock is itself to be distinguished into 
 two great divisions, according as it is kept or used 
 for the purpose of producing wealth, or simply 
 for individual gratification without any ulterior 
 object. 
 
 The first division comprehends the various tools, 
 machinery, materials, necessaries of subsistence, 
 or other things provided for sale, or for the eon- 
 sumption and use of labourers while employed in 
 the production of saleable commodities ; and is 
 properly designated, as we have already explained, 
 by the term capital. The remaining portion of 
 moveable stock which is not kept for sale, or con- 
 sumed with the view of facilitating further produc- 
 tion but only for that, which is, in truth, the 
 real end and object of all production, the gratifi- 
 cation of its owner is indifferently called revenue, 
 wealth, property, goods and chattels, &c. ; but 
 must not be confounded with capital. 
 
 Though it may be difficult in all cases to deter- 
 mine of every particular object, whether it is pro- 
 ductively engaged, and therefore to be reckoned 
 capital or not ; yet this need no more prevent our 
 
140 REVENUE. 
 
 distinguishing the whole moveable stock of a coun- 
 try under two great heads, according as it is em- 
 ployed with a view to the reproduction of more 
 wealth, or only with a view to immediate gratifica- 
 tion, than we need be interdicted from classifying 
 natural objects into minerals, vegetables, and 
 animals, because there are some few intermediate 
 species which can be with difficulty referred to 
 either class. No useful conclusions can possibly 
 be come to upon what is going forward in society, 
 if we do not distinguish between those masses of 
 wealth which are habitually consumed in a pro- 
 ductive manner in such a way, that is, as to pro- 
 duce an equal or greater quantity of wealth from 
 those which are consumed unproductively, or so 
 as to leave no equivalent behind. When an indi- 
 vidual consumes a certain quantity of his stock 
 with no other aim or result than the gratification 
 of himself or his friends, the mass of wealth is pro 
 tanto diminished ; and though gratification is the 
 ultimate end of all production, yet since a portion 
 of the means of gratification is destroyed, and no 
 similar portion produced, such consumption i& 
 evidently unproductive. What is consumed in 
 this way is usually said to be expended as revenue. 
 When an individual, on the other hand, purposely 
 expends stock in such a way as that its consump- 
 tion is the means of producing an equal or greater 
 quantity as for example, the consumption of seed 
 and husbandry implements by a farmer : no por- 
 tion of the aggregate of wealth is destroyed ; but 
 on the contrary, there is, in almost every case, 
 an increase, which forms, what is usually called 
 profit, and is the motive for such expenditure. 
 
DEFINITION OF CAPITAL. 141 
 
 We should therefore define capital as that portion 
 of moveable stock which is employed, or reserved 
 for employment, in production, to which we 
 would add (in order to exclude ambiguity as far 
 as possible) with a view to profit by the sale of 
 its produce*. 
 
 * The term capital is employed, we think, by Smith and 
 most other economists in far too extended a sense, and 
 requires to be more strictly limited than it usually is by 
 writers on the subject, if we desire to preserve any distinc- 
 tion between this and the other main elements of produc- 
 tion, land and labour. We cannot acknowledge acquired skill, 
 ibr instance, to be properly called capital., unless by metaphor. 
 Otherwise, what is pure labour ? The mere brute force of 
 man is rarely, if ever, exerted without some little skill to 
 aid its application, a skill acquired by practice or precept. 
 There is no occupation so mechanical, not even that of 
 carrying a load, or breaking stones on the highway, in 
 which some skill may not be acquired, so as to enable one 
 man to do more work than another who is less skilled. It 
 is true that much capital is often expended by labourers in 
 the acquisition of skill and knowledge, which eventually 
 bring in to their owners an increased return ; but when 
 capital has been thus incorporated with man himself in 
 the increase of his productive powers, we must consider it 
 more accordant with usage, and less likely to create con- 
 fusion, that it should thenceforward go by the name of 
 ability, not capital ; and its returns be called wages, not 
 profit. 
 
 Again, when capital has been expended upon the perma- 
 * nent improvement of land, as in clearing, fencing, draining, 
 and fertilizing it, in roads, canals, bridges, and buildings, 
 we can no longer think it properly designated as capital. 
 It is incorporated with land, so as to be inseparable from 
 it, except by an extremely slow process ; and its returns are 
 practically merged in rent. This portion of rent undoubtedly 
 represents the profit of the capital which has been spent on 
 the land, just as the increased wages of an artificer repre- 
 sent the profit of the capital expended in teaching him his 
 irade; and we need not forget this, though it may be more 
 
142 UTILITY OF CAPITAL. 
 
 No labourer, we have said, can work at any- 
 thing hut with the aid of capital, either produced 
 hy himself, or procured from others. But produc- 
 tion could advance only with the utmost slowness, 
 
 convenient and more accordant with usage, instead of calling 
 them both profits, to call one rent, the other wages. If 
 labour, land, and capital, are to be distinguished by any 
 intelligible line of separation, we think it can only be by in- 
 cluding, under the first term, all the productively engaged 
 powers of man, natural or acquired ; under the second, those 
 of the soil and the things permanently affixed to it ; under 
 the third, those of the moveable substances man has stored 
 up with a view to production. In Political Economy, much 
 labour has been expended in vain, and great confusion 
 introduced, where all is really plain enough, by over refining, 
 and by ill-judged endeavours to give a mathematical accu- 
 racy to definitions and propositions which from the nature 
 of their subject can pretend to no more than the grouping 
 of phenomena according to their most striking general 
 characters. If, as the definitions and language of some 
 economists would contend, every thing on which capital has 
 been expended with a view to a return is still to be called 
 capital, there is an end to all distinction between the three 
 primary elements of wealth. All labour then is capital, 
 and all land. The labourer must be reared on capital for 
 years before he can do any work ; he must be fed daily on 
 capital, or his ability vanishes ; land must be cleared and 
 cultivated by capital, or it will produce nothing. Both 
 labour and land are, therefore, by this rule essentially and 
 entirely capital, and all wages and rents are in fact profits! 
 And so, indeed, says Mr. Macculloch, with all possible 
 gravity, (Principles of Political Economy, p. 118) quite 
 regardless of the circumstance that every one of his works, 
 even that in which he comes to so startling a conclusion, is 
 entirely made up of a series of disquisitions on the recipro- 
 cal influence of land, labour, and capital, rent, wages, and 
 profit. We need hardly observe that things which are 
 identical can have no reciprocal action on each other. The 
 same spirit of ultra-refinement has driven him into the 
 equally monstrous inconsistency of defining labour to be 
 
PROPERTY IN CAPITAL. 143 
 
 if every labourer were to endeavour to fabricate 
 for himself the tools he works with, and to raise 
 from the soil the materials he employs and the food 
 he consumes. At a very early period in the pro- 
 gress of improvement through the division of 
 labour, it must have been discovered by experience 
 to facilitate greatly the object of all labour, pro- 
 duction, for some classes of labourers to occupy 
 themselves exclusively in making tools and ma- 
 chinery of different sorts for the use of the re- 
 mainder others in the cultivation and preparation 
 of the different kinds of raw material required for 
 the several processes of industry, and others 
 again in the growth and provision of the food, 
 clothing, and various articles which are necessary 
 for the subsistence of the whole. 
 
 The stock of these things which an individual 
 has produced, not for his own use, but with a view 
 to their employment or consumption by others, 
 are of course as much his property, as if he had 
 intended them for his own use, and he has the 
 right to dispose of them to those who want them 
 
 ' any sort of action or operation, whether performed by man, 
 the lower animals, machinery, or natural agents, that tends 
 to bring about a desirable result;' (Edition of Wealth of 
 Nations,) thus making labour include both capital and land. 
 Again, his definition of capital, as 'all that can be made to 
 aid in production,' includes in it land, labour, revenue, and 
 profit itself: while his astounding declaration, that bubble- 
 blowing and turtle-eating are productive occupations, 
 necessarily follows from these premises. If such definitions 
 are adopted, Political Economy becomes at once an entire 
 jumble of meaningless phrases : land, labour, and capital, 
 rent, wages, and profits, are all different words for the same 
 thing ; production and consumption are undistmguishable ; 
 ' And nought is every thing, and every thing is nought/ 
 
144 PROFIT OF CAPITAL 
 
 on the most advantageous terms he can make. 
 He can either sell them out-right ; or, if it be more 
 convenient both to him and to those who wish to 
 employ the things, lend them, on condition of 
 receiving a stipulated remuneration for their loan, 
 in addition to the repayment of the things them- 
 selves, or their equivalent. Or as a third alterna- 
 tive, he may retain some portion of his capital in 
 his possession, such as machinery and implements, 
 and with another portion, consisting perhaps of 
 the necessaries of subsistence, or their equivalent, 
 purchase the labour of such individuals as are 
 willing to work for him, employing his capital. 
 
 If the entire capital a labourer works with belong 
 to himself, whether by right of purchase or pro- 
 duction, the whole produce of his labour will 
 likewise properly belong to him. But if he works 
 with the capital of another, it is evident that a 
 part of the produce which results from the joint 
 employment of his labour and the other's capital 
 belongs of right to the owner of the capital. Thus 
 if A supplies B with either food, or tools, or 
 materials, upon which to work at making any 
 article, it is clear that a proportionate part of the 
 article or of its value rightfully belongs to A. 
 What this part should be what, in short, should 
 be the several shares of the labourer and the capi- 
 talist in any case, must depend on the relative value 
 of the capital supplied by one, and the labour fur- 
 nished by the other, and this can only be equitably 
 settled by previous agreement between the parties, 
 voluntarily entered into by both for their mutual 
 advantage. 
 The share of the labourer is the remuneration 
 
RIGHT TO PROFIT. 145" 
 
 of his labour, and forms his wages. The share 
 of the capitalist goes, for the most part, to re- 
 place that portion of his capital which has been 
 consumed, damaged, or worn out, in its employ- 
 ment. But there must remain to the latter some 
 surplus beyond this ; for it would be worth no 
 man's while to employ his capital productively, if 
 he can gain nothing by so doing. The surplus 
 which accrues to the capitalist after his capital has 
 been replaced, is his only remuneration for its 
 employment, and is called its profit. Profit is the- 
 inducement of the capitalist to employ his capital 
 in production, just as wages form the inducement 
 of the labourer to exert his skill and strength in 
 the same manner. The former has obviously as 
 much right to be paid for the use of his capital, 
 as the latter for the use of his labour. Both have 
 combine-d to produce a joint result, which could 
 not have existed in the absence of either. Without 
 the capital, the labour would have been nearly un- 
 productive ; without the labour, the capital must 
 have remained dormant and unincreased, even if 
 secure from waste. The right to possess and 
 freely dispose of capital, and to receive whatever re- 
 turn, or profit, is to be obtained by accommodating 
 other parties with its loan, or by employing the 
 hired labour of others in rendering it productive, 
 stands evidently on precisely the same ground as 
 the right to possess or dispose of any other thing, 
 equally the produce of labour. The expediency 
 of protecting the free use and employment of pro- 
 perty as capital, that is to say, productively , and 
 the free enjoyment of its returns, is evident from the 
 
146 NATURE OF PROFIT.: 
 
 simple consideration that in the absence of such 
 protection no one would produce any of such 
 things as are necessary for aiding production, at 
 all events, no more of them than he wanted for his 
 own use. Every labourer must then make his own 
 tools, and raise from the earth his raw materials 
 and his food. There would be an end at once to 
 all that vast increase of the general stock of the 
 means of enjoyment which results from the divi- 
 sion of labourers into the various classes of tool- 
 makers, growers and preparers of raw material 
 and of food, house-builders, furniture-makers, 
 manufacturers of clothing, ornaments, &c. So- 
 ciety would be resolved into its first elements. 
 Each man must betake himself to the cave or 
 hollow tree for shelter, his nails for tools, berries 
 and game his sole food, skins his only clothing ; 
 and famine and want must rapidly cut down the 
 numbers of mankind to the meagre hordes of mise- 
 rable savages that could alone support themselves 
 on such terms. 
 
 The profit obtained by the owner of capital 
 from its productive employment, whether in his 
 own hands or those of another party, to whom it 
 is lent, is to be viewed in the light of a compen- 
 sation to him for abstaini?ig for a time from the 
 consumption of that portion of his property on 
 his personal gratification ; and the compensation 
 is therefore proportioned to the time during which 
 his capital is so engaged instead of being spent 
 upon himself, as revenue. It has been said time 
 is a mere word a sound can do nothing, is no- 
 thing ; and can ^therefore neither have nor give 
 
COMPENSATION FOR TIME. 147 
 
 value*. This is a very great and extraordinary 
 mistake. What gives value in exchange to labour ? 
 Only that no one will, under a free system, give 
 his labour for nothing, and consequently those 
 who require the labour of others must pay for it. 
 But the same cause gives value to time, No one 
 will sacrifice time by allowing it to operate on his 
 property will sow his wheat, for instance, and al- 
 low it to remain a twelvemonth in the ground, or 
 leave his wine in a cellar for years, instead of con- 
 suming these things, or their equivalents, at once 
 unless he expects them to acquire additional value 
 in proportion to the time during which they are so 
 kept unconsumed. That they do thus acquire addi- 
 tional value, owing to certain natural laws the 
 sown wheat multiplying itself in its crop, the 
 kept wine improving in flavour is notorious. 
 And if this additional value were not to be allowed 
 to their owner in the price he obtains on parting 
 with them, it is evident there would be no in- 
 ducement to him to employ his property in this 
 productive manner. Wheat would not be sown 
 for a future crop wine would not be placed in. 
 cellars to improve. Were it not for the certain 
 prospect of the profit to be obtained at a distant 
 time by the productive employment of capital, 
 and that the profit too will be proportioned to the 
 time which elapses before the production is com- 
 pleted, no one would employ any portion of his 
 wealth productively, except for the relief of his 
 own immediate wants no one would accumulate 
 wealth in a productive shape, except for his own 
 
 * Macculloch, Political Economy, p. 314 ; Mill's Ele- 
 ments of Political Economy, p. 9, 
 
 L2 
 
148 ALLOWANCE OF PROFIT 
 
 consumption. Capital, in its true sense, would 
 almost cease to exist. If, under these circum- 
 stances, property were accumulated, as no doubt 
 it still would be, through the influence of the 
 strong natural passion for accumulation which 
 exists in most minds, it would be hoarded in the 
 form of substances that could be kept by their 
 owners without injury, but without utility gold, 
 jewels, plate, pictures, furniture, 
 
 ' Rich stuffs and ornaments of household.' 
 
 And, in fact, in barbarous ages, when there ex- 
 isted a prejudice against the taking of interest on 
 property lent^ these were the forms exclusively 
 assumed by accumulated wealth. The owner of 
 such treasures might, perhaps, occasionally gloat 
 over them with a miserly satisfaction, but still 
 with less gratification than if they had been in- 
 creasing through their productive employment 
 while to none but himself could they be of any 
 service whatever. And thus they remained locked 
 up in chests and closets, without contributing in any 
 degree to the benefit of any person until, per- 
 haps, the strong temptation they offered to the 
 cupidity of the robber or the tyrant caused the 
 destruction of their possessor, and the dispersion 
 of his treasure into other hands there to stag- 
 nate as uselessly to the mass of mankind. 
 
 But when freedom is afforded to the employ- 
 ment of capital, and security to the enjoyment of 
 its returns when no impediment is offered by 
 mistaken legislation, grasping tyranny, or vulgar 
 prejudice, to the voluntary and mutually beneficial 
 agreement of two parties, one of which is desi- 
 
INDISPENSABLE TO PRODUCTION. 149 
 
 rous of productively using for a season what the 
 other has painfully produced or saved by a sacri- 
 fice of present ease or enjoyment the self-same 
 passion for accumulation induces every one who 
 is able to save, instead of hoarding his savings in 
 these unprofitable shapes, to give them the form of 
 tools, buildings, machinery, raw materials, and 
 food objects which he can lend out to labourers 
 for employment in production, on the condition of 
 receiving for their use, a share of the increase of 
 wealth they assist the latter in producing. In 
 this way the miser of former days is converted 
 into the employer of labour, and the promoter of 
 every useful and valuable branch of industry 
 And thus those selfish feelings of our nature 
 which prompt to the increase and accumulation of 
 wealth not as a means merely, but an end be- 
 come in the highest degree serviceable to the 
 common interest, and are enlisted in the cause of 
 the general happiness. The miser of the present 
 day may yet, like his prototype in the dark ages, 
 gloat over his wealth ; but he now keeps it by him, 
 in the form, not of gold ingots, jewels, and costly 
 stuffs- but of bills, bonds, and securities, the re.- 
 presentatives of that substantial wealth, which, in- 
 stead of rotting in close coffers, is employed in 
 the hands of ceaseless industry, levelling the 
 forest, and cultivating the plain, quarrying the 
 mine, giving motion to the loom, and ploughing 
 the ocean, taking a thousand shapes, perhaps, but 
 in each aiding man to avail himself of the pro- 
 lific powers of nature, and multiply his means of 
 subsistence and enjoyment. True it is, this ca- 
 pital would produce no increase without the skill 
 
150 PREJUDICE AGAINST CAPITAL 
 
 and labour of those who employ it ; but it is 
 equally true that their skill and labour would pro- 
 duce nothing, nay, that they could not even 
 maintain their existence, without the capital which 
 they employ, and that by which they are main- 
 tained while at work. The wealth which is pro- 
 duced by the union of capital with skill and labour, 
 is evidently, as .we have already said, the joint 
 property of the owners of the capital and of the 
 skilled labour. Each has contributed to its pro- 
 duction, and each has a right to a share of it. 
 If the capitalist were to be unjustly denied his 
 share, accumulated property would thenceforth 
 never take the form of capital ; except that small 
 portion which each man could employ by himself 
 and for his own immediate purposes. 
 
 All this seems so obvious to the most ordinary 
 capacity as hardly to be worth dwelling upon. 
 And yet there are persons who still, in the pre- 
 sent light of civilization, in the nineteenth century, 
 and in the midst of all the evidence which is 
 afforded, wherever we turn our eyes, of the pro- 
 digious part which capital is playing in the pro- 
 duction of the necessaries, comforts, and luxuries 
 of human life, declaim against capital as the 
 poison of society, and the taking of interest on 
 capital by its owners, as an abuse, an injustice, a 
 robbery of the class of labourers!* Such blind- 
 ness is to me truly unaccountable. That those 
 who observe the prevalence of great misery among 
 the inferior classes of workmen in this and other 
 
 * See Hodgskin's Popular Political Economy, ' Labour 
 defended against the Claims of Capital,' and other works 
 of the same author. 
 
ITS MONSTROUS FOLLY. 151 
 
 wealthy countries, who witness and deplore the 
 fact, that in spite of all the manifold improve- 
 ments which are continually adding to the pro- 
 ductiveness of labour, the share of the gross 
 production which falls to the common labourer 
 does not increase perhaps even diminishes that, 
 on viewing this anomaly, they should conclude 
 something to be wrong in the arrangements which 
 at present determine the distribution of the wealth 
 produced in great part by labour is no source of 
 astonishment to me, for I arrive at the same 
 necessary conclusion from the same observation. 
 But that any sane person should attribute the evil 
 to the existence of capital that is, to the employ- 
 ment of wealth in aiding the production of further 
 wealth, instead of being unproductively consumed, 
 almost, if not quite, as fast as it is created, or un- 
 productively hoarded to satisfy the lust of the 
 miser is indeed wonderful. Why, without capi- 
 tal, this island would not afford subsistence to a 
 hundredth part of its present population. Destroy 
 the security for the free enjoyment or disposal of 
 capital, deny its owner the privilege of accepting 
 what any one may find it for his advantage to 
 give for its use arid every individual will be 
 reduced at once to his unaided resources. He will 
 find nowhere any store of food on which to live 
 while he is digging, and sowing, and protecting his 
 immature crop, no stock of tools with which to 
 work, or of clothes and other necessaries of exist- 
 ence. All trades would stop at once, for every 
 trade is carried on by means of capital. Men 
 would at once be reduced to the isolation and help- 
 lessness of barbarism. 
 
152 THE RIGHT TO CAPITAL AND ITS PROFIT 
 
 But, perhaps, it is in the imagination of these 
 schemers, that there should not be a general de- 
 struction, but only a general divisio?i, of the 
 capital at present existing, among the present race 
 of labourers; so that each, it is thought, would, 
 for some time at least, be provided with a stock of 
 food, clothes, and tools, with which to continue 
 the business of production. We suppose some- 
 thing like this is contemplated. But, putting out 
 of sight the injustice, confusion, and attendant 
 horrors of the frightful scramble which is here 
 disguised under the smooth name of a general 
 division of property (a scramble which, in the 
 extremely complicated and artificial state of so- 
 ciety characterizing this country, must be attended 
 with infinitely more violence, convulsion, and dis- 
 turbance, than any political catastrophe on re- 
 cord,) how, we must beg to ask, is production 
 to go on afterwards ? In a very short time, a 
 large part of the population all the idle and in 
 such a crisis there can be but little industry will 
 have consumed their share of the plunder in riot 
 and excess. Admitting that others have gone to 
 work industriously in the production of the things 
 they require, each for himself have ploughed and 
 sown, and spun and wove, have stored corn in 
 their granaries, and cattle in their homesteads, and 
 fuel and clothing and comforts of various kinds in 
 their lofts, and cellars, and warehouses, what is to 
 become of all that large body who, having squan- 
 dered away their share of the general booty, will 
 have no means left of maintenance ? Heps and 
 Jiaws cannot last them long. It is clear that one 
 of two things must occur. Either they will, if 
 
THE FIRST RIGHT OF INDUSTRY. 153 
 
 sufficiently numerous and strong, call for another 
 division of property, that is, once more plunder 
 the barns, granaries, homesteads, and warehouses 
 of the industrious; or, if they are not strong 
 enough to attempt this, they will humble them- 
 selves to the owners of these same barns and 
 warehouses, and petition for food and clothing in 
 return for all they have to offer, their labour; that 
 is to say, they will apply to them for employment 
 arid wages. If the owners of property refuse their 
 petition, starvation and disease must rapidly carry 
 them off; not however before they have robbed, 
 and plundered, and done all the injury to the 
 remainder of society which their despair and des- 
 titution will prompt. If their request is acceded 
 to, the old system of masters and men, capitalists 
 and labourers, will recommence ; and the so- 
 ciety at least whatever portion of it we can sup- 
 pose to have survived the shock of such a con- 
 vulsion, will be reconstituted on its old and natural 
 principles, to recommence the difficult march of 
 improvement, and with the feeble hope of re- 
 gaining, after the lapse of years, perhaps of ages, 
 the elevated position we are at present so fortunate 
 as to occupy, as yet unscathed, to reproduce 
 slowly and painfully the vast stock of accumu- 
 lated capital which it once possessed, but which, in 
 a fit of popular insanity, had been broken down 
 and scattered to the winds. 
 
 The security of property and the liberty of con- 
 suming or employing it in whatever way the owner 
 pleases, or finds most for his interest, is, as has 
 been truly observed, the first of the rights of in- 
 dustry, and the essential condition of her pro- 
 
154 FIXED CAPITAL. 
 
 gression. But of all modes of employing property, 
 the very last which it would occur to an en- 
 lightened friend of humanity to obstruct, is its 
 employment in aiding production that is, as 
 capital. It is quite clear that the profit or interest 
 to be gained by the employment of capital is the 
 principal motive to its accumulation, and the only 
 one to its employment in furthering production. 
 It is quite clear that if the owner of capital is not 
 allowed to make what profit he can upon it by 
 lending it to others, no one will accumulate more 
 capital than he can use himself, and nearly all 
 savings would thenceforward be hoarded in cellars 
 and closets, instead of aiding industry and facili- 
 tating production. 
 
 Adam Smith and other economists distinguish 
 two kinds of -capital, fixed and circulating. The 
 latter is defined to consist of such things as 
 are continually going from and returning again 
 to their owner, and afford a profit only on being 
 parted with; such is the money which a master 
 keeps by him to pay his workmen, his stock of 
 materials, and of worked-up goods and the stock 
 in trade of all wholesale or retail tradesmen. 
 Capital is said to be fixed which is invested in 
 buildings, machinery, implements for facilitating 
 labour, improvements of land, roads, canals, 
 bridges, railways, &c. ; things which yield a profit, 
 not by being parted with, but while remaining in 
 their owner's hands, and employed in producing 
 other things. Smith considers as fixed capital the 
 acquired skill and ability of the members of society. 
 
 It is doubtless serviceable to distinguish those 
 
CIRCULATING CAPITAL. 150 
 
 kinds of capital which are rapidly circulated that 
 is, consumed and replaced within brief periods, as 
 a year for example, from capital of a more 
 durable nature. But it may be surmised that 
 except in the time during which they remain un- 
 consumed in the employer's hands, there is no real 
 distinction between the two classes of capital here 
 mentioned. The capital laid out by a manufac- 
 turer, farmer, or tradesman, in the payment of his 
 labourers' wages, circulates most rapidly; being 
 turned, perhaps, once a week, if his men are paid 
 weekly by the weekly receipts on his bills or sales. 
 That invested in his materials and stock in hand 
 circulates less quickly, being turned, perhaps 
 twice, perhaps four times, in the year, according 
 to the time consumed between his purchases of 
 the one and sales of the other, supposing him to 
 buy and sell on equal credits. The capital in- 
 vested in his implements and machinery circulates 
 still more slowly, being turned, that is consumed 
 and renewed, on the average, perhaps, but once in 
 five or ten years ; though there are many tools 
 that are worn out in one set of operations. The 
 capital which is embarked in buildings, as mills, 
 shops, warehouses, barns, in roads, irrigation, 
 &c., may appear scarcely to circulate at all. But 
 in truth, these things are, to the full, as much as 
 those we have enumerated, consumed in contri- 
 buting to production, and must be reproduced 
 in order to enable the producer to continue his 
 operations ; with this only difference, that they are 
 consumed and reproduced by slower degrees than 
 the rest. The continual repairs they require attest 
 their consumption and reproduction; and the 
 
156 VARYING RATES OF CIRCULATION. 
 
 capital invested in them may be turned, perhaps, 
 every twenty or fifty years. If then the terms 
 fixed and circulating capital are to be retained, I 
 would confine the latter to such portions of 
 capital as are renewed or repurchased, and con- 
 sumed or parted with, within a year; that of 
 fixed capital to such as remain more than a year 
 with the person who employs them for profit.* 
 
 In some trades the whole capital embarked is 
 turned or circulated several times within the year. 
 In others a part is turned oftener than once a year, 
 another part less often. It is the average period 
 which his entire capital takes in passing through 
 his hands or making one revolution, from which a 
 capitalist must calculate his profits. Suppose, for 
 example, that a person engaged in a particular 
 business has one-half of his capital invested in 
 buildings and machinery, so as to be turned only 
 once in ten years ; that one-fourth more, the cost 
 of his tools, &c., is turned once in two years, and 
 the remaining fourth employed in paying wages 
 and purchasing material is turned twice in one 
 
 * The futility of Smith's distinction is seen in his efforts 
 to separate a farmer's stock into fixed or circulating capital, 
 according as it is kept by him or parted with for profit. 
 Thus the cattle and sheep a farmer milks and shears are 
 said to be fixed, those he grazes and breeds, circulating 
 capital. The seed he throws into the ground to produce 
 next year's crop of corn is a fixed, the hay he feeds his 
 breeding or lean cattle upon to produce next year's crop of 
 lambs or fat beef, a circulating capital. The truth is, that 
 with a farmer as with any other producer, of the capital 
 which the extent of his business requires, part circulates 
 more, part less slowly. The average period in which his 
 entire capital is turned, that is, parted with and reproduced, 
 is the time upon which his profit is calculated. 
 
PROFIT CALCULATED ON THE MEAN RATE. 157 
 
 year. Say that his entire capital is 10,000/. 
 Then his annual expenditure will be 
 
 5000 ~ 10 = 500 
 2500 -7- 2 = 1250 
 2500 X 2 = 5000 
 
 6750 
 7j per cent, on 10,000 = 750 
 
 7500 
 
 To which sum his annual sales should amount 
 in order to clear seven and a half per cent, profit 
 on his capital, and for this end he must charge 
 a profit often per cent, on the value of his goods; 
 the mean term in which his capital is turned being 
 sixteen months. 
 
 Take another case, in which the fixed capital 
 required bears a smaller proportion to that which 
 circulates rapidly. Say that one-fourth of the entire 
 capital circulates in ten years, one-fourth in one 
 year, and one-half twice in the year. Then the 
 annual expenditure will be, 
 
 2500 -f- 10 = 250 
 
 2500 2500 
 
 5000 X 2 =10,000 
 
 12,750 
 
 7J per cent, on 10,000 = 750 
 
 Annual sales . . . 13,500 
 
 In this case a profit of little more than five and 
 a half per cent, on the value of the goods will 
 bring in to the producer seven and a half per cent. 
 
158 ANALYSIS OF PROFITS WAGES 
 
 of annual profit upon his capital ; tlie^entire capi- 
 tal circulating in a mean period of less than nine 
 months. 
 
 Should the greater part of the capital embarked 
 circulate still more rapidly, a much smaller per 
 centage on the articles sold will pay a fair profit 
 on the capital. Should'the capital, for instance, 
 be turned five times on the average in the year, a 
 profit of one per cent, on the sales will bring in 
 five per cent, annual profit on the capital. 
 
 The higher the profit that can be obtained on 
 capital, the greater of course the encouragement 
 to its accumulation and employment. 
 
 But before we can speak of profits as high or 
 low, we must learn to distinguish matters, which, 
 in ordinary language, go by the name of profits, 
 from the interest or net profit on capital. 
 
 Many capitalists are themselves personally en- 
 gaged in productive occupations. The manu- 
 facturer, the merchant, the tradesman, the farmer, 
 the master-mechanic, are all capitalist- labourers. 
 The surplus by which the sum they realize from 
 the sale of their produce exceeds the sum they have 
 expended in its production, is in common lan- 
 guage called their profits, or living profits. But 
 some portion of this is unquestionably of the 
 nature of wages, the recompense of their per- 
 sonal labour, skill and ingenuity. Another portion 
 often consists of monopoly gains, arising from the 
 possession of exclusive advantages, such as secret 
 processes, patent instruments or machinery, supe- 
 rior connexions, information, facilities of local 
 position, &c. Another portion consists of a com- 
 pensation for the peculiar risks incident to the 
 business in which the capital is engaged. It is 
 
INTEREST INSURANCE AGAINST RISKS. 159 
 
 the remainder only that properly forms the net 
 profit or interest of capital that return for its 
 temporary use which can be got without personal 
 lahour or extraordinary hazard. This is usually 
 calculated as a per-centage on the value in money 
 of the capital employed. And it is itself made up 
 of, 1. Compensation for the sacrifice of immediate 
 personal gratification ; 2. Insurance against the 
 risk of loss through circumstances which may 
 affect the general security of property. The latter 
 element of interest depends on the internal tran- 
 quillity of the country ; the chance of foreign inva- 
 sions or political convulsions, such as endanger 
 property ; the efficacy of the laws which enforce 
 contracts; the pure administration of justice; and 
 other similar considerations, varying in an ex- 
 treme degree in different times and places; 
 insomuch, that a half per cent, in England will be, 
 perhaps, a fuller compensation for such risk, than 
 two per cent, in Ireland, three per cent, in Russia 
 or France, and ten per cent, in Turkey. 
 
 Under similar circumstances of political risk 
 the interest of money, or net profit of capital, will 
 vary according to the quantity of capital seeking 
 employment as compared to the demand for it. 
 The supply and the demand of capital depend on 
 the relative force of two powerful principles in 
 human nature continually opposed to each other, 
 the desire to consume, and the desire to save or 
 amass. Were every individual in a country to 
 consume the whole of his income, whether derived 
 from rent, wages, or profit, the amount of capital 
 would remain stationary. Were the owners of 
 capital to consume annually a portion of their 
 stock, while the labourers consumed the whole of 
 their wages, and the landlords the whole of their 
 
160 NATURAL ADJUSTMENT OF CAPITAL. 
 
 rents, capital would decrease. The history of 
 nations, however, teaches, that wherever institu- 
 tions exist affording any tolerable security to the 
 peaceful possession and enjoyment of property, 
 the saving principle is sure so far to prevail over 
 its antagonist, (chiefly among the industrious 
 classes,) as to cause a continual increase of capital 
 through the accumulation of portions of income 
 abstracted from revenue to be employed as capital. 
 But not only does the rate at which capital 
 increases, and therefore its supply, depend on the 
 relative predominance of the saving over the 
 spending passion, but the demand for it is influ- 
 enced in the inverse sense, by the same circum- 
 stance. If we suppose the passion of saving 
 carried to excess in any country, were every 
 member of society to content himself with the 
 mere necessaries of life, and endeavour to employ 
 as capital all the remainder of his income it is 
 evident that the demand for commodities would be 
 limited to the bare necessaries of life for that 
 number of individuals. All the various productions, 
 which art and ingenuity now supply to gratify the 
 infinite wants and caprices of mankind, would glut 
 the market without a purchaser. The demand for 
 capital would shrink almost to nothing, and profits 
 fall to the merest trifle. This, however, is an 
 extreme supposition, which can never really hap- 
 pen ; for if profits fall through the competition of 
 increased capital, the inducement to save is weak- 
 ened, while that to spend is increased, by the fall 
 in cost of all articles consequent on diminished 
 profits. It may, therefore, be safely left to the 
 mutually counteracting influences of the two pas- 
 sions we have spoken of, to determine that current 
 average rate of net profit, which is the measure of 
 
INEQUALITY OF GROSS PROFITS. 161 
 
 the degree in which the owners of capital prefer 
 prospective gain to present enjoyment. 
 
 From what we have now advanced it is evident 
 that no conclusion can be come to upon the relative 
 advantages of any two trades, or ways of employing 
 capital, from a mere statement of the gross profits 
 returned by each. One may return twelve per 
 cent., the other only six, yet the net profit, or real 
 advantages derived from the capital embarked in 
 each by its owners, may be, in reality, equal. The 
 gross profits of the first business may be swelled 
 by the circumstance of its requiring a much higher 
 class of ability to exercise it, (as the trade of 
 making chronometers, compared to that of making 
 wooden clocks) ; or through its being carried on 
 with the help of some secret process, patented 
 machinery, or peculiar advantage of position, 
 (such as the vicinity of coal or iron mines, canals, 
 railroads, or other facilities of transport) ; or by 
 reason of the greater comparative risks to which 
 the business is subjected, as that of gunpowder 
 making, or ship insurance, over occupations not 
 so exposed to casualties ; or of trades in which 
 long and large credits are given (a London tailor's, 
 for example) over those in which the returns are 
 quick and sure. If the two trades whose profits 
 are compared, are not carried on in the same 
 country, or under the same laws and government, 
 then the variation in their gross profits may be 
 still further swelled by the difference of the risk 
 each is subjected to from political circumstances 
 affecting the security of property in general ; as 
 in the instance of Ireland and Great Britain. 
 Nothing therefore can be more fallacious than the 
 
 M 
 
162 OSCILLATIONS OF NET PROFIT 
 
 idea that the amount of the profits realized in 
 any business (in the vulgar meaning of the term, 
 in which it has likewise been used by most po- 
 litical economists) forms a just measure of the 
 real surplus returns of the capital engaged in it ; 
 nor can any proposition be more erroneous than 
 that there ever will, or can, be any thing like an 
 equalization of the gross profits of every business. 
 
 Making abstraction, however, of all the above- 
 mentioned extraneous circumstances of risk, trou- 
 ble of personal superintendence, or peculiar advan- 
 tages, it is evident that the net profit or interest of 
 capital to be realized from different modes of 
 employment, in the same country, or under the 
 same political circumstances, will be equal, or 
 nearly so. And for the reason, that as fresh 
 capital is being continually accumulated from fresh 
 savings, there will be a number of persons con- 
 tinually on the look-out for the means of employ- 
 ing their capital to the greatest advantage ; and if 
 any one occupation promised a higher return 
 than others, making allowance for its peculiar 
 compensatory risks, difficulties, labour, and other 
 circumstances, it would be chosen in preference 
 by so many of these speculators, as by the compe- 
 tition of their produce in the market must soon 
 bring down the returns of that particular trade to 
 the general level, perhaps for some time below 
 it. There is, in fact, a continual oscillation of 
 this sort going on in the returns of capital in most 
 employments, about the mean level or average of 
 net profit, and is accompanied, or rather, caused, 
 by an analogous oscillation in the market value, 
 or selling price, of commodities about the mean 
 
ABOUT A MEAN LEVEL. 163 
 
 cost of their production. These are matters into 
 which, now that we have obtained a tolerably clear 
 notion of the nature of the primary elements of 
 production, labour, land, and capital, we must 
 enter into further detail. 
 
164 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 VALUE. 
 
 Value, necessarily relative A"o real Value General Value 
 Meajis ' Purchasing Power' Elements of Value 
 Monopoly Costs of Production. Rent, the result of 
 Monopoly Does not enter into Price Distinction be- 
 tween good and bad Monopolies Demand and Supply 
 Their variations and reciprocal action Cost of Pro 
 duct ion Consists in Labour , Capita/, Time, Monopoly, 
 and Taxation. Competition of Producers, by which 
 Supply and Demand are kept nearly Level Different In- 
 vestments of Capital and Labour Partial Glut General 
 Glut impossible, except through a Scarcity of Money. 
 
 MUCH confusion has attended the use of this word 
 in political economy, which a simple analysis of 
 its meaning might have obviated. In common 
 language everything which is desirable, as health, 
 wit, beauty, goodness, is said to have value. But 
 political economy meddles only with things which 
 are the subject of exchanges ; and in the discussions 
 of the science, value therefore must mean always 
 commercial value, or value in exchange. In this 
 sense, in order to have value, it is not enough that 
 an object be desirable. Many things are highly 
 desirable for their useful or agreeable qualities, (as 
 air, light, and water, for example,) but yet under 
 ordinary circumstances, have no value because 
 their supply being unlimited and no trouble re- 
 
VALUE NECESSARILY RELATIVE. 165 
 
 quired from any one to obtain as much of them as 
 he can want, no one will give anything in ex~ 
 change for them. The moment their svpply falls 
 short of the quantity required, in other words, of 
 the demand, or that it becomes necessary to take 
 some trouble to obtain the quantity required, they 
 acquire an exchangeable value. On board ship 
 in the deserts of Africa and in other places where 
 the stock of water falls short of the quantity re- 
 quired, it obtains a value, which rises with its scar- 
 city. In cities, water is habitually sold at a con- 
 siderable price ; and this price is generally pro- 
 portioned to the trouble necessary for supplying 
 the quantity required. 
 
 When, then, we speak of the value of anything, 
 we must always have reference to some object of 
 comparison or exchange. In ordinary phrase, 
 money is the understood object of reference. But 
 money being merely, as has been said, some one 
 commodity selected for particular qualities to be 
 used as a general measure of value and medium of 
 exchange, is itself liable to vary in value ; it is there- 
 fore clear that value is not in strictness to be deter- 
 mined by quantity of money. When employed 
 alone, in scientific arguments, without reference to 
 money or any other single specific object, com- 
 mercial value must be understood to mean ex- 
 changeable worth in the general market, or what 
 Adam Smith called ' purchasing power.' An ob- 
 ject, in fact, whether gold, silver, cotton, or any 
 other article, is said to have risen or fallen in value, 
 when it will command in exchange a larger or a 
 smaller quantity of other things in the gross than 
 
166 NO SUCH THING AS REAL VALUE. 
 
 before. The expression is purely relative. Nor 
 can there be such a thing as positive, absolute, or 
 real value.* 
 
 When a desirable commodity is to be obtained 
 
 * Smith and his followers have insisted much on every- 
 thing having a real value, which they define to consist of 
 the quantity of labour required to produce it; and they 
 accordingly call labour the natural standard or measure of 
 value. But it is indispensable for a standard measure to be 
 something both definite in its nature, and as nearly as pos- 
 sible invariable itself in value. Gold, silver, iron, or wheat, 
 for instance, may be employed as standard measures of 
 value with more or less of accuracy, because at least we 
 know precisely the distinguishing qualities of these objects ; 
 they can be easily identified in all times and places ; and 
 equal quantities of them will always at the same time and 
 place be of equal value. 
 
 But what can be more vague and indefinite in its meaning, 
 or more variable in its value, than labour P In some coun- 
 tries labour is habitually far more severe and unremitting 
 than in another ; so that a day's labour in each by no means 
 expresses an equal quantity of exertion. Again, an hour's 
 labour of one man may in the same place be worth a year's 
 labour of another. Jt is impossible that anything so 
 variable in meaning and value can be fitly employed as a 
 fixed general measure of the value of other things. 
 
 It has, however, been urged by these writers that the 
 exchangeable value of anything will always depend on the 
 quantity of labour necessary to procure or produce it, and oa 
 this ground it is proposed as the best measure of the value 
 which it composes. One would have supposed that the 
 commonest facts might have sufficed to prevent the promul- 
 gation of so false a position. What causes the workmanship 
 of one artist to sell for ten times as much as that of another ? 
 Certainly not the greater proportion of labour bestowed on 
 it. Why will a statue by Chantrey, a portrait by Lawrence, 
 a novel by Scott, bring twenty times the money which 
 the productions of inferior labourers will command ? Why 
 again is Tokay wine more valuable than piquette ? or old 
 
LABOUR NO MEASURE OF VALUE. 167 
 
 in any quantity that can be required by a pro- 
 portionate outlay of labour, like water from a 
 
 wine than new? Why an acre of land at Battersea than 
 one on Dartmoor, a diamond than a bit of glass, an 
 antique brass coin than a modern gold one? Not surely 
 because of the greater quantity of labour worked up in them, 
 It is true that these same writers sometimes attempt to 
 qualify their rule by admitting exceptions in the case of 
 those commodities whose supply is limited by monopoly, or 
 the exclusive facilities for their production possessed by 
 some individuals. But is there any commodity which is 
 not more or less affected by monopoly ? Is there any in the 
 production of which superior advantages are not enjoyed by 
 some parties over others, enabling them to raise its price in 
 the market ? All land, to begin with, the primary source of 
 every commodity, is, in nearly all civilized societies, mono- 
 polized. And the superior advantages of position or quality 
 belonging to one tract of land over others, enable its owner 
 to place a far higher value on its produce than will just 
 cover the labour of production. All mines of coal and metal, 
 quarries, woods, water-power, &c., are in the same predica- 
 ment. And if we reflect that there is no commodity which 
 is not, in part or altogether, made up of materials produced 
 tinder these monopolies, we shall be led, perhaps, to conclude 
 that the proposition of the economists in question is the very 
 reverse of the truth; and that there is scarcely any com- 
 modity the value of which is solely determined by the quan- 
 tity of labour required to produce it. 
 
 The fact is, that all these attempts to identify value with 
 labour, or to distinguish real from relative value, are founded 
 in a gross misconception of the nature of value, which, as 
 we have said above, like length, weight, bulk, or any other 
 quality susceptible of measurement, has essentially a relative 
 only, not a positive meaning. What is real length, or real 
 weight, or real bulk ? Just as*unintelligible as real value. 
 Value is { comparative estimation as an object of exchange ;' 
 and when used without reference expressed or implied to 
 any particular commodity as its measure, means general 
 value, or value in exchange against goods in general ; as 
 Adam Smith phrased it purchasing power in the general 
 market.' 
 
168 MONOPOLY VALUE. 
 
 copious spring, or stone from an inexhaustible 
 quarry, its value will in the long- run be determined 
 solely by the comparative labour required to pro- 
 cure it. But many commodities can only be 
 obtained at all in limited quantities, and when the 
 quantity required, or the demand, exceeds the 
 quantity produced, or the supply, their value 
 is proportionately enhanced. This permanent 
 scarcity, or rarity as it is called, is the cause of 
 the greater part of the value of all precious stones 
 and metals, superior works of art, scarce and fine 
 wines, antiquities, and curiosities of all sorts. The 
 increased value which the owners of such objects 
 are enabled from their rarity to obtain for them, 
 beyond the mere cost of labour or capital by which 
 they may have been procured or produced, is 
 called monopoly value; a monopoly, as we have 
 already explained in speaking of the higher classes- 
 of labour, being the possession of some more or 
 less exclusive advantage, enabling its owner to 
 obtain a higher return than others for his capital 
 or labour. The owner of the vineyard which pro- 
 duces Johannisberg, is in possession of a mono- 
 poly which enables him to put a much higher 
 price on his wine than can be obtained for the 
 produce of other vineyards cultivated with the 
 same expenditure of labour and capital. A person 
 passing through the streets of a town is struck by 
 a stained and dirtied piece of canvass at a broker's 
 door. He buys it for a trifle, cleans it with a 
 little labour and expense, and it proves to be a 
 Claude or a Raphael, worth a hundred times after 
 this discovery what it was before. It is the rarity 
 of fine pictures by such artists that confers a 
 
VALUE LOCAL AND TEMPORARY. 169 
 
 monopoly value on them. Objects which are 
 unique of their sort are often of great value in 
 consequence. When there are but two known 
 copies of a scarce work, it has happened that the 
 possessor of one has bought the other at an extra- 
 vagant price, for the purpose of destroying it, 
 his single copy being, in its unique state, of greater 
 value in the market than the two were before. 
 Monopoly value arises likewise from other circum- 
 stances of considerable moment, and particularly 
 from the following: 
 
 Many commodities, indeed the larger propor- 
 tion of goods in every market, can be supplied in 
 increased quantities only by an increased propor- 
 tionate outlay. This principle teems with very 
 important consequences, and follows necessarily 
 from a very simple circumstance, which if it had 
 received the attention it deserved from political 
 economists, might have prevented their falling into 
 no little confusion and error. 
 
 Value we must beg our readers to observe, has 
 a strict relation to time and place. The value of 
 a thing is the quantity of other goods or of money, 
 that is, the price, it will command at a particular 
 time and in a particular place. A thing may 
 have a high value at one time, as ice in the dog- 
 clays ; and no value at another, as the same ice in 
 January. Again, that which is of little value in 
 one place is of great value in another; as the 
 old proverb about coals at Newcastle teaches. 
 When therefore the value of anything is spoken 
 of, reference is made, or understood, to some par- 
 ticular time and place ; and when value in the 
 general market is spoken of, the average of local 
 
170 VALUE DEPENDENT ON TIME AND PLACE. 
 
 markets is intended ; and, unless otherwise ex- 
 pressed, the present time. 
 
 Few objects are either sold or consumed at the 
 same time and place where they are created. 
 Nearly all articles require both more or less of 
 time and labour, not merely to grow, prepare, and 
 put them in marketable condition, but likewise 
 to bring them from the spot where they are 
 prepared, to the market or place where they are 
 sold. In fact, the greater proportion of the most 
 important objects of commerce those which com- 
 pose the food of man, and the raw materials of his 
 clothing, comforts, and luxuries, are raised by 
 cultivation from the surface of the earth. But the 
 process by which they are raised is one which 
 requires much time a season at least, often many 
 ~ as well as an extensive surface of soil ; and a 
 very small proportion of them are consumed on 
 the spot where they are grown, or immediately 
 upon their production. Consequently, the cost or 
 expenditure, necessary to produce these things for 
 the bulk of their consumers, must consist not only 
 of the labour of raising them, but likewise of the 
 time consumed in their growth and preservation, 
 and also of the time and labour employed in 
 bringi?ig them to market. 
 
 The value added to goods by the time necessary 
 for preparing, persevering, and bringing them to 
 market is, as we have seen, charged under the name 
 of profit on the capital expended. That the cost 
 of carriage of goods from the spot where they are 
 prepared to the market where they are sold, is 
 likewise a main element in their value, will not be 
 disputed. In some articles, as stone, coals, water, 
 
ONE VALUE AT ONE TIME AND PLACE. 171 
 
 &c., it makes up by far the greater part of their 
 cost. In order to diminish this as much as pos- 
 sible, the demand of a particular market for any 
 things which are raised by cultivation of the soil, 
 will be supplied from the soils nearest at hand, 
 that are most fitted for the purpose. But it is 
 obvious that as the demand in that particular spot 
 increases, the supply has to be procured at an 
 increased cost, either from more distant soils 
 causing an increased expense of carriage to mar- 
 ket or from such soils as, though nearer at hand, 
 are of inferior productive quality to those first 
 taken into tillage that is, which require a greater 
 expenditure of labour or capital upon them to 
 insure the same quantity of produce. It is, how- 
 ever, certain that there cannot be two prices (or 
 values) for goods of the same quality, in the same 
 market and at the same time ; since no seller will 
 take less from one buyer than he can get from 
 another, and no buyer will knowingly give more 
 to one seller than another will take for the same 
 article. The competition of buyers and of sellers 
 with one another in the same market, will always 
 bring the value of articles of the same quality in 
 one market to the same level. It follows, then, 
 that as the demand in a market for such objects as 
 are produced under the circumstances just spoken 
 of increases, the value in that market of the whole, 
 supply of them must keep up to the level of the 
 value of that part of the supply which is 
 produced in the market at the greatest cost. 
 If this portion of the supply could not com- 
 mand that price (excluding, of course, the results 
 of temporary and accidental miscalculations) 
 
172 SURPLUS BEYOND PRODUCING COSTS. \ 
 
 it would not be brought to market. And if that 
 portion can command that price, so will all the 
 rest of the quantity sold. The producers of this 
 last portion will be repaid precisely for the labour 
 and time they have consumed in growing or fabri- 
 cating their article, and bringing it to market (in 
 other words, the costs of its production, the capi- 
 tal employed in producing it being replaced with 
 a profit, and the labour repaid at ordinary wages). 
 But the producers of all the other portions which 
 were produced under easier circumstances, will get 
 a surplus beyond the costs of production. And 
 this surplus will be the greater in proportion to the 
 greater comparative advantages of proximity to 
 the market, quality of soil, facility of communica- 
 tion, or other favouring circumstances, under which 
 their produce was raised and brought to market.* 
 
 * We beg the reader to observe that whenever we em- 
 ploy the word, to produce, or any of its derivatives, producer, 
 production, and produce, we have reference to the produc- 
 tion of an article at the market where it is offered for sale. 
 It would be very convenient and tend materially to settle 
 many disputed questions of political economy, if all writers 
 would bear in mind and adhere to this rule in their employ- 
 ment of the term. The producer of corn is properly not 
 the farmer alone who raises it from the soil, but the person, 
 whether farmer or corn-dealer, who produces it at the mar- 
 ket. The farmer is the grower simply, until he, or some 
 other for him, brings it to market and offers, i. e., produces 
 it for sale. The cost of production includes the cost of 
 carriage to market as well as of the growth of the corn. la 
 manufactures, it is not the man who weaves the cloth or 
 cotton that is its producer, but the person who, having 
 defrayed the costs of the raw material, the manufacture, and 
 the carriage to market, of the whole operation, in short, 
 to which its existence is owing, produces it there for sale. 
 So the producer of an article, raised or fabricated abroad to 
 
RENT. 173 
 
 It is this surplus that constitutes the rent of land ; 
 at least, that particular part of the rent of land 
 which arises from monopoly, or its superior advan- 
 tages over other lands cultivated for the supply of 
 the same market. If the cultivator of the land is 
 likewise its owner, he puts this surplus (or rent) 
 into his own pocket. If he occupy the land of 
 another, he pays over the surplus, as rent, to his 
 landlord ; who it is obvious, on the average of 
 years, will not be willing to let his land for less 
 rent than the surplus which he or any other person 
 might gain from its cultivation, after replacing the 
 capital employed with a fair profit, and allowing a 
 fair remuneration for the labour of the cultivator. 
 
 Bent, however, it must be recollected, in Great 
 Britain and similarly circumstanced countries, in- 
 cludes, in its ordinary acceptation, many other 
 things besides the monopoly- gain arising in the 
 manner we have described from natural or casual 
 advantages, whether of soil or position. A vast 
 amount of labour and capital has been laid out by 
 its successive owners or occupiers ; much of which 
 remains permanently invested in the soil, adding 
 to its value and productiveness. And the portion 
 of rent, which is attributable to these acquired or 
 artificial advantages, must be considered as repre- 
 
 be sold in this country, is not the foreign grower or manu- 
 facturer, but the person, whether foreign or native, who 
 produces it for sale in our markets. When we arrive at the 
 discussion of the question of Free Trade, it will be found 
 that the vague use of this term has occasioned much obscurity 
 which is at once cleared up by its correct and strict appli- 
 cation in the sense we have assigned to it. (To produce, v.a. 
 to offer to notice; to exhibit to the public j to bring forward. 
 Johnson.) 
 
174 ELEMENTS OF RENT. 
 
 senting the profit on the capital so expended. If 
 the expenditure were to be calculated which has 
 been from first to last laid out in permanent im- 
 provements of the land of this country, for ex- 
 ample, in the original clearing and enclosure, 
 drainage, making of roads, farm-buildings, fences 
 and gates, pools, water-courses, plantations, irri- 
 gation, &c., it would appear that by far the larger 
 part of the rent received for landed estates consists 
 of the necessary profit on this outlay. Of the 
 remainder, part accrues from peculiar advantages 
 with respect to proximity to markets, or manures ; 
 part from superior natural fertility of soil. It is 
 to this last portion only of the ordinary rent of 
 land that the greater number of political economists 
 have confined their attention ; and this exceed- 
 ingly narrow and imperfect view of the nature of 
 rent has necessarily led them into much incon- 
 sistency and error*. The two last portions of rent 
 
 * " Rent/' says Mr. Ricardo, (and Messrs. Macculloch, 
 Mill, and many other economists have adopted his defi- 
 nition) " Rent is that portion of the produce of the earth 
 which is paid to the landlord for the use of the original and 
 indestructible natural powers of the soil" (Ricardo, Pol. 
 Econ., chap, ii.; Mill's Elements, p. 39 ; Macculloch's Prin- 
 ciples, p. 4.31.) This definition excludes all that large por- 
 tion of rent which we have noticed above as resulting from 
 artificial improvements ; as well as all that other large por- 
 tion which is the consequence of favourable position with 
 respect to markets, communications, manures, &c. How 
 much of, the rent of English estates depends on the first 
 class of circumstances ? How much of the rental of land 
 in the neighbourhood of London, Liverpool, or Manchester, 
 on the second ? The < original indestructible powers ' of 
 the British soil were the same in the time of the Heptarchy 
 as they are now. How is it then that they brought in no 
 tent, or next to none, at that time ? If rent depends solely 
 
MONOPOLY RENTS. 175 
 
 (which are, in fact, one and the same, since 
 superior natural fertility is no source of rent, ex- 
 cept it be conjoined with proximity to a market) 
 possess all the character of monopoly- gains. 
 
 Monopoly we have defined as the exclusive 
 possession of some superior advantage over other 
 parties engaged in supplying the same market, 
 
 on natural fertility of soil, why do some acres of land in 
 England let for ten pounds a year, while an acre of equal 
 fertility in Canada will not command a sixpence of rent ? 
 Whilst this school of political economists declare rent to 
 be solely owing to the ( difference in natural fertility of 
 soils,' and build their whole science upon this principle or 
 * theory of rent,' as they call it, other writers pull this theory 
 to pieces, and in its place have set up another, viz., that 
 rent is solely owing to the ' pressure of population against 
 produce, causing a rise in prices.' (Westminster Review ; 
 True Theory of Rent, &c.) This explanation, however, is 
 not much nearer the truth than the other. Rent may cer- 
 tainly exist in a society whose numbers are in no degree 
 excessive ; nay, it may increase at the same time with an 
 increase in the productiveness of agriculture, and in the 
 share of its produce falling to each individual inhabitant j 
 just as it may arise and increase where all soils are alike in 
 fertility. It is, in fact, the simple consequence of an in- 
 creased local demand requiring an increased local supply- 
 which supply must be procured either from inferior soils 
 close at hand, or from the best soils at a greater distance. 
 It may and does often happen that the % increased supply can 
 be sold, through continued improvements in agriculture or 
 the arts, at a less price, or can be commanded by the indi- 
 vidual consumers in greater quantity than at an earlier 
 period : and yet there will be an increase of rent arising 
 from the superior advantages of position or quality, &c., of 
 some lands over others, for supplying the actual demand. 
 Rent consists, then, of the difference between the expense of 
 producing that portion of the required supply which is pro- 
 duced under the least favourable circumstances, and that 
 produced from the land which yields the rent. 
 
176 BENEFICIAL MONOPOLIES. 
 
 enabling its owner to derive a proportionately 
 larger gain from the same expenditure of labour 
 or capital. Competition is the antagonist principle 
 to monopoly. Each producer is constantly strug- 
 gling to increase to the utmost, and make the most 
 of, his own advantages over others ; and, of course, 
 his efforts tend at the same time indirectly to re- 
 duce the superiority of others over him. The re- 
 sult is a vast increase of production, by which the 
 public, in its capacity of general consumer, gains 
 a proportionate advantage. 
 
 The term Monopoly carries with it in vulgar 
 estimation an odium which is, in truth, only due to 
 such monopolies as are gained by unfair means, 
 force, or fraud. If a man by the fair exercise 
 of his natural, acquired, or accidental advantages, 
 obtain a larger return for his labour or capital than 
 others, no one disputes his right to it ; and, in- 
 deed, inasmuch as such higher returns form the 
 main inducement for the acquirement, cultivation, 
 and exercise of superior advantages, the result of 
 which, viz., increased production, is so great a 
 benefit to society it is evident that monopolies of 
 this kind are not merely harmless, but eminently 
 useful. They hold up to public view the prizes 
 that are to be gained by excellence of any kind in 
 the race of production. They encourage industry 
 and excite emulation. And even those which ap- 
 pear the result of accident solely, are not without 
 their use. They help to relieve the monotony 
 of society, and cause that unequal distribution of 
 wealth, which, when not carried beyond the whole- 
 some limits to which fair and free competition will, 
 we believe, always confine it, may be compared 
 
BENEFICIAL MONOPOLIES. 177 
 
 in their effects to the beneficial inequalities in the 
 physical surface of the globe, which bring a great 
 variety of climates and productions within a limited 
 compass, and are essentially necessary for distri- 
 buting over its surface that fertilizing fluid from 
 which the freshness, verdure, and vigour, of its 
 vegetation are derived. 
 
 The exclusive legal ownership of land possessing 
 superior advantages of any kind, natural or arti- 
 ficial, of fertility or of position, is, as has been 
 shown, a monopoly, which enables the owner to 
 obtain a rent from those who cultivate it, or, if 
 he cultivate it himself, to make a rent, proportioned 
 to the peculiar advantages of his particular estate 
 over lands that are habitually engaged in supplying 
 the same market under the most unfavourable cir- 
 cumstances. 
 
 The owners of most mines, fisheries, forests, 
 &c., enjoy a similar advantage of monopoly. 
 Those which are naturally most prolific, or best 
 situated for supplying the principal markets, afford 
 the largest returns to their owner, after replacing 
 the capital and paying the labour employed in 
 working them. And if instead of working the 
 mines, fisheries, &c., himself, he prefers to let them 
 out to be worked by others, he will obtain through 
 the competition of capitalists, willing to undertake 
 the business if they can only secure the ordinary 
 returns of capital and labour a rent consisting of 
 the surplus produce of each particular property be- 
 yond these returns, and of course proportioned to 
 the peculiar advantages of each. 
 
 The possession of superior machinery, of secret 
 or patented processes, or of skill, talent, ingenuity, 
 
178 RENT NO ELEMENT OF PRICE. 
 
 or knowledge, applicable to any of the arts of 
 production, is likewise, as we have seen, a mono- 
 poly, enabling their possessors to employ their 
 labour or capital to greater advantage than others, 
 and consequently to get a greater return for it, a 
 higher profit, or a larger wage. Some of these 
 advantages may even be, and are occasionally, let 
 out by their owners to other parties at a rent. 
 
