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INQUIRY 
 
 INTO THE 
 
 CAUSES AND REMEDIES 
 
 OF THE 
 
 LATE AND PRESENT SCARCITY 
 
 AND 
 
 of 
 
 IN A 
 
 LETTER 
 
 TO 
 
 THE RIGHT HON. EARL SPENCER, 
 
 FIRST LOUD OF THE ADMIRALTY, &C. &C. 
 
 Dated 8th November, 1800, 
 
 WITH 
 
 OBSERVATIONS 
 
 ON THE 
 
 DISTRESSES OF AGRICULTURE AND COMMERCE 
 
 Which have prevailed for the last Tlir.ee Years. 
 
 BY SIR GILBERT BLANE, BART. F.R.S. 
 
 PHYSICIAN TO THE PRINCE RECENT. 
 
 SECOND EDITION ; 
 
 With considerable Alterations and Additions. 
 
 PRINTED EXCLUSIVELY IN THE PAMPHLETEER, 
 
 1817V 
 
 NO. XVII. Pam. VOL. IX. R 
 
This Tract was first published without the Author's name, in 
 the end of the year 1800, in which as well as in the preceding 
 year a great scarcity prevailed in consequence of bad crops. As 
 the soundest and most received principles of political economy are 
 here inculcated, and as the Author has arinexed some notes and 
 illustrations applicable to late events, and which may be useful 
 in the present distressful crisis, we have deemed it deserving of a 
 place in our collection of works which ought not to perish, and 
 we have prevailed on the Author to make the corrections and 
 additions which the reader will find. 
 
INQUIRY, &c. 
 
 MY LORD, 
 
 1 HAVE for a great patt of my life been in the habit 
 of studying political economy as a recreation, in those hours 
 which I could spare from the proper duties of my station. Though 
 these duties have but little relation to this subject, they have been 
 such as to enable me to converse with and derive information from 
 persons eminent in rank and learning, 1 as well as practical know- 
 ledge. I have also been led to a consideration of the subject by 
 my examinations before the Committees of the House of Commons 
 on the subject of bread and corn. What was before a matter of 
 taste and amusement now becomes a matter of duty ; for the 
 present scarcity and high price of provisions is a subject of such 
 high and universal interest that it is of the utmost importance, not 
 only for the members of the Government, but for every individual, 
 to form correct opinions regarding it. As errors among the go- 
 verned as well as the governing are here peculiarly serious and 
 even dangerous to the public peace, it behoves every good man to 
 endeavour not only to form his own opinions on sound principles 
 and solid grounds, but to the utmost of his power to lend his as- 
 sistance to others in doing so. 
 
 As what I have to communicate would derive no weight from 
 my name, it is of no consequence that it should be made public *, 
 but knowing the deep interest your Lordship takes in this ques- 
 tion, I court the sanction of your name in thus addressing you, 
 and I submit the following enquiry to you, not only as a member 
 of the Legislature, as one of His Majesty's hereditary Counsellors, 
 
 1 The Author lived in habits of private intimacy with the Jatc Lou! 
 Liverpool, Mr. Witidhain the late eminent Statesman and Orator, the late 
 Sir W. Pultenoy, and other persons of cxicnsivc political information. 
 
 363624 
 
260 A Letter to Earl Spencer 
 
 and one of his Ministers presiding over a high department of the 
 ite, b it also as one who by his independence, his private vir- 
 tues, and various talents, has conciliated the confidence, respect, 
 and affection of the nation, and who is acknowledged to be a pro- 
 moter and a judge of whatever is beneficial to society. 
 
 In enquiring into the causes and remedies of the present distress, 
 much light may be derived from the retrospect of past times. It 
 appears from history that there has been no famine in this country 
 for more than 350 years, though in that time there have been 
 frequent instances of distress from scarcity and dearth. Famines 
 were frequent, not only before the Norman conquest, during the 
 baton and Danish dynasties, but since that era until near the end 
 of the Plantagenet race of Kings. During this latter period, 
 though the records of the times are very imperfect in most other 
 points, they are tolerably satisfactory with regard to this : for it 
 was the custom of the annalists of those days to mark the weather 
 irom year to year, and it appears that famines never occurred 
 except after bad seasons. It is, however, probable that what 
 were famines would sometimes have been only cases of extra- 
 dmafy dearth had it not been for impolitic institutions and regu- 
 lations. Ihe laws prohibiting the transport of corn from one 
 the country to another, must assuredly have contributed 
 greatly to aggravate the evil, and there is one instance of a regu- 
 lation to nx the price of provisions in the year 1314, to which 
 historians attribute the famine of the following year. However 
 his may be, it may be considered as a historical fact, that famines 
 never occurred m those nor any other ages, but in consequence of 
 bad seasons How little they depend on political convulsions may 
 be inferred from hence, that they were unknown during the great 
 struggles of the kingdom, such as the civil wars of York and Lan- 
 caster, and those of the King and Parliament. The last famine in 
 England was m 1448, in the time of Henry VI. before the disas- 
 trous civil wars of that reign broke out. Some died of want in the 
 great scarcity of 1699, but this was in a time of peace 
 
 f r h f e is r / ason to P res ^ ^at the general course of nature 
 lor the last 250 years has not been different from what it was 
 rfere that period, some other causes must be sought for, and 
 ome knowledge of the utmost importance to the points in ques- 
 on may be derived from an enquiry into the circumstances which 
 idered those ages so liable to these severe calamities, particularly 
 14th century, which was remarkable for famine and pesti- 
 lence, all over Europe. 
 
 1st. The low state of agriculture. This was owing not only 
 
 1 See Hume's and Henry's Histories of England. 
 
on the High Price of Provisions. 261 
 
 to the backwardness of those ages in every branch of industry, but 
 to the mean and degrading state in which the laborers in agricul- 
 ture were held in consequence of the prevalence of feudal and 
 military ideas, The cultivation of the soil was held by the Ro- 
 mans ' in the rank of a liberal pursuit, whereas in the middle ages 
 all over Europe the most opprobrious terms in language are de- 
 rived from the condition of this class of the community, such as 
 raturier, villain, churls, serfs, &c. It appears that in the 13th 
 and 14<th centuries, corn a was sold for more than its weight of 
 animal food. In a still later period, a pound of oatmeal in the 
 Highlands of Scotland was considered as equal to a pound of beef 
 It is quite the reverse in our days the reason of this no doubt is, 
 that pasturage, requiring but little exertion of talent or labor, is the 
 favorite pursuit of rude times, whereas agriculture requiring great 
 diligence and skill, flourishes only in ages of civilization and in- 
 dustry. 3 
 
 We may infer from this, that the proportion of corn to animal 
 food was much less in those ages than in our times. It is probable 
 also that the use of wheat in England was confined chiefly to the 
 upper ranks of society, particularly in the northern counties, and 
 that rye and oats were the grains chiefly in use among the common 
 people, who could not have afforded the prices set against wheat* 
 in the tables of prices. The several grains however must have 
 constituted a considerable proportion of the general subsistence, 
 otherwise the failure of crops could not have caused famines. As 
 civilization advanced, agriculture also advanced, and farinaceous 
 food came to prevail over animal food. Yet even in the 16th 
 century, grain of every species was much higher in price in rela?- 
 tion to animal food than in the present times,, y an act of parlia- 
 ment of the 25th of Henry VIII. the price of beef, veal, and pork, 
 
 1 The high estimation in which agriculture was held by the 
 was none of the least cause.8 of their excellent moral habits, as well as of 
 their substantial power and grandeur. Cicero says, " Nihil agriculture 
 melius, nihil uberius, nihil dulcius, nihil liheri hominis dignius." 
 
 z In order to save the trouble of frequent reference, it may be mentioned 
 that the facts stated in this letter are fqr the most part taken from Hume 
 and Henry's Histories, and from Smith's Wealth of Nations. 
 3 See Illustration I, 
 
 4 When all this is considered, we must make a very low estimate of the 
 population of those times, for there could be no other food for cattle than 
 the spontaneous herbage; the use of sown Brasses, turnips, and other spe- 
 cies of food for cattle, depending on agriculture, being then unknown. 
 Ereri the practice of providing provender for winter by hay, wa-s not in use, 
 and it was the custom even after the middle of the J?th century, to kill the 
 cattle in the end of autumn, and salt them for winter provision. To this 
 it was owint; that the Sea scurvy, now entirely unknown, was a common 
 disorder in the winter six months ; and we learn from medical writer?, that 
 it prevailed in London as late as the reign of Charles; II. 
 
'262 A Letter to Earl Spencer 
 
 being considered the food of the poor, was limited to the price of 
 one penny for two pounds, or two pounds and a half, at a time 
 when wheat was sold for seven shillings and eight pence the quar- 
 ter ; so that the former was only at one-twentieth of the present 
 price, while the latter was about one-tenth of the present price. 
 Nay, in the 17th century, wheat bore a much higher ratio to 
 animal food than in our times, for it appears by the Eton tables, so 
 often referred to by authors, that the former bore a higher price 
 during the whole of that century than it did for forty years pre- 
 ceding the year 1773, whereas butchers' meat bore only half the 
 price in the former period of what it did in the latter. ' Previous 
 to the 18th century, therefore, it appears that animal food consti- 
 tuted the chief sustenance of the laboring poor, and that wheat, 
 which is now their principal food, was little used but by the upper 
 ranks. Oats and rye, even in the southern parts of England, were 
 then the most common farinaceous articles in use. As civiliza- 
 tion advanced, and agriculture improved, the proportion of animal 
 food became again greater, for the raising of food for cattle, which 
 formerly consisted solely of natural pasture, has become a great 
 branch of agriculture, not only by the improvement of pasture by 
 tillage, but by the cultivation of hay, turnips, carrots, cabbages, 
 and potatoes. Some of these articles, now the common food of 
 cattle, were, two hundred years ago, considered as delicacies for 
 the human species. 
 
