.^OKAIIF(% ^ ~- /. ^ -OF-CAl ^UIBF - 1 ir^ ^ ^11 I Jd ? i IJU r^- QC LETTE R Oil THE CORN LAWS. BY THE EARL OF LAUDERDALE, LONDON: Printed ly II. Bryer, Bridge- street, BlacTifriati, FOR CONSTABLE AND CO EDINBURGH; AND LONGMAK. HURST, RKES, ORME, AND BBOWN, PATERNOSTER-ROW. 1814. H. Bryr, prmtei. Bridge-street, Blackings, London. Stack Annex e ADVERTISEMENT. . > > .. - ' ' ' ~~- ?. - IN offering to the Public, what was origi- nally written solely -for the satisfaction of a correspondent, who was desirous of learning his opinion on the Corn Laws, the Author of this Letter feels it necessary to solicit their indulgence for any inaccuracy that may occur in details, which have been so hastily thrown together. For more than half a century after the Revolution, the Corn Trade of this Country was conducted under regulations, which secured a gradual increase in the export, and a diminution of the value of Grain ; for nearly half a century, we have now A2 11- 31 ADVERTISEMENT. persevered in a system, that has gradually increased the price of Corn, as well as our dependance on Foreigners for a supply of that most necessary article of subsistence ; yet a perseverance in these regulations has been represented as the means of securing cheap Bread, whilst every proposal for altering the laws now in force is regarded as displaying an intention of sacrificing the interest of the Poor to the avidity of the Landholder. .', ; j c:> It is a conviction of the mischief that must arise from these unfounded and illi- beral prejudices, which must plead the '/Ji-'JJ ^Cr.. ' '!' 0*^i'*j . ^ Author's apology for sacrificing consider- ations that would have induced him to delay any publication on this subject, to his desire of stating before the ques- tion is agitated in Parliament, his rea- sons for thinking, that the interests of the consumers of Grain, and of the growers of Grain, alike require a revision of a sys- AD VERTISEMENT. tern of Corn Laws* in theory repugnant to all sound principles, and in practice ascer- tained to be productive of effects the most injurious. bna <; .T . / LETTER OK THE CORN LA WS, London, March 14, 1814. 3IY DEAR SIR, \ VY HEN I received your letter, expressing anxiety to learn my opinion on the question con- cerning the Corn Laws, which was agitated in the House of Commons, during the last Session of Parliament, and which will most probably be again taken into consideration at no very remote period, I was engaged in the investi- gation of another subject; and not possessing the fortunate talent of being able to do two things at the same time, my answer was of a nature so general as to be unsatisfactory to my- self, whilst I am confident it did not convey to you that information which you either wished or expected to receive. a During these last ten days, however, 1 hate amused myself by going into a more minute examination of the details of this important sub- ject; and though I find no reason to retract the opinions, of which 'I have already traced to you the outlines, yet the very erroneous doc- trines given to the world on the subject of the Corn Laws, by men of great authority, the deep interest the country, and above all, the poorer orders of the community have in the pre- sent question being wisely decided, and the rooted prejudices with which many men of talents and information seem to have engaged in this discussion, combine to make me desirous of imparting to you those views of the question which must govern my opinion, whenever it comes to be discussed in Parliament. The consideration of the subject on which I am about to address you, might indeed be much extended ; the general history of our ancient Corn Laws, the details of those regulations which the legislature have at different periods adopted for the purpose of ascertaining the market price of that commodity, and the bene- fits we have derived from the perfect freedom of our interior commerce in grain, might be enlarged upon ; but whilst the two former topics have been already discussed in many pub- lications, in a manner that renders further infor- mation unnecessary,* the advantages derived from the practical freedom of intercourse which our internal Corn Trade has enjoyed since the 15th of Charles II. are too universally acknow- ledged to require illustration. It is then to the consideration of the present regulations on which our external Trade in Corn is conducted, to a comparison of them with those that prevailed for more than half a century after the Revolution, and to an ex- amination into the nature of the system on which our external commerce in Grain may be now con- ducted, in a manner the most advantageous for the interests both of the grower and of the con- sumer, that I mean, in the course of this letter, exclusively to call your attention. But before proceeding to detail the various legislative regulations under which our Com- merce in Grain has been conducted, or to dis- cuss their comparative merits; an opinion that has been stated by many, of the inexpediency * See Memoir laid before the Lords Commissioners of the Treasury by Governor Pownall, containing an Historical Re- view of the Statutes that have been made relative to the Corn Trade ; and Proposals for ascertaining the prices of Middling British Cora for the purpose of exportation. See also, Three Tracts on the Corn Trade and Corn Laws, 6rst published in 1766 ; and Dirom's Enquiries into the Cora Laws and Corn Trade of Great Britain. B 2 4 x of all interference on the part of the legislature, and of the injurious tendency of every restraint that can be imposed on the Corn Trade, whe- ther created by Bounty, or arising from prohi- bitory Duties, even under the circumstances of our existing- laws for the encouragement of all other exertions of industry, presents a prelimi- nary question for consideration, which, from its importance, demands the greatest attention. That perfect freedom of intercourse, unim- paired either directly or indirectly by legislative interference, must ensure a state of the greatest commercial prosperity, is a proposition I wish you to understand me as admitting in its utmost latitude; indeed throughout all the various Treatises I have offered to the public, on economical subjects, I think I cannot be ac- cused of having once uttered a sentiment incon- sistent with this primary axiom on commercial legislation. Advantageous however as perfect freedom of communication must be to the commerce of all countries, where it is universally extended to every species of trade and employment ; if it is partially adopted in any particular case, whilst all other branches of industry are either fostered by prohibitory Duties securing a monopoly of the Home Market, or encouraged by Bounties granted to augment their Foreign Sales, such a proceeding must indirectly impose on that branch of industry thus directly liberated from all restriction, the most severe and the most prejudicial restraint. Besides, even the repeal of all prohibitory Duties, and of all Bounties on every species of Trade, could not, under the present circum- stances of this country, insure a perfect freedom of commercial intercourse ; for restraints as efficacious as any that can be directly imposed, would, in many instances, indirectly arise from the effects of that complicated system of tax- ation which our great public expenditure has rendered necessary. These general observations, though alike ap- plicable to the case of all the various exertions of industry, cannot be more aptly illustrated than by reference to the Corn Trade, which has been so often and so long the subject of Parliamentary discussion, and which forms the more immediate object of the present investigation. Supposing all legislative encouragement by Bounty on the exportation of Grain, and all Duties on the importation of it, were to be at once done away, and that our Ports were to be freely opened for import and export of Grain, according as adventurers thought it most expe- dient for their own interest to embark in the one or the other of these undertakings, it would not from thence follow, under the system of our , that perfect freedom would be communi- cated to the Corn Trade. On the contrary, by adopting this system of theoretical perfection for the conduct of this particular Trade, whilst all other branches of industry continue to be encouraged by prohi- bitory duties calculated to secure a monopoly of the Home Market, and many by Boun- ties on exportation which give a great ad- vantage in the Foreign Market, it will be found, that, in the present state of improve- ment, (which renders the exertion of every species of labour so much dependent on the existence of a command of capital), such a regu- lation would inflict the greatest injury by which any exertion of industry could be assailed. In the manner in which, under our modern improvements, all exertions of industry are now conducted, the success of every adventure must depend upon the Capital which is embarked in the undertaking ; for there is no line of industry (in which it is not folly to engage), where success may not be considered as certain, with a suffi- ciency of capital; and none can be expected to succeed without an adequate command of it. But as all men who possess capital, or who have credit sufficient to acquire the use of it, may be supposed to be desirous of applying it in the manner likely to return the largest profit, they must of course prefer engaging in those lines of industry, which, by duties or bounties, are secured in artificial advantages, such as could not fall to the share of those concerned in a Trade conducted on principles of perfect free- dom of intercourse. Nay, it is clear, that whilst men continue to act on the principle of employing their capital to the best advantage, those engaged in the growing of Corn, or in any other channel of industry to which perfect freedom of intercourse was exclusively communicated, must endeavour to withdraw their capital from that concern, for the purpose of employing it in the more favoured channels of industry, which enjoy the advan- tage of protecting duties, or of bounties on Foreign Exportation. It is certain then, that perfect freedom of intercourse, however salutary when extended generally to every branch of Commerce, would be attended with fatal effects, either to the Corn Trade, or to a Trade in any other commodity to which it was exclusively confined, whilst all other branches of industry continued to enjoy the advantages arising from Bounties and pro- hibitory Duties. In truth such an exception would operate not only as a direct Bounty given to those in pos- session of Capital, to induce them to employ it in every other line in preference to that on which freedom of intercourse was conferred, but as a Bounty on withdrawing the Capital already engaged in that particular channel of industry, for the purpose of employing it in those pur- suits to which these artificial advantages were continued. Unless then the opinion is ill founded, that success in every trade, and in every exertion of industry, depends upon the possession of Capital, the mischievous consequences to the trade thus deprived of encouragements which all others enjoy, cannot require explanation. Neither is this the full extent of the injury such a measure would inflict \ for if great inter- nal taxation should take place, subsequent to the growing of Corn, or to any other exertion of industry being singly exempted from those legislative regulations which either secure the monopoly of the Home Market, or give to those concerned a great advantage in the Foreign Market, the consequence to that particular branch of Trade would in such a case be infi- nitely more calamitous. For whikt the Home Trader is protected by prohibitory Duties in the exclusive possession of the Home Market, increased taxation cannot give to Foreigners engaged in similar pursuits any advantage in our Markets, from whence they are excluded. But if the Home Market is left open for 9 Foreign competition, it is obvious that additional taxation must enable the Foreign Adventurer to undersell the Home Trader, or Manufacturer, by the amount of that additional price he is forced to put upon his commodity to secure the power of paying the tax, over and above the ordinary wages of labour, and profit of stock, which he must have previously acquired. If this reasoning is accurate, it follows, that however desirable it may be for this or any other Country, that perfect and unrestrained freedom should be alike imparted to all branches of industry, we cannot adopt this system exclu- sively in the case cf any particular trade, with- out inflicting upon it the greatest injury; and that if in the conduct of the Corn Trade such a system had been pursued during the rapid and unparalleled increase of taxation that has taken place within these last twenty