 The value of any monopoly to its owner is 
 measured by the superiority he enjoys over the least 
 favourably situated of all his habitual competitors 
 in the same market. These could not afford to 
 continue supplying the market, for a permanence , 
 unless they obtained the average return ; that is, 
 as high a return for their capital or ability in that, 
 as they could obtain in any other employment. 
 But however much the owner of such a monopoly 
 may gain by its possession, the public sustains no 
 loss. The extra rent of land, for example, or the 
 extra value conferred on land by its superior fer- 
 tility, favourable position for markets, &c., adds 
 nothing to the selling price of landed produce. It 
 is entirely a vulgar error to suppose that rents affect 
 prices. If the landlord were to renounce his rent 
 altogether, this would in no degree affect the de- 
 mand or supply of the market, and prices would 
 remain unaltered. The cultivator of the best or 
 nearest lands would still ask as much for his corn 
 or cattle as he could get, and this would be deter- 
 mined by the terms upon which the cultivator, en- 
 gaged habitually in supplying the market under 
 the least favourable circumstances of soil and 
 situation, could afford to send it there. The only 
 consequence of a complete abolition of mono- 
 
 
 
UTILITY OF LANDLORD CLASS. 179 
 
 poly rents would be to put them in the pockets 
 of the farmers, under the name of extra profits 
 in short to turn the farmers into landlords. 
 But society could gain no advantage by thus 
 prohibiting the owners of land or any other valu- 
 able exclusive property from letting out, if they 
 please, their possessions to others for produc- 
 tive employment, instead of personally engaging 
 themselves in their business. And, on the con- 
 trary, there is a very evident advantage accru- 
 ing to society from the existence of an inde- 
 pendent and wealthy class of persons, disengaged 
 from the necessity of constant personal attention 
 to their affairs, and therefore enabled to give up 
 their time gratuitously to literary and scientific 
 studies, or the performance of public, but unpaid 
 duties. It is from this class that the ranks of our 
 legislature and magistracy, our authors and rrren 
 of science, must be recruited. And it is, more- 
 over, from the elevation of mind and manners, the 
 refinement and intellectual polish which leisure 
 and easy circumstances enable this class, to attain, 
 that much benefit descends to all the other classes, 
 in the example afforded them of a higher taste for 
 the comforts and decencies of life, and a higher 
 standard of enjoyment than the gratification of 
 mere animal wants. 
 
 It is not easy to define accurately in words the 
 distinction which separates beneficial, or harmless, 
 from injurious monopolies. Generally speaking, 
 as we have said, that which results from supe- 
 riority acquired and exercised in a fair and open 
 manner is beneficial such as are obtained or 
 supported by fraud, or force, are publicly inju- 
 
 N 2 
 
180 INJURIOUS MONOPOLIES. 
 
 rious. No one blames Chantrey or Lawrence 
 for charging as high a price as they can obtain for 
 their productions. No one disputes the general 
 advantage of allowing the grazier who produces 
 the best ox, or the farmer who brings up the finest 
 sample of corn, in the market, to carry away the 
 topping price. No one doubts the right of a 
 merchant, who from superior sagacity has foreseen 
 the probable future deficiency of some article in 
 the market, and provided a stock of it against the 
 time, to make what extra profit he can of his 
 speculation. Again, no one quarrels with Lord 
 Grosvenor or Mr. Portman, for charging as high 
 a ground-rent as they can obtain, even though it 
 reach five guineas a foot, for their land in the pa- 
 rishes of Marylebone or Kensington. But if the 
 owners of land in the vicinity of a populous and 
 wealthy town, not content with the extra price or 
 rent they may freely command for its employment 
 as building-sites, pleasure-grounds, market-gar- 
 dens, accommodation-pastures, and from the saving 
 in the expense of conveyance of its produce to mar- 
 ket, occasioned by its proximity if, we say, not 
 content with these accidental and natural, but just 
 and fair, advantages, they were to attempt to en- 
 hance the value of their monopoly, supposing them 
 to have the power, by any legislative interference 
 with the freedom of trade, as for instance, by 
 interdicting the inhabitants of the town from ob- 
 taining their supplies of vegetables, meat, butter, 
 &c., from other lands such monopoly would un- 
 doubtedly be one of a most unfair, pernicious, and 
 shameful character. It would be nothing less 
 than a conspiracy to raise the price of necessaries. 
 
CORN-LAW EXCLUSIVE PRIVILEGES. 181 
 
 The corn law, in as far as it acts, or was intended 
 to act, in raising the rents of the landlords of this 
 country, at the expense of the consumers of corn, 
 by preventing their access to cheaper though more 
 distant markets, is a monopoly of this description 
 only to be justified, if at all, by strong proof 
 that the land of this country is specially burdened 
 for the benefit of all, and requires countervailing 
 protection in the shape of a bounty on its produce. 
 This is a question we reserve for discussion on a 
 future occasion. 
 
 Other examples of injurious monopolies are af- 
 forded in the exclusive privileges to carry on par- 
 ticular trades, or deal in particular commodities, 
 which governments have sometimes with short- 
 sighted policy granted to individuals. There are 
 perhaps some rare circumstances which may jus- 
 tify the temporary concession of such privileges ; 
 as when they are proved to be necessary for the 
 encouragement of an infant trade from which 
 much ultimate benefit is rationally expected like 
 that of the East India Company when first formed 
 or for the rewarding of successful ingenuity, as ; 
 in the case of patents ; but these concessions, if at 
 all admissible, (which is doubtful,) form but rare 
 exceptions to the general rule, which is decidedly 
 against all such privileges. Unquestionable proof 
 of their specific utility should be required before 
 they are conceded, since they are a direct infringe- 
 ment of the rights of all to the free direction of 
 their industry. It may be strongly suspected too, 
 a priori, that any business which is not promising 
 enough to go alone without nursing, or stand the 
 wholesome breezes of competition, is not likely 
 
182 CONSPIRACY MONOPOLIES. 
 
 to be generally beneficial, or to succeed eventually 
 in gaining sufficient strength to support itself. 
 
 Another hurtful kind of monopoly is that ob- 
 tained by the combination or conspiracy of par- 
 ties, who being enabled to command the entire 
 supply of any article to a market, use this power 
 for the purpose of putting an extraordinary price 
 upon it restricting the supply to the community 
 in order to enhance its value, and consequently 
 to increase their surplus profits upon their expen- 
 diture. An instance of this is the notorious com- 
 bination of the great coal- owners of the north, 
 which was exposed in a late committee of the 
 House of Lords. Another, that of the companies 
 by which London is supplied with water, who have 
 divided the town among themselves, engaging 
 mutually to confine themselves within their se- 
 veral districts ; by which they are enabled, without 
 fear of competition, to charge the public an ex- 
 orbitant price for this most necessary article, and 
 clear extravagant profits for their shareholders. 
 If any attempt is made by a stranger to compete 
 with these banded monopolists, they can by their 
 combined influence and by a temporary relaxation 
 of their prices, deter him effectually from the vast 
 outlay of capital which would be necessary before 
 he can even commence his competition, and having 
 thus driven him away, they can return to their 
 old charges. So that the public are completely 
 at their mercy. 
 
 If monopolies of this character are carried to 
 an extent which inflicts serious injury upon the 
 mass of the people, by enhancing the price and re- 
 stricting the supply of the first necessaries of life, 
 
FORESTALLERS AND REGRATERS. 183 
 
 it is incumbent on the government of the country 
 to interfere for their protection. The law which 
 secures to any one the exclusive property of a 
 coal-mine, or a spring of water, is, after all, sanc- 
 tioned only by its subserviency to the public wel- 
 fare. And when this is notoriously and unques- 
 tionably obstructed by the mode in which the 
 owner of the property exercises his power, the 
 private must be made to give way before the public 
 right. The possession of such an exclusive pro* 
 perty assumes the character of an obnoxious ex- 
 clusive privilege conferred by law, and ought, like 
 all privileges of that nature, to be modified, or 
 repealed, as the interest of the community may re- 
 quire. 
 
 The law, in fact, does continually interfere in 
 this way with the rights of private property. If 
 a road, or canal, is required for the public conve- 
 nience, parliament makes no scruple of compelling 
 the owners of the lands through which the line 
 passes to give up the necessary space for it, on re- 
 ceiving a fair compensation for their land at its 
 ordinary value. And nothing can be more equit- 
 able than such a practice. 
 
 For several centuries there prevailed a strong 
 prejudice in this country against the forestallers 
 of corn and other provisions, dealers, that is, who, 
 in the apprehension of a scarcity, buy them up with 
 the intention of obtaining a monopoly of the 
 market, and being able to retail (regrate) them 
 out afterwards with a high profit. But the growing 
 enlightenment of the age has placed within the com- 
 prehension of nearly every one, that such a pro- 
 cess is on the whole far more beneficial than hurt- 
 
184 RULE AS TO MONOPOLIES. 
 
 ful to the people who consume the provisions. 
 And this because the forestaller, anticipating the 
 dearth of provisions at an earlier period than 
 others, by his demand raises their price, and thus 
 discourages their consumption and waste, and 
 diminishes the severity of the subsequent scarcity. 
 The forestaller may gain a high profit by selling 
 dear that which he bought cheap ; but if his 
 sagacity had not led him to speculate on obtaining 
 this high profit, by large purchases and reserves, 
 the probability is that there would have been no 
 supply at all for the public ; at all events, much 
 less than has been secured by his providence. In 
 fact, such speculating provision-dealers tend by 
 their operations to distribute the supply pretty 
 equally throughout the year, which, without their 
 aid, stimulated as it alone is by the hope of mo- 
 nopoly profits, would be necessarily so irregular 
 as to occasion profusion and waste at one period, 
 dearth and famine, as their consequence, at another. 
 The true rule, therefore, with respect to mono- 
 polies seems to be that every one should be left at 
 liberty to avail himself of whatever peculiar advan- 
 tages fall to him by accident, or through his own 
 exertions fairly and freely exercised in concurrence 
 with other competitors but that no one be per- 
 mitted to increase his own superiority by destroy- 
 ing, or unfairly restraining the powers of others. 
 And likewise that the law (except in extreme cases, 
 when the public benefit is unquestionably inte- 
 rested) should abstain altogether from either con- 
 ferring exclusive advantages, or breaking them 
 down when adventitiously established and not 
 unfairly exercised. 
 
DEMAND. 185 
 
 What we have advanced on the elements of 
 value makes it evident that the value (or selling 
 price) of an article at any time and place is deter- 
 mined by the proportion of the demand to the 
 supply at that time and place. And it is a change 
 in that proportion which occasions the rising or 
 falling of prices. The extent of the demand for, 
 and supply of, articles, and, consequently, their 
 relation to each other in any market, is liable to 
 be affected by a variety of circumstances, some 
 temporary, others more or less permanent in their 
 operation. 
 
 I. The extent of the Demand for a thing depends 
 on the intensity of the desire for its possession 
 among a larger or smaller number of persons, 
 and likewise upon their means of purchasing it. 
 As Adam Smith long since said, ' Every beggar 
 may desire a coach and six,' but to be effectual, 
 to make itself sensible as a demand to the coach- 
 makers, the desire must be accompanied by a 
 power of purchase, that is, by an equivalent sup- 
 ply of money or money's worth. 
 
 The demand for those objects which are em- 
 ployed as the principal subsistence and necessary 
 comforts of a people varies least of all, being 
 chiefly determined by the number of the population 
 to be supported, which is not liable to sudden 
 change, and to their tastes and habits, which, 
 though varying in the course of long periods of 
 time, are equally unsusceptible of sudden fluctua- 
 tions. A deficiency in the means at the disposal 
 
186 VARIATIONS OF DEMAND. 
 
 of the mass of the 'population for purchasing the 
 necessaries of life such as is occasioned by a 
 sudden rise in their price unaccompanied by a 
 proportionate rise in the wages of labour, cannot 
 but diminish the effectual demand for them ; not 
 however in the proportion of the increased price, 
 every other possible sacrifice being naturally 
 made to obtain a sufficiency of necessaries. A 
 fall in the price of these things, on the other hand, 
 does occasion a fully proportionate increase of de- 
 mand ; at least in those countries, and they are 
 unhappily many, the bulk of whose inhabitants 
 are at all times ill-supplied with necessaries, and 
 therefore limited in their demand for them only 
 by a deficiency of their ' power of purchase/ 
 
 The demand for articles of ornament and con- 
 venience is liable to much more rapid and frequent 
 changes. The caprice of man exercises, it is well 
 known, a far more powerful sway over the intensity 
 of his desire for superfluities, than over his neces- 
 sary wants. Fashion prides itself on singularity, 
 and is ever in search of novelty. So that change 
 is of its very essence. And such changes must 
 occasion a proportionate fluctuation in the demand 
 for these articles, as well as for all such as are 
 consumed in their production and supply. The 
 introduction of a new article which obtains favour 
 with the public, will suddenly give rise to a new 
 and extensive demand for that particular com- 
 modity, and proportionately diminish the demand 
 for some other whose place it takes. Thus cotton 
 or Berlin gloves were, a year or two back, very 
 generally substituted for leather gloves, to the 
 great temporary detriment of the makers of the 
 
VARIATIONS OF SUPPLY. 187 
 
 latter article, and the proportionate benefit of the 
 cotton hosiers. The gilt-button-makers have been 
 severe sufferers from the general introduction of 
 the fashion of covered silk buttons. At one time 
 printed cotton goods are the universal wear, and the 
 next year silks, perhaps, are in almost equal vogue. 
 A general mourning raises the demand for all dark 
 goods, and depresses that for the gayer fashions. 
 Fortunately for the producers of such articles of 
 dress, these changes of taste, though often very 
 rapid in a particular class, never occur simultane- 
 ously throughout all the classes of society. A 
 mode of dress which has gone out of fashion among 
 the higher and wealthier ranks, will perhaps be 
 just introducing itself in the middle class, to 
 descend, when the latter have worn it out, to the 
 lower and more numerous. So that the demand 
 when slackening in one quarter is usuallyincreasing 
 in another. And the stuffs which have been long 
 discarded by those whose caprice originates a 
 fashion, are for a considerable time afterwards in 
 full demand among a herd of tardy imitators. 
 
 II. The supply of goods is determined by the 
 circumstances that affect their production, and is 
 subject to still greater variations than the demand. 
 Those things which are raised directly from the 
 soil by agriculture, comprehending not only food, 
 but the raw material of nearly all manufactures, are 
 liable to great and frequent fluctuations in supply* 
 from the variable character of the seasons. Abundant 
 crops occasioned by favourable seasons cause the 
 market to overflow with a quantity of such com- 
 modities far beyond the average supply. Unfa- 
 vourable seasons create a general deficiency below 
 
188 COSTS OF PRODUCTION. 
 
 the average. Other obvious circumstances often 
 affect for a time the supply of a market with par- 
 ticular commodities, such as the early setting in of 
 a frost by which the harbours in high latitudes 
 are blocked up before the vessels loading there 
 can get away the imposition of an embargo on 
 the exporting harbour or the interruption of 
 the commerce between different countries by the 
 breaking out of war. 
 
 These causes of variation in the supply of goods 
 are more or less temporary and casual in their 
 nature. The circumstances which determine per- 
 manently and on the whole the average supply of 
 goods to meet the demand for them, are those 
 which may be included under the general designa- 
 tion of their necessary costs of production. 
 
 The cost of producing any article comprehends, 
 1. The labour, capital, and time required to create 
 and bring it to market in sufficient quantity to 
 meet the effectual demand for it. 2. The addi- 
 tional charges occasioned through the entire sup- 
 ply being produced under monopoly of any kind. 
 3. Whatever additional charges are occasioned 
 by the amount of taxation, to which it, or any 
 of the materials employed in its production, may 
 be subjected by the authorities possessing that 
 power. 
 
 1. That portion of cost which consists of the 
 labour, capital, and time, required for creating and 
 bringing to market a sufficient supply of the article, 
 is by far the most important. The money-cost of 
 the requisite labour will depend on the current or 
 ordinary remuneration of the particular kinds of 
 labour employed at the several places where they 
 
MONEY-COSTS REAL COSTS. 189 
 
 are put into requisition. Thus the expense of pro- 
 ducing corn in Great Britain will materially depend 
 on the current wages of agricultural labourers in this 
 island. Any general fall or rise in the wages of 
 any class of labourers engaged in production, goes 
 to lower or raise the money cost of the articles 
 they produce. Hence the continual struggle 
 between labourers and their employers, as to the 
 rate of wages; it being the direct immediate inte- 
 rest of every employer to diminish this main item 
 in his expenses, with the view of increasing his 
 share of the sum for which he expects to sell his 
 commodity. 
 
 Again, the money-cost of the capital consumed 
 will depend, not on its amount only, but also on 
 the time during which it is engaged, the risks to 
 which it is exposed, and the current rate of interest 
 which its owner will, of course, expect to receive 
 for its employment. 
 
 But the real cost, or actual amount of labour, 
 capital, and time required for the production of any 
 thing, will vary with the greater or less skill, 
 knowledge, and appliances of all kinds available 
 in aid of it. 
 
 Every improvement in the processes by which 
 commodities of any kind are produced, contributes 
 towards the great end of lessening the produ- 
 cing costs of commodities by the saving of 
 time, capital, or labour. Every step that is 
 made in any of the arts and sciences subservient to 
 production tends directly to increase man's power 
 over nature to render a fixed amount of his 
 labour more efficient, that is to say, productive of a 
 larger amount of the objects of his desire. Some 
 
190 DIMINUTION OF REAL COSTS. 
 
 of the most striking of such improvements are 
 those continually made in the means of communi- 
 cation. The formation of new roads, canals, and 
 rail-roads, with the introduction of steam navi- 
 gation, have been most conspicuous among the 
 causes which have operated of late years, and in 
 this country especially, to reduce the cost and 
 facilitate the supply of commodities, particularly of 
 the more bulky articles. An instance in point 
 is afforded by the vast increase in the traffic 
 between Ireland and the western coast of England, 
 since 18:24, the period when steam-boats were 
 first employed in the Irish channel. The markets 
 of this island have thus received a prodigious addi- 
 tion to their supplies of provisions. Lancashire 
 has especially profited, from the contemporaneous 
 opening of her great rail-road, which receiving the 
 Irish produce from the vessels at Liverpool, car- 
 ries it forward with the utmost expedition, and 
 for a trifling charge, to Manchester and its neigh- 
 bourhood. Fresh meat, eggs, and butter, are 
 thus conveyed with almost miraculous cheapness 
 and celerity from the very centre of Ireland 
 (whence canals take them to Dublin) into the 
 heart of the most populous manufacturing district 
 of Britain. The cost of provisions in these latter 
 places must be proportionately diminished. 
 
 The capital employed in production consists 
 chiefly of appliances of various kinds for facili- 
 tating labour. The main object of the invention 
 of tools and machines of every description is the 
 economy of labour, with a view to diminish the 
 real cost of production. It is chiefly to the won- 
 derful progress made of late years, and especially 
 
ECONOMY OF LABOUR. 191 
 
 in this country, in the arts of mechanical invention, 
 that we are indebted for the superiority of modern 
 society over that of earlier ages, in the abundance 
 of luxuries, comforts and conveniences at the dis- 
 posal of nearly every class. The immense wealth 
 that has been produced and accumulated in this 
 country of late years is wholly to be ascribed to 
 the stupendous inventions and discoveries of Watt, 
 Wedgewood, Hargraves, Arkwright, Compton, 
 Cartwright, and a few others. "These added so 
 prodigiously to our capacities of production, that 
 we went on rapidly increasing in population and 
 wealth, notwithstanding an expenditure of blood 
 and treasure unparalleled in the history of the world. 
 It is believed that an individual can, at this mo- 
 ment, by means of the improved machinery now in 
 use, produce about two hundred times the quantity 
 of cotton goods that an individual could produce at 
 the accession of George III. in 1760 ! The im- 
 provement in other branches, though for the most 
 part less striking than in the cotton manufacture, 
 is still very great; and in some, as in the lace 
 manufacture, it is little, if at all, inferior*/' The 
 loom is one of those inventions which have most 
 signally advanced the productive capacity of man. 
 * Ulloa mentions that the Indians of South America 
 have no other method of making cloth, than by 
 taking up thread after thread of the warp, and 
 passing the woof between them by the hand ; and 
 he adds that they are thus frequently engaged for 
 two or three years, in the weaving of hammocks, 
 Coverlets, and other coarse cloths, which a Euro- 
 
 * Edinburgh Review, No. cxii. 
 
192 RESULTS OF MACHINERY. 
 
 pean would, by means of his loom, produce in as 
 many days, or probably hours*.' 
 
 Facts like these strongly illustrate the immense 
 benefits derived by society from improvements in 
 machinery, by which the real cost of consum- 
 able goods or the time and labour required for 
 their production are diminished. The prejudice 
 against machinery, still prevalent among the poor 
 and ignorant, and which has often shown itself 
 in outrage and rioting, arises from the circum- 
 stance that any change in the mode of production 
 of particular goods throws out of employment 
 for a time many of those who were occupied on 
 the superseded method ; and who are unfitted, by 
 their habits, situation, want of skill, and other cir- 
 cumstances, to supply the demand which must 
 immediately spring up, somewhere or other, for 
 labour of another kind, to be employed in the im- 
 proved method. The pressure of such changes 
 (like those we have traced to changes in fashion 
 and demand) is often very severe and enduring ; 
 as in the instance of the unfortunate hand-loom 
 weavers, who have, for twenty years past, been 
 engaged in a hard but unavailing competition with 
 the improvements of the power-loom. And these 
 sufferings ought undoubtedly to be mitigated at 
 the expense of society, by direct relief, but still 
 more by the adoption of means for facilitating 
 the transition of labourers from one branch of em- 
 ployment, or one locality, in which they are no 
 longer wanted, to other employments or places in 
 which the demand for labour is brisker. Any 
 
 * Edinburgh Review, No, cxii. p. 315. 
 
DIMINUTION OF REAL COST. 103 
 
 interference, with improvements from which society 
 at large profits so greatly, for the sake of protecting 
 the particular classes engaged in the employments 
 about to be superseded, is obviously indefensible. 
 
 Interference has been often asked for by the 
 sufferers in these cases, and their advocates. But 
 such a principle, once admitted, it is evident, would 
 tend directly to stop all improvement ; it would 
 have necessitated the prohibition of printing for 
 the protection of manuscript copyists of steam- 
 boats for the protection of sail makers and of 
 bridges for the protection of ferrymen : it would go 
 to prevent the employment of every contrivance 
 by which human labour is aided in any branch of 
 industry, and reduce us, as was well observed by 
 a Glasgow operative before a committee of the 
 House of Commons to the teeth and nails as our 
 sole instruments of production. The sure result 
 of every improvement in machinery is an in- 
 creased production of the means of enjoyment. 
 Whatever partial evils attend that beneficial result, 
 may and ought to be mitigated by other means 
 than by placing obstacles in the way of the march 
 of improvement. 
 
 Capital which consists in tools or machinery, 
 is more or less durable, and will usually aid 
 in the successive production of a large quantity 
 of commodities before it is wholly consumed. 
 The portion of such capital that is consumed 
 in production enters as an element into cost, toge- 
 ther with the current rate of profit upon it for 
 the time during which it has been advanced. 
 Thus the cost of one hundred quarters of corn to 
 the grower includes, besides his labourers' wages 
 
194 ECONOMY OF TIME. 
 
 and his own, the value of that portion of his stock 
 (viz., seed-corn, ploughs, harrows, and other im- 
 plements, horses, horse-provender, manure, &c.,) 
 which has been consumed in raising his crop, toge- 
 ther with the current profit on the value of every 
 several portion of this capital for the time during 
 which it has been employed in the production of his 
 corn. Hence, improvements which save any part 
 of the time necessarily consumed in the business of 
 production, effect a material reduction in the cost 
 of the produce, by lessening the amount of profit 
 chargeable on the capital employed, as well as 
 the amount of wages chargeable for the labour of 
 those who assist in, or superintend, the work. The 
 improvements we have just noticed in communi- 
 cations of every kind, and above all the extraordi- 
 nary acceleration which has taken place of late 
 years in the conveyance of both public and private 
 intelligence, throughout this and other countries, 
 have contributed in a remarkable degree to dimi- 
 nish the producing costs of many objects by ena- 
 bling their producers to save much of the time 
 which was formerly wasted in the intervals between 
 the different stages of the process of production, 
 as well as between its completion and final sale. 
 If a manufacturer is able through such circum- 
 stances to turn his capital twice in the year, where 
 formerly he could have turned it but once, that 
 portion of the producing cost of his article which 
 consists of the profit on the capital employed, and 
 of the wages of himself, and perhaps several of 
 his assistant labourers, his clerks, &c., will be but 
 half what it was at the former period. 
 
 2. When the entire supply of a commodity, or 
 
MONOPOLY CHA.RC4ES. 195 
 
 of any of the elements necessary to the production 
 of a commodity, is produced under a monopoly,, 
 the extraordinary charges which the owner of the 
 monopoly is thereby enabled to make, go to swell 
 the amount of its cost. Thus the proprietor of a 
 patent or secret process by which a particular ar- 
 ticle is exclusively produced, has it in his power 
 to charge a monopoly price for his article beyond 
 the amount of the ordinary wages and profits on 
 the labour and capital consumed in its production. 
 So the owner of a vineyard, which, like that of 
 Tokay, or Chateau Margaut, exclusively produces 
 wine of a peculiarly fine quality, is enabled to 
 raise the price of its produce to those who buy of 
 him far beyond the ordinary remuneration for the 
 capital and labour expended upon it. And these 
 extraordinary charges enter into the producing 
 cost of the article, because their payment is the 
 necessary condition of its production for sale. 
 Unless their terms are agreed to, the monopolists 
 may decline to produce or sell the article at all. All. 
 commodities which, in any stage of their produc- 
 tion, or in any one of their necessary elements, 
 are subject to similar charges for exclusive powers 
 or privileges, are proportionably raised in pro- 
 ducing cost. And their cost is proportionably 
 lowered by the breaking down of any such mono- 
 polies, and the opening to all of the power or privi- 
 lege so exercised by a few. But it must be 
 observed that the payment of all such monopoly 
 charges is wholly voluntary on the part of the con- 
 sumer, who has no right to complain of its ex- 
 action, so long as he is left free to purchase or pro- 
 cure the article in any cheaper manner if he can. . 
 
 o 2 
 
1*96 MONOPOLY CHARGES. 
 
 When, however, only a portion of the entire 
 supply is produced under a monopoly, the neces- 
 sary cost of the article is not affected by such 
 monopoly, but consists solely of the labour, time, 
 and capital required to produce that portion of the 
 supply which is brought to market under the least 
 favourable circumstances to its producers, and con- 
 sequently, under no monopoly. Though the parties 
 concerned in the production of the remaining 
 portion of the supply receive a monopoly profit, 
 they do not thereby raise the price of their article. 
 It is out of their power by refusing to produce, or 
 by any other means, to raise the price one jot 
 beyond that at which the commodity can be sup- 
 plied by other parties who will be content to get 
 the current profit on capital and wages of labour. 
 The proprietor of a peculiarly rich or well-situated 
 coal mine, for example, obtains a monopoly profit 
 upon his produce, consisting of the difference 
 between the cost of producing the article from his 
 mine, and the cost of the same article from the 
 poorest or worst-situated mine of all by which the 
 market is habitually supplied. But the price of 
 the entire supply of coal is determined by the cost 
 of this latter portion, and is therefore in no degree 
 raised by the superior advantages enjoyed by the 
 owner of the best mines. The same law, as we 
 have already seen, applies to all raw produce de- 
 rived from land; the cost of which is in no 
 degree affected by the rent of the best lands; but 
 is determined by the labour, capital, and time re- 
 quired for its production from the least favourably 
 situated lands of all that habitually supply the 
 same market. 
 
TAXATION. 197 
 
 3. It is obvious that the amount of taxation to 
 which a commodity is liable, in itself or any of its 
 component elements, must add just so much to 
 the cost of producing it for sale in the market, 
 together with the current rate of profit on the 
 sums so paid for the time during which they have 
 been advanced. A diminution of the customs 
 duties on foreign produce, or of the taxes levied on 
 articles of home growth or manufacture, or on 
 any of the materials employed in their production, 
 has the effect of diminishing their cost to the pro- 
 ducer. So also the breaking out of a war, by 
 increasing the premium on marine insurances, adds 
 to the producing cost of all imported goods.* 
 
 * The majority of political economists, in pursuance of 
 the fallacy already exposed of identifying value with labour, 
 resolve cost of production into the quantity of labour only, 
 required for producing the article. It is scarcely necessary 
 to say more in refutation of so palpable an error. Land and 
 capital must unite with labour in the production of every 
 thing, and the owners of land and capital, no less than the 
 owners of labour, have the power of demanding and are in 
 the habit of receiving a share of the value of every commo- 
 dity, in return for what they contribute towards its pro- 
 duction. And even though we should exclude from consi- 
 deration all monopoly charges, and view the value of land 
 and capital as the result merely of anterior labour, yet it 
 would be in the highest degree irrational to refuse to dig" 
 tinguish the labour that inclosed and cleared a field, planted 
 an oak, or raised a building centuries ago, or that which built 
 a ship, or framed a machine several years back, from the 
 labour which is employed at the present time in using the land, 
 building, timber, vessel, or machine, in the preparation of 
 something for immediate sale. Nor even though we ad- 
 mitted all land and capital to owe their value to labour, would 
 this suffice to resolve cost ultimately into labour. For it will 
 not be denied that profit is a constant element in cost. And 
 this, as we have proved, is a compensation not for labour, 
 
198 COST DETERMINES PRICE. 
 
 It is quite evident that the cost of producing 
 any article must in the long run determine its price 
 (or selling value.) For unless a price can be ob- 
 tained sufficient to cover this cost, no one will 
 continue to produce it for sale at that expense. 
 
 A sudden increase of demand, or a casual defi- 
 ciency of supply, will frequently raise prices above 
 this level ; as a diminished demand, or an acci- 
 dental increase of the supply beyond the demand, 
 will lower them beneath it. Such effect is, how- 
 ever, but temporary. The constant tendency both 
 of demand and supply is to come to an equih> 
 brium, and the point about which they oscillate 
 is that selling price of the commodity which will 
 just cover the cost of its production at that time 
 and place. 
 
 Should the price fall below this level, producers 
 find that particular branch of industry a less advan* 
 tageous mode of employing their capital and labour 
 than others, and some are therefore led to dis- 
 continue it ; or those who were on the point of 
 embarking in it are led to prefer another occupa- 
 tion. The supply is thus generally diminished, 
 until it is brought down at least to the level of 
 that extent of demand which will pay the pro- 
 ducing cost. 
 
 When, on the other hand, the supply is deficient 
 
 but for the time during which the owner of capital has 
 allowed it to be employed productively with a view to ulti- 
 mate remuneration, instead of consuming it immediately on 
 his personal gratification. It is also clear, as has been shown 
 above, that monopoly charges, as well as taxation, wherever 
 they exist, are included in costs of production, together with 
 the ordinary elements. 
 
EQUILIBRIUM OF DEMAND AND SUPPLY. 199 
 
 as compared to the demand, the price rising in con- 
 sequence above the cost of production, producers 
 are encouraged by an increase of profits to en- 
 large their business, and invest adclitional capital 
 and labour in that particular trade, until the in- 
 creased supply meets the demand, and brings down 
 the price to the level of the producing cost. 
 
 These oscillations of price about the mean level 
 of the costs of production are continually taking 
 place ; the circumstances which influence supply 
 and demand being of so complicated a character 
 that the one can never for a length of time remain 
 exactly adjusted to the other. The producers can 
 never anticipate with precision the extent of the 
 demand, and will therefore usually be something 
 within or beyond it. Moreover, as we have 
 seen, supply and demand act and re-act on each 
 other. An increased supply by lowering price 
 not only tempts those that employed the article 
 previously to enlarge their consumption, but like- 
 wise brings it within reach of a wider circle of 
 consumers, who acquire a taste for it which usually 
 continues even when the price has again risen. 
 Hence a permanent increase of demand is gene- 
 rally established by a temporary fall of price. An 
 increased demand by augmenting profits attracts 
 fresh speculators into the business, and in turn 
 raises the supply. 
 
 The competition of individual producers is in this 
 way constantly tending to equalize the supply and 
 demand. Each acting in his own sphere, actuated 
 by the instinct of self-interest alone, endeavours 
 to produce as much as he can sell with a fair 
 profit, and yet to produce no more than he can so 
 
200 MONOPOLY V. COMPETITION. 
 
 dispose of : each and all endeavour, for their se- 
 veral interests, to keep the supply full, but to 
 prevent excess. 
 
 Competition is, indeed, the soul of industry, the 
 animating spirit of production, the ever-present, 
 all-pervading elastic principle, which, like the 
 power of gravitation on the atmosphere and ocean, 
 fills every vacuum in the market of exchanges, 
 equalizes the quantity of every commodity to the 
 necessity for it and preserves their relative values 
 at the mean level of their comparative estimation 
 in the regard of the great body of consumers. 
 Every one who sees his neighbour getting an ad- 
 vantage which lies open to himself a higher profit 
 or a larger wage anxious to share in the benefit, 
 starts as his rival, if it be possible for him to do so ; 
 that is to say, where no monopoly interferes to pre- 
 vent him ; and the number of competitors who 
 thus throw themselves into any peculiarly advan- 
 tageous business, must speedily reduce its profits 
 to the general level, and its prices to the neces- 
 sary costs of production. 
 
 Monopoly and competition are antagonist prin- 
 ciples, working constantly against each other, but 
 in such a way as to benefit society by the result 
 of their joint forces. The object of the mono- 
 polist is to limit the supply, in order to raise the 
 price. The struggle of competitors to share the 
 advantages of the monopolist tends to increase the 
 supply, and therefore lowers price. The first prin- 
 ciple befriends the public by holding out high en- 
 couragement to invention, skill, and improvement ; 
 the other, by reducing the price the public have to 
 pay for improvements to the lowest point consistent 
 
DIFFERENT INVESTMENTS OF CAPITAL. 20T 
 
 with the continuance of a sufficient encouragement 
 to their invention. 
 
 The mode in which the principles we have been 
 analyzing determine the direction and extent of 
 productive operations will be seen, perhaps, with 
 greater clearness, if we examine briefly some of 
 the simplest habitual modes of employing capital 
 and labour. 
 
 Suppose A. to possess property of the value of a 
 thousand pounds. 
 
 1. If he realize, that is, sell it for a thousand 
 pounds in money, it is then in that form which 
 combines, perhaps, the greatest security and con- 
 venience, as enabling him to make whatever use 
 he pleases of it, to remove with it to any part of 
 the world, to expend it on his own gratification, 
 or to employ it in any productive investment 
 which offers at the moment the highest advan- 
 tages. But so long as he retains it in the shape 
 of money in his pocket or his chest, it is of no 
 other advantage to him than what he may derive 
 from a feeling of its security, and of his power of 
 commanding through its means any thing in the 
 market up to that value. If he wish to make a 
 profit of his money, as a source of revenue, he 
 must change its mode of investment. 
 
 2. He may, for example, lend it to some one 
 who is in want of money, on securities of a pri- 
 vate nature, such as bills, bonds, mortgages of 
 land or buildings, &c., or of a public nature, 
 as Government, East India, or Bank stock, canal 
 and company shares, &c. The latter class of 
 securities are readily available ; that is to say, 
 
202 HONIED SECURITIES. 
 
 the owner may realize or turn them again into 
 money whenever he chooses; but they fluctuate 
 in value, and may sell therefore for more or 
 less than was given for them. All bear the cur- 
 rent interest on money, with a difference deter- 
 mined chiefly by the more or less of risk attached 
 to each, and the more or less of trouble and ex- 
 pense attending their transfer. 
 
 These monied investments are all mere debts, 
 or claims representing money expended (often 
 unproductively), but for which some productive 
 property stands pledged. They may, therefore, 
 be considered as part-ownerships in the property 
 so burdened. Some, as mortgages and government 
 stock, have a priority of claim for a definite return 
 to that of all other owners. Some, as canal and 
 company shares, bank and East India stock, are sub- 
 ject to similar fluctuations in value, through causes 
 affecting the returns of these respective specula- 
 tions, as the capital embarked in private concerns. 
 
 Property of this kind, consisting in money obli- 
 gations, is clearly quite distinct from capital, though 
 it is frequently confounded with it in common con- 
 versation. It brings interest to the owner, but is not 
 productive as regards the community generally. It 
 merely represents the claim of one party to a 
 portion of the returns of the land, capital, or 
 labour of some others. If these claims were 
 reckoned in a calculation of the national capital, 
 they would be counted twice over ; once in the 
 hands of those who pay the interest of the debt 
 with which their capital is burdened, and again 
 in the hands of the creditor who receives that 
 interest. The national debt, for example, is not 
 
PRODUCTIVE INVESTMENTS. 203 
 
 capital ; but rather the reverse. It is a burden 
 upon the capital and industry of the nation, which 
 are pledged for its payment. If the national 
 debt and all other money securities were abolished 
 to-morrow, there would be neither more nor less 
 of capital in the country than before. But the 
 profits of capital and the wages of labour would 
 be raised by the annihilation of a prior claim 
 upon the aggregate produce to that of the pro- 
 ducers themselves. At the same time, the in- 
 justice of such a * sponging ' process is manifest. 
 The creditors have given, and the debtors have 
 received, expended, and profited from, what both 
 parties considered an equivalent to the claim. 
 The former may be looked upon as * sleeping 
 partners ' in the business, which the latter are 
 enabled to carry on by means of the advances of 
 capital or other necessary aid, which have been 
 made to them. And the right, therefore, of the 
 national (or any other) creditor to his stipulated 
 share of the national produce, is as strong, and 
 rests on the same grounds of equity, as that of 
 the landowner, the capitalist, and the labourer, to 
 their stipulated portions of whatever they have 
 voluntarily combined to produce. 
 
 3. But instead of monied securities, A. may 
 prefer to invest his thousand pounds in some pro- 
 ductive business; in supplying or aiding the supply 
 of some market with goods. He may do this as a 
 ' sleeping partner ;' in which case he will expect 
 only to make a profit on his capital little greater 
 than the current interest of money, after allowing 
 for all the risks to which the business in which it 
 is embarked is exposed. Or he may engage per- 
 
204 MERCANTILE INVESTMENTS. ' 
 
 sonally in the business ; in which case, besides this 
 profit on his capital, he will expect to gain a re- 
 muneration for his labour. Perhaps he will 
 speculate, as it is called, in goods buying one 
 day, when he considers prices are low and likely to 
 rise, to sell again after an interval, or, as a 
 wholesale dealer, he will purchase of the grower, 
 or manufacturer, or importer of an article, and 
 sell to the retail dealers, or, as a retail dealer 
 purchasing of the wholesale dealer, he will sell to 
 the consumers in such quantities as are required 
 for immediate use. In every case he acts with a 
 view to profit by selling for more money than he 
 gives ; and this profit must, on the average, be 
 sufficient to pay him interest on his capital during 
 the time it is employed ; to repay, moreover, his 
 personal trouble and skill, as well as all expenses 
 incurred between the purchase and sale as car- 
 riage, shop and warehouse rent, taxes, &c. ; and 
 likewise to cover the risk which he takes upon 
 himself of damage to his goods while they remain 
 with him, and of a fall in the market-prices. It 
 is evident, that, to cover all these items, a very 
 considerable per centage of gross annual profit 
 on his capital must usually be necessary. In such 
 engagements, however, the capital is seldom long 
 in being realized, or turned again into money. 
 Most capitalists of this class, which comprehends 
 all merchants, wholesale dealers, and shopkeepers, 
 turn their capitals more than once often several 
 times, in the year. So that, as already remarked, 
 a small profit on the price of each article sold 
 may afford a very large annual profit on the capital 
 employed. 
 
PERSONAL AND LANDED INVESTMENTS. 205 
 
 4. Perhaps it may suit the views of A to expend 
 his capital in the acquisition of the skill and 
 knowledge, or ability, requisite for some pro- 
 fessional business ; in studying the law, for in- 
 stance, or medicine, or surgery, or divinity, or 
 commerce, and fitting himself for the practice of 
 one of these professions. Or he may purchase a 
 commission in the army. These are modes of in- 
 vesting capital subject to much risk not the 
 least of which is that of death or sickness, by 
 which the value of the acquired ability may be 
 annihilated at once. But in proportion to the 
 number of blanks is the greatness of the prizes, 
 so that there is never any want of competition in 
 such occupations. Capital so expended in the 
 acquisition of personal qualifications or advan- 
 tages, loses its name, and assumes that of ability. 
 Its returns can no longer be properly called profit, 
 but wages, salary, or professional gains. 
 
 5. Or A. may prefer to invest his thousand 
 pounds in the purchase of land. This is gene- 
 rally reckoned the most permanent and secure of 
 all investments, as being less exposed to loss by 
 commercial or political convulsions; and it con- 
 sequently returns, on the average, a less interest 
 than any other. But it has its disadvantages, par- 
 ticularly in the high stamp duties imposed in this 
 country on deeds of sale, mortgage, &c. which 
 are partly compensated, though in a most awkward, 
 manner, by the exemption of landed property 
 from the probate duty. There is likewise much 
 difficulty in finding a purchaser for land at any 
 time when its owner wishes to sell, owing to the 
 variety of tastes respecting situation, residence, &c. 
 
206 FARMING INVESTMENTS. 
 
 The growing burthen of poor-rates, and its fluc- 
 tuating character, is another disadvantage, which, 
 of late years more especially, has attached itself 
 to landed investments. 
 
 When A. has purchased land, he may either let 
 it to those who will pay him, in the shape of rent, 
 the interest on the capital he has so invested ; or 
 he may cultivate it himself, for which purpose he 
 will require an additional capital. 
 
 6. Let us suppose that, instead of purchasing, 
 he employs his capital in cultivating, or as it is 
 called, 'farming' land. For this he must lay out 
 a part in the purchase of tools and implements 
 of husbandry, called dead stock, part in cattle, 
 sheep, pigs, horses, &c., or live stock; and part 
 he will keep by him in the shape of money, with 
 which to pay the wages of his labourers and other 
 current expenses. He now looks for his profit 
 and personal remuneration to the surplus of the 
 sum for which he sells the annual produce of his 
 farm, beyond what is necessary to pay his rent, 
 and maintain his capital at its full former value ; 
 in other words, to compensate for the wear and 
 tear of his dead, and to replace his live stock, and, 
 moreover, to cover his average risk of loss from 
 casualties, bad seasons, &c. His rent will be a 
 matter of agreement between himself and the 
 landlord, before he enters on his occupation. But 
 he will not be likely to agree to pay more than 
 what will, according to the best calculation he can 
 make at the time, of the probable produce of the 
 farm, leave him a decent maintenance in return 
 for his own exertions, and a net profit on his ca- 
 pital equal to the ordinary rate which he could- 
 
FARMING CAPITAL. 207 
 
 Iiave obtained in other lines of business, or nionied 
 investments. Nor, on the other hand, is the 
 owner of the farm likely to let it for less than such 
 a rent, which it is evident he could make for him- 
 self by cultivating it on his own account, either 
 personally, or through an honest agent or bailiff. 
 For these reasons, the average rent of land equals, 
 and may be said to consist of, that surplus of its 
 average annual produce which remains after re- 
 placing the capital required to cultivate it, and 
 paying the current profit upon that capital, and 
 the current remuneration of farming labour. 
 
 If A. rent his farm at the will of his landlord, 
 i. e., from year to year, he will usually take care 
 to expend no more upon his land every year than 
 what he can get off it within the year. But if he 
 rent on a lease for a term of years, or occupy his 
 own land, or, in some rare cases of confidence 
 in his landlord, even when occupying as tenant at 
 will only he will probably lay out some of his 
 capital in durable improvements of his farm ; for 
 example, in draining wet lands, clearing fresh 
 soil, adding to the farm-buildings, or such a system 
 of manuring and cultivation as can only be ex- 
 pected to repay the outlay within a period of some 
 years. 
 
 That part of his capital which he expends in 
 this manner, is fixed to the soil, and cannot, like 
 his moveable stock, live and dead, be realized by 
 sale. He can only expect to get it back by de- 
 grees, in the form of an increased annual produce 
 from his farm ; which increase, if the improve- 
 ment be of a permanent nature, assumes thence- 
 forward the character of rent, and upon the 
 
208 FARMING CAPITAL. 
 
 termination of the lease accrues to the landlord in 
 an increase of his rent. If the improvement is 
 fitted only to last a certain term of years, as the 
 lime-manuring of land, temporary farm-buildings, 
 and improved rotations of crops, the increased 
 return must be sufficient to replace the capital 
 expended at the end of the term, and pay the 
 usual profit, or the farmer will not be induced to 
 lay out his capital in effecting it. Capital ex- 
 pended in the latter way, is precisely on the 
 footing of that laid out in perishable implements, 
 or dead stock, except in the circumstance of its 
 not being removeable. And a hundred pounds 
 laid out in implements which may be expected to 
 last ten years, ought to bring in the same gross 
 return as a hundred pounds laid out in manuring 
 a field in a mode of which the effect may be ex- 
 pected to last the same time. 
 
 It is clear that lasting improvements on land 
 cannot be expected from farmers who have no 
 leases ; and hence where tenancy at will prevails, 
 as it does at present over the greater part of Eng- 
 land, the repairs as well as all permanent improve- 
 ments have to be undertaken by the landlord, 
 if at all. It is more than doubtful whether, under 
 such a system, the land is cultivated so well, 
 or rendered so productive, as under a system of 
 leases. But the uncertain prices of late years 
 have naturally indisposed landlords to put their 
 land out of their own disposal for a long term; 
 during which, if prices rise, the tenant reaps the 
 entire benefit whereas if they fall, the land- 
 lord finds himself obliged to remit the stipulated 
 rent, lest his tenant ruin his farm by a deficiency 
 
MANUFACTURING INVESTMENTS. 209 
 
 of capital for its proper cultivation. Hence leases, 
 in times of great fluctuation in the prices of agri- 
 cultural produce, are a protection to the tenant, but 
 not to the landlord. Why prices have fluctuated 
 so injuriously, and how they may be steadied, is a 
 question to which we shall recur hereafter. 
 
 7. Should A. prefer the business of a manu- 
 facturer, he, perhaps, lays out a part of his 
 capital in buildings and machinery, fixed, more 02 
 less, to the soil, like some of those in the case 
 last considered. Another part of his capital is 
 employed in the occasional purchase of raw ma- 
 terial, tools, &c., and another in the frequent pay- 
 ment of the wages of his workmen. Or he may 
 rent the buildings, machinery, &c., and employ 
 his whole capital in the latter forms. His returns 
 must in this case, as in that of the farmer, be suffi- 
 cient, besides recompensing his own trouble and 
 skill, to replace his floating capital that, namely, 
 (as already explained,) which circulates within the 
 year with the ordinary rate of profit ; to replace his 
 fixed or more durable capital at the end of the 
 term which it is calculated to last, with the same 
 profit ; and moreover to cover all the risks pecu- 
 liar to the business, such as that of the article he 
 fabricates being superseded by a change in the 
 taste, and consequently in the demand, of the public 
 or the machinery he employs by a new and su- 
 perior invention. The risks of these kinds at- 
 tached to manufacturing operations are (for rea- 
 sons we have, in part, already given) much greater 
 than in agriculture ; and hence the compensation 
 or insurance against such risks must be propor- 
 tionately large. It has not been uncommon, of 
 
 p 
 
210 MINING AND SHIPPING INVESTMENTS. 
 
 late, for buildings and machinery, on which thou- 
 sands of pounds had been expended, to fall in 
 value in a very brief period, through changes in 
 the demand of the market, the introduction of 
 improved machinery,* or a general depression of 
 trade to little or nothing. In times of depres- 
 sion, indeed, (such as we have seen but too often, 
 and may be said hardly yet to have emerged 
 from,) it is not uncommon for manufacturers, 
 rather than shut up their factories or works (which 
 would in that state rapidly go to decay), and give 
 up business, to renounce the idea of getting any 
 return from their fixed capital, and to work on, 
 even under a loss upon their floating capital, in 
 hopes of better times arriving to repay them for 
 the sacrifice, by once more giving them a Tair 
 profit on their entire concern. 
 
 8. Persons who embark their capital in working 
 mines, in building houses or ships, and in a variety 
 of other productive investments, are circumstanced, 
 in all essential points, like the farmer or manu- 
 
 * { Machinery for producing any commodity in great de- 
 mand seldom wears out ; new improvements, by which the 
 same operations can be executed either more quickly cr 
 better, generally superseding it long before that period ar- 
 rives : indeed, to make such an improved machine profitable, 
 it is usually reckoned that in five years it ought to have 
 paid itself, and in ten to be superseded by a better.' ' The 
 improvement which took place not long ago in frames for 
 making patent net was so great, that a machine in good 
 repair, which cost 1200/., sold a few years after for 60/. 
 During the great speculations in that trade, the improve- 
 ments succeeded each other so rapidly, that machines which 
 had never been finished were abandoned in the hands of 
 their makers, because new improvements had superseded 
 their utility.' Babbage, Economy of Manufactures, p, 233. 
 
CONDITION OF ALL INVESTMENTS. 211 
 
 facturer just described. A part of this capital is 
 fixed in more or less durable objects, and ought 
 to bring in a sufficient annual return to replace the 
 wear and tear, and maintain the value of the ca- 
 pital ; part is floating, or circulating within the 
 year, in the purchase of materials and stocks of 
 goods, and the payment of wages, taxes, rent, &c. 
 None of these different modes of employing 
 capital, it is quite evident, would be undertaken, 
 if they did not hold out a fair expectation of such 
 returns as will both pay the ordinary rate of profit 
 upon the whole capital employed for the time re- 
 quired for its circulation, and enable its owner 
 to replace it at the end of that term, as well as 
 remunerate him for his skill and trouble, according 
 to the standard of remuneration generally ex- 
 pected by his class. No business would be entered 
 upon that did not fairly promise this. And, there- 
 fore, for a market to be habitually supplied with 
 any commodity, the necessary condition is that it 
 sell, on an average, for a sufficient price to repay 
 these, the elementary costs of its production. 
 
 When the supply of any goods in any market 
 is in excess over the demand, so as to reduce their 
 selling price below the elementary costs of pro- 
 duction, there is said to be a glut of them. This 
 glut may be partial, as when confined to one mar- 
 ket ; in which the evil soon cures itself by a 
 transfer of the goods to other markets, where the 
 demand is brisker. Or it may be general, with 
 respect to the markets, but confined to a single 
 article. This, likewise, is for the most part 
 speedily corrected., by a portion of the producers 
 
212 GLUTS PARTIAL AND GENERAL. 
 
 transferring their labour and capital to some other 
 more profitable occupation. 
 
 But can there be a general and simultaneous 
 glut in all the markets of a country, not of one 
 or a few articles only, but of a large majority, or 
 the great mass of commodities ? This is a ques- 
 tion which has been much and hotly disputed by 
 political economists. That goods of all kinds are 
 frequently sold below their prime cost, is but too 
 well known to commercial men. Forced sales, 
 caused by the bankruptcy or temporary embar- 
 rassment of the owners requiring them to be in- 
 stantly turned into money at any sacrifice, are 
 continually occurring ; and a certain proportion 
 of goods thus constantly find their way into the 
 consumer's hands at less than cost price. In times 
 of general embarrassment and of a scarcity of 
 money in circulation, (such as we have witnessed 
 almost periodically for some years past,) still larger 
 quantities of goods continue to be produced and 
 sold for some time at a continual loss to their pro- 
 ducers. This is chiefly owing to two circum- 
 stances : 1st. The impossibility of realizing fixed 
 capital at such times, so that those who have a 
 large proportion of their property embarked in 
 buildings, machinery, stock, or implements, must 
 continue to employ it in production, though at a 
 tremendous loss, rather than let their fixed capital 
 lay wholly idle, and their buildings, machinery, 
 &c., go to decay for want of use and repairs. 
 2nd. The very distress caused by a want of re- 
 munerative prices in some trades tends to increase 
 their production. Workmen, in consequence of 
 the fall in their wages by the piece, work the 
 
NATURAL CURE OF GLUTS. 213 
 
 harder in order to obtain a higher pay by the day. 
 And capitalists, likewise, in their struggles to 
 avoid ruin, try to make up for diminished profits 
 by increased sales*. 
 
 All this increase of production, by adding to the 
 glut, tends to cause a yet further fall in prices, 
 and to occasion further losses to the producers. 
 But in the economical, as in the moral and physical 
 worlds, there are few evils that do not sooner or 
 later work out their own cure. Even in the appa- 
 rently desperate state of things we have been de- 
 scribing, there are elements in operation of a 
 nature to bring about an improvement. The ex- 
 traordinary cheapness of goods produced in in- 
 creased quantities at a continual loss, opens their 
 consumption to a lower and more numerous class 
 of purchasers. They make their way into new 
 markets, and are employed in substitution for 
 other goods, or for purposes to which they had 
 not previously been applied. A new and enlarged 
 demand thus springs up : and in the mean time, 
 the anxiety of the producers to diminish their ex- 
 penses forces them to task their ingenuity to the 
 
 * Mr. T. Attwood, in his Examination before the Com- 
 mittee of Secrecy on the Bank Charter question in 1 831, says, 
 " Nothing is more common than for manufacturers to in- 
 crease their establishments at the very time they are upon 
 the road to ruin. In the iron trade, for example, if they 
 have two furnaces they will build a third, because the loss 
 upon the two furnaces is 10*. a ton, but upon the three, it 
 will be reduced to 5s. a ton. Within the last five or six 
 months, when the iron masters and manufacturers generally 
 are all going to ruin, and in a state I do not like to describe, 
 they are, many of them, enlarging their works, not to par- 
 take of profit, but to prolong the path to ruin, by dimi- 
 nishing their general charges." 5654-5. 
 
214 GENERAL GLUT OF GOODS 
 
 utmost, in the invention of new machines or pro- 
 cesses, by which a saving of cost may be effected ; 
 so that it often happens by the time a new and 
 enlarged demand has been established through the 
 sacrifice of large stocks of goods at losing prices, 
 that the producers find themselves enabled to 
 supply this demand at these same prices, with a 
 profit. We believe the history of the silk, the 
 iron, the glove, and the cotton-trade, and perhaps 
 of many more, within the last few years, affords 
 decided instances of an extended beneficial demand 
 having been thus bought by temporary sacrifices. 
 
 It is, however, strongly to be suspected that 
 such epochs of general embarrassment and distress 
 among the productive classes, accompanied " 
 indeed, brought on by a general glut or apparent 
 excess of the stocks of all goods in every market, 
 phenomena of which sad experience has of late 
 too frequently attested the real existence, in spite 
 of what theory may urge as to their impossibility 
 it is to be suspected, we say, that such pheno- 
 mena are anomalies, not in the order of events 
 which flow from the simple and natural laws of 
 production, but occasioned by the force of some 
 artificial disturbing cause or other, introduced 
 through the fraud or folly of the rulers of the 
 social communities they so grievously affect. A 
 few words will explain our meaning as far as we 
 think it necessary to proceed in the development 
 of this important principle on the present occasion. 
 
 We have hitherto spoken of price as syno- 
 nimous with value. But in truth, this is only on 
 the faith of the conventional assumption which is 
 the basis of all commercial interchange, that 
 
SUPPOSES A GENERAL WANT OF MONEY. 215 
 
 money is a true measure of value. Unhappily, 
 this assumption is far from well-founded nay, 
 it may be pronounced a pernicious fallacy. Mo 
 ney, whether of intrinsic value, as coin, or the 
 representative only of value, as bank-notes, is, 
 like every other changeable commodity, liable to 
 vary in value with changes in the relation of its 
 demand and supply. Gold and silver money freely 
 coined, must vary in local value with every alter- 
 ation (and they are very frequent) in the local 
 supply and demand of the precious metals. Bank 
 paper payable on demand in coin must vary pre- 
 cisely in value with the metal into which it is by 
 law convertible at the option of its possessor. 
 Inconvertible paper-money will vary whenever the. 
 quantity in circulation is either beyond or within 
 the quantity which is required, at the time, for the 
 exigencies of commerce, in the country through 
 which the paper circulates. And as these exigencies 
 are continually fluctuating, and there exists no test 
 by which their extent can be at any time gauged, 
 this kind of money likewise must be frequently 
 varying in value. 
 
 Bearing in mind this instability of value inherent 
 in money of all kinds, we cannot fail to perceive 
 that a general glut that is, a general fall in the 
 prices of the mass of commodities below their 
 producing cost is tantamount to a rise in the 
 general exchangeable value of money ; and is a 
 proof, not of an excessive supply of goods, but of 
 a deficient supply of money, against which the 
 goods have to be exchanged. Suppose every ar- 
 ticle in the market to have fallen in price fifty 
 percent. This is no proof that any one article 
 
21 G FAULTY MONETARY SYSTEM. 
 
 has fallen in value that is, in general estimation 
 as compared with the rest. Still less is it any 
 proof that there has been an over-production of 
 all goods (which is in fact an unintelligible pro- 
 position, for how can there be too great an 
 abundance of all good things? Can the desires * 
 of man ever be sated ?) It is simply a proof that 
 the value of money has risen one hundred per cent. 
 
 But money, being employed as the measure 
 of value, ought essentially to be invariable itself 
 in value. Lamentable, therefore, is the ignorance 
 and neglect of those governments, which, while 
 enforcing the employment of money of any kind 
 as a medium of exchange, take no precautions 
 against its liability to vary in value, and permit such 
 variations to derange the whole course of trade, 
 to vitiate all money contracts, and convert, as we 
 have witnessed in late years, the triumphs of in- 
 vention, the success of industry the very abun- 
 dance of produce of every description, into a 
 source of suffering to every class of producers ! 
 
 It is unpardonable mismanagement only of this 
 kind that can so far invert the natural character of 
 things, and give rise to so paradoxical a pheno- 
 menon as universal over-production. Of such 
 mismanagement we shall have examples to offer 
 at a later period, as well as propositions for its 
 correction. Meantime we proceed to examine 
 the nature of the existing arrangements for the 
 distribution of wealth. 
 
 
217 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 DISTRIBUTION OF WEALTH. 
 
 Natural and necessary inequality of Conditions and Pro- 
 perty. Adventitious advantages. Natural Right of Suc- 
 cession to Property by Will or Inheritance. Variety of 
 conventional Rules. Test of their Equity. Natural Dis- 
 tribution of new JVealih among Labourers, Land-owners, 
 and Capitalists Can be determined only by the principle 
 of free Exchange. The same principle tends to the greatest 
 increase of distributable Produce. Limitation of inter- 
 ference of Government to the securing of Persons and 
 Property. 
 
 IN as far as we have hitherto traced the natural 
 laws which determine the production of wealth, it 
 has, we think, been apparent throughout that the 
 conditions most favourable for its increase are the 
 free and secure enjoyment by every adult indivi- 
 dual of his personal liberty, natural advantages, 
 and acquired property, conditions which neces- 
 sarily include freedom of industry and exchange, 
 and the free use of the spontaneous bounty of 
 Heaven. 
 
 There would have been good reason for pre- 
 suming a priori that the general rules which 
 tend to bring about the greatest aggregate of pro- 
 duction are the most favourable to the interest of 
 all consumers. For the more there is to divide, 
 the larger, it is probable, will be the share of 
 each. 
 