 2nd. The next cause of the frequency of famines in thos^ ages, 
 was the scanty production in relation to the numbers and necessi- 
 ties of the consumers, owing to the more simple manners of the 
 times. Before the introduction of refinement and luxury, there 
 was no inducement to produce more than what was required for 
 mere subsistence. The quantity of grain employed in later times 
 in brewing, distilling, feeding of horses, and other heads of unne- 
 cessary consumption, becomes a sort of disposable surplus or 
 reserve, which in years of scarcity may be turned into the chan- 
 nels of necessity. It is evident, therefore, though at first sight 
 paradoxical, that luxury, or what on a narrow view would be 
 called waste, is the principal resource and security against famine. 
 In fact, what prospect can be so dreadful, as that in years of com- 
 mon plenty there should be produced just enough and no more 
 than what will suffice for the wants of nature ? When this is 
 strictly the case, every bad season must be followed by famine. 
 In consequence of there being no demand, except for the purpose 
 of bare human subsistence, the prices of corn in the periods of 
 
 ' e?, Fee;wood's Chronicon Preiioswm, and other works, referred to 
 by Dr. Piicc, in his work on Reversionary Payments. 
 
on the High Price of Provisions. 263 
 
 our history above alluded to, fell much farther below the average 
 than they do in this age. The consequence of this was that 
 farmers had no motive for keeping up an abundant and equal 
 supply. The unnecessary expenditure in years of plenty, there- 
 fore, may be considered as a perpetual public granary, far more 
 permanent and less precarious than any that could be made in store- 
 houses, where grain is liable to deterioration and decay, from 
 vermin or putrefaction, and which requires unremitted vigilance 
 to maintain and replenish. However commendable and expedient 
 it may be therefore to make retrenchment in the above mentioned 
 articles of luxury, under the pressure of scarcity, it would be 
 highly impolitic and dangerous to make such retrenchments per- 
 petual. 
 
 3r<i. The want of internal commerce. It appears from the 
 records of those times, that there was no method of equalising 
 the consumption of different seasons, for in the course of the same 
 year the price would vary, not by a third or a fourth part ; not 
 three or four times, but eight or nine times, as may be seen by 
 inspecting the tables that have been constructed of the annual 
 prices of wheat from the year 1202 till the year 1764*. It appears 
 from the same tables, trnt the plenty of one year was not called 
 in aid of the scarcity of another, for a very wide difference be- 
 tween two consecutive years is observed constantly to occur. It 
 equally appears that the wants and distresses of one part of the 
 country were not relieved by the greater plenty that prevailed in 
 adjoining districts. It is mentioned in the Chronicle of Dunsta- 
 ble, a document frequently quoted by historians, that while wheat 
 was sold at Dunstable for a crown the quarter, it was sold at Nor- 
 thampton for eight shillings. There were in those days many 
 natural and unavoidable obstacles to free intercourse, such as the 
 want of high roads, canals, and posts. But these difficulties might 
 have been surmounted had it not been for a law prohibiting the 
 transportation of corn from one district to another. 
 
 4th. There was no corn imported from foreign countries in 
 those ages. 
 
 Lastly. What completed the annihilation of commerce, and 
 carried public distress to the highest pitch, was, that the popular 
 odium, and the severity of the laws against dealers in provisions, 
 were then at their height, for all such dealers were proscribed 
 under the contumelious appellation of forestallers, regraters, en- 
 grossers, badgers, and jobbers. The monkish authors stigmatise 
 them by every opprobrious epithet which language can furnish : 
 the penalties inflicted by law were forfeiture of goods and chattels, 
 pillory, imprisonment, banishment ; and in the reign of Edward 
 III. the punishment was made death by a statute, which was re- 
 
264 A Letter to Earl Spencer 
 
 pealed, however, in the same reign. This reign, though so glo- 
 rious by the splendor of its victories abroad, appears to have been 
 one of the most calamitous as to its domestic interests, for beside 
 the evil of foreign war, famine and pestilence raged with the 
 utmost severity, to which were superadded great political igno- 
 rance and considerable civil misrule, of both which the preceding 
 statement, as well as the great depreciation of coin, and the fixing 
 the price not only of the necessaries of life but of labour, may be 
 taken as examples. 
 
 When we reflect, therefore, that there was no relief to be de- 
 rived in case of scarcity, from one season to another, from one 
 year to another, from one county to another, nor from one country 
 to another, we may safely affirm, that of all the causes of famine 
 which have been enumerated, except bad seasons, the want of 
 commerce had the greatest share in producing them. 
 
 What then are the changes that have taken place since the middle 
 of the 15th century, which have ever since that time prevented sarcity 
 and dearth from amounting to famine ? The more immediate causes 
 seem to have been the freedom of internal commerce, which began 
 to take place about the above-mentioned period, and importation 
 from foreign parts, the mention of which is first met with in his- 
 tory a little later. Not long afterwards, civilization and commerce 
 began to make rapid advances, under the Princes of the House of 
 Tudor, and have continued to flourish and extend themselves ever 
 since, so as in the course of three centuries to raise this country 
 to its present state of unequalled prosperity and grandeur. The 
 improved state of agriculture, and its becoming more honorablej 
 together with the introduction of potatoes, have been additional 
 resources in later times. 1 And it is certainly none of the least 
 advantages concomitant on wealth and industry, that they have 
 been instrumental in preventing such grievous calamities as fa- 
 mine \ for however deplorable the evils of the present day may be, 
 how far short are they of what would have occurred in those 
 periods from short crops in two consecutive years, such as the 
 last and the present (1800) ? Such an occurrence would then have 
 been productive of famine, and probably of its usual concomitant 
 pestilence : the state of society and manners in those days being 
 such that the stock of food produced and imported, bore a much 
 smaller proportion to the population than in our times ; and the 
 prejudices of the age were such as not to allow middle men to 
 apportion and equalize the consumption of different seasons of the 
 year, nor of different districts, as is now so happily exemplified. 
 
 Having premised this much with regard to former ages, let us 
 
 1 See Illustration I. 
 
on the High Price of Provisions. 265 
 
 now enquire into the causes of the present scarcity and high 
 price of provisions. 
 
 The summer and autumn of the year 1799, were colder and 
 more rainy than in any other in the memory of man, and crops 
 have never in our times been 80 scanty nor so badly got in. The 
 enormous deficiency of one third of an average crop is the least 
 which any intelligent calculator has assigned, and many have com- 
 puted it much lower. It was one of those seasons, which in the 
 14-th or 15th century, would certainly have been followed by fa- 
 mine. And how has this been prevented but by those operations 
 of commerce, whereby the consumption of the several seasons of 
 the year, and of the various districts, have been equalised and com- 
 pensated, and by which the abundance of other countries has been 
 called to our aid ? Had the product of last year (1799) been brought 
 to market in winter, in the quantities and at the prices of a year of 
 plenty, who does not see that this must have consumed that por- 
 tion of the total supply which ought to feed the summer markets ? 
 Could this economical reserve for summer subsistence have been ef- 
 fected by any other means than by an advanced price, withholding 
 from the consumption of one part of the year what was necessary 
 for the supply of another ? And had there not been persons, whether 
 farmers or dealers, qualified by their enterprize, and enabled by 
 their capitals to accumulate and reserve the articles of life, and to 
 convey them where they were most wanted, we must have gone 
 without bread in the months of June and July last, and we should 
 run the same risk next summer, considering the deficiency of the 
 crop of the present year (1800). 
 