years, the Bounty which it would have indirectly given on with- holding and withdrawing Capital from the employment of growing Grain, must have retarded the natural progress of our agricultural improvement, whilst the free access to our Markets, and the encouragement bestowed on the Foreign Grower of Grain by the effects of increased taxation, acting indirectly as a Bounty to enable him to undersell the Home grower, would have co-operated to produce the same injurious result. You will at once perceive that all I hare hitherto said for the purpose of establishing, that there is no inconsistency in conceiving 1 that free- dom of intercourse would be prejudicial if con- fined to one branch of industry, however bene- ficial it may be if extended to all, and to explain the grounds on which 1 am disposed to maintain that a free trade in corn whilst all other occupa- tions are protected in a monopoly of the Home Market, must be highly injurious to the Agricul- ture of the Country, proceeds upon the assump- tion that the exclusive possession of the Home Market, and Bounties on Exportation tend to encourage the growing of Grain, in the same manner as they do the growing of Sugar or Tobacco, or the manufacture of Cloth, or of any other article. This proposition, though apparently self-evi- dent, has nevertheless been disputed by the Author of the Wealth of Nations, who has ar- gued that it is impolitic to protect the Home Trade in Grain by prohibitory Duties, or to en- courage the growing of Grain by Bounties on Exportation, on the special ground that such regulations do not afford the same excitement to o the Agriculturist, as to those concerned in the _ O * conduct of other branches of industry. His argument on this subject is founded on the notion, that a Bounty on Grain does not " raise the real price of Corn,'* because it does not " enable the Farmer with an equal quantity " of it to maintain a greater number of La- " bourers in the same manner whether liberal, " moderate, or scanty, that other Labourers are " commonly maintained in his neighbourhood.'** He asserts, what is certainly true, that " it is " evident neither the Bounty nor any other hu- " man institution can have such effect," and infers, " that it is not the real but the nominal * The inaccuracy on which the whole of this reasoning is founded, is in the use of the words " the real price of " Corn," a change in the real value or price of a com- modity, as opposed to a change in its nominal value, or money price, is an expression accurately used by Dr. Smith in many other parts of his work, to denote an alteration in the value of a commodity as ascertained by the relation which it bears in value to all other commodities, in opposi- tion to a change in the monied value arising from an altera- tion in the value of the money, by which its value is mea- sured and expressed. But the expression to raise the real price is here used aa signifying to increase the utility, in a manner which shew* the Author must have strangely conceived, that a commo- dity's acquiring an additional degree of utility was sure to increase its real value ; a proposition so erroneous, that gene- rally speaking, such a circumstance is much more likely to diminish the real value of a commodity ; indeed as will be sub- sequently shewn, if Corn acquired the attribute of maintaining a greater number of Labourers, its real value must be inevit- ably diminished, though the whole of Dr. Smith's rea- soning proceeds on the assumption that its real value would be increased. 12 e price of Corn only which can be affected by " the Bounty."* On the other hand he observes, " That when " either by the monopoly of the Home Market, or " by a Bounty upon Exportation, you enable " our Woollen or Linen Manufacturers to sell ^ " their goods for somewhat a better price than " they otherwise could get for them, you raise, " not only the nominal, but the real price of " those goods. You render them equivalent to " a greater quantity of labour and subsistence, " you increase not only the nominal, but the " real profit, the real wealth and revenue of " those manufacturers, and you enable them " either to live better themselves, or to employ a " greater quantity of labour in those particular " manufactures. You really encourage those *' manufactures, and direct towards them a " greater quantity of the industry of the Coun- " try than what would probably go to them of " its own accord. "f The reasoning by which this extraordinary distinction is justified affords one of the nume- rous, perhaps indeed, one of the most remark- able instances of that laboured obscurity, pro- duced by an almost studied inaccuracy of phra- seology, by which this Author has successfully * Wealth of Nations, Vol. II. p. 93. f Wealth of Nations, Vol. II. p, 100. 13 deceived many a careless reader, whilst it must re-, main evident to any one who considers the means used to establish the proposition he attempts to maintain, that he has only bewildered himself. In this instance, indeed, he has so far forgot what is due to consistency, as to renounce for the conveniency of the immediate argument some of the opinions he has most anxiously maintained in the course of his volumi- nous work. Thus the precious metals which with much sound reasoning he had established to possess a greater uniformity of value at the same moment in all the different parts of the world than any other commodity, are for the convenience of his argument strangely described as raised in one Country, and as lowered in ano- ther by the Bounty on Corn, in a manner to constitute a difference such as, consistent with his former reasoning, could not exist.* Whilst with similar inconsistency, labour, which he had pronounced, after much elaborate argument, to be the only thing that never varied in its value, and to be therefore the ultimate and real stand- ard for measuring of all commodities, is forced, for the purpose of the moment, to resign its sta- tion in favour of Corn, which he has elsewhere described as the commodity of all others subject, from year to year, to the most formidable fluc- * Wealth of Nations, Vol. II. p. 99. 14 tuatious in value, but which he here declares ta be the regulating commodity by which the va- lue of all other commodities must be finally mea- sured and determined.* * The following extracts will sufficiently display the in- consistencies, in which the Author of the Wealth of Na- tions has involved himself by his reasoning on this subject. Labour alone, never vary- ing in iti own value, is alone the ul ti mate and real s tandard , by which the value of all com- modities can at all times and places be estimated and com- pared Wealth of Nations, Vol. I. p. 39. 4-to edition. Labour, therefore, it ap- pears evidently, is the only universal, as well as the only accurate measure of value, or the only standard by which we can compare the values of different commodities, at all times and at all places. We cannot estimate, it is allowed, the real value of different commodities from century to century by the quantities of Silver which were given for them. We cannot estimate it from year to year by the quantities of corn. Ditto, p. 43. The nature of things hai stamped upon Corn a real va- lue which no human institu- tion can alter. Woollen or Linen Cloth are not the regulating com- modities by which the real value of all other commodi- ties must be finally measured and determined Corn is. Wealth of Nations, Vol. II. p. 101. In the course of the argu- ment to show that a Bounty on Corn has not the same effect in increasing the real price of Corn, that a Bounty on any other Commodity has in increasing the real value of that Commodity, the Author in a passage, Vol. IT. p. 9S, too long for insertion, esta- blishes the same principle that Corn is the only measure and universal value. standaid of >" 15 It is indeed, impossible that the Author could have bestowed a moment's reflection on this rea- soning, by which he seems to think he has es- tablished a distinction betwixt the effects of a Bounty on Corn, and a Bounty on Cloth or any other commodity, without perceiving the fallacy on which he has proceeded. For if he had reviewed it with the least attention, it must have occurred to him that if he is accurate in supposing that a Bounty on Corn would not raise the real value of Corn, because the Farmer with an equal quantity of it could not maintain a greater num- ber of Labourers, the same reasoning would es- tablish that a Bounty on Cloth could not raise the real value of Cloth, as it is equally certain In years of plenty, servants frequently leave their masters, and trust their subsistence to what they can make by their own industry. But the same cheapness of provisions by in- creasing the fund which is destined for the maintenance of servants, encourages mas- ters, farmers especially, to employ a greater number. Farmers xipou such occasions expect more profit from their Corn by maintaining a few more labouring servants, than by selling it at a \ow price ia the Market. The demand for Servants increases, while He there states the monied price of Corn, as regulating the proportion in value be- twixt labourand money, and also the proportion in value betwixt money and all other Commodities. But on the same principle on which it cannot be disputed, that if any one thing can make two things equal to one and the same thing, it must make them equal to one another. It follows that if any thing, for example, Corn, can regu- late the proportions which two things bear to a third in value, it must also regulate 16 that it never could enable the Clothier with the same quantity of Cloth to clothe a greater num- ber of people. To convince you of the folly of this strange opinion that a Bounty on Corn cannot raise the real price of Corn, because it does not impart the faculty of making the same quantity of it nourish a greater number of people, it seems only ne- cessary to remark, that if a Bounty could ac- tually bestow this attribute on Corn, the conse- quence of adopting such a measure on the value of Grain would be directly the reverse of what Dr. Smith supposes, as instead of raising, it would infallibly diminish the value of that com- modity. For if the demand for Corn remained the the number of those who of- fer to supply that demand diminishes. The price of la- bour, therefore, frequently rises in cheap years. Wealth of Nations, Vol. I. p. 101. See also the reasoning, Vol. I. p. 105-6, to prove that the real price of Labour often rises in years of plenty, and falls in years of scarcity. the proportions they bear to one another. If therefore the moniod price of Corn regulates the proportion in value betwixt labour and money, and also the proportion betwixt money and every other Commodity, it must regulate the propor- tion in value betwixt Labour and other Commodities. How far Dr. Smith can with consistency state the price of Corn as regulating the price of Labour, will appear from the passage quoted from Vol. I. p. 101. m same, an increase of its quantity must on all general principles lower the value of that com- modity : In like manner it is plain that though the quantity should not be augmented, if the same quantity acquired the faculty of satisfying a more extended demand, a similar reduction in value must inevitably ensue, if the demand was in no respect increased. Supposing- that in any Country there existed a demand for a quantity of Grain sufficient to nourish a million of Inhabitants, and that the produce afforded a supply accurately adapted to satisfy that demand ; it is evident that the value of Grain would be much diminished, should the supply without any increase of population all at once amount to a quantity capable of nourish- ing one million two' hundred thousand Inhabi- tants, because there would exist a fifth more than sufficient to satisfy the demand. In the same manner, if without an increase of the quantity produced, the Grain usually con- sumed by one million of Inhabitants, should all at once become by improvement in quality capable of sustaining one million two hundred thousand, there must be a similar diminution of value, for without an increase of consumers there would exist in this case as in the former, a fifth more than would be necessary to supply the de- mand. This opinion that a Bounty on Grain gives no real encouragement to the growing of Grain, c 18 and is more prejudicial to the general interests of a Country than a Bounty on any other commodity, is indeed so very erroneous, that un- fortunately for those who maintain it, Corn is, perhaps, the only commodity on which the grant- ing a Bounty, or bestowing any other legislative encouragement might on general principles be vindicated ; for it may at least be a reasonable subject of doubt, even if the Commercial legisla- tion of a Country was founded on the soundest principles, and abstained universally from inter- ference either by Bounties or prohibitory Duties, whether it would not be expedient to make an exception in the case of Grain, by granting a Bounty on Exportation. It has been observed by great authority,* that when the Legislature of a Country contemplates the Corn Trade, it ought always to have in view not only the prosperity of the Trade itself, and the interest of those concerned; but the more important and pre-eminent consideration of securing to the people an abundant, and if pos- sible an equally abundant supply of that neces- sary article, which forms the chief means of their subsistence. Though generally speaking, the interference of the Legislature is never requisite to secure * See the representation on the Corn Trade by the Lords of the Committee of Privy Council, appointed for the con- sideration of all matters relating to Trade, 8th March 1790. 