218 NATURAL PRINCIPLES OF DISTRIBUTION. 
 
 But we are not left on this point to a mere 
 balancing of probabilities.- For it may be made 
 palpably manifest that these great and abiding 
 principles, at the same time that they swell the 
 amount of wealth, tend likewise to distribute it 
 in the most equitable manner among the various 
 classes of individuals who have in any way co- 
 operated in its production. The latter tendency 
 is, indeed, the condition and cause of the former. 
 The certainty of freely and fully enjoying the fruits 
 of productive labour and ingenuity is the most 
 efficient stimulus to the exertion of these powers 
 and the increase of their results. It is the main 
 object of this work to prove, that the greatest 
 aggregate production of wealth flows from the 
 same plain and simple principles of natural right 
 which ensure its most equitable distribution, and 
 tend at the same time to the production of the 
 greatest aggregate of human happiness.* 
 
 We say the most equitable distribution. Great 
 was the mistake of those philanthropists who have 
 interpreted an equitable distribution of the good 
 things of life to mean their equal distribution. No 
 
 * This is in no degree inconsistent with what was urged 
 in an earlier chapter (p. 53), as to an increase of wealth 
 being no measure of the increase of happiness. Wealth 
 may for a time be increased at a great sacrifice of human 
 happiness, as in the instances we there gave, though, in the 
 long run, such sacrifices will be found to have occasioned a 
 diminution of the aggregate productiveness, by checking 
 the growth of population, and the improvement of the arts 
 and sciences, which require a condition of ease, leisure, and 
 plenty, freedom both of the physical and mental faculties, 
 the stimulus of hope, and the prospect of an indefinite ame- 
 lioration of our circumstances, for their full development. 
 
NATURAL INEQUALITY OF CONDITIONS. 219 
 
 two conditions can be more incongruous than these. 
 Any attempt to effect an equality of property 
 among men, instead of approaching to equity, 
 would involve the extreme of injustice ; instead 
 of being consonant to the law oif nature, such a 
 state could only be maintained by the continual 
 infraction of the law of nature. 
 
 The difference naturally existing between the 
 bodily and mental powers and dispositions of 
 individuals must necessarily, under the natural 
 law of production and distribution, create great 
 inequality in their several possessions and stations. 
 However equal their position when they began the 
 world, the industrious, sharp-witted, intelligent, 
 active, energetic, ingenious, prudent, and frugal, 
 must speedily leave behind the idle, slow, stupid, 
 careless, improvident and extravagant. The former 
 will acquire considerable property under the same 
 circumstances in which the latter will scarcely 
 perhaps procure a maintenance. But any attempt 
 to counteract this the natural law of distribution,, 
 which awards to each workman the produce of 
 his own exertions, must proportionately check the 
 disposition of each to avail himself of his natural 
 capacity, or to acquire additional powers, and would 
 therefore, be no less impolitic than unjust. 
 
 Accidental circumstances add, no doubt, to this- 
 natural and necessary inequality of conditions. 
 Yet would it not be safe or right to interfere with 
 their influence; since it is almost impossible to 
 separate the advantages that an individual derives 
 by accident from 'those which are the consequence 
 of foresight and enterprise. A man's property 
 may certainly be improved by accident; as for 
 
220 ACCIDENTAL CAUSES OF INEQUALITY. 
 
 example, by the discovery of a productive vein of 
 metal or coal, or a valuable quarry on his estate. 
 But who is to determine whether his discovery 
 was not in a great degree, perhaps wholly, the 
 result of laborious study and research ? Were the 
 right of property denied, or interfered with, in 
 such things as appeared to derive a value from 
 accident, it is obvious that much of the ingenuity 
 and inquisitiveness of research which is one of the 
 main springs of economical improvement, would 
 be deadened by the uncertainty of obtaining its 
 just reward. 
 
 It has been proposed as an exceedingly just 
 mode of raising a national revenue that the rent 
 of land should be directly taxed ; or, at least, that 
 portion of rent which is the result of accidents of 
 position. The same objection (and it is a very 
 strong one) applies to this proposal. It is very 
 true that the value of a landed estate sometimes 
 rises enormously without any exertions on the part 
 of its proprietor, but in consequence either of its 
 fortuitous proximity to a flourishing manufacturing 
 or commercial town, of a new canal or rail-road 
 being carried through it, or of its soil or situa- 
 tion being found peculiarly adapted to the growth 
 of some valuable products. The high land-rents 
 of the Grosvenor and Portman metropolitan es- 
 tates may be adduced as instancing an increase of 
 the first kind; many estates of the midland manu- 
 facturing districts will afford examples of the 
 second; and some of the hop- grounds of the 
 southern counties of the third. But is it certain 
 that the proprietor of land under such circum- 
 stances is wholly passive, and takes no part in 
 
INHERITANCE AND SUCCESSION. 221 
 
 promoting and encouraging the improvement 
 which is likely to confer on him so special a 
 benefit? We do not dispute that, in the case of 
 growing towns, it is the duty of every government, 
 acting for the interests of the public, to make an 
 early and sufficient reservation of tracts of land in 
 their immediate neighbourhood, to be applied to 
 purposes of public health and convenience. But 
 further interference, even in such an extreme case, 
 would probably be deleterious. In the improve- 
 ment and extension of towns, in the construction 
 of new canals, rail-roads, and turnpike roads, it is 
 usual to see the proprietors of land whose interests 
 are likely to be advanced by such measures, take 
 a very prominent part; and any tax upon the 
 increased rents derived from such general improve- 
 ments would be certain to delay and discourage 
 their execution. 
 
 Of the causes of inequality in the economical 
 condition of men there are none more strikingly 
 obvious, or more frequently declaimed against as 
 artificial and unjust, than the laws of inheritance 
 and succession to property. 
 
 In speaking of the natural right to property as 
 founded solely on the labour by which it is appro- 
 priated, we purposely deferred the consideration of 
 the question as to the devolution of the right on the 
 decease of the individual labourer. It would 
 clearly be quite contrary to the interests of society 
 that property on the death of its owner should 
 cease to belong to any one; since this could not 
 fail to renew all the dangerous personal struggles 
 and ceaseless contentions which it is the great 
 object of all the primary institutions of society to 
 
222 TESTAMENTARY DISPOSITIONS. 
 
 prevent. It is equally evident that since the per- 
 fect and complete ownership of property, neces- 
 sary, as we have seen, to stimulate its production, 
 includes the power of freely disposing of it by sale, 
 loan, or gift, in any manner the owner pleases, it 
 must in reason include the power of disposing of 
 it after death. For a denial of that power, or any 
 serious restraint upon it, would be easily evaded by 
 disposing of the property by gift, or sale, during 
 life, instead of by testamentary bequest. The 
 liberty to appoint a successor to property after 
 death is, therefore, part and parcel of the natural 
 right to its ownership and free disposal, and 
 cannot be reasonably or safely separated from it. 
 That it has ever been so considered by the unpre- 
 judiced sentiments of mankind is shown by the 
 almost universal prevalence through every age 
 and nation, of a law or custom, giving a dying 
 person the power of disposing of his property 
 by will. 
 
 In the absence of testamentary disposition, the 
 natural rule is clearly inheritance ; that is to say, 
 that the property devolve on the children, or, in 
 default, on the nearest relatives of the deceased 
 owner, upon the reasonable presumption that, if 
 he had not neglected to make a will, or been pip- 
 vented from doing so by casualty, he would have 
 disposed of his property in that manner.* The 
 
 * Blackstone calls ' the permanent right to property,' as 
 well as that of children to the inheritance of their parents, 
 ' not a natural but a civil right.' His learned commentator, 
 Professor Christian, justly corrects this very obvious error. 
 * The notion,' he says, ' of property is universal, and is sug- 
 gested to the mind of man by reason and nature, prior to 
 
LAWS OF INHERITANCE. 223 
 
 necessity is very obvious, that the rules of inherits 
 ance or succession should be strictly laid down 
 by law in order to prevent that confusion which 
 any doubt as to its ownership must occasion. 
 
 The rules established on this ground in different 
 countries have varied greatly ; and all these vari- 
 eties cannot be equally accordant with natural 
 right, that is, with the permanent interests of 
 society. Some indeed are manifestly impolitic, 
 from interfering too much with the natural laws 
 of distribution, and that free disposal of the pro- 
 ducts of industry which is so essential to its encou? 
 ragement. Others err in the opposite sense, by 
 permitting the owner of landed property to deter- 
 mine its devolution not merely to a single imme- 
 diate successor, but to an endless succession, 
 through continued generations.* To confer such 
 a power on any individual is evidently unjusti- 
 fiable. Property, landed property especially, re- 
 quires continual protection, repairs, and expensive 
 management. The land-owner who, during a long 
 
 all positive institutions. If the laws of the land were sus- 
 pended, we should be under the same moral obligation to 
 refrain from invading each other's property, as from attack- 
 ing each other's persons.' Again, ' the affection of parents 
 towards their children is the most powerful and universal 
 principle which nature has implanted in the human breast; 
 and it cannot be conceived, even in the savage state, that 
 any one is so destitute of affection and of reason as not to 
 revolt at the position that a stranger has as good a right as 
 his children to the property of a deceased parent. Hceredes 
 successoresque sui liberi, seems not to have been confined to 
 the woods of Germany, but to be one of the first laws of the 
 code of Nature?' Blackstone, vol. ii. p. 11. 
 
 * The law of France may be instanced, perhaps, as an 
 example of the first error, that of Scotland of the last. 
 
224 ENTAILS LIMITATION OF. 
 
 occupation, has, at much pains and cost to himself, 
 preserved or increased the value of his estate, has 
 earned as equitable a right to dispose of it at his 
 death as any of its former possessors, even as he 
 who may have originally rescued it from a state of 
 waste. To deny him this power is to lessen his 
 interest in doing justice to his property. It is, in 
 fact, acting in opposition to the very principle 
 which alone sanctions the establishment of any 
 right at all to property in land, the expediency 
 of encouraging its improvement. There are many 
 other strong grounds of objection, political and 
 moral, both to endless entails, perhaps to any 
 kind of entail, as well as to the determination by 
 law of the right of succession ; but we forbear to 
 dwell on them, as likely to lead us too far from our 
 subject. It is sufficient to have shown that their 
 tendency is destructive of the very principle on 
 which the right to property in land is founded. 
 The true course which legislation should endea- 
 vour to steer is such as will afford to individuals 
 a sufficient power of disposition over their property 
 as may encourage them to preserve and improve 
 it, and at the same time prevent the tying up in 
 mortmain of large properties, and the excessive 
 accumulation of landed estates in few hands. 
 
 It is clear, from what has been said on this point, 
 that the mode in which wealth distributes itself by 
 the free operation of the natural laws of produc- 
 tion necessarily occasions great inequalities of 
 property and position among the members of 
 every society. Under this natural system of dis- 
 tribution, which will be that of all just and wise 
 legislation, some may possess wealth beyond 
 
NATURAL DISTRIBUTION OF WEALTH. 225 
 
 what their own exertions have produced, and 
 which has devolved to them by gift or bequest ; 
 but all who have contributed to the production of 
 new wealth will be confirmed in the enjoyment and 
 free disposal of whatever they have created. 
 
 Let us take a rapid survey of the different chan- 
 nels into which all newly created wealth will spon- 
 taneously distribute itself. 
 
 There are, as has been shown, but three elemen- 
 tary sources of wealth labour, land, and capital; 
 and these, in an advanced stage of society, are gene- 
 rally owned by more or less distinct parties : whence 
 it becomes convenient, and is usual, to divide the 
 general body of those who co-operate in production 
 and share its results into three principal classes ; 
 namely, labourers, landowners, and capitalists. 
 Between these parties, their joint produce naturally 
 divides itself in the manner and according to the 
 laws we have already in part noticed, under the 
 name of the wages of labour, the rent of land, and 
 the profit of capital ; and the share of each class 
 constitutes its income or revenue. 
 
 This general classification is useful, as facilitat- 
 ing the analysis of the phenomena of society. It 
 is obvious, however, that the three classes are by 
 no means nicely distinguishable. On the contrary, 
 there are many individuals who partake, more or 
 less, of two, and some of all three, characters. 
 The labourer, for instance, in this and some other 
 countries, is occasionally the owner of the land he 
 cultivates, as well as of the tools, live stock, and 
 other small capital with which his labour is aided. 
 In this case, his wages, profit, and rent will be 
 mixed together so as to be indistinguishable. Few 
 
 Q 
 
226 SPONTANEOUS DIVISION 
 
 labourers, in any country, are without some little 
 capital in the tools of their craft. Again, the 
 owners of considerable capital are, for the most 
 part, labourers. Merchants, manufacturers, whole- 
 sale and retail traders, ship-owners, and land- 
 farmers, personally superintend the employment 
 of their capital ; and the remuneration of their 
 labour, as we have before seen, is vulgarly included 
 in the gross profit of their capital, under the term 
 living profits. A man of superior abilities or ex- 
 perience will often employ his capital in such a way 
 as to bring in twice as large a return as that 
 cleared by his duller neighbour ; and it would be 
 no less difficult than unnecessary to determine 
 whether this is to be reckoned increased profit or 
 wages. 
 
 The class of landowners is, in general, rather 
 more broadly distinguished from the others, in 
 this country at least ; though not a few, as has 
 just been said, cultivate their land by their own 
 skill and industry, as well as with their own 
 capital. Even the great body of wealthy land- 
 owners of this country, though not personally 
 engaged in the business of cultivation, are in the 
 habit of expending much capital on their estates, 
 in erecting and keeping up fences, drains, roads, 
 farm-buildings, &c. ; the cost of which is usually 
 defrayed by the landlord. Capital, however, so 
 expended, as has been already explained, becomes 
 no longer distinguishable from land, and its return 
 merges in rent. 
 
 The proprietors of canal, dock, and joint-stock 
 company shares, as well as all of what are called 
 sleeping partners, from their not being personally 
 
AMONG THE PRODUCING CLASSES. 227 
 
 engaged in business, are pure capitalists; their 
 income being solely derived from the net profit or 
 interest of their capital. 
 
 Mortgagees, annuitants, pensioners, fundhold- 
 ers, and other owners of fixed money incomes, 
 form a class apart from any of the three which we 
 have been considering. They are simply creditors, 
 and can scarcely be called capitalists in any accu- 
 rate classification of the owners of wealth. Their 
 property is not capital until it be realized : it is 
 merely a debt secured by law upon the land, 
 capital, or labour in the ownership of other parties. 
 
 In whatever proportions the several classes of 
 labourers, capitalists, and landowners contribute 
 their quota to the production of wealth, in that 
 proportion have they clearly an equitable title to 
 share in the wealth produced. But by whom and 
 by what rule is it to be determined in what pro- 
 portion any of the parties concerned have contri- 
 buted towards the production of any portion of 
 wealth? No after-analysis, however laboured, 
 could pretend to discover, with any accuracy, the 
 degree in which the various contributions of these 
 different parties may have co-operated in its pro- 
 duction. No tribunal that could be established 
 would decide the point so as to satisfy them all of 
 the correctness of its verdict. There exists no 
 test no common measure of the relative value of 
 labour, land, and capital, independent of the esti- 
 mation of their owners. This can be ascertained 
 only at the time the contributions are made or 
 arranged, and by no other judges than the interested 
 parties themselves, and by no other means than 
 their voluntary settlement of terms with one an- 
 
228 FREE EXCHANGE 
 
 other ; in short, only by previous bargain or con- 
 tract inter se. 
 
 In one word, the principle of free exchange can 
 alone bring about a fair adjustment of their rela- 
 tive claims on their joint produce. Take, for illus- 
 tration, the simplest case : Suppose A. a labourer, 
 to have raised a quarter of wheat, by cultivating 
 the land of B. C. having advanced him on loan the 
 necessary implements, and D. the food on which 
 he subsisted while at work. What possible guide 
 can there be to the determination of the equitable 
 share of A. B. C. and D. respectively in the value 
 of the wheat, except the terms which they shall 
 freely have agreed upon with each other at the 
 commencement of the undertaking ? And if this 
 be true in the simplest cases, it is equally true 
 of the more complicated ; which it would be 
 still more impracticable for any foreign party to 
 adjudicate. 
 
 Custom will, indeed, establish a sort of standard 
 by which these questions may be determined, in 
 the absence of previous agreement : as, if a 
 master hire a labourer without specifying the 
 wages he intends giving, those ordinarily given 
 for labour of that class by the custom of the 
 country will be understood by both parties ; and 
 custom will, in the same manner, determine the 
 fair rent of land of a certain quality, and the fair 
 interest of money. But the custom itself consists 
 only of the average of the free and voluntary agree- 
 ments of parties similarly circumstanced through 
 the neighbourhood. Any attempt to tie down 
 such agreements generally, as by a law, establish- 
 ing either a minimum or a maximum of wages, 
 
THE TRUE PRINCIPLE OF DISTRIBUTION. 229 
 
 interest, or rent, destroys the only criterion of 
 their just amount, and substitutes a blind and ar- 
 bitrary power, without any possible clue to guide 
 it to a correct decision. 
 
 While the principle of free exchange of pro- 
 perty and services can alone be depended on for 
 securing an equitable distribution of wealth among 
 the several classes who contribute to its production, 
 such free exchange is equally indispensable to the 
 encouragement of all in the work of production, 
 and consequently to the increase of the aggregate 
 produce to be distributed. 
 
 If, for example, the owner of land were in any 
 way restricted from freely disposing of his land to 
 his greatest advantage, as by letting it out to 
 farm to the highest bidder, or in portions of such 
 size as he finds most profitable, he would have 
 the less inducement to employ it, or allow it to be 
 employed, in production. He might, by such re- 
 strictions, be induced to prefer keeping it in a 
 state of waste, as a park, chase, or warren, com- 
 paratively unproductive and unserviceable to so- 
 ciety. If he continued to cultivate it, he would be 
 less likely to make any sacrifice for its improve- 
 ment, by expending a portion of his rents in 
 drainage, buildings, planting, or other endeavours 
 to increase the productiveness of his estate. The 
 same consequences would follow if, on the other 
 hand, he were restrained by a tax or penalty from 
 laying out any part of his domain in park or plea- 
 sure ground according to his taste. He would be less 
 likely to reside upon his estate, and its general pro- 
 ductiveness would probably, in the long run, be 
 diminished rather than increased by such restriction. 
 
230 EVILS OF LEGISLATIVE INTERFERENCE 
 
 Again, in whatever degree the capitalist may be 
 interfered with in the free disposal of his property 
 to his greatest advantage, (as is practically done to 
 a great extent throughout most European states, 
 by vexatious and embarrassing regulations, muni- 
 cipal and general, respecting the production, or 
 removal from place to place, of particular com- 
 modities, and as has been proposed in this country 
 by those who would have the law dictate to 
 .farmers what number of labourers they should 
 employ, and how they should cultivate their farms) 
 in that degree will he be less desirous of accu- 
 mulating capital, less eager to discover and avail 
 himself of openings for its profitable employment, 
 and less capable of making a profit upon it; 
 he will be less productive and less economical, and 
 consequently a less useful member of society, as 
 well as a less happy one, through the annoyance 
 which such restrictions occasion. 
 
 And the labourer, in his turn, unless left free to 
 make the best bargain he can with his employer, 
 and to carry his labour to the best market, where- 
 ever it may be ; if interfered with by regulations 
 confining him to particular occupations or parti- 
 cular places in which to exercise his industry, will 
 never fully put forth his energies ; but, in propor- 
 tion to the restraint he suffers, assumes more or 
 less of the sulky, idle, careless, and revengeful 
 character of the slave feels himself injured and 
 ill-treated ; at all events, wanting one of the 
 essential conditions of industry freedorn of choice 
 in its direction is less productive, as well as less 
 happy. Attempts to regulate wages, whether by 
 fixing maxima or minima, or to regulate employ- 
 
IN THE DIRECTION OF INDUSTRY. 231 
 
 ments, by dividing society into castes, each con- 
 fined [to an exclusive occupation, as well as the 
 ancient municipal regulations with regard to ap- 
 prenticeships, servitude, &c., appear to have always 
 produced the effect of damping the exertions of 
 the labourers and diminishing their productiveness. 
 The labour- rate, a new hobby of the present day 
 with some of our well-meaning but not very pro- 
 found legislators, is exposed, on the same ground, 
 to merited reprobation. 
 
 Interference of any kind, in short, in the spon- 
 taneous direction of industry, and the free employ- 
 ment by their owners of the great agents in pro- 
 duction, labour, land, and capital, has the certain 
 effect of benumbing their powers and lessening 
 the sum of production, and consequently the 
 shares, of the producing parties ; as well as of 
 needlessly, and therefore unjustly, curtailing their 
 freedom of action. 
 
 The only interference allowable is that which 
 can be shown to be indispensable for the great 
 object of securing the persons and property of 
 every class. The law need, and ought to do no 
 more. This comprehends the sum and substance 
 of all the duties of a government with respect to 
 wealth. Subject, tberefore, to this condition, and 
 to this only, perfect liberty in the voluntary ex- 
 change of the property and services of individuals 
 is the only means of giving full play to the deve- 
 lopement of their productiveness, and of increas- 
 ing, to the utmost extent, the amount of their 
 several shares. Such liberty is, on this ground, 
 the sure ground of expediency for the further- 
 
232 JUST CLAIMS OF THE STATE. 
 
 ance of the general happiness the absolute right 
 of every member of society. 
 
 The limitation introduced includes, of course, 
 all such appropriations of private property, and 
 such directions of private action by the govern- 
 ment, as are necessary for securing the persons and 
 property of all. It is for the representatives of the 
 people to determine the just claims of the state 
 upon the purses or services of its citizens. But 
 the exaction of such claims from each is the con- 
 dition on which alone the rights of citizenship can 
 be conceded to each. In a future chapter we shall 
 touch upon the principles by which the great state- 
 engine of ' taxation' ought to be regulated, and its 
 proceeds applied. 
 
 But before we proceed to this, it will be useful 
 to take a general review of the existing modes by 
 which wealth is produced and distributed. 
 
233 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 PRODUCTIVE INTERESTS. 
 
 Agriculture Manufactures Commerce. Progress, Subdi- 
 visions, and utility of each. Their community of interest, 
 and equal importance. Preference awarded to Agricul- 
 ture owing to the unnatural existing relations of popula- 
 tion and subsistence. 
 
 THE various branches of industry into which the 
 business of production divides itself in a civilized 
 and highly advanced community, are nearly in- 
 finite in number. They are ordinarily classed, 
 however, for more easy consideration, into three 
 great departments, or, as they are called, ' interests * 
 viz. the agricultural, the manufacturing, and the 
 commercial or trading interest. 
 
 1. The Agricultural interest includes all whose 
 land, capital, or labour is employed in the growth 
 of food and the raw materials of manufacture. It 
 comprehends, in this country, the more or less dis- 
 tinct classes of landowners, farmers, and la- 
 bourers. Among the two latter there are various 
 subdivisions. The corn-grower, the dairy-farmer, 
 the cattle-breeder, and the cultivator of hops, mad- 
 der, flax, teazles, &c. are, in general, different per- 
 sons : as the carter, ploughman, herdsman, shep- 
 herd, drover, hedger and ditcher, woodsman, &c. 
 
234 AGRICULTURE. 
 
 are distinct occupations among agricultural labour 
 ers. Those who follow the business of meal 
 men, corn and cattle-dealers, and some others, 
 are so closely connected with this interest as 
 to rank rather in it than in either of the other 
 divisions. 
 
 The history of agriculture is a subject of great 
 interest, for which, however, we must refer our 
 readers to the works especially devoted to this 
 .subject. Of all arts it is perhaps that in which 
 the least improvement has been made in the 
 course of the historical ages, notwithstanding its 
 pre-eminent utility. Still its progress has been 
 considerable, especially in this country, where, 
 since the adoption of turnip-husbandry, the sub- 
 stitution of green crops for fallows, and the great 
 extension of sheep-farming, the produce of our 
 superior soils has been more than doubled, and 
 large crops raised off millions of acres of poor 
 land which previously would bear nothing to repay 
 their cultivation. 
 
 A wide field is here still open for improvements 
 to which no probable limit can be assigned. The 
 science of agricultural chemistry is yet in its in- 
 fancy. Its further progress will, no doubt, enable 
 us greatly to multiply the produce of a limited 
 tract, and, perhaps, to bring the most barren sur- 
 faces into profitable cultivation. Even now, a 
 deficiency of manure is the only check to the pro- 
 ductiveness of any soils, and as yet one of the 
 most copious sources of supply of the most valu- 
 able of all manures, the sewerage of great towns 
 is wholly neglected. By taking the necessary 
 steps for securing and applying this, a great start 
 
MANUFACTURES. 235 
 
 might probably be given to the agriculture of 
 densely peopled countries.* 
 
 2. It is the business of Manufacturers to work 
 up for use the raw materials raised at home by the 
 preceding class, or imported from abroad ; giving 
 them the shape of clothing, houses, household 
 furniture, machinery, tools, and a variety of con- 
 veniences and ornaments. They comprehend nu- 
 merous branches ; such as the iron, the woollen, 
 the cotton, the silk, the leather, the stocking, the 
 glove, the hat, the carpet, the lace, and the soap 
 trades, the house and ship-builders, cabinet- 
 makers, gold and silversmiths, watch-makers, brass 
 ornament makers, cutlers, printers and publishers, 
 engineers, &c. ; and each of these separate trades 
 is subdivided into numberless distinct avocations. 
 There are many to whom the term manufacturers is 
 not ordinarily applied, who would yet be reckoned 
 as such in any general classification of the entire 
 body of producers : such are tailors, shoemakers, 
 carpenters, joiners, smiths, plasterers, bakers, 
 maltsters, curriers, &c., with the entire class of arti- 
 sans employed in these several trades.* 
 
 The economical history of manufactures is a 
 
 * See Mr. J. Martin's Plan for purifying the air and 
 water of the metropolis. 1833. 
 
 f The term manufacture is usually applied only to esta. 
 hlishments on a large scale ; and those who produce the 
 same article on a small scale are called makers rather than 
 manufacturers : but in a scientific treatise, and when em- 
 ployed to designate a class of operations in contradistinction 
 to agriculture, the term must be extended, so as to embrace 
 all those occupations by which the raw productions of the 
 earth are worked up into objects of use or ornament, whe- 
 ther by the labour of one individual or of many. 
 
236 MANUFACTURING INDUSTRY. 
 
 subject of very considerable interest to the student 
 of political economy, but would, if fully gone into, 
 occupy a much larger space than can be afforded to 
 it in this little volume. It well deserves, indeed, to 
 form the exclusive matter of a separate work ; 
 and I am not without hopes that it may, before 
 long, be taken up and illustrated by the same 
 author who, in the volume he has published on 
 Rent, has so ably examined and described the cir- 
 cumstances which, in different times and countries, 
 have determined the mode of occupation and cul- 
 tivation of the soil.* 
 
 The division of labour which takes place in a 
 very rude state of society must, even in the infancy 
 of every nation, have effected a certain separation 
 between the classes who occupy themselves in 
 tilling the soil and gathering its crops, and those 
 who are engaged in working up these crops or 
 the other raw products of the earth, and fitting 
 them for general use, in the form of tools, raiment, 
 ornaments, houses, furniture, &c. 
 
 A further subdivision of this class of industrious 
 occupations among different trades or crafts, each 
 giving employment to distinct ranks of artificers, 
 seems likewise to have taken place at a very early 
 period in the history of art. The goldsmiths, the 
 jewellers, the workers in iron, in brass, in wood, in 
 stone, in pottery, in woollen, and in linen ; the shoe- 
 makers, the tailors, the carpenters, the plasterers, and 
 the masons, are spoken of in the Jewish Scriptures 
 ?.nd other early records, and appear to have followed 
 
 * Jones on the Distribution of Wealth and the Sources of 
 Taxation. 
 
ITS RECENT ADVANCES. 237 
 
 exclusively their several avocations from the first 
 dawn of civilization. A common professional edu- 
 cation, a common interest in the advancement of 
 their art, and a desire, by combination and mo- 
 nopoly, to exclude competition and obtain a higher 
 return for their labour, seem, in most countries, to 
 have occasioned the union of the artisans following 
 any one of these several trades into a sort of cor- 
 porate fraternity, sometimes sanctioned by char- 
 ters, like the guilds of the European states sub- 
 sequent to the middle ages. Some of these fra- 
 ternities unquestionably attained a very high 
 excellence in their particular departments of in- 
 dustry. The association of freemasons, to whose 
 migratory labours it is generally supposed that 
 we are indebted for nearly all the rich and beau- 
 tiful ecclesiastical and domestic edifices which 
 were reared through Europe during the eleventh 
 and five succeeding centuries, evinced a purity of 
 taste and fertility of conception in architectural de- 
 sign, as well as a power of execution, which the 
 builders of modern times have vainly attempted 
 to rival. Nothing can exceed the workmanship 
 of the armourers, or of the goldsmiths and jewel- 
 lers, of the fifteenth century ; and carving in both 
 wood and stone was carried, about the same time, 
 nearly to equal perfection. The gorgeous silks 
 and velvets of the same period probably could not 
 be imitated by any artisans in the present day ; and 
 tapestries and other productions of the loom were 
 then wrought with an excellence which has never 
 been surpassed. The art of staining glass may 
 be mentioned as another in which modern artists 
 
238 MANUFACTURING INDUSTRY, 
 
 are decidedly inferior to those which preceded 
 them some centuries back. 
 
 On the whole, however, manufacturing industry 
 has of late years, and especially in this country, 
 accomplished an extraordinary advance in its 
 productive capacities, and its importance as com- 
 pared with agriculture. In former ages every 
 village probably had, as now, its inferior handi- 
 craftsmen its smith, mason, carpenter, tailor, and 
 shoemaker ; while the more important branches of 
 industry were carried on in towns, in which the 
 manufacturers of valuable goods clustered together, 
 for the purpose of mutual protection against the 
 tyranny of the great and little robbers of those 
 unsettled times, or along the course of such streams 
 as afforded the necessary aid of water-power. But 
 though the articles of clothing and ornament 
 which ministered to the luxuries of the wealthy, 
 were fabricated by artisans of this description, 
 the more homely wants of the humbler classes 
 were still chiefly supplied by the exercise of their 
 own rude industry. The coarse clothing of the 
 greater proportion of the people, woollens as well 
 as linens, were, till within a very recent period, 
 both spun and wove, or knitted, at home, by 
 the wives and children of the agricultural la- 
 bourers. Many objects of ornament and conve- 
 nience were made in the same simple manner by 
 the peasant and his family. It is chiefly within 
 the last fifty years, and since the introduction, and 
 especially since the improvements, of the steam- 
 engine by Watt, which led to the substitution of 
 this wonderful power for that of water, wind, and 
 
ITS INCREASE AND RESULTS. 
 
 239 
 
 human or brute force, that manufacturing in- 
 dustry has developed itself to an extent by which 
 a great and striking change is being brought 
 about in the habits, the manners, the relations, 
 and the employments of our population. The num- 
 ber of persons at present engaged in the various 
 branches of manufacture in this country nearly 
 equals that of the persons employed in agriculture.* 
 
 ANALYSIS OF OCCUPATIONS IN GREAT BRITAIN. 
 {From Marshall's Statistics of the British Empire.) 
 
 DESCRIPTIONS. 
 
 Number of Families. 
 
 Persons. 
 
 1821. 
 
 1831. 
 
 1831. 
 
 1. Agricultural occupiers 
 2. Agricultural labourers 
 3. Mining labourers . . 
 4. Millers, bakers, butchers 
 5. Artificers, builders, &c. 
 
 250,000 
 728,956 
 110,000 
 160,000 
 200,000 
 340,000 
 150,000 
 310,239 
 319,300 
 
 80,000 
 100,000 
 192,888 
 
 250,000 
 800,000 
 120,000 
 180,000 
 230,000 
 400,000 
 180,000 
 359,009 
 277,017 
 
 90,000 
 110,000 
 316,487 
 
 1,500,000 
 4,800,000 
 600,000 
 900,000 
 650,000 
 2,400,000 
 1,080,000 
 2,100,000 
 831,000 
 
 450,000 
 110,000 
 1,116,398 
 
 7. Tailors, shoemakers, hatters 
 
 9. Seamen and soldiers . . . 
 10. Clerical, legal, and medical 
 
 11. Disabled paupers .... 
 12. Proprietors and annuitants . 
 
 Totals 
 
 2,941,383 
 
 3,303,504 
 
 16,537,398 
 
 From this table it appears that the agricultural and 
 mining classes compose about 7-17thsof the whole popu- 
 lation; the manufacturing class 5-17ths, the commercial 
 class 2-1 7ths ; the professional class, including the army and 
 navy, and the non-producing class of proprietors and paupers, 
 making up, in nearly equal moieties, the remaining 3-17ths. 
 The decennial censuses that have been taken since the 
 commencement of the present century shew the great change 
 that has taken place in the employment of the people. In 
 1801, nearly one half the entire population of England was 
 engaged in agriculture. In 1831 the proportion had fallen 
 to about one-third. 
 
'240 MANUFACTURES. 
 
 They are, for the most part, concentrated in large 
 and populous towns, many of which have grown 
 up with astonishing rapidity upon those points 
 where the abundance of coal and iron mines, water- 
 carriage, or other facilities are found for the fabri- 
 cation of any peculiar commodity. The existence 
 of this portion of society is closely connected 
 with the very variable condition of manufactures ; 
 and when war, impolitic restrictions on com- 
 merce, changes of taste and fashion, improvements 
 in machinery, or any of the other casualties to 
 which such trades are exposed, occasion a stag- 
 nation in the demand for their labour, large bodies 
 of men are liable to be thrown out of work, and 
 placed, for a time, in a state of suffering and idle- 
 ness, which, in the absence of wise precautionary 
 arrangements, cannot but threaten great danger to 
 the public peace. On the other hand, the agri- 
 cultural part of the population has certainly suf- 
 fered much from the failure of those occupations 
 which were formerly subsidiary to their principal 
 one, and afforded them the means of profitably 
 employing every idle hour, and nearly every mem- 
 ber of their families, male or female, young or 
 old. The loss of the minor domestic manufac- 
 tures, formerly carried on by the agricultural la- 
 bourer, has been a severe injury to his class, and 
 the public tranquillity has perhaps suffered like- 
 wise through the consequent deterioration of his 
 circumstances. These are undoubtedly evils, to 
 which the vast, and we believe, on the whole, bene- 
 ficial progress made by our manufacturing system, 
 has unquestionably exposed us. It remains for 
 the government to mitigate these evils, so far as 
 
COMMERCE. 241 
 
 is practicable ; and especially by all such arrange- 
 ments as are fitted to encourage and facilitate the free 
 migration of labour, the free exchange of its pro- 
 duce, and consequently its profitable employment.* 
 
 3. The commercial class consists of persons 
 whose business it is to facilitate the operations 
 both of the agriculturists and manufacturers, by 
 supplying them with what articles they require, 
 and taking of them what they have to dispose of. 
 They are the agents in all the manifold exchanges 
 that are going on between the different classes of 
 producers and consumers ; conveying goods of all 
 kinds from place to place, so as to equalize the 
 supply with the demand ; purchasing whatever is 
 to be sold, and selling whatever is required to be 
 bought. Commerce divides itself, firstly, into the 
 foreign, and internal or home trade ; and the latter, 
 into the wholesale and retail trades. These again 
 branch out into almost numberless subdivisions, 
 characterized by the nature of the article dealt in, 
 or the particular line of business carried on. 
 
 There are several other classes which do not 
 
 * The picture drawn by Dr. Kay, in his valuable Tract, 
 of the moral and physical condition of the working classes 
 employed in the cotton manufacture in Manchester, together 
 with the facts brought to light by the late Committees of 
 the House of Commons on the employment of children in 
 factories, add some frightful features to the character of our 
 modern manufacturing system, so frightful as to lead us 
 to regret that it was ever introduced, if we were not certain 
 that these horrors are by no means the necessary result of 
 the system, but chiefly of the terrible struggle it has for 
 years maintained under surprising difficulties, brought on by 
 unwise legislation, and, above all, by a restricted commerce 
 and an artificially appreciated currency. On these evils, 
 and their proper remedies, more hereafter. 
 
 1 
 
242 WHOLESALE AND RETAIL DEALERS. 
 
 seem to be easily referrible to any of the three 
 principal heads ; as the persons engaged in mining 
 and quarrying, in fisheries, &c. 
 
 All these multiform subdivisions of employment 
 are wholly spontaneous, the offspring of no pre- 
 concerted arrangements of the statesman or the 
 legislator, but springing from that ever-active and 
 inquisitive spirit of enterprise and ardour for gain 
 by which individuals are urged to seize every open- 
 ing for the employment of their ability or capital 
 that promises remuneration. The result is incal- 
 culably beneficial to society, by reducing the cost 
 and improving the quality of all that it consumes. 
 If any saving can possibly be made in the cost of 
 producing any article, by a subdivision of the ne- 
 cessary operations, it is immediately effected by 
 the agency of this searching spirit; and the com- 
 petition of producers is sure very shortly to secure 
 all the benefit of the saving to the public at large, 
 in a proportionately reduced price of the article. 
 
 The vast utility, for example, of the wholesale 
 and retail dealers, who adjust the supply of com- 
 modities of all kinds with the utmost precision to 
 the demand, is obvious on the slightest considera- 
 tion. Acting under the influence of self-interest, 
 and with a view solely to his own profit, each, 
 knowing- the probable wants of his peculiar mar- 
 ket, is strongly interested in selling as much as he 
 possibly can, and yet equally interested in causing 
 nothing to be wasted through its remaining un- 
 sold. Each striving to carry away the custom of 
 his rivals, by tempting the public with newer, 
 better, more varied, or more alluring articles at 
 
MR. OWEN'S LABOUR EXCHANGE. 243 
 
 the lowest price, they effect collectively the dis- 
 tribution of the whole wealth of society in the 
 most economical and most convenient manner 
 possible. And yet, because they make a profit on 
 what they sell, that is, get paid for their labour 
 and the time during which their capital lies locked 
 up in goods, and the risk it runs of damage, and 
 for their shop and warehouse rents ; because they 
 charge a profit on their sales sufficient to cover 
 these necessary expenses (and that it is barely suffi- 
 cient for this end their mutual competition secures), 
 they are described by Mr. Owen, and his benevo- 
 lent but equally unreasoning followers, as sucking 
 the marrow of the poor labourers, and interfering 
 hurtfully between the producer and the consumer, 
 to raise the cost of all things to the latter. Mr. 
 Owen has of late put his theory to the test of 
 practice, by endeavouring to dispense with these 
 intermediate parties, and bring producers and con- 
 sumers into contact with each other. By this 
 time, therefore, it is perhaps tolerably clear to 
 such of his disciples as retain the power of discri- 
 mination, which system is the more economical of 
 the two ; that which, if pursued to its necessary 
 consequences, would force every labourer to pro- 
 duce for himself almost every thing he needs, and 
 send us back to the caves and woods of our acorn- 
 eating ancestors, or that which has carried us for- 
 ward from those wilds and caves to the high pitch 
 of civilization and refinement this industrious com- 
 munity has, by the blessing of Heaven, attained. 
 With respect to Mr. Owen's clumsy contrivance of 
 labour-notes and a labour exchange, by which the 
 barbarizing tendency of his principle is meant to 
 
 R2 
 
244 ALL SOCIETY A LABOUR EXCHANGE. 
 
 be concealed, it is evidently but a bank connected 
 with a large wholesale warehouse ; in which the 
 arbitrary valuation of a salaried clerk regulates the 
 terms of each sale and purchase, instead of the 
 unerring principles of competition among the 
 sellers and self-interest in the buyers. The scheme 
 of labour-notes, moreover, is founded on the 
 erroneous notion that labour is the just and true 
 measure of value. But can any plan be more 
 likely to discourage ingenuity, industry, and the 
 acquisition of skill, than one which determines the 
 reward of each man's labour, not by the intensity 
 of his application, or the amount of its produce, 
 but by its duration thus giving to a slow, care- 
 less, and indolent labourer the same pay as to an 
 active, ingenious, and energetic one ? 
 
 The whole system of society as at present consti- 
 tuted is ONE GREAT LABOUR EXCHANGE; 
 in which the services of individuals are bartered 
 by voluntary and mutual agreement. The pro- 
 gress of knowledge has suggested a variety of 
 subdivisions, not only of the labour by which 
 commodities are produced, but likewise of the 
 labour required for exchanging them. An at- 
 tempt to get rid of these intermediate parties to 
 the exchanges of labour would put a stop to by 
 far the greater proportion of exchanges, which 
 could not by possibility be conducted between 
 the principals, and render their labour itself value- 
 less. Could the coal-miner of Newcastle directly 
 exchange the produce of his labour with the 
 corn-grower of Lincolnshire, the cheese-maker 
 of Gloucestershire, or the cloth- weaver of York- 
 shire ? And if there must be intermediate parties 
 
UTILITY OF COMMERCE. 245 
 
 to carry on these and similar exchanges, expe- 
 rience and reason prove that they will be conducted 
 more cheaply and effectually by the competition 
 of private speculators, than by any organized con- 
 trivance for this purpose that the ingenuity of man 
 could frame. The idea of these visionaries is that 
 the profit made by the intermediate parties would 
 be saved to the principals. But in order to a 
 profit, there must be a capital. If the producers 
 of commodities are possessed of capital, they will 
 get as high a profit on its employment in the busi- 
 ness of production as the other parties get in the 
 business of exchange. If they have no capital, 
 they can certainly divide no profit, under any pos- 
 sible contrivance. 
 
 The vast utility of the class of retail dealers, 
 who are the immediate distributors of the prin- 
 cipal articles of consumption, must be apparent to 
 every one. Not less useful and important to so- 
 ciety, in its peculiar functions, is the class of 
 wholesale dealers or merchants; who are the pri- 
 mary agents in the exchanges that take place be- 
 tween producers who live at a distance from each 
 other, in different districts, countries, or perhaps 
 climates, and the general carriers of goods from 
 place to place throughout the world. 
 
 The advantages of commerce, that is, of an 
 interchange, between the inhabitants of different 
 places, of the goods with which their peculiar 
 circumstances of skill, position, soil, minerals, or 
 climate enable two communities to supply one 
 another more easily than each could supply itself, 
 need hardly, in this age and country, be dwelt 
 upon. It is the division of labour on a large 
 
246 UTILITY OF COMMERCE. 
 
 scale, and applied to districts instead of indivi- 
 duals. Nature has suggested this territorial divi- 
 sion of labour even more broadly and obviously 
 than the personal. One district, for example, 
 possesses rich alluvial plains, fitted for growing 
 corn ; the soil of another is more favourable for 
 grazing cattle ; that of a third for pasturing sheep; 
 a fourth offers a bleak and bare surface, but is fer- 
 tile in mineral wealth in coal, perhaps, and iron ; 
 a fifth is covered with timber, and a sixth is washed 
 by a sea abounding in fish. It must be impossible 
 for the inhabitants of these several districts to 
 have any continued intercourse without perceiving 
 the great mutual advantages they have it in their 
 power to secure, by applyingthemselves exclusively 
 to the production of those commodities for which 
 nature had adapted their district, and exchanging 
 them with each other. Whether the several places 
 between which such commerce is carried on happen 
 to be connected under the same government or not, 
 can evidently make no difference in the amount of 
 mutual benefit each derives from the intercourse, 
 except in as far as this circumstance may cause 
 artificial impediments to be placed in the way of 
 their intercourse, which would not have existed had 
 they been united under the same government. The 
 exchange, in reality, takes place between indivi- 
 duals, although the subjects of different states, and 
 would not be undertaken by each party if it were 
 not beneficial to both. 
 
 A strange notion seems to have prevailed till 
 towards the middle of last century, even among 
 those who were practically conversant with com- 
 merce, namely, that the commercial gains of one 
 
UTILITY OF COMMERCE. 247 
 
 nation were always made at the expense of that 
 with which she traded ! Since foreign commerce 
 is as freely and voluntarily undertaken by indivi- 
 duals, as that between inhabitants of the same 
 state, and for no conceivable purpose on either 
 side but individual gain, it is wonderful that any 
 one should imagine that the intercourse which must 
 be profitable to the individuals who carry it on, 
 can be injurious to the nation of which either 
 party forms an unit. The profit, however, of the 
 merchants on either side constitutes evidently but 
 a very small proportion of the entire benefit de- 
 rived by the exchanging countries. If France 
 sends to England wine to the value of a million, 
 in exchange for an equivalent in hardware, the 
 merchants on either side may perhaps clear a pro- 
 fit of 50,000/. by the transaction. But, in addition 
 to this, twice as much is probably expended in the 
 employment of the shipping and internal carrying 
 trade of each country ; one or two hundred thou- 
 sand pounds are likewise put into the exchequer 
 of each ; and last, but by no means least, the 
 inhabitants of either country, who consume wine 
 or steel goods, are supplied with these commodi- 
 ties at perhaps one half the cost at which they 
 could have procured them of equal quality at home, 
 if indeed they could have procured them at all. 
 Many things, now considered of first necessity, 
 are not to be obtained without foreign commerce. 
 Tea, the favourite daily meal of perhaps every 
 family in the land, is grown in China alone, and no 
 attempts to raise it in other countries have been 
 successful. Cotton is the produce of a tropical 
 climate ; and if left to our own resources, we 
 
248 UTILITY OF COMMERCE. 
 
 could not obtain an ounce of that material which 
 forms so cheap, healthy, and comfortable an article 
 of clothing for the great body of our population, 
 male and female ; as well as one of our principal 
 staples of export. Sugar, another absolute neces- 
 sary of life to the present generation, the example 
 of France proves that we might possibly grow at 
 home, but of a very inferior quality, and at about 
 treble the cost to us of what we procure from our 
 colonies in exchange for our hardware and 
 woollens. Cochineal, indigo, and the various 
 other substances used in dyeing are not the pro- 
 duce of Britain. Nearly every drug or balsam 
 employed in medicine is of foreign growth, and 
 could not be obtained by any efforts from this 
 country alone. The greater part of the timber 
 used in our houses and their furniture, is foreign, 
 and could not be raised here in sufficient quantity 
 to supply our purposes. The materials of our 
 soap and candles, which are as necessary to the 
 cottager as to the noble, are imported ; and if 
 prevented from importing them, none but the 
 wealthy could enjoy the means of lighting up their 
 houses during the long nights of our northern 
 winters. Oranges, so delicious to the sick, and 
 palatable to all, are purchased from abroad by our 
 hardware and cloths, and could not be procured 
 except by this mutual exchange. Tobacco, the 
 poor man's luxury, is only to be obtained by 
 foreign commerce. ' Our roast beef, the Eng- 
 lishman's fare, would to God that every one of 
 our countrymen could command its daily enjoy- 
 ment ! is indeed a native production ; but its 
 companion, plum-pudding, exclusively an English 
 
UTILITY OF COMMERCE. 249 
 
 ish, derives its name and its excellence from the 
 produce of foreign climates. The raisins are 
 brought from Smyrna, the currants from the 
 Ionian Islands.'* 
 
 These familiar illustrations have been selected 
 to bring the fact clearly before the reader, that all 
 classes and conditions of men derive enjoyment 
 or benefit from the mutual exchange of the pro- 
 ducts of different countries and climates. If 
 foreign trade introduced only such things as are 
 enjoyed by the opulent and luxurious ; if it only- 
 enabled our modern Sybarites to clothe themselves 
 in silks instead of linens, and drink French wines 
 instead of British ale, it would not be deserving of 
 the high place it ought to hold in our esteem, as 
 the means of adding to the comfort and enjoyment 
 of mankind. But the few commodities we have 
 mentioned above constitute only a small part of 
 those imported from countries not under our go- 
 vernment, which are used by the great mass of 
 the people, and contribute to their subsistence, or 
 give additional value to their industry and skill. 
 Without foreign commerce we should be destitute 
 of a very large proportion of the necessaries and 
 comforts, as well as luxuries, which we now pos- 
 sess ; while the price of the few that might remain 
 to us, would, in most instances, be very greatly 
 increased. Nor are the benefits we derive from 
 an extended intercourse with the other branches 
 of the human family monopolized by ourselves. 
 The persons who receive our hardware, cutlery, 
 woollens, and cottons, in exchange for their sugar, 
 
 * ' Political Economy/ by T. Hodgskin. 
 
250 UTILITY OF COMMERCE. 
 
 raw cotton, drugs, timber, &c. could not obtain 
 these necessary and valuable articles so cheaply 
 by any other means. ' It is as pleasant to the 
 inhabitants of Portugal, of Turkey, and of Spain, 
 to procure, by the cultivation of their own vines, 
 fig-trees, and olives, the instruments and clothing 
 manufactured in this country, of a superior quality, 
 by help of our fertile mineral wealth and mecha- 
 nical ingenuity, as it is for us to obtain, by 
 making these articles, the refreshing produce of a 
 brighter sun than ever shines over Britain.*' 
 
 * But the influence of foreign commerce/ it has 
 been well observed, ' in multiplying and cheapen- 
 ing conveniences and enjoyments, vast as it most 
 
 '" * Hodgskin's Political Economy, p. 160. Dr. Chalmers, 
 in his recent work on Political Economy, among many other 
 curious and amusing paradoxes, has attempted to prove 
 that it is 'a delusion' to suppose that foreign trade adds 
 anything to the wealth of a nation, or is productive of any 
 advantage ' beyond a slight increase of enjoyment, the sub- 
 stitution of one luxury for another.' The wine-trade he has 
 discovered only produces wine, the sugar-trade sugar, the 
 tea-trade tea, and so on. It is evident the same argument 
 would apply to our internal trade and commerce, and to 
 the division of labour itself. The shoe-maker only pro- 
 duces shoes, the clothier cloth, the cutler cutlery, &c. But 
 just as * trifles make the sum of human things,' so in the 
 aggregate, all the several branches of trade, foreign and inter- 
 nal, produce all that there is in the country of wealth, com- 
 fort, taste, splendour, civilization, all that distinguishes 
 us from a horde of barbarians, clothed in skins, and toler- 
 ably provided with coarse food. Moreover, the extension of 
 commerce re-acts upon agriculture, and tends greatly to 
 increase the production of food likewise. Dr. Chalmers 
 himself admits that this was the case in former ages, and 
 his reasons for considering the effect to have ceased are very 
 inconclusive. 
 
UTILITY OF COMMERCE. 251 
 
 certainly is, is perhaps inferior to its indirect in- 
 fluence, that is, to its influence on industry, by 
 adding immeasurably to the mass of desirable ar- 
 ticles, inspiring new tastes, and stimulating enter- 
 prise and invention, by bringing each people into 
 competition and friendly intercourse with fo- 
 reigners, and making them acquainted with their 
 arts and institutions. Adam Smith and Robertson 
 have both ably traced the economic change which 
 took place throughout Europe at the termination 
 of the middle ages, in virtue of the new tastes and 
 habits inspired in the owners and cultivators of the 
 soil, by the presentation to their notice of those 
 articles of splendour and luxury which manufac- 
 turers had produced and commerce brought to 
 their doors. The same effect continues in the 
 present day. It is a constant principle of human 
 nature that our wants increase with the means of 
 gratifying them. And well is it that we are so 
 constituted. Were man the sober, chastened, and 
 easily contented animal which moralists have 
 sometimes, with false views of human welfare, 
 attempted to make him, did a mere shelter for 
 the weather, and a sufficiency of wholesome food 
 and coarse clothing, satisfy his wishes, 
 
 ' Content to dwell in decencies for ever,' 
 
 his species would probably have remained for ever 
 in a condition little superior to that of the cattle 
 they have domesticated. Art, science, literature, 
 all the pleasures of refinement, taste, and intel- 
 lectual occupation, would have been unknown: 
 more than this, the ingenuity by which the gifts 
 of nature and the enjoyments of mere animal exist- 
 
252 UTILITY OF COMMERCE. 
 
 ence are multiplied and heightened, would never 
 have been called into action ; and the prospect 
 which, in spite of local and temporary checks, 
 seems to us continually brightening, of a pro- 
 gressive and indefinite amelioration in the circum- 
 stances of mankind, would have been closed at 
 once. But it is not so. Every augmentation in 
 the number and variety of the means of human 
 gratification has the certain effect of increasing the 
 number of human wants and desires, and of stimu- 
 lating industry and ingenuity to satisfy them by 
 increased labour or skill in the production of those 
 things, by exchange for which the desired objects 
 may be obtained. The improvement of our manu- 
 factures and the increase of our foreign and inter- 
 nal trade have not only a stimulating influence on 
 our native agriculture, and, therefore, add to our 
 supplies of home-grown food, but by offering 
 novel gratifications to the inhabitants of other 
 countries, more fertile or less highly cultivated 
 than our own, they excite them to greater industry 
 in the creation of those agricultural products of 
 which we stand in need. 
 
 Few mistakes, therefore, can be more complete 
 than that into which those writers fall who under- 
 rate the advantages of foreign commerce, affecting 
 to treat it merely as the source of a supply of a 
 somewhat better description of consumable articles 
 than we could procure at home; and fail to per- 
 ceive that, without its aid, we should have remained 
 deprived of nearly all that excites our industry and 
 gratifies our desires, of all the comforts, the 
 luxuries, the refinements, and of many things now 
 considered the necessaries, of civilized existence. 
 
COMMON INTEREST OF PRODUCTIVE CLASSES. 253 
 
 These several productive classes, or * Interests,' 
 which it is sometimes the fashion to oppose and 
 contrast with each other, are far from being sepa- 
 rated by any broad line of demarcation. They 
 are indeed, on the contrary, closely entwined and 
 enlaced together, forming the warp and woof in 
 the vveb of society. Their interests, consequently, 
 are identical ; and any attempt to advance that of 
 one, at the expense of the others, must be equally 
 prejudicial to all. In fact, the business of each 
 branch is to supply the wants of the others, so that 
 any falling off in the means of one must cause a 
 proportionate defalcation in the occupation and 
 resources of the others. They are inseparably 
 connected, and depend upon or grow out of each 
 other. The agriculturists raise raw produce for 
 the manufacturers and merchants, while the latter 
 fabricate and import articles of necessity, conve- 
 nience, and ornament for the use of the former. 
 Whatever, consequently, contributes to promote or 
 depress the industry and enterprise of one class, 
 must have a beneficial or injurious influence upon 
 the others. * Land and trade/ to borrow the just 
 and forcible expressions of Sir Josiah Child, ' are 
 TWINS, and have always, and ever will, wax and 
 wane together. It cannot be ill with trade but 
 land will fall, nor ill with land but trade will feel 
 it.' Hence the injurious consequences that result 
 from every attempt to exalt and advance one 
 species of industry by giving it factitious advan- 
 tages at the expense of the rest. 
 
 It has been a question much disputed whether 
 any one of these branches of industry should hold a 
 higher rank in the general estimation than another. 
 
254 PREFERENCE GIVEN TO AGRICULTURE 
 
 Many writers have contended for the pre-eminence 
 of agriculture over manufactures and commerce. 
 M. Quesnay and the French economists were 
 followed in this by Dr. Smith. But the reason 
 assigned by them for this preference, namely, that 
 in agriculture labour is most productive, as being 
 exclusively assisted by the powers of Nature, is an 
 evident fallacy. The manufacturer and the mer- 
 chant avail themselves of the useful qualities of the 
 mineral, vegetable, and animal kingdoms to the 
 same extent as the cultivator; and Nature affords 
 her aid as bountifully and as gratuitously to the 
 one as to the other. 
 
 Though these authors have failed in giving a 
 satisfactory reason for the rank they would assign 
 to agriculture above the other useful arts, it is 
 not, however, the less true that a marked pre* 
 ference has been awarded in all times and coun- 
 tries to this branch of industry ; and it is diffi- 
 cult to believe that so prevalent a feeling can 
 have its origin in a miserable fallacy. A little 
 reflection will enable us easily to account for it. 
 The true source of the peculiar veneration in which 
 agriculture has been always held, lies in the con- 
 sciousness that it is to this art man is indebted for 
 the staff of life, FOOD ; while the rest serve only 
 to minister to his convenience and luxury, and 
 multiply his means of enjoyment. However im- 
 portant to his comfort may be the greater number 
 of objects which commerce and manufactures 
 place at his disposal, however justly he may 
 prize these departments of industry for their varied 
 and valuable gifts, every one must feel that 
 he is yet more deeply indebted to that art which 
 
AS THE SOURCE OF SUBSISTENCE. 255 
 
 furnishes him with the main support of his exist* 
 ence, without which he could not survive the 
 day. He feels that he could spare the products of 
 the former arts, but not of the latter. Those sup- 
 ply him with luxuries and comforts, this with ne- 
 cessaries. Even if we must consider this a pre- 
 judice, it is at least a natural, and may well be a 
 general one. But it is not a prejudice ; in the 
 present circumstances of society it has a sound 
 and reasonable foundation. So long as there are 
 thousands of our fellow-creatures starving for 
 want of necessaries, the art which occupies itself 
 in supplying them will, in the estimation of every 
 friend to humanity, bear the palm over those which 
 are engaged in providing superfluities! While 
 there is FAMINE on the earth, every man of human 
 feelings will desire to encourage the manufacture 
 of corn in preference to that of cottons, silks, or 
 muslins, to stimulate the production of bread, 
 even though at the expense of toys and trinkets. 
 
 But why should there be any lack of the neces- 
 saries of life? How is it that we boast of the 
 multiplied inventions and improvements of civili- 
 zation as having armed man with an immense 
 increase of productive power, if it be true that 
 they have not yet enabled him to procure a suffi- 
 ciency of necessaries for the bare support of his 
 existence ? In a condition of barbarism, with 
 nothing to depend on but his natural resources, 
 his existence is necessarily precarious ; hunger 
 and misery his occasional, perhaps frequent, visi- 
 ters. But every step that he makes in knowledge 
 and art, in the improvement of his faculties and 
 the enlargement of his resources, ought to remove 
 
256 POPULATION AND FOOD. 
 
 him farther and farther from the reach of want. 
 And it would be strange, indeed, if, after ages 
 spent in successive victories over matter, and in 
 accumulating the means of yet further conquests 
 after he has not only compelled whole races of the 
 inferior animals to his service, but taught the very 
 elements, each and all, to do his bidding, with 
 superior docility and far greater power, when 
 invention after invention, one more perfect than 
 the other, have multiplied his powers of production 
 in every branch of industry to a considerable, and 
 in some to an almost incalculable extent; it 
 would be indeed strange if, in spite of all this, 
 man were still unable to escape the grasp of want, 
 still incapable of procuring a full sufficiency 
 even of the coarsest necessaries on which to main- 
 tain life. 
 
 If such should, indeed, be the condition of the 
 population of any country which has made a con- 
 siderable progress in the arts of production, the 
 simplest reflection will force upon us the con- 
 viction that gross mismanagement must prevail 
 either in the direction of its resources or the dis- 
 tribution of their produce. 
 
 We are thus brought to one of the most inte- 
 resting questions of political economy, the ques- 
 tion indeed of highest importance to the welfare 
 of mankind ; and on which it has unfortunately 
 happened that the most false and ruinously perni- 
 cious opinions have been professed by nearly 
 every late writer on the subject, the question on 
 the relations naturally subsisting between popu- 
 lation and food. 
 
257 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 POPULATION AND SUBSISTENCE. 
 
 History of the supply of Food to an increasing People. 
 Early limitation of the numbers and resources of Man. 
 Hunting State. Pastoral State. Agricultural Slate. 
 Increased facilities for procuring Subsistence consequent 
 on every Improvement. Culture of inferior Soils indica- 
 tive of increased, not of diminished Resources. Sure 
 Resource of Migration. Colonization. Fast extent of 
 rich Soil yet uncultivated. Unlimited capacity of the 
 Globe for the production of Food. Misery the result of 
 Crime and Fol/y, not of any natural Law. Food can 
 easily be made to increase faster than Population as also 
 Capital of every kind. Folly, mischief, and impiety of 
 the Malthusian Doctrine. True direction of prudence to 
 the Increase of Food and Wealth^ not the limitation of 
 numbers and happiness. 
 