 It is thought by many that it would be a most fortunate circum- 
 stance for the country, if the farmers and graziers were all to carry 
 their crops and cattle immediately to market, without the inter- 
 vention of a middle-man. Let us see what would be the conse- 
 quence of this. If the farmer were a poor man, he would be- 
 under the necessity of selling his corn for what he could get, in 
 order to pay his rent ; the prices would be at or near those of 
 plentiful years, the market would be glutted, and the article would 
 be consumed beyond the proportion due to the other months of the 
 year, just as happened in what may be called the ages of famine. 
 On the other hand, those farmers who are possessed of some 
 capital, and who can afford to reserve part of their stock in hand 
 for the spring and summer months, must have a much larger profit 
 than a dealer, in order to defray their expences, and to indemnify 
 themselves for their loss of time in bringing so small a quantity to 
 market. Add to this the great cruelty of compelling a farmer or 
 grazier, whether rich or poor, to repair to a distant market at a 
 great expence and loss of time, to the neglect and detriment of his 
 
266 A Letter to Earl Spencer 
 
 domestic concerns, which it is of the utmost importance to the 
 public as well as himself, that he should attend to with unremitting 
 labor, undisturbed and undivided vigilance and attention. It is 
 manifest, therefore, that it is only by means of middle-men, pos- 
 sessed of capital, that this salutary system of public economy can 
 be carried into effect. There is here a fortunate, or rather a pro- 
 vidential coincidence of private interest with public utility, accom- 
 plishing purposes which it is not in the power of human wisdom 
 to bring about by the most elaborate system of regulation. It 
 would in fact be an imputation on that being who has framed the 
 human mind, as well as external nature, to allege that there should 
 exist a discordance in the one any more than the other, from the 
 operation of those laws which are established in the moral, equally 
 as in the physical world. This merchant or middle-man, whether 
 branded with the appellation of forestaller, monopolist, regrater, 
 badger, or other opprobrious term, is he who lays up and reserves 
 for the day of want in one season, what would have been heedlessly 
 squandered in the preceding season, but who in ages of prejudice 
 and ignorance was consigned to persecution, ignominy, and even 
 death. A merchant who deals in other commodities, has in all ages 
 and nations been considered as the benefactor of mankind, engaged 
 in a fair and honorable occupation, conducive to the comfort and 
 accommodation of society ; whereas the dealers in provisions have 
 been objects of reproach and contumely, though of all others the 
 most useful to the community. 
 
 Let us see whether it is possible to draw a line between what is 
 called a merchant and a middle-man. Suppose a dealer in cattle on a 
 journey from the metropolis with a view to make a purchase in dis- 
 tant parts of the country, and that at the distance of fifty miles he 
 meets a grazier who has brought his cattle fifty miles farther, but in- 
 stead of proceeding to .London, is desirous of disposing of them here, 
 in order that he may save time andexpence, and return home to mind 
 the affairs of his farm : is it conceivable that any prejudice can arise 
 to society from the dealer purchasing these cattle at this spot more 
 than if he had purchased them on the farm ? Now if this is fair 
 and legal, is it not equally so to make such a purchase at any other 
 distance from the market ? If it is not, where is it that fair dealing 
 ends and forestalling begins, is it at one third or two thirds of the 
 journey, is it at Northampton or Dunstable, at Uxbridge or 
 Knightsbridge ?* Will it be maintained that the owner of cattle will 
 
 1 In a case tried before the Chief Justice of the King's Bench, about this 
 time, a dealer was convicted and punched for having bought catile from a 
 grazier who had brought them as for as Knightsbridge, on the way to 
 Smithiield. Some dealers in corn have been tried and convicted in the 
 same manner by the same judge. 
 
on the High Price of Provisions. 267 
 
 part with them at Knightsbridge on any other principle than he 
 would on any part of the road, namely, the saving to himself of 
 time and expence ? If this were not the case, why does he not go 
 on to the market and get the same price as the dealer to whom he 
 sells them ? It may be said that this dealer may overreach the simple 
 countryman. He is surely much less likely to do so near the market 
 than fifty miles off, where the other has it much less in his power 
 to be informed of the state of the market. But granting that the 
 countryman had been over-reached once, would he or his neigh- 
 bours who witnessed this, suffer themselves to be imposed on a 
 second time ? It is contrary to the first principles of human nature 
 and the practice of human affairs, to suppose that they would. A 
 like answer will serve for all other cases. 
 
 I beg to digress for a moment, in order to enter a little deeper 
 into the principles upon which this reasoning, and that which is to 
 follow is grounded. 
 
 1st. It is obvious to the most superficial observation, that the 
 only efficient incentives to the bulk of mankind in their labors and 
 their dealings, are self-preservation and self-interest ; that it is 
 to these we owe agricultural, manufacturing, and commercial in- 
 dustry arid enterprize, with all their productions and materials for 
 the support and accommodation of human life. 
 
 2ndiy. That men will in general take the most obvious and effec- 
 tual means of compassing their selfisji ends. If one or more indi- 
 viduals act contrary to their fair interest, it is referable to imbecillity 
 or caprice, and is to be considered as an exception, such as occurs 
 in all moral maxims, and like other exceptions, confirms and pro?e 
 the rule. 
 
 Srdly. That it is the part of a wise and equitable government, to 
 protect men to the utmost in those pursuits which have self-pre- 
 servation and self-interest for their object, in so far as they do not 
 by violence, fraud, or injustice, infringe the rights of others; and 
 that in such protection consists the whole duty of government. 
 Unless each individual were to make himself and his family the 
 principal objects of his care, our species could neither be sustained 
 nor continued : the whole energy of productive labor constituting 
 industry, hinges on this. The very existence of the whole com- 
 munity depends on the labors of the ploughman and the weaver ; 
 but it would argue great ignorance of human nature, to ascribe 
 any other motive to these laborers than their own maintenance, or 
 to consider it as an imputation on the purity of their moral 
 character that general beneficence constitutes no part of their in- 
 ducement in the exercise of their toil and skill. 1 In order there- 
 
 r This is happily illustrated in the following passage in the work of a 
 profound and elegant writer, " Men are tempted to labor and to practice 
 
268 A Letter to Earl Spencer 
 
 fore to call forth the various faculties and talents, subservient t-> 
 the wants of society, not only the protection of persons and the 
 security of property seem necessary, but the most perfect freedom 
 in augmenting, improving, and disposing of it within the limits 
 already mentioned. It is this, if I mistake not, which constitutes 
 the dearest part of civil rights and liberties, from which (according 
 to some of the best judges), more than from our political rights 
 and liberties, is derived that enviable state of prosperity and hap- 
 piness, by which the situation of this country stands contrasted 
 with the tyranny and false policy prevailing in most other nations 
 of the world. 
 
 4thly. That commerce is rendered equitable and beneficial to the 
 parties and to the community at large, by the seller endeavouring 
 to get as much as he can for his commodity, and the buyer giving 
 as little as he can, while the former is constrained to part with his 
 article, and the other induced to accept it by another and a dif- 
 ferent contention which takes place between dealers endeavouring 
 to gain a preference at market by underselling each other. By this 
 double struggle, equity and reason are maintained by virtue of 
 moral causes in the commercial world, just as the frame of the 
 universe is upheld in its existence and harmony, by the compound 
 operation and counteraction of physical forces ; and it seems nearly 
 as presumptuous to meddle with the one as with the other, the 
 frame of the human mind being as much the work of divine wisdom 
 as the natural world. 
 
 5thly. It follows from these principles, that prices must always 
 stand in the compound proportion of supply and demand. This at 
 first sight may appear peculiarly hard with regard to articles of the 
 first necessity : quite the contrary, for by these, and by no other 
 means or contrivance, can consumption be regulated, so as to con- 
 form to the increase or diminution of the stock in hand. If thj| 
 holder of an article haa an abundant stock, he will part with it at 
 a lower price in order to make sure of disposing of it, and vice 
 versa. The advantages attending a high price in case of short 
 Stock are, first, that it forms a motive to the consumer for eco- 
 nomy, tending to make the existing quantity adequate to the wants 
 of the whole year. 2ndly. It serves as a criterion and standard 
 for the degree of supply called for from importation, for importa- 
 tion is not undertaken from any computation or ascertained know- 
 ledge of the shortness of the stock in hand, except in so far as the 
 
 lucrative arts by motives of interest. Secure to the workman the fruits of 
 his labor, give him the prospects of independence and freedom; the public 
 has found a faithful minister in the acquisition of wealth, and a faithful 
 steward in hoarding what he has gained. The statesman in this can do little 
 more than avoid doing mischief. Ferguson's Essay on the History of Civil 
 Society. P. iii. Sect. 4. 
 
on the High Price of Provisions. 269 
 
 wants of the community are expressed by high prices, affording a 
 motive for commercial enterprize, in conformity to the principles 
 of human nature above explained. 
 
 Sixthly, It equally follows from these principles that it is for 
 the benefit of society, that prices should be permitted to adjust 
 themselves spontaneously, according to the relations of supply and 
 demand. That markets should not be disturbed by the interfer- 
 ence of the magistrate, whose whole function is protection; that 
 the hand of power must in all cases be kept off, as pernicious in 
 the commercial intercourse of individuals, and peculiarly dangerous 
 with regard to those who deal in articles indispensable to human 
 life ; so that the inference upon the whole matter in question is, 
 that security and competition are the indispensable and sole requi- 
 sites for attaining in perfection the advantages derivable to mankind 
 from industry and commerce. 
 
 To return. The prejudice conceived against middle-men, de- 
 pends on a fallacy which a little sagacity will detect. A hasty and 
 shallow consideration of the subject leads many, among whom are 
 some of the more enlightened class of society, to imagine that in 
 these transactions there is an accumulated profit obtained, at the 
 expence of the consumer. They apprehend that the grower parts 
 with his commodity to the middle-man on the same terms he would 
 do to the consumer. This is not the case. It cannot be the case. 
 He lets the middle-man have his corn or cattle for less than he 
 himself would accept at the market, and which of reason and ne- 
 cessity he must and ought to have, had he been at the additional 
 expense of time and money in proceeding to the market. Nay 
 more, it can be made plain to the meanest capacity, that the mid- 
 dle-man, on the more enlarged scale on which he deals, can afford 
 to take smaller profits on each transaction than the grower could 
 on a smaller quantity of the article, 1 so that the public is demon- 
 strably a gainer by this transaction. 
 