19 an abundance of any commodity ; the supply of every article naturally suiting itself to the ex- tent of the demand for it ; yet Grain may be considered as an exception to this general rule ; for notwithstanding the utmost foresight con- cerning the cjuantity sown, and the greatest in- dustry in the cultivation of land, the nature of the season always has, and always will have such a share in deciding the amount of the produce, that an attempt to command an average supply, which is the interest, and must therefore be the aim of the Farmer, will in an unfavourable season give rise to a fatal degree of scarcity, a circumstance which can only be avoided by arti- ficially creating an augmentation of demand suffi- cient to induce the grower of grain to calculate upon an increased average supply. To avoid the evil consequences of this pecu- liarity in the character of Grain arising from the uncertainty of the produce, and the singular ne- cessity of having an abundance of it, Granaries have in many Countries been stored, but the ex- pence which always attends the management of any public mercantile concern, the loss too fre- quently sustained by the spoiling of the grain, and the uncertainty whether a succession of fa- vourable seasons may not render this expensive operation unnecessary, have proved strong in- ducements to abandon a system which has always been expensive, and generally inefficacious. c2 so Of all the schemes, however, which have at various periods been adopted for this purpose, both theory and experience concur in pointing out a Bounty on the exportation of Grain as being the most efficacious; it creates a foreign demand for Grain, by enabling the Home grower to sell it with profit in the foreign mar- ket at a reduced price ; by this increase of de- mand, it ensures an augmentation of the supply of wholesome Grain whose quality is unimpaired by keeping, whilst in years of scarcity, by shut- ting the ports, this increased produce becomes available to the Home Consumer, and supplies that deficiency to which the hand of nature has given rise: accordingly, we know that from the year 1688, when an efficient Bounty was first granted on the exportation of Grain, till the year 1757, when from the alteration in the value of money the Bounty was becoming comparatively inefficient, an ample supply was obtained in years of scarcity by stopping the exportation, without once resorting, during these 68 years, to the measure of permitting an importation of Grain Duty free. Having now shortly stated to you my reasons for conceiving that a free Trade in Grain, whilst all other branches of industry enjoy a monopoly of {he Home Market, would have the same effect as giving Bounties to with- hold and withdraw capital from the grow- ing f Grain ; which of all legislative interfer- ence must be the most ruinous, as a command of capital is necessary for the success of every undertaking: Having also endeavoured to sa- tisfy you that the reasoning of the Author of the Wealth of Nations, which has unfortunately long misled the public on the subject of our Corn Laws, is in itself as unfounded as the opinions he has stated are untenable, I shall proceed to the principal object of this letter, which is, to examine the comparative merits of the different systems of regulation, under which the Corn Trade has been conducted since the Revolution, with a view to ascertain what regu- lations the Legislature ought now to adopt, as most advantageous for the interest both of the grower and of the consumer. In executing this task, a division of the 'sub- ject naturally suggests itself, founded on the tendency of the different systems that have been pursued, ^-for, from the Revolution till the year 1766, our laws seem to have been formed for the purpose of encouraging the exportation of Grain. - Whilst on the other hand it will be subsequently shewn, that all the various regula- tions for the conduct of the Corn Trade, from the year 1766 to thfe present time, have more or less tended to encourage the importation of that commodity. Of the Laws under which our Foreign Trade- in Corn was conducted, from the Revolution till the year 1766. In endeavouring to explain to you the provisions of the Laws under which the Corn Trade of this Country has been conducted, from the Revolu- tion to a period beyond the middle of the last century, it will be necessary to go a little fur- ther back in the History of our Corn Laws than the year 1688 ; for the regulations which secured the monopoly of the Home Market to the Home Grower, from the time of King William's being raised to the government of this Country, till the year 1766, arose out of an Act for improvement of tillage, passed in the twenty-second of Charles II.* But before stating to you the lowest prices at which the Foreign Growers of Grain could, under the provisions of this Act, enter into competition with our Farmers in the Home Market, it may be necessary to explain, that when Grain is allowed to be imported at a certain price on payment of a stipulated duty, the amount of that duty added to the price at which importation is per- mitted, must form the lowest price at which the Foreign Grower of Grain can on any thing like a footing of equality, engage in a. competition in the Home Market. * 22nd Charles II. Cap. 13. 23 Perhaps even then he cannot be deemed to enter into a competition on a footing of perfect equality, because the expence and risk of con- veying grain from abroad, must always be much greater than what attends the carrying it from tfie place where it is grown to the Market where it is to be disposed of. Taking for granted, however, that when the price of grain amounts to a sum equal to that which constitutes the Import price, added to the duty which is exacted, the Foreigner can afford to enter into competition with our Farmers in the Home Market, the following statement will show the prices, Wheat, Barley, and Oats must have attained, under the Law which regu- lated the Importatiou of Grain from the Revo- lution till the year 1766, before a Foreigner could adventure in our Market without a cer- tainty of being undersold. STATEMENT of the Prices at which the follow- ing Species of Grain were allowed to be imported on the Low Duties, and of the Duties payable under the 22d of Charles II. Cap. 13.* Total Import Price Prices at which the following spe- cies of Grain were allowed to Duties payable on Importation when Grain was and Duty, forming the lowest price at which the Foreigner be imported, paying the low Duty. at the prices herein before could enter into competition with the Home G rower in the British Market. S. d. s- d. . 5. d. Wheat, per Quarter 53 4 8 3 1 4- Barley, per Quarter 32 2 8 1 14- 8 Oats, per Quarter 16 1 4- 17 4- * Throughout the whole of these Statements concerning the Duties and Import Prices of Grain, those of Rye, Malt, Buck- Wheat, Pease, and Beans, are omitted ; for the rea- soning which applies to Wheat, Barley, and Oats, will equally apply to them, as the variations of the regulations concern- ing the one, are in all cases nearly proportioned to those which relate to the other ; and in many of the calculations, this omission, whilst it abridges the labour of the writer, must tend to present the data on which his reasoning is founded, in a more plain and simple form to the Reader. That the English Farmer, by these Regu- lations, must have acquired, except in times of considerable scarcity, a monopoly of the Home Market cannot be doubted, when we reflect that the lowest price at which the Foreigner could possibly interfere with him, amounted nearly to a third more than the average price of Grain, for the twenty years ending 1686, as Wheat is stated to have been, on an average, during that period, 2. 6s. 3d. a Quarter,* whilst other sorts of Grain bore to the prices at which they could be respectively imported under this Act, nearly a similar proportion. It is impossible, however, to form an accurate notion of the extent to which the monopoly was secured to our Farmers by this Act of Charles II without attending to the great difference be- twixt the value of money in those days and in, the present. 1 think it necessary, therefore, to lay before you the following statement of the value of the sums at which the Import prices and duties were fixed by that Act, in the money of the year 1800, which will show you that the Home grower must at all times have enjoyed under it nearly a complete monopoly of the Home Market. See Tracts on the Corn Trade and the Corn Laws. oi t .fl TABLE expressing the value of the 1 mport prices and low duties on Wheat, Barley, and Oats, as fixed by the 22d of Charles II., in the money of the year 1800, allowing for the depreciation which has taken place in the value of money betwixt the years 1675 and 1800. Value of the Import prices of the following species of Grain, as fixed by the 22d of Charles II. in the money of the year 1800. Value of the Du- ties payable on Importation, as fixed by the aforesaid Act in the money of 1800. Total Import Prices and Duties, as fixed by the 22d of Charles II. in the money of 1 800. . s. d. Wheat, per Quarter 7 2 8** . S. d. 1 1 H* . S. d. 8 4 lit Barley, per Quarter 4 5 1\* 7 H* 4- 12 9 f Oats, per Quarter 2 2 9$* 3 6i* 2 6 4!t * In Sir Geo. Schuckburgh's proportions for ascertaining the value of money at different periods, money is stated in 1675 to be of value to money of 1800, as 210 to 562 ; and these several sums are accurately in the same proportion to the respective sums as settled in the 22d of Charles II., and as contained in the preceding Statement. f Sir Geo. Schuckburgh's Tables, as published in the Phi- losophical Transactions, are not brought down lower than ] 800 ; but on the supposition that gold was at 4 5s. an ounce in 1800, and at 5 Ss. in 1814, there would be a Joss on our paper currency, since 1800, of 19 per Cent., which of course must be added to these several sums, to ex- press the real value of the Import Prices, and Duties as fixed by the 22d of Charles II., in the money of 1814. 27 At the Revolution even this exclusive posses- sion of the Home Market, however well secured, seems to have appeared an insufficient encourage- ment to the improvement of the Agriculture of the Country ; for Bounties were granted on the exportation of every sort of grain by the 1st of William and Mary, Chap. 12, to an extent, and till they severally attained prices proportioned to what is contained in the following statement of the Bounties granted on Wheat, Barley, and Oats. STATEMENT of the Bounties as granted on Wheat, Barley, and Oats, by the 1st of Wil- liam and Mary, Chap, 12. 1 Prices under which the Bounty was given. Amount of Bounty. . s. d. On Wheat when under per Quarter ... 48 5 On Barley when under per Quarter ... 24 2 6 On Oats when under per Quarter .... 