 WE repeat, this is infinitely the most interesting 
 problem in the whole range of the science of Po- 
 litical Economy. That science we defined as having 
 for its object tiie study of the circumstances which 
 determine the abundance and general distribution 
 among the members of a society of the neces- 
 saries, comfort?, and luxuries of life. ]3ut it is 
 obvious that of such circumstances the most 
 momentous by far must be those which determine 
 its supply of the MEANS OF SUBSISTENCE. No 
 abundance of conveniences or luxuries can com- 
 
 s 
 
258 SUPPLY OF FOOD 
 
 pensate a people for a deficiency of food ! no in- 
 terest is to be put for a moment in competition 
 with that of a full supply of the means of sub- 
 sistence for the entire population. 
 
 A deficiency in the means of subsistence is ac- 
 knowledged to be in the present age the only 
 obstacle of real importance that opposes itself to 
 the continual and increasing prosperity of the in- 
 habitants of the more civilized parts of the world. 
 This, then, is the great question that stands fore- 
 most in claiming the attention of the philosopher, 
 the legislator, the statesman, and the man of hu- 
 manity. What are the natural laws which determine 
 the supply of food ? Is there any reason why its 
 increase should present greater difficulties than that 
 of other objects of desire? Are there any artificial 
 obstacles imposed by conventional institutions to 
 its abundant production ? For if so, they should be 
 removed. Are there any means of encouraging 
 and accelerating its production ? For if so, they 
 should be adopted. 
 
 Now there is nothing intricate or mysterious in 
 the method by which man supplies himself with 
 food, or in the natural circumstances that determine 
 its abundance or deficiency ; nothing that can 
 excuse or account for the extraordinary fallacies 
 which have been put forth on this subject, and the 
 frightful (it is difficult to refrain from saying the 
 inhuman and " impious) conclusions which have 
 been arrived at by some who have written volumes 
 upon it. I am anxious to preserve this little work, 
 as far as possible, from assuming a controversial 
 character; and would willingly therefore refrain 
 from characterizing, as they appear to me to de- 
 
ITS HISTORY AND LAWS. 259 
 
 serve, the doctrines to which I allude, and which 
 are so well known by the name of their leading 
 propagator, Mr. Malthus. But to treat lightly, 
 and as a mere venial error, the promulgation of 
 doctrines having so pernicious a tendency as these 
 would amount to a kind of misprision of treason 
 against humanity. None can doubt the benevo- 
 lent intentions of the gentleman I have named, 
 and of the greater number of his followers. But 
 good intentions are not enough to rescue from 
 deserved reprobation those who do their utmost to 
 spread opinions tending materially to influence 
 the happiness of millions of their fellow-creatures, 
 without such a severe and searching examination 
 of their truth, as must, in the instance before us, if 
 undertaken in a spirit of candour, have instantly 
 detected the palpable errors which lay on the very 
 surface of the argument. 
 
 In order to form a correct conception of the law 
 of relation between population and subsistence, the 
 first step, of course, should be to examine the 
 plain and obvious circumstances on which the 
 supply of food to an increasing people has always 
 depended. 
 
 The sacred writings inform us that all mankind 
 sprang from a single pair. But without recurring 
 to the evidence of divine inspiration, all historical 
 records unite in placing before us the fact that 
 the numbers of men have been for many a<?es past 
 continually on the increase, and lead us to believe 
 that his race was at some former period few in 
 number, confined within very narrow geographical 
 limits, and endowed with a very scanty knowledge 
 of the useful arts. His present numbers and ter- 
 
 s 2 
 
260 HISTORY OF SUPPLY OF FOOD, 
 
 ritorial extension have been progressively reached, 
 as his knowledge, skill, and powers of production 
 accumulated. 
 
 Whether there ever was a time when the pro- 
 genitors of the now civilized nations of the globe 
 were ignorant of the arts of agriculture and the 
 domestication of cattle, is a question which, though 
 seriously mooted of late by a writer of eminence 
 in logic and theology,* is little worthy of investiga- 
 tion. Many savage tribes still existing offer an 
 example of the mode in which our ancestors must 
 have subsisted, if, as is probable, they once did 
 exist in this state of comparative helplessness. 
 
 * Dr. Whately, in his Introductory Lectures on Political 
 Economy delivered at Oxford, in 1830, argues in favour of 
 the supposition that man was created with an innate know- 
 ledge of certain of the arts of civilization ; and that the 
 savage tribes still met with who are ignorant of these 
 arts are not specimens of man in his primitive condition, but 
 in a state of deterioration. This is a strange idea to have 
 been seriously entertained by an acute reasoner. Man is 
 certainly not born at present with any such innate knowledge. 
 He acquires all he possesses only by instruction or invention. 
 It is easy to conceive how this same faculty of invention 
 may have suggested by degrees every step of the progress 
 from the extreme of barbarism to that of civilization. But 
 it is utterly impossible to conceive the creation of a being 
 endowed ab initio with a knowledge of the useful arts and 
 sciences, of any or all of them. It may be said that all 
 creation is an inconceivable mystery. True, and therefore 
 we refer to it only what is not to be accounted for in any 
 other way. Where secondary causes utterly fail, there we 
 necessarily resort to the action of the great First Cause. 
 But to attribute to the direct energy of the Deity, not merely 
 the creation of man with all his wondrous natural faculties, 
 but his instruction in the arts of milking cows, sowing corn, 
 and making ploughs and pipkins, is surely consistent neither 
 with sound philosophy nor rational theology. 
 
MAN IN THE HUNTING STATE. 261 
 
 Their sustenance must have been confined to the 
 fruits and berries of the plain or forest, the flesh of 
 wild animals and fish, and the water of the spring. 
 But with the exception of the last, which alone 
 will not support life, these spontaneous gifts of 
 nature are very limited ; and as the numbers of a 
 society increased, there must have been felt a very 
 inconvenient scarcity of food, such as we know to 
 be habitually experienced by the savage tribes of 
 America or Southern Africa. In this condition 
 the horrors of want must have been frequent,, 
 even among a society which ranged over an extent . 
 of territory such as now could be made to support 
 many times the number it was then incapable 
 of sustaining. It has, indeed, been calculated, 
 on good authority, that one acre tilled accord- . 
 ing to good British husbandry will support as 
 many individuals as a thousand acres of .hunting 
 ground in the wilds of savage America. The only 
 resource by which such a people could escape the 
 thinning of their numbers by famine would be a. 
 spreading in search of new hunting grounds. But 
 with the feeble means they possessed for encoun- 
 tering the natural difficulties in the way of their 
 migration, this resource must have often failed 
 them. And even had they been able to extend 
 themselves over the whole habitable surface of 
 the globe, their numbers would soon have reached 
 the limit which the earth was capable of sup- 
 porting in this precarious manner. 
 
 When, however, a people had attained a know- 
 ledge of the art of domesticating animals, vvhose 
 milk or flesh supplies a wholesome and pleasant 
 diet, a great addition was made to their power of 
 
262 PASTORAL STATE. 
 
 providing themselves with food from a limited 
 territory. A tract of land employed as pasturage 
 for herds of cattle and flocks of sheep might be 
 made to support, probably, not less than a hun- 
 dred times the population which could subsist on 
 its spontaneous supply of wild fruits and animals. 
 This pastoral condition, accompanied, for very 
 obvious reasons, with nomadic habits, still charac- 
 terizes the population of some extensive regions 
 of the earth. 
 
 But as the numbers of such a society increased, 
 they might not impossibly find themselves pinched 
 for want of a sufficient range of pasture land. 
 We have an example of this recorded in the sacred 
 history of the Jews. When Abraham and Lot 
 sojourned together ' between Bethel and Hai,' 
 having each large possessions of flocks and herds 
 and tents, and a proportionately large patriarchal 
 family, or ' tribe' ' the land,' it is said, ' was not 
 able to bear them so that they might dwell toge- 
 ther/* Under these circumstances two resources, 
 as before, are open to such a people, viz. either 
 to spread themselves over other distant lands yet 
 unoccupied, (which was the proposal of Abraham 
 to Lot, ' If thou wilt take to the left hand, I will 
 go to the right ; or if thou depart to the right 
 hand, I will go to the left;') or by the exercise of 
 their ingenuity to contrive means for making the 
 district they inhabit afford them more copious 
 supplies of food. To these, modern political eco- 
 nomists have added a third, namely, the keeping 
 their numbers sedulously within the limits of their 
 
 * Genesis, chap. xii. 
 
AGRICULTURAL STATE. 263 
 
 existing means of subsistence by ' a prudential 
 abstinence from marriage.' Fortunately our an- 
 cestors in tlie earlier ages of the world did not 
 adopt this sage plan ; or the probability is, that 
 \ve, and the other civilized nations of the globe, 
 would never have existed at all ; and mankind 
 would have been confined, in local occupation, to 
 some one or two snug corners, a rich island, or 
 a fertile valley, and in numbers, to the few thou- 
 sands whom the pasture of this limited territory 
 could supply with milk, cheese, and cattle ! 
 
 Where nature or accident interposed difficulties 
 in the way of the territorial extension of a growing 
 population, as would happen in the case of an 
 island or a valley surrounded by high mountains, 
 or a people already closely hemmed in by other 
 tribes equally tending to redundancy, the latter 
 of the two natural resources we have mentioned 
 would probably be adopted. Under such circum- 
 stances the cultivation of the wild fruits of the 
 earth, the improvement of the pasture lands by 
 manuring and irrigation, and the invention and 
 practice, above all, of agriculture, would obviously 
 suggest themselves as means for attaining the 
 desired object of enlarging the supply of food to 
 meet the growing demand for it. 
 
 AGRICULTURE, like most subsequent inventions 
 and improvements in the useful arts, was doubtless 
 the offspring of the necessity which drives a people 
 to exertions, both corporeal and intellectual, for 
 their maintenance. By it, even in its most im- 
 perfect state, as practised by the least advanced of 
 agricultural nations, land of average fertility can 
 be made to support many times the number of 
 
264 IMPROVEMENTS IN AGRICULTURE. 
 
 inhabitants that it will maintain under a system of 
 promiscuous pasturage. 
 
 The agricultural system, however, is rarely at 
 present, and seems seldom in any instance, to have 
 been adopted to the exclusion of the pastoral, but 
 only in aid of it ; as the growing wants of in- 
 creasing numbers might render it advisable to in- 
 close, break up, and cultivate fresh tracts of arable 
 land, the remainder being reserved as pasturage 
 for the flocks and herds which the varied tastes and 
 wants of the society required to be maintained. 
 
 At first the richest and most prolific soils are 
 chosen for aration ; and the habitations of their 
 cultivators are permanently reared in the imme- 
 diate vicinity of these favoured spots. As the 
 habits of a purely pastoral tribe are necessarily 
 nomadic, so those of an agricultural people are, 
 for equally obvious reasons, settled and stationary. 
 The tents of the former are exchanged for houses 
 of timber, stone, clay, brick, or other accessible 
 material, when they betake themselves to the 
 inclosure, cultivation, and improvement of parti- 
 cular patches of soil. As the population quartered 
 on these spots increases, and requires larger sup- 
 plies of food, a fresh surface is broken up. And 
 when all the soils of the richest quality in the 
 occupation of a people, or tribe, are already in 
 tillage, soils of an inferior quality will be perhaps 
 resorted to. But, in the meantime, division of 
 labour is taking place, and improvements of va- 
 rious kinds are making as well in agriculture, 
 as in the other arts of production ; so that it will 
 probably happen that corn or other food may be 
 raised from these secondary soils with less trouble, 
 
PRODUCTIVENESS OF SOILS. 265 
 
 that is to say, at a less cost of labour and capital, 
 than what, in the infancy of agriculture, were ex- 
 pended on the very first- rate qualities of soil to 
 produce the same return. So far, therefore, from 
 the recurrence to the cultivation of inferior sojls 
 being necessarily accompanied by, or attesting* 
 any diminution in the comparative abundance of 
 food, or any increasing difficulty in the means of 
 procuring it, (a doctrine laid down by a large sect 
 of political economists, as a fundamental proposi- 
 tion upon which to erect their science,) such a 
 step is, on the contrary, quite compatible with a 
 continual increase of the quantity, or improvement 
 of the quality, of the food at the command of each 
 individual, and is to the full as likely to be 
 symptomatic of an increased as of a diminished 
 capacity for procuring food. 
 
 There have, in truth, been few grosser fallacies 
 promulgated by modern political economists, than 
 this doctrine of the ' decreasing fertility of the 
 soil.' The fertility or productiveness of soils is, 
 on the contrary, daily increasing, with every ad- 
 vance in the science of agriculture ; and not only 
 of agriculture but of every other useful art, since 
 every step made in such arts liberates more labour 
 to be employed, if needed, in the cultivation of the 
 soil without any diminution of the other comforts 
 at the command of a people. The very reverse, 
 therefore, of the doctrine we allude to, is the truth. 
 And how paradoxical its very enunciation ! These 
 writers would persuade us that it becomes every 
 year more difficult to produce food ! that as the 
 productive powers of man advance, those of nature 
 decline ! that as man's numbers increase, and his 
 
266 FALLACY OF ECONOMISTS ON 
 
 ingenuity, and knowledge, and instruments of every 
 kind improve, his means of extracting a bare sub- 
 sistence from the bosom of the earth diminish ! 
 As well might they tell us that, as the stream rolls 
 onward from its mountain springlet to the distant 
 ocean, the volume of its waters is lessened by every 
 tributary it receives into its bosom. 
 
 But it is insisted upon that there is an ' iron 
 necessity' which compels the expenditure of more 
 labour and more capital to produce the same re- 
 turns, as more food is wanted and fresh soils are 
 taken into cultivation ! What a contradiction this 
 to every known fact ! Why, have we not been con- 
 tinually taking fresh soils into cultivation in this 
 island for the last eight or ten centuries ? And 
 will any one deny that a quarter of corn can be 
 raised now at less cost of labour and capital than 
 in the time of Alfred ? If not, how does it happen, 
 that, whereas nearly the entire population was 
 then employed in agriculture, one third is at pre- 
 sent enough to supply the whole with food ? But 
 this is, in truth, the usual progress of nations as 
 they advance in numbers and civilization. The 
 proportion of their productive power employed in 
 the gratification of new and varied tastes, for com- 
 forts or luxuries, is continually increasing ; every 
 improvement of agriculture and the subsidiary arts 
 enabling a smaller proportion to supply the whole 
 with food. This law is universal, and establishes 
 the very reverse of the proposition we oppose. 
 
 The writers to whom we allude attempt to draw 
 a broad line of distinction between manufactures 
 and agricultural produce, contending that the former 
 may be indefinitely increased without any increase 
 
' DECREASING FERTILITY OF SOILS.' 267 
 
 in their cost of production; while the latter can 
 only be augmented by having recourse to poorer 
 soils at a continually increasing expense.* But it 
 seems to be forgotten by these economists that 
 manufacturing industry only works up the raw 
 produce of agriculture that cotton, wool, and flax 
 are as much the produce of the soil as corn, cheese, 
 and mutton ; and that any supposed decrease in 
 the productiveness of soils must act to the full as 
 much in checking the supply of manufactures as of 
 food. In the second place, these so much re- 
 gretted and bemoaned obstacles to the extension 
 of agriculture, in what do they really consist? 
 Why, simply, in the circumstance that all soils 
 are not of the very first quality, and, consequently, 
 that when the best of those close at hand are fully 
 cultivated, an increase of produce can only be ob- 
 tained by either going to a greater distance, or 
 cultivating the inferior soils at hand, at a greater 
 expense. But might we not as well complain that 
 food is not made to drop into our mouths while 
 we sit idle upon our haunches, as that we must go 
 a little farther to procure it when we want more 
 than the soils immediately within reach can supply? 
 Might we not as rationally regret that all men are 
 not six foot high, all trees not oak, and all flowers 
 not roses, as that all land is not fitted for the 
 growth of wheat ? The variety in the quality of 
 soils, far from being a disadvantage, appears to us 
 in the light of a most useful provision of nature, 
 having two very beneficial effects, 1. The creation 
 of a valuable variety in the nature of their produce. 
 
 * See Malthus, Principles of Political Economy, and 
 M'Culloch, Idem, p. 443. Edition 1830. 
 
268 MIGRATION. 
 
 2. The offering of an inducement to man to spread 
 himself over fresh and extensive districts in search 
 of the soils best suited to his purposes, instead of 
 concentrating his numbers in confined localities. 
 
 Indeed, under ordinary circumstances, the cul- 
 tivation of inferior qualities of soil may be de- 
 clared to be directly indicative of an increased 
 power of production, and an enlargement of the 
 resources of a people. If we take this step, it is 
 not (as the economists already referred to de- 
 clare) that we are driven to it by any stern ne- 
 cessity for procuring food at whatever increased 
 cost ; but on the contrary it can only be that we 
 are enabled by improvements in agriculture, and 
 its auxiliary arts, to procure it from the inferior 
 soils close to us at a less sacrifice, than the very 
 trifling one of either bringing it from, or removing 
 ourselves to, the soils of first quality which remain 
 yet uncultivated at a comparative distance. For it 
 must be recollected that, besides the cultivation of 
 the inferior soils, there is another easy resource 
 open to a nation whose numbers are increasing, so 
 as to press upon the limits of the subsistence im- 
 mediately within their reach, the simple step, 
 namely, of migration ; of extending their territo- 
 rial occupation, and spreading themselves beyond 
 the geographical limits by which fortuitous circum- 
 stances may have up to that time circumscribed 
 their dominion. Few nations could have been 
 opposed by any great difficulties in this extension of 
 their territory ; none could ever have found such 
 obstacles insurmountable by a moderate exercise 
 of foresight and ingenuity. Some may have been 
 hemmed in by .natural limits, mountains, seas, or 
 
COLONIZATION. 269 
 
 rivers. Some by neighbouring and closely-peopled 
 states. But abstracting the danger of hostile 
 collisions with their neighbours, which prudent 
 and conciliatory arrangements might always easily 
 obviate, no difficulties could oppose the migration 
 of their swarms, other than the more or less of dis- 
 tance to be traversed in search of an unoccupied 
 spot, and the necessity of preparing a sufficient 
 stock of food for maintenance of the swarm during 
 the journey, and until they had reduced their new 
 territory to cultivation and fruitfulness. These are 
 surely not such obstacles as a moderate exercise 
 of foresight could not always with the utmost 
 facility surmount. 
 
 Accordingly, we find this migratory process to 
 have been frequently adopted. Colonies have 
 been founded in various parts of the earth, by the 
 overflow of nations, whose numbers were increasing 
 inconveniently, as compared with the means of a 
 limited territory for maintaining them. And to 
 this natural and beneficial process it is owing that 
 there are few extensive regions of the earth, in 
 some corner or other of which something like a 
 human settlement has not been effected. 
 
 But yet, after all that has been done in this 
 respect, it is a fact that by far the greater portion 
 of the surface of the earth remains a wilderness, 
 contributing nothing to the support or benefit 
 of man, however teeming with fertility, and is still 
 open to his appropriation whenever he chooses 
 to make the slight exertion required for this pur- 
 pose. In every quarter of the globe, in Europe, 
 Asia, Africa, the Americas, Australia, lie vast 
 
270 UNLIMITED CAPACITY OF THE GLOBE 
 
 tracts of rich and easily cultivable land, still un- 
 touched by man, and but nominally, if at all 
 appropriated, tracts easily accessible, equally 
 fitted for pasturage and aration, and capable, if 
 reduced to cultivation according to the improved 
 methods now in use among civilized nations, of 
 supplying a sufficiency of food for the main- 
 tenance of certainly some hundred, probably 
 several thousand times the number of human beings 
 now existing on the globe. 
 
 With respect to the food-producing capacities 
 of our own country and its colonies, we may refer 
 to the calculations of a writer in the Quarterly 
 Review*, who estimates the cultivable extent of our 
 colonial territories at twenty-one millions of square 
 miles, each capable of supporting two hundred 
 inhabitants; i. e. in the whole 4200 millions of 
 persons, or about one hundred and seventy times 
 our actual numbers, at the present British standard 
 of maintenance ; so that if it were even supposed pos- 
 sible that our population should double its num- 
 bers in every generation, many generations must 
 pass away before there could be a greater scarcity 
 of food felt than at present; and this upon the 
 incredible supposition, that our agricultural skill 
 should in the mean time remain unimproved. 
 
 If it be asked what room there is for a similar 
 development of the other nations of the earth, we 
 answer, firstly, that there is but too much reason 
 to fear that their misgovernment, disturbances, 
 want of security for property, and frequent exposure 
 to the scourges of war, pestilence, and famine, will 
 yet for many generations to come prevent their 
 * Vol. xlviii. p. 60. 
 
FOR THE PRODUCTION OF FOOD. 271 
 
 making much progress in population. But should 
 a more favourable state of things turn up, Europe 
 alone has, we are convinced, a sufficiency of sur- 
 face-soils to support, if duly cultivated, a hundred 
 times her present population ; and in Asia, Africa, 
 and the two Americas, not even excepting China 
 and India, the resources of the soil are as yet 
 hardly entered upon. Look, for example, at the 
 almost boundless plains of South America, which 
 intervene between the Andes and the Atlantic 
 plains chiefly composed of deep alluvial soil, ferti- 
 lized and intersected in every direction by the 
 most magnificent navigable rivers and a rich maze 
 of tributaries. Mr. Alexander, in his Trans- 
 Atlantic Sketches, justly remarks : ' I often wished 
 that some of those who think that ere long the 
 world will be over-peopled, and that we shall 
 shoulder one another off it, or into the sea, could 
 view the vast solitudes of Guiana, and reflect that 
 nearly the, whole of the interior of the South 
 American continent, though capable of supporting 
 BILLIONS of inhabitants, is as yet almost entirely 
 in the keeping of nature.' 
 
 For the capabilities of North America we refer 
 to Mr. Stuart, who, in his late work on America, 
 quotes from the American Quarterly Review a 
 passage, the accuracy of which he confirms from 
 his own observation, descriptive of the great plain 
 which composes the northern portion of the basin 
 of the Mississippi. 4 It extends from the western 
 slope of the Alleghany to the sand plain at the foot 
 of the Rocky Mountains, a distance of about 1500 
 miles in length, and from the valley of the northern 
 lakes to the mouth of the Ohio, a distance of 600 
 
272 UNLIMITED CAPACITY OF THE GLOBE 
 
 miles in width/ ' It is uniformly fertile, literally 
 all arable. There are no sterile plains, no rocky 
 or precipitous ridges, and scarcely any swamps, to 
 deform its fair surface. This uninterrupted fer- 
 tility arises from the decomposition of the great 
 limestone pan on which it rests.' * It is dry, 
 clean, and healthful. In addition to its unlimited 
 agricultural capacity, this great plain abounds in 
 mineral resources. Its coal-fields would cover half 
 Europe.' ' Iron, lead, gypsum, and saltpetre are 
 found in great abundance/ ' Here, indeed, " every 
 rood of land will support its man ;" for of such a 
 region, without barren mountain, or waste, where 
 all is fertile and healthful, where no timber lands 
 need be left for fuel, with mineral resources enough 
 to stimulate all the arts, and contribute to supply 
 all wants, who can say what is the limit of its 
 future population? Europe could seat all her na- 
 tions comfortably on this plain.' 
 
 Mr. Stuart describes all those portions of this 
 vast tract which he visited as consisting uniformly 
 of prairie land, thinly dotted over with timber, 
 like a nobleman's park in England; composed of 
 the richest vegetable soil, from three to forty feet 
 deep, and producing from thirty to fifty bushels of 
 wheat per acre, with oats and Indian corn in rota- 
 tion, for an indefinite succession of years without 
 manure. He describes second crops of wheat, self- 
 sown from the mere, droppings of the former crop, 
 as producing thirty-four bushels per acre ! and 
 with proper cultivation forty bushels are sure to 
 be obtained as an average annual crop.* 
 
 * Stuart: Three Years in America, vol. ii. pp. 387, 404. 
 
FOR THE PRODUCTION OF FOOD. 273 
 
 A simple calculation will show us that the plain 
 thus described contains 900,000 square miles, or 
 576 millions of acres. Let us allow something 
 for the exaggeration of its description, and suppose 
 only 500 millions of acres to possess the qualities 
 attributed by these writers to the whole. Each 
 acre, producing annually forty bushels of corn, 
 would well support a family of four persons ; so 
 that here, in this one valley, there is ample room 
 for twice, the entire population of the globe to pro- 
 vide themselves with an abundance of the most 
 nutritious food. And this is but one half of the 
 basin of but one American river ! 
 
 To return to the old world, look, we say, at 
 Asia Minor, Persia, Central Asia, and the vast ex- 
 tent of Asiatic Russia, can it be doubted that 
 these districts, under a government which pro- 
 tected industry from unjust exaction, would afford 
 sustenance to very many times their present num- 
 ber of inhabitants ? Of the capabilities of Northern 
 Africa for colonization, an experiment is now, we 
 hope, in course of trial. It is known that a great 
 extent of its surface was once highly cultivated, 
 and supported a dense population. And we can 
 see no reason for believing, that, with the aid of 
 modern skill and science, it may not again be 
 brought to at least an equal state of fertility. Of 
 the central parts of that vast continent, south of 
 the Sandy Desert, too little is known for us to 
 speak with any confidence of its resources ; but 
 harassed and brutalized as its inhabitants are, for 
 the most part, by the odious traffic in slaves, 
 oppressed by predatory tribes, and subjected to 
 the tyranny of atrocious despots, it is impossible 
 
274 UNLIMITED CAPACITY OF THE GLOBE 
 
 to believe that their numbers have as yet made 
 anything like an approach to the limits of the 
 capacity of the country for their support. 
 
 So far, therefore, from its being true, that the 
 population either of the British kingdoms, or of 
 the world at large, is already as numerous as can 
 be maintained off the soils which are at their dis- 
 posal, we believe it does not reach the one-thou- 
 sandth part of the number which these soils would 
 feed, were the agricultural skill, and science, and 
 other resources which the most advanced among 
 the nations even now possess, judiciously applied 
 to their cultivation ; and we can see nothing to 
 prevent those resources being, in the course of 
 time, themselves multiplied a thousand-fold by 
 future discoveries and improvements. It has been 
 calculated, as we have already said, that one acre 
 now may be made to maintain as many human 
 beings as could live upon a thousand acres of 
 hunting ground, in an age when man lived by the 
 chase alone. Can we presume to assert, that in 
 the progress of agricultural chemistry, the science 
 of manures, and vegetable and animal physiology, 
 other improvements may not carry us as far for- 
 ward again, so that, if need were, even the thou- 
 sandth part of an acre may support as many as 
 one acre does now ? Strange as this may sound 
 in the present state of our knowledge, things that 
 sounded as strange to our forefathers have already 
 been brought about. 
 
 But it is said, we must be brought to a stand- 
 still at length, for the surface of the globe will 
 afford elbow-room for but a limited number! 
 Dr. Chalmers seriously adduces this ultimate pro- 
 
FOR THE PRODUCTION OF FOOD. 275 
 
 spect as an argument, and laments over the risk 
 of men becoming as thickly packed ' as mites in 
 a cheese !' Now, in the first place, the predicted 
 calamity does not appear to us so very tearful 
 the mites, for aught we can see, have a very happy 
 time of it. In the next, we submit, that when 
 there appears any near prospect of such an over- 
 peopling as that of a deficiency of standing-room 
 for the inhabitants of the world it may be time 
 to consider the propriety of restraining the incli- 
 nations of young men and maidens to marry and 
 be given in marriage. And it ought to relieve 
 the anxiety of these philosophers for the fate of 
 such as may have their lot cast in those distant 
 times, that in the works of Mr. Malthus and Dr. 
 Chalmers, of which doubtless that remote pos- 
 terity will possess the ten-thousandth edition, they 
 are provided with a specific infallible, by their 
 account, in its effect of * upholding a well-con- 
 ditioned state of society,' by checking the rate of 
 increase at any point where it may be considered 
 desirable within * the limit' of comfortable arm's 
 length for example, or the proportion of square 
 feet of stowage that is allowed to each individual 
 on board a man- of* war ! The very confidence the 
 Malthusians possess in the excellence of their 
 specific ought to be enough to convince them, that 
 no ultimate injury need be apprehended from the 
 over-increase of population, with so obvious and 
 easy a resource at hand. But to persuade us to 
 have recourse to it NOW when, in some quarters 
 of the globe, next neighbours are separated by an 
 interval of leagues, and the progress of civilization 
 is delayed, not by a redundancy, but a deficiency 
 
 T 2 
 
276 NO CHECK TO POPULATION NEEDED. 
 
 of hands when, as we have shown reason to be- 
 lieve, the earth is calculated to hold at least a 
 thousand times its present numbers without any 
 symptom of inconvenience either from want of 
 food or room when, even were every nation 
 under the sun to he released from all the natural 
 and artificial checks on their increase, and to start 
 oil* breeding at the fastest possible rate, many, 
 very many, generations must elapse before any 
 necessary pressure could be felt and when, un- 
 happily, the melancholy truth is, that there is little 
 probability of any number of nations, perhaps not 
 even of one, being placed for ages under such 
 favourable circumstances in this, the actual state 
 of things to bid mankind, or rather the peasantry 
 of Britain, on their peril, to refrain from marriage, 
 lest the world be immediately over-peopled ! This 
 is indeed right midsummer madness the ne plus 
 ultra of moonstruck, Lapulan philosophy. And 
 our only wonder is, that these expansive philan- 
 thropists who would starve the present race of 
 man in their benevolent care for the comfort of his 
 posterity in the hundredth generation do not 
 likewise preach a crusade against artificial fires, 
 as robbing the atmosphere of its oxygen ; stint us 
 of spring water, lest we drink the heavens dry, or 
 shrink the level of the ocean ; and call for a pro- 
 hibition of dark colours, as tending by their ab- 
 sorption to exhaust the sun of his light. Air, 
 light, and water like the food-producing powers 
 of the earth have their ultimate limits ; and we 
 are probably as near to the one as to the others. 
 
 It is evident, then, that there is not as yet, and 
 
NO LIMIT TO THE SUPPLY OF FOOD. 2?7 
 
 never has been, any necessary bar or limit to the 
 supply of human food, and consequently to the 
 increase of human population. That locally and 
 temporarily such a limit has been continually felt, 
 as societies increased beyond their actual provi- 
 sion of the means of support, is consonant to the 
 supposed course of human progress which we have 
 just sketched out, and amounts to this truism, that 
 a growing society constantly needs an enlarge- 
 ment of its supply of food. The advantages man 
 has derived from the pressure of this necessity, in 
 continually ' sharpening his wits,' and urging him 
 to devise means for removing the local limit to his 
 supply of necessaries, are as obvious as they are 
 incalculable. But it is quite evident that this 
 continual 4 pressure of population against food/ 
 was either caused by the natural unwillingness of 
 man to labour to produce more food than he had 
 occasion for ; or at the worst, by the unwise mis- 
 direction of his resources ; since it was at all times 
 open to him, by the exercise of a very slight de- 
 gree of foresight and industry, to enlarge his sup- 
 plies of sustenance as his numbers and wants 
 increased. And this by one of two alternatives^ 
 either by taking into cultivation the inferior soils 
 which were under his hand; or, if he found it more 
 agreeable or more profitable, by sending out the 
 growing excess of his numbers to occupy, culti- 
 vate, and people, whatever unappropriated and 
 higbly fertile portions of the earth lay most con- 
 venient for his purposes. 
 
 We are far from denying that want and famine 
 have constantly been at work, thinning the ranks 
 of the great human family. Nay, it may be ad- 
 
278 REAL CAUSE OF WANT. 
 
 mittecl that (in the words of the chief supporter of 
 the opposite doctrine, qualified as that doctrine 
 has been of late by successive recantations) 
 
 * there has never been a period of considerable 
 length, when premature mortality and vice, speci- 
 fically arising from the pressure of population 
 against food, has not prevailed to a considerable 
 extent."* 
 
 But what we maintain is, that this evil has ever 
 and everywhere been the consequence of the folly 
 or criminality of man, of his mistaken arrange- 
 ments or anti- social passions usually of the op- 
 pressive extortion of his rulers, NEVER, in any 
 one instance, of a necessity which could not have 
 been easily obviated by wise and prudent fore- 
 thought, in proportioning (not the number of 
 feeders to the supply of food, but) the supply of 
 food to the probable demand, still less to any 
 inherent law of nature, such as Mr. Malthus and 
 his followers insist upon, rendering it the deplora- 
 ble destiny of man to wage an eternal and unsuc- 
 cessful struggle against famine. 
 
 Misery and vice enough, indeed, have there been. 
 / But these evils have never been occasioned by 
 
 * the tendency of population to press against the 
 means of subsistence/ That tendency has been 
 productive of incalculable good, and of no evil 
 that might not with the utmost facility have been 
 avoided. There was always at hand more than 
 one simple, easy, and effectual resource for keep- 
 ing the means of subsistence level, at least, with 
 
 * Malthus's Letter to Senior, 1831. He should have 
 added a third qualification to make the assertion accord 
 with truth, viz., ' in some considerable quarter of the globe.' 
 
THE MISDIRECTION OF MAN'S MEANS. 279 
 
 the wants of any possible population. The misery 
 and wo, the vice and starvation that have exhi- 
 bited themselves in such frightful frequency among 
 men, have been ever the effect of tyranny and 
 crime, of misgovernment, of the indulgence of 
 their evil passions ; of the misdirection of the 
 exertions of a people, not so much through their 
 own ignorance and mistaken views (for the in- 
 stinct which prompts the man, as well as the ant, 
 to secure himself from hunger by timely precau- 
 tions, might be safely trusted to accomplish that 
 end), as through the force or fraud of the powerful, 
 and the control of unjust or unwise institutions, 
 which have tied up the hands of millions, and 
 prevented them from helping themselves to the 
 abundance provided by a bountiful Creator as the 
 meet reward of their exertions ; which have con- 
 fined them by artificial restraints, enforced for 
 the benefit of the powerful few, till disease and 
 famine have thinned their numbers, or, like caged 
 rats, they have been goaded by despair and hun- 
 ger to prey upon each other. 
 
 Enough has been said, we think, to prove that 
 there OUGHT to be no deficiency of food in a 
 civilized community that there CAN be none in 
 any whose home resources are well and prudently 
 managed, and where, when these incline to fail, a 
 provident use is made in time of the great natural 
 resource of emigration. 
 
 But it may be said, ' Man does not live by 
 bread alone $ ' there are many other things almost, 
 if not quite, as necessary to him : clothing, fuel, 
 shelter, and the decent comforts of civilized exist- 
 
280 EVERY IMPROVEMENT IN THE ARTS 
 
 ence. The same argument, however, which we 
 have used with respect to food, applies equally to 
 all these things. In a community which has made 
 any considerable advance in the arts, there ought to 
 foe, and, in the absence of the grossest mismanage- 
 in ent of its resources on the part of those to 
 whom their direction is intrusted, must be, an 
 ample abundance, not merely of the necessaries, 
 but likewise of the comforts and conveniences of 
 life, for every individual member who has not by 
 his own vice, folly, or criminality, forfeited his 
 share. And, indeed, this follows so directly from 
 the mere definition of an advance in civilization, 
 that we are wrapped in astonishment at its ever 
 having been disputed. 
 
 The eifect of a continued improvement in the 
 Arts of production is to increase the productive 
 power of every individual, and consequently to 
 ^augment the aggregate productiveness of a nation 
 An proportion to its 7iumbers. Whether the im- 
 provement be in agriculture or the other useful 
 arts, it tends directly to enable each individual in 
 ithe community to obtain an increased share of 
 fiome one of the necessaries, comforts, and luxu- 
 ries of life by the same expenditure of labour and 
 capital, or the same share as before at a less ex- 
 pense ; leaving him a surplus of means applicable 
 to the acquisition of some further gratifications. 
 
 It is not denied by any that the productive 
 powers of man, his skill, and knowledge, and arti- 
 ficial resources, have been continually on the in- 
 crease ; nay, that they have multiplied, within a 
 few years past, in an extraordinary degree. Those 
 pf nature, on the other hand, have surely under- 
 
OUGHT TO IMPROVE THE CONDITION OF ALL. 281 
 
 gone no decay. On the contrary, every hour is 
 opening to us a knowledge of fresh natural powers 
 with which we were before unacquainted. There 
 is certainly no deficiency of space for the deve- 
 lopment of man's industry ; nor is there any lack 
 of water to turn his machinery and float his 
 shipping ; of winds to impel them over the ocean ; 
 of fuel to supply his furnaces and animate his en- 
 gines ; of mineral veins to afford him the metals, 
 or of rocks to yield him the stones lie employs in 
 the various arts. There is no deficiency, as we 
 have seen, of unoccupied soils, of the highest fer- 
 tility and easily accessible by him, on which to rear 
 innumerable flocks and herds, and to produce if 
 he choose to cultivate them infinite supplies of 
 cotton, silk, flax, hemp, indigo, and every other 
 raw material required for the fabrication of endless 
 comforts and luxuries, as well as of corn, wine, 
 oil, and every other vegetable substance which 
 he may be desirous of consuming as food. There 
 is therefore, in our conception, no discernible cause 
 why his capital, his wealth, and the abundance 
 of the necessaries, comforts, and luxuries of life 
 at his disposal should not, if he chooses, increase 
 as rapidly, at least, as his numbers : whilst every 
 improvement in his skill, and every addition to 
 his knowledge plainly puts it in his power to cause 
 all these means of enjoyment to increase in a still 
 faster ratio than his numbers, and consequently 
 to cause a continual augmentation of the average 
 share of each individual in the society. 
 
 It has been, however, urged by writers from 
 whom abler views might have been expected, and 
 repeated by others, who have learnt a parrot- lesson 
 
282 MALTHUSIAN DOCTRINE 
 
 from them until the dogma has been received as 
 a fundamental axiom from which the main proposi- 
 tions of political economy are to be deduced that 
 it is next to impossible to make the increase of 
 capital keep pace with that of population ; that the 
 latter has an inherent and perpetual tendency to 
 outstrip the former, and that this tendency can only 
 be counteracted, and the evils it threatens to pro- 
 duce obviated, by a prudential limitation of the 
 numbers of every society, so as to keep their rate 
 of increase within that of capital. Mr. Malthus, 
 as we have said, was the originator, and crowds 
 of disciples have been the zealous propagators, of 
 this signally absurd and mischievous fallacy. Ab- 
 surd, because resting on a theorem about the arith- 
 metical and geometrical ratios in which food and 
 population are declared to increase, announced 
 with a ludicrously imposing air of science, and, in 
 as far as it bears on the subject, directly the reverse 
 of the truth since the tendency to increase, or 
 prolific powers, of the vegetables and animals 
 which form the food of man, greatly exceed, in- 
 stead of falling short of, his own powers of 
 increase. Mischievous, because the direct infer- 
 ence from this miserable dogma (an inference 
 which Mr. Malthus and his disciples lost no time 
 in drawing and promulgating by every means in* 
 their power) is, that human suffering is not the 
 consequence of human error, but the necessary 
 result of a law of God and nature ; that no relief 
 afforded by legal or spontaneous charity to the 
 miserable can mitigate misery ; that the poor 
 have no claim whatever upon the assistance of 
 the rich ; that governments have no power what- 
 
ITS FOLLY, MISCHIEF, AND IMPIETY. 283 
 
 ever over the physical welfare of their subjects ; 
 that all efforts to make food or capital keep pace 
 with population are vain and fruitless ; and that 
 the endeavours of man should be exclusively di- 
 rected to keeping his numbers within the limits 
 of the means he at present possesses for main- 
 taining them. The simple consideration we have 
 adverted to ought long since to have exploded 
 these anti-social and barbarizing errors. For 
 what composes the subsistence and the capital, 
 whose slow rate of increase is complained of as 
 limiting the numbers of mankind; what, but the 
 things we have spoken of the corn, wine, oil, 
 hemp, flax, iron, and all the other joint products of 
 the labour of man and nature ? And if it be true 
 that there is, as yet, no symptom of deficiency on 
 the part of nature, every addition to the numbers 
 of man (supposing his skill and knowledge not to 
 deteriorate) must add proportionately to his power 
 of producing subsistence and capital of any and 
 every kind that he may desire. The increase of 
 population is pro tanto a direct increase of the 
 means of generating capital. And if the skill, 
 and knowledge, and industry of a people increase 
 at the same time with their numbers (and their 
 known tendency is to increase with rapidity, under 
 wise institutions), it is their fault, and theirs only, 
 if their capital, and subsistence, and the aggre- 
 gate of the means of enjoyment to be shared 
 among them do not increase, not only in the same, 
 but in a much larger, ratio than their numbers. 
 
 Should they, indeed, choose to be contented 
 with less ; should they prefer idleness and moderate 
 present enjoyment, to industry and a great increase 
 
284 PRESSURE OF POPULATION ON FOOD, 
 
 of future enjoyment ; should their spirit of accu- 
 mulation and production flag through satiety, that 
 would be some reason for a diminution in the rate 
 of increase of capital and wealth, but not for such 
 a diminution as could ever be productive of pri- 
 vation or suffering ; since these would immediately 
 act as stimuli to a renewal of the efforts of industry. 
 
 We know, however, that the love of saving, and 
 the appetency for new and varied enjoyments, and 
 the readiness to invent new means of gratification, 
 have not experienced, nor are likely to experience, 
 any such relaxation. On the contrary, the ardour 
 of gain grows more intense by indulgence ; and 
 production is never likely to fall off through a 
 general unwillingness to consume. 
 
 But, in fact, capital, in the sense in which it is 
 employed by those writers who declare its deficiency 
 to be the main check upon the comfortable main- 
 tenance of an increasing population namely, the 
 fund for the employment of labour and the sub- 
 sistence of the labourers consists simply in FOOD, 
 or the means of obtaining food. We have already 
 shown how absolutely inexhaustible is the capacity 
 of the earth for supplying with food almost any 
 conceivable, certainly for many ages any possible, 
 multiple of the number of human beings now 
 existing on its surface, if they will only take the 
 simple, easy, and obvious means which a very 
 slight exercise of foresight and prudence would 
 place in their power for availing themselves of this 
 capacity. Those means to quote the words of 
 the historian of the middle ages are two ; 4 the 
 one by rendering fresh land serviceable the other 
 by improving the fertility of that which is already 
 
OWING SOLELY TO MISMANAGEMENT. 285 
 
 cultivated. 1 The last is only attainable by the 
 application of increased skill or fresh capital to 
 agriculture ; the former is always practicable while 
 waste lands remain of sufficient natural fertility.* 
 
 Any inconvenient pressure, therefore, of popu- 
 lation against food can only be owing to want of 
 foresight and management on the part of the 
 people or their rulers. If improvements in agri- 
 culture or the growth of agricultural capital do not 
 take place fast enough to supply the growing popu- 
 lation from their home soils, there remains the 
 sure, and easy, and effectual resource of migration 
 to some of those other lands of extraordinary fer- 
 tility and unbounded extent which lie open to the 
 occupation of any portion of the family of man 
 throughout both hemispheres, and seem to re- 
 proach us for having so long neglected to avail 
 ourselves of the endless bounties which nature has 
 there lavishly poured out for our acceptance. Can 
 we then, under these circumstances, justify the 
 narrow and inconsiderate reasoning of those who 
 tell us that the world is already too fully peopled ; 
 that all the evils of society arise from this excess 
 of numbers ; and that no hope remains for miser- 
 able man except by such a cultivation of his 
 prudential faculties as will lead him to renounce, 
 till a late period of his life, if possible for his 
 whole life, that sacred, healthful, and blessed tie 
 which religion and society have substituted for the 
 vicious, promiscuous satisfaction of an irrepres- 
 sible instinct ! We will not go into the arguments 
 by which it has been proved that any attempt to 
 
 * Hallam,ni,p. 366. 
 
286 MISCHIEF OF THE ' PRUDENTIAL CHECK.' 
 
 check or defer marriage only encourages vice ; or 
 those by which it may be easily shown that the 
 ties which the Malthusians reprobate are the source 
 of the largest supply of happiness which human 
 life affords. We content ourselves with having 
 proved the utter absence of a necessity for any 
 check whatsoever on the natural increase of 
 population ; and we leave it to others to calcu- 
 late the immense amount of crime, vice, and 
 misery, and the still more immense annihilation 
 of human happiness which would be brought 
 about were the advocates of the prudential check 
 upon marriage successfully to propagate their 
 doctrine, and induce large masses of people to 
 bend their energies and direct their prudential 
 efforts to the keeping down of their numbers, in- 
 stead of to the easy task of providing those num- 
 bers with increasing supplies of food, comforts, 
 and the means of enjoyment. 
 
 We likewise advocate prudence, and would wish 
 to inculcate it, by education, in every class. But 
 we differ wholly from Mr. Malthus, Dr. Chalmers, 
 and their disciples, as to the direction which a 
 wise, prudential foresight ought to take. They 
 would direct it almost exclusively to a limitation of 
 the number of consumers : we deprecate any inter- 
 ference with the natural increase of human beings, 
 which Providence has intended, and for whom He 
 Las provided ample means of subsistence and en- 
 joyment in this world ; not to speak of the awful 
 topic of the eternal happiness prepared for them 
 in another. And in lieu of the narrow, selfish, 
 niggardly, and, as we view it, criminal prudence 
 inculcated by these authors, we would urge the 
 
TRUE DIRECTION OF PRUDENCE. 287 
 
 direction of man's foresight to the augmentation 
 of his resources, to the improvement of his skill, 
 the increase of his capital, the enlargement of the 
 field of his territorial occupation ; means, of which 
 some, if not all, are at all times within his power, 
 not only for removing to an indefinite distance 
 any pressure of population on suhsistence, but of 
 adding continually to the materials of happiness at 
 the disposal of every individual of his race, how- 
 ever rapidly their numbers may be increasing; and 
 the more rapidly they increase under such circum- 
 stances, the better.* 
 
 * The extraordinary hallucination of the writers I am 
 here opposing is well displayed in the economical works 
 of the eloquent Dr. Chalmers, who has done some service 
 to the cause of truth and humanity, by carrying the 
 Malthusian argument to that extremity in which its ab- 
 surdity and falsehood become glaringly manifest. Take, 
 as an instance of the perfect conviction which this beautiful 
 imaginative writer entertains upon the truth of a most self- 
 evident fallacy, the following passage from the Preface to 
 his last work, * The supreme Importance of a right Moral to 
 a right Economical State of the Community ; with Obser- 
 vations on a recent Criticism in the Edinburgh Review :' 
 " That the rate at which population would increase, if the 
 adequate means of subsistence were at all times within 
 reach, greatly exceeds the rate at which the means of sub- 
 sistence can increase, with all the aids and practicable 
 openings which either the mechanical arts or the sound and 
 liberal policy of governments could afford to human labour, 
 we have long regarded as a position, founded both on the 
 widest possible experience and the clearest possible demon- 
 stration. This is the one doctrine which, whether in re- 
 spect of evidence by observation, or of deduction from rea- 
 soning, is more like a TRUTH IN MIXED MATHEMATICS, than 
 any other doctrine in the philosophy of human affairs ! " 
 
 Now there are, as this author says, two modes of testing 
 the truth of this doctrine ; " deduction from reasoning," 
 
288 EXPANSION OF MAN OVER THE GLOBE. 
 
 If, indeed, there is any one desire or design 
 more manifest than another throughout the works 
 of nature, or more worthy of the benevolence of 
 nature's great Author, it is that there should be the 
 utmost possible multiplication of beings endowed 
 with life and capacity for enjoyment. We do not 
 see that nature has contented herself with esta- 
 
 and " observation." Let us try both. " Reasoning" in- 
 forms us, that since man can only double his numbers in 
 (to take the narrowest alleged period) twenty years, while 
 wheat can be multiplied in the same period by many more 
 million of times than our language has words to express or 
 than our paper could admit in ciphers ; " the rate at which 
 the means of subsistence can increase," infinitely exceeds the 
 rate at which population can or would increase under any 
 conceivable circumstances of plenty. " Observation," on 
 the other hand, informs us, that in America, Australia, 
 and perhaps some other parts of the globe, where a wise 
 system of institutions, and particularly of those laws by 
 which the occupation and cultivation of land is permitted, 
 place " adequate means at all times within reach of the 
 entire population," " the rate at which population in- 
 creases " does not at all " exceed the rate at which the 
 means of subsistence do increase ; " but that, on the con- 
 trary, the only complaint is that people do not increase fast 
 enough, and that there is a lack of consumers for the quan- 
 tity of food annually produced ; much of which is wasted, 
 because not worth the trouble of carefully gathering from 
 the overflowing fields. Here, then, the two tests appealed 
 to by Dr. Chalmers amply and undeniably disprove, instead 
 of supporting, that " doctrine" which he compares, in the 
 plenitude of his unaccountable blindness, to a truth in mixed 
 ' mathematics. Ex uno omnes I And this doctrine has, it is 
 painful to know, long reigned triumphant among statesmen 
 and writers on national welfare ; has been received as the 
 axiomatic basis of whole systems of political economy, and 
 the justification of both public measures and private conduct 
 deeply affecting the very existence of the lower classes of 
 society and the first interests of humanity. 
 
THE INTENTION OF THE CREATOR. 289 
 
 blishing little groups of organized beings in snug 
 corners, to thrive there in security and content, 
 through a nice adjustment of their numbers to the 
 food within their reach ; whether proceeding from 
 a mysterious adaptation of their procreative powers 
 to their numerical state, as in Mr. Sadler's gra- 
 tuitous hypothesis, or, from a self-regulating 
 power, dictated by instinct, or prudential intelli- 
 gence, according to Mr. Malthus's equally un- 
 necessary suggestion ? No ! abundance, extension, 
 multiplication, competition for room, is the order 
 of creation ; and the only limit to the increase 
 of each species, the mutual pressure of all upon 
 each other. But, if there is any one species of the 
 animate world, whose multiplication we may ven- 
 ture to suppose an especial object of the Divine 
 regard, can it be other than that which alone of all 
 He has endowed with a particle of His spirit 
 with intellect, reason, speech, the faculty of m- 
 provement, and an immortal soul ? Whilst every 
 other species is taught to spread and multiply as 
 widely as its relative powers allow, is MAN alone, 
 though conscious of his sovereignty over all the 
 rest of living creation, to confine himself carefully 
 within a limited area, alone to apply his energies 
 to prevent the increase of his numbers, the en- 
 largement of his resources, and the extension of 
 his dominion ? How blinded to the one grand 
 object of creation, to the one supreme attribute 
 of the Deity, to the one most elevating circum- 
 stance in the position of man on the globe, must 
 he be, who would so limit his expansion, and 
 annihilate the bright future of his race! 
 
 This monstrous doctrine we consider to be as 
 
290 MALTHUSIAN DOCTRINE. 
 
 pernicious in its moral as in its economical ten- 
 dencies. By holding out to all, that improve- 
 ments of any kind are useless, and even mischie- 
 vous, for that ' every enlargement of our resources 
 only tends to land us in a larger, it is true, but a 
 more straitened population/* it directly discou- 
 rages all attempts at the amelioration of our con- 
 dition, whether public or private ; and fosters in 
 all classes a selfish and apathetic indolence, a 
 mean distrust of our own powers, instead of that 
 confident determination to employ them to the 
 utmost, which, under fair play, is almost certain 
 to overcome every obstacle. It gravely tells us to 
 cease our efforts for enlarging our resources, and 
 direct them wholly to limiting our wants ! 
 
 Again : by this doctrine the wealthy and the 
 powerful are completely absolved from the duty of 
 contributing to relieve the distresses of their poorer 
 neighbours, either by direct charity, or a just and 
 wise attention to the economical means for im- 
 proving their condition ; since all such attempts 
 are declared to be not only fruitless but mis- 
 chievous. It directly frees a government from all 
 responsibility for the sufferings of the mass of the 
 community, by throwing the blame entirely on 
 nature and the improvidence of the poor them- 
 selves, and declaring the evil to admit of no 
 remedy from any possible exertions of the legis- 
 lature. We cannot imagine any theory more 
 destructive than this would be, were it generally 
 received, whether among the higher and more 
 powerful, or the lower classes themselves ; and 
 \ve must consider those who labour to propagate 
 * Chalmers' Political Economy 
 
MALTHUSIAN DOCTRINE. 291 
 
 it, though including, we are well aware, many of 
 the most ardent and benevolent philanthropists of 
 the age, to be, unconsciously, the worst enemies 
 of their race. That the ground of their argument 
 is utterly untenable, we think we have said enough 
 to demonstrate, and to put the question for ever at 
 rest. They build all their theory on the assertion, 
 that population tends to increase faster than food 
 can be provided for its support. We affirm the 
 direct contrary, viz. that it is in the power of man, 
 by a judicious direction of his resources, to in- 
 crease his supplies of food so as to meet every 
 possible increase of his numbers : at least until 
 the world is fully peopled, a term from which we 
 are farther off now than we were at any former time 
 since the creation. They declare, that of the three 
 only elementary sources of human wealth, land, 
 capital, and labour, the last tends to increase so 
 rapidly as to occasion, by the effect of competition, 
 a distressing pressure upon the labouring class ; 
 and that the only remedy for this distress is a self- 
 imposed check on its supply. We assert that a 
 redundancy of labour can only be brought about 
 by mismanagement, so long as there is no defi- 
 ciency of the two other elements, capital and 
 land; that the deficiency of land at present is 
 merely local, and confined, indeed, to the British 
 islands, and perhaps the Netherlands, and one or 
 two states of Germany ; that there is no general 
 deficiency of land, or of space, through the world, 
 for the full development of labour, aided by all the 
 appliances which modern skill, industry, and inge- 
 nuity bring to their assistance, nor any appearance 
 of the possibility of such deficiency ; that there 
 
 u 2 
 
 v-i/m* >*j * ^ /^^/>. ,-JS ,.'J/ /X*. 
 
292 MALTHUSIAN DOCTRINE. 
 
 can be no deficiency of capital while land and 
 labour are not wanting, and tbe saving principle 
 continues inherent in man's nature ; that, conse- 
 quently, no limit can be assigned or anticipated to 
 our productive powers, judiciously exerted on that 
 vast and prolific field which nature, or rather we 
 would reverently and gratefully say, a beneficent 
 Creator, has spread out before us and called on us 
 to cultivate. 
 
 Spatium Natura beatis 
 
 Omnibus esse duditj si quis cognoverit uti.' 
 
 .;. . .- 
 
 
 : - 
 
 " 
 A*J~-$&L 
 
 /X*v* / 
 
 - 
 
 f 
 
 '^ ..; 
 
293 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 CAUSES OF POVERTY. 
 
 Mismanagement of resources, Faulty Institutions. Econo 
 mical structure and habits of Nations. Errors in all. 
 Precarious position of the bulk of the British people. 
 History of the Labouring Class of Britain. Liberty and 
 Pauperism coeval. Origin, principle^ means and results 
 of the Poor-Law. Prejudice against it. Use confounded 
 with abuse. Its maladministration. Allowance System. 
 Reform of the Poor-Law Proposed Commutation of 
 Poor-Tax for compulsory Mutual Assurance Fund Ne- 
 cessity of Poor-Law for Ireland. General Scheme of 
 Emigration. Summary of means for extinguishing Pan- 
 perism. 
 
 MISMANAGEMENT, then tlie most gross and pal- 
 pable mismanagement of the resources at the dis- 
 posal of man, in his collective or individual ca- 
 pacity is, we maintain, the sole cause of the 
 existence of want or poverty upon earth, and of the 
 dread array of physical and mental sufferings which 
 poverty and want engender. Calamity resulting 
 from casualties and disordered health is unavoid- 
 able ; instances there will always remain, we fear, 
 of individual misery occasioned by individual mis- 
 conduct, (though a system of general education in 
 sound principles and virtuous habits will go far to 
 put an end to this source of evil ;) but, unless 
 through ill-health, accident, or misconduct, misery 
 ought not to be found upon earth ! Happiness 
 all the happiness, at least, which is directly or in- 
 
294 PARADOX TO BE SOLVED. 
 
 directly derivable from an abundance of the neces- 
 saries and conveniences of life ought to be within 
 the easy reach of every individual, even of the 
 lowest class, in every human society. 
 
 So great are the persevering industry and in- 
 ventive genius, so strong the passion for accu- 
 mulation, so endless and insatiable the desires of 
 man, that when the development of these qualities 
 is not impeded by the rapacity of power or the 
 trammels of officious legislation, his means for the 
 production of enjoyment (both skill and capital) 
 tend, as we have shown, to increase in a far more 
 rapid ratio than his numbers. So that, under in- 
 stitutions securing a judicious management of a 
 nation's resources, and an equitable distribution of 
 their produce, (abstracting the interference of ex- 
 ternal and extraordinary causes of reaction, such 
 as wars, pestilence, or famine,) the share of each 
 individual in the community is sure to be continu- 
 ally increasing. 
 
 Why such has not been the case hitherto in 
 most civilized communities why the progress of 
 knowledge, the increase of the powers of man over 
 nature, and the augmentation of his means for 
 gratifying his desires, have not proportionately 
 added to the general happiness ; why the mass of 
 mankind, the greater number of almost every 
 people under the sun, are yet insufficiently supplied 
 even with the means of satisfying their coarsest 
 wants; why poverty is yet so general as to seem 
 the law of human existence rather than the excep- 
 tion; why misery and its offspring, vice and 
 crime, yet wield their iron sceptre over a large 
 proportion of the human race; why industry 
 still fails to secure its reward ; why prudence is 
 
FAULTY INSTITUTIONS. 295 
 
 yet no guarantee from distress ; why, as wealth 
 increases, poverty does not diminish ; why the 
 more men produce the less they usually have to 
 consume; why the blessings of heaven are turned 
 into curses ; why plenty seems to generate want, 
 and abundance is complained of as the cause of 
 privation; why these strange anomalies exist, (as 
 it cannot be denied that they do exist) ; what, in 
 short, is the nature of the mismanagement that occa- 
 sions the economical evils under which man so 
 cruelly suffers, and what are the means by which 
 they are to be cured is the question we now ad- 
 dress ourselves to solve. 
 
 Laws for protecting the production, enjoyment, 
 and accumulation of property, and for regulating 
 in some degree its distribution, are essential, as 
 was shown in an earlier chapter, to the working of 
 every system of social welfare. But as society 
 complicates and subdivides itself, these laws, even 
 though they were originally adapted with the 
 utmost wisdom to its early condition, must, in 
 order to answer their end, be made continually to 
 yield and accommodate themselves to the altered 
 form and disposition of its parts. In point of fact, 
 however, the institutions of no nation ever pos- 
 sessed the perfection we have supposed. Far 
 from having been framed at the first in a compact 
 and well-ordered system with the view of securing 
 the greatest attainable benefit to the community 
 for which they were made, they have generally 
 consisted of a bundle of shreds and patches, the 
 work of accident, association, ignorance, force, or 
 cunning, to the full as much as of wise and well- 
 meaning deliberation for the common welfare. 
 The history of every nation exhibits a constant 
 
296 STRUCTURE OF SOCIETIES. 
 
 series of struggles on the part of the people to 
 ameliorate their institutions, and accommodate 
 them to their wants a struggle which has but 
 too rarely succeeded, being one of the simple 
 against the crafty, the weak against the powerful, 
 the industrious against the idle a struggle of the 
 many whose interests are those of the community 
 at large, with the few who have acquired an in- 
 terest in institutional abuses a struggle of those 
 who justly desire to enjoy the fruits of their labour, 
 with those who desire unjustly to enjoy the fruits 
 of the labour of others ! 
 