 But it is alleged that when articles constituting the necessaries 
 of life, get into the hands of great merchants, who are smaller in 
 number as their dealings are more extensive, they are thereby 
 enabled to combine by acting in concert so as to command the 
 market and to produce all the effects of a monopoly. 
 
 I beg here the closest attention while I detect this most dangerous 
 and specious fallacy ; and if I should happily be able to do justice 
 in words to those grounds upon which my own conviction is 7 
 founded, I am confident I shall carry the like conviction to the 
 mind of every man of ordinary understanding, who divesting him-"" 
 of passion and prejudice will candidly lend his attention. 
 
 See this admirably illustrated in Smith's Wealth of Nations. Vol. 1. 
 . 106*113. 
 

 270 A Letter to Earl Spencer 
 
 I believe that according to all the rules both of law and of logic, 
 the onus probandi lies on the affirmative side of a question. It is 
 fair therefore to set out by calling for the proofs of these com- 
 binations and monopolies. I have hitherto heard nothing but 
 gratuitous assertion, and when the advocates for the existence of 
 these abuses are called upon for proofs and have not been able to 
 produce them, we have been told that though there may be no express 
 covenant between the dealers or producers of corn, cattle, or butter, 
 there is a virtual or tacit one implied in the community of interest, 
 which binds them together. But this remark, if there is any force 
 of truth in it, will apply to every branch of trade whatever ; so 
 that there could be no such thing as fair dealing in the world. 
 Commerce itself, in the most comprehensive sense of the word, 
 would, if this principle were admitted, be only another term for 
 conspiracy and oppression, and no article could at any time or in 
 any place be procurable at a just and reasonable rate. The truth is 
 that the interested efforts of the seller are duly counteracted and 
 controlled by the like motive in the buyer, and it is this struggle 
 combined with the relation between supply and demand, constitut- 
 ing and regulating that competition which ascertains and fixes the 
 intermediate and fair point in the price of all articles at market. 
 
 When they are pressed still farther for proofs they allege that 
 provisions differ from all other goods in this respect, that they are in- 
 dispensable to life, the consumer has no option, as in many other ar- 
 ticles, and must therefore take them on any terms. But if there were 
 any truth in this observation, society would be more or less exposed 
 to this wrong at all times. The same capital can with equal ease 
 purchase a large quantity at a lower rate as it can a smaller 
 quantity at a higher rate, so that it would be equally in the power 
 of middlemen at all times to deal out provisions at an exorbitant 
 price in a year of plenty, as in a year of scarcity. What were 
 these monopolists about in years of common plenty? for if it is 
 true, as they allege, that the scarcity is not real, in what does this 
 year differ from any other ? Are monopolists like locusts, whose 
 visitations occur from no visible cause and at such uncertain in- 
 tervals as neither to be foreseen nor prevented. If the power of 
 monopolists over the articles of subsistence depended on the di- 
 minished quantity of the stock in existence, there occurs e very- 
 year, even in those of the greatest plenty, a period, the months of 
 May and June, for instance, in which this stock is smaller than in a 
 year of the greatest scarcity in the months of October or Novem- 
 ber. If the alleged abuses were real, therefore, the community 
 would be more exposed to them in the former than in the latter 
 case. 
 
 If such abuses were practicable, it does not appear why they 
 should not extend to other articles of necessity as well as provisions. 
 
On the High Price of Provisions. 271 
 
 for these are not the only necessaries of life. In this climate 
 raiment is as necessary as food, but I have never heard that un- 
 fairness and oppression in the price of cloth has ever been matter 
 of public grievance or popular clamour against the dealers in it; 
 nor have manufacturers and merchants ever been the butts of that 
 indignation and odium with which farmers and middlemen have 
 been traduced and assailed ; though the articles of wearing apparel, 
 from the manner in which they are produced, the more limited 
 number of those who deal in them, and from their being less pe- 
 rishable, are infinitely more susceptible of becoming the objects 
 of combination and monopoly than corn. The supply of cloth 
 is indeed not so fluctuating as that of corn, for it does not depend 
 on seasons, but this argument will not avail those who deny the 
 existence of scarcity and impute the distress to the abuses of 
 dealers. The like reasoning will apply to butchers* meat, salt, 
 leather, and coals. What distinguishes the products of agriculture 
 from all these is the fluctuation of the supply depending on the 
 Tariable nature of seasons, from the uncontrollable course of 
 nature, but imputed by the vulgar to moral in place of physical 
 causes. Though the quantity of butchers' meat is in some 
 measure dependent on agriculture, according to the modern method 
 of feeding cattle, the influence of seasons on the supply, is not in 
 the least to be compared to that of corn ; and it is truly admirable 
 to contemplate the regular, adequate and fair supply of animal 
 food to this metropolis, flowing quietly from Smithfield, as from 
 a reservoir, to the mouth of every individual, after ramifying into 
 all the channels of consumption, without exciting public clamor, 
 and without the assistance of assize or of any regulation of 
 price or rule of distribution, but what arises out of the sponta- 
 neous operation of supply and demand, undisturbed by human in- 
 terference, and working in the same silent and salutary manner as 
 the circulation of the blood or any other process of nature. 
 
 There is another blind infatuation on this subject, which it be- 
 longs to this place to expose, namely, that during times of scarcity 
 certain articles of food are destroyed with a view to enhance the 
 price of what remains. We are told, for instance, that the Dutch, 
 in consequence of sometimes widely mistaking in their calcula- 
 tions of the quantity of the spices required for the markets of Eu- 
 rope, by reason of the remoteness of their settlements, and finding 
 on their arrival that they have imported much more than they 
 want, throw a large proportion of them into the sea. I arn not 
 competent to decide on the truth of this, but it may be safely ad- 
 milted that there is nothing incredible in such an operation of com- 
 merce being practised upon a superabundant article of luxury, the 
 spontaneous production of those remote possessions from whence 
 
272 A Letter to Earl Spencer 
 
 they are brought. But if we were told, that when the Dutch de- 
 stroy their spices, it is not when they are superabundant, but when 
 they are most scarce, who could believe this ? This it is, however, 
 which is alleged with regard to corn ; and it is with a mixture of 
 pity and disgust that we sometimes hear persons of rank and edu- 
 cation far above the vulgar, profess their belief in this strange 
 dogma. If any one could be found at once so wicked and foolish 
 as to practise this, it would certainly be in years of the greatest 
 abundance. But when we reflect that it is not in times of over- 
 flowing plenty, but in those of scarcity and distress, that this enor* 
 mity is said to be committed ; that it is not on an article of luxury^ 
 but on a necessary of life ; that it is not on a spontaneous produc- 
 tion of the earth, but on the most precious fruit of human toil ; 
 insanity itself could not be guilty of it, nor could any thing but 
 fatuity give credit to it ; and the belief of it is as disgraceful to 
 human reason, as of any of the dogmas of the most groveling su- 
 perstition. 
 
 The outcry that has been raised against large farms may be 
 adduced as another example of popular error on the subject of pro- 
 visions* It is unnecessary to enter into calculations to prove the 
 advantages resulting from the smaller proportional number of horses 
 kept in large than in small farms, and the advantages of the former 
 over the latter in admitting greater scope for a due succession of 
 crops, as well as every other advantage enjoyed by every other 
 manufacturer on an enlarged scale, enabling him to produce the 
 greatest possible quantity of his commodity for the use of man 
 at the least possible expense, and thereby to undersell others, to 
 the great and manifest benefit of the consumer. Without dilating 
 on these topics, it is only necessary to refer to one incontrovertible 
 fact, namely, that it is by large farms alone that markets are or 
 can be supplied ; for small farms either yield no more than what 
 subsists the cultivators, or so little surplus, that neither towns, th 
 manufacturing population, the army nor navy, nor in short any 
 purchasers or consumers of provisions, could be adequately sup- 
 plied by them. It is a self-evident proposition that the more food 
 that is produced over and above what is required for the subsist- 
 ence of those who raise it, so much the better it is for a manufac- 
 turing community such as ours ; for there will be the more to bring 
 to market, so as to increase the ratio of the supply to the demand, 
 the circumstance which alone can keep down prices. It is the 
 augmented production of the staple articles of life, which is alone 
 deserving of consideration in the eyes of the truly enlightened and 
 patriotic 5 and it excites our pity to hear those who ought to know 
 better, arguing seriously in favor of small farms, from the greater 
 quantity of poultry, pigs, and eggs, which they send to market. 
 

 on tlie High Price of Provisions. 273 
 
 The laws enacted in the reign of Edward VI. 1 show the shallow 
 and false conceptions of all ranks in that age, on the subject of the 
 trade in corn ; and tended still further to foster and countenance 
 popular prejudices. They were admitted on the rolls of Parlia- 
 ment about the same time that transubstantiation was expunged 
 from the canon-book, and seem to have been the worthy successors 
 of that article of faith. One can as easily believe that bread is 
 beef, or that beef is bread, as that bread or beef of a wholesome 
 quality can, in time of scarcity ^nd public distress, be destroyed 
 by any human being for avaricious purposes, or that the whole body 
 of farmers, graziers, and dealers in provisions, in the kingdom, can 
 enter into a conspiracy against the consumers. In the age of Ed- 
 ward VI. knowledge had made great advances, and had established 
 the reformation -, but this is a proof, among many others, how slow 
 such advances arc ; nor ought we to wonder that prejudices 
 and errors should then exist, which are prevalent in this more 
 enlightened age. 1 
 
 In the early ages of commerce, the emoluments of it were con- 
 fined to a few individuals. Any one possessed of a moderate 
 capital, with sagacity to avail himself of it to the utmost, soon 
 outstripped his poor and more ignorant neighbours. In the fifteenth 
 century, there arose in Europe a family 3 of merchants, which by 
 successful commerce attained to the dignity and importance of 
 sovereign princes, so as in the succeeding century to give two 
 queens to France, and three pontiff's to Rome. In the sixteenth 
 and seventeenth centuries there were much richer merchants in 
 London than in the present times, though commerce has increased 
 a hundred fold. There are now thousands who attain competency, 
 hundreds who obtain opulence, but there are none who by com- 
 
 * Statutes of the 3rd and 4th of Edward VI. chap. 19, and 21 ; 6th of Ed- 
 ward VI. chap. 14 ; 7th of Edward VI. chap. 14. 
 