15 2 6 Of the powerful effects of this measure it is impossible to doubt ; the average price of Wheat from the year 1666, to the year 1688, as has been -already stated, amounted only to 2 6s. 3d.; a 28 Bounty on Wheat, of 5s. a Quarter, when under 48*., was therefore, in reality, and must have ap- peared to the Legislature to have been a constant Bounty to this extent, on the exportation of that Grain, except when it attained a price to which years of scarcity could alone give rise. Properly to appreciate the extent of the addi- tional encouragement given at this period by the Bounty on Grain, it is however again neces- sary to resort to the consideration of the great difference in the value of money at that time, and the value to which it has since fallen in consequence of the depreciation that has taken place. In the following Table you will therefore find a statement of the prices under which the Home Grower received a Bounty on Exportation, and of the Amount of that Bounty, as settled by the 12th of William and Mary in the money of 1800. TABLE expressing the value of the prices under which a Bounty was granted on Wheat, Barley, and Oats, by the 1st of William and Mary, Cap. 12 ; and also the Amount of the Bounties therein granted, in the money of the year 1800, allowing for the depreciation which has taken place in the value of money, betwixt the year 1688, and the year 1800. Value, in the money of 1800, of the price under which the Bounty was given. Value of the Bounty in the money of 180 C. . s. d. . s. d. On Wheat when under per Quarter 6 5 * 12 6^* On Barley when under per Quarter 3 2* 6 SJ* On Oats when under per Quarter 1 17 71* 6 3t* * According to Sir George Schuckburgh's proportions for ascertaining the value of money at different periods, money is stated in 1688 to be of value to money in 1800, as 224 to 562 ; and these several sums are accurately in the same pro- portion to the respective prices under which Bounties were given, and to the different Bounties as settled by the 1st of William and Mary. To get the value in money of the year 1814-, 19% per Cent, must be added ; as that, judging from the comparative price of gold, is the amount of the depreciation of the paper in which all payments have been made since the year 1800. 30 Such was the ample encouragement held out to Agricultural Improvement, that most fertile means of increasing national wealth, from the Revolution till beyond the middle of the last century. By prohibiting the Importation of Grain when under a price which, at that time, must have been regarded as an indication of scarcity, and by even then subjecting the Grain imported to a heavy duty, the exclusive possession of the Home Market was secured to those who engaged their Capital in growing of Grain, in the same manner as it was given to those who embarked their property in any other employment. Whilst by granting a liberal Bounty on ex- portation, the legislature seems to have had two objects in view : First, to make compensation to the grower of Corn for that infringement in the monopoly of the Home Market, which must always take place in the case of an extreme scarcity of Grain, but which not being necessary in the event of a scarcity of any other com- modity, might, if no compensation was given, prove an encouragement to embark Capital in other branches of industry, rather than in the growing of Corn. Secondly, to increase the demand for Grain, so as to ensure such an augmentation of supply, as in years of compa- rative scarcity, might, by shutting the ports, be rendered the means of alleviating the wants of the Poor. 51 In the order I mean to pursue, the consequence of these regulations which commanded the admi- ration of Foreigners, and was the object of their imitation, will be subsequently displayed. Before stating to you the nature of the regulations which have taken place since the year 1766, 1 shall, therefore, only say, that the legislature seems in no respect to have been disappointed in attain- ing what it meant to secure, by this grant of a Bounty on the exportation of Corn ; for from the year 1688, to the year 1766, a prohibition to export in years of scarcity, which indeed seldom occurred,* always provided an ample supply without having recourse to the measure of admitting Foreign Grain, Duty free, except in the year 1757, when the Ports were opened for Importation f * Exportation was, for a short time, prohibited, betwixt the Revolution and the year 1766, four several times. In the years 1699, 1709, 1741, and 1757. f By the 30th of George II. Cap. 1. the Duties on the Importation of Corn were suspended until the 24th of August, 1757, and Importation was allowed, Duty Free, in Ships of Foreign Nation* in amity with Great Britain. Of the Laws under which our Foreign Trade in Corn has been conducted, from the year 176(5 to the present time. The manner in which the alteration in the system of our Corn Laws originated in the year 1766, appears as extraordinary as the change itself is unaccountable; in the month of Sep- tember of that year, a sudden panic gave rise to an embargo on all the ships loaded with Grain, which extraordinary stretch of power, though it was afterwards sanctioned by an act of indem- nity,* seems now to have been totally unautho- rised by the circumstances of the times, as in the year 1766 there was, after all, less Grain imported than exported, j" In the following year, however, the feeling of alarm which must have suggested this mea- sure to the executive government, seems to have extended itself to the Parliament ; for Laws were made, prohibiting the exportation of Grain, and allowing the importation free of all duty ; J * Seventh of George III., Cap. 7. f In the year 1766, three hundred thousand quarters of Grain were exported, and less than two hundred and fifty thousand imported. | Seventh of George III., Cap. 3, 4, 5, and g. 33 these were again renewed in the year 17G8, with an additional provision, permitting the free importation of Rice and Indian Corn ;* and the Legislature now annually passed Laws to enact the same regulations during each of the five .subsequent years; in the last of which, the pro- hibition to export, and the privilege of import- ing Grain, duty free, was continued till the 1st of February, 1774.f During these eight years it is therefore plain that the Corn Trade was conducted on a prin- ciple the reverse of that which had been pur- sued for more than half a century ; and in resorting to this change it is hardly possible to suppose that Parliament was actuated with that desire of encouraging Agriculture so formally announced in the preambles of the 22d of Charles the II, and of the 1st of William and Mary ; for there is no branch of manufac- turing industry, which must not at the time of passing these Acts have fallen into decay under the effects of such a system ; indeed there is none, which even now, when our skill in all ex- ertions of industry is brought to such a state of perfectien, could withstand the ruinous conse- quences of such regulations. * Eighth of George III., Cap. 1, 2, 3. f See 9th George III., Cap. 1. 10th George III., Cap. 1. llth George III., Cap. 1. 12th George III., Cap* 1. and 13th George III., Cap. 1. D 34 Instead of a monopoly of the Home Market, which it had been the policy of this country to secure to the grower of Grain in common with those concerned in the conduct of every othor branch of industry, the prohibition to export at once transferred the monopoly from the home grower to the home consumer, and gave to him the exclusive privilege of consuming all the Corn which was grown ; whilst the permission to import, duty free, under the circumstances of the recent load of taxation to which the seven years war had given rise must have indi- rectly operated as a Bounty to the Foreign Grower ; for though the taxes to which this country was then subjected were trifling indeed, when compared to the impositions we have since sustained, yet they were much more burdensome than those which had, at that time, been recently imposed on any of the Countries from whence a supply of Grain could be expected. Such were the temporary regulations, renewed from year to year, during eight years antecedent to the new permanent system on which our Corn Trade was established in the year 1773.* The innovation produced by this law, in the regulations for the conduct of our Import Trade in Corn, was indeed slight in appear- , i,, I ,q Thirteenth of George III., Cap. 43. , * ance in comparison of what it was in reality ; but even the nominal prices at which the Fo- , V ! . * reign Grower of Grain was permitted to enter into competition with the British Farmer, were considerably reduced when compared to those fixed by the 22d of Charles II., as will appear f ' \ e> ' '* - from the following- statement. & STATEMENT of the Prices at which Wheat, Barley, and Oats, were allowed to be im- ported on the Low Duties, and of the Duties payable under the 13th of George III., Cap. 43. Total Import Price Prices at which each species of G'rain was allowed to be im- ported, paying the Low Duty. Duties payable on Importation when Grain was at the prices herein before and Duty, forming the lowest price at which the Foreigner could enter into competition with the Home Grower in the British Market. S. d. S. d. . s. d. Wheat, per Quarter 48 6 286 t t> f_e-j o \ '} jt-'-iF'/ >.-, '>ai^n" Barley, per Quarter 24? 2 r."' 1 CVJ.T. 0? r."K*j Oats, per Quarter 16 2 ,0 16 9 ; Of the inefficiency of this measure, in afford- ing any security to the British Farmer for a monopoly of the Home Market, I am sure you D 2 can entertain little doubt; indeed as the of Wheat, on an average of five years imme- diately preceding the passing of this Act, amounted to a sum, per quarter, nearly equal to the import price and the duty combined,* it is plain that the regulation must have ap- peared nugatory, even to those by whom it \vas enacted. Notwithstanding the great depreciation of money known to have taken place, even the nominal prices at which Grain was permitted to be imported, were greatly reduced, when com- pared to those fixed by the 22d of Charles the lld.f But when allowing for the alteration in the value of money, the real difference is ascer- tained betwixt the regulations then adopted, and those which were substituted in 177.3, it becomes evident, from the following Table, that on this occasion there could hardly be any serious design of securing in any case a monopoly of the Home Market. * The price of Wheat for five years, ending 1774-, ap- pears to have been 2. "7s.9d. per Quarter, f See page 24. 57 _ TABLE expressing the value of the 1 mport prices and duties on Wheat, Barley, and Oats, as fixed by the 13th of George III., Cap. 43. in the money of the year 1675, allowing for the depreciation that had taken place betwixt the year 1675, and the year 1773. Value of the Import prices of the following species of Grain, as fixed by the 13;h of George III. in the money of the year 1676. Value of the Du- ties payable on Importation, as fixed by the aforesaid Act in th'' money of 1675. Total Import Prices and Duties, as fixed by the 13tb of George III. in the money of 1675. . s. d. Wheat, per Quart. 1 63* Barley, per Quart. 13 If* Oats, per Quart. 89* d. <. s. d. 1 fi fi 1 . ^4 1 & 1 of Far.* 1 & 1 of Far.* 13 2f &|Far. 8 10&fFar. You will perceive also, from the following view of the regulations concerning the Bounties * In the proportions for ascertaining the value of money at different periods, the money of 1770 is stated to be to the money of 1675, as 384 to 210, and these several suras are accurately in the same proportion to the respective sums as fixed by the 13th of George the Hid. Cap. 43. 38 given by this Act. on the Exportation of Grain^ that the encouragement they offered to Agricul- ture must have been as inefficacious as that which it derived from the prohibitory Duties on Importation. STATEMENT of the Bounties as granted on Wheat, Barley, and Oats, by the 13th of George 11 1., Cap. 43. Prices under which the Bounties were given. Amount of Bounties. s. s. d. On Wheat when under per Quarter . . . 14 5 On Barley when under per Quarter . . . 22 2 6 On Oats when under per Quarter ; J ,'i . 1* 2 That the Farmer could have little hope of receiving advantage from this Bounty granted on Wheat, when under 44s. a Quarter, must be apparent, for the price of Wheat, on an average of the five preceding years, had been nearly 48$. a Quarter. to Neither could the prospect of benefit, from the regulations concerning the Bounties to be 39 given on other Grain, appear much more flat- tering'. For the nominal prices under which Bounties were granted, seem, in every case, to have been diminished, when compared with the regulations of the 1st of William and Mary,* whilst the ensuing Statement must prove to you that the real prices, in comparison with those under which they were granted by that Act, were reduced to a degree that sufficiently marks the design to render it inefficacious. * See Statement of the Bounties as given by the lit of William and Mary, page 27. 40 TABLE expressing the value of the prices under which a Bounty was granted on Wheat, Barley, and Oats, by the 13th of George the Hid. Cap. 43 ; anc^ also the Amount of the Bounties therein granted, in the money of the year 1688, allowing for the depreciation which has taken place betwixt the year 1688, and the year 1770. Value of the Value, in the money of 1688, of the prices under which the Bounty was given. Bounty in the money of the year I6S8. . s. d. . s. d. On Wheat when under per Quarter 158* 2 11 * On Barley when under per Quarter 12 10 * 1 5** On Oats when under per Quarter 082* 1 2 * It was my intention to have given you a similar analysis of the provisions of the Act, 1791, with regard to the exportation and im- * According to the proportions for ascertaining the value of money at different periods, the money is stated to be in 1770 to money of 1688, as 384 to 224; and these several turns are in the same proportions to the respective prices under which Bounties were given, and to the different Bounties as settled by the 13th of George III. Cap. 43. 