 Hence it happens that few societies have ever 
 yet taken that form which, by doing justice to all 
 classes, would allow each to claim and receive its 
 due share of the general property and produce, 
 according to the principles of equity, and the mode 
 in which the efforts of unrestricted, unburdened 
 industry would spontaneously distribute them. The 
 varied circumstances that have affected different 
 nations in the past periods of their history have 
 impressed on each a form of social arrangements 
 more or less peculiarly its own. When one nation 
 has invaded another, the conqueror has generally 
 carried with him a predilection for the institutions 
 of his native state, and by his endeavours to im- 
 pose them on his new acquisitions, has created a 
 compound of the two. The maritime or inland 
 position of a country, the character of its climate, 
 and the nature of its principal productions, have 
 had a considerable influence on the institutions of 
 its inhabitants, by determining their pursuits, and 
 modifying their national character. The physical 
 and mental disposition which a people inherit from 
 their remote ancestry, and which has been by some 
 
ECONOMICAL HABITS OF NATIONS. 297 
 
 considered to characterize separate races must 
 in like manner have always exercised a very consi- 
 derable influence over their social arrangements. 
 The economical and political condition of every 
 nation is, in short, the compound result of acci- 
 dental extraneous circumstances and internal 
 character. Where the latter is deficient in energy 
 and the spirit of improvement, a people may re- 
 tain for centuries the same unvaried habits, laws, 
 and economical condition. When, on the con- 
 trary, these qualities are strongly developed, a 
 process of internal fermentation will be continually 
 going on, through the efforts of the people to avail 
 themselves of every opportunity for the ameliora- 
 tion of their circumstances; changes will occur 
 in the form and character of their institutions, 
 more or less sudden and violent, or gradual and 
 gentle, according to the greater or less degree of re- 
 sistance, which accident, or the stubbornness of the 
 depositaries of power, may oppose to the natural 
 tendency of the society to improvement. The na- 
 tions of the East, and especially of the farthest East 
 China and Japan offer an example of the first 
 kind ; the western states of Europe of the last. 
 The former, though undeniably possessed at 
 an exceedingly early period of a very consider- 
 able knowledge of the arts and sciences, have stag- 
 nated for centuries in the same torpid and unim- 
 proved condition ; the increase even of their num- ; 
 bers being checked by theunelastic nature of their 
 institutions, which forbid any enlargement of their 
 resources at all proportionate to that of their 
 wants. The latter, though dating their origin 
 from a comparatively recent period, and having 
 still more recently acquired that knowledge of the 
 
298 ERRORS GENERAL AND PECULIAR. 
 
 arts and sciences which the Orientals seem to have 
 possessed from the remotest ages, have yet made a 
 constant, and of late, in some instances, a rapidly 
 accelerated progress in the improvement of their 
 economical capacities which, if not immediately, 
 must, before long, he followed by a parallel im- 
 provement in the economical condition of their 
 component members. 
 
 Meantime, even in the most advanced European 
 states, there is so much of evil yet remaining in the 
 texture of society, and the institutions by which 
 that texture is fashioned still exhibit so wide a de- 
 parture from the principles of natural right which 
 we have shown to be necessary for securing the 
 greatest production and most equitable distribution 
 of the purchaseable means of enjoyment, that 
 there is nothing to excite wonder in the continued 
 existence of want and poverty, in the midst of the 
 elements of wealth and abundance : the wonder is 
 that the evils, being so great and so capable of cure, 
 are so easily submitted to by intelligent communities. 
 
 Each country has some peculiar disadvantages 
 in the structure of its society, by which the im- 
 provement of its economy is more or less im- 
 peded. We have no intention of entering into an 
 examination of these defects or their remedies as 
 respects foreign nations; though what was men- 
 tioned in a former chapter on the influence of the 
 serf and metayer systems on the condition of the 
 people of those European countries where they 
 prevail, will suggest some of the most obvious and 
 fatal impediments to the progress of improvement 
 in that part of the world ; and whilst we confine 
 our examination to the economical structure of 
 this community alone, we shall have to comment 
 
POSITION OF THE BRITISH PEOPLE. 299 
 
 on many errors which are common to the institu- 
 tions of other civilized nations. 
 
 At present, the great majority of the people of 
 the British islands consists of labourers for hire 
 persons, that is to say, who depend for their daily 
 maintenance on the wages of their daily labour; 
 possessing very little property, other than a trifling 
 degree of acquired skill, and their manual strength. 
 The land from which raw produce may be obtained 
 by labour, the tools and machinery which are indis- 
 pensable to labour, and the stock of food on which 
 the labourers must be subsisted while at work, are 
 all appropriated by other classes. The circum- 
 stances under which this distinct appropriation 
 took place will have been gathered in part by the 
 reader from the historical sketch we lately gave 
 of the occupation of land, and the generation of 
 capital in this and other countries. It has been 
 the result partly of the natural laws of distribution, 
 which tend, as we have seen, to divide society into 
 classes pursuing different occupations, and en- 
 joying a great inequality of condition partly of 
 circumstances connected with our political history 
 and institutions, influenced as both have been by 
 the peculiar national character. The effect 
 whether good or bad on the whole, we will not 
 determine has been to place the great body of 
 the people in an exceedingly precarious position. 
 The owners of land, and the owners of capital of 
 every kind, are removed from all danger, or dread, 
 of immediate want ; since, in case of the failure 
 of a profitable demand for what they bring into 
 the market, they are sure at least of being able to 
 exchange it for the means of subsistence. The 
 
300 LEGISLATION FOR LABOURERS. 
 
 labouring class, on the contrary, on any failure of the 
 ordinary demand for the labour which is their only 
 property, have no resources to fall back upon, and 
 no other means of obtaining even a temporary 
 subsistence. It is impossible to deny that this 
 circumstance places them in a position of pecu- 
 liar hardship, leaving them almost entirely at the 
 mercy of the other classes, who have the power at 
 such times to withhold from them the necessaries 
 of life, or dole them out on almost any terms they 
 choose to make. It becomes, therefore, in such a 
 country, the imperative duty of the government 
 established for the advantage and equal protection 
 bf all, to keep an especial watch over the condition 
 of this class, and lend its aid to prevent thair 
 suffering, either from want or oppression, through 
 the peculiarly disadvantageous circumstances in 
 which they are placed. 
 
 The legislation of this country, with regard to 
 the labouring class, has been of a mixed and che- 
 quered character. One great benefit has un- 
 doubtedly been conferred on this class in the POOR- 
 LAW the poor man's charter, as it has been most 
 justly called, It is equally certain that a series of 
 successive enactments have at various times coun- 
 teracted this benefit to a great extent ; while the 
 negligence of government in not taking measures 
 for securing the due administration of this law has 
 combined to oppress and injure the labouring 
 class. 
 
 Without meaning to deny that the statesmen 
 and legislators of Britain have at times been in- 
 fluenced by a benevolent and just regard for the 
 welfare of the great bulk of the people whose des- 
 tinies they commanded, yet it is impossible to 
 
HISTORY OF THE LABOURING CLASS. 301 
 
 trace historically the various statutes that relate to 
 this subject, without being convinced that while 
 those which inflicted evil on the labouring class 
 were dictated by an unscrupulous and avowed 
 regard for the interests of the high and the wealthy, 
 those which have conferred benefits on the lower 
 orders originated, for the most part, in scarcely less 
 interested motives, and were extorted from the 
 fears, rather than conceded by the justice and bene- 
 volence, of the powerful. 
 
 The gradual transition of the labouring class 
 from a state of servitude to one of free labour for 
 money-wages was brought about, as in an earlier 
 chapter we remarked, by the force of circum- 
 stances, and in spite of the lords and masters of 
 those days, not with their good will. The almost 
 continual state of warfare, and the incessant strug- 
 gles of the kings with their nobles, made it a matter 
 of necessity for both contending parties to liberate 
 large numbers of villeins for the purpose of re- 
 cruiting their armies, and to conciliate their re- 
 tainers of every class by the concession of new 
 privileges and immunities. But even whilst this 
 process was going on, efforts were made at frequent 
 intervals to counteract its beneficial tendency, by 
 imposing severe restrictions on the freedom of the 
 labourer. Numerous statutes were passed, fixing 
 the rate of wages, and prohibiting the removal of la- 
 bourers from one place to another directing how 
 they should be fed, clothed and lodged in short, en- 
 deavouring, by a variety of legislative contrivances, 
 to maintain the conditions, while it was found ne- 
 cessary to abolish the name, of compulsory servitude. 
 These measures, however, met with constant 
 resistance from the sturdv natives. The insurrec- 
 
302 LIBERTY AND PAUPERISM. 
 
 tion of Wat Tyler proved to the haughty barons 
 and their sovereign that the people of England, 
 once free, were not to be re-enslaved ; that they 
 were bent upon obtaining a recognition of their 
 right to liberty, and a mitigation of the oppressions 
 under which they laboured. Within the TA&& 
 century great advantages had been gained by the 
 labouring class. The race of villeins was nearly 
 extinct, and money-wages had almost quadrupled, 
 in spite of the statutes repeatedly enacted for the 
 purpose of keeping them down. 
 
 There was, however, this disadvantage incidental 
 to the change, that whilst, under the system of 
 feudal servitude, the lord was bound to maintain 
 and protect his dependents under sickness and 
 infirmity, so, as this system declined, and men 
 ceased to be the property of their employers, they 
 were in impotence or old age left destitute of certain 
 support from any quarter, and forced to throw 
 themselves on the voluntary almsgiving of the 
 charitable. The free labourer now entirely de- 
 pended for his maintenance on the demand for his 
 labour. And at times when this was slackened by 
 casual circumstances, he was liable to suffer from 
 the difficulty of finding work. 
 
 It was thus that liberty and pauperism grew up 
 together ; and as a variety of political events 
 tended to increase the number of beggars and able- 
 bodied freemen, roving in search of work, it was 
 before long found absolutely necessary to check 
 the evils accruing from this state of things by 
 statutory measures for restraining mendicancy, 
 providing relief to the poor, punishing the idle, 
 and setting to work those who were willing to earn 
 their bread by their honest industry 
 
ORIGIN OF BRITISH POOR-LAWS. 303 
 
 In the year 1376, complaint was made by the 
 Commons of the multitude of beggars and sturdy 
 vagrants that infested the cities and boroughs, 
 and in several succeeding years statutes were 
 passed to fix the limits within which the poor were 
 to be allowed to beg, to enforce the removal of 
 beggars to the place of their birth, and partly to 
 compel the maintenance of the impotent and the 
 employment of the able-bodied within certain dis- 
 tricts. In these statutes are contained the germs 
 of our present poor-law. But their operation was 
 ineffectual. Beggary and vagrancy continued a 
 growing evil for more than another century, during 
 which the legislature was frequently engaged in 
 fresh attempts to restrain them by inflicting punish- 
 ment on the idle vagabond, and affording relief 
 to the well-disposed poor, partly by voluntary, 
 partly by compulsory contributions. 
 
 None of these experiments, however, succeeded, 
 until at length, in the famous 43d of Elizabeth, the 
 preceding statutes were consolidated and method- 
 ized into a plain, simple, and effective provision 
 for securing the maintenance of the infirm poor, 
 and the employment of the able-bodied, within 
 the limits of their respective parishes, by a tax 
 upon the property of each parish. By means of 
 this statute it became possible effectually to pre- 
 vent both mendicancy and vagrancy, through the 
 provision of a sure resource for the destitute of both 
 classes. And the grievous nuisance which had so 
 long afflicted the country, and, by rendering pro- 
 perty insecure, had materially checked the deve- 
 lopment of industry and the accumulation of capi- 
 tal, was completely abated. A love of peace and a 
 
304 PRINCIPLE OF THE POOR-LAW. 
 
 respect for the law, of which they so directly, in 
 this instance, felt the benefit supplanted among 
 the lower classes the spirit of ruffianism and out- 
 rage. Order and tranquillity reigned through the 
 land, instead of turbulence and crime; and the con- 
 sequent security of property encouraged the accu- 
 mulation and productive engagement of capital. 
 England henceforward began to develop her great 
 natural resources ; and the vast wealth, unrivalled 
 power, and solid greatness of the nation have 
 arisen from the concession of security and legal 
 protection to the class which forms the base of the 
 pyramid of society. 
 
 The benefits conferred by this immortal statute 
 have been frequently impugned ; but, in our opi- 
 nion, only by persons who take a very narrow, 
 false, and unphilosophical view of the principle it 
 consecrates, of the means it employs, and of the 
 effects it has, by the evidence of all history, pro- 
 duced. 
 
 The principle of the poor-law is the maintenance 
 of the peace and security of society by the sup- 
 pression of mendicancy, vagrancy, and petty 
 plunder, which no other course can by possibility 
 prevent. It is not to be looked upon as a mea- 
 sure of charity, so much as one of police. Un- 
 doubtedly, charity, even heathen humanity but 
 Christian charity most especially, must render it 
 imperative on the wealthy to provide for the neces- 
 sities of the poor; and the only mode of duly 
 apportioning the distribution of charity to the wants 
 of the necessitous, and its burden to the respective 
 means of the wealthy for contributing to it, is a 
 
POOR-LAW A MEASURE OF POLICE. 305 
 
 legal and methodical system of levy and relief. 
 Justice, again, no less than chanty, calls for the 
 enactment of such a law in every country where 
 society is in a complicated and artificial state ; 
 where the law, by appropriating every inch of 
 the national soil, (the common gift of Heaven 
 to such as are born into existence upon it,) has 
 prohibited the poor man from supporting himself 
 by the sweat of his brow off the land of his birth. 
 This is the birthright of every individual and 
 the law cannot with justice deprive any one of 
 this natural right, unless it afford him at least 
 an equivalent in its place. The state has no 
 claim to the allegiance of those citizens upon 
 whom it confers no advantages. An individual 
 to whom the law extends no protection in the 
 extremity of distress is absolved from all duty of 
 obedience to the law. It is the very first duty of 
 a government to secure the means of subsistence 
 to every well-disposed and well-conducted member 
 of the community over whose welfare it presides. 
 
 But putting humanity and justice out of sight, 
 mere worldly policy renders a poor-law one of the 
 wisest and most necessary of institutions. There 
 can be no real or permanent security for property 
 where the body of the people have no security for 
 life. There can be no tranquillity in a state while 
 large numbers are exposed unrelieved to the 
 agonies of want. There can be no respect for 
 the laws among those who feel no benefit from 
 the laws. There can be no extensive accumula- 
 tion or profitable investment of capital there can 
 be no large development of industry, wealth, or 
 civilization, in a country where the poor have no 
 
306 POOR-LAW ITS MEANS AND END. 
 
 direct stake in the maintenance of order, where 
 they are constantly in a precarious, often in a des- 
 titute, and therefore desperate condition. The 
 principle of the poor-law, then, is not mere cha- 
 rity, not justice only but plain practical policy 
 likewise the policy of preventing crimes against 
 property, and the terror, annoyance, and injury 
 to the peace and order of the community which 
 mendicancy and vagrancy necessarily occasion 
 wherever there. is no public provision for the poor. 
 
 The means brought into action by the poor-law 
 for the purpose of effecting its object, have been 
 as much mistaken and misdescribed as its prin- 
 ciple. Those means are not, as is often stated, 
 the support of the idle, improvident, and vicious, 
 at the expense of the industrious, frugal, and vir- 
 tuous : (this, on the contrary, is a true description 
 of the system of mendicancy which the poor-law 
 is intended to supersede). They are, simply, 1 . the 
 necessary and methodical relief of the sick, maimed 
 and impotent, whom casualty, and the want of re- 
 latives capable of maintaining them, (for where 
 there are such relatives, the law throws on them 
 the burden of relief,) have reduced to a state of 
 destitution. 2. The employment in productive 
 industry of those able-bodied poor persons, who, 
 being unable to find work for themselves, through 
 extraordinary circumstances, would otherwise be 
 driven by want to prey upon society. 
 
 Still greater, if possible, is the prevailing mis- 
 apprehension and misrepresentation of the results 
 produced by the English poor-law. Those results 
 may be tested by a comparison of the condition 
 of this country, where a poor-law has been in com- 
 
POOR-LAW ITS EFFECTS. 307 
 
 plete operation for upwards of two centuries as 
 respects wealth,, tranquillity, tlie orderly disposition, 
 moral habits, physical comforts, and general hap- 
 piness of its labouring class, with that of other 
 countries in which no such system has been in 
 operation. 
 
 Those who declaim against a poor-law as neces- 
 sarily demoralizing the lower classes, destroying- 
 all their industry, energy, enterprise, providence, 
 and independence, and annihilating their kindly 
 sympathies, are bound to explain how it has hap- 
 pened, that, after living for two entire centuries 
 under the influence of this demoralizing law, the 
 English people still show themselves, to say the 
 least, as moral, as industrious, as energetic and 
 enterprising, as provident, as independent in spirit, 
 and as kind and compassionate in feeling, as any 
 people on the face of the globe. Those who in- 
 veigh against a poor-law as unfavourable to the 
 growth of capital should inform us how it is that, 
 during this same period, under its obnoxious poor 
 law, England has accumulated the extraordinary 
 mass of capital which covers her surface with the 
 multiplied means of production and enjoyment, 
 and which so peculiarly distinguishes her from 
 every other country of the earth. 
 
 If it were possible to be astonished at the suc- 
 cessful promulgation of any doctrine, however re- 
 pugnant to common sense, to humanity, to ob- 
 servation, and to reasoning, we should acknow- 
 ledge unfeigned astonishment at the opposition 
 which has for years past been urged, and is still as 
 zealously maintained as ever, against the prin- 
 ciple of the English poor-law. We can only refer 
 
 x 2 
 
308 PREJUDICE AGAINST POOR-LAWS. 
 
 this extraordinary opposition to that passion for 
 the paradoxical and extravagant, by which many 
 reasoners are led to give credit to a proposition 
 because it is incredible, and to assent the more 
 readily to the truth of a matter, the more impos- 
 sible it appears. The arguments by which it is 
 supported prove that it has its origin in two main 
 fallacies, which, gross as they are, and easily de- 
 tected, yet, partly from their superficial and plau- 
 sible character, and partly, I fear, from the coun- 
 tenance they hold out to the selfish feelings of our 
 nature, have acquired such an influence over many 
 minds as utterly to incapacitate them from taking 
 any clear or comprehensive view of the question. 
 
 The first of these fallacies is that imaginary 
 chimera which passes under the name of its prin- 
 cipal patron Mr. Malthus, the doctrine, namely, 
 that there is no room in the world for any addi- 
 tional number of human beings ; that poverty and 
 want are owing to no other cause than the in- 
 crease of population beyond the possible means of 
 obtaining subsistence ; and that the only mode, 
 therefore, by which these evils can be effectually 
 relieved, is by a reduction of the numbers of the 
 people, or, at least, by putting a check upon 
 the rate of their increase. It follows of course, 
 from these premises, that not only all legal and 
 compulsory relief, but all voluntary and private 
 charity to the poor is useless, nay, rather, inju- 
 rious since the evil proceeding solely from a 
 limitation of the means of subsistence, what is 
 given to one beggar, must be taken from some 
 other, or from some more deserving industrious 
 character, elsewhere, and the mass of misery 
 
USE CONFOUNDED WITH ABUSE. 309 
 
 rather increased than diminished. This, in fact, 
 is a conclusion at which Mr. Malthus himself has 
 necessarily and directly arrived, though some of his 
 followers, with obvious inconsistency, while they 
 deprecate a public provision for the poor on the 
 ground of the insufficiency of the means of sub- 
 sistence, encourage their support by private charity, 
 which must evidently draw its resources from the 
 same inadequate fund.* We have sufficiently ex- 
 posed, in the last chapter, the utter baselessness 
 of this fallacy ; we have shown that nothing but 
 the mismanagement of the resources of a people 
 by the governing body, can prevent their means of 
 procuring subsistence from increasing in a faster 
 ratio than their numbers. And the direct infer- 
 ence from this is, that so long as misery and pri- 
 vation are the result of such mismanagement, its 
 authors are bound to provide for its relief. 
 
 The second fallacy on which the opponents of 
 a poor-law ground their argument, is the confound- 
 ing of the use with the abuse of the system. 
 Superficial observers, who contemplate the opera- 
 tion of the poor-laws as at present administered 
 through the greater part of England, are naturally 
 struck by the glaring evils which they engender ; 
 and, looking no further into the matter, are 
 strongly impressed with a prejudice against such 
 
 * The benevolent Dr. Chalmers has, more perhaps than 
 any other disciple of Mr. Malthas, fallen into this palpable 
 inconsistency. His whole system rests upon the asser- 
 tion that the means of subsistence are necessarily within 
 the demand for them ; and yet he dwells with fond and 
 eloquent enthusiasm on the virtue and benefits of private 
 charity, which obviously under such circumstances can only 
 take from the necessities of one, to relieve those of another. 
 
310 MAL-ADMINISTRATION OF POOR-LAW. 
 
 a law, as encouraging improvidence, and destroy- 
 ing all desire of independence among the poor. 
 Those, however, who are not content to take up 
 hasty impressions from first appearances, and who 
 examine the history of the English poor-law, and 
 the origin and real nature of its injurious practices, 
 soon discover that these have been engrafted upon 
 it but a few years since ; that, instead of being a 
 necessary accompaniment of the law, they are a 
 direct breach both of its spirit and letter ; that, 
 for two entire centuries, the law worked admi- 
 rably, unproductive of any of the evils now so 
 universally and so justly complained of; and that 
 it would have continued to work on equally well, 
 had it not been shamefully perverted by those who 
 are entrusted with its local administration, free 
 from the control of any higher authority, into an 
 instrument lor lowering wages, and depressing the 
 condition of the labouring class for raising rents 
 and benefiting landlords and employers, at the 
 expense of the labouring class itself. 
 
 Instituted at the beginning of the seventeenth 
 century, by the wisdom of the greatest statesmen 
 this country ever produced, the English poor-law 
 undeniably fulfilled, up to the close of the 
 eighteenth century, the great objects it was in- 
 tended to secure, and without any counter- 
 balancing evils. The evils now so generally and 
 justly complained against were unheard of until 
 within the last few years. Their appearance has 
 been coincident in time with a fundamental change 
 in the administration of the law, the introduction 
 of a practice contrary to the letter and spirit of 
 the law, the practice (called the allowance sys- 
 
MAL-ADMINISTRATION OF POOR-LAW. 311 
 
 tern) of taking upon the poor-book labourers 
 working for private employers, and giving them 
 relief proportioned to their families. This practice 
 is, indeed, aptly fitted to produce all the evils 
 which are wrongly attributed to the law itself. It 
 tends directly to discourage industry and put a 
 penalty on providence, to force the spread of pau- 
 perism, to augment the rates, and to give a pre- 
 mium to the increase of an already redundant 
 population. Under these circumstances, igno- 
 rance or prejudice alone can persist in referring to 
 the original poor-law, evils which history and ob- 
 servation clearly prove to have been occasioned 
 only by its recent and most unwarranted abuse. 
 
 This abuse it would be easy for the legislature 
 to correct, and thereby to put an end to the great 
 and general mischief which flows from it. Indi- 
 vidual magistrates and vestry-men have been 
 hitherto left without check or control in the exer- 
 cise of their authority, to interpret the poor-law at 
 their discretion, and to expend the vast sum which 
 they levy in its name from the industry of the 
 country, in almost any manner and upon any ob- 
 jects they please. Had such unlimited power not 
 been abused, it would have been, indeed, surprising. 
 
 The magistracy, in the rural districts especially, 
 is composed almost wholly of landed proprietors, 
 who have a direct interest in keeping clown the 
 wages of agricultural labour; since in proportion as 
 wages are low, Cfcteris paribus, will rents be high. 
 The same motives, therefore, which induced the 
 landowners of old to frame statutes regulating 
 wages and otherwise interfering with the free dis- 
 posal of labour, has in a later period dictated the 
 
312 ALLOWANCE SYSTEM. 
 
 allowance system, and other contrivances of the 
 present administrators of the poor-laws for 
 keeping the labouring class in a condition ap- 
 proximating to compulsory servitude. Under 
 a system of free labour, every average labourer, 
 whether single or married, receives the full 
 current rate of wages ; which can never fall 
 much below a sufficiency for the support of a 
 considerable family, or the supply of labour could 
 not be kept up. But by forcibly metamorphosing 
 the whole labouring population into paupers, as is 
 now done in many parishes, by the refusal of 
 work to all that are not on the parish books, each 
 individual labourer is paid according to his 
 strict necessities only. The man with a large 
 family alone receives the necessary maintenance 
 for such a family ; the married man without chil- 
 dren receives just enough for the maintenance of 
 two persons ; and the single man is paid for his 
 labour, only a bare sufficiency for his own subsist- 
 ence. By this contrivance of paying wages 
 out of poor-rate, (commonly called the allowance 
 system,) it is obvious that the whole labouring 
 population is kept up to its full numbers, and main- 
 tained at the lowest possible expense to those who 
 employ and profit by its industry. And as rent 
 consists of the surplus beyond the expenses of 
 cultivation, the gain resulting from this injurious 
 practice falls to the share of the landowners, who 
 are themselves for the most part the parties who 
 originated and still enforce the abuse. 
 
 It was a resolution passed by the landowners of 
 some of the southern counties assembled atquarter^ 
 sessions, towards the beginning of the present 
 
ALLOWANCE SYSTEM. 313 
 
 century, which first introduced and sanctioned this 
 abominable practice ; the direct and avowed object 
 of these gentlemen being to relieve their tenants 
 from the necessity of raising the wages of their 
 labourers in proportion to the great rise that had 
 at that time taken place in the prices of agri- 
 cultural produce. It is evident that whatever 
 was by this contrivance cut off from the aggregate 
 remuneration of agricultural labour went to swell 
 the rents of the proprietors. What the labouring 
 class lost, the landed interest pocketed. This 
 conduct of the magistracy is the more indefen- 
 sible, because the practice they have thus intro- 
 duced, and indeed enforced, is wholly unauthorized 
 by the letter, and directly opposed to the spirit, of 
 the law they are sworn to execute. The statute 
 of Elizabeth requires parishes to "set to work 
 such as exercise no ordinary or daily trade whereby 
 they can maintain themselves ;" but nothing in 
 it can be construed to countenance or permit the 
 application of parish funds to the support of those 
 persons who are labouring daily for the benefit of 
 private employers, and ought to be supported un- 
 questionably by those employers alone. By this 
 execrable system, not only is the aggregate ex- 
 pense of maintaining the labouring population 
 materially lowered, to the grievous injury of that 
 class; but a large portion of this unfairly dimi- 
 nished expense is, moreover, fraudulently thrown 
 upon the owners of property contributing to the 
 poor-rate, who do not employ, and therefore do 
 not benefit by the labour they have to pay for. 
 The clergyman, householders, and tradesmen of 
 
314 REFORM OF POOR-LAW ABUSES. 
 
 many parishes are equal sufferers from this abuse 
 with the labouring population itself. 
 
 The " labour-rate" lately introduced into our 
 legislation is a contrivance for perpetuating and ex- 
 tending all the injustice of this system, and all its 
 most mischievous consequences. It may in fact 
 be characterized as a direct attempt to restore the 
 serfship of the feudal ages. It goes to tie down 
 the settled labourers of every parish in a state of 
 compulsory servitude to the owners and occupiers 
 of the soil, and strikes at the root of that freedom 
 of contract between employers and the employed, 
 which all history as well as reason proves to be 
 the indispensable condition for the full develop- 
 ment of industry. 
 
 The evils resulting from the maladministration 
 of the poor-law might without much difficulty be 
 corrected by the organization of a due system of 
 supervision from some central authority, a branch 
 of the general government, and authorized to en- 
 force a complete uniformity of practice. This, 
 together with a legislative prohibition, under penal- 
 ties, of the ' allowance system/ would soon re- 
 store the poor-fund to its proper uses, put an end 
 to its misappropriation, check the wasteful and cor- 
 rupt extravagance of those who now administer it, 
 and place the labouring class once more in a con- 
 dition to profit by the exercise of their spontaneous 
 industry and foresight. The obstacles to a com- 
 plete and speedy purification of the English poor- 
 law exist only in the interested opposition of those 
 who have contrived, and continue to cling to the 
 existing abuses, and the prejudiced opposition of 
 
REFORM OF THE POOR-LAW. 315 
 
 such theorists as blindly confound the abuse of 
 the law with its principle, and, under the influence 
 of that extraordinary delusion which Mr. Malthus 
 has propagated, would sweep away the entire sys- 
 tem of poor-law as an evil not to be tolerated in 
 any form. 
 
 That some parts of the statutory poor-law are 
 capable of improvement, we are far from denying. 
 The law of settlement, indeed, requires a com- 
 plete revision. The extremely unequal pressure 
 of the poor-rate is another grievance of great 
 magnitude. There are parishes in which it has 
 completely absorbed the whole net produce of the 
 land, whilst in others it amounts to a very insig- 
 nificant proportion of the rental. It presses with 
 peculiar severity upon property in land, and tends 
 materially to impede the extension of cultivation, 
 and the application of capital to the growth of 
 raw produce. The amount of poor-rate borne by 
 property engaged in manufactures especially, is 
 very disproportionate to that which is paid by 
 property of equal value embarked in the cultiva- 
 tion of land. 
 
 It has been proposed to equalize this pressure 
 by substituting for the parochial poor-rate a ge- 
 neral national tax. But this is open to many ob- 
 jections. It would alter to a very great extent 
 the value of all estates in the kingdom which have 
 been bought and sold on terms calculated upon 
 the existing parochial burdens. A still more fatal 
 objection occurs in the enormous abuses that would 
 unquestionably arise in the discretionary distribu- 
 tion of a sum of seven or eight millions of public 
 money by any authorities that could be appointed 
 
316 PROPOSED COMMUTATION OF POOR-TAX 
 
 for the purpose. If the present mode of distribu- 
 tion is full of abuse, when the distributors are for 
 the most part the very persons who contribute 
 most largely to the fund, and feel very sensibly 
 every increase of its amount, what must we not 
 expect from a system which would allow every 
 overseer to dip his hand into the public purse? 
 Under such a system, it is little doubtful that the 
 expenditure would materially increase, and the 
 evils of pauperism be aggravated. 
 
 It appears to the writer of this work, (and he 
 has long since recorded his opinion, and his rea- 
 sons for it in detail,) that it is highly desirable, and 
 might be contrived without difficulty, to substitute 
 by degrees for the present mode of raising the 
 poor-rate, a general compulsory contribution by 
 the employers of labour to a fund for assuring 
 their labourers against destitution; a measure 
 which would throw the expense of maintaining 
 the aged, impotent, and destitute poor precisely 
 upon those persons who have profited by their 
 labour, or that of their natural protectors, while 
 capable of work. An outline of this plan is given 
 below.* 
 
 * 1. Let every person who hires the services of another, 
 whether as a servant, workman, or labourer, and whether the 
 employment be given by the day, week, month, or year, be 
 required to pay a proportionate contribution to the Assu- 
 rance Fund of the district in which he resides, to be lodged 
 there in the name of the servant, &c. ; proper precautions, 
 such as will readily suggest themselves, being taken to 
 identify the individual, and prevent imposition. 
 
 2. Let the contribution be of such amount as, according 
 to the tables of the best Friendly Societies, will suffice to 
 assure to the servant, &c., supposing the payment to begin 
 upon his attaining the age of 20 years, if a male, say, 
 
FOR A MUTUAL ASSURANCE FUND. 317 
 
 The cost of the labour employed in any country 
 must always be considered as including the neces- 
 
 6s. weekly pay in what is called in the tables of Friendly 
 Societies, bed-lying sickness, 
 
 3s. weekly, in walking sickness, 
 
 85. weekly annuity, after GO years of age, 
 
 10 on death, to be commuted for a proportionate pension 
 to the widow and children, if any. 
 
 The contribution for female servants, and young persons 
 of both sexes under 20 years of age, to be such as will 
 assure one-half these advantages to them, previous to their 
 attaining the full age of 20. 
 
 The above rate of pay is taken as affording a bare sufficiency 
 for the maintenance of the individuals, and therefore cor- 
 responding to the parish allowance which it is intended to 
 supersede. The contribution, according to Mr. Becher's 
 tables, necessary to assure this scale of payments, will be 
 about four-pence per week for male servants, two -pence for 
 females, and about three-half-pence each for young persons 
 between 10 and 20 years of age. But it may be said, that 
 labourers occasionally waste some days unemployed, either 
 from want of work, or idleness ; and during these the con- 
 tribution will not be coming in. In order, therefore, to cover 
 completely this deficiency, and any other that can be sup- 
 posed to occur, let us make the contribution half as large 
 again, viz. 6cl. per week, or one penny per day, for male ser- 
 vants, one halfpenny for females, and young persons. If 
 in the working of the scheme this is found to be more than 
 sufficient to secure the amount of relief I have taken as a 
 scale, it will be easy to increase the relief, or diminish the 
 contribution, as may be thought best. 
 
 A fixed rate of payment per head is considered as infinitely 
 better than a per centage on wages, the object being to pro- 
 vide a bare maintenance similar to that now obtained from 
 the poor-rate. By this, likewise, far greater simplicity and 
 facility in the accounts is afforded, with less risk of fraud; 
 and all necessity is removed of an inquisition into the nature 
 of the contracts between employers and labourers, which 
 would lead to interminable embarrassments, and'give occa- 
 sion to much subterfuge. 
 
318 PROPOSED COMMUTATION OF POOR-TAX. 
 
 sary support of that part of the labouring- popula- 
 tion which, from age, infirmity, or accident, are 
 
 3. The servant, &c. removing to another district, may 
 have his assurance follow him to that in which he goes to 
 
 . reside ; satisfactory vouchers heing transmitted of his being 
 the person so provided for. A certificate, for instance, 
 would be given him, containing the amount lodged in, his 
 name, with a description of his person, age, &c., similar to 
 the ' signalemenf of the passport system. In equivocal 
 cases, direct correspondence between the districts would 
 settle the question of identity ; and, indeed, there would be 
 little temptation to commit frauds, since it is only in case of 
 sickness, or old age, that payments could be claimed, and 
 then to no greater extent than the individual may, in the 
 absence of a certificate, claim from the parish as casual poor. 
 
 4. Since the fixed amount of contribution here stated will 
 not cover the cost of assuring the necessary relief to those 
 servants, &c. who are more than 20 years of age at the insti- 
 tution of this plan, the contribution paid into the district 
 fund by the employers of all such servants, &c. should not 
 be invested in an assurance, but allowed to accumulate in 
 their names, in the manner of an ordinary deposit in a 
 savings bank. On the occurrence of sickness, casualty, or 
 old age, the usual allowance of 6s., 3*., and 3s., would be 
 made to such servant, &c. until the deposit lodged in his name 
 were exhausted; after which the servant would be passed to 
 liis parish, as at present, and supported out of the ordinary 
 poor-rate. Whatever sums remain unclaimed in the names 
 of such persons at their decease, should be reinvested in 
 those of their widows or children, if any. If none, they should 
 be placed to the credit of the poor-rate of the parish from, 
 which the contribution proceeded. 
 
 By this means the number of persons who would continue 
 to possess a claim on their parishes for relief, as well as the 
 amount of their individual cost on the occurrence of age or 
 casualty, would continually and rapidly decrease, and be 
 finally extinguished after the lapse of a generation. It 
 might be advantageously required that every householder 
 in the kingdom should likewise be made to contribute to 
 the same fund a similar tax for every member of his house- 
 hold not working as the servant or labourer of another 
 
UNEQUAL PRESSURE OF POOR-RATE. 319 
 
 unable to support themselves. Equity, therefore, 
 would require that those who, for the sake of profit, 
 hire a certain portion of the stock of labour in the 
 country, should pay for it an equal proportion of 
 the whole cost of maintaining that stock to the 
 country at large. Certainly it is unjust that a 
 capitalist, a manufacturer for example, who re- 
 quires the services of any number of labourers, 
 should be permitted to hire them for the bare cost 
 of their maintenance while in health and the prime 
 of life, and, after reaping a profit from their exer- 
 tions, shift upon the public at large the burden of 
 maintaining them, so soon as accident, sickness, 
 or the exhaustion of their strength, in the course 
 of nature, after a life of toil, deprive them of their 
 value as instruments of gain. Now the plan 
 proposed accomplishes the desirable object of 
 throwing the burden of supporting the aged and 
 infirm part of the labouring population, on the 
 employers of labour, exactly in proportion to the 
 amount of labour they purchase from the able- 
 bodied. 
 
 This would seem to be an improvement on the 
 poor-laws completely in harmony with their spirit 
 and intention ; such, indeed, as we may venture to 
 suppose would have been adopted by the profound 
 and sagacious statesmen to whom we owe that 
 institution, had the necessary machinery existed in 
 their days, which ve have now at our disposal, for 
 accurately distributing the burden upon this prin- 
 
 party. Even the wealthiest are sometimes reduced to 
 pauperism, and it is only just that they likewise should con. 
 tribute their quota to the maintenance of the fund to which 
 they may, at some time or other, be indebted for sustenance. 
 
320 PROPOSED COMMUTATION OF POOR-RATE. 
 
 ciple, in saving banks, annuity tables, and correct 
 calculations on the value of lives, and of assurance 
 against the contingencies of disease and accident. 
 For the fundamental principle of the English poor- 
 law clearly is, and it has always been so considered 
 by the highest judicial authorities, that those par- 
 ties who have had the benefit of the labourer's 
 strength and skill, should be at the expense of 
 his maintenance and that of his family, when 
 rendered incapable of labour by illness, age, or 
 accident. The throwing the relief of their own 
 poor on such small territorial divisions as parishes, 
 which at that time were rarely subdivided into 
 separate estates, affords a strong presumption that 
 the object in view was to place the burden as nearly 
 as possible on the particular individuals who had re- 
 ceived the benefit, or at least on the property upon 
 which it had been bestowed. And the plan an- 
 swered this end with tolerable exactness whilst land 
 was almost the sole property in the country, its 
 cultivation the sole employment, and husbandmen 
 the only labourers. But since the vast advances 
 made by our manufacturing industry, which has at 
 length assumed such colossal importance as to 
 rival agriculture in the magnitude of its capital, 
 and the numbers to whom it gives employment; 
 since also the management and occupation of 
 land is widely different from what it was in the 
 reign of Elizabeth ; a corresponding alteration 
 has been long required in the machinery of the 
 poor-law, to adapt it to these altered circumstances, 
 and preserve its principle and spirit entire. At 
 present, for example, a manufactory may be started 
 in an agricultural district; and, after a continuance 
 
FOR A MUTUAL ASSURANCE FUND. 321 
 
 of some years, on the occurrence of any of those 
 capricious fluctuations to which that branch of 
 industry is peculiarly liable, the business may be 
 closed, and the crowded population which the de- 
 mand for their labour has created or introduced, 
 thrown entirely for support upon the cultivators of 
 land in the parish. The manufacturer, who has 
 probably realized large profits from the employ- 
 ment of these families, by merely quitting the spot, 
 or closing his factory, escapes all share in the 
 charge of their maintenance, which he alone, not- 
 withstanding, has, for his own private interests, 
 brought upon the common property of the neigh- 
 bourhood. Such a state of things is as contrary to 
 tlie evident intention of the poor-law, as it is to 
 reason and equity ; and in as far as it can be cor- 
 rected by a better distribution of the burden of 
 maintaining the poor, few will dispute the expe- 
 diency of doing so without loss of time. 
 
 It is maintained, therefore, that the measure we 
 propose would be no anomalous innovation or 
 violent change in the poor-law, but strictly such 
 improvement as, in the progress of time, it ought 
 to have already received from the increased lights 
 and resources of the present age, in order to pre- 
 serve its original character under the altered cir- 
 cumstances of society. 
 
 To the poor themselves it would be no injury, 
 but the contrary. It would relieve them from the 
 humiliation and debasement that attaches to the 
 present mode of relief. They would feel that in 
 applying, in sickness or old age, to the appropriate 
 fund, they were only claiming a portion of their 
 fair earnings which had been withheld from them 
 
 Y 
 
322 COMPULSORY MUTUAL ASSURANCE FUND. 
 
 for their own benefit, or rather that they were 
 receiving, at the time they most needed it, an 
 addition to the wages they formerly earned, re- 
 served, with all its accumulated interest, for this- 
 special purpose, by the paternal foresight and 
 benevolence of the state. This would be making 
 the poor-law intelligible to them, and putting it 
 on that footing which must lead them to respect 
 and feel grateful to its authors and dispensers. At 
 present the only feeling they have on the subject is 
 a vague agrarian notion of property having been 
 cnce in common, and of the modicum to which 
 the law gives them a right being intended as a 
 poor and meagre apology for depriving them of 
 the remainder. 
 
 Indeed one great advantage which we should 
 expect from the adoption of this plan is that it 
 will assimilate the poor-rate to a general benefit 
 society. It will methodise and guarantee provi- 
 dence. It will compel the thoughtless and ex- 
 travagant to contribute while they are able to 
 that fund upon which they fall back for mainte- 
 nance whenever their means of self-support are 
 exhausted. In manufacturing districts, it is well 
 known, that however high wages may be, they are 
 spent as soon as got, generally in riot and dissi- 
 pation. And the consequence is, that upon the 
 first reverse, through any of the casualties to which 
 manufacturing industry is exposed, the labouring 
 population are reduced to the extremity of want, 
 and become a grievous burden upon the parish 
 rates. Our plan would appropriate a small pro- 
 portion (and a very small proportion indeed will 
 be amply sufficient) of the wages paid for labour 
 
COMPULSORY MUTUAL ASSURANCE FUXD. 323 
 
 in times when it is in request, to form a fund for the 
 support of the labourers and their families in pe- 
 riods when the demand for labour will not absorb 
 the supply, as well as in sickness and decrepitude. 
 
 Will it be objected that the benefits which are 
 acknowledged to result from every voluntary sys- 
 tem of mutual assurance, whether against fire, 
 casualty, old age, or want of employment, disap- 
 pear when the contribution is made ^compulsory? 
 We cannot see why this should be so. What is all 
 government, with its machinery of taxation, for 
 legislative and executive purposes, but a great 
 system of compulsory mutual assurance against the 
 evils of internal disorder and external violence? 
 If individuals may justly be taxed by the state to 
 maintain a fund for securing them from robbery 
 and violence, may not a tax with equal justice be 
 levied for the object of securing them from want 
 and starvation ? The tax, indeed, is imposed now, 
 but frequently on the wrong parties, and always 
 in a form which gives it a false character. Oar 
 object is to shift it upon the right shoulders, and 
 make it appear that which it is, or ought to be, a 
 mutual assurance of the members of society against 
 destitution. 
 
 Other objections to such a scheme may pro- 
 bably be urged by those who now employ labour 
 without paying their fair share of the cost of keep- 
 ing up its supply. The manufacturer will per- 
 haps declare that a tax on wages would so increase 
 the cost of his article as to prevent his successful 
 competition with foreign rivals in the markets of - 
 this or other countries. But in the first place it 
 may be answered, that the tax will not in reality - 
 
3*24 COMPULSORY MUTUAL ASSURANCE FUND. 
 
 fall upon the employer, except when wages are so 
 low as to bear no reduction, but will at all other 
 times be borne, as in justice it should be borne, 
 by the labourer himself. And, secondly, when 
 wages are so low that they cannot be reduced by 
 the amount of the tax levied on employers, it is 
 evident that the cost of supporting the infirm 
 and aged portion of the labouring class engaged 
 in manufactures must, even at present, be borne 
 by some party. If by the manufacturers them- 
 selves, they can lose nothing by being required to 
 make the same payment under a new name ; if 
 not by them, then it is clear that they are now 
 shifting most unjustly upon some other parties this 
 portion of the cost of the stock of labour they con- 
 sume; and that they cannot complain of being 
 made to take it upon themselves. In truth, manu- 
 factured commodities which are worked up under 
 the present system at an expense in labour below 
 the aggregate cost of maintaining the labouring 
 population, (the deficiency being made good from 
 a tax on land and houses,) are exported and sold to 
 foreigners at a price below their real cost to this 
 country, and therefore at a continual loss to the 
 British community at large, though the merchants 
 and manufacturers may realize a profit on the 
 business. Such a trade is in the situation of one 
 maintained only by a bounty, and the sooner it is 
 stopped the better for the nation. 
 
 There exists a precedent for a tax on wages in 
 the sixpence per month levied on the employers 
 of merchant seamen. But the extraordinary cir- 
 cumstance of this impost is, that instead of going 
 to maintain a fund for the relief of these same 
 
NECESSITY OF POOR-LAW FOR IRELAND. 325 
 
 seamen in casualty and old age, it is appropriated 
 to the exclusive support of the decrepit seamen of 
 the navy alone in Greenwich Hospital. This in- 
 justice has excited much attention of late ; and 
 there is some prospect, we believe, of the fund 
 being applied to its legitimate purposes. It will 
 then form an excellent model for imitation with 
 respect to all modes of employing labour, whether 
 by sea or land. 
 
 But no improvement in the administration or 
 letter of the English poor-law can be effectual 
 towards either diminishing the burden of the 
 rate, or ameliorating the condition of the poor, 
 until the same system of compulsory relief has 
 been extended to Ireland ; and the funda- 
 mental institutions of the British islands in this 
 respect completely assimilated. The existing ano- 
 maly is most injurious to both. 
 
 In truth, as has been already observed, since 
 the Irish Channel has been bridged over by steam- 
 boats, the two islands are virtually united, and the 
 absence of a poor-law in the one affects the con- 
 dition of the whole labouring class in the other, 
 disturbs the natural relation of its demand and 
 supply of labour, and utterly perverts and poisons 
 the action of the English poor-law. The labourers 
 of the three kingdoms now compete in one com- 
 mon market ; and those on whom the law throws 
 the maintenance of the surplus in one portion of 
 the empire, practically have to support the sur- 
 plus of the whole. The British labourers are 
 driven out of the employment which would other- 
 wise be open to them by the immigrating herds of 
 
326 POOR-LAW FOR IRELAND, 
 
 starving Irish, and forced back upon their parishes 
 to be maintained there at the expense of British 
 landowners in unproductive idleness ! Our agri- 
 culturists are scarcely yet awake to the extraordinary 
 injury they suffer through this most unjust in- 
 equality in the conditions of landownership in the 
 two islands. Nothing, however, can well be 
 clearer than that they are virtually supporting the 
 Irish poor that a very large portion of the 
 <6,000,000 per annum which is now deducted 
 out of the net value of their estates by the poor- 
 rate, is indirectly transferred to the pockets of the 
 Irish landowner, through his exemption from the 
 charge of supporting his portion of the poor of 
 the empire. 
 
 The continually increasing demand for labour 
 in our large towns forms the natural vent for the 
 -surplus population of our rural parishes. But 
 this vent is kept constantly choked by the bordes of 
 starving Irish whom the absolute destitution which 
 awaits them in their native country urges over 
 here, prepared to undertake the hardest work for 
 far less wages than our parishes are by law com- 
 pelled to give, their settled poor for doing nothing. 
 
 Let our landowners abstract in imagination 
 from the labouring population of Great Britain 
 the thousands of Irish who have been thus forced 
 to leave their native soil and settle in this country, 
 and say whether in their absence there would 
 be any redundancy in a single parish. Had the 
 hundred thousand Irishmen, for example, who are 
 said to be settled in the metropolis, remained at 
 home, (and if the law of Ireland had been assi- 
 milated to that of England, and subsistence and 
 
POOR-LAW FOR IRELAND. 327 
 
 employment secured to them there, few, if any, 
 would have come over,) could there have boon 
 at present any redundancy of labourers in the 
 rural parishes of Kent, Sussex, Surrey, and the 
 other metropolitan counties ? It is quite cle.ir 
 that whatever is paid from the rent of land in 
 England for the support of a supposed redundancy 
 of labour, is chiefly paid in consequence of tli3 
 absence of a provision for the poor in Ireland ; 
 that the Irish landlords, in fact, virtually quarter 
 tht'ir poor upon our rates to the extent of some 
 two millions per annum. To that amount, at least, 
 English property now pays an Irish poor-rate ! 
 
 But even this is by no means the whole injury 
 that is inflicted on the agricultural interest of 
 England by its exclusive taxation to the support 
 of the surplus population of the empire. While 
 our farmers are thus indirectly maintaining the Irish 
 poor as well as their own, they are met in every one 
 of their own markets and undersold by Irish pro- 
 ducers of corn, meat, bacon, butter, &c., raised off 
 land which is exempt from poor-rate, and at a rate 
 of wages which the absence of any legal protec- 
 tion to the poor keeps clown to one-third of what 
 .the poor-law maintains in England*. Thus the 
 British agriculturist suffers under a double disad- 
 vantage. The Irish landlord has his estate cul- 
 tivated free of poor-rate, and at a dry potato rate 
 of wages, and yet commands the markets of Eng- 
 land, whose home-grown produce before it is 
 
 * The average wages of labour in Ireland seem to be 
 about sixpence a-day. In England the average rate of 
 v/ages for agricultural labour cannot be less than one and 
 sixpence, but is probably nearer two shillings per day. 
 
328 POOR-LAW NECESSARY FOR IRELAND, 
 
 brought to market must pay a heavy poor-rate 
 (swollen, as has been shown, by the immigration 
 of the Irish poor), and a rate of wages which 
 the law justly and properly keeps from sinking 
 below a sufficiency to support the labourer on a 
 \vheaten diet ! How long will the landowners 
 of Britain tolerate this frightful injustice? Their 
 tenants are fully alive to the injury they endure 
 from the unfair competition in their own markets 
 of Irish produce raised on such unequal terms. 
 The agricultural labourers of England are equally 
 aware of the hardship inflicted upon them by the 
 competition of Irish to whom the law denies any 
 resource in their native country. The struggles 
 of which we frequently hear between bodies of 
 English and Irish labourers in this country arise 
 from this feeling. Will our legislators wait till 
 these classes are forced to take into their own 
 hands the redress of this crying grievance, and by 
 their own efforts attain a wild but effectual justice ; 
 or will they wait till the rental of England is 
 wholly absorbed by the poor-rate, the English 
 labour market completely glutted by Irish labour- 
 ers, and the English provision market with Irish 
 produce ? The time is fast approaching when this 
 happy consummation will have arrived. 
 
 But if it be absolutely necessary for the welfare 
 of England that its poor-law should be extended 
 to Ireland, the measure is certainly no less indis- 
 pensable for the sake of Ireland itself. In the 
 present circumstances of society, a poor-law is 
 required in every country where want is found to 
 exist, on the plainest principles of justice, humanity, 
 and general policy. Justice demands it, because 
 
POOR-LAW NECESSARY FOR IRELAND. 329 
 
 the prevailing want may be shown to proceed from 
 the imperfection of the existing institutions, which 
 ought, therefore, to provide some relief to the evils 
 they themselves cause ; because it is essentially 
 unjust to punish attacks upon property if you offer 
 no alternative for the preservation of life. Hu- 
 manity requires it, because while the wealthy are 
 rioting in luxurious indulgences, the poor ought 
 not to be permitted to starve ; because the relief 
 of the necessities of the indigent cannot safely be 
 trusted to the voluntary charity of the rich ; be- 
 cause the selfish and hard-hearted ought to be 
 made to contribute from their superfluity as well 
 as the benevolent; because private charity will 
 often overlook the really deserving, to lavish its 
 assistance on the clamorous impostor. System 
 and organization are as essential to the attainment 
 of the object aimed at, in the distribution of relief, 
 as in the collection of the fund to be distributed. 
 
 Finally, a poor-law is expedient on the ground 
 of policy, because it is utterly impossible without 
 such an institution to put down vagrancy and 
 mendicancy, two of the greatest nuisances from 
 which society can suffer to prevent great waste 
 of the powers of labour to secure property from 
 continual depredation to preserve any chance of 
 peace and tranquillity in a country where the great 
 body of the people are placed in a most precarious 
 condition, and liable to be suddenly deprived, in 
 considerable numbers, of their sole means of liveli- 
 hood. To refuse temporary relief and employ- 
 ment to persons so circumstanced, is to render 
 riot and outrage almost inevitable ; and if su(n\ 
 cient force be not provided to repress such dis- 
 
330 POOR-LAW NECESSARY FOR IRELAND; 
 
 turbances, must at least spread over the land a 
 body of vagrants, driven by necessity to beg or 
 plunder a maintenance. 
 
 Let those who are prejudiced against a poor- 
 law compare the social condition of England 
 under the operation of such a law with that of 
 Ireland without any such institution compare 
 the comfort of the labouring class, the security of 
 property, the respect for the laws, the general tran- 
 quillity, the development of industry, and the ac- 
 cumulation of wealth in the one, with the extreme 
 destitution, idleness, and lawlessness of the same 
 class, the continual turbulence, the insecurity of 
 property and even of life, the stagnation of industry, 
 the waste of productive capacity, and the absence 
 of accumulated capital in the other. 
 
 We repeat, there can be no security for property 
 where the body of the people have no security for 
 life. In a country where, as in Ireland, hundreds 
 of families are at times thrust out from their little 
 farms (their only means of subsistence) into abso- 
 lute destitution, at the mandate of a careless, 
 hard-hearted, or absentee landlord, where mil- 
 lions more know that they are hourly exposed to 
 the same fate can we expect that acts of outrage 
 and vengeance will not take place, and combina- 
 tions of the people to resist the law under whose 
 sanction such oppression is perpetrated upon them ? 
 Who will say that the peasantry ought not to 
 combine for such an object ? Allegiance is only 
 due where protection is afforded. What are all 
 institutions but combinations of the many to resist 
 the oppressions of the few ? AVe shudder at the 
 cruelty of the Whilefeet; but if we listen to them, 
 
POOR-LAW NECESSARY FOR IRELAND. 331 
 
 they will justify their deeds by that which is ac- 
 knowledged to justify the cruelties of war self- 
 defence the first natural law that of self-preser- 
 vation. They have, in truth, this plea to urge. 
 So long as the law drives the peasantry of Ireland 
 to desperation by denying them a right to the 
 continuance even of existence, so long will the 
 law be more justly blamed for the excesses into 
 which wretches in this situation are urged by de- 
 spair and ignorance, than the unfortunates them- 
 selves 4 more sinned against than sinning.' 
 
 The disturbances which have long desolated 
 Ireland, and prevented the expansion of its vast 
 natural resources, are clearly proved, by the late 
 investigations of Parliamentary Committees, to 
 liave been the struggles of a starving people for 
 the occupation of land, as the only means of sub- 
 sistence. Whiteboys, Terry-alts, Black-feet, La;ly 
 Clares, and all the other many-titled combinations 
 that have for years past succeeded each other 
 in the disturbed provinces, have been simply asso- 
 ciations of the peasantry for the purpose of ena- 
 bling themselves to live by their labour off the 
 land of their native country to conquer that right 
 which the law of Ireland denies, and has always 
 denied, to them. They accomplish this end rudely 
 and imperfectly, it is true. Their means are 
 savage and detestable, and the punishment they 
 inflict seldom alights on the real culprits. But is 
 it net necessarily so when the lowest class of any 
 country is driven by oppression to redress its own 
 grievances, and take the law into its own hands ? 
 It is to be deplored that there is, and lias always 
 been, a general organization of the people against 
 
332 POOR-LAW NECESSARY FOR IRELAND. 
 
 the law ; but can anything else be expected from 
 them when the law is, and is felt by the mass of 
 the people to be, against them a tyranny which 
 men must combine against in the very instinct of 
 self-preservation ? Nor will these disturbances 
 be ever quelled until justice be done to the op- 
 pressed peasantry of Ireland until the power of 
 the landlords over the soil of the country is limited, 
 as it is in England, by a due regard to the secu- 
 rity of the people born and reared upon it until 
 the RIGHT of the peasantry to be saved from star- 
 vation to be assisted to a position in which by 
 assiduous industry and prudence they may main- 
 tain themselves in existence, is conceded to them 
 until the law shall have provided for their relief 
 in the extremity of destitution, and for their in- 
 dustrious and productive employment whilst they 
 are able and willing to work. 
 
 Even if the internal resources of Ireland for 
 the employment of her population were exhausted, 
 it would still be evident that out of the large 
 surplus of her produce now exported for the bene- 
 fit of her landowners, a portion ought to be al- 
 lotted for the temporary sustenance of her starving 
 poor, and to defray the cost of their removal to 
 other lands, where they will be able to maintain 
 themselves in ease and plenty. But it is scarcely 
 doubtful that Ireland possesses within herself the 
 means of fully and profitably employing the whole 
 of her labouring population. It is the absence 
 of tranquillity, owing to the want of a legal pro- 
 tection for the destitute, which, by checking the 
 economy and productive investment of capital, 
 alone produces the apparent redundancy of labour. 
 
POOR-LAW NECESSARY FOR IRELAND. 333 
 
 Let the government raise a fund by taxation of 
 the landlords of Ireland, for the employment of 
 her surplus of labour in opening up systematically 
 and scientifically the vast undeveloped resources 
 of that country, and in a very short period it is 
 probable that the redundancy will disappear; the 
 spell which now freezes up the productive capa- 
 cities of that island being broken, the process 
 will thenceforward carry itself on ; increasing 
 tranquillity will encourage the growth of capital, 
 and its migration from England ; all the existing 
 labour will then be spontaneously absorbed, and 
 the poor-rate (so much dreaded by the Irish land- 
 lords) reduced to a very trifling burden, far more 
 than compensated to them by the improved value 
 and greater security of their estates. In fact, it 
 would be easy to show that the amount of assess- 
 ment on Irish property necessary for the beneficial 
 employment of the whole surplus of labour would 
 scarcely, if at all, exceed the sum which is now 
 annually levied from the same fund by sturdy 
 beggars and idle vagrants, and consumed unpro- 
 ductively, with a mischievous instead of a bene- 
 ficial result. If what is at present extorted by 
 mendicancy and intimidation, and wasted in the 
 support of filth, idleness, vice, and impudence, 
 were both levied in a systematic manner by the 
 machinery of a poor-law, and expended with judg- 
 ment and economy in the employment of the poor, 
 on roads, canals, drainages, embankments, and 
 other general improvements of the surface of the 
 country, property to an immense amount would in 
 a few years have been created, and a stimulus 
 given to the spontaneous creation of a far larger 
 
334 GENERAL SCHEME OF EMIGRATION". 
 
 amount ; and this at no sacrifice whatever, but 
 with the gratuitous production of vast collateral 
 advantages, which must arise to the landowners, 
 the government, and the body of the people, from 
 the tranquillization and improvement of the coun- 
 try*. 
 