 * There was one just and real cause of complaint, which contributed 
 more perhaps than any other cause to the dis-tres.ed state of the markets at 
 one period of this reign. This was the state of the coin, with regard to debase- 
 ment and deficient weight and quantity, as well as the want of a due adjust- 
 ment of the value of gold and silver to each other. This produced such 
 jerious inconvenience, that the graziers and other owners of the neces- 
 saries of life did not know what to ask nor take in exchange for them; and 
 either parted with their commodities with reluctance, or carried them back 
 and never returned. The monetary system began to be improved towards 
 tbe end of this reign, and was completed in that of Elizabeth. See Treatise 
 cm the Coin of the Realm, by the Earl of Liverpool. London, 1805. p. 91. 
 
 3 The house of Medici is here alluded to. This family was originally of 
 tfie medical profession, as their name implies. One of them was enabled 
 to found this illustrious race of princes by the wealth which he acquired 
 from a contract for supplying Florence with fuel ; but it was the trade 
 iu silk which chiefly maintained their future splendor. 
 
 NO. XVH. Pam. VOL. IX. S 
 
A Letter to Earl Spencer, 
 
 merce alone attain to princely fortunes. What merchant now can 
 be compared with Sir Thomas Gresham, the founder of the Royal 
 Exchange ; or with Mr. Sutton, the founder of the Charter House ? 
 It was in those ages that the founders of some of the most illus- 
 trious families' of England acquired their wealth by commerce, 
 and the situation of first magistrate of London was no uncommon 
 road to the peerage. In those days monopolies and combinations 
 must have been much more practicable on account of the general 
 ignorance and want of competition. But it is to be remarked 
 that none of the great fortunes above alluded to were amassed by 
 dealers in the necessaries of life. Monopolies detrimental to the 
 general interests of society were not uncommon in those ages, but 
 they were created by public authority, and extended only to cer- 
 tain branches of foreign trade. How much more impossible must 
 monopolies and combinations be in our days when capital is so- 
 diffused, and when every thing is kept to its just and salutary level 
 by a system of fair and equitable * competition ! Let any one re- 
 flect for a moment, that in order to establish a combination or mono- 
 poly in the necessaries of life, not only all the merchants, factors, 
 jobbers, and middlemen of all descriptions, but all the growers must 
 concur in forming a conspiracy against the public, mutually pledging 
 their faith that not one of them will undersell the other, and let him 
 ask himself if he can believe this. It is deemed a thing next to im- 
 possible that a conspiracy against the state, comprehending ten or 
 twelve persons, can remain long a secret. How comes it, then, 
 that out of so many thousands of farmers, graziers, and dealers, none 
 have ever yet peached ? The only difficulty in refuting such an 
 opinion is the difficulty of finding adequate words to express and 
 expose its absurdities. Not the least proof has ever been brought 
 of the existence of such combinations and monopolies, so that to 
 
 1 The writer need make no apology to the noble families ofOshorne, 
 Gower, Waldegrave, and Capel, for ranking them with the House of MedU-i. 
 It is remarked by Mr. Pennant, in a hook entitled London, that the grand- 
 father of Queen Elizabeth, and father of the Earl of Wiltshire, was a mer- 
 chant inCheapside. 
 
 * The present equable diffusion of moderate wealth cannot be better illus- 
 trated than by remarking, that in this age many palaces and superb man- 
 sions have heen pulled down or converted^ other purposes, while none have 
 been erected on the like scale. Somerset House, the Savoy, Bloomsbury 
 House, York House, now converted into small private residences under the 
 name of Alhany, Cumberland House converted into the Ordnance Office, 
 and others, not to mention the numberless Baronial mansions and castles iu 
 all parts of England, now in ruins, may all be adduced as examples of the 
 decrease of inordinate wealth. On the other hand, the multiplication of 
 commodious dwellings for the upper and middle classes of society, and the 
 increased comforts oi all ranks, not only in the metropolis, but in the whole 
 kingdom, exhibits a picture of individual happiness and public prosperity, 
 unknown in any other age or country. 
 
On the High Price of Provisions. 275 
 
 attempt to prove a negative would be fighting with a phantom. 
 Gratuitous assertions are as boundless as the wild imaginations of 
 man, and endless as the affirmative propositions arising out of the 
 possible combinations of language. He, therefore, who would 
 engage to prove that universal combination and monopoly, with 
 regard to the necessaries of life, do not exist ; or that these neces- 
 saries are not destroyed, through avarice, during dearths and fa- 
 mines, would be undertaking the same sort of task as any one who 
 should undertake to prove the negative of the dream of an enthu- 
 siast or a lunatic. It is impossible any longer to treat the subject 
 seriously, and an apology would be due for saying so much, were 
 it not a fact that the peace and safety of the community have been 
 endangered by the prevalence of such extravagant opinions. 1 
 
 We hear daily from persons not otherwise deficient in good 
 sense, that one of the principal causes of the present high price 
 of provisions is the quantity of capital in the country, and the fa- 
 cility of obtaining money or credit, particularly from country 
 bankers, 2 " whereby dealers are enabled to engage in speculations, and 
 prevent corn from being brought to market. This is one of the 
 most common popular errors. With a view to refute it I only re- 
 quire the following postulatum to be conceded, namely, that men, 
 however rich, or however much at a loss to employ their money, 
 will not engage in any trade, but for the purpose of gaining by 
 it. Now it is evident that if such speculations keep up the arti- 
 cle beyond a certain point, they must lose either by being over- 
 taken by a plentiful crop, or by the spoiling of their corn in the 
 granaries, and if it is short of that point, these capitalists are the 
 benefactors and saviours of the community, by gradually feeding 
 the market and by reserving such a stock as, under the influence 
 of security of property and the check of competition, will exactly 
 serve to carry us round the year, and this on terms proportioned to 
 the total stock of provisions, provided their speculations have been 
 made upon sound grounds ; for in this case their profit and advan- 
 tage would be coincident with the public advantage ; as their loss 
 would with the public loss, had their speculation been injudiciously 
 conceived. And we have here another proof that fair and enlightened 
 self interest is not only safe but beneficial, nay, indispensable in fur- 
 thering the best interests of the community. It would indeed be 
 a solecism in the creation, an anomaly in the wise and beneficent 
 adjustments of providence so admirable and conspicuous in the 
 government of the world, to suppose that it could be otherwise. 
 It appears that last year (1799), the speculators calculated on 
 
 1 Since this was written, the author has met with Mr. Burke's letter to 
 Mr. Pitt on this subject, written in 1795, in which it is treated with all th 
 eloquence and vigor of mind characteristic of that great man. 
 * Sec Illustration II. 
 
276 A Jitter to Earl Spencer, 
 
 very just principles, for, that there is no surplus of last year's 
 nor of the unexampled importation that has been made, is put be- 
 yond a doubt by its being necessary at this early period, October 
 (1800) a season in which there is in years of plenty a residue sufficient 
 for three months' consumption, to thrash out part of this year's 
 crop for the daily supply of the market ; and this is an unanswer- 
 able refutation of those who obstinately contend that corn has 
 been unnecessarily kept up, and it would after this be an insult 
 to the meanest understanding to waste words in disproving that 
 it is still hoarded, or that it has been thrown into the river. The 
 fact turns out clearly to be that the whole crop of last year, toge- 
 ther with what has been imported, has been barely sufficient to save 
 the country from famine ; and had the dealers in corn been so 
 blind to their own interest as to have hoarded a month's supply, 
 Over and above the surplus which usually remains after the gather- 
 ing in of a new crop, how much less an evil would this have been 
 than to have sold eff the whole stock a month before the cutting 
 down of the new crop ! in other words to have created a famine, 
 which, I repeat it, would have been the infallible consequence of 
 bringing the corn to market in the beginning of this year, at the 
 price of a plentiful year. Ought we not then in this as in other 
 instances to adore the wisdom and goodness of divine providence, 
 which by the spontaneous and irresistible though silent co-opera- 
 tion of natural and moral causes, accomplishes the most salutary 
 ends in spite of the vain efforts and officious interference of human 
 policy. The well known fable of Jupiter and the Husbandman 
 admits of an apt application to this subject. 
 