41 portation of Gram ; a desire, however, to avoid prolixity, has induced me to think it better to subjoin Statements of the regulations then adopted, with Tables, expressing-, in the money of 1688, the prices at which importation on the Low Duties was permitted, as well as the value of the Duties; and also of the value, in the same money, of the prices under which Bounties were given, together with the value of the Bounties that were bestowed.* Before, therefore, proceeding to the consider- ation of the regulations under which the Corn Trade is now conducted, as fixed in 1804, I shall only observe, that the Legislature appears, in 1791, to have been in some degree conscious of the futility of the pretended encouragement and protection afforded to the Corn Grower by the Act, 1773,f as in every instance the nominal prices at which importation on the Low Duties was permitted, as well as the Duties themselves, were in a small degree raised, though they * See Appendix, Nos. 1, 2, 3, and 4-. f The following passage, in the report of the Committee of frivy Council, 1791, evidently shows that Government liad considerable apprehensions on this subject : It is singular, that the price at which Corn is prohibited to be exported, is lower now than it was about a century ago ; that the price at which Foreign Corn is permitted to be im- f o * ^W 42 were in no case sufficiently augmented to coun- teract the effects of the intervening depreciation in the value of money ; so that notwithstanding the import prices appear from the Act, 1791, to have been nominally more favourable to Agricul- ture, than those of 1773, they were in reality, much more disadvantageous. In again revising the Corn Laws, in the year 1804, the Legislature seems to have entertained the same apprehension concerning the insuffi- ciency of the encouragement given to Agricul- ture, with which they were actuated in the year 1791. For the professed object in passing the law of 1804, that has ever since remained in force, was to raise the prices at which importa- tion was permitted, as well as those under which the Bounty was given. But unfortunately on this occasion, as in the year 1791, though Parliament evidently per- ceived the erroneous policy of the subsisting regu- ported at reduced duties, is now also lower than it was above a century ago ; and during this period, the prices of the prin- cipal sorts of Corn, taken upon an average of a number of years, do not appear to have advanced in an equal degree with the prices of many other articles which are in general use, and even of sme which are the produce of the farm ; and there are those who doubt whether this circumstance has not contributed to make the quantity of Corn produced not equal to the consumption, as it is at present. 43 lations, too much caution, or rather perhaps a dread of a much mistaken popular clamour induce- ed them to administer the remedy with so sparing a hand, as in every successive alteration of the law, to leave the grower of Grain in a state of greater real depression than he had sustained under the antecedent regulations at the time they were adopted. The nominal prices at which the importation of Foreign Grain on the Low Duties was per- mitted, were indeed increased by the Act, 1804; but when you reflect that the average price of Wheat, from 1795 to 1812, amounted to up- wards of 4. 2s. per Quarter, whilst the prices of other Grain had, during that period, under- gone a similar elevation, you cannot fail at once to perceive, on reading the following Statement of the terms pn which importation, on the Low Duties, was then permitted, how perfectly un- availing this small and sparing advance must have been. STATEMENT of the Prices at which the fol- lowing 1 Species of Grain were allowed to be imported on the Low E'uties, and of the Duties payable under the 44th of George III., Cap. 109. Total Import Price Duties payable and Dirty, forming Prices at which the following spe- on Importat'on the lowest price at cies of Grain were allowed to when Grain was which the Foreigner be imported, paying the Low at the prices could enter into Duty. herein before competition with stated. the Home Grower in the British Market. S. d. S. d. . S. d. Wheat, per Quarter 63 2 6 3 .5 6 Barley, per Quarter 316 1 3 1 12 9 Oats, per Quarter 21 1 1 2 The ostensible object of all these regula- tions, concerning the importation of Grain, was to impart, at least in certain cases, that secu* rity for the exclusive possession of the Home Market, which was given in all cases to almost every other branch of industry. This, indeed, was not only the object but the effect of the law of Charles the lid. ; on the model of which, all the subsequent Acts seem, in point of form, to have been framed ; for, as I have already observed to you, the farmer was under that 45 law protected in the exclusive possession of the Home Market, till Corn came to a price which exceeded nearly by a third the average value of Grain for a number of years, both subsequent to and preceding the time at which it passed.* But the comparative lowness of the real price at which importation was now permitted, and the trifling real value of the duty imposed, whilst they must satisfy you that they could pro- duce no effect, cannot fail to raise a doubt in your mind whether it could have been the ob- ject of those who framed the Act, that it should in any case be efficient ; for the average price of wheat during a number of years both before and after its taking effect, amounted nearly to a third more than the price at which importation was permitted, added to the Low Duty that was imposed, f lauDnq You will observe, too, from the following Table expressing in the money of the year 1675, the value of the prices at which importation was permitted in 1804, and of the Low Duty then imposed, that if in Charles the lld.'s time regu- lations had been adopted similar to those under which the trade is now conducted, they must have remained as at present, useless, for any other * See page 25. f The average price of Wheat from 1795 to 1812, inclusive, ^exceeded 4. 2x. (Quarter. pose than as a monument of the folly or the in- sincerity of those with whom they originated. TABLE expressing the value of the import prices and Low Duties on Wheat, Barley, and Oats, as fixed by the 44 George III., Cap. 109., in the money of the year 1675, allowing for the depreciation which has taken place in the value of money, betwixt the years 1675 and 1800. Value of the Import prices of the following Grain, as fixed by the 44 of Oeo. 111. in the money oi the year 1675. Value of the Du- ties payable on Importation, as fixed by the afore- said Act in the money of 1675. Total Import prices and Duties as fixed by the 44 of George ill., in the inonej of 1C75. . s. d. d. . s. d. Wheat per Quart. 1 3 6|* 11* 1 4 5** Barley per Quart. Oil 9 J* 54* 12 2** Oats per Quarter 7 10* 41* 8 2i* In the statement I have made to you, on the regulations concerning the importation of Grain, * According to the proportions for ascertaining the value of money at different periods, money is stated to be in 1800, to money in 1675, as 562 to 210; and these several sums are in the same proportions to the respective sums as fixed by the 44 Geo. III., Cap. 109., and as given in the statement, page 44. 47 to avoid complication I have confined my obser- vations on the Acts of the years 1773, 1791 and also on this Act to what has been technically called the first Low Duty : But even that, nuga- tory as it must have been, to protect the Farmer in the possession of the Home Market, was in every instance limited to endure only till the respective species of Grain, on which it was imposed increased a few shillings per quarter in value. For under these Acts, in the event of a very small augmentation in the value of the different species of Grain, what was called a second Low Duty took place, which in all cases was reduced to such a trifle, that in the view of the subject I mean to state to you, it is unnecessary to remark upon it farther than to say, that it only indicated a disposition to raise money by way of duty on Grain, for any other purpose than that of protecting the Home Grower. In truth, however, all duties on the importa- tion of Grain, have been of late years, com- pletely superseded, for from the year 1796, to the present time, proclamations have been annually issued under temporary laws, permit- ting the Importation of Grain Duty free :* nay, * See the various temporary Acts in the Statutes at Large ; and also the return of orders issued by the King- in Council, relative to the Export and Import of Grain, contained in 48 : . the system of encouraging Importation has been carried so far that on different occasions, large Bounties have been given on the Importation of foreign Grain.* It seems perfectly unnecessary to state to you the regulations concerning the exportation of Grain, which took place under the Act of 1804, or to make any comparison of them with respect to efficacy with those which the Legislature had formerly adopted ; a Bounty of ten shillings or even of twenty shillings a quarter, instead of five shillings a quarter on Wheat, when under forty-eight shillings, could in the year 1801, have no effect in encouraging the growth of that Grain, which on an average was betwixt the years 1795 and 1812 upwards of eighty-two shillings a quarter, t * ' , Besides, under this Act, the export of Wheat, . ___ j No. 10, of the Appendix to the Report from the Select Committee on the Corn Trade of the United Kingdom. * See Appendix, No. 5, in which a statement is given of the Bounties on Importation by the 36 Geo. III., Cap. 21. the 40 Geo. III. Cap. 29. and the 41 Geo. III. Cap. 10. f Should the reader wish to see a statement of the boun- ties given by the 44- Geo. III., Cap. 109, it will be found in Appendix No. 6 : and Appendix No. 7, exhibits the yalue in the money of 1 688 of the prices, under which the bounty was given, as well as of the value of the bounty as settled in 1804. of Barley, and of Oats were directly prohibited, when they respectively attained the prices of 4s, of 31s. and of 19a. a quarter j so that considering the prices which Grain has sustained in our Markets since that period, it may be rather regarded as prohibiting all expor- tation of Grain, than as granting a Bounty on the exportation of it. From this short view of the Corn Laws, you must at once perceive that whilst very formid- able impediments were thrown in the way of the Import Trade, and great encouragement given to exportation, from the Revolution till the year 1766, the various regulations since enforced, have in no instance afforded any real excitement to export, nor any material ob- struction to the Foreign Grower of Grain from resorting to our Markets. For from the year 1766 till the year 1773, the Foreigner had free access to our ports unin- cumbered by any duty, whilst the Home Grower so far from enjoying a Bounty, was con- demned to suffer from the consumer's possessing an exclusive privilege to purchase all the grain he produced, and under the variouslaws that have since been framed, the prices at which importa- tion was permitted, and under which a Bounty was given, have been so low in comparison with the actual price of Corn, that in general the 50 Foreign Grower of Corn may be considered as having continued to enjoy the same advantages, whilst occasionally, the agricultural industry of Foreign Countries has even been excited by large Bounties. Were I, however, to confine my views, merely to the situation in which the Corn Trade has been placed by the regulations that have been enacted in the various Corn Laws, 1 should give you a very imperfect, nay, a very deceitful view of the real state of the external commerce of this Country in that most necessary of all ar- ticles. That under these Laws, notwithstanding the semblance of prohibitory Duties on importation, the import trade in Corn has been practically free either from direct discouragement or en- couragement, except on those occasions, when Bounties were offered to the Importer of Grain, is undoubted j but when there exists a free trade in any commodity, to form a just estimate of the comparative benefits enjoyed by those who are engaged in producing it at home, and those who are employed in similar pursuits abroad, it is necessary not only to consider the relative state of climate, and other advantages which na- ture may have bestowed, but also to examine the relative progress of taxation, which in mo- dern times most materially affects the value, no 51 only of all raw materials, but even of the means of existence of those who are employed in