 It is doubtful, we say, whether there would be 
 any real surplus of labour in Ireland, were her 
 capacities allowed a full and fair developement. 
 It is still more questionable whether there would 
 be any real surplus in Great Britain, were the 
 provision of certain relief and employment at 
 home to check the continual immigration of 
 destitute Irishmen into this island, by whom our 
 native population are undersold in their own la- 
 bour-market, driven out of all the lower classes of 
 employment in the great towns and manufacturing 
 districts, and compelled to throw themselves for 
 support upon their parishes. But this, at least, 
 is certain, that if there be a redundancy so long 
 as there is in any parish of the kingdom a real and 
 permanent surplus of labourers, for whom no pro- 
 fitable employment spontaneously offers itself, it is 
 madness to continue to support these persons in 
 idleness, or to employ them on useless and un- 
 profitable work here, while there exists a vast, 
 insatiable, and continually increasing demand for 
 labour in our colonies in what is merely another 
 part of the empire, separated from our home 
 parishes only by a few weeks' voyage over the 
 Atlantic, in a country peopled partly already by 
 our own emigrants, enjoying the same climate, lan- 
 
 * See t Plan of a Poor-law for Ireland,' with a review of 
 the arguments for and against it. Ridgway } 1833, 
 
GENERAL SCHEME OF EMIGRATION." 335" 
 
 guage, religion, and laws as the mother country, 
 supplied from thence with all the comforts and 
 luxuries of civilization, and to which our own 
 capitalists are continually migrating, impelled by 
 the desire to increase their profits, and improve 
 their circumstances, and checked only by tlia 
 difficulty and great cost of procuring labour. Under 
 such circumstances, a general scheme for the en- 
 couragement, or rather the carrying on of Emigra- 
 tion, ought to be an essential part of the machinery 
 of the poor-law. It is neither just nor politic to 
 tax property in this country, to maintain in idleness 
 within their parishes a number of hands who 
 would be secure of full and well-paid employment 
 in another part of his Majesty's dominions. If 
 they choose to remove there, the means of doing 
 so should be found them. If they do not, such re- 
 fusal must prove that they are yet capable of main- 
 taining themselves in this country, and do not need 
 relief. It is neither just nor politic towards the 
 persons taxed, or towards the poor men themselves, 
 upon whom the tax is expended, at a great cost to 
 maintain them barely alive and under a strict 
 workhouse, not to call it prison, discipline in this 
 country, when a small part of the same expenditure 
 would remove them to a spot where their circum- 
 stances would be greatly improved. In the inte- 
 rests of both parties, it were best that emigration 
 should be resorted to for the disposal of the surplus 
 labour, wherever any exists. Nor do we see any 
 valid objection to its being made optional to pa- 
 rishes to offer this species of relief to those who 
 apply, on the plea of being unable to find work in 
 this country. The expense to the parish, as well 
 
336 GENERAL SCHEME OF EMIGRATION. 
 
 as the loss sustained by parting with labourers 
 really wanted, would effectually prevent this power 
 from being abused to the extremity of injuriously 
 depopulating any district, by overseers or vestries. 
 The able-bodied pauper, on his side, could have no 
 right to complain of the refusal of other relief, 
 when he is offered a free passage for himself and 
 his family, to another part of the empire, where 
 industry and prudence are sure to obtain, not 
 merely a living, but positively an independence 
 in no long time. As to the outcry which would be 
 raised by some ultra-sentimentalists against such 
 a proposition, as a violent rending of ties, a sen- 
 tence of banishment, a deportation, and so forth, 
 it is enough to point out to the attention of these 
 persons the thousands of the wealthier classes who 
 are every year voluntarily expatriating themselves, 
 for the same all-sufficient motive, the desire of 
 improving their circumstances. It can surely be 
 no hardship on a starving pauper to require him 
 to take that step for securing to himself a com- 
 petent maintenance, which his betters are taking 
 continually for the mere augmentation of their 
 income. 
 
 It is more than probable, that an extensive 
 scheme of emigration, carried on by government, 
 for removing the surplus population of this country 
 to the colonies as fast as such a surplus appeared 
 in any quarter, might easily be made to pay its 
 own expenses ; either through a slight tax levied 
 On the immigrating labourers* themselves for a 
 term of years, and readily paid by them out of the 
 high wages they receive there ; or by the pro* 
 ceeds of the sales of government lands, or from 
 
MEANS FOR EXTINGUISHING POVERTY. 337 
 
 other sources of colonial taxation. But even if 
 this were found impracticable, it will always re- 
 main by far the cheapest mode of disposing of 
 such supernumerary labourers, to undertake the ex- 
 pense of removing them at once, rather than to 
 maintain them here in idleness, or useless employ- 
 ment, acquiring habits of vice, crime, and impro- 
 vidence, from their exposure to the demoralizing 
 influence of pauperism. 
 
 It is to be hoped that the government of this 
 country will, before long, be induced to adopt some 
 general and comprehensive scheme of this kind. 
 Its attention has for some time been laudably 
 turned to the subject, but it may be regretted 
 that a rigid and, we think, short-sighted parsi- 
 mony has hitherto prevented any efforts in this 
 direction being made upon a scale at all commen- 
 surate with the importance and expediency of the 
 measure. While twenty millions are unhesitatingly 
 offered for the promised redemption from slavery 
 of the West Indian negroes, it is pitiable to see 
 the same government scruple to lay out as many 
 thousands in promoting the liberation of the na- 
 tive poor of this island from a state of degradation 
 and wretchedness, little, if at all, inferior to that 
 of the slaves themselves. 
 
 It is the duty we maintain, the very first duty 
 of a government (having the power, as we have 
 proved that the government of this country has) to 
 secure to every able-bodied and industriously dis- 
 posed labourer the means of living by his industry, 
 If these means are not to be obtained in this 
 island, they are certain of being secured to him 
 by his removal to those outlying but integral por- 
 
338 MEANS FOR EXTINGUISHING POVERTY. 
 
 tions of our territory, where labour is in great de- 
 mand, subsistence plentiful, and the fruits of in- 
 dustry large and abundant. The government 
 which enforces his maintenance in useless labour 
 .or idleness at home, instead of effecting his re- 
 moval to where his labour would be so beneficial 
 to the community as well as to himself neg- 
 lects its duty both to the individual and to the 
 community. Were such a general scheme of colo- 
 nization adopted as we have here shadowed out, 
 .the relief of this country from the burden of poor- 
 rate would be great and immediate. Industrious 
 pauperism would be no longer known, and poverty 
 banished from the face of the country, or confined 
 at least to the maimed, the infirm, and the decrepit, 
 from whom the mutual assurance fund suggested 
 above would remove the disgrace and demoraliza- 
 tion of pauperism. 
 
 Emigration is a certain and effectual resource 
 against any extension of pauperism and any re- 
 dundancy of labour. \Ve do not, however, mean 
 that it is to be only employed as a last resource, 
 when all others fail. On the contrary, we think 
 a vent of this kind should always be kept open, 
 an 1 within reach of every labouring man in this 
 indeed, in every civilized country of which he 
 may easily avail himself whenever the means of 
 gaining an industrious livelihood fail him in his 
 native land. This would leave no palliation for 
 crime, no necessity for the severe and brutalizing 
 discipline of the workhouse, no excuse for that 
 mischief- working, however well-meant, charity 
 which encourages idleness, vice, and imposture. 
 
 But though we are of opinion that emigration 
 
REMOVAL OF LEGISLATIVE RESTRAINTS- 339 
 
 should be made available at all times and under all 
 circumstances to the destitute we think it exceed- 
 ingly doubtful whether there is any one country 
 in Europe whose internal resources for the employ- 
 ment and comfortable maintenance of its popula- 
 tion would be found deficient, if it were not for the 
 imposition and continuance of legislative shackles, 
 which cramp the exertions of its inhabitants, and 
 interfere with the natural, that is, ihefree direction 
 of their industry, and the natural and equitable 
 distribution of its produce. 
 
 Every civilized state offers examples of such 
 artificial, needless, and injurious restraints. We 
 must confine our attention to those which deform 
 our own legislature, and of these we can only 
 afford space to expose the most prominently 
 mischievous. We shall class them for considera- 
 tion into 
 
 1. Restraints on agriculture. 2. On commerce. 
 3. On manufactures. 4. Excessive and misdirected 
 taxation. 5. Restraints on the just distribution of 
 wealth. 
 
340 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 RESTRAINTS ON AGRICULTURE 
 
 Tithe System Local Taxation Restrictions on Inclosure. 
 
 OF the restraints imposed by the laws of this 
 country on the free development of its agriculture, 
 the most injurious, undoubtedly, is the Tithe System. 
 A tax upon agriculturists, the amount of which in- 
 creases vvith the productiveness of agriculture, 
 must evidently operate as a constant check upon 
 all attempts to increase that productiveness. The 
 fallacy which so long blinded the defenders of this 
 species of impost to its obnoxious character, lay 
 in their assuming that the tax, being only one- 
 tenth of the produce, would leave the remaining 
 nine-tenths to the cultivator, and so afford an amply 
 sufficient inducement, to the utmost exertion of 
 his industry. They altogether overlooked that 
 the profit, or ' increase,' that is, whatever surplus 
 of the gross produce remains after repaying the 
 expenses of cultivation, is all that falls to the 
 share of the cultivator ; and that this itself in 
 general barely amounts to a tenth of the gross pro- 
 duce. So that the tithe is a tax of at least 100 
 per cent, on the net returns of the process of cul- 
 tivation. In case of the tillage of the poorer soils 
 this tax would swallow up the entire profit ; and 
 must, therefore, act as a complete interdict on their 
 
TITHE SYSTEM. 341 
 
 cultivation. There is a very large proportion of 
 the land of this country, which would return a pro- 
 fit of from five to fifteen per cent, upon the capi- 
 tal that might be expended in its conversion from 
 pasture or a state of waste to arable, or its improve- 
 ment by manuring, &c. if already in tillage. But 
 so long as the gross produce of such expenditure is 
 liable to a tax of 10 per cent., it is evident that a 
 complete bar is placed to all such employment of 
 capital, however desirable in a national and eco- 
 nomical point of view. The tithe- tax thus acts 
 directly as a penalty on the cultivation and im- 
 provement of land, and the growth of food. A 
 thousand pounds expended in the employment of 
 labour and machinery in the manufacture of cloth, 
 or gloves, or silks, pays no tithe. The same sum 
 laid out in the employment of labour and ma- 
 chinery in the growth of corn, butter, meat, and 
 the primary necessaries of life, pays a tax of 10 
 per cent, on the gross return. And this most op- 
 pressive and most odious of all possible taxes 
 has been levied nominally for the support of a reli- 
 gious establishment! Could any better means 
 have been devised by the arch enemy of mankind 
 for exciting hostility to the establishment, and 
 bringing religion itself into discredit ? 
 
 Within the last year or two public opinion has 
 begun to express itself strongly on this ill-con- 
 trived system, adopted in its origin, almost of 
 necessity, from the penury of our forefathers, but 
 the maintenance of which, up to the present day, 
 and in this enlightened country, is a disgrace to 
 the age and nation. A general commutation of 
 tithe into a fixed territorial impost has at length 
 
342f' TITHE COMMUTATION. 
 
 been determined on by the Government, intro- 
 duced by them to the legislature, and vvill be ac- 
 ceded to, we must hope, for its own sake, by the 
 Church, A commutation for land offers by far the 
 roost advisable mode of investing this claim, 
 though there are considerable practical difficulties- 
 in the way of such a change. 
 
 Unfortunately this measure has been delayed 
 by the impolitic resistance of the Church, to a 
 period when, from the feelings of animosity that 
 have been kindled upon the subject, it can neither, 
 perhaps, be delayed with safety, nor settled with 
 justice to both parties, nor in that calm and tempe- 
 rate spirit of deliberation which is so greatly de- 
 sirable where such large and important interests 
 are at stake. 
 
 It is of considerable moment that the real 
 incidence of tithes, that is to say, the party upon 
 whom the tax really falls, should be thoroughly 
 ascertained before any change is adopted in the 
 present system. The general belief is, that the 
 tithe is paid exclusively by the land-owner ; 
 that it is a simple deduction from rent, and would 
 be added to rent if abolished. This opinion arises 
 from the knowledge that lands, now tithe-free, 
 let for a rent which exceeds the rent of tithe- 
 able land of equal quality, by exactly the amount 
 of the tithe that would be due from them. And 
 if any single estate were exempted from tithe, 
 no doubt the benefit would wholly go to the land- 
 lord, because any increased productiveness of that 
 single estate consequent upon its exemption from 
 the tax now levied on its gross produce, could in 
 DO perceptible degree influence the prices of tli3- 
 
TITHE COMMUTATION. 343 
 
 produce markets. But if all the land now subject 
 to tithe were at once exempted, or the tithe on 
 all commuted, (which is the same thing as respects 
 its influence over cultivation,) the increased ap- 
 plication of capital and labour to this land which 
 would follow its release from a tax on the gross 
 produce, must so increase the stock of corn and 
 other agricultural produce in the markets as to 
 lower prices. The fall of prices would both lower 
 the rent of lands now tithe- free, and prevent the 
 rent of the land now tithed, from rising to the ex- 
 tent of the tithe at present raised from them. The 
 landlords of both classes of estates, therefore, 
 would suffer from a commutation. This, however, 
 is what would occur only in case the whole of the 
 agricultural produce consumed in the country were 
 home-grown ; in which case alone its prices are 
 determined by the cost of production in this- 
 country, of which tithe is an element. But when, 
 as has happened for some years past, a consi- 
 derable proportion of the corn consumed is im- 
 ported, the price is determined by the cost at 
 which it can be imported ; and in this case the ad- 
 ditional produce which would be raised at home 
 if the tithe were abolished or commuted, instead of 
 lowering prices materially in our markets, would 
 only come into use in place of an equal quantity now 
 imported from abroad, and which an inconsider- 
 able fall of the average price would probably keep 
 out of the market. Under these circumstances, 
 therefore, the tithe may be said to be chiefly, 
 though certainly not altogether, paid at present by 
 the landlord ; and, consequently, would in that 
 proportion go to him if remitted. Should any 
 
344 LOCAL TAXATION. 
 
 alteration be made in the terms on which foreign 
 corn is admitted, having the effect of lowering 
 prices in this country, the loss would fall wholly 
 upon the landlords, whom the present duty on im- 
 ported corn, averaging as it has done, since 1828, 
 6s. 3d. per quarter, (or about 10 per cent, on the 
 prices of this period,) just compensates in the 
 aggregate for the payment of tithe. Whether they 
 have a right to claim this compensation is another 
 question, which we will not here attempt to de- 
 termine. 
 
 These difficulties, however, should not prevent 
 an immediate commutation of tithe the most in- 
 jurious and detestable of all possible taxes, since 
 it operates as a penalty on the cultivation of the 
 soil, and on the growth of food and the raw mate- 
 rials of industry, and inflicts an artificial sterili v 
 on a large portion of the surface of Britain. 
 
 The amount of Local Taxation, levied chiefly 
 on land, in the shape of poor, county, highway, 
 and church rates, acts as another hurtful restraint 
 on the application of industry to agriculture, in as 
 far as these imposts press with greater severity on 
 that than on any other branch of industry. 
 
 It appears from a parliamentary document, that 
 the total sum levied as poor-rate and county-rate 
 in England and Wales, in the year ending 25th 
 March, 1826, was 6,966, 157/., of which there was 
 levied, 
 
 From Land alone . . 4,795,4821., or J^l T S ether 
 
 10UO 702 
 
 From Manorial Profits'! 14 > ^ooo 
 
 (which may be consider- > 96,882/., or r^,, 1 
 ed as landed property). J J of the whole. 
 
LOCAL TAXATION. 345 
 
 From Dwelling-houses . 1,814,22s/., or -*5L of the whole. 
 
 1000 
 
 From Mills, Factories, &c. 249,5657., or _?L 
 
 The highway and church rates being levied on 
 the same assessment must be supposed to press in 
 the same unequal proportions on these different 
 classes of productive investments. 
 
 The Highway-rates of 1825-6 amounted to . 1,121,8347. 
 The Church-rates of the same year, to . . . 564,3887. 
 Which added to the Poor and County rates, as 
 
 above, viz., 6,966,1577. 
 
 Make a Total of Local Taxation of . . , 8,652,3797. 
 of which it appears that the agriculturists paid 
 more than seven-tenths the owners of dwelling- 
 houses more than five-twentieths, the owners of 
 mms and factories only one twenty-seventh part, 
 while the proprietors of capital invested in stocks 
 in trade, the funds, mortgages, annuities, and 
 personal wealth of all description, paid actually 
 nothing whatever. But these taxes are levied for 
 purposes of general public advantage, for the pre- 
 servation of internal tranquillity and the security of 
 property, through the suppression of mendicancy, 
 vagrancy, and the crimes which unrelieved misery 
 would be sure to engender for the maintenance 
 of the buildings consecrated to the national wor- 
 ship for the necessary expenses of the local judi- 
 catures, and judicial proceedings, and for the re- 
 paration of roads which are used by all classes of 
 the people. These objects being equally bene- 
 ficial to all, there can be no good reason why the 
 owners of all property, however invested, should 
 not contribute in equal proportions towards their 
 
346 REFORMS IN LOCAL TAXATION. 
 
 attainment. The total exemption of all personal 
 property from contribution offers a premium to 
 tho unproductive employment of capital; while 
 the unequal pressure of these imposts on different 
 productive investments must evidently act as a 
 factitious discouragement to the employment of 
 labour and capital in that branch of industry which 
 is most heavily burdened. And the placing no 
 less than seven-tenths of a tax of this magnitude, 
 levied for general national purposes, upon agri- 
 culture only, is c aa extraordinary instance of im- 
 policy, since (as we remarked in the case of 
 tithes) it operates as a penalty on the productio'n 
 of the first necessaries of life, for a people but* 
 scantily supplied with them. 
 
 If the plans were adopted which we suggested 
 in the last chapter, for raising the necessary fund 
 for the maintenance of the infirm poor, and such 
 as are temporarily thrown out of employment, by a 
 compulsory subscription from wages, and for ex- 
 porting all the permanent surplus of labour to the 
 colonies at their expense, the amount of the 
 poor-rate would be greatly reduced, and its pressure 
 completely equalized upon all property, since it 
 would then enter in equal proportions into the ele- 
 mentary cost of all commodities. For the church- 
 rate, it is to be hoped, that, having relieved the 
 Irish from this payment, Government will shortly 
 see the expediency of placing the maintenance 
 of ecclesiastical buildings upon the church esta- 
 blishment, in England likewise. The highway- 
 rate is comparatively trifling, and its levy and ap- 
 plication is at the present moment undergoing 
 the revision of the legislature. The coiuitv-rate 
 
^-RESTRICTIONS ON INCLOSURE. 347 
 
 might by some very simple corrections be imposed 
 with greater fairness than at present upon the pro- 
 perty for the protection of which it is chiefly 
 raided. 
 
 The enormous expense of the act of parliament 
 which is now required for enclosing waste land 
 in which various parties are interested, is ano- 
 ther serious obstacle in the way of the improve- 
 ment of land in this country, and the increase 
 of its productiveness. The cost of an enclosure 
 act, and the accompanying expenses of survey 
 and applotment, &c., rarely falls within a thou- 
 sand pounds, and often exceeds five times that 
 sum. It is obvious that the enclosure and effec- 
 tive tillage of many small tracts of waste land 
 must be prevented by the necessity of incurring 
 this heavy outlay for merely obtaining the per- 
 mission of the legislature. A general enclosure 
 act, containing some simple and cheap machinery 
 for determining the propriety of such a step, and 
 adjudicating the respective claims of the parties 
 interested, would tend materially to encourage the 
 application of capital and labour in this most be- 
 neficial direction. The fact, that upwards of 4000 
 private enclosure bills have been passed within 
 the last half century, strongly demonstrates the 
 expediency of a general act for the purpose of 
 saving the necessity of this awkward and expen- 
 sive local legislation. Can anything be more 
 strongly condemnatory of the present system of 
 legislation, or rather of the want of system which 
 characterizes our legislation, than the fact of 4000 
 acts of parliament having been passed in so short 
 
348 RESTRICTIONS ON INCLOSURE 
 
 a period for permitting and regulating the improve- 
 ment of as many separate tracts of land in this 
 little island ? The fact would be almost incredible 
 to one who was a stranger to the temporizing and 
 patch-work policy of our legislation which pos- 
 sesses no contrivance for permitting a common 
 to be enclosed, a highway diverted, a man and 
 wife divorced, a name changed, or a foreigner 
 naturalized, without the setting in motion of King, 
 Lords, and Commons, and all the cumbrous ma- 
 chinery of a legislative enactment. 
 
 In a former chapter it was shewn that the im- 
 provement of waste land by the assiduous industry 
 of individuals who were permitted to enclose small 
 tracts, and to appropriate the entire produce of 
 the improvements they effected, had been, in every 
 age and every country of the earth, the primary, 
 though simple, means by which the vast districts 
 now cultivated for the use of man were rendered 
 productive the first and indispensable step to 
 the creation of all the wealth and refinements of 
 civilised existence. The very foundation of the 
 right to property in land lies in the expediency of 
 encouraging these invaluable efforts for the deve- 
 lopment of its productiveness. It is evident then 
 that the legal claims of individuals, however ac- 
 quired, to an exclusive property in tracts of waste 
 land, ought not to be permitted to prevent the 
 continuance of this salutary and important pro- 
 cess but should be made to give way before the 
 prior and superior right of the community to 
 make the most of the resources which Providence 
 has placed at their disposal in the productive ca- 
 pacities of their native soil. A wise and prudent 
 
THEIR REMOVAL NECESSARY. 349 
 
 government would remove every difficulty in the 
 way of the improvement of land, and facilitate by 
 every practicable means the enclosure and high 
 cultivation of tracts of land by the enterprise, in- 
 dustry, and capital of individuals. That the same 
 spirit which originally brought into cultivation 
 our oldest and richest crofts still prevails among 
 the peasantry of this country, is proved by the 
 patches which we see cribbed in defiance of the 
 law from the margins of every highway, and the 
 sides of every common throughout the country, 
 and the high state of productiveness to which 
 these little gardens are brought, in spite of the 
 general poorness of their soil, and the insecurity 
 of their tenure. But instead of forbidding such 
 encroachments, as they are called, the law ought, 
 we consider, to sanction and encourage them. 
 Instead of confining the industrious cottager to 
 the scanty margin of the public road, or the ob- 
 scure angle of the common, all that portion of 
 our waste lands which is capable of cultivation 
 ought to be placed at the disposal of those who 
 are willing to cultivate and improve it, under such 
 conditions only as will secure to the present legal 
 owners a fair compensation proportioned to the 
 value they derive from it in its actual state. Some 
 general system of this kind, by the establishment 
 of local commissioners, might be easily contrived ; 
 and the result would, we think, be to draw 
 forth a vast amount of industry which is now re- 
 pressed for want of a vent, and greatly to increase 
 the extent of land in cultivation. 
 
 For though it may be true, as we believe it is, 
 that the system of cultivation by large farms and 
 
350 RESTRAINTS ON INCLOSURE 
 
 liirecl labour, is the most productive, in the case of 
 lands long placed under tillage we think it qui-te 
 certain that the reduction of waste land to tillage 
 ab initio is best accomplished by the patient exer- 
 tions and persevering industry of the cottier pea- 
 sant, working on his ow r n account on his own 
 little patch of soil. He puts into his labour twice 
 the exertion of even the free hired labourer of 
 the capitalist-farmer, four times that of the con- 
 strained serf or slave. He will force a rich crop 
 from a soil which would not repay the large farmer 
 for the cost of tillage much less afford him that 
 profit on his outlay, the prospect of which alone 
 will induce him to attempt its cultivation. The 
 numberless experiments that have been made of 
 granting small lots of land to poor men in this 
 country still more, perhaps, the success of the 
 pauper colonies of the Netherlands, where a 
 meagre and hungry sand has been by this pro- 
 cess brought into the condition of a garden prove 
 to demonstration this important fact. It is 
 pleasing to find the allotment system making 
 its way into nearly every parish in the king- 
 dom under the wise and humane influence of the 
 landowner, who undoubtedly best consults his 
 own interest by encouraging the spontaneous ex- 
 ertions of the peasantry to maintain themselves 
 by their own industry, instead of depending on 
 parochial relief. But the letting to poor labourers, 
 as yearly tenants, of tracts of land already in culti- 
 vation by farmers, is not nearly so fertile a source 
 of increased productiveness, as would be the per- 
 mission to the same class to enclose, cultivate, 
 and appropriate in fee, upon easy and fair terms, 
 
NECESSITY OF THEIR REMOVAL. 351 
 
 tracts of land now in a state of waste. The exer- 
 tions of the cultivator will be proportionate to tli3 
 security be has of reaping their fruits. And to 
 call forth his full energies, he must have, not a 
 mere temporary tenure of his allotment but such 
 a permanent hold of it, as will give him a complete 
 conviction of the undisputed enjoyment of all its 
 improved produce, and inspire that strong in 
 terest in its improvement, which attaches univer- 
 sally to whatever we can call exclusively our own. 
 
 In Ireland, especially, might this system be 
 adopted with the greatest prospect of advantage. 
 There vast tracts of waste land are met with, pro- 
 ducing next to nothing while in their immediate 
 contiguity are hordes of poor and wretched objects 
 supported in idleness by the charity of their neigh- 
 bours, who are themselves scarcely in better circum- 
 stances. The Irish cottier, who holds his acre only 
 from year to year or, as in the common case of the 
 conacre, for a single crop, at the will of a superior 
 who takes care to leave him but a bare subsistence 
 for his labour, has little inducement to put forth 
 his natural energies in the improvement of his 
 holding. We cannot wonder at the low state of 
 agriculture in the populous parts of Ireland under 
 such a system: but give to these same cottiers 
 a permanent interest in the soil, and their habits 
 of idleness and carelessness will give place to 
 activity, ingenuity, frugality, and steady industry. 
 
 Whenever the Irish cottier has been permitted 
 to settle in this manner on a tract of mountain or 
 bog -land, the result has uniformly been what we 
 here anticipate. On Mr. Gascoigne's property, 
 and again on Lord Headley's, tenants dispossessed 
 
352 RESTRAINTS ON INCLOSURE. 
 
 from farms which they were unable to manage, 
 were provided for in this manner, and according 
 to the evidence of Mr. Barrington, the landlords 
 have thereby greatly improved the value of their 
 estates. The tenantry themselves were saved from 
 destitution, and the tranquillity of the neighbour- 
 hood preserved*. 
 
 It should ever be borne in mind by legislators, 
 that the law which secures a property in land is 
 an artificial restraint on the free enjoyment by 
 every individual of those gifts which the bounty 
 of the Creator has provided for the satisfaction of 
 his wants ; this restraint is just only to such ex- 
 tent as it can be proved necessary for the general 
 welfare, and wherever it is found to go beyond 
 that point, its modification is required by the same 
 principle which alone sanctions its establishment. 
 
 * See Mr. Barrington's evidence before the Committee 
 on the State of Ireland in 1832. Qq. 132-7. 
 
353 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 RESTRAINTS ON MANUFACTURES. 
 
 Taxes on raw materials. Excise duties. Factory-bill. 
 
 THE legal restrictions which interfere with manu- 
 facturing industry in this country are chiefly of a 
 fiscal character. 
 
 Direct taxation has always heen an unpalatable 
 and unpopular mode of raising the public revenue. 
 And governments have, in consequence, gene- 
 rally resorted to the imposition of customs and 
 excise duties upon imported or home-made com- 
 modities. The tax being levied upon the producer 
 or importer is charged by him, of course, upon 
 the purchaser, who in reality pays it, but in so 
 indirect a manner, as to be unconscious of the 
 nature of the payment without a process of reflec- 
 tion that does not readily present itself to ordi- 
 nary minds. Through this contrivance the Go- 
 vernment of Great Britain has raised and spent 
 enormous revenues which the nation would cer* 
 tainly never have consented to pay in direct con- 
 tributions from their purses. 
 
 Whatever injury results from the people being 
 thus blinded to the excessive expenditure of their 
 government may, perhaps, be counterbalanced 
 by the facility afforded to the collection of the 
 
 2 A 
 
354 RESTRAINTS ON MANUFACTURES. 
 
 necessary revenue. The system, therefore, would 
 be harmless on the whole, if the articles taxed 
 were solely luxuries, consumed by the wealthier 
 classes ; in which case the effect of these duties 
 would be nearly the same as of a direct tax on 
 wealth. They would have little or no influence 
 on wages or profits, and consequently on national 
 industry. A very considerable proportion of our 
 customs and excise duties, exceeding, according 
 to Sir H. Parnell*, 27,000,000, are of this com- 
 paratively innoxious character. 
 
 But there are some duties which, by their inter- 
 ference with the manufacture either of articles of 
 the first necessity, or of such as are fabricated in 
 this country for exportation, exercise an injurious 
 influence on these important branches of industry. 
 Such are 
 
 1. The taxes on the raw materials of our prin- 
 cipal manufactures. Sir H. Parnell estimates the 
 amount of taxes annually levied on the materials 
 employed in manufactures, buildings, ship-build- 
 ing, &c., at upwards of 6,000,000. 
 
 * The levying of so large a sum on articles 
 that require capital and labour to give them utility 
 and value, must strike every one as being a most 
 serious obstacle in the way of remedying the diffi- 
 culties which press at this moment the heaviest 
 on the country, namely, the want of employment 
 lor capital and labour. The repealing, therefore, 
 of the whole of these taxes is a measure particu- 
 larly called for under the present state of our ma- 
 nufactures, and of the labouring class.'f 
 
 * Financial Reform. Chap. IV. f Pamell, p. 19. Ed. 
 1832. 
 
TAXES ON MANUFACTURE. 355 
 
 Since the first publication of Sir H. Parnell's 
 valuable work, steps have been taken, in con- 
 formity with his recommendations, for the aboli- 
 tion or lightening of some of these injurious 
 imposts. The duties on hemp, which is exten- 
 sively used in the manufacture of linen, sails, and 
 cordage on barilla and ashes, on a large number 
 of drugs and dyes used in various branches of 
 manufacture, on coals and culm carried coastwise, 
 on tiles, on leather, and on soap, have been either 
 completely abolished or greatly reduced. The 
 duty on thrown silk still remains. And the heavy 
 duty on timber, but especially the arrangement of 
 that duty, whereby North American timber, very 
 deficient in strength and durability, is forced into 
 general use in place of that from the north of 
 Europe, which is not only procurable at a less 
 expense, but is likewise of infinitely better quality 
 continues to disgrace the statute-book, and con- 
 demn our public and private buildings to prema- 
 ture decay. 
 
 2. Of taxes imposed directly on the manufac- 
 ture of articles of prime necessity, or exportation, 
 Sir H. Parnell justly stigmatises the heavy duties 
 on paper, glass, and printed calicoes. The latter 
 has lately been materially reduced. 
 
 * The duty on paper has an injurious effect on 
 many other trades besides that of the paper -maker. 
 The limited consumption which it occasions in- 
 jures the makers of machinery, type-founders, ink- 
 makers, printers, engravers, booksellers, book- 
 binders, stationers, paper-stainers, and several 
 other trades. But the greatest evil of all is the 
 high price of books which it gives rise to. This 
 
 2 A 2 
 
356 RESTRAINTS ON MANUFACTURES. 
 
 places a great obstacle in the way of the progress 
 of knowledge, of useful and necessary arts, and of 
 sober and industrious habits. Books carry the 
 productions of the human mind over the whole 
 world, and may be truly called the materials of 
 every kind of science and art, and of all social im- 
 provement.'* 
 
 In addition to the increased cost of these manu- 
 factures occasioned by the amount of the tax col- 
 lected from them, the necessarily severe and vexa- 
 tious regulations under which the duties are col- 
 lected, have most injurious consequences. 
 
 ' By the Excise laws prescribing the processes 
 of fabrication, the manufacturer cannot manage 
 his trade in the way his skill and experience point 
 out as the best ; but is compelled to conform to 
 such methods of pursuing his art as he finds taught 
 in Acts of Parliament. Thus the unseen injury 
 arising from Excise taxation, by its interference 
 with the free course of manufacture, is much 
 greater than is suspected by the public. The con- 
 sequence of the activity and invention of the manu- 
 facturers being repressed, is, that the consumers of 
 their goods pay increased prices, not only for the 
 duties imposed on them, but for the additional ex- 
 pense incurred by absurd and vexatious regula- 
 tions ; and, in addition to this, the goods are 
 generally very inferior in quality to what they 
 would be if no duties existed. 'f 
 
 In the same way the mode of levying the duty 
 on malt inflicts a greater injury on the agricul- 
 
 * Parneil, p. 28. f Ibid. p. 26. 
 
TAXES ON MATERIALS OF MANUFACTURE. 357 
 
 tural interest and the manufacturers of malt, as well 
 as on its consumers, than can be measured by the 
 amount of the tax collected. " The severe and 
 vexatious excise regulations, at one and the 
 same time, have the effect of unnecessarily fetter- 
 ing the operations of the maltster of deteriora- 
 ting the quality, and adding to the price of his 
 malt and of putting him wholly in the power of 
 the pettiest officer of excise."* In consequence of 
 this system, and perhaps of the too heavy duty 
 levied on an article which can scarcely be called a 
 luxury, the consumption of malt had been sta- 
 tionary for the last forty years, until the late 
 Beer Act gave a temporary stimulus to the con- 
 sumption of brewers' beer, at the expense, we fear, 
 of much of the morality and happiness of the 
 working classes, who have been induced to con- 
 sume it in tippling- houses rather than at home in 
 the midst of their families. The malt-duty should 
 be taken off; and if no other means could be de- 
 vised for making up the deficit in the revenue, it 
 were better that a beer-duty be reimposed in its 
 place. 
 
 It is to be hoped that the further repeal of the 
 taxes on manufactures, and the materials of manu- 
 factures, will be proceeded in, until the whole are- 
 removed, and that artificial obstacles of this nature 
 will no longer be allowed to impede the employ- 
 ment of British capital and labour, in working up 
 the produce of British industry into articles for 
 sale in the home or foreign markets. 
 
 Direct interference of government with manu- 
 
 * Edinburgh Review, vol. xliv., p. 373. 
 
358 FACTORY BILL. 
 
 factures, for other than fiscal purposes, has long 
 since been happily disused and discredited in this 
 country. The Factory Bill, however, just passed, 
 is to a certain extent a revival of exploded and con- 
 demned principles necessitated, perhaps, by the 
 peculiar circumstances of the times, which, keep- 
 ing the labouring class in an unnatural state of 
 depression, and forcing an extraordinary competi- 
 tion among manufacturers, have led some of the 
 neediest and least conscientious among them to 
 exact from the children they employ a greater 
 amount of labour than is compatible with their 
 health or happiness. In a more natural state of 
 things, which afforded a competent remuneration 
 to the labour of the working class, such interfe- 
 rence of the legislature would be unnecessary, and 
 the health of children might be left with safety to 
 the natural guardianship of their parents. 
 
 In other countries, the law continues still to 
 meddle injuriously with many processes of manu- 
 facture, for purposes of supposed public ad vantage. 
 The mischief of all such interference was, however, 
 justly exposed in the work of M. Chaptal, Minister 
 of the Interior under Napoleon, published in 1819; 
 and the following passage from that work evinces 
 a creditable acquaintance with the true principles of 
 commercial and financial policy. 
 
 " A government that knows its real interests 
 will endeavour to favour production ; its wealth 
 is proportioned to the quantity of taxable produce 
 within its reach. It is less by the amount of taxa- 
 tion, than by the mode in which the taxes are 
 levied, that a nation is oppressed. When the ma- 
 terials of industry are taxed, the source of repro- 
 
FINANCIAL MAXIMS. 359 
 
 duction is dried up, and the public prosperity must 
 languish." " Imposts should be placed, not on 
 the first necessaries of life, but on superfluities." 
 " To protect property, to facilitate the supply of the 
 materials of industry, to favour production in every 
 shape, is the sum of the duties of government in 
 relation to commerce. By attempting to interfere 
 with the processes of fabrication, to influence the 
 supply of markets, or to regulate commercial trans- 
 actions, it can only hamper industry, and injure its 
 own interests."* 
 
 * Chaptal, De 1'Industrie Francaise, tome xi., p. 218. 
 
360 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 RESTRAINTS ON COMMERCE. 
 
 Restrictions on Exchanges. Fallacy of the Arguments 
 against Free Trade. History of the Protecting System. 
 Ruinous policy for a Commercial State Depresses Indus- 
 try and discourages Production. Taxation no ground for 
 protection Nor the absence of reciprocity. Trueprinciple 
 and limits of protection. Colonial System. Advantage of 
 Colonial over Foreign Trade. Real use of Colonies.-" 
 Should be considered as extensions of cultivable Territory, 
 and the Trade with them assimilated to the Home Trade. 
 Colonization. Corn Laws. In principle unjust and im- 
 politic, except to a very limited extent. Present System. 
 Its removal should be preceded by a removal of the re- 
 slramts on Agriculture. Absenteeism. Conclusion. 
 
 OF all the faults which have been committed by 
 the legislature of this country, few have proved so 
 injurious to the successful prosecution of the na- 
 tional industry, as the restraints which it has im- 
 posed on the freedom of commercial exchanges. 
 
 In a former chapter, we endeavoured to exhibit 
 the vast benefits that flow from commerce, through 
 its enabling the inhabitants of every district or 
 country to avail themselves of the advantages they 
 possess of climate, situation, or soil, favourable 
 to the production of particular commodities, for 
 
FREE TRADE. 361 
 
 procuring such other things as they cannot so 
 readily produce at home, at the least possible sa- 
 crifice of labour, time, or capital in one word, at 
 the least cost. 
 
 But the benefit thus arising to a people from the 
 satisfaction of its wants at the cheapest possible 
 rate has long been, and still is, stoutly denied. 
 It has been contended that the importation of 
 foreign commodities prevents the employment of 
 so much native industry as would be required 
 to fabricate these goods, or some substitutes 
 for them, at home ; and that this injury is in no 
 degree compensated by the comparative cheapness 
 of the foreign commodities to the consumer. This 
 argument rests upon several great, and equally 
 fatal errors. 
 
 1. The attention is confined to the effect of 
 the importation of a superior foreign article on 
 those persons in the importing country who are 
 already engaged, or would, but for such importa- 
 tion, engage themselves, in the fabrication of the 
 commodity in question or its substitute. It is 
 altogether overlooked that the importation is only 
 an exchange of some product of home industry 
 for some other of foreign industry ; and that 
 to prevent the importation of the one, is to 
 prevent the production and exportation of the 
 other. In fact, it is not the foreigner that * pro- 
 duces,' in the English market, foreign silks, gloves, 
 or corn their real producer is the English manu- 
 facturer and trader, who makes and exports cloth, 
 cotton, or hardware, and brings back in exchange 
 for these articles, the gloves, silk, or corn. 
 These things are as certainly produced in the may- 
 
362 FALLACY OF ARGUMENTS 
 
 kets of England by the employment of English 
 labour, skill, and capital alone, as "if they were 
 raised and fabricated directly upon the surface of 
 this island. Their equivalents must be first pro- 
 duced here, and then exported in exchange for them, 
 or their introduction would be impossible ; for cer- 
 tainly foreigners never send us their goods, ex- 
 cept in return for an equivalent, and we can of 
 course export nothing which is not the produce 
 of British industry. Every obstacle, therefore, 
 placed in the way of the importation of any foreign 
 article is precisely to the same extent an obstacle 
 to the exportation of an equivalent of British ma- 
 nufacture. And the injury sustained by the con- 
 sumers of the articles so ' protected/ as it is called, 
 in their higher price or inferior quality, is wholly 
 uncompensated by any advantage whatsoever to 
 any one. The effect of all protecting duties is to 
 diminish the general productiveness of the national 
 industry, by confining it to such employments as 
 are less productive of value than those which, 
 without such interference, would be undertaken. 
 
 The reasoning, indeed, on which that interference 
 is grounded directly denies the benefit resulting 
 from the division of labour and exchange of its pro- 
 duce. If true with respect to nations or districts, 
 it must be equally true with respect to individuals. 
 It would go to make every producer fabricate all the 
 articles he consumes, on the ground that it injures 
 him to be supplied with anything fabricated by 
 another party. 
 
 2. The mistake has arisen in a great degree from 
 the natural shortsightedness of those who, accus- 
 tomed, from their own * practical ' experience, to 
 
AGAINST FREE TRADE. 363 
 
 consider the employment given by a customer to the 
 capital and labour of a producer as bis only source 
 of gain and maintenance, look upon such employ- 
 ment as an end rather than a means, and imagine 
 every change which lessens the quantity of labour 
 and capital employed in producing a commodity 
 to be injurious instead of beneficial. 
 
 It is, in fact, precisely the same vulgar error 
 which leads to the outcry against improved 
 machinery, viz. because it effects a saving in the 
 labour or capital expended in any branch of pro- 
 duction ; as if this were no benefit, but the con- 
 trary. It is forgotten in both cases, that though 
 the change may for a time derange the industry 
 of some parties, may throw out of work the 
 labourers, and reduce the value of the capital em- 
 ployed in the particular branch of industry it super- 
 sedes, it must cause at least an equal demand for 
 labour and capital in some other branch ; so that the 
 body of labourers and capitalists, or the producers 
 as a whole, cannot lose, while the greater cheap- 
 ness of the article to all its consumers is a clear 
 additional gain to the community. But in truth an 
 increase of the aggregate demand for the produce 
 of industry always follows every increase in the 
 facilities for production ; the desires of man uni- 
 versally expanding with his means for satisfying 
 them. 
 
 3. And thus a third fallacy is involved in the 
 usual arguments against free trade. It is taken 
 for granted that there will be the same demand 
 for the inferior and dearer home-made article as 
 for the better and cheaper foreign product ; 
 whereas it is precisely the superior cheapness and 
 
364 PROTECTING SYSTEM 
 
 quality of the latter that creates a demand where 
 none would otherwise exist, and stimulates exertion 
 to procure the means of satisfying it. And since 
 it has been shown that, to satisfy this demand, an 
 equivalent of home manufactures must be exported, 
 it is evident that the admission of foreign goods, 
 by tempting customers, is the cause and origin of 
 an increased demand for goods of home make. 
 
 It is also the cause of great improvement in 
 their quality, by rousing the emulation of the na- 
 tive manufacturer, and offering him models for 
 imitation. In fact, to prevent the introduction of 
 foreign fabrics to compete with our own, is to offer 
 a premium to sloth and negligence; and experience 
 has proved that such competition is always followed 
 by a rapid improvement in the home-made article. 
 
 * The history of the protecting system shows that 
 it had its origin at a period when nothing was known 
 by statesmen and legislators of sound principles of 
 trade. It seems to have been introduced into 
 European policy by M. Colbert. Before his time 
 Holland supplied all Europe with manufactures, 
 and received in payment for them the raw produce 
 of her poor neighbours. M. Colbert, overlooking 
 the fact, that manufactures cannot be established 
 in a country until it has acquired a considerable 
 capital, and until the people of it have become rich 
 enough to be able to buy them, sought to force the 
 growth of manufactures in France, merely by 
 issuing his famous tariff of 1667, by which the im- 
 portation of all manufactures into France was pro- 
 hibited. The failure of his theory is amply at- 
 tested by experience.* France, ever since that 
 period, has been paying for the manufactures used 
 
ITS HISTORY AND MISCHIEF. 365 
 
 by her (taking price and quality into considera- 
 tion) from half to twice as much more as England 
 and Holland have paid for similar articles, and her 
 establishments have continued of the most wretched 
 description till within a few years. They are now, 
 in consequence of the high prices and limited con- 
 sumption which are the effects of protection, greatly 
 depressed below what they would be if no protec- 
 tion had ever existed, for France is a country pos- 
 sessing great natural advantages for carrying on 
 manufactures. 
 
 ' Immediately after the appearance of the tariff of 
 1667, the Dutch retaliated by prohibiting the im- 
 portation of the wines, brandies, and other produc- 
 tions of France*. This commercial warfare pro- 
 duced open hostilities in 1672, and a war that 
 lasted six years ; and it is to commercial prohi- 
 bition and retaliation that most of the wars in 
 Europe, since 1667, are to be attributed. 
 
 4 England followed the example of Holland in 
 prohibiting French productions ; and from that 
 time has been amongst the foremost of nations in 
 loading her commercial legislation with all kinds 
 of mischievous and erroneous regulations. 
 
 4 As this system of protection has been steadily 
 acted upon by all nations since 1667, on a most 
 mistaken notion, which has been generally enter- 
 tained, that the protection of trade was a necessary 
 part of the duty of the executive government, 
 when it is considered, on the one hand, what the 
 consequences would have been throughout the 
 world of allowing trade and manufactures to take 
 their natural course in supplying every country 
 * Richesse de la Hollande, vol. i., p. 345. 
 
366 PROTECTING SYSTEM 
 
 with every article of production of the best quality, 
 and at the lowest possible price, and in advancing 
 universal wealth and civilization ; and on the other, 
 what the consequences have been of the numerous 
 wars which the system of protecting trade and 
 manufactures has given rise to, we cannot avoid 
 coming to the conclusion, that those statesmen 
 who invented this system, and who have supported 
 it, and do still support it, deserve to be classed 
 among the greatest enemies to the civilization and 
 happiness of mankind.'* 
 
 Few political errors have, indeed, occasioned 
 more mischief than this. The regulating mania 
 which it inspired, has tormented industry in a 
 thousand ways to force it from its natural channel. 
 It has falsely taught nations as well as individuals 
 to regard the welfare of their neighbours as incom- 
 patible with their own. It has fostered a spirit of 
 artifice and conspiracy of class against class, and 
 interest against interest, each trying to gain 
 legislative favour at the expense of the rest. The 
 prices of most articles have been forcibly en- 
 hanced by protecting duties or legislative mono- 
 polies. By this awkward system of each robbing 
 each, all parties have been losers, and the sum of 
 national wealth, comfort, and prosperity propor- 
 tionately lessened. 
 
 We must refer to the remainder of the chapter 
 of Sir H. Parnell's excellent work, from which we 
 have extracted the above, for an account of the 
 partial and imperfect steps that have been taken 
 of late years by the government of this country 
 for the correction of this mischievous error. 
 * Parnell, p. 75. 
 
ITS FALLACY AND MISCHIEF. 367 
 
 Certainly it would be impossible to conceive a 
 more suicidal policy for a great manufacturing and 
 commercial country like this, than a system which 
 strikes at the very root of all commercial and 
 manufacturing inclustry. No conduct was ever 
 so fitted to produce an effect the very reverse of 
 the object aimed at, as that of the politicians who, 
 at a time when wages and profits are ruinously low, 
 would continue these restraints on the profitable 
 employment of capital and labour, for the declared 
 purpose of encouraging their employment. They 
 forget that labour and capital are set in motion, 
 not for the mere pleasure of the toil or expendi- 
 ture, but for the sake of their returns. The 
 higher their returns, the greater the inducement 
 to the employment of the labour and the capi- 
 tal. The less the returns, the less the in- 
 ducement to set capital and labour in motion. 
 Now, to prevent the production of any article at 
 the least possible sacrifice is directly to lessen the 
 attainable returns to labour and capital, and, 
 therefore, to check, not to encourage, their em- 
 ployment. The circumstance of the existing glut 
 of labour and capital seeking vainly for profit- 
 able employment, instead of being, as is pre- 
 tended, a ground for excluding foreign manufac- 
 tures with the view of encouraging our own, is, on 
 the contrary, in a great degree caused by the opera- 
 tion of this restrictive system, and is the strongest 
 argument for encouraging our home manufactures 
 by admitting, on the lowest terms consistent with 
 purposes of revenue, those foreign productions 
 for which a demand exists in this country, and to 
 procure which an equivalent must be exported of 
 
368 INJURY OF PROTECTING SYSTEM. 
 
 those national products which can be disposed of 
 abroad. The difference of energy between the 
 demand for the foreign product, and that for the 
 inferior British substitute, is the cause and the 
 measure of an increased demand for the produce of 
 British industry on the part of our merchants, who 
 cannot import without exporting. Had the legis- 
 lature completely shut out all foreign productions 
 from this island, and forced its inhabitants to con- 
 tent themselves with objects directly created by 
 their own industry, does any one believe that the 
 industry, the productiveness, the wealth, or the 
 power of the nation would have attained to one- 
 fourth of their present developement ? Our wishes 
 repressed by a prohibition on their gratification 
 all the stimulus to industry, enterprise, and inge- 
 nuity removed, which proceeds from the excite- 
 ment of new and varied wants, we should have 
 stagnated in the torpid condition of those nations 
 among whom commerce is nearly unknown, and 
 who have remained for as many thousands of 
 years unimproved, as we have spent centuries in 
 passing, chiefly through the instrumentality of our 
 commerce, from the depths of barbarism to the 
 high station we now occupy at the head of the 
 civilized world. 
 
 To whatever extent this principle of exclusion 
 is carried, it must, in a proportionate degree, 
 depress industry and discourage production. " In 
 all cases where high duties are imposed to afford 
 protection, foreign commerce must, in the nature 
 of things, be diminished to a greater extent than 
 domestic industry is encouraged."* And as is 
 * American Anti-Tariff Memorial. 1828. 
 
INJURY OF PROTECTING SYSTEM. 369 
 
 remarked in the same document, it is with singular 
 inappropriateness that this destructive prohibitory 
 policy has been denominated a "protecting" 
 policy ; its effect being to lessen the productive- 
 ness of industry, and to destroy, not to create 
 wealth. 
 
 Every manufacture has its proper position, as 
 every agricultural product has its proper soil. 
 The attempt to establish manufactures of every 
 kind indifferently in every country is like an 
 attempt to grow in one spot the vegetable pro- 
 ductions of every soil and climate. By a vast 
 expense in glass-houses and fuel, you may succeed 
 in rearing some weak and puny specimen of a 
 tropical fruit in Norway or Iceland ; and in the 
 same manner by prohibitions and bounties you 
 may raise some faint imitation of a foreign manu- 
 facture in a country unsuited to its production. 
 But in either case there is a waste of all the trouble 
 and expense which the effort has cost, beyond 
 what would have served to produce the fruit or 
 the fabric in all its perfection, by exchanging for 
 them with the inhabitants of those countries to 
 which they are suited, such objects as you enjoy 
 from natural circumstances an especial facility for 
 producing. 
 
 It is not by legislation that industry is to be 
 encouraged. Freedom is the element it loves. 
 In that, its native climate, it expands its spreading 
 branches, and matures its rich and abundant fruits. 
 In the sickly and confined atmosphere of the le- 
 gislative forcing- frame it loses its health and 
 vigour, decays, and before long expires. 
 
 2 B 
 
370 TAXATION NO ARGUMENT AGAINST FREE TRADE. 
 
 Of the arguments which are brought against 
 the principle of free trade by those who cannot 
 venture to deny the simple axiom that every im- 
 portation causes a correspondent exportation, we 
 know only of the following : 
 
 1. 4 That the producers of such a highly taxed 
 country as this ought to be protected from the 
 competition of comparatively untaxed foreigners.' 
 But if the taxes of this country are levied equi- 
 tably from all classes, it is clear that the producer 
 of the article which would be exported to pay for 
 the imported commodity is as much burdened by 
 the national taxation as the producer of the article 
 which the latter would supersede. If, in spite of 
 this taxation, he can find a foreign market for his 
 goods, to stop him from doing this because ano- 
 ther manufacturer, not more heavily taxed, labours 
 under greater natural disadvantages, is about as 
 wise as it would be to tie up the legs of all sound 
 men because some are lame ; it is to choke up 
 one of the main sources of the national revenue, 
 namely foreign commerce, and by so doing to in- 
 crease the general pressure of taxation, the weight 
 of which is the professed reason for the restriction. 
 If the taxes are not levied equitably, the jemedy 
 is to equalize them, not to make the imposition of 
 one injustice the defence for another. 
 
 2. ' That one country loses by the importation 
 of the goods of another, unless there is a recipro- 
 city in the free admission of her goods on the 
 same terms into the latter.* This fallacy is easily 
 seen through. A. will not send goods to B. except 
 in exchange for goods or cash. If the admission 
 
RECIPROCITY ARGUMENT. 371 
 
 of goods from B. into A. is prohibited, and does 
 not take place by smuggling, (which in nine cases 
 out of ten is really the case, though these trans- 
 actions, not appearing on the face of statistical 
 documents, are overlooked in the arguments of 
 the sticklers for reciprocity,) the goods B. receives 
 must be paid in the precious metals say in gold, 
 as the cheapest of conveyance. But it cannot be 
 profitable for any merchant in A. to export gold 
 in purchase of foreign goods, unless at the same 
 time he, or some other merchant, finds it profitable 
 to import an equal quantity of gold in exchange for 
 goods of home production from some other country, 
 say C., into which the goods of A. find their way. 
 If the goods of A. could not buy this quantity of 
 gold somewhere, its exportation to B. would 
 speedily raise its value in A. so high, that it would 
 be no longer profitable to export it for the goods 
 of B. The whole process may be looked upon as 
 one transaction. Gold is an article of merchan- 
 dise, and must, in the long run, preserve the same 
 value in relation to goods throughout all countries 
 that deal together. The merchants and producers 
 of this country, as a body, could not find it pro- 
 fitable to send out gold in payment of goods, 
 unless it were equally profitable to purchase gold 
 with goods. In fact, however, very little gold is 
 employed for this purpose. The circulation of 
 bills of exchange representing goods, settles the 
 mutual commercial balances between different 
 countries. If A. imports from B. more goods than 
 it sends there, B. is paid by goods sent from C., 
 which receives from A. more than it sends. Any 
 impediments, therefore, placed in the way of the 
 
372 PROTECTION TO COLONIES. 
 
 mutual interchange of goods between nations is 
 as injurious to the country imposing the restric- 
 tion, as to that whose productions are prohibited 
 or heavily taxed; every prohibition, or tax, upon 
 importation acting precisely to the same extent as 
 a prohibition, or a tax, upon exportation. If 
 France excludes our iron, France suffers from 
 this unwise policy quite as much as England. If 
 England exclude the timber or the grain of the 
 north of Europe, England is certainly as large a 
 loser as Norway or Poland. On whichever side 
 the restriction is imposed, there is sure to be a re- 
 ciprocity of injury : and the benefit of every relax- 
 ation, from whichever side it proceeds, is sure to 
 be enjoyed by both. 
 
 The argument for the prohibition of foreign 
 importation, with the view of encouraging native 
 industry, is extended to our colonies, and it is 
 urged that, to encourage and protect colonial 
 industry, we ought to exclude or place under re- 
 strictive duties such foreign articles as we could 
 obtain from them. To the extent to which the 
 doctrine is usually carried by its supporters and 
 has, indeed, been carried into practice in our 
 * colonial system ' its unsoundness is made pal- 
 pably manifest by the same considerations which 
 exhibit the fallacy of the home protective system. 
 
 To a certain limited extent, the argument as to 
 the expediency of encouraging the production 
 within our own territorial limits of the commo- 
 dities required for the satisfaction of our wants, is 
 sound and perfectly admissible. Until nations 
 are perfectly convinced of their community of 
 
TRUE PRINCIPLE AND LIMIT OF PROTECTION. 373 
 
 interest until all mutual jealousy and animosity 
 is extinguished until the possible occurrence of 
 war and the interruption which it places in the 
 way of foreign commerce be prevented, it will 
 be safer for a nation to produce within its own 
 limits the commodities it requires. The exchange 
 of such productions cannot be impeded by the 
 commercial jealousy or political hostility of other 
 states, and this security is worth some sacrifice. 
 But the amount of the sacrifice is the entire ques- 
 tion. It may be worth while to levy duties of 
 five, ten, fifteen, or even twenty per cent, on fo- 
 reign articles for this object ; and as the revenue 
 derived from this source will save the necessity of 
 imposing an equivalent of taxes in some other 
 form, the imposition of custom- duties on foreign 
 imported commodities is, on this ground, the most 
 advisable of all means of raising a revenue. It 
 does not burthen industry more than any other 
 tax, and it affords the additional advantage of 
 securing to a certain extent the trade and industry 
 of the country from being injured by the folly or 
 violence of other governments. But, if carried 
 far, the duties are, in the first place, evaded by the 
 smuggler, in which case the expected revenue is 
 lost, and all the manifold evils of this demoralizing 
 trade substitute themselves for the benefits of a 
 legitimate commerce. In the second place, we 
 lose the stimulus which would be applied to industry 
 by the offer of new and varied gratifications to the 
 ever- expanding wants of consumers. 
 
 The restrictions imposed upon this principle on 
 foreign importations have for their object the 
 ' protection,' not of producers, but of consumers. 
 
374 COLONIAL SYSTEM. 
 
 The producers, as a body, it has been shown, are 
 losers by every such impediment to free exchange. 
 But the consumers require to be protected from 
 the chances of having their supplies cut off by 
 foreign interference. 
 
 The encouragement which may be legitimately 
 afforded to colonial industry upon the principle 
 above stated, is somewhat less than that which 
 native industry can claim, inasmuch as the hold 
 retained by the mother country over its colonial 
 possessions, and the security from an interruption 
 of their mutual intercourse, is less than in the 
 case of the home trade. 
 
 The benefits arising from the possession of co- 
 lonies have been as much underrated by one class 
 of politicians as they have been overdrawn by 
 another. It is strange that those economists who 
 deny that the commercial intercourse with a colony 
 offers any advantages whatever beyond that car- 
 ried on with independent states, should overlook 
 this essential distinction between the two, that the 
 one is almost wholly at the mercy of foreign 
 governments, which, from motives of caprice, 
 hostility, or false views of policy, may prohibit 
 the entry of our vessels or produce into their states ; 
 while the other is secure (so long as the colony 
 remains attached to the mother country) of being 
 carried on upon the terms which the common 
 government considers to be most conducive to 
 their common interest. Here is undeniable ground 
 for awarding a preference to colonial over foreign 
 trade. 
 
 On the other hand, the advocates of the co- 
 onial system have in general greatly overstated 
 
TRUE VALUE OF COLONIES. 375 
 
 their case arguing as if the loss of a colony 
 would of necessity be followed by the loss of all 
 the trade previously carried on with it. That trade 
 might, it is quite evident, be carried on under the 
 same circumstances, with the same, or any other 
 similarly situated country, as an independent state. 
 It is only the uncertainty or, it may be said, 
 (under the existing prejudices in favour of the 
 protective system,) the improbability that an in- 
 dependent state would admit, or continue to admit, 
 the same free intercourse, or reciprocity of duties, 
 which can be commanded from the colony, that 
 gives a superior value to the trade with the latter. 
 This advantage clearly has its limits, and may be 
 bought too dear. It has been calculated (with 
 what correctness it is not easy to determine) that 
 the British colonies have, since the beginning of 
 this century, put the mother country to an expense 
 in the cost of their establishments, and of the wars 
 entered upon for their protection, exceeding the 
 entire amount of her exports to them during the 
 same time ! Were the trade as valuable as its most 
 zealous advocates pretend, it would be dearly pur- 
 chased at the tithe of this cost. 
 
 But there are advantages of another kind arising 
 from the possession of colonies, which, though they 
 have hitherto been imperfectly appreciated, will be 
 found, if fairly balanced, to outweigh every other; 
 namely, the certain and extensive field they offer 
 for the profitable employment of the capital and 
 labour of the mother country, whenever their 
 competition at home is such as to depress the rate 
 of profits and wages. Viewed in this light, colonial 
 possessions appear of inestimable value. 
 
376 REAL USE OF COLONIES 
 
 All old states are sooner or later liable unless 
 the increase of their wealth and population has 
 been kept down by the desolating scourge of war, 
 by tyranny, misgovernment, or natural calamities 
 to experience an irksome and injurious limitation 
 of their territorial extent. Those parts of their 
 surface which are sufficiently fertile or favourably 
 situated to repay the expense of cultivation with a 
 fair profit, being fully occupied, they cannot raise 
 additional raw produce at home except at a sacri- 
 fice of capital and labour, which, if submitted to, 
 must eventually lower profits and wages in every 
 branch of industry. In a former chapter we have 
 traced this natural and constant tendency in the 
 growth of population and wealth to require a con- 
 tinual enlargement of superficial area for its deve- 
 lopment. If facilities are wisely afforded to such 
 expansion by colonization, this tendency is incal- 
 culably beneficial, leading to the spread of human 
 happiness, civilization, and refinement, over the 
 wide wastes of the world. If these precautionary 
 measures are neglected, and the restraints which 
 every system of civilized society necessarily im- 
 poses on spontaneous migration are unmitigated, 
 the most distressing consequences generally ensue. 
 No country, perhaps, has suffered more from such 
 deficiency of superficial extent than Britain, espe- 
 cially since the peace put a stop to the great de- 
 mand and consumption of her produce which was 
 occasioned by the war expenditure, and turned the 
 balance in favour of supply and accumulation. 
 At the same time, no country ever possessed such 
 vast opportunities of territorial expansion as are 
 afforded in her extensive, fertile, and favourably 
 
COLONIZATION. 377 
 
 situated colonies. The real worth of these pos- 
 sessions, if concealed from our own eyes, is, at 
 least, duly appreciated by foreigners. Mr. Rush, 
 the late minister of the United States in London, 
 thus justly and forcibly expresses the precise 
 views we are endeavouring to urge on this subject 
 
 4 Britain exists all over the world in her colonies. 
 These alone give her the means of advancing her 
 industry and opulence for ages to come. They 
 are portions of her territory more valuable than if 
 joined to her island. The sense of distance is de- 
 stroyed by her command of ships ; whilst that 
 very distance serves as the feeder of her commerce 
 and marine. Situated on every continent, lying 
 in every latitude, these her out-dominions make 
 her the centre of a trade already vast, and per- 
 petually augmenting ; a home trade, and a fo- 
 reign trade, for it yields the riches of both, as she 
 controls it at her will. They take off her redundant 
 population, yet make her more populous; and 
 are destined, under the policy already commenced 
 towards them, and which in time she will far more 
 extensively pursue, to expand her empire, com- 
 mercial, manufacturing, and maritime, to dimen- 
 sions to which it would not be easy to affix limits.' 
 