 The want of a surplus so great and so evident this atitumn, 
 distinguishes this year from all those which have preceded it in 
 the memory of man. This is imputable solely to the deficiency of 
 the crop of last year, and the evil is greatly aggravated by the de- 
 ficiency of that of the present year. The crops on the clay 
 grounds which make a great proportion of the whole, have en- 
 tirely failed in consequence of the earth being last summer baked 
 as it were by the long and excessive heat and drought which suc- 
 ceeded the wet weather in May. Much of the corn also which 
 was standing after the 19th of August, when the rains came on, 
 was spoiled as it stood, by the germination of the grains. The 
 potatoes, in like manner, though much more independent of wea- 
 ther than corn, have greatly failed from the like causes j * for hav- 
 
 1 It is remarkable that as the summer of the preceding year, (1799), had 
 been the most wet and cold, so the summer of this year, 1800, has been the 
 most hot and dry in the memory of man. The mean height of the thermo- 
 meter in the bunjmer months for the five }'ears immediately preceding and 
 
On the High Price of Provisions. 277 
 
 ittg been forced to an untimely maturity by the excessive heat and 
 drought without having attained their ordinary and natural size, 
 the rains which came on in August, instead of furthering their 
 growth, caused them to germinate, thereby deteriorating their 
 quality. As we are now therefore under the pressure of two bad 
 years, the utmost economy will be required to carry us through 
 the ensuing twelve months. 
 
 The last argument I shall adduce in proof of the reality of the 
 scarcity, is the enormous importation which has taken place in the 
 course of this year. Importation to a certain amount has been 
 found necessary for many years, which could not have been the 
 case had the domestic production of corn been adequate to the 
 demands ' of the population. From the statement in the note, 
 it appears that the domestic agriculture has not furnished a suf- 
 ficient supply for our people for a series of more than thirty years ; 
 and carries irresistible conviction, if any were still wanting, of the 
 unequalled deficiency of the last two years, especially when it is 
 considered that this corn was attracted hither, notwithstanding 
 its being high priced and hard to be procured abroad ; for the 
 crops were scanty last year in the countries bordering on tha 
 Baltic, from whence the principal supplies are derived, insomuch 
 that the King of Prussia at one time prohibited exportation of 
 corn from his dominions ; and though there had been a better 
 crop in America than there had been for some years, it had been 
 
 following these two years of scarcity, was 59. 6. That of the same months 
 in 1709, was 57. 3. and in 1800, it was 60. There was a like difference with 
 regard to the rain in the years which preceded and followed the year 1799. 
 
 1 Previous to the year 1767 there was a considerable annual excess of ex- 
 ported over imported corn, ever since the year 1697, with the exception of 
 a few years, the most remarkable of which were 1709, 1728, 1729, 1739, 
 1740, 1744, 1757, all of which were bad years from natural causes. Those 
 of 1709 and 1740, were deficient from extremely hard frost. We are not 
 able to ascertain so well the cause of the deficiency in the other years. 
 Since the year 1767 there has been a considerable excess of annual impor- 
 tation, except in a few plentiful years: and we observe that in that period 
 the highest importations have been after years of deficient crop, namely, in 
 the years 1783, 1796, 1800, and 1801. The average of annual importation of 
 wheat and flour for the ten years immediately preceding 1800, was 349,595 
 qrs. During these ten years there was no exportation except in 1792, in 
 which 277,861 qrs. were exported. In the ten years preceding these, 
 that is, from 1780 to 1789, both inclusive, the average of excess of annual 
 importation over exportation was 78,248. The importation of wheat and 
 flour in 1800, was 1,242,507, and in 1801 it wai 1,396,360. See Report 
 of the commiteee of the House of Lords 1814. The average of the ten follow- 
 ing years, that is from 1802 to 1811, both inclusive, has been 476,390. In one 
 of these years, namely 1810, it was more than three times the average of 
 the whole period, having been 1,454,906. This is accounted for by the 
 French licences. It ought to be remarked that there has been no 
 tion since 1792. 
 
278 A Letter to Earl Spencer, 
 
 deficient there for the preceding seven years, on account of the 
 devastation of the Hessian fly. 
 
 The scarcity occasioned by the bad season last year (1799,) 
 being established as the main cause of the high price of provisions, 
 let us next enquire whether there are not subordinate and secon- 
 dary causes of it. Several of these have been urged with plausi- 
 bility and possibly with truth. 
 
 1st. The depreciation of money. 1 The same denomination of 
 coin will not go half so far in purchasing the articles of sub- 
 sistence as they did forty years ago , and the question is whether 
 the wages of labor have kept pace with this. It is well known 
 that wages have been greatly raised within these few years as 
 well as the pay of the army and navy. Whether they ought to 
 keep exact pace with the depreciation of money, is a very diffi- 
 cult and delicate question, but it would be highly impolitic to 
 raise wages at any time by law, and it would be highly impolitic 
 and even dangerous to do so in a case of temporary distress such 
 as the present ; 2 for they could not be reduced without the risk of 
 popular commotion, and the great resource against famine, found- 
 ed on diminished consumption, would thereby be done away. 
 
 2dly. The increased consumption on account of the war. This 
 is a point which admits of pretty accurate solution by calculation. 
 The number of land forces employed is under 200,000 ; but let 
 them be taken at that : the number of seamen and marines voted by 
 Parliament is 120,000, The prisoners of war have at times ex- 
 ceeded 30,000, 3 though at present under that number. Now, 
 the two first classes would be consuming provisions, wherever they 
 were, and provisions of this country, were they all at home ; but 
 a very large proportion of them are on foreign service, and main- 
 tained chiefly from the production of other countries, not to men- 
 tion the diminution of consumers by the sword and deadly climates. 
 It is true that soldiers and sailors consume more provisions, parti- 
 cularly animal food, than they would in the situation of peasants 
 and artisans. Let it be admitted that they consume .twice as much j 
 which is certajnly above the truth. This being assumed, the 
 
 1 See Illustration III. 
 
 * In order to avoid the raising of wages, the government resorted to the 
 temporary expedient of making an allowance from the poor's rates to la- 
 borers with large families. Alter the scarcity it was found not possible to dis- 
 continue this allowance, and jt is found to add greatly to the evils of the 
 poor's rates?, by encouraging the idle anc} improvident habits of the laboring 
 class of the population. 
 
 3 The author having been at that time a commissioner of sick and wound- 
 ed seamen, and tru- prisoners of war being then under the direction of that 
 board, he had the opportunity of accurate information on this subject. In 
 tjie two last years of the war, that is 18i3 and 1814, they amounted to more 
 than 60,000. 
 
On the High Price of Provisions. 279 
 
 whole number, that is 320,000, are to be considered as additional 
 mouths. To these the prisoners of war being added, the whole 
 number of additional consumers is 350,000. The population 
 of the three kingdoms is about 15 millions. 1 This increased con- 
 sumption therefore is not quite one 43rd part of the whole. Now 
 what should we say to the master of a family who should allege 
 that he has wherewithal to maintain 43 persons, but that if a 
 single individual were added, it would be productive of the greatest 
 distress to the whole ? Is there a man deserving of the name of 
 a Briton who can entertain so mean an opinion of the spirit and 
 resources of his country, or who can employ so pitiful an argument 
 to vilify the public counsels, or to cramp those national ex- 
 ertions so salutary, and at this moment so indispensable to the 
 public welfare and defence. There is no point better ascertained 
 from authentic history, than that war, whether foreign or civil, has 
 had no effect in creating scarcity. The prices which have been 
 extracted from public records both by authors and parliamentary 
 committees, are completely in proof of this. It may be asked, 
 whence has arisen the popular persuasion of the contrary, a per- 
 suasion which has been so cruelly abused by the factious and igno- 
 rant, for the purpose of exciting public discontent ? We can only 
 refer it to that catalogue of popular errors and prejudices so preva- 
 lent among the vulgar ; and in the present instance perhaps no 
 other nor better reason can be assigned, than that the words 
 Peace and Plenty happen to have the same initial letter, which 
 gives them that alliterative quality, of which almost all popular 
 adages partake. 
 
 It has also been attempted to connect the war with the scarcity, 
 by alleging that the high prices are referable to the enormous taxes 
 and loans, accumulated to an unprecedented and unheard of 
 amount. There can be no doubt that these, by multiplying z the 
 circulating medium, have a tendency to depreciate money, and 
 thereby to unsettle the due ratio between wages and the price of pro- 
 visions/ But as this has had no effect in checking productive indus- 
 try (the true and only criterion and constituent of national prospe- 
 rity) : it must be admitted to stand low in the list of evils. An evil 
 however it undeniably is, though a necessary one, being the price 
 as it were or sacrifice called for by that system of defence and 
 self preservation, which alone could save the country in the late 
 and present convulsed state of the world ; but considered as a 
 crimination of ministry, it is at once so shallow and captious as to 
 require no further notice. 
 
 1 By the population returns of 1801, the population of Great Britain was 
 < 0,9 12,646, and the lowest computation of that of Ireland is four millions. 
 * See Illustration III. 
 