pro- ducinor them, and preparing them for consump- tion. You are too well acquainted with the conse- quences of taxation on the commercial relations of a country, to require any explanation of the manner in which increased taxation in every country, under the circumstances of a free trade, must operate as a Bounty in favour of the in- dustry of those countries who do not sustain the same burdens. You well know, that as the lowest price at which any commodity can be sold, with a pros- pect of its production being continued, is that which replaces the price of the raw material, the ordinary wages of the labour bestowed upon it, arid the usual profit of stock on the capital engaged in the concern, so in a, country where taxation prevails, an additional charge must be made to repay to those engaged in the conduct of every branch of industry, what they have necessarily contributed to the state. And you cannot fail to perceive that this additional charge, is the measure of the Bounty which under such circumstances, is enjoyed by the in- dustry of all rival countries which are free from such iricumbrances. \ If then, you will compare the soil, the climate* E 2 52 ,ind the value of land in this country, with the soil, the climate, and the value of land in those countries with which we trade in Corn,* and reflect that since the year 1766, the Farmers in this Country must have been exposed to that share of taxation which falls upon them in con- sequence of our debt being increased from one hundred and thirty millionsf to eight hundred millions J, as well as to the burdensome effects of a property tax, now amounting to upwards of twenty millions a year, which has been col- lected from them with circumstances of se- verity, that have attended its collection in no other instance, I am sure you will agree wae with me in thinking, that there has in effect * In the north of Europe, Corn can be more cheaply raised than it is in Great Britain, because the value of land is less and the price of labour is lower. In America, the value of land is greatly less, and from the extent of their farms they are able to resort to new lands, or to substitute fallows in the place of manure, and can therefore raise Corn without this additional expence, and these circumstances more than compensate the higher price of labour in that Country. Report of the Privy Council, 8th March, 1790. f The state of the National Debt as it stood 5th January, 1767, iven in the Memorial on our Finances ascribed to the Eight Honourable George Grenville, is said then to have amounted to 130,84.2,4.15 ; and the Interest to 4,707,223. $ The total amount of the National Debt, as it stood previous to the Loans negociated for the service of the present year vras .812,013,135. 53 been a great and gradually increasing Bounty on the importation of foreign Grain. It is therefore evident, that the system pursued with regard to the Foreign Trade in Corn, since the year 1766, has been in reality directly the reverse of that on which it was previously conducted j for instead of the home grower of Grain being secured in a monopoly of the home Market, and in the enjoyment of Bounties which gave him the power of underselling the foreign grower of Grain, even in the Foreign Market; the consumer of Grain has, under our recent laws, generally possessed an exclusive privilege of purchasing all that our Farmers could produce; whilst the foreign grower of Grain has not only uniformly enjoyed a Bounty resulting from our increased taxation, which must have co-operated with the natural ad- vantages of climate, to enable him to undersell the home grower even in our own Market, but occasionally a direct Btunty, in magnitude much greater than was ever given to encou- rage the export of Grain. On the good effects of the former system, by which the monopoly of the Home Market was secured, and exportation encouraged, it must be in this Country needless to enlarge ; for under the enjoyment of the exclusive possession of the Home Market, and very frequently of en- 04 courageraents to export, all the various branches of our industry have risen to a degree of perfec- tion, and been carried on to an extent unparal- leled in the history of the world, whilst, not- withstanding- our increasing- taxation, our muslins, and our printed cottons, as well as our hard- wares, by command of Capital, and of skill in the application of Machinery, have been reduced in value, to a degree that men of moderate fortunes enjoy newly devised comforts unknown to our wealthiest ancestors.* * If any illustration from the history of other Countries were necessary to shew the effects of encouraging exporta- tion, and of prohibiting it, the following facts, as stated in Mr. Catherwood's Notes upon the Tracts on the Corn Trade, must appear to you conclusive ; they are said by that Gentleman to have been communicated to him by a per- son who was in Turkey at the time the transaction took place : " In Turkey, the Grand Vizier, between 20 and 30 years ago, suffered a more general exportation of Corn to be car- ried on, and more openly than any of his predecessors had done, insomuch that 300 French vessels, from 20 to 200 tons, were, on one day, seen to enter Smyrna bay, to load Corn, and Wheat was then sold for less than seventeen pence (English) a bushel, with all the expences inputting the same on board included.*' From these open proceedings, the Janizaries and people took the alarm, pretended that all the Corn was going to be exported, and that they in consequence must be starved ; and in Constantinople grew so mutinous, that they could But it is most necessary to state to you the particular advantages that resulted to this Country from the extension of those regulations to the Corn Trade ; for it is impossible to sup- pose that the Legislature could have pursued the system that has prevailed during the last fifty years, far more that there should have existed a popular cry in its favour, if some how or another those benefits had not gone into oblivion. Aboutthe time of the Revolution, when the sys- tem I am now treating of was completely esta- not be appeased till the Vizier was strangled, and his body thrown out to them. His successor took particular care not to split on the same rock, and would suffer no exportation at all ; many of the farmers> who looked on the exportation as their greatest de- mand, neglected tillage to save their rents, which in that country are paid, either in kind or in proportion to their crops, to such a degree, that in less than three years the same quantity of Corn which, in time of export, sold for not quite seventeen pence, was worth more than six shillings ; and the distresses of the people in Smyrna -were such, that every bakehouse, and magazine of Corn, was obliged to have a military guard, which took care that no one person should have more than a fixed quantity; and so strictly was this order observed, that an, English ship, in the Turkey trade, was detained from sailing, some time, for want of Bread. The ill consequences of these proceedings were not re- moved in many years ; and to thii day, the fate of the Vizier, as an unfortunate good man, is lamented. 56 blishedbytbe Act of the 1st of William and Mary, agricultural improvement had for a length of time been very stationary, though the prices of Grain were by no means low ; for the price of Wheat (which, for the sake of brevity, may be selected throughout the whole of this reasoning, as giving a pretty accurate view of the proportions betwixt tbe prices of all sorts of Corn at different times) was, on an average, betwixt the years 1666 and 1686, 2. 6*. 3d. per Quarter.* From that time, however, agriculture must have made great progress, for the following Statement of the excess in the quantity of Grain, exported, above what was imported, during thirty years, from the year 1697, at once ascer- tains tbat the quantity grown was more than necessary for the consumption of the country, and shows the effects of agriculture's enjoy ing similar encouragement to that which has been so bene- ficial to other branches of industry ; whilst you will observe that the reduced prices at which the Home Market was supplied, prove how advantageous those regulations must have been to the poorer orders of the community. * The money of 1688 is, by the Table of proportions to the money of 1800, as 224 is to 562, and a2. 6s. 3d. bears the same proportion to 5. 16$. 57 TABLE shewing the average prices of Middling Wheat per Quarter, and the average excess of the Exports of every sort of Grain, over the average Imports of the same, from 1697* to 1729 inclusive. Periods. Price of Wheat per Quarter, during these re- spective periods. Lverase price of Wheat during the whole 33 years. Excess of Exports over Im- ports, in each of these pe- riods. Average an- nual Exces during the 33 years. 5 years, ending 1701 6 ditto, 1707 .s. d. 228 1 5 11 299 1 17 8 1 13 1 1 8 10 H 17 7 . s. d. \>1 16 6 J 139,866 289,304 299,367 453,986 485,852 532,7^2 216,643 345,392f. 4ditto, ... .....1711 4 ditto, 1715 4. ditto, 1719 5 ditto 1724 5 ditto, 172 * This system may be said to have been established from the year 1 688 ; it would have been, therefore, desirable to have had an account of Imports and Exports of Grain from that period, but there is no authentic record on this subject, prior to the year 1697. 58 It is of great importance also to remark, that though the home consumption of Corn mast have increased, yet the increase of supply was, under this system, progressively greater than the augmentation of demand ; nay the longer it continued the more the prices seemed to have been reduced, as is displayed by the following Table, shewing the state of the Exports, and of the prices from the year 1729 to the year 1765, when it was finally done away. 59 TABLE shewing 1 the Average Prices of Middling Wheat per Quarter, and the average excess of the Exports of every sort of Grain over the average Imports of the same, from 1729 to 1 764 inclusive. Periods. Price of Wheat pet Quarter, during these re- spective periods. Average price of Wheat during the whole 35 years. Excess of Exports over Im- ports, in each of these pe- riods. Average an- nual Excess during the 33 years. / 5 years, ending 1734 5 ditto 1739 . s. d, 159 1 10 10 1 8 7 1 7 9 1 10 5 1 16 2 1 10 7 . s. d. 1 10 Of J 468,8-14 597,462 446,378 932,593 1,080,077 273,805 696,117 > 642,182' 5 ditto, 1744 iy ditto, 1749 5 ditto, /. 1754 5 ditto, 1759 5 ditto, 1764 Of this system it may then be fairly said : First. That the country enjoyed under it a sufficiency of the necessaries of life independeut of all Foreign supply. Secondly. That a quantity of Grain was raised, such as in ordinary years gave rise to an increasing 1 export, and such as in years of scarcity enabled the Legislature, by prohibiting" exportation, to secure abundance, independent of Foreign aid. 60 Thirdly. That the necessaries of life for the subsistence of the poor, were furnished at a moderate price, Wheat being, during these sixty-eight years, 33s. 3d. a Quarter, that is 13*. a Quarter cheaper than betwixt the year 1666 and 1686. Fourthly. That whilst this system continued, even the nominal price of Grain diminished,* and the quantity exported increased ; for the nominal price of Wheat was, in the first thirty- three years of that period, 6s. 5d. and six- sevenths of a penny per Quarter more than during the last thirty-eight years ; whilst the quantity annually exported, during this last period, was nearly double of what was exported in the former. Of the effects of a system of encouraging importation, in reducing or increasing the price of any commodity, we have in this Country, in so far as relates to other branches of industry, no experience; for in every case except in that of the Corn Trade since 1766, the opposite system has been pursued. But the economical history of the Roman Empire, furnishes us with a memorable illustration of the perfect * See Appendix No. 8, where various calculations are given, shewing the degrees in which the price of wheat was reduced, under the regulations established by the 22nd of Charles the Second, and the 1st of William and Mary. 61 ruin which may be effected in the Agriculture of a country by pushing the importation of grain to a great extent. Among the ancients you well know, manu- facturing industry had made little progress, in comparison of what it has done in modern times. The provinces, which successively fell a prey to the love of conquest that distinguished the Roman people, had no manufactures : grain, therefore, was the only produce they could export, for the purpose of remitting the tribute imposed on them, to the capital of the empire ; and of the fatal effects of this extraordinary influx of Grain into Italy on Agriculture, the favourite pursuit of the Romans, in which they had exhibited so much ardour, and attained so great perfection, the following details will leave you no room for doubt. Sicily was the first country, out of Italy, which the Romans reduced into the form of a province*. They there found the decuma t or tithe of all the Grain, established as a tax for the support of government. The Lex flieronica, regulating the time and the manner in which the tribute was to be paid, was adopted, and continued in force under the Roman go- vernment of that Country t- * Cicero in Verr. II. 1. f Cicero in Verr. IV, 62 This tax seems afterwards to have bet n ii substance, imposed on all their conquered pro- vinces. The corn collected under it was called frumentum decumanum. Besides this, we read of the frumentum entptum, as coming to Rome from the provinces, which was a second tenth exacted on payment of such a sum per bushel as the Senate determined. Mention is also made of the frumentum imperatum, which was a further supply often exacted from the pro- vincial farmers, at such a price as the magistrate of the province chose to bestow. The consequence of importing into Italy all the Corn that was collected by means of these arbitrary exactions, must have been almost immediately felt. For Cicero, tells us*, that even so early as the times of the elder Cato, to feed well was reckoned the first and most profitable branch of farming; to feed tolerably well, the second; to feed ill, the third. To plough, he ranked only in the fourth place of profit and advantage. And Dr. Smith observes on this passage, that the quantity of grain con- veyed to Rome from the provinces, even at this early period, must have sunk the price of what was brought to market from the ancient * Cicero de Off. lib. 2. 