 The productive powers of Britain notoriously 
 are, at present, and have been for years past, in a 
 state of unnatural congestion ; while, so far from 
 there having been any indisposition to consume, 
 millions have, at the same time, been in want of 
 the mere necessaries of life. But why this ano- 
 maly ? Simply because we have confined our 
 growing energies too closely within the narrow 
 limits of this little island, and have been slow to 
 
378 COLONIZATION A CURE 
 
 avail ourselves of the prodigious facilities for en- 
 larging the superficial area of our industrial pur- 
 suits which are afforded by our colonies. 
 
 In confirmation of this view of one of the main 
 causes of our present unsatisfactory position, let 
 us examine what is the nature of the additional 
 powers of production which we have so abundantly 
 acquired, and what the objects of which we con- 
 tinue to be in want, notwithstanding these aug- 
 mented resources. 
 
 The inventions which of late years have been 
 brought to light in this country, and which distin- 
 guish it so much from every other, have reference 
 almost exclusively to manufactures to that branch 
 of industry which supplies its population directly, 
 or indirectly by foreign exchange, with clothing 
 and a variety of objects, which, though they have 
 become from habit more or less accessary to our 
 comfort, cannot be reckoned among the necessaries 
 of subsistence. It is the production of these things, 
 of secondary rather than of first-rate importance, 
 that has been advanced by the spinning- jenny, 
 the power-loom, the stocking-frame, and the other 
 wonderful machinery which that wonderful auto- 
 maton, the steam-engine, sets in motion. And, 
 accordingly, there exists an abundance of these 
 things an abundance notoriously complained of 
 as an evil, under the denomination of glut. 
 
 But the things of which, in spite of so many 
 improvements, we experience a deficiency, are the 
 primary necessaries of subsistence the products 
 of agricultural, not of manufacturing industry. 
 There is an abundance nay, there is an acknow- 
 ledged superabundance of cottons, and cloths, 
 
FOR OUR ECONOMICAL EVILS. 379 
 
 and cutlery, and brass furniture in the country; 
 but there is a sensible want of good wheaten bread, 
 and cheese, and bacon, and fresh meat. The 
 prices of the former objects have fallen in some 
 cases to one-fourth, in others to one-tenth, of what 
 they were half a century ago ; while the prices 
 of the principal articles of subsistence of /bod, in 
 short have very considerably risen during the 
 same period. And since the labouring class can- 
 not live upon hardware or calicoes and that the 
 being able to procure clothing or conveniences of 
 better quality than before is but a poor compensa- 
 tion for an emptier stomach their condition re- 
 mains unimproved, or rather has deteriorated in 
 its primary feature, their command over the means 
 of subsistence. 
 
 Now let us suppose, for an instant, that our 
 means of self-supply of agricultural produce had 
 advanced as rapidly as our capacity for supplying 
 ourselves with manufactured articles, either by 
 reason of extraordinary improvements in agricul- 
 ture, rivalling those which have so augmented our 
 manufacturing productiveness or through a mi- 
 raculous increase in the fertility of our soils or 
 the gradual accession of a large extent of new and 
 rich land to our coasts. It will be evident to all 
 who think upon the subject, that in this case the 
 main evils of our present economical condition 
 could not by possibility be in existence. The 
 comparative cheapness of raw produce, especially 
 of food, consequent on its increased production at 
 a rapidly diminishing cost, would not only have 
 afforded an abundance of the necessaries of sub- 
 sistence to our whole working population, but, 
 
380 COLONIZATION A CURE 
 
 enabling them to spare a far larger proportion of 
 their earnings than they can at present for the 
 purchase of clothing and superfluities, would have 
 multiplied the demand for these secondary objects, 
 and added greatly to the remuneration of capital 
 and labour employed in their production; while 
 this thriving condition of our manufactures must 
 react upon, and secure a full remunerative de- 
 mand to the agriculturists. Profits and wages 
 would be high in every business ; all our productive 
 interests would be in a state of sound and growing 
 prosperity. 
 
 Now though improvements in agriculture do 
 not occur fast enough to meet the demand of our 
 increasing population and wealth from the cultiva- 
 tion of our home soils, and though it is idle, of 
 course, to expect a miracle to augment the natural 
 fertility of these soils, or annex any considerable 
 tract of rich land to our coasts, yet the same be- 
 neficial consequences which would flow from these 
 hypothetical circumstances, were they really to 
 take place, must follow from our cultivation of the 
 rich soils that are separated from Britain by the 
 Atlantic, and fully to the same extent as if these 
 soils were attached to our coast, but for the single 
 circumstance of the cost of conveying their raw 
 produce, and the British manufactures we should 
 exchange for them, across the intervening ocean. 
 
 This cost, however, is to be calculated to a 
 nicety, and will be found a mere trifle in compa- 
 rison of the enormous sacrifices of capital and 
 labour that we are daily making for want of such 
 a field for their profitable investment. This cost, 
 moreover, is diminishing daily. We may shortly 
 
FOR OUR ECONOMICAL EVILS. 381 
 
 expect to see the Atlantic practically reduced to 
 one- third of its width by steam navigation. The 
 cost of conveying flour from Quebec to Liverpool 
 or Manchester is even now scarcely more than that 
 of its land carriage a century back for a distance 
 of fifty miles. By further improvements in com- 
 munication (which are perhaps advancing with 
 greater rapidity than any others) we may reason- 
 ably expect our North American colonies to be 
 every year approaching still nearer to our great 
 manufacturing districts, and the intercourse between 
 them to be attended with no greater difficulty or 
 expense, perhaps even with less, than that which 
 could take place between Lancashire and any tract 
 of rich land we might suppose to be added by a 
 miracle to the Norfolk or Essex coast. Let but 
 our redundant capital and labour take that direction, 
 and let the intercourse be as free between Lanca- 
 shire and Canada as it would be between Lanca- 
 shire and Essex, and the double object will be an- 
 swered of increasing our supplies of food at home 
 (now unquestionably deficient, as compared with 
 commodities of secondary importance) and of 
 opening new avenues for the profitable employ- 
 ment of our surplus labour and capital in agri- 
 culture, manufactures, and, let us add, commerce 
 likewise since our own merchants, shipping, and 
 seamen, would be exclusively engaged in this 
 trade. 
 
 And herein is seen an additional superiority of 
 the trade with a colony over that with an inde- 
 pendent country. Were corn to be freely im- 
 ported from Poland or the United States in ex- 
 change for our manufactures, we not only, as has 
 
382 COLONIAL V. FOREIGN TRADE. 
 
 been urged, become dependent in some degree for 
 the first necessaries of life on the will of the go- 
 vernments of those countries, who may at any 
 time interfere with our supply, but we become de- 
 pendent also for that supply upon the rate at which 
 capital, population, and the agricultural art may 
 happen to advance among their inhabitants, a 
 rate which we can do nothing to accelerate. If 
 the advance of their productive capacities do not 
 keep pace with our own, we carry on what may be 
 called a losing trade with them, we are conti- 
 nually exchanging larger quantities of the produce 
 of our industry for less quantities of theirs. 
 Moreover, though our manufacturers may be be- 
 nefited by such a trade, our agriculturists would 
 not profit from it in any degree, but would rather 
 be falling back than advancing in their circum- 
 stances. The system of supply by colonization, 
 on the contrary, offers a direct enlargement of 
 the means for employing our agricultural as well 
 as manufacturing population, the skill and capital 
 of our farmers, as well as of our artisans and 
 manufacturers ; and thus gives a double stimulus 
 to the national industry ; at the same time that, 
 instead of causing us to depend for our increased 
 supply of food, and other agricultural produce, on 
 the slow increase of the productive capacities of 
 foreigners, and on their arbitrary commercial re- 
 gulations, we at once employ our own capital and 
 our own people, with all their known and tried 
 resources of skill, genius, enterprise, and perse- 
 verance, in its provision while we ourselves re- 
 gulate the terms of its admission. 
 
 If we will only consider a fertile and favourably 
 
CORN-LAWS. 383 
 
 situated colony, like the Canadas for example, in 
 the light of an addition to the territorial extent of 
 Great Britain, which is in truth its virtual character, 
 we must recognize at once its prodigious value as 
 a field for the utilization of British labour and ca- 
 pital, and a market for British manufactures. All 
 that is required for the development of its advan- 
 tages, is their due appreciation by the nation and 
 the government that the trade between the mother 
 country and such of its dependencies as are most 
 fitted for this purpose, be placed upon the footing 
 of the coasting trade and that an extensive and 
 methodical system of colonization be organized by 
 government, which should duly prepare the colo- 
 nies for the purpose, by ordering the appropriation 
 of their lands in the manner most conducive to 
 their effective cultivation and settlement, and assist 
 the emigration of the surplus labourers of this 
 country (who, from the very circumstance of their 
 redundancy, are too poor to find their own way 
 over), regulating their numbers, and directing 
 their course to the places where they are most 
 wanted. 
 
 The foregoing considerations are closely con- 
 nected with the question as to the expediency of 
 our present system of duties on the importation of 
 corn. 
 
 The argument in favour of a free importation is, 
 indeed, far stronger as respects this article than any 
 other, for the plain reason that every impediment 
 placed in the way of such importation creates an 
 artificial obstacle to the supply of food to the 
 people. The exclusive burdens on agriculture are 
 pleaded as a justification for such duties. These 
 
CORN-LA.WS. 
 
 burdens ouglit to be equalized, as has been shown 
 in a former chapter. Certainly the imposition of 
 one impediment to the supply of food for a hungry 
 community can be no good reason for adding an- 
 other ! The production of food is an object of such 
 paramount importance, that it is difficult to justify 
 any artificial restrictions either on its growth at 
 home or supply from abroad. Whether it be pro- 
 duced directly by the employment of our labour 
 and capital upon our ploughed lands and threshing- 
 floors, or indirectly by their employment in our 
 manufactories and shipping, (that is, in working 
 up and exporting goods for which foreigners will 
 give us food,) can be of no importance whatever to 
 the food-consuming public, as a whole, so that they 
 procure it at the cheapest possible rate. All their 
 interest lies in procuring the greatest possible 
 quantity of it at the least expense of their labour 
 and capital. To give an artificial preference to 
 its production from our home soils is only to re- 
 quire its production by a greater sacrifice of the 
 capital and labour of the community than would 
 be sufficient to obtain it by importation. 
 
 The claim sometimes put forward by the land- 
 owners of this country to a monopoly of the supply 
 of the corn required for the entire community, is 
 an instance of the same spirit that dictated the 
 ancient law by which the inhabitants of every 
 manor were compelled to take their corn to the 
 lord's mill to be ground (where of course a heavy 
 tax, called multure, was imposed), or that which 
 appears from the capitularies of Charlemagne to 
 have been a grievous source of oppression in the 
 feudal ages, namely, the compelling travellers to 
 
IMPOLICY OF CORN-LAWS IN PRINCIPLE. 385 
 
 go out of their way in order to pay toll at a par- 
 ticular bridge, when they could cross the river 
 more conveniently at another place. 
 
 The impolicy of taxes on the raw materials of 
 industry is generally acknowledged: but a tax 
 which raises the price of corn is much more re- 
 prehensible on the same ground, since this article 
 of prime necessity enters as an ingredient into the 
 wages of labour, and therefore affects not one or 
 two only, but every branch of industry. Were the 
 price of corn to fall, the money wages of labour 
 in every department of industry might be lowered 
 without injury to the labourers ; and since wages 
 compose by far the larger proportion three- 
 fourths at least, on the average, of the cost of every 
 commodity a fall in the price of com tends to 
 lower the necessary cost of nearly every other 
 commodity, including, of course, those consumed 
 by the agricultural classes themselves, who are 
 thus great losers by the artificially high prices 
 which they are endeavouring to maintain. 
 . They suffer likewise in another manner from 
 this unwise policy. The land, as we have seen, 
 pays the greater part of the poor-rate of this 
 country, out of which are supported in unproduc- 
 tive idleness large numbers of the unemployed 
 population. Now it is certain that thousands of 
 these would be set to work instantly, and their 
 parishes relieved from the expense of their gratui- 
 tous maintenance, if the products of their labour, 
 in cloth, cottons, or hardware, were permitted to 
 be exchanged abroad for the corn which they 
 require for their sustenance. The present con- 
 sumption of home-grown corn by this surplus 
 
 2 c 
 
336 IMPOLICY OF CORN-LAWS IN PRINCIPLE. 
 
 population does not create a beneficial demand 
 on the home grower, but just the contrary. It 
 is a portion of his produce which he is by law 
 compelled to give away for nothing. Were foreign 
 corn freely imported in return for the labour of 
 this surplus, the landed interest of England, in- 
 stead of losing a beneficial demand, would escape 
 from an oppressive tax. They would shift the 
 maintenance, of this surplus of labourers from 
 themselves upon the foreigner. 
 
 The plain fact is, that in this country there are 
 thousands of able-bodied labourers, supported in 
 idleness on the compulsory charity of the proper- 
 tied classes, eating into instead of adding to the 
 resources of the land, while there exist all the 
 appliances of knowledge, capital, and mineral 
 wealth lying equally idle within their reach, and, 
 on the other side of the Atlantic or the Baltic, cus- 
 tomers anxious to give food in exchange for the 
 product of their industry ; the only impediment to 
 the beneficial application of these productive re- 
 sources being a legislative interdict on that ex- 
 change : which interdict is kept up for the sup- 
 posed benefit of the parties who are exclusively 
 burdened by law with the maintenance of the 
 redundant population I Nothing more need be 
 said in illustration of this suicidal policy. The 
 question is simply, whether our surplus labouring 
 population shall be allowed to support themselves 
 by working for the Americans, Prussians, &c., 
 who are quite ready to employ and feed them ; or 
 forced to throw themselves on their parishes to be 
 maintained gratuitously at the cost of the land 
 and other property of this country. 
 
IMPOLICY OF CORN-LAWS IN PRINCIPLE. 387 
 
 At present other nations retaliate upon us for 
 excluding their raw produce, by excluding our 
 manufactures. But suppose that a mutual relaxa- 
 tion on our part and that of America in the 
 customs duties levied on the respective products 
 of each, should cause a new annual importation of 
 corn into this country from America to the value 
 of five millions, and an equivalent export of cot- 
 tons, cloths, and cutlery to America from hence, 
 can it be questioned for a moment that the effect 
 would be to give a great increase of employment 
 to the labouring and capitalist interests of England, 
 and to relieve the landed interest of the burthen 
 of supporting a large surplus population ? * 
 
 * A pamphlet has lately appeared from the pen of Mr. 
 Barton, in which an attempt is made to prove that high 
 prices of corn are beneficial, and low prices injurious to the 
 body of the. people, from a comparison of statistical docu- 
 ments, which seem to show that the average mortality has 
 constantly declined, throughout decennial periods, as corn 
 rose in price, and increased as prices fell. Now without 
 dwelling upon the extreme variations which have occurred 
 in the value of money during the periods from which Mr. 
 Barton's facts are taken, and which greatly invalidate any 
 conclusion whatever drawn from a comparison of prices, it 
 is enough that Mr. Barton himself brings forward another 
 series of results from statistical calculations, which, at the 
 same time that they account for his first results, directly 
 refute the conclusion he has drawn from them. He shows 
 that the average of marriages, as well as of deaths, has in- 
 creased in the periods of cheap corn, and fallen off in the 
 periods of dear corn. Now this increase of marriages will 
 itself account for the increase of deaths ; because the imme- 
 diate consequence of an increase of marriages is an increase 
 in the proportion of infants to the entire population ; and 
 from the known large proportion of deaths which occur 
 among infants as compared with adults, an increased ave- 
 
 2c 2 
 
388 COLONIAL CORN SHOULD BE 
 
 It is true that the argument already adverted to, 
 in favour of encouraging the production of commo- 
 dities at home, lest this country be rendered too 
 far dependent on foreigners for its supply, applies 
 to the article corn, as to others. It is indeed 
 stronger in the case of this necessary of life than 
 in that of other things which may be spared on an 
 emergency. But the evils of a constant limitation 
 of the stock of food for a growing population per- 
 haps more than compensate the risk of an occa- 
 sional scarcity ; which could never be carried to 
 any extreme length, since the desire to sell on 
 the part of those foreigners who habitually supplied 
 our markets would be as great as our desire to 
 buy, and must prevent their governments from 
 taking such steps as would materially interfere 
 with a trade so valuable to them. 
 
 At all events, to whatever extent the validity of 
 this argument may be admitted as against the free 
 
 rage of deaths during these periods must exhibit itself : while 
 this increase of marriages, indicating, as Mr. Barton him- 
 self acknowledges, a feeling of plenty among the labouring 
 population, effectually disproves the alleged coincidence 
 of an increase of general privation. Mr. B. ought to 
 have distrusted inferences which went to establish so para- 
 doxical a proposition as that the cheapness and abundance 
 of the necessaries of life tended to abridge the lives and 
 deteriorate the condition of their consumers. He challenges 
 any refutation of his argument. The remarks here made 
 upon it, are offered in a spirit of respect for his benevolent 
 intentions by one who is a fellow-labourer with him in the 
 advocacy of colonization, as a sure means of relieving want; 
 but who cannot exclude from his view another resource al- 
 most equally effective, and which, indeed, ought to form an 
 element in every scheme of colonization, viz., the importation 
 of food in exchange for manufactures. 
 
ADMITTED FREE OF DUTY. 389 
 
 importation of foreign- grown corn, its force is ma- 
 terially lessened, and, indeed, disappears almost 
 wholly, in the case of corn grown in our colonial 
 possessions, by the application of British labour 
 arid capital. We have allowed the propriety of 
 fiscal restrictions to a moderate extent on foreign 
 commerce ; and it is because we maintain a colony 
 to be the very opposite, in every respect, of a 
 foreign country to be properly considered as an 
 outlying province of the parent state, an integral 
 portion of the empire, or a member of the same 
 federal union that we are anxious to see our 
 colonial not merely distinguished from our foreign 
 commerce by its lower scale of duties, but placed 
 upon the same footing with our home trade by the 
 abolition of all duties on articles of first-rate im- 
 portance, the growth of our colonies, and measures 
 taken for facilitating the supply of our most urgent 
 wants from their inexhaustible soils. The truth is, 
 we are at present stinting our population in the 
 prime necessaries of life, and keeping down the 
 wages of labour and the profits of capital in this 
 country to the minimum level, by confining our 
 superabundant capital and labour to the cultiva- 
 tion of our home soils, and our hungry population 
 to their scanty produce which, through the li- 
 mited extent and fertility of our island, cannot be 
 increased to meet the increasing demand whilst 
 we have millions of acres of the richest possible 
 soil courting our ploughs in our transmarine de- 
 pendencies; in districts enjoying the healthiest 
 climate, subject to our government, attached to 
 our laws, and asking only to be peopled by the 
 overflow of our population, and to have their vast 
 
390 EXISTING CORN-DUTIES MODERATE. 
 
 resources developed for the common advantage, 
 by the profitable application of our redundant 
 means. By treating the most fertile and accessible 
 of our colonies as an extension of our home terri- 
 tory, we should obtain all the advantages derivable 
 from an unlimited command of fertile land, secure 
 a considerable rise in the real wages of our la- 
 bourers, and in the profits of our capitalists, and 
 render the improvements that for years past have 
 been daily taking place in our productive capa- 
 cities, what they ought to be and but for the 
 limitation of the territorial surface to which they 
 have been confined, would have always been a 
 source of continual improvement in the condition 
 and means of enjoyment of every class of society. 
 
 We have hitherto argued the question of corn- 
 laws solely with reference to their principle. 
 Whether the present scale of duties on foreign 
 .corn is injurious from its varying character or 
 excessive amount, is quite another consideration, 
 and much more open to doubt. 
 
 It appears that the present duties on wheat 
 have not prevented the importation since the last 
 alteration of the corn-laws of a quantity equal to 
 one-twelfth of the entire consumption of England, 
 and that though the rates of duty paid have varied 
 from Is. to 28s., the average upon this very large 
 quantity is only 6s. 8d. It would seem from this 
 that the present rate of duties is not very burthen- 
 some upon the consumer ; and it is doubtful whe- 
 ther it would be an improvement to exchange this 
 varying duty, averaging only 6s. 8d, for a fixed 
 duty of more than the same amount ; while it is 
 certainly out of all question that any proposal fora 
 
CORN-LAWS. 391 
 
 lower rate of duty would be listened to at present 
 by the legislature. On this ground we are by no 
 means confident that any great advantage is to be 
 gained by hastily unsettling the present system, so 
 far as relates io foreign corn. That system having 
 been acted on since 1815, has placed the agricul- 
 ture of the whole island in a false position ; has 
 encouraged the investment of much capital in the 
 tillage of poor soils, and the growth of a large 
 agricultural population upon them. To repeal 
 therefore, or to lower the corn duties suddenly, 
 would do much mischief by throwing a large por- 
 tion of the home soils out of cultivation, and of the 
 agricultural labourers out of work. When, how- 
 ever, the impediments are removed, which we have 
 noticed as barring the profitable employment of 
 productive industry in agriculture, when tithes 
 are commuted accommodation afforded to farm- 
 ers by a better banking system the working of 
 the poor-laws improved, and their cost reduced, 
 our labouring population restored to their moral 
 and industrious habits Ireland pacified, and her 
 vast agricultural resources developed by a law 
 compelling the employment of her able-bodied 
 poor when also a system of colonization has 
 applied our agricultural skill, labour, and capital 
 to the cultivation of our colonial soils; the dimi- 
 nished cost of raising corn within our own terri- 
 tory will lower its price without loss to the grower, 
 who will by degrees become able to compete with 
 the foreigner; and the corn-laws may then be 
 repealed without injury to any one. Those who 
 wish for cheap bread should call for such measures 
 
392 CORN- LAWS. 
 
 as may enable it to be raised cheaply by British 
 industry from British soils. 
 
 On the whole, the conclusion is, that absolute 
 freedom of commerce, in the present state of so- 
 ciety, would be unsafe. Freedom is the true prin- 
 ciple towards which we should be always approxi- 
 mating in practice ; but until nations are fully 
 awake to their community of interest, and are 
 linked together in the bonds of a fraternal or fe- 
 deral union until commercial jealousies have dis- 
 appeared, and the chances of war are materially 
 reduced it will be a prudent course for every 
 state to give a moderate encouragement to the 
 supply of its own wants from its own resources, 
 by imposing duties on such foreign commodities 
 as can be almost, though not quite, as cheaply 
 produced at home as they can be procured from 
 abroad. The only question is as to the extent of 
 these duties. With respect to articles of small 
 bulk, the smuggler determines the limit. The duty 
 must never be such as to throw the trade into his 
 hands. With regard to articles not liable to con- 
 traband introduction, the duty must be regulated 
 by balancing its disadvantages, viz., injury to con- 
 sumers, and discouragement to industry, against 
 its advantages, consisting in security for a constant 
 supply and uninterrupted trade, and (a considera- 
 tion not to be overlooked) the easy collection of 
 a considerable revenue. 
 
 That sound ideas are beginning generally to 
 prevail in other countries as well as our own, on 
 this momentous subject, is a source of great satis- 
 faction. As an instance, we may quote a passage 
 
ABSENTEEISM ITS EFFECTS, 393 
 
 from a petition presented on the 10th July last, 
 from the prudhommes of Lyons to the Minister 
 of Commerce ; in which the government of France 
 is urged to abolish all impediments to the importa- 
 tion of raw materials, and of those articles which 
 France is unable advantageously to create, and, 
 4 by enfranchising that country from the trammels 
 of legislative monopoly, to consolidate the peace of 
 the civilized world.' 
 
 ' Commercial freedom is equally demanded by 
 those who produce and by those who consume; 
 a freedom gradual in its introduction, gradual 
 in order that no branch of industry may be sud- 
 denly compromised, that those especially which 
 are most menaced by a change of legislation may 
 have time to conform themselves, by prudential 
 preparations, for a state of liberal intercourse, 
 which is felt to be alike the want and the interest 
 of nations*.' 
 
 When the governments of Britain and of France 
 have adopted the maxims of a liberal commercial 
 policy, it cannot be long before the benefits that 
 must flow from the change will lead other states to 
 follow their example. 
 
 The disputed question of the effects of Absen- 
 teeism is connected with that on commercial re- 
 straints, and, therefore, comes properly into dis- 
 cussion in this place. The moral benefit whick 
 the residence of landlords upon their estates tends 
 to confer on society has been conceded by those 
 who at first denied that residence was any ad- 
 
 * Globe Newspaper, 20th July, 1833. 
 
394 ENGLISH ABSENTEEISM. 
 
 vantage whatever, and consequently that absen- 
 teeism could be any injury. The economical con* 
 sequences of absenteeism, so far as relates to 
 England consist, it appears to us, simply in such 
 as may flow from the landlord's income being ex- 
 pended in the employment of one branch of indus- 
 try rather than another, or of the inhabitants of a 
 town rather than of a country district. If an Eng- 
 lish landlord reside in London, and expend there 
 his rental drawn from Yorkshire, the tradesmen, 
 &c., of London gain all that the tradesmen, &c., of 
 Yorkshire lose. If he reside abroad, his rental 
 must be remitted indirectly in British manufac- 
 tured commodities, and its expenditure, therefore, 
 gives the same aggregate employment to British 
 labour and capital, as if he resided in the country 
 and spent it on British goods of a different kind. 
 To put an extreme case, were even the whole rental 
 of the kingdom spent abroad, there would still be 
 as much employment afforded to British industry 
 as before. Ruin would no doubt fall upon the 
 tradesmen of London, of our watering-places, and 
 of many country towns and villages; but Man- 
 chester and Sheffield, Leeds and Liverpool, would 
 gain in exact proportion to the loss sustained by 
 the other places. The rental could not be re- 
 mitted except in the form of British manufactures 
 fabricated at some of these places. It is not meant 
 -to deny that great injury would result from the 
 absenteeism of all our landed proprietors, but the 
 injury would be of a moral and social rather than 
 an economical nature. 
 
 The case of Ireland, however, differs from that 
 of Britain in this remarkable point, that, while the 
 
IRISH ABSENTEEISM. <395 
 
 latter exports solely manufactures, the exports of 
 Ireland consist almost solely of food corn, but- 
 ter, pork, beef, &c. In her case, therefore, that 
 portion of the raw produce of the soil which ac- 
 crues to the landlord as rent, will, if he is an 
 absentee, be directly exported, as the only means 
 of remitting his rent, instead of being consumed 
 by manufacturers at home while working up 
 goods for exportation, as in England. The Eng- 
 lish absentee landlord may be considered as 
 feeding and employing, with the surplus produce 
 of his estate, that portion of our manufacturing 
 population which is engaged in fabricating the 
 goods that are sent abroad to pay his rent. The 
 Irish absentee, on the contrary, can only have 
 his rent remitted in the shape of food: there 
 is no secondary intervening process whatever; 
 and the more food is in this way sent out of the 
 country, the less, of course, remains behind to 
 support and give employment to its inhabitants. 
 If these were all fully fed and employed, no harm 
 would result from the exportation of food : as is 
 the case, for example, with some parts of North 
 America. But so long as the people of any 
 country are, as in Ireland, but half employed and 
 half fed, so long, to export food from thence will 
 be to take away the means existing in the country 
 for setting them to work and improving their con- 
 dition. Should the Irish absentee landlord return 
 to reside at home, a considerable portion of the 
 food now exported to pay his rents would be 
 transferred by him to Irish tradesmen, artisans, 
 and labourers, whom he could not avoid employ- 
 ing to satisfy a variety of wants. Ireland would 
 
396 ABSENTEEISM ITS EFFECTS. 
 
 profit pro tanto by the additional employment and 
 subsistence afforded to her inhabitants. As it 
 is, she loses, by the absence of her landlords, 
 exactly what she would gain by their return. The 
 remedy is, not an absentee tax, which would fall 
 heavily on some whose estates are the best managed, 
 and the population upon them the best conditioned 
 in the island, while it spared those resident gentry 
 who neglect the poor upon their property as 
 much as if they resided at the antipodes : the 
 real remedy is a poor-law which (like the law of 
 England) should compel every landlord, resident 
 or absent, to provide subsistence and employment 
 for the poor settled on his estate, before he touches 
 any rent whatever. 
 
 The English absentee may be charged with un- 
 fairly escaping his just share of the general taxa- 
 tion. The only way to remedy this inequality is 
 by the substitution of a direct tax on income for a 
 portion of the taxes which, in this country, are so 
 largely levied upon expenditure. Of this more 
 hereafter. 
 
397 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 RESTRAINTS ON THE INSTRUMENT OF 
 EXCHANGE. 
 
 Injury of restrictions on the Instrument of Exchange. Credit 
 always employed as a medium for circulating values to a far 
 greater extent than Coin. Credit should be free to take 
 what form convenience may dictate, Just limitations of 
 Currency. The object, convenience, security, and stability 
 of Value To be obtained either, 1 . By complete freedom of 
 note issue 2. By a National Bank. Vices of the English 
 System. Bank of England Monopoly. Variationsin Valut 
 of the Standard. Proposed measure of Variations. Their 
 injustice and enormous extent of late years. Suggestions 
 for improvement of Monetary System. Weights and Mea- 
 sures* Usury Laws. 
 
 . MONEY is the instrument by which all exchanges 
 of goods are effected. Any saving in its cost is as 
 advantageous to the productive classes among 
 whom these exchanges take place, as an equivalent 
 saving in the cost of their instruments of produc- 
 tion, and goes equally to augment the net returns 
 of industry ; and any restriction on such improve- 
 ments is to the full as injurious as a restriction on 
 improved machinery or on free exchange. 
 
 In an early chapter we spoke of the great pro- 
 bability that from the very first commencement of 
 
398 RESTRAINTS ON CREDIT. 
 
 exchanges, credit^ or the faith of one man in the 
 engagements of another, has been largely em- 
 ployed as the medium of commercial transactions. 
 The first man who said to another, ' Give me a 
 meal to-day, and I will give one to you or to your 
 friend to-morrow/ originated the system of credit. 
 Want of confidence alone between man and man 
 even now necessitates the use of money of intrinsic 
 value, which is, indeed, a comparatively clumsy 
 contrivance, and but a form of barter. 
 
 The inconvenience of a metallic medium for the 
 exchange of commodities is such, that, if we were 
 confined to it, all commerce would soon be at a 
 standstill. Nearly all the entries in all the ledgers 
 of all the trading classes in the civilized world 
 relate to transactions on credit. The dealings for 
 cash are comparatively insignificant. And if it 
 were attempted to carry on all dealings by means 
 of cash only, not only would all the precious 
 metals in the world be insufficient to effect one- 
 thousandth part of our daily exchanges, but direct 
 barter would in most cases be found positively the 
 more convenient method of the two. 
 
 Whether the credit given by one party to another 
 for a fixed value to be paid within a limited period, 
 take the form of an entry in a ledger, or of a bill 
 of exchange which may be considered as a simi- 
 lar entry made upon a loose leaf for the purpose of 
 rendering the credit it records transferable from 
 one person to another or of a promissory note 
 payable on demand to the bearer, which differs 
 only from a bill of exchange in having no time to 
 run and requiring no indorsement to render it 
 transferable, it is obvious that any restraints 
 
CREDIT SHOULD BE FREE. 399 
 
 upon the free use or circulation of credit in any 
 shape among producers must have an injurious 
 effect upon commerce, whose benefits are precisely 
 proportioned to the degree in which it facilitates 
 exchanges. It would seem that were government 
 to confine its interference to enforcing the fulfil- 
 ment of contracts, it might safely be left to con- 
 tracting parties to judge of the degree of credit 
 they should give to each other's engagements, and 
 to adopt that mode of circulating such engage- 
 ments which experience would prove to them to 
 combine the greatest security with the greatest 
 cheapness and convenience. 
 
 Where this freedom has been wisely permitted 
 to the public, the result has been the establishment 
 in commercial countries of banks of issue, that is, 
 of parties who make it their business to facilitate 
 the circulation of credit, by lending or exchanging 
 their credit, which being well-known and gene- 
 rally acknowledged, will circulate freely through- 
 out a considerable district, for the credit of private 
 parties which would not be taken so readily or 
 generally, but with which they, the bankers, take 
 care to become acquainted. This is a simple step 
 in the division of labour, quite analogous to the es- 
 tablishment of the class of merchants or carriers, 
 in the business of circulating goods of all kinds 
 more rapidly, conveniently, and cheaply, than 
 could be done by their producers. The banker's 
 profit is as fairly earned as that of the merchant or 
 carrier ; and, where both trades are free, it is 
 certain that competition will keep the profits of 
 each within the limits of what is justly due to him 
 as the returns of his labour, skill, and capital ; the 
 
400 . OBJECT OF RESTRAINTS. 
 
 remainder of the saving effected by these several 
 contrivances becoming, as happens with all im- 
 provements in productive industry, a clear benefit 
 to the public. Mr. Dyer, the principal manager 
 of the Manchester Joint-stock Bank well observed 
 before the committee of the Bank Charter of 1832, 
 
 4 I think merchants ought to be allowed to 
 devise the best instrument for conducting the trade 
 of the country which they can invent/ 
 
 * The whole question turns upon what credits it is 
 proper to allow to be circulated as the best instru- 
 ment for conducting the business of the nation, 
 both public and private. In deciding this question 
 security to the public, and steadiness of value as a 
 purchasing power, should be had in view above all 
 other things/ 
 
 In fact, the only justification for any interference 
 of government with the free circulation of what- 
 ever form of money or of credit the ingenuity and 
 sagacity of commercial men would spontaneously 
 adopt, must consist in the greater convenience or 
 security which some legislative regulations may 
 be proved to confer on the instrument of exchange. 
 We have seen that experience suggested and has 
 confirmed the expediency of a government taking 
 into its own hands the exclusive coinage of me- 
 tallic money, in order to prevent the inconvenience 
 of a mixed coinage, consisting of pieces of every 
 variety of denomination, weight, and fineness, and 
 the risks to which the public would be exposed of 
 their adulteration. Now, to a certain extent, a 
 similar interference may be, and probably is, 
 equally expedient with respect to paper or credit 
 money. It may be convenient to confine the cir- 
 
CONVENIENCE AND SECURITY. 401 
 
 dilation of a paper currency to certain denomina- 
 tions, and it may be wise to adopt regulations for 
 securing the public from being imposed upon by 
 worthless paper-money, as well as by false coin. 
 The most obvious modes of effecting these objects 
 would seem to be for Government either 1. to as- 
 sume to itself, as in the case of coin, the exclusive 
 power of issuing that kind of paper-money which 
 experience proves to be most current as a medium 
 of exchange, namely, promissory notes payable on 
 demand ; in other words, to establish a National 
 Bank, or paper mint office; or 2. to content itself 
 with limiting the denominations of paper-money, 
 and requiring from all such banks as issue it some 
 unquestionable guarantee for the fulfilment of their 
 engagement to pay their notes on demand. Either 
 of these plans, perhaps, would be equally effective 
 for attaining the desirable objects of convenience 
 and security from imposition. 
 
 But there is another quality, fully as desirable 
 as either of these in the construction of an instru- 
 ment of exchange namely, stability of value as a 
 purchasing power. Whatever is employed as the 
 medium for the exchange of equivalent objects 
 must be itself equivalent to each. If no time 
 were consumed in effecting exchanges, if there 
 were no interval between the sale of one object 
 and the purchase of another, any variation from 
 time to time in the value of the medium would 
 be of no consequence. If its value were double 
 to day what it was yesterday, the only conse- 
 quence would be that all goods equally would 
 sell at one half the nominal value or price of the 
 day before; half the quantity of money would 
 
402 WITHOUT STABILITY OF VALUE 
 
 effect the same amount of exchanges, and the 
 relative position of producers on either side would 
 remain unchanged. But this condition is wholly 
 incompatible with the use of a medium of exchange. 
 That medium must remain some time in the pos- 
 session of one of the exchanging parties before he 
 realizes or exchanges it in turn for goods. In the 
 case supposed, of a doubling in its value between 
 one day and another, the parties in whose pos- 
 session the money remained during the night 
 would find themselves the next morning able to 
 command with it double the value in goods which 
 they gave for it the day before. But the possi- 
 bility of such a change would prevent those who 
 hold money from parting with it, and render it 
 unserviceable as a circulating medium. On the 
 other hand, if, in the same interval, a fall had 
 taken place of one half in the value of the 
 medium, (and it must be equally liable to fall as to 
 rise in value,) its holders would find themselves 
 unable to command the next morning more than 
 half the quantity of goods which it would have 
 purchased the night before. And the possibility 
 of this must indispose persons who hold goods 
 from parting with them for money, and equally 
 prevent its circulation as a medium of commerce. 
 In point of fact, money does not only remain for 
 a few hours or days in the possession of parties, 
 but contracts are entered into on credit for the 
 payment of sums of money at very distant terms; 
 many for a perpetuity of periodical payments ; 
 and any change that takes place in the value of 
 the medium employed in the interval between the 
 engagement and its fulfilment, whether a day, a 
 
MONEY IS A MERE FRAUD. 403 
 
 month, a year, or a century, is as complete a 
 derangement in the terms of the contract as that 
 just supposed. 
 
 Money, indeed, is only employed as a medium 
 for the exchange of values, on the presumption of 
 its remaining invariable in its value; without which 
 it cannot be a true measure of the value of the 
 objects for which it is exchanged. A medium for 
 the exchange of values, which itself varies in value, 
 is as false and fraudulent a measure of value, as a 
 foot-rule which should vary in length would be of 
 length, or as a pound would be of weight, if itself 
 varied occasionally in weight. 
 
 A variation in the value of money is as trea- 
 cherous and as destructive to commercial security, 
 which is the foundation of all commercial improve- 
 ment, as a variation in weight, length, or capacity, 
 of the standard measures of each. Invariability 
 in respect to the quality it is employed to measure 
 is absolutely indispensable to every standard mea- 
 sure. Stability of value is the first and most es- 
 sential requisite of the instrument employed for 
 the exchange of values. 
 
 Unfortunately there are great practical diffi- 
 culties in the way of obtaining such an invariable 
 instrument. The precious metals which have been 
 generally used in all ages and by all nations as 
 the instrument of exchange, from their possessing 
 some peculiar qualities fitting them for this office 
 in greater perfection than any other commodity, 
 are by no means invariable it is doubtful whether 
 they are less fluctuating in value than many other 
 commodities. The paper-money which represents, 
 and is payable in the precious metals, must vary 
 
 2 D 2 
 
404 PRINCIPLES OF MONETARY VALUE. 
 
 in value exactly with them ; and paper-money not 
 payable in metal, but issued solely on the credit of 
 its being taken in payment of taxes by the state 
 that issues it or declares it a legal tender, is 
 equally variable in value, according to the amount 
 issued as compared with the exchanges it is re- 
 quired to effect. Money of all kinds, like every 
 thing else, varies in value according to the relations 
 of its supply and demand. 
 
 On this account, when a government sets about 
 the regulation of the monetary system of a country, 
 the very first object for consideration should be 
 the means of rendering its money as invariable in 
 value as possible. Unhappily this has been wholly 
 neglected by governments in general, and more 
 especially by that of this nation, which, standing 
 at the head of the commerce of the world, should 
 have set the example to all others of an attention 
 to this object of vital importance to a commercial 
 state. Indeed, far from having endeavoured to 
 secure a permanency of value for the money of 
 this country, the government of Britain has, by a 
 series of ill-considered interferences at various 
 times with its paper-issue, produced the utmost 
 fluctuation in that value, and consequently, thrown 
 all the commercial relations of its subjects into 
 the most deplorable embarrassment and confusion. 
 
 It is true that this mismanagement has been 
 owing in a great degree to the general ignorance 
 of the just principles of monetary value. But 
 it is unfortunate that where such gross ignorance 
 existed, any interference should have been at- 
 tempted. Had commerce been left to supply 
 itself in perfect freedom with its own instrument, 
 
NO ONE OBJECT CAN MEASURE VALUE. 405 
 
 the instinct of self-preservation, even in the ab- 
 sence of sound theoretical views, would have pre- 
 vented the occurrence of a tithe of the mischief 
 which has arisen from legislative interference 
 grounded on false principles. 
 
 In an earlier part of this little work, it was 
 shown that exchangeable or commercial value is 
 solely relative, and means, when used in a general 
 sense, the command of one object over the mass or 
 aggregate of others in the general market of ex- 
 changes in the short phrase of Adam Smith, its 
 '. purchasing power/ To be invariable in value is, 
 therefore, to preserve the same relation to the mass 
 of other commodities in general estimation ; and 
 in order for any particular commodity to possess 
 this quality, it must increase in quantity or, at 
 least, in the facilities for its production with the 
 aggregate or average of other commodities ; in 
 which case alone any fraction of it will continue to 
 command the same fraction of the aggregate of 
 goods. It is improbable that any one commodity 
 should possess this quality ; and certainly it is im- 
 possible to foretell of any one that the facilities for 
 its production will always preserve the exact level 
 of the average of other commodities and march 
 in complete uniformity with the general progress 
 of improvement in the arts of production. No 
 single commodity, therefore, can be depended on 
 as a true measure of value. 
 
 But the next best thing to obtaining a perfect 
 measure of value, is to obtain a means of ascer- 
 taining the variations of the imperfect measure we 
 may be compelled to employ for want of a better. 
 Now the variations in value of any commodity 
 
406 PROPOSED MEASURE OF CHANGES 
 
 might, it would seem, be ascertained approxima- 
 tively, and with quite sufficient accuracy for all 
 practical purposes, by comparing it with the great 
 bulk of other commodities ; by placing gold, for 
 example, on one side, and on the other a large list 
 of the commodities in general use, which may be 
 taken to represent fairly enough the entire mass of 
 goods. Take, for instance, a price-current, con- 
 taining the prices of one hundred articles in general 
 request, in quantities determined by the propor- 
 tionate consumption of each article and esti- 
 mated (as they are under the standard of this 
 country) in gold. Any variations from time to 
 time in the sum or the mean of these prices 
 will measure, with sufficient accuracy for all prac- 
 tical purposes, the variations which have occurred 
 in the general exchangeable value of gold. 
 
 It is quite indifferent whether the change has 
 been brought about by circumstances immediately 
 affecting the production of gold or of goods ; 
 whether the real costs of producing the one or the 
 other have increased or diminished. The change 
 in the relative facility of producing gold and goods, 
 in either case, occasions a change in the value of 
 gold and, consequently, in this country, of money 
 equally unjust and unfair upon debtors" or cre- 
 ditors, both parties having contracted to pay or to 
 receive money upon the faith of money continuing 
 to remain invariable in value, that is, in its rela- 
 tions to the mass of other commodities. 
 
 On these grounds it has been proposed to cor- 
 rect the legal standard of value (or, at least, to 
 afford to individuals the means of ascertaining its 
 errors) by the periodical publication of an authentic 
 
IN THE STANDARD OF VALUE. 407 
 
 price-current, containing a list of a large number of 
 articles in general use, arranged in quantities cor- 
 responding to their relative consumption, so as to 
 give the rise or fall, from time to time, of the mean 
 of prices; which will indicate, with all the exactness 
 desirable for commercial purposes, the variations 
 in the value of money ; and enable individuals, if 
 they shall think fit, to regulate their pecuniary en- 
 gagements by reference to this Tabular Standard. 
 ' Here, then, though the law continued to main- 
 tain the metallic standard in all contracts which did 
 not contain a special agreement to the contrary, it 
 would be open to parties to avail themselves, if 
 they chose, of the comparatively invariable standard 
 which the table would afford them, by declaring 
 that their agreement should have reference to the 
 tabular standard, or be corrected from time to time 
 by it. The publication of such a table of reference 
 in an authentic form would entirely obviate the dis- 
 advantages attendant on variations in the value of 
 the metallic standard in all future contracts. The 
 extent of those variations would be openly de- 
 clared and easily ascertained. There would be no 
 longer any deception or jugglery in the standard 
 of value to be dreaded by those who enter upon 
 money engagements. Such persons as continued 
 to regulate their contracts by the metallic standard 
 would do so with their eyes open to its possible 
 fluctuations ; and their acquiescence in the chances 
 attendant on its use might thenceforward be fairly 
 implied from its voluntary employment. Those, 
 on the other hand, who wished to employ money 
 in their contracts as a correct measure of value, 
 and to run no risks of its variation either way, 
 
408 LATE. CHANGES IN VALUE OF MONEY. 
 
 would have it in their power to confer on the sum 
 specified an uniformity and permanency of value, 
 by changing its numerical amount in proportion 
 to the change in its power of purchase' 
 
 The extent to which the value of money has 
 fluctuated in this country, effecting by each change 
 a proportionate injury on either the debtor or cre- 
 ditor interest, is frightful to contemplate. It has 
 varied in the proportion of two to one within a 
 very few years past*. And all this time the legis- 
 lature assumes it to be invariable, and enforces its 
 employment as the sole measure of the value of 
 other things and of all pecuniary and commercial 
 obligations ! 
 
 The extent of injury that has been thus inflicted 
 upon different parties may be approximatively esti- 
 mated, by considering the amount of pecuniary 
 obligations at all times outstanding in this great 
 commercial country. These, including the national 
 debt and all other public as well as all private 
 
 * From tables of average prices drawn up by the Board 
 of Trade, and printed in the Appendix to the Report of the 
 Select Committee on the Bank Charter, 1832, it appears 
 that on a comparison of the prices of the principal necessa- 
 ries of home production, viz. wheat, meat, coals, iron, cheese, 
 and butter, in the years 1819 and 1830, the average fall in 
 that interval had been thirty-five per cent. In the principal 
 articles of foreign importation, viz. sugar, coffee, hemp, cotton, 
 tallow, oil, timber, and tobacco, the fall had been near forty 
 per cent. This relates to raw produce only. But the reduc- 
 tion in manufactured goods has been much greater; on the 
 average, certainly not less than sixty per cent. On the whole, 
 therefore, the gross average fall in the prices of the principal 
 articles of consumption, raw and wrought, can scarcely have 
 been less than fifty per cent. In other words the ' purchasing 
 power' of money has doubled between 1819 and 1832. 
 
THEIR EXTENT AND SEVERITY. 409 
 
 engagements for the payment of fixed sums of 
 money, can hardly fall short of from three to four 
 thousand millions. A rise of one-fourth in the 
 value of money, therefore, occurring within the 
 mean duration of these engagements, must defraud 
 the debtor interest to an amount about equal to 
 that of the entire national debt. A depreciation 
 to the same extent must rob the creditor interest of 
 the same vast sum. Changes to this extent, and 
 more, have occurred within the last half century, and 
 will, no doubt, occur again, unless some means like 
 that just pointed out are taken to obviate them, or 
 at least to prevent any unforeseen and conse- 
 quently unfair injury resulting from them by ex- 
 posing them, as they occur, to the public. 
 
 The great pressure which is now felt from the 
 excessive burden imposed by taxation on the 
 springs of our productive industry, is owing to the 
 gradual rise during the last fifteen years in the 
 value of our standard metal, gold. The currency 
 has been on the whole appreciated nearly one hun- 
 dred per cent, since the greater portion of our debt 
 was incurred, and the present scale of our national 
 expenditure fixed. Consequently, the burden of 
 taxation is nearly double what it was at that time. 
 
 It is no answer to this to say, that the change 
 has not proceeded entirely from a falling off in 
 the supply of gold, but, in part, from the increased 
 supply of goods of all kinds, through the increased 
 productiveness of the labour, skill, and ingenuity 
 of all nations, and especially of our own, exercised 
 during a lengthened peace. Undoubtedly, our 
 resources have increased since the war through 
 these causes, but is that any just ground for a 
 
410 INJURY TO DEBTOR INTEREST 
 
 parallel increase in our burthens ? If our money 
 obligations are to represent, not a fixed quantity 
 of goods in the lump, but a fixed proportion of 
 the produce of our industry, the main inducement 
 to industry is destroyed the great principle is 
 violated which gives to the industrious the sole 
 property in the returns of their own industry. The 
 creditor interest, both national and private, is in 
 that case fastened upon the productive interest with 
 a claim exactly parallel to that of the tithe-owner 
 on the agriculturist, of the metayer landlord on 
 his tenant, of the serf-master upon his slave. It 
 is a claim the amount of which increases with the in- 
 creasing exertions and productiveness of the debtor. 
 The injustice and impolicy of such an interpretation 
 of all pecuniary liens upon industry are obvious. 
 It must both check the desire to improve, and 
 diminish the means of improvement. The pro- 
 ducing classes the owners of labour, land, and 
 capital, have a right, founded on the simple 
 principles of natural justice, to share amongst 
 themselves exclusively the increased produce which 
 arises from their own increasing numbers, skill, 
 ingenuity, exertions, and productive powers. The 
 non-producing classes, who are their creditors for 
 fixed sums of money, have no equitable title to any 
 increase in the average quantity of commodities 
 which these fixed sums command, since they con- 
 tribute nothing towards such increase. 
 
 Take the case of a public debt. Suppose an in- 
 dustrious people to have pledged their resources to 
 the payment of a debt of a thousand millions of 
 money to certain parties. Is it just that this sum 
 should be interpreted to mean not a fixed com- 
 
OF A RISE IN VALUE OF MONEY, 411 
 
 mand over commodities at large according to their 
 estimation in money at the time of the contract - 
 but a fixed proportion of the aggregate produce of 
 the industry and ingenuity of the increasing com- 
 munity, so that the debt should be continually in- 
 creasing in value with the numbers and industrial 
 exertions of the people ? Suppose a national debt 
 had been incurred in the time of Alfred reaching to 
 one-fourth of the gross produce of the country in 
 those days. Would it be just that the owners of this 
 debt should claim a right to one-fourth of the gross 
 produce of the country in the present day. And 
 yet the argument we are contending against viz., 
 that a fall in general prices, when occasioned by a 
 general increase of productiveness, is no injury to 
 the producing, that is, the debtor class would 
 strictly lead to this inference. 
 
 Or, in the case of private engagements ; say 
 B. borrows for a term of A. fixed capital at the in- 
 terest of 100/. a year, with which and his labour he 
 produces goods worth 200/. per annum. B. gets 
 100/. as the remuneration for his labour. Prices 
 fall 50 per cent., and he obtains but 100/. for his 
 goods. He has still to pay 100Z. per annum to A. 
 from the produce of his industry. And he clears 
 ?iothmg by his labour ! Is this just ? 
 
 Take a mixed case: A. is taxed 100Z. a year, 
 and by his labour and capital together contrives 
 to make goods which he sells for 300/. Prices 
 fall 50 per cent. He gets but 150Z. for his goods, 
 and after paying his taxes, has but 50/. left for his 
 entire profits and wages. It is true this 50Z. will 
 command twice the quantity of goods which 50. 
 did before ; but it will only command one-half 'the 
 
412 EVILS OF A VARYING STANDARD 
 
 quantity of goods which was commanded by the 
 2002. of wages and profits he shared before. And, 
 on the other hand, the 1001. he continues to pay 
 the tax-gatherer, commands just twice the quantity 
 of commodities that it did before. The relative 
 positions of tax-payer and tax-receiver, or of 
 debtor and creditor, are completely altered. And we 
 must recollect that the aggregate injury thus in- 
 flicted on debtors for the benefit of their creditors, 
 has practically been brought about by the increased 
 aggregate productiveness of the former ! 
 
 Can anything be more monstrous and insuffer- 
 able than a monetary system which thus dimi- 
 nishes the returns of industry with every increase 
 of its exertions ? which actually enforces a con- 
 stant penalty on the productive classes for every 
 augmentation in their productiveness ? which for- 
 cibly causes a reduction in wages and profits with 
 every increase in the produce of labour and capital? 
 And yet such is our monetary system in the nine- 
 teenth century ! 
 
 This all-important question was of little com- 
 parative moment in former days, and t until the 
 present practice was established of contracting 
 fixed money engagements, perpetual, or for very 
 long terms, and of large amount. In other coun- 
 tries it is still of comparatively little consequence. 
 But in this, where our national and private money 
 engagements reach to so vast an extent, it has 
 become a question of vital interest, and its solution 
 ought not to be delayed an instant longer than 
 is necessary for patient investigation and correct 
 decision. 
 
 The existence of a great commercial country 
 
TO BOTH CREDITORS AND DEBTORS. 413 
 
 like this, with an enormous public debt, an im- 
 mense national expenditure, and a system of private 
 credit the extent of which is measured in thou- 
 sands of millions depends on the soundness of its 
 monetary system. 
 
 Those who, under such circumstances, would 
 stifle inquiry into the faults of our existing system, 
 and forbid all attempts at their correction, on such 
 futile pleas as ' the risk of agitating the subject,' 
 act like one who lets a mortal disease prey upon 
 his frame rather than risk the agitation of his 
 nerves by the sight- or the report of his physician. 
 Let us not knowingly hug falsehood to our bosom 
 in a matter of such portentous moment. Our legal 
 and established measure of value is a false and 
 fraudulent one. It cheats the productive classes 
 most cruelly and unjustly for the benefit of the 
 non-productive classes. It is a robbery of the in- 
 dustrious on account of the idle. 
 
 This, at least, has been its operation of late 
 years, owing to the facilities for producing gold 
 not having kept pace with those for the production 
 of the bulk of commodities. But the tables may 
 be any day turned upon the creditor interest; 
 and if by the discovery of any peculiarly rich 
 mines of this metal its supply were greatly to 
 outstrip that of other goods, the owners of money 
 claims would suffer in turn as unfairly and unjustly 
 from the consequent fall in the value of money, as 
 their debtors are made to suffer now from the 
 opposite circumstance. It is for the true interest 
 of both parties that means should be adopted to 
 render the standard by which their engagements 
 are measured invariable. It is for the interest of 
 
414 CHANGES IN VALUE OF MONEY 
 
 industry and commerce that the risk of an unfore- 
 seen change in the value of the standard should not 
 be superadded to the other elements of uncer- 
 tainty to which all industrious and commercial 
 speculations are more or less exposed, 
 
 Besides the great and progressive increase in the 
 general value of money which has taken place within 
 the last twenty years, through causes affecting the 
 comparative supply of the precious metals and 
 other goods, frequent and extensive fluctuations 
 have both within this and former periods been occa- 
 sioned in the value of money in this country through 
 the mismanagement of its paper-money by those 
 parties upon whom the legislature has unwisely 
 conferred a more or less exclusive power of issuing 
 it. A history of the mismanagement of the paper 
 currency of this country during the last half 
 century, chiefly by the great central source of 
 issue, the Bank of England countenanced, and, 
 indeed, often goaded on to misconduct by the go- 
 vernment of the day, would be too lengthened to 
 find a place here. We must be contented to refer 
 our readers to a publication which treats of this 
 subject*, and in which the great leading error is 
 shewn to lie in the constitution and exclusive privi- 
 leges of that monstrous monopoly. The Bank 
 has at times, either for its own purposes or at the 
 solicitation of the minister of the day, to favor his 
 financial operations, put forth such an excess of 
 paper as greatly to lower the value of money ; and 
 afterwards when, as a necessary consequence, a 
 drain of bullion had for some time set in upon the 
 
 * An Examination of the Bank Charter Question. 
 Murray. 1833. 
 
THROUGH FLUCTUATIONS OF BANK PAPER. 415 
 
 Bank, threatening to exhaust its coffers, and break 
 down its credit, its issues have been suddenly con- 
 tracted, and prices sunk to such a degree, as to 
 scatter ruin through the whole productive and mer- 
 cantile community. These oscillations in the value 
 of money have been repeated three or four times 
 even within the last twenty years. The manoeu- 
 vres of the Bank of England have been the secret 
 spring of all those see- saw alternations of surprising 
 prosperity and unexpected ruin, which through a 
 long period of internal and external tranquillity, 
 have upset the deepest calculations of our traders 
 and producers, perplexed our wisest statesmen, and 
 shaken almost to dissolution the very bonds of 
 society. We do not mean to attribute blame to 
 the directors of that establishment. As the ma- 
 nagers of a great company associated only for 
 purposes of private gain, their first duty was to 
 exercise their enormous power over the circulation 
 so as to secure the largest profit to their consti- 
 tuents, the Bank proprietary. And they were in 
 no degree bound to sacrifice this object to what 
 they might believe to be the interest of the public. 
 That they have fulfilled this duty most faithfully is 
 made evident by the fact that appears from their 
 own returns to the committee of the House of 
 Commons of last year; namely, that they have 
 divided amongst their shareholders, since the year 
 1797, no less a sum than 17,318,070Z., in addi- 
 tion to the annual dividend of seven per cent, on 
 their capital stock. Through all the ups and 
 downs, which, since 1780, have kept the currency 
 of this country in a state of almost perpetual fluctua- 
 tion, a fluctuation caused by the operations of 
 this all-powerful company, the Bank itself has 
 
416 BANK OF ENGLAND MONOPOLY. 
 
 escaped unharmed in every instance from the sea 
 of troubles it had itself stirred up, has been found, 
 indeed, after all of them, not only to have avoided 
 damage, but to have considerably improved in its 
 circumstances, while the destruction in every other 
 quarter was universal. The very stoppage of that 
 establishment, in 1797, was the source of the most 
 enormous gain to it in the course of the subsequent 
 period of restriction on cash payments. 
 
 The cause of all the mischief that has resulted 
 to the public interests from these fluctuations, was 
 the conferring a monopoly of the supply of the 
 circulating medium of this great commercial state, 
 (for the body that commands the supply of the me- 
 tropolis commands that of the kingdom,) on a few 
 private individuals, not responsible to the public, 
 and whose interest in the matter is directly at vari- 
 ance (as the above facts demonstrate) with that of 
 the public*. 
 
 * That this monopoly has been renewed for a long term 
 of years in the first session of a reformed and professedly 
 reforming parliament, is an anomaly not to say a dis- 
 credit to the age and country which will before long, I 
 conceive, be duly appreciated. There was clearly no reason 
 for hurrying on the consideration of this question. In the 
 present confessedly imperfect state of our knowledge on the 
 subject of currency, to tie down the country for ten years 
 certain to an avowedly faulty system a system repudiated 
 long since by every statesman of note among the Whigs, 
 and by many among the Tories a system so exfacie un- 
 principled as a private monopoly of the supply of the pabtt 
 lum vilaf to a commercial state, money was surely a rash 
 measure, not to use a stronger epithet. The check of pub- 
 licity imposed by the new charter, it is to be feared, is very 
 insufficient for its avowed object. The public have a right 
 to instant information of the changes that are at any time in- 
 tentionally made in the quantity, and consequently the value, 
 
PLANS FOR A STEADY CURRENCY. 417 
 
 It is of essential importance to the public that its 
 supply of money should be steadily and accurately 
 proportioned to the demand for it as the instrument 
 for effecting commercial exchanges ; without which 
 it cannot remain invariable in value. Two modes 
 might be adopted for securing this steadiness in the 
 supply of paper-money. 
 