280 A Letter to Earl Spencer, 
 
 Sdly. Agriculture not keeping pace with population and manu- 
 factures. Dr. Goldsmith has been heard to confess that his poem 
 entitled the Deserted Village, is merely a poetical fiction; and Dr. 
 Price's statements, and reasonings in proof of the decrease of popula- 
 tion in England, have been completely overset and refuted both by 
 facts and inference. A friend of mine extremely conversant in such 
 researches, has inferred from the study of Doomsday book and 
 other documents that the population of England, at the conquest, was 
 not more than one sixth of what it is at present. When the low 
 State of agriculture is considered, and that the greater part of the 
 subsistence was then derived from animal food produced by the 
 natural herbage j when it is considered how slowly all improve- 
 ments advanced for several subsequent ages, under the discourage- 
 ments of feudal oppression and barbarism, and what great acces- 
 sions have been made to the food of man in the late and present 
 century, by improved and extended agriculture 1 and the introduc- 
 tion of potatoes, it will not appear surprising that the population 
 should be six times greater than at the conquest. It appears 
 .clearly from parliamentary returns and other documents, that the 
 increase of population in this reign alone is equal to the whole 
 population in the 1 1th century. The growth of London, Liverpool, 
 Manchester, Birmingham, Leeds, Hull, and other towns, affords 
 sufficient proof of the great increase of numbers in the seats of trade 
 and manufactories, while there is no proof of the decrease of it in 
 villages, 
 
 There is still another circumstance from which the rapid in- 
 crease of population in this reign is deducible. Notwithstand- 
 ing the prodigious accessions to the general mass of subsistence 
 in- this period, it has not kept pace with the accessions of con- 
 sumers, as is demonstrable from the statement already made of 
 the almost total cessation of exportation for near forty years, 
 and the great increase of importation in the same time. Now a 
 moment's reflexion will account for this ; for the greater part of the 
 manufactured articles not being for domestic, but for foreign con- 
 sumption, a disproportionate share of capital and labor is directed 
 to manufactories in preference to agriculture. And it seems both 
 natural and reasonable that as other countries take off the redun- 
 dant products of our looms, forges, and potteries, that we should 
 take off the redundant products of their fields. Corn indeed as 
 an article of commerce is in no respect different from any other 
 manufacturer-commodity, in so far as relates to supply and demand; 
 but being a necessary of life it is more the subject of jealousy and 
 alarm. It may be asked why cloth being also a necessary of life, 
 is not in like manner the object of public prejudice. As it is much 
 less perishable than corn, it would be much more easily monopo- 
 
 -* See Illustration II. 
 
on the High Price of Provisions. 281 
 
 Ksed and hoarded, if this was possible. The reason why this 
 article has never been the subject of public clamor, seems to be 
 that the supply is more abundant, and that it is not subject to 
 fluctuations as corn is from bad seasons. 
 
 The inference from the whole of this is, that the increase of 
 population has rendered importation necessary for a long series of 
 years, even in seasons of ordinary plenty, and much more so the 
 last two years on account of bad crops ; that nothing but a vast 
 deficiency in these years could render such an unparalleled amount 
 of importation necessary ; and that nothing can argue more de- 
 plorable shallowness and ignorance, than the opinion of those who 
 maintain that there has been no real scarcity. 
 
 4thly. The prosecution of those who are invidiously styled 
 forestallers and regraters. It has already been abundantly 
 proved that no definition can be given which can discriminate 
 forestallers from other dealers. All dealers therefore must be ap- 
 prehensive of being deemed criminal by construction of law. This 
 crime is not a malum in se ,- no man's conscience therefore can 
 point it out to him, and it differs from all other mala prohibita, in 
 not admitting of any definite or recognisable description; so that 
 under the influence of such ambiguous and unconscious guilt, they 
 must live in perpetual dread of our tribunals, such as we conceive 
 heretics to do under the awe of the inquisition. 
 
 Now there is no maxim in commerce better established, than 
 that profits ought to bear proportion to risks, and this is so fully 
 recognized in the practice of trade, and its reasonableness so 
 evident, that it could be losing time to set about proving it ; but 
 the present subject affords an apt example for its illustration; for 
 when a dealer subjects himself to the penalties and opprobrium 
 incident to a legal prosecution, and to the still more terrible 
 vengeance of a deluded and incensed populace, aiming at the 
 destruction of his character, property arid life, will it be a small 
 additional profit which will compensate for all this ? Those men 
 of character and capital who are timid, will be driven from the 
 trade, and the transport of provision, indispensable to the sub- 
 sistence of the community, would be at an end. What has saved 
 us from this evil, and from the horrors of conflagration and mas- 
 sacre, but the country being in a state of armed preparation, on 
 account of the external dangers of the state ? What have those 
 to answer for, therefore, who have by printed and oral represent- 
 ations (not intentionally, I admit, but ignorantly) goaded on the 
 multitude to acts of outrage and persecution against innocent, 
 useful and estimable individuals, thereby aggravating the public dis- 
 tress by striking terror into those who supply the markets. 
 The mob might have been the victims of their own fury, had they 
 not been met by a firm and temperate resistance. Doctrines of 
 
A Letter to Earl Spencer, 
 
 the most dangerous tendency had been propagated from the bench 
 he bar, the hust.ngs, the press, and even the pulpit coun enS 
 the popular prejud.ces and passions which incited to those a< 
 us not however withhold our meed of praise frornllL common cou, 
 cil man, who having too hastily and credulously related in a late 
 public speech the history of a family alleged to have been drive, to 
 despair and suic.de by famine, which was found by ennui ie< o 
 he spot to be totally void of truth, took occasion oT of the 
 ne public meetings to make amends by correcting his forme 
 statement, and of recanting what he ha/said w ,^ ' rd toh 
 belief m monopolies and combinations. And may we al^o presume 
 to hope that those virtuous and learned judges whose decrees" 
 anthomy carry such deserved weight, ma/ be also led to re.consid er 
 a subject on which, as it lie. out of the tract of that techn.calknow- 
 ledge, and those professional habits and studies to which theylo 
 
 i is nodisgrace forthem toC 
 
 L. -ru to de "y *at the abuses alluded 
 
 can ,n no case exist. There is no proposition depending on 
 
 Ty prrblirtr, b^ " n0t Hable t0 ****** h is t*?*, 
 y probable, that by some rare concurrence of circumstances, par- 
 ticularly where soaety is on a small scale, the dealers in the neccl- 
 sanes of hf e may have hacl it in their co ^ 
 
 and ect more than a fair profit. Under the imperfect Tta e of 
 
 lEn? T' "!, the - Variable state of """ affairs and i 
 stitutions, the conduct oi a government, in enacting and dispensing 
 laws, must be guided whh regard to what is expedient, byavera'l 
 and approx^at.ons gathered from a fair induction of facts, so^ 
 L a d h H 6 greate - t P" Ctic:lble ' tho "gl' t 'he greatest p'ossi Je 
 hor^'iX T g i" Sh rt What 1S best U P" Ae whole: and we 
 hope ,t has been demonstrated that it is by far best upon the 
 Whole that protection and fair competition are the only safeguard's 
 of souety, though m spite of these there may arise single ina, ct 
 of oppression And does it not become ihe disputants in all 
 questions of thus nature, in that spirit of candor inseparable from 
 hberalme,,, the one side not d jca]] P horn 
 
 lett m , S HH n eitce P twn ^Ue the other side should beware 
 
 firs S ttl> T^." 88 !" f brea r d ' H^torians mention that this was 
 fast msti tuted in the reign of Henry III. so that it may be said to 
 
 antiautn Th parhament ' a " d therefo "> -""able on the score of 
 Th L 9 law I W ^." eVCTtheleSS an a 8 8 f darkness and ignorance. 
 J^aL rh',f y e f abl 't"S amaximum of profit, directly militates 
 to soct t f r f t' 0m . 0f comra ^ce, and must therefore be pernicious 
 o society, ,f there is any reason or justice in those principles now 
 
o?i the High Price of Provisions. 283 
 
 admitted by all enlightened men, and which it is one of the main 
 objects of this letter to illustrate. I shall endeavour to point out 
 sortie of its inconveniences which have not commonly been at- 
 tended to. 
 