25. Roman territory, and discouraged its cultivation in that country*. This discouragement to agriculture, however Could have had, at that time, little effect, in comparison of what was afterwards experienced; for Varro, a contemporary of Cicero, though in his treatise on Rural Affairs, he complains of the decline of Agriculture!, mentions ten after one as a common return from ordinary lands, and fifteen after one as the return usually obtained from good grounds J. Smith's Wealth of Nations, rol. I. p. 187. f Igitur quod mine intra murum fere patres familiae correpserunt, relictis falce et aratro; etmanus movere ma- luerunt in theatro et circo, quam in segetibus ac vinetis, frumentumlocamus, quinobis advehat, qui saturi fiamus ex Africa et Sardinia; etnavibus vindemiam condimus ex insula Choa et Chia. De Re Rust, lib. 2. Prof. % Seruntur fabae modii- quatuor in jugero, tritici V, Wherefore, because fathers of families have now sneaked within the walls of the city, having abandoned the sickle, and the plough, and have chosen to move their hands in the theatre and the circus, rather than in the corn-fields and vineyards, we hire a per- son to import Corn for us, that we may fill our bellies out of Africa and Sardinia ; and, by means of ships, we store up wine from the islands of Cos and Chios. Four Bushels of Beans are sown in an acre ; five of Wheat, 64 About the time of Varro, however, and soon after his death, the quantities of Corn imported became immense*; and the effect on Roman Agriculture was too remarkable to escape dis- cernment. The historian of the Twelve Caesars mentions the consequences of this importation and distribution of grain on agriculture, as having attracted the attention of Augustus j*. six of Barley, ten of that sort of grain called far: but, in some places, somewhat more or less. More, if the place be rich ; less, if it be poor. Wherefore the quantity ac- customed to be sown in the country must be attended to ; so that you may produce only what the climate and kind of soil are able to bear ; and so that, from the same quantity of seed, there may in one place be a tenfold, and in another place a fifteen-fold return, as in Tuscany, and some places in Italy. * Se Account of what was distributed by Julius Caesar, Suetonius in Jul. 41, and by Augustus, Dio L. v. 10. Sue- tonius in Aug. 40. t Suet, in Aug. ordei vi. farris x. Sed non- nullis locis paulo amplius, aut minus. Si enim locus crassus, plus ; si macer, minus. Quare observabis quantum in ea regione consuetude est se- rendi ; ut tantum facias, quan- tum valet regio, ac genus terrse ; et ex eodem semine aliubi, cum decimo redeat, aliubi cum quinto decimo, ut in Hetruria, et locis aliquot in Italia. De Re Rust. lib. 1. c.44. 65 Its rapid decline must indeed have been appa- rent; for Columella, who lived about seventy years after the time of Varro, begins his treatise on Rural Affairs with an elaborate proof, that the earth still possessed the same principle of fertility as formerly, and that its barrenness was owing neither to any alteration in the soil nor in the climate, but to the negligence of those who cultivated it*. Indeed in consequence of this negligence, so great a change had taken place from the period in which Varro wrote, that Columella expressly states the time to be hardly within the recol- lection of man, when corn land, over the greater part of Italy, returned so much as four after one sowingf. You will find also ample confirmation of this rapid decline of the Roman Agriculture in the works of Pliny the younger, who lived at a still later period. In one of his epistles he consults his friend Calvisius on the expediency of pur- * Columella de Re Rustica, Prsef. f Nam frumenta majore quidem parte Italiae quando cum quarto responderint, vix meminisse possuraus. Lib. 3. c. 3. For we can scarcely re- member when corns in the greater part of Italy, have made even a fourfold return. 66 chasing an estate in his neighbourhood, which he mentions to have been offered to him for three millions of sesterces, (24,218. 15*.) though the price formerly put upon it was five millions (40,365. 11s. Sd). He adds, however, that this is only the natural fail in the price of land, arising from the impoverished state of the husbandman, and the calamity of the times*. Fortunately for this Country, the system of encouraging the importation of grain, we have now for fifty years pursued, has hitherto brought foreign Corn into our Market, to a much more limited extent than what is recorded in the History of the Roman Empire. But when we are aware that the encouragement we give to all other branches of industry, arising from a monopoly of the Home Market, must operate as a Bounty on withdrawing and with* * Nee ibi quisquam super est, ut scias quanti videantur posse emi. Sestertio tricies, non quia non aliquando quin quagies fuerint, verura et hac penuria colonorum, et com- muni temporis iniquitate, ut reditus agrorum, sic etiam pretium retro abiit. Plin. Ep. lib. III. ep. 19. And now it remains only to inform you of the price, which is three millions of sesterces ; not but what it was formerly sold at five millions; but, partly by the extreme poverty of the labourers, partly by the general cala- mity of the times, the income of this estate is reduced, and consequently its value. 67 holding Capital from Agricultural pursuits ; and that our increased and increasing taxation must, as long as free access to our Markets is allowed to the Foreign grower of Grain, have the effect of a Bounty, to enable him to undersell our own Farmers, in the Home Market, it is impos- sible not to dread the progressive influence of such a system. It has not indeed, as yet, ruined our Agricul- ture; it has not even put a stop to great, to material, if you will, to unprecedented improve- ments, which have been promoted by the example, and fostered by the encouraging influ- ence of many individuals in the Country.* But though the progress of these improvements is conspicuous, it is nevertheless small, in com- parison of the great and rapid advances we have made in manufacturing industry ; and the fol- lowing statements will show you, that it has * Amongst the most active in persevering exertions to encourage agricultural improvements, was the late Duke of Bedford ; to whose memory it is impossible, for a person so intimately acquainted with his real excellencies as the writer of this letter, to pay a just tribute of applause ; indeed, it would be in vain for him even to attempt to express the loss he feels his Country has sustained by the premature death of a man, who combined talent, industry, and liberality of sen- timent, rarely united in any station of life, with fortune and rank, such as can appertain to few. F 2 not even been such as to preclude just ground for alarm; for from the year 1766, when the old system was abandoned, instead of the pro- gressive increase of the supply of Grain exceed- ing as formerly, the progressive augmentation of demand for it ; the increase of demand has greatly exceeded the augmentation of supply ; whilst the prices of all sorts of Grain have gradu- ally advanced almost in the same proportion with our demand for Foreign supply. \ TABLE shewing the Average Price of Middling- Wheat per Quarter, and the Average Excess of the Imports of every sort of Grain, over the Average Exports of the same, from 1765 to 1779 inclusive. Period*. Price of Wheat per Quarter, during these respective periods. Average Price of Wheat during the whole 15 years. Excess of Im- port* over Exports in each of these periods. Average an- nual Excess during the 15 years. 5 y" ending 1769 . -6. d. 232 . s. d. ) 223,184 ) Ditto 1774 2 7 9| V2 3 10i&| 276,206 > 263,328f Ditto 1779 209 3 290,595 ) 69 TABLE shewing the Average Price of Middling- Wheat per Quarter, and the Average Excess of the Imports of every sort of Grain, over the Average Exports of the same, from 1779 to 1794 inclusive. Periods. Price of Wheat per Quarter, during these respective periods. Average Price of Wheat during the whole 15 yean. Excess of Im- ports over Exports in each of these periods. Average an- nual Excess during the 15 years. 5 y- ending 1784 Ditto 1789 . s. d. 259* 233 272 . s. d. V2 5 4*&f 185,906 198,716 1,145,584 > 510,0683- Ditto 1794 70 TABLE shewing the Price of Wheat per Quar- ter, and the Average Quantity of every sort of Grain imported, from the year 1794 to the year 1812 inclusive. Periods. Price of Wheat per Quarter, during these respective periods. Average Price of Wheat during the whole 18 years. Averasre num- ber of Quar- ers of all sorts of Grain annu- ally imported durinsr each of these periods. Average an- iiii it Importa- tion during the IS years. 5 ys- ending 1799 4, < 1803 . s. d. 345 4 8 11| 3 15 Of 5 1 . s. d. V4 2 l*&f 1,213,101 1,513,410$ 1,108,917* l,OS4,752i VI, 230,045|* 4. 1807 5 1812 It is not then solely on the ground of any theory, however just, that I solicit your assent to the opinion I have endeavoured to establish, of the injury that has resulted, and that must result to Agriculture, from the continuance of that system of Corn Laws in which we have long persevered; for the reasoning to so * Exclusive of an Annual Importation of 314-,843 T 7 hun- dred weights of Meal and Flour. 71 which I have resorted, as well as the conclusion I have endeavoured to enforce, will be found to be uniformly confirmed by the experience of what has already occurred. In stating to you that by giving to every other branch of industry the exclusive posses- sion of the Home Market, which is withheld from the grower of Grain, these in pos- session of Capital must be induced to withhold and withdraw it from Agricultural pursuits, for the purpose of embarking it in those more favoured occupations, the inference seems un- questionable, even if it was not confirmed by experience ; but you have only to look into the Agricultural Reports, or to go into any Parish in the Kingdom, to learn from the one, and to hear in the other, that nothing is wanting but additional Capital to ensure the improvement, and increase of produce, of almost every part of the Country ; whilst no one ever heard of an order for Cotton Goods, or for any of our Manufactures, however extensive, suffer- ing even delay from a similar cause. I well know that great improvement in Agri- culture has been inferred from the number of Inclosure Bills sanctioned by Parliament, and from various other circumstances; -but the question is, whether the progress of Agriculture has been proportioned to the progressive im- provement in those exertions of industry that 72 have received legislative encouragement : and great as our advances in husbandry may have been, it certainly must appear to you that the rapid extension of the population of our manu- facturing Towns, as well as of the wealth of those who are employed in the conduct of that species of Industry, whilst all articles of manufacture have been reduced in value, indi- cates a progress, of which our agricultural exertions cannot boast. Again, in contending that a great increase of taxation, under the circumstances of a free trade in Grain, must operate as a Bounty to enable Foreigners, who are not exposed to a similar extent of burdens, to undersell the Home Grower in the Home Market, the proposition might be relied upon as incontrovertible ; but here, too, *I have also the aid of past experience to enforce the belief of its accuracy ; for there is not a Market Town in the Kingdom, in which it has not long been confirmed by the complaints of our Farmers, concerning- the increase of our Taxes, and the mischievous interference of the Foreign Grower of Grain in the Home Market. Lastly. In arguing to you that this discou- ragement to Agriculture must diminish the supply of Grain in proportion to the demand for it, and of course increase the price, whilst it must render us dependent on Foreign supply, 73 it is not on reasoning alone on which 1 rest these conclusions, for you must collect from the foregoing- statements : First. That since 176(5, this Country^ instead of exporting Grain, has been obliged to have recourse to Foreign supply to procure a suffi- ciency of the necessaries of life. Secondly. That as even in years of ordinary abundance the Home Market has not been sufficiently supplied by the Home Grower, no aid could, as formerly, be derived in years of scarcity, from that excess of supply raised for exportation. Thirdly. That the necessaries of life, which form the subsistence of the poor, have risen to a very advanced price, the average price of Wheat, during the fifty years, ending 1812, having been, per Quarter, 2. Ms. i$d. 9 that is nearly double what it was during the thirty- five years immediately preceding the year 1766. Fourthly That since the alteration of the system, in the year 1766, the price of Grain has gradually increased, as the quantity imported augmented : for whilst during the first fifteen years subsequent to 1766, the average price of Wheat, per Quarter, was 2. 