 1. The principle of free competition among 
 private issuers that principle which so admirably 
 performs the office of securing a steady and effective 
 supply of all other goods in almost exact propor- 
 tion to the demand for them*. In Scotland, the 
 
 of the circulating medium. No twenty-four merchants 
 should be permitted to retain for weeks the exclusive know- 
 ledge of a circumstance which must affect the prices of all 
 markets and the value of all property, funded or otherwise. 
 But even were publication rendered immediate, the Bank 
 has bought the right to work the circulation for their own 
 profit, in utter disregard of the benefit of the public ; and 
 the directors are bound to pursue the interests of their 
 constituents, let the nation suffer as it may. 
 
 * All-important as is the due supply of money to the com- 
 merce of Britain, it is yet not more important than the due 
 supply of the necessaries of life, bread and meat for example, 
 to the vast population of Britain's metropolis. But what 
 would be the reply to any one who insisting on the disturb- 
 ances and convulsion, the suffering and danger, that must 
 ensue from any considerable deficiency of these necessaries 
 to such a vast population, and on the ruinous waste which 
 any excess must occasion should, with a view to secure the 
 precise and equable adjustment of the supply to the demand 
 throughout the year, propose to charter a company, or ap- 
 point a government board, with the exclusive privilege of 
 supplying London with bread and meat ? Would it not be 
 answered, that the proposed method is exactly the one most 
 likely to occasion inequality in the supply that the neglect 
 or mistakes, the indiscretion, or ignorance, or fraud, of the 
 few individuals to whom the management of this important 
 
 2 E 
 
418 FREEDOM OF ISSUE. 
 
 freest competition among note-issuing banks is 
 found to afford a currency of unquestionable secu- 
 rity. Its value is, of course, necessarily liable to 
 vary with that of the money of England, whose 
 markets must exercise a paramount influence over 
 those of the north. 
 
 2. Were government to take to itself the sole 
 supply of paper- money with a view of securing the 
 steadiness of its value, it is probable that by bending 
 
 "business must be intrusted, might, and in all probability 
 would, occasionally compromise the existence of a million 
 and a half of people, and bring upon this mighty centre of 
 wealth and industry all the evils of alternating scarcities and 
 gluts of provisions ? Would not the proposer of this scheme 
 be referred to the fact of the mode in which this great popu- 
 lation is supplied with its daily food, quietly and effectually 
 -without bustle, without organization, or even combina- 
 tion without excess, as without waste the supply so 
 equably adjusted to the demand, that the prices of butcher's 
 meat and bread do not perhaps suffer. a variation of the 
 fraction of a farthing throughout the year, which may not be 
 accounted for by causes .affecting the original sources of 
 supply. And what is it that performs this daily miracle, 
 which only does not excite our continual admiration and 
 astonishment because it is self-effected, with all the order, 
 ease, and certainty, of a great natural process ? Why, the 
 principle, of competition ; the free rivalry of thousands of 
 individuals, each acting in his own sphere, each actuated by 
 the unerring instinct of self-interest, to sell as much as he 
 can, and yet to provide no more than he can dispose of 
 without loss to keep the supply full, but to prevent excess. 
 
 Now is there anything to prevent this simple principle 
 from working quite as beneficially in the supply of this great 
 metropolis with money, as with the necessaries of subsist- 
 ence ? If freedom of butchering and of baking be the means 
 of ensuring an exactly adequate supply of bread and meat 
 to this vast market why would not freedom of banking be 
 the means of affording to it an equally regular, safe, suffi- 
 cient, and methodical supply of money ? 
 
NATIONAL BANK. 419 
 
 its efforts honestly and exclusively to that object, 
 ni the adjustment of the supply to the demand, it 
 might be successful. It is objected that so vast 
 a power over the monetary system of the country 
 is liable to be abused by an unscrupulous minis- 
 ter, or by one even of upright intentions, who at 
 a crisis of emergency might think himself justi- 
 fied in breaking in upon the sound principle of 
 currency to rescue the state from a position of em- 
 barrassment and difficulty. It would not, however, 
 seem to be difficult so to hedge round the exercise 
 of this power by the checks of responsibility to 
 parliament and the public for the observance of 
 the very plain and simple rules which would be 
 sufficient for the purpose, as to prevent its abuse. 
 This would be the .plan of a national bank, a 
 plan which besides the steadiness of value it may 
 be expected to confer on the circulating medium, 
 has other great advantages to recommend it ; viz. 
 its complete security from commercial panic ; and 
 the profit which it will bring in to the public, from 
 the interest of the notes it circulates. 
 
 Either of these two systems, then, would bid fair 
 to secure the great requisites of a sound credit cur- 
 rency viz. convenience, cheapness, unquestionable 
 security, and steadiness of value. The system we 
 have unfortunately adopted secures none of these 
 advantages. By establishing a single source of 
 issue (for the metropolitan district, which com- 
 mands and regulates the rest) we do not obtain 
 that security for a steadiness of supply which a 
 national establishment might afford, because the 
 monopoly is conferred, not upon a body of public 
 officers bound to look to no other end than the 
 
 2 E2 
 
420 FLUCTUATIONS IN THE CURRENCY 
 
 public welfare, but on a body of private money* 
 dealers associated for no other purpose than that 
 of working the currency in such a way as shall 
 realize the greatest amount of profit to themselves, 
 and having a direct pecuniary interest in creating, 
 not in preventing fluctuations. Nor do we render 
 the source of supply independent of government 
 as the frequent instances of misconduct to which 
 the bank has been instigated by the minister of the 
 day abundantly proves. At the same time, we 
 deny ourselves the advantage which competition 
 would afford to the public of security for a full 
 supply of the most convenient circulating medium 
 at the lowest possible charge ; and we equally lose 
 the advantage that might result from restriction 
 of security against excessive issue. We have 
 contrived a system which exposes us to all the 
 contingent evils of both the others, while it de- 
 prives us of all their advantages. We farm out 
 the exclusive supply of our circulating medium 
 to an irresponsible private company, and we ex- 
 pect that they will not employ their power, as all 
 other monopolists have ever employed similar 
 exclusive privileges, in working the supply up and 
 down so as to profit from its oscillations at the 
 expense of the public ! We sell the management 
 of the currency to a joint-stock body of money- 
 dealers, and flatter ourselves they will use it for 
 our interest instead of their own ! 
 
 An ill-considered and faulty monetary system 
 most seriously and severely affects the condition 
 of industry. 
 
 What, in fact, are the chances to which a farmer, 
 trader, merchant, or manufacturer, has been ex- 
 
PRESS HEAVILY ON INDUSTRY. 421 
 
 posed of late when investing his capital in some 
 productive occupation exposed, too, during a pe- 
 riod of profound peace, which should have been 
 attended by complete security ? The natural cir- 
 cumstances likely to affect the demand and supply 
 of the article in which he speculates, he is prepared 
 for, and calculates upon. But besides these una- 
 voidable contingencies, his best-laid plans have 
 been liable to complete overthrow by the hidden 
 circumstances that were constantly at work to alter 
 the value of the money in which he makes his en- 
 gagements. First, the gradual but relentless rise 
 in the value of the metallic standard since 1810 has 
 been working against him throughout. Next, there 
 have been the frequent cross fluctuations in the 
 value of that same standard, arising from casual 
 circumstances temporarily affecting its relative de- 
 mand on the continent and in this country an 
 altered balance of trade a sudden importation of 
 foreign corn a revolution in a foreign state 
 causing a hoarding of coin preparations for war, 
 occasioning a demand for gold to fill the military 
 chests. For these latter fluctuations we are indebted 
 to our peculiar standard gold ; which from its 
 superior portability is employed in preference to 
 silver, in the settlement of commercial balances. 
 Thirdly, is to be superadded the results of the mis- 
 management of our paper circulation at home 
 by those who have become possessed of a su- 
 preme power to contract or expand it, as they 
 please, to almost any extent. Under the joint 
 action of these several causes, we have seen, within 
 a few years past, prices fall and rise alternately by 
 twenty per cent, at a time all debts forcibly aug- 
 
422 SUGGESTED IMPROVEMENTS 
 
 mented and lessened in proportion, and all money 
 contracts substantially violated one class de- 
 frauded to enrich another, and the whole course 
 of business repeatedly deranged. No one en- 
 gaged in trade has been able to calculate the 
 amount of his income for a single year no man 
 could feel any confidence of getting back the 
 capital he had embarked in any productive employ- 
 ment which required time for its accomplishment. 
 The different branches of business have been 
 merely different games of chance ; and confusion, 
 dismay, and panic such, perhaps, as were never 
 witnessed in any country not overrun by a vic- 
 torious enemy, nor devastated by some great natural 
 calamity have been created in this, year after 
 year, by sudden variations in (that of which the 
 very essence ought to be absolute invariability) the 
 value of money. 
 
 And yet we boast of the security of our property, 
 and the protection afforded by our laws to the gains 
 of industry ! It seems to us quite evident that our 
 radically defective system of banking and currency 
 can no longer be tolerated after the light has once 
 been let in upon it ; that the monopoly of the 
 Bank of England, upon which the whole awkward 
 and ruinous structure rests, can be borne with no 
 longer than the law, as at present unhappily fixed, 
 renders imperatively necessary. In principle it is 
 directly opposed to all sound theory. In practice, 
 it has been productive of the most disastrous results 
 to the commerce and industry of the nation ; and, 
 from its nature, it must continue to produce those 
 results until a better system is substituted. The 
 great question is, what that system ought to be ? 
 
IN" OUfc MONETARY SYSTEM. 423 
 
 Without going at large into the reasons which 
 support their expediency, and which are to be met 
 with in detail in the work already quoted, the 
 author will place here a summary of the altera- 
 tions in our monetary system as now established 
 by law, which he considers essential for placing it 
 on a sound, safe, and useful footing. 
 
 1. The substitution of the ancient silver stand- 
 ard in use previous to 1773, for the far more vacil- 
 lating and inconvenient gold standard first esta- 
 blished as the sole legal standard of value in 1816.* 
 
 2. The abolition of the monopoly of the Bank 
 of England, and the substitution either of a system 
 of freedom of competition among note-issuing 
 companies of such breadth and credit as would 
 secure the confidence of the public, as in Scot- 
 land ; or, if the danger of so great and sudden a 
 change from the present system, and other argu- 
 ments in its favour already noticed, should render 
 unity of issue preferable the establishment of a 
 National or State bank disconnected with pri- 
 vate banking or other business, and managed by a 
 board of parliamentary commissioners, who should 
 be appointed in such a mode as may remove them 
 
 * The rejection of silver as our standard of value in con- 
 junction with gold has raised the value of the standard by 
 the extent of the difference now existing between the market 
 and the Mint price of silver, or by about eight per cent. 
 This is a perfectly gratuitous and uncalled-for enhancement 
 of the national and all private money-burthens. It was 
 pleaded in 1819, that we were bound to restore the ancient 
 standard at whatever sacrifice. But the ancient standard, 
 which was silver, has not been restored, and the omission of 
 silver has augmented unnecessarily and unjustly the sacri- 
 fice that has been forced upon us. 
 
424 WEIGHTS AND MEASURES. 
 
 most effectually from tlie influence of the minister. 
 The notes of this bank should be legal tender, 
 accepted of course in payment of taxes ; and their 
 value preserved at par with the standard, either 
 by convertibility into ingots, according to the plan 
 of Mr. Ricardo, at the source of issue or by 
 making it the duty of the board to regulate their 
 circulation from time to time by the price of the 
 standard metal in the bullion market. 
 
 3. The issue of paper by banks in the country, 
 if permitted at all, should only be allowed on the 
 deposit of securities to its full amount, in guarantee 
 of its payment. 
 
 4. A tabular statement of the average price of 
 the mass of commodities should be published at 
 proper intervals, by competent authority, as a 
 measure of exchangeable value, by reference to 
 which the public may be enabled to detect, at a 
 glance, all future variations in the value of the 
 legal standard. 
 
 These improvements combined, will, we are in- 
 clined to think, and these only, afford to this 
 great, industrious, and commercial people, what it 
 has a right to demand of a government which un- 
 dertakes to regulate by restraints the instrument of 
 exchange a sufficient ample supply of & perfectly 
 secure circulating medium ; and, if not complete 
 invariability in its value, as near an approximation 
 to this important quality as is obtainable, together 
 with the means of detecting and guarding against 
 injury from such variations as are inherent in every 
 standard measure of value which consists of but a 
 single commodity. 
 
USURY LAWS. 425 
 
 A bad system of weights and measures is an 
 injury to commerce, very similar to a bad instru- 
 ment of exchange or measure of value. There is 
 much room for improvement in our present system, 
 and it is to be hoped that this will not long be neg- 
 lected. The proposal made by Mr. Vernon to 
 direct the sale of all grain by weight instead of 
 measure, is very deserving of attentive considera- 
 tion. 
 
 In commenting upon the existing restrictions on 
 the instrument of exchange, the usury-laws are not 
 to be overlooked. Their absurdity and mischief 
 are, however, now so generally recognized, and 
 the probability of their speedy repeal is so great, 
 that it is needless to dwell upon the subject. 
 
426 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 RESTRAINTS ON THE CIRCULATION OF 
 LABOUR. 
 
 Law of Settlement. To be counteracted by giving facilities 
 to Migration* 
 
 THE law of parochial settlement in its present form 
 operates very perniciously in preventing the free 
 migration of labourers from one part of the king- 
 dom to another, according to the shifting demand 
 for their labour. It ties them down in masses to 
 particular and very narrow localities ; where they 
 are certain of a maintenance, although unable to 
 find employment, and consequently indisposes them 
 to seek it. It equally prevents the employment of 
 industrious workmen in parishes where they have 
 no settlement, by forcing the employers within 
 those localities to find work for their settled la- 
 bourers, however idle and unworthy. The evil 
 has been increased of late in many places by the 
 introduction of the labour-rate. Were this system 
 rendered general and permanent, as some persons 
 wish, the mischief would soon reach its climax ; 
 every labourer would be adscript to the soil, and soon 
 assume the idle, sulky, and hopeless character of 
 the serf. Industry would have received her death- 
 blow. 
 
 It is, perhaps, more easy to find fault with the 
 
MIGRATION SHOULD BE AIDED. 427 
 
 law of settlement than to correct it. Some system 
 of settlement is obviously indispensable in a poor- 
 law. It has been strongly urged that birth alone 
 should be permitted to confer a settlement. But 
 this will leave the greatest evil of the present law, 
 unchanged. Labourers would still cling to the 
 place of their birth, and refuse to leave it in search 
 of employment. The principle of the Scotch law, 
 which makes industrious residence for a certain 
 number of years give a claim to settlement, seems 
 to be preferable, though not wholly without its dis- 
 advantages. It is remarkable, that in Belfast and 
 other towns of the north of Ireland, where the in- 
 habitants have been forced to adopt a voluntary 
 poor-rate, this is the principle on which they have 
 found it advisable to- limit the claims upon their 
 funds. 
 
 The tendency of every settlement -law must be 
 in some degree lo check the spontaneous migration 
 of labourers. Though it cannot be removed so 
 long as the poor-law remains, its influence may be 
 effectually counteracted by an improvement in the 
 mode of employing and treating parish paupers. 
 When an improved administration of the poor-law 
 shall have drawn a broad line of distinction be- 
 tween these and independent labourers when 
 parish work has become, as it ought always to be, 
 the most irksome and the worst paid of any and 
 independent labour, as a consequence of this and 
 other improvements, is more amply remunerated 
 there will, probably, be no further stimulant needed 
 to induce the labourer to quit his parish in search 
 of work, nor any difficulty in his obtaining it. 
 
 But though it may be expected from a labourer 
 
428 SUPPLY AND DEMAND OF LABOUR 
 
 unable to procure employment within the parish 
 where he resides, that he should seek it elsewhere 
 within a moderate distance, the very poverty under 
 which most labourers in such circumstances are 
 suffering, must, generally, prevent their having the 
 heart or the means to travel any great distance for 
 this purpose. Still less can it be expected that 
 any number of labourers in this situation should 
 possess the means of removing themselves and 
 their families to other and distant countries, how- 
 ever strong the inducement offered by the demand 
 for labour and high wages there, or however 
 anxious their wish to avail themselves of this mode 
 of bettering their condition. On this account, it 
 is highly desirable that parishes should be em- 
 powered to defray out of their rates the cost of the 
 emigration of such of their settled poor as are 
 willing to accept aid of this nature. And, indeed, 
 as has been already noticed, it would be well to go 
 farther, and permit parishes to refuse more than 
 temporary relief to able-bodied paupers who are 
 unwilling to emigrate ; under such securities against 
 the abuse of this power as may be readily devised. 
 The destitute labourer who applies to his parish for 
 work and relief to save him from starvation, can 
 have no ground of complaint if he is offered a con- 
 veyance to those parts of his Majesty's dominions 
 where work is plentiful, and wages high where 
 every industrious labourer can command all the 
 comforts and many of the luxuries of life, and look 
 forward to still brighter prospects. 
 
 It is to be hoped that before long a compre- 
 hensive and well-organized scheme of coloniza- 
 tion will be established by government, such as 
 
TO BE ADJUSTED BY EMIGRATION. 429 
 
 has been already more than once alluded to in this 
 work, having for one of its principal objects to pro- 
 vide for the regular and methodical conveyance of 
 the surplus labour of this country to supply the 
 deficiency in our colonies. Were the expense 
 shared between the parishes and the government, 
 the former would enter most readily into the scheme, 
 since they would be able to get rid of able-bodied 
 paupers that are now a permanent incumbrance, 
 for less, perhaps, than one year's cost of their 
 maintenance here in idleness*. The government, 
 on the other hand, would be secured in the full 
 ultimate repayment of its advances for this purpose, 
 from numerous sources which the process would 
 create, such as the increasing price and sales of 
 waste lands, and the increased revenues which may 
 certainly be anticipated, both in the colony and 
 mother country, through the enlarged commercial 
 intercourse between them that must follow every 
 addition to the population of the former. If these 
 sources of repayment were doubted, (though we 
 cannot see how they can be doubted,) a system of 
 indenture might be adopted, which would secure 
 the repayment by every labourer, within a limited 
 period, of a moiety of the cost of his emigration, 
 out of the surplus of his earningsf. 
 
 * Under judicious arrangements, the cost of emigration 
 is absolutely insignificant when compared to that of keep- 
 ing them at home. Mr. More O'Farrell relates the case of 
 an Irish landlord, who, in 1831, sent twelve families, in 
 1832 fifteen families to Quebec, at an average cost of only 
 2/. 10*. per head, including passage, provisions, clothing, 
 and from 10*. to 20s. put into the pocket of each on their 
 arrival. They have done well. See Report of Committee 
 on Agriculture, qu. 10718. 
 
 f See, for a detailed plan and calculations of its expense, 
 the Quarterly Review, vol. xlvi. p. 372. 
 
430 COLONIZATION. 
 
 We repeat that since the necessary machinery 
 of the poor-law, and other circumstances in our 
 artificial and complicated social position, unavoid- 
 ably tend to check the free circulation of labour to 
 meet the demand for it, there arises a strong 
 necessity for the adoption of measures of a nature 
 to counteract this tendency, by facilitating the 
 adjustment of the supply to the demand. And 
 above all other contrivances for this end, we look 
 forward earnestly to the adoption of a permanent 
 and general scheme of colonization. Nothing is 
 wanting, we are confident, but candid inquiry to 
 remove the prejudices with which this subject has 
 been unfortunately surrounded, and to convince the 
 public of its paramount importance to the interests 
 of individuals, of communities^ and of mankind at 
 large. The time cannot be far distant when the 
 noble scheme of a systematic emigration from all 
 the over-peopled parts of the earth to the under- 
 peopled, preserving health to the mother countries 
 by moderate depletion, and invigorating infant 
 colonies by the infusion of full-grown labour, will 
 be recognized as the true political wisdom of all 
 advanced states, and generally adopted by them ; 
 when an increase of population, instead of being 
 deplored and discouraged by short-sighted states- 
 men and philosophers, will be hailed with delight 
 as the means of adding to the sum of human hap- 
 piness, and of extending the empire of civilization 
 over the globe. 
 
431 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 EXCESSIVE AND MISDIRECTED TAXATION. 
 
 History and Progress of Taxation in Britain. Limited only 
 by the resistance of the people. Funding system. Its 
 errors. Pressure of the National Debt on Productive 
 Industry. Financial mismanagement. Extravagance. 
 Misdirect ion of Taxation. True principles of Taxation. 
 Expediency of commuting the Taxes on Industry and the 
 Comforts of the Poor for an Income Tax. 
 
 A PHILOSOPHICAL history of taxation would 
 form an interesting and important work. Here 
 we can find room only for a glance at the subject. 
 In feudal times the monarch's own lands fur- 
 nished his domestic articles of consumption ; and 
 the ordinary expenses of the state were defrayed 
 partly by fines and forfeitures casually accruing to 
 the exchequer, partly by customs duties on mer- 
 chandize. The expenses of wars and other extra- 
 ordinary emergencies were either provided against 
 beforehand by the accumulation of treasure during 
 peace, or by subsidies, aids, and temporary imposts. 
 
 Early in the thirteenth century we find England 
 already fertile in taxes. The 1 5ths and 20th s seem 
 to have commenced under Henry III. In 1225, a 
 15th of all moveables both of the clergy and laity 
 was granted to the king; war horses, armour, 
 ready money, and apparel being alone excepted. 
 The valuation, which was made by the chief men in 
 
432 PROGRESS OF TAXATION 
 
 each township, and levied by the sheriff, seems to 
 have been moderate. But when it is considered 
 that in those times almost all the capital of the 
 country consisted in moveables, it will appear that 
 these levies of 15ths and 20ths not unfrequently 
 repeated, must have borne almost as heavily on the 
 productive resources of the people as the taxes of 
 the present day. At a later period, (in the be- 
 ginning of the 14th century) direct taxes were 
 levied bearing a still higher proportion to the 
 income of those charged with their payment ; and 
 the duties were equally exorbitant. In 1208, par- 
 liament, among other grievances, remonstrated 
 against the 405. a sack upon wool ; and stated 
 that the wool of England amounted to almost 
 half the value of the land, and the duty on it to 
 one-fifth of the whole value of the land. The 
 insatiable avarice and oppressive tyranny of the 
 Tudors caused the constant imposition of fresh 
 taxes. In 1531 a moiety was taken of all the 
 goods and lands of the Church, and yielded nearly 
 half a million, equivalent to five millions of the 
 present currency. And it has been computed 
 that the lands of the monasteries and other re- 
 ligious foundations seized by Henry VIII. would 
 now be worth six millions annually. 
 
 But the growing spirit of the people of England 
 at length roused itself against the arbitrary im- 
 position of such severe burthens. Hampden's re- 
 fusal to pay his assessments of shipmoney was the 
 spark which lighted a wide flame of resistance ; 
 and the success of the Great Rebellion demon- 
 strated to kings the danger of pushing their ma- 
 chinery of extortion beyond what the patience of 
 
LIMITED ONLY BY RESISTANCE. 433 
 
 an industrious and well-disposed, but spirited people 
 will bear. 
 
 The lesson, however, then read to governments 
 does not appear to have caused any material light- 
 ening of the national burthens in the subsequent 
 reigns. It would seem, indeed, that even in this 
 nominally self-taxed country, the only real limit 
 at any time existing to the amount of taxation 
 imposed upon the people has been that of their 
 patience under the infliction. And it may well be 
 doubted, whether the much vaunted constitutional 
 check upon the extravagance of government 
 which is supposed to reside in the exclusive pre- 
 rogative of the Commons to grant or withhold the 
 supplies so jealously guarded as the corner- 
 stone of our liberties, has practically operated 
 to any great extent as a protection to the people 
 from excessive taxation. It is remarkable, that 
 every formal recognition of this principle of self- 
 taxation has been followed by an increase of 
 taxes. The expenditure of the Protectorate aver- 
 aged twice as much as that of the preceding 
 reign. And the taxes which are at present 
 considered most onerous, the house and win- 
 dow duties, the excise on malt, hops, glass, spirits, 
 &c. as well as that fatal financial invention, 
 the national debt, commenced with the glorious 
 Revolution, and the concession of the Bill of 
 Rights. The total expense of king, government, 
 army, and navy during the reign of James II., 
 was considerably under 2,000,OOOZ., whilst the 
 revenue spent by William III. in the first twelve 
 years after the revolution, namely from 1688 to 
 1700, was 65,987, 566/,, or an average of five 
 
 2 F 
 
434 INJURY OF OVER-TAXATION. 
 
 millions and a half! We think we can perceive 
 symptoms of a similar tendency to profusion in 
 the present day. Certainly enormous grants of 
 money have been made in the first session of this 
 reformed parliament, such as an unreformed house, 
 more doubtful of the confidence of the people 
 would scarcely have ventured upon.* 
 
 The only real limit to the extravagance of 
 parliament has been all along, and still is, that 
 which checked the rapacity of the Tudors and 
 the Stuarts, namely, the resistance of the people 
 the open threat of refusal. The people have 
 continually been made to pay all that they have 
 been willing to pay without breaking out into 
 absolute rebellion. 
 
 We need scarcely observe on the injustice and 
 impolicy of taxing a nation beyond the fair value of 
 the services rendered by its government. What- 
 ever sums are needed to defray the necessary 
 expenses of the state for the due administration of 
 justice, the defence of the country against foreign 
 foes, and the protection of persons and property 
 are expended productively, and in a manner highly 
 conducive to the national welfare. But all beyond 
 this is so much taken from productive to be ex- 
 pended in unproductive channels of employment 
 
 * The phenomenon is common to other countries as well 
 as England. In France, the taxes raised by Louis XVI. did 
 not reach 24,000,000/. a year. The National Convention 
 increased the expenditure to 200,000 ) 000/. in 1793. The 
 expenditure of Charles X. was about forty millions ; that 
 of their Citizen King sixty-four. The explanation seems to 
 be, that a popular government can venture to take more from 
 the people than an unpopular one j and that every govern- 
 m^ut takes as much as it dares* 
 
FUNDING SYSTEM. 435 
 
 so much abstracted from the industrious and eco- 
 nomical to be wasted by the idle and extravagant. 
 If left in the pockets of the people, that sum 
 would have germinated and borne a crop of future 
 wealth. When given to sinecurists, undeserving 
 pensioners, or overpaid placemen, it is consumed 
 by them in a way which leaves nothing behind, 
 but an increased appetency for further plunder 
 of the public. 
 
 One reason for this customary extortion on the 
 part of the taxing engine, is the circumstance that 
 no gauge exists for measuring the capacity of the 
 country for bearing taxation other than its willing- 
 ness to contribute taxes. No pains has ever been 
 taken by the legislature to ascertain the real tax- 
 able income of the country, and thus afford a 
 test of the comparative pressure of the national 
 burdens from time to time. It is most discredit- 
 able to the government upon whom the duty 
 naturally devolves of instituting such inquiries, 
 that statisticians who are desirous for any useful 
 purpose to form an estimate of the aggregate 
 property, rental, or income of the country, are 
 forced, even at present, to have recourse to the 
 property-tax returns of the date of 1815. No 
 time should be lost in taking the necessary steps 
 to remedy this deficiency of the most elementary 
 information from which a just scheme of taxation 
 can be framed. 
 
 Since the revolution, as we have said, a new ele- 
 ment has been introduced into the system of taxation 
 of this and other countries ; the funding system. By 
 it the revenues of future years are expended in an- 
 ticipation, and posterity charged with the cost of 
 
436 NATIONAL DEBT ; 
 
 measures executed by the government of the day. 
 This is, at best, a very questionable method of 
 defraying the necessary expenses of extraordinary 
 emergencies. The right of existing generations 
 so to burthen the industry and property of their 
 successors, is very doubtful. It has been strongly 
 argued that the sums necessary for even the most 
 extraordinary expenditure should be, in wisdom 
 and justice, always levied within the year. But 
 if it be admitted as a good principle to spread 
 the burthen of such extraordinary costs over 
 several years, it by no means follows that it should 
 be made perpetual. On the contrary, such a sys- 
 tem is evidently indefensible. If it had been pur- 
 sued in the past ages of our history, we should 
 now be paying the expenses of the wars of the 
 Plantagenets, the Tudors, and the Stuarts, as well 
 as of the Hanoverian dynasty. The injury which 
 results from thus anticipating the resources of a 
 country is apparent from the consideration that 
 the capital contributed to loans is expended un- 
 productively in purchasing stores, or providing 
 the instruments of war, that is, on perishable 
 commodities. The whole debt was irredeemably 
 spent as soon as it was raised ; so that had it 
 been levied at once by a direct tax on the then 
 existing property of the country, it would have 
 left just as much disposable and productive wealth 
 behind : but it would have left this national capi- 
 tal free from the enormous charge upon its net 
 annual returns which now constitutes the National 
 Debt the interest of the sum then taken up and 
 consumed. This interest, or a large proportion of 
 it, at least, had it been left in the hands of the 
 
ITS PRESSURE ON INDUSTRY. 437 
 
 owners of the national capital and labour by whom 
 it has been always paid, would have been by them 
 accumulated in a productive shape, and would hav6 
 formed a substantial addition to the aggregate 
 receipts of the productive classes, in place of, as 
 now, a grievous subtraction from them ; it would 
 have formed a plus instead of a minus quantity 
 in the sum of the national wealth. 
 
 This is the great evil which has arisen from the 
 funding system ; and had it not been for the won- 
 derful energies of the country in accumulating 
 new capital, in spite of this continual abstraction 
 from the only fund out of which capital is ever 
 accumulated, viz. profits and wages, general po- 
 verty and ruin must have been its result. 
 
 It is often argued that there is no positive di- 
 minution of the national wealth occasioned by the 
 payment of 28,000,OOOZ. a year to the national 
 creditor; that 'it is, in fact, only a transfer of 
 so much money from the pockets of one part of 
 the public into the pockets of another part of it : 
 so that no public benefit could arise from a re- 
 duction or abolition of the debt*.' This, how- 
 ever, is a very narrow and short-sighted view of 
 the effect of the debt. The interest of the debt, 
 like all taxes, can only be paid out of the three 
 sole sources of the national income, rent, profits, 
 and wages. Its abstraction leaves, therefore, 
 so much the less behind to be divided among the 
 classes concerned in production ; and by diminish- 
 ing to that extent the net returns to industry, it 
 lessens protanto the inducement to industrious ex- 
 ertion, at the same time that it lessens to the same 
 extent the means remaining in the hands of the 
 * Parnell, p. 276. 
 
438 NATIONAL DEBT ; 
 
 productive classes for giving effect to their industry. 
 They may, it is true, borrow these means from 
 such among the national creditors as choose to 
 save a portion of their income. But they must 
 pay an interest upon those loans, and this forms 
 a new deduction from their net returns, and a 
 proportionate discouragement to production. 
 
 Again, it is said, that the public derives some 
 advantage from the debt, by its affording with 
 very little trouble and expense the opportunity 
 of investing money in stock with the certainty 
 of receiving the interest upon it on a fixed day, 
 and with the power of getting immediate pos- 
 session of the principal whenever it may be 
 wanted*. But this advantage would be as fully 
 derived from the investment of an equal capital 
 in a productive instead of an unproductive 
 manner. Let us, for example, suppose the capi- 
 tal of the debt, instead of having been spent on 
 wars, had been expended (as it probably would 
 have been, if left in the hands of its original 
 owners) in productive speculations ; such as 
 canals, railroads, docks, harbours, shipping ; in 
 enclosing and reducing to cultivation the wastes 
 of this island, of Ireland, or of our colonies ; 
 many of these investments would offer securities 
 as readily available in the market when their 
 owner wished to realize or change the disposition 
 of his capital, as the funds. But in what a dif- 
 ferent position would the resources of the nation 
 stand, if the twenty-eight millions for the interest 
 jof the debt, instead of being a charge upon the 
 annual produce of industry, were, as in the sup- 
 posed case it would be, an addition to it ! 
 * Parnell, p. 277. 
 
ITS PRESSURE ON INDUSTRY. 439 
 
 Although the immense efforts that have been 
 successfully made in the last forty years to extend 
 industry and increase production have enabled HS 
 to bear up against the pressure of the funding sys- 
 tem without being absolutely crushed by it, yet it 
 by no means follows that they have tended to coun- 
 teract the evils of that system, still less to convert 
 them into an advantage, as some writers para- 
 doxically contend' 1 '". The plain fact is that the 
 interest of the debt is a subtraction to its whole 
 extent from the net annual returns to capital and 
 industry invested in productive occupations, un- 
 compensated by any circumstance attending its 
 mode of levy or expenditure. 
 
 * Mr. M'Culloch says, "The increased exertion and 
 parsimony which were produced by the taxes during the 
 .war, make it extremely doubtful whether the capital of the 
 country would have been materially greater than it is, 
 had the general tranquillity been maintained from 1793 to 
 the present time." (Wealth of Nations, vol. ii. p. 180, note 
 of the Editor.) 
 
 We think it more than doubtful whether excessive taxation 
 has any such good effects as are here attributed to it. Parsi- 
 mony it produces doubtless that is, a forced privation of 
 enjoyment but we do not see how the taking away one 
 half of a man's income can lead him to make a more 
 profitable or productive use of the remainder. The in- 
 creased productiveness of the country is, in our opinion, 
 owing rather to the improvements in machinery and the 
 processes of production consequent on increased knowledge 
 and intercourse, than to the stimulus of excessive taxation. 
 We do not observe that the excessive taxation of the 
 Hindoos renders them more industrious ; but just the con- 
 trary. The doctrine is a dangerous one, and we believe 
 false. Necessity is not the only stimulus to exertion nor 
 even the strongest. The desire to gratify new tastes, the 
 anxiety to accumulate wealth, the emulation of display, 
 are more powerful incentives to industry, ingenuity, and 
 perseverance, than want and privation. 
 
440 
 
 ERRORS OF THE FUNDING SYSTEM. 
 
 We continue to bear it, it is true, but with diffi- 
 culty and much suffering. And, as Sir II. Parnell 
 justly remarks, " if the expenses of future wars 
 are to be provided for by fresh loans, and if each 
 war add some hundred millions to the debt, and 
 some ten or fifteen millions of permanent taxes to 
 those we now have, no new efforts to extend in- 
 dustry and production will be able to counteract 
 the effects of the kind of taxes which must, under 
 such circumstances, be imposed. There must be 
 a limit somewhere to taxation, beyond which, if 
 it be carried, national decay must follow, and 
 surely a debt of nearly 800,000,OOOZ., requiring 
 28,000, OOOZ. of taxes for interest, must have 
 brought the country a long way in the course of 
 approximating to that limit*." 
 
 * Parnell, p. 278. The following table shows the con- 
 comitant increase of taxation and of the public debt since 
 the Revolution. 
 
 Years. 
 
 Taxes raised in 
 Great Britain. 
 
 National Debt. 
 
 Interest on 
 Debt. 
 
 
 . 
 
 . 
 
 . 
 
 1688 
 
 2,000,000 
 
 
 
 
 
 1710 
 
 5,020,000 
 
 50,000,000 
 
 3,230,000 
 
 1750 
 
 8,525,540 
 
 72,178,000 
 
 2,425,000 
 
 1780 
 
 10,265,405 
 
 142,113,264 
 
 4,933,000 
 
 1790 
 
 16,815,895 
 
 228,231,228 
 
 9,767,333 
 
 1800 
 
 34,069,457 
 
 451,699,919 
 
 17,381,561 
 
 1805 
 
 50,555,190 
 
 549,137,068 
 
 22,141,426 
 
 1810 
 
 67,825,595 
 
 631,369,168 
 
 24,246,946 
 
 1815 
 
 71,153,142 
 
 848,284,000 
 
 31,576,074 
 
 1820 
 
 55,063,093 
 
 848,394,804 
 
 31,157,846 
 
 1825 
 
 52,919,280 
 
 843,391,875 
 
 28,060,287 
 
 1830 
 
 50,414,928 
 
 . , 
 
 29,118,858 
 
 i 1831 
 
 46,424,440 
 
 
 
 28,341,416 
 
FINANCIAL EXTRAVAGANCE. 441 
 
 The evils of the funding system were enhanced, 
 and the pressure of the debt enormously increased, 
 by the careless and unscientific manner in which 
 the loans were contracted. Instead of simply 
 borrowing the sum required at the current rate of 
 interest, and retaining the power of paying off the 
 principal, or reducing the interest, whenever money 
 could be borrowed on lower terms, our finance 
 ministers, including Mr. Pitt, from the accession 
 of George II. down to the close of the late war, 
 created a vast nominal debt, nearly double of the 
 sum actually borrowed, and bearing a low rate of 
 interest ; thus putting it out of the power of suc- 
 ceeding governments to reduce the interest of the 
 debt (which, in fact, is the debt itself) as the current 
 rate of interest fell in the market. In consequence 
 of this fatal blunder we are now annually paying 
 at least a third more to the national creditor than 
 would have been owing to him had the loans been 
 contracted for at the market-rate of interest. In 
 other words, a perpetual charge of near ten 
 milloiis per annum has been entailed on the nation 
 by this single mistake of our finance ministers, a 
 signal instance of the mischief that may result 
 from mismanagement of public business. 
 
 Another equally ruinous error was the borrow- 
 ing upon interminable, instead of terminable anmnV 
 ties. Had the latter principle been adopted, and 
 annuities terminable in thirty or fifty years been 
 sold instead of perpetual stock, half the debt would 
 by this time have expired, and the remainder 
 would be in a course of gradual extinction. 
 
 The rise in the value of money, already com- 
 mented upon, has, likewise, tended very consider- 
 
442 MISDIRECTION OF TAXATIONS 
 
 ably to enhance the pressure of the debt since it 
 was incurred ; an evil which should have been 
 foreseen and provided against at that time. 
 
 When to the effect of all these multiplied errors 
 of our financiers in augmenting the direct burden 
 of taxation, we superadd that produced by their 
 needless and unprincipled extravagance espe- 
 cially during the late war, in subsidizing foreign 
 powers, keeping up excessive and unnecessary 
 establishments, military, naval, and diplomatic, in 
 every quarter of the globe providing by pensions, 
 sinecures, and overpaid and useless places, for the 
 scions and dependents of the nobility, or of such 
 as possessed parliamentary interest and building 
 tasteless and useless palaces for the sovereign -it 
 becomes evident that much more than half of our 
 existing taxation is surplusage, the result of unne- 
 cessary expenditure beyond the legitimate wants 
 of the state, or of financial errors in one word, 
 of the mismanagement of past governments. 
 
 But neither the nominal amount of taxation, 
 nor even the value it commands, will afford a true 
 measure of its pressure upon the resources of the 
 nation. The misdirection of taxation has inflicted 
 to the full as much injury as its excessive amount. 
 
 We have already, in treating of the impolicy and 
 injurious tendency of taxes on the materials of 
 manufacture, adverted to the principles on which 
 taxation ought to proceed, in order to place the 
 least possible difficulty in the way of the increase 
 of the national wealth. 
 
 The leading general principle should be to tax 
 wealth, after it has been created, not farther than 
 is unavoidable during any of the stages of its 
 
PRINCIPLES OF TAXATION* 448 
 
 creation. The latter policy, which has been fol- 
 lowed in many parts of our present financial sys- 
 tem, is like that of plucking unripe fruit, or cutting 
 green corn. It is to divert the sources by which 
 the industry of the nation is nourished, and to 
 destroy the germs upon whose fructification its 
 income depends. Of this mischievous nature, be- 
 sides the taxes already mentioned, are those on 
 marine and fire insurances, a portion of the stamp 
 duties, the duty on advertisements, and that on 
 newspapers. 
 
 Customs duties, not so high as to encourage 
 smuggling, when levied on articles of import, not 
 used as the materials of subsequent industrious ope- 
 rations, nor entering into the category of necessa- 
 ries of subsistence for the labouring population, 
 form one of the most legitimate sources of a 
 national revenue, certainly the most easy of col- 
 lection, and the most willingly paid. But heavy 
 duties on articles in such general use, and ap- 
 proaching so closely to the character of neces- 
 saries, as tea, coffee, sugar, currants and raisins, 
 and some others, are not only destructive of the 
 comforts of the people, but actually less pro- 
 ductive sources of revenue than they would be if 
 materially lightened. 
 
 Excise duties, if levied solely on articles of 
 luxury, as spirits, (we cannot admit malt, beer, or 
 soap into this list,) are perhaps advisable ; as are 
 certainly the assessed taxes on servants, carriages, 
 horses, dogs, and sporting licenses. The window- 
 tax and house-tax are so unpopular that the go- 
 vernment will be compelled to take them off; 
 although, if fairly levied, they were by no means 
 
444 A GRADUATED INCOME TAX. 
 
 the most objectionable imposts on tlie statute- 
 book. 
 
 The taxes we have mentioned fall upon the con- 
 sumers of luxuries, that is, upon the wealthy. And 
 inasmuch as they are more readily and willingly 
 paid, they are preferable to a direct tax upon in- 
 come. But since such taxes on the expenditure of 
 wealth are not found sufficient to provide the whole 
 of the necessary revenue, it is surely far more ad- 
 visable to supply the deficiency by a direct tax on, 
 income or property, than to continue those ob- 
 noxious imposts by which the production of wealth 
 is impeded, and the poorer classes oppressed. A 
 tax on income has the great advantage over all 
 other taxes of making the absentee who consumes 
 his income abroad on untaxed commodities, and 
 the miser who hoards his income without spending 
 it at all, contribute something at least towards 
 the expense of protecting their property ; an ex- 
 pense which is now unjustly placed upon others. 
 
 The only true justice in taxation is that every 
 one be made to pay in exact proportion to his 
 means ; and this is to be more accurately effected 
 by a tax on income than any other. Such a tax 
 admits of graduation, which is essential to the 
 adjustment of taxation to the facility of payment. 
 To a man who expends an income of 200/, a-year 
 it will certainly be a far greater sacrifice to pay a 
 given percentage on his expenditure, than to one 
 who expends an income of 2000/., and the latter 
 suffers more from such a tax than one who ex- 
 pends 20,000/. per annum. Taxes on expendi- 
 ture, or indirect taxes, press on this account with 
 the greatest severity on the least wealthy classes. 
 
OBJECTIONS REFUTED, 445 
 
 The principle of graduation was admitted in the 
 income-tax levied during the war; from which all 
 incomes below a certain amount were exempted. 
 It is clear that the same principle which wholly 
 exempts the lowest class of incomes, requires the 
 partial exemption of the class only a little removed 
 above them, and so on, in a progressive scale. 
 The same principle has long been recognized and 
 acted upon in the assessed taxes, on houses, win- 
 dows, horses, carnages, servants, &c. as well as 
 in the stamp duties. Far from being a novelty, 
 therefore, (as might be supposed from the outcry 
 raised against the proposition when applied to a 
 property tax,) it is the established principle of all 
 our direct taxation. 
 
 It is objected that a graduated income-tax may 
 be so framed as to reduce all incomes to one 
 level ; but this is an objection only to an exces- 
 sive and too rapid graduation. It might as rea- 
 sonably be objected to the principle of taxation 
 itself, that, if carried to excess, it would absorb 
 all property. 
 
 The argument sometimes urged against a pro- 
 perty-tax, that it will check the accumulation of 
 wealth and drive capital abroad, vanishes when it is 
 recollected that it would be imposed in substitution 
 of other existing taxes on industry and expendi- 
 ture, which are much greater impediments to the 
 employment of capital and the accumulation of 
 wealth in this country. 
 
 Not the least of the advantages of a property- 
 tax is, that it would probably lead, before long, to 
 the extinction of a part of the national debt, accord- 
 ing to some such plan as that of Mr. Heathfield. 
 
446 COMMUTATION OF TAXES 
 
 It would be difficult to imagine the relief that 
 must be afforded to the productive industry of 
 Britain by the removal of a large portion of this 
 heavy burden upon its annual returns. 
 
 On these grounds it is to be hoped that the 
 present liberal and enlightened government will, 
 without delay, introduce a system of direct taxation 
 in lieu of the malt and house taxes, and others 
 which still press on productive industry or the 
 comforts of the poor. Lord Althorp and some of 
 his colleagues have lately expressed themselves 
 favourable to the principle of such a mutation of 
 taxes, and we are sure that it is a change most 
 anxiously desired by the great body of the people. 
 The details of the tax, the proportions in which 
 it should press on income from permanent and 
 from perishable property, from capital embarked 
 in trade, or in professional skill, &c. and the 
 question as to its scale of graduation are subjects 
 on which we cannot find space to enter.* 
 
 The sooner such a commutation takes place the 
 better. The masses are become aware of the dis- 
 proportioned pressure of the existing taxation upon 
 them. The simple and undeniable proposition 
 that taxes on articles of consumption are paid by 
 the consumer, makes itself easily sensible to their 
 capacity. They are no longer unacquainted with 
 the amount of the taxes paid by them on many 
 of the principal articles of their consumption, 
 articles approaching to the character of neces- 
 saries of life malt, hops, tea, sugar, coffee, cur- 
 
 * Mr. Sayer's volume " On the Justice and Expediency 
 of an Income or Property-tax," contains valuable materials 
 for the decision of these points. 
 
REQUIRED BY THE PEOPLE. 447 
 
 rants, soap and these taxes cannot much longer 
 be maintained at their present rate. It would 
 be the part of a wise government to anticipate the 
 wants of the people it rules over, and not, as has 
 been too much the practice hitherto, to delay just 
 and reasonable improvements until they are ex- 
 torted by the threatening attitude of an exasperated 
 people. 4 ' Early reforms," said Mr. Burke, " are 
 arrangements between friends ; late reforms are 
 capitulations with an enemy." 
 
 The general anxiety lately evinced for a reform 
 in parliament was founded on the expectation that 
 it would immediately lead to a great reduction, 
 if not in the amount of taxation, at least, in its 
 pressure on the industrious classes. But direct 
 retrenchment has been already carried almost to 
 the extreme margin of security for the efficient 
 discharge of the public services. There remain 
 scarcely any means of lightening the pressure, but 
 by a shifting of a part of the burden from the 
 shoulders of the poor and the industrious to those 
 of the wealthy and the idle. The repeal of the 
 property-tax in 1815, was a flagrant abuse of 
 their power by the higher classes. Now that the 
 power has left them, and been transferred to the 
 middle class, the balance must be restored, and 
 the injustice redressed. 
 
448 
 
 CHAPTER XVJII. 
 
 RESTRAINTS ON THE NATURAL DISTRIBU- 
 TION OF WEALTH. 
 
 UNDER this head we class all defects in the laws 
 relating to property, by which its possession or 
 enjoyment by the rightful owners are rendered 
 insecure. 
 
 The delay, the expense, and the uncertainty of 
 obtaining justice in our courts in cases of disputed 
 property, are too notorious to require illustration. 
 They amount, in too many instances, to a com- 
 plete denial of justice, and must go far to damp 
 that sense of security for the full enjoyment of 
 wealth, which is the principal stimulant to its 
 production and accumulation. 
 
 One of the most obnoxious parts of the present 
 system, is the extreme difficulty of recovering 
 debts of small amount. It was to remedy this 
 evil that Lord Brougham's bill for the establish- 
 ment of courts of local judicature was introduced 
 in the last session ; and the rejection of this va- 
 luable measure by the House of Lords was one of 
 the most impolitic and unwise steps they have for 
 some time taken. 
 
 To Lord Brougham the nation looks in confi- 
 dent anticipation that he will redeem his pledge of 
 prosecuting this and other equally expedient re- 
 forms in the law of property, undeterred by factious 
 
LAW REFORMS. 440 
 
 opposition, and untired by repeated failure. His 
 labours in this department have already produced 
 valuable fruit; but his is not a mind to be satisfied 
 with partial improvements. The late and the still 
 sitting commissions of inquiry into the state of the 
 laws cannot fail to be productive of great eventual 
 good. Their task, we hope, will not be confined 
 to consolidation and simplification merely, but 
 will admit of radical amendments. The laws that 
 relate to entail, primogeniture, and inheritance re- 
 quire revision more especially in the case of 
 Scotland. The general registration of landed pro- 
 perty and of all claims upon it, as proposed in a 
 bill which was likewise thrown out in the past 
 session, is highly desirable. And an accurate 
 registration of births, deaths, and marriages is much 
 needed, not merely for statistical purposes, but for 
 furnishing authentic evidence in cases of disputed 
 property. 
 
 A reform of the criminal law is no less expedient 
 in an economical point of view, than of the law of 
 property. The very greatest of all impediments to 
 the accumulation of wealth and the zealous put- 
 ting-forth of industry is an inadequate protection 
 of life and property against fraud or violence. 
 Our system of police in the rural districts, and, 
 with the exception of the metropolis, in most 
 towns, is exceedingly defective. In fact, it has 
 deteriorated, instead of improving, from the date 
 of its original institution by our Saxon ancestors. 
 The mode of appointment and the execution of 
 the duties of the magistracy especially in corpo- 
 rate towns requires, and, we hope, is on the 
 point of receiving early revision. And the whole 
 
450 LAW REFORMS. 
 
 system of secondary punishments, including the 
 treatment of prisoners in the penal colonies, the 
 hulks, and the jails and penitentiaries, has long 
 called for that reform which it will, probably, be- 
 fore long receive. 
 
 The attention of the government has been very 
 properly directed for some time to these points ; 
 but it is not enough for government to be willing 
 to introduce improvements of this nature, unless 
 they are supported by the good sense of the com- 
 munity. There is a spurious and overstrained 
 humanity abroad, which lavishes its sympathies 
 upon the criminal, and neglects the interests of 
 the virtuous and irreproachable portion of society 
 which is his prey. There are philanthropists who 
 seem to desire an almost complete impunity for 
 offences, and to forget altogether that punishment 
 must be dreaded in order to operate as a pre- 
 ventive to crime, and must be severe in order to 
 be dreaded. The punishment of death has been 
 already removed from many offences hitherto 
 capital ; and this relaxation might perhaps be 
 carried still further with advantage ; but unless 
 there is at the same time an increased severity in 
 our secondary punishments, some of which have, 
 till lately, partaken of a character the very reverse 
 of penal the convict being placed in a better 
 situation than he occupied before his offence 
 the safety of society will be fearfully endangered. 
 
451 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 CONCLUDING OBSERVATIONS. 
 
 WE have thus run over, as fully as our limits per- 
 mitted, the most prominent artificial impediments 
 which either the officiousness of legislation, or its 
 inadequate accommodation to the changing cir- 
 cumstances of society, has opposed in this country 
 to the development of its industry, the increase of 
 its aggregate wealth, and the just and natural dis- 
 tribution of that wealth among those who contri- 
 bute to its production. These legislative blunders 
 will amply account for the present strange, and 
 indeed paradoxical, situation of so ingenious, en- 
 terprising, and laborious a people. Every step 
 towards their correction will, we are confident, 
 act like the removal of a heavy weight from the 
 springs of industry. Each succeeding step will be 
 rendered more easy of execution ; and when they 
 are all completely surmounted, it is impossible to 
 doubt that the mass of physical suffering and 
 unmerited privation we now see constantly around 
 us will have wholly disappeared. 
 
 When our agriculture has been relieved by the 
 permanent fixation of tithe on an equitable basis, 
 the extinction of church-rate, the reduction and 
 improved levy of poor-rate, and other local taxes, 
 
 2G 2 
 
452 CONCLUDING OBSERVATIONS. 
 
 and the facilitation of inclosures ; when our com- 
 merce and manufactures are wholly freed from the 
 shackles of the system miscalled ' protective/ and 
 our countrymen no longer prohibited from making 
 the most of their superior skill, ingenuity, know- 
 ledge, and mineral resources, and procuring the 
 produce of much labour in other countries by a 
 comparatively small outlay of their own ; when a 
 revision of our monetary system shall have fur- 
 nished to commerce a just and unvarying measure 
 of value and instrument of exchange ; when free- 
 dom has been given to credit, and the last of the 
 great legislative monopolies, those of banking and 
 the manufacture of credit money, is abolished ; 
 when the bulk of taxation is shifted from the 
 shoulders of the productive to those of the unpro- 
 ductive classes, from industry upon wealth ; when 
 justice is rendered cheap, certain, and easy of 
 access, and property further secured by the im- 
 provement of our criminal and civil judicature ; 
 when the abominable abuses of the poor-law are 
 corrected, and idleness and vice no longer forced 
 by premium, but repressed by punishment; finally, 
 when our colonial possessions are viewed in their 
 true light, and treated as so many additions to the 
 cultivable territory of the three kingdoms so 
 many landed estates at the command of any British 
 subjects who choose to make use of them so 
 many rich and unlimited fields for the profitable 
 employment of British industry and capital in the 
 growth of raw produce to be exchanged for the 
 manufactures of the mother country ; and when 
 methodical arrangements are established on this 
 principle for facilitating the removal of any local 
 
CONCLUDING OBSERVATIONS. 453 
 
 redundancy of labour in these islands to those 
 parts of the empire where, for ages to come, it 
 must always be deficient ; THEN will remunerative 
 employment be secured to every British subject 
 who is able and willing to work ; then industry, 
 being certified of its full and meet reward, will 
 put forth its utmost energies ; wealth will be 
 created in greater abundance and in more whole- 
 some proportions to the wants of consumers, 
 among whom it will distribute itself more accord- 
 ing to the principles of natural justice. Indus- 
 trious pauperism will then be extinguished, and 
 poverty confined to the sufferers from unavoidable 
 casualty or wilful misconduct. Then will this 
 country present a spectacle, such as the world 
 never yet saw, of a dense, thriving, and happy po- 
 pulation, blessed with a copious supply of the ne- 
 cessaries, comforts, and luxuries of life combining 
 all the intellectual refinement, polish of manners, 
 and assiduous cultivation of art and science, which 
 are now the peculiar characteristics of old and 
 populous states, with the ample remuneration for 
 the inferior kinds of labour, which has been 
 hitherto confined to the new and thinly-peopled. 
 Then will other nations among whom yet more 
 barbarizing errors than deform our own statute- 
 books are still prevalent learn to reform their 
 institutions likewise, after our example, and at the 
 sight of our increasing prosperity. Then will the 
 true principles of political economy, as deduced 
 from the natural laws of social welfare, be univer- 
 sally recognized and followed as beacon-guides to 
 the certain, continuous, and indefinite increase of 
 public prosperity and individual happiness. 
 
454 CONCLUDING OBSERVATIONS. 
 
 These principles we have shown to be simple, 
 obvious, and easily put in practice. They are 
 briefly enumerated just and cheap govern- 
 ment, affording a certainty of protection to the 
 person, and to property acquired by honest ex- 
 ertion or legitimate succession ; freedom of in- 
 dustry and exchange ; a due enlargement of the 
 cultivable territory at the disposal of an increasing 
 population ; and a systematic prevention of pau- 
 perism, by the removal of any local surplus of 
 labour to localities where it is deficient. 
 
 Simple and obvious principles these, yet hitherto 
 neglected, or at much pains counteracted, as if on 
 purpose to derange and disturb the natural pro- 
 gress of improvement. Simple as they are, we 
 are confident they will prove sufficient, if honestly 
 acted on, to redeem man effectually and perma- 
 nently from economical misery, and secure to him 
 the constant and unlimited enlargement of his 
 means of gratification. It is in his power, we have 
 fully shown, by a wise prudential arrangement of 
 the resources he has at his disposal, in every corner 
 of the inhabited globe, continually to advance in 
 the acquisition of social well-being. It is in the 
 power of the government of every community, ap- 
 pointed to watch over and promote its welfare, by 
 a wise and prudent disposition of the means it 
 is entrusted with, to command and maintain this 
 advance ; and without any approach to an equali- 
 zation of property, (which would, indeed, be re- 
 pugnant to the first principle of improvement,) to 
 equalize, at least pretty generally, the happiness 
 of individuals ; to secure, at least, to the lowest 
 class, and even to the poorest individual of that 
 
CONCLUDING OBSERVATIONS. 455 
 
 class, an ample supply of necessaries and comforts, 
 in return for the not immoderate exercise of his 
 industry, and the discharge of the duties he owes 
 to society. 
 
 The elements of production are unlimited. Land 
 of ample fertility we have proved not to be want- 
 ing. Capital will always, under security for its 
 enjoyment and free use, spring up to meet the 
 demand for it. Labour can never, by its deficiency, 
 occasion distress. Skill, knowledge, art and sci- 
 ence are daily improving in an accelerated ratio. 
 All then that can be wanting, besides protection 
 from force and fraud, is a judicious adaptation of 
 these boundless means to their great end, the 
 boundless augmentation of the wealth and hap- 
 piness of society, individual and collective. 
 
 The writer is sensible of having touched very 
 cursorily on many subjects of vast importance, and 
 which may seem to require a more lengthened in- 
 vestigation. His object, however, has been, with- 
 out dwelling too much on doctrinal refinements, to 
 give a general and rapid, but yet, he hopes, a clear 
 and succinct sketch of the true laws of social eco- 
 nomy ; to show that there is nothing in them, 
 when rightly understood, mysterious or abstruse ; 
 and, in opposition to the narrow, disheartening, 
 and, as he is convinced, utterly false doctrine of a 
 modern school of economists as to the existence 
 of an iron necessity and unavoidable natural ten- 
 dency to deterioration in the condition of the mass 
 of mankind, through a decrease in their means of 
 subsistence accompanying their increase in num- 
 ber to vindicate the scheme of Providence and 
 the nobility of man, by proving that the ordained 
 
456 CONCLUDING OBSERVATIONS. 
 
 multiplication of his race has no such tendency ; 
 but, on the contrary, that, coupled with the pro- 
 gress of invention and civilization, it has a direct 
 tendency to multiply, without any visible limit, 
 the comforts of existence procurable by an amount 
 of labour at all times undergoing an indefinite 
 diminution ; in short, that HUMAN HAPPINESS MAY, 
 
 BY AN EASY EXERCISE OF HUMAN FORESIGHT, BE 
 MADE CONTINUALLY TO INCREASE, NOT ONLY IN THE 
 PROPORTION, BUT BEYOND THE PROPORTION, OF ANY 
 POSSIBLE INCREASE OF THE HUMAN FAMILY. 
 
 Doubtless, in order to realize these bright pro- 
 spects, there should be a 'moral improvement going 
 on at the same time in the habits, disposition, and 
 feelings of the people. But we are convinced that 
 such improvement will be the certain accompani- 
 ment of an amelioration of their economical con- 
 dition. Poverty is the fruitful parent of vice and 
 crime, and the despair and negligence which a 
 hopeless state of suffering engenders are utterly 
 destructive of moral and orderly habits. Though 
 the scope of our little work has been necessarily 
 confined to economical ameliorations, we are far 
 from shutting our eyes to the imperative necessity 
 of concomitant reforms in our systems of moral 
 and religious instruction. A general scheme of 
 national education of education, not merely in 
 the elements of literature, but in the useful handi- 
 crafts, arts, and sciences ; and still more in habits 
 of moral discipline, of self-control, of benevolent 
 sympathy, and virtuous conduct, is indispensable, 
 as was observed at the commencement of this 
 volume, to enable a community even to make the 
 best use of the economical resources they have at 
 
CONCLUDING OBSERVATIONS. 457 
 
 their disposal, and certainly to secure to them that 
 happiness which no abundance of physical enjoy- 
 ments will afford, so long as the moral temper is 
 in a diseased state. 
 
 The tendency of public opinion at present de 
 cidedly points towards such an object. Nor will 
 it, we trust, be long before steps are taken for its 
 attainment by those who have the power to carry 
 into effect the measures of great public benefit 
 which they may be willing to introduce. Reform 
 in our moral will then accompany we do not 
 agree with a respected fellow-labourer in the good 
 cause, that it must necessarily precede* the re- 
 form of our economical condition. Both may 
 well make progress together, each aiding and 
 accelerating the advance of the other both con- 
 spiring to the same great end the enlargement 
 of the sphere of human happiness. 
 
 * Dr. Chalmers, on the Expediency of a good Moral pre- 
 ceding a good Economical Condition of Society. Edinburgh, 
 1833. 
 
 THE END. 
 
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