3s. 10c/., and the average annual Import 263,328 Quarters; during the last eighteen years, ending 1812, the average price of Wheat has been no less than 74 4. 25. 1 d. per Quarter ; and the average Im- portation of Grain has amounted to 1,230,045 Quarters, exclusive of an annual Import of 314,843 Hundred-weights of Meal and Flour. It certainly has been affirmed, that this rise in the value of Corn, and this diminution in the quantity produced, in proportion to the demand for it, which has taken place since the year 1766, was in no respect occasioned by the sys- tem of legislation that has been pursued ; that it could only be attributed to our encreased population ; to the number of Horses and Cattle now maintained j and to an augmen- tation of consumption arising from that opu- lence which our extended Trade and Manu- factures has diffused throughout the Com- munity. I am convinced, however, you must agree with me, in thinking that it is impossible to account for the variations which have taken place in the pro- portions betwixt our internal supply and demand for Grain, on this principle. For you must have learnt, from the statement of the Prices of Grain, and of the quantities imported and exported, as connected with the various regu- lations concerning the Corn Trade, that from the Revolution to the year J766, the price of Coin gradually diminished, and the quantity exported encreased ; and that, from this pe- riod, the export Trade ceased, whilst the market 75 price of Grain, as well as the quantity im- ported, gradually augmented. But you cannot believe that our Trade and Manufac- tures, our Population, and the number of our Horses and Cattle, suddenly encreased in the year 1766, far less that they had gradually diminished from the Revolution to that period ; to both of which propositions, it is however necessary to give credit, before you can adopt the opinion that the variation in the price of Grain, and in the state of our internal supply and demand, can be accounted for on such grounds. It is, indeed, impossible to doubt the influence of the prohibitory Duties on Importation, in encouraging the home production of a supply of Grain, adequate to the home demand ;. as it is notorious that, generally speaking, our principal deficiency of home supply has been in the article of Oats ; and on examination it will be found that the import price of Oats has been, by all our laws, fixed at a value, lower in proportion to what the culture of that species of Corn costs our farmers, than the import price of any other species of Grain. For example, under the 22d of Charles II., the importation of Wheat, on the Low Duty, is prohibited, till it attains the value of 53*. 4d. ; whilst that of Oats is permitted, when it rises to 16*. a Quarter ; yet no person acquainted with fanning, can suppose, if two equal parts 76 of the same field, cultivated in the same man- ner, are sown in Oats and in Wheat, that the produce of the Oats could be more than double that of the Wheat.* From which it follows, that to have given to the growing of Oats the same encouragement as was given to the growing of Wheat, the im- portation of Oats, on the Low Duty, instead of being permitted when the price rose to 165. should have been prohibited, till the price amounted to 26s. Sd. per Quarter, that being the half of 53s. 4d. the price, per Quarter, at which the importation of Wheat, at the Low Duty, was permitted. From all these details, it must be apparent to you that I regard the resumption of such duties on importation, as will secure to the * Mr. Young, in his Annals of Agriculture, Vol. XVIII. p. 431, gives an account of the mode of culture practised in a district in Essex, in which he mentions, that the course of crops is Turnips, Oats, Clover, Wheat ; and that the Wheat produces 2 Quarters, whilst the Oats preduce 4 per Acre. In Mr. Mackie's Letter, subjoined to Dirom's Enquiry into the Corn Laws and Corn Trade, he states himself to have asked an intelligent farmer, if, from fields which, after being summer fallowed, manured, and sown with Wheat, ten Bolls (or five Quarters) per acre is produced, what quantity of Oats might have been expected, had they been sown with that grain ? and to have received for answer, twelve Bolls (or nine Quarters) per acre. 77 Farmer a monopoly of the Home Market, except in times of scarcity; and of bounties on exportation, as the only means of re- storing that abundance of Grain, in propor- tion to the demand for it, which we formerly enjoyed. To avoid, however, the possibility of mis- conception, or of misrepresentation, I must once more repeat, that in urging the necessity of prohibitory Duties on the Importation of Grain, and of Bounties on Exportation, I cer- tainly do not mean generally to recommend a system of restraint, as more advantageous to the Commerce of a Country, than perfect free- dom of intercourse ; or to contest the principle that complete liberty, unrestrained, either di- rectly or indirectly by legislative regulation, is the sound principle which leads to the perfection of commercial prosperity. On the contrary, an efficient duty on Impor- tation, such as will secure to the farmer, in times of ordinary abundance, the exclusive en- joyment of the Home Market, appears to me only necessary, because I regard freedom of intercourse, as to one article of Commerce, whilst all others are encouraged by prohibitory duties, in a Country where taxation is rapidly encreasing, to be the severest of all possible commercial restraints. Neither do I wish to see the re-establishment of an efficient bounty on exportation, from 78 thinking bounties generally advantageous for Commerce; it is not that I mean to dispute the opinion that bounties tend to divert the in- dustry of a country from the line which it would naturally take, but because I conceive that the great importance of having an abundance of what forms the chief article of subsistence, and the uncertainty how the seasons may affect the produce of Corn, makes it prudent to engage a larger portion of the industry of a country in the growing of Grain than would naturally take that direction; and because we know, from experience, that for fifty years after the Revo- lution, this measure did actually produce the most beneficial effects. In thus urging the re-establishment of effi- cient duties on importation, and of bounties on exportation, I do not, however, mean to insinuate that the Legislature ought to confine its efforts to the resumption of those encouragements to the culture of Grain, of which we so long expe- rienced the benefits. For if a permanent system of Corn Laws is to be adopted, in the moment of returning Peace, I certainly feel that it would be desirable Parliament should take a more comprehensive view of the subject. With the re-establishment of that species of encouragement to the progress of Agriculture, which has, in this country, been enjoyed by all branches of industry, they ought to combine a regular system of protection against the effect* 79 of that occasional scarcity which the variations in the seasons must at times produce, even under the best concerted regulations. O It is from the price of commodities that we can always learn, with certainty, the proportion of the supply to the demand ; according, there- fore, as the price advances, the various safe- guards against approaching scarcity ought to be called into action. First, the price ought to be fixed, after due enquiry, at which the bounty on exportation ought to be withdrawn. Secondly, at a price a little more advanced, exportation should be prohibited. Thirdly, at a still more advanced price, the dis- tillation from Grain should be stopped ; for in justice, we are bound to give to our own planters, who contribute so liberally to the support of the state, the benefit of indirectly administering to our relief, before we resort to the efforts of Foreign industry. Lastly, when the rise of price indicates the approach of a more formidable degree of scarcity, importation, duty free, ought to be permitted, for, though other branches of in- dustry are secured by law, in an absolute mono- poly of the Home Market, the good of the community requires that the exclusive privilege of the Grower of Grain should be limited ; neither, under the proposed arrangement, can 80 this limitation be considered as discouraging* to Agriculture, for the bounty on exportation, when Grain is at a low price, must form such a compensation for the loss of that more complete monopoly of the Home Market, enjoyed by those engaged in other branches of industry, as will prevent Capital being, on that account, with- drawn from Agricultural pursuits. Such are the arrangements which theory sanc- tions, and which experience points out, as alike advantageous for the grower and for the con- sumer of Corn; for whilst we are told by the Author of the Tracts on the Corn Trade, that for half a century after the Revolution, Agri- culture was extended ; the art of Husbandry improved ; and that the rents of lands, as well as the wealth of the farmer, were much increased ; you have seen that the price of Corn, during all that period, gradually diminished. I am, &c. &c. LAUDERDALE. '' . APPENDIX. ' ~ ' No. 1. STATEMENT of Prices at which the following Species of Grain were allowed to be imported on the Low Duties, and of the Duties payable under the 31st of George III., Cap. 30. Prices at which the following spe- cif of Grain were allowed to be imported, paying the Low Duty. Duties payable on Importation whet) Grain was at the prices herein before stated. Total Import Price and Duty, forming the lowest price at which the Foreigner could enter into competition with the Home Grower in the British Market. s. d 5. d. . s. d. Wheat, per Quarter 50 2 6 2 12 6 Barley, per Quarter 25 1 3 1 6 3 Oats, per Quarter 17 1 18 6 82 No. 2. TABLE expressing the value of the Import Prices and Duties on Wheat, Barley, and Oats, as fixed by the 31st of George III., Cap. 30, in the money of the year 1675, allowing for the depreciation which took place in the value of money, betwixt the year 1675 and the year 1790.* Value of the Import prices of the following Gr?in, as fixed by the 31 of Geo. III. in the money of the year 1675. Value of the Du- ties payable on Importation, as fixtfd'by the afore- said Act in the money of 1675. Total Import prices a"nd Duty as fixed by the 31 of George III., in the mouej of 1675. . s. d. -ft d. . -s. d. Wheat per Quarter 112 1 Of 1 2 2* Barley per Quarter 0107 6J 11 1 Oats per Quarter 7 2 5 7 7J * The alue of money in 1790, when compared to the value of money in 1675, is, in the Table of Proportions, said to be as 496 to 210, and th*se several sums are in the same proportion to the respective prices and Unties as fixed by the 31st of George the Hid., Cap. 30. r- \V\F-UNIVERS//, ^ 4 ^ ^ * ^ *? s? ^d/OJIlVD-JO' -^OJIWD-JO' ^OF-CAilFO/?^ ^OF-CAIIFO/?^ ' i~~^ t x" ^k. ' 3 1158 00989 5300 UC SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY A 000 089 290 1 < '