 1st. The baker, in consequence of his profit being fixed, has 
 but little inducement to buy his flour as cheap as he can, which 
 he would do, were his profits to accrue to him like those of other 
 tradesmen. This is sufficiently obvious. But there is another 
 consequence not so obvious, though equally certain, and to which 
 I solicit the most particular attention. The miller knowing that 
 he may have what price he pleases from the baker, is little anxious 
 how much he gives the farmer. The baker has even an interest 
 in buying his flour at a high price, and in reporting to the magis- 
 trate only the highest price which he gives, excluding the flour of 
 inferior quality; for as part of his profit depends on the number of 
 loaves he can bake over and above the statutary number in a sack 
 of flour, his profit will be greater, the higher the price. He has 
 been accordingly known to have offered more to the miller than he 
 asked. Who does not see that the greater the scarcity the greater 
 the temptation to these practices ? who does not see that it is to this, 
 together with the discouragement given to the supplies of the 
 markets, and not to the chimeras of forestalling and monopolising^ 
 that we are to look for the real causes of the price of bread being 
 higher than the scarcity will warrant. l 
 
 2ndly. The above mentioned objection will apply to the assize in 
 
 1 IJowever true this may be in so far as it relates to the baker, I have, 
 since writing this letter, been inclined to doubt of its truth, as it relates to 
 the farmer. Archdeacon lleslop published a tract in 1801, entitled a Com- 
 parative Statement of the food produced from arable and grass lands. In 
 the Appendix to it he makes a remark equally new and ingenious as it is 
 important and incontrovertible, tenSing to prove that the fair return to a 
 farmer ought not to be in the simple inverse proportion of the comparative 
 amount of the yearly crop. In order that a farmer may be enabled to live 
 and pay his rent, the price of corn in a year of scarcity should be so far in- 
 creased as to afford a sum equal to that of a year of average plenty. The 
 reasonableness of this is self-evident, and it would appear at fir>t sight that 
 this increase ought to be in the simple inverse proportion of the deficiency 
 of the crop : for instance, if the crop should have fallen short one half or one 
 third, that then the price demanded ought to be one half or one third more. 
 A more close attention will demonstrate the fallacy of this; for suppose 
 the total annual average production of a farm to be fifty quarters, the 
 farmer after reserving a sufficiency for the support of his family and for seed, 
 which are computed at two-fifths, can bring 30 quarters to inaiket, where- 
 with to pay his rent and have a living profit. A bad year occurs, in which 
 the total production is only one-half," that is 25 quarters. From this let 20 
 be deducted for sustenance and seed, there remains only 5 to bring to mar- 
 ket, that is, one-sixth of the average year, in place of one half, as had been 
 lustily computed. The same rule will apply pro ruta whatever the degree 
 of deficiency may be. 
 
284 A Loiter to Earl Spencer, 
 
 the abstract ; but I beg to point out some great error in the par- 
 ticular manner in which it is now conducted. 
 
 The difference in the price at which white and brown bread is 
 directed to be sold, remains the same at whatever price bread may 
 be. The difference in price of one species of loaf from the other, 
 is by the present regulation three halfpence, so that supposing the 
 price of the white loaf to be sixpence, the price of the brown or 
 household would be four-pence halfpenny, that is, one-fourth less ; 
 but supposing the price of the white loaf to be a shilling, that of 
 the brown would be ten-pence halfpenny, that is, one-eighth less. 
 Is not this giving an incre;3ing premium on the consumption of 
 white bread proportioned to the rise of the price ? that is, of the 
 scarcity, so that when there is the greatest dearth there is the least 
 inducement to eat brown bread ; and there is a virtual prohibition 
 of it, when most wanted for the relief of the poor. 
 
 Srdly. The assize is so set that the baker has a greater interest in 
 selling white than he has in selling brown bread. The flour of 
 which the latter is made is less retentive of moisture in the oven, 
 so that a greater quantity of flour is necessary, in order to yield the 
 same weight of bread. It also requires more yeast. These cir- 
 cumstances are not taken into account in setting the assize. 
 
 4thly. It is impossible by means of the assize to make the price of 
 bread to conform to the price of wheat in case of sudden fluctu- 
 ation, without offending popular prejudice and ignorance. When 
 a fall in the price of wheat or flour takes place, the magistrate im- 
 mediately sets the assize accordingly, but as bakers have a more or 
 less stock on hand, purchased at a higher price, this leads to evi- 
 dent hardship and injustice, which has occasionally been so gross 
 and glaring as to induce the magistrate to relax the rigor of the 
 law. 
 
 It would be tedious here to enumerate all the inconveniences 
 and inaccuracies belonging both to the principle and practice of 
 the assize. They have been pointed out by a very ingenious and 
 respectable clergyman, 1 who has bestowed great labor and atten- 
 tion on this subject. It is a strong objection to assize in general, 
 that it is not in the power of calculation to construct a table that 
 
 1 The Rev. Dr. Heslop, in a work intitled Observations on the Stat. 31. 
 Geo. II. Though the arguments on this subject were demonstrative and 
 convincing to every enlightened and unprejudiced mind, the assize was not 
 abolished till the session of 1815, when a bill to this effect was brought in 
 by Mr. Frankland Lewis. In a very able report of the Committee on this 
 bill, besides the above stated objections, it was proved by reference made 
 to places where no assize was practised, Birmingham, Manchester, Bath, 
 &c., that the price of bread was lower than where the law of assize was put 
 in practice. The good effect of this abolition, however, is likely to be frus- 
 trated in all those towns in which there are corporations of bakers, institu- 
 tions which can only be considered as legal and organized combinations. 
 

 on the High Price of Provisions. 28J 
 
 shall be equitably adjusted to all the fluctuations and varieties of 
 the materials. In order to make even an approximation to equity, 
 much more skill and science is required than can be expected from 
 those who are charged with this duty. 
 
 From what has been said respecting the causes of the distresses* 
 it is evident that we can promise ourselves no substantial relief 
 but from importation, in so far as regards the temporary evil ; and 
 from augmented cultivation, in so far as regards the permanent 
 sufficiency of food in future. As a remedy for the scarcity arising 
 from the bad crop of 1795, the government undertook to import 
 corn on their own account, and to dispose of it with merely a 
 saving profit. This appeared very plausible, and was certainly 
 undertaken with the best intention, but it was soon abandoned, 
 for they could not import a quantity adequate to the want of the 
 whole community ; and as this damped all private enterprize, it 
 would have proved instead of a salutary measure a most pernici- 
 ous one. Great benefit arose from it, however, as it proved a most 
 instructive practical lesson, in confirmation of a principle which 
 it has been one of the chief objects of this letter to inculcate, 
 namely, that the public is never so well served as by free trade 
 and individual competition. No individuals, however large their 
 capital, could enter into competition with the public treasury, 
 under any circumstances 5 but when that treasury professes to sell 
 at a price at which no private person could afford to sell, this is a 
 virtual prohibition of what is understood by. commerce. Though 
 the present scarcity (1800,) therefore is much greater than that of 
 1795, no such measure has been resorted to. 
 
 It is evident that nothing but the extension of cultivation can 
 make our domestic productions keep pace with the increasing popu- 
 lation. There has for the last fifty years been an immense addition 
 to the food of man, from numerous enclosures of commons, the 
 improved skill and extension of agriculture, but above all, from the 
 increasing production of potatoes. The population, however, in 
 consequence of the encouragement to rear families, from the de- 
 mand for hands to carry on those manufactures by whicri the 
 wants of other nations are supplied, has greatly outstripped these 
 new and increased sources of subsistence, insomuch that from the 
 beginning of the present reign there has been a constant depen- 
 dence on other countries for the requisite quantity of corn. Since 
 the year 1766 there have been only six years l in which the sum 
 total of exported corn of all species has exceeded the imported. 
 
 As the late prosecutions of dealers have been manifestly founded 
 on false principles, and have proved highly injurious by obstructing 
 
 1 !to efcry year since this letter was written, that is from 1800 to 16-16, the 
 importation has greatly exceeded the exportation. 
 
286 A Letter to Earl Spencer, 
 
 the supply of the market through the intimidation which they oo 
 casioned, it would be advisable to repeal the common law as well 
 as the statute law on this subject. In repealing the law of Ed- 
 ward VI. in 1772, it was an oversight not to have abrogated 1 the 
 common law on this subject at the same time, for convictions have 
 lately taken place on the latter. The preamble to the statute of 
 1772, and the speeches in the debate, particularly that of Mr. 
 Burke, set the impolitic tendency of the ancient law in the strong- 
 est point of view. So great was the impression made on the mem- 
 bers of the legislature by this enlightened view of the subject, that 
 on a petition presented by the city of London in 1787, praying a 
 suppression of the practices of forestallers, monopolisers, and re- 
 graters, to which they ascribed the high price of provision, the 
 House of Commons refused even to take it into consideration. A 
 like petition was presented in 1796, which was favorably reported 
 upon by a Committee, but was rejected by the House. 
 
 In case the total repeal of these laws should not be deemed 
 afe and politic in the present irritated state of the public mind, 
 I beg to suggest with that diffidence which becomes one who does 
 not belong to the profession of the law, that they might be dis- 
 armed of their pernicious tendency by enacting, that no conviction 
 shall follow unless it shall appear in proof that the act committed 
 
 1 It was no doubt the intention of the legislature to have abrogated the whole 
 laws relating to this subject, for by not doing so the repeal of the statute of Ed- 
 ward II. proved nugatory, as actions still lay at common law. I was informed 
 by the late Sir William Pulteney, that the following circumstance gave rise to 
 that act of parliament : London was at that time supplied with immense quan- 
 tities of fresh butter, from that part of Yorkshire called Holderness. The 
 dairies were farmed by London dealers, who were in the practice of accommo- 
 dating other shopkeepers with what they could not dispose of themselves. It 
 was plain that it was entirely out of the power of farmers to bring this commo- 
 dity to market themselves, and as it is a very perishable article, the prompt 
 method that has been described was the best possible for the public benefit. In 
 the course of this traffic, however, one of these dealers was brought under the 
 predicament of Edward VI.'s statute, and was convicted. Lord Mansfield, 
 from a principle of justice and humanity, and perceiving that the infliction of the 
 penalty would ruin their trade, contrived to suspend judgment, and suggested 
 the repeal of the statute in the interim. 
 
 In 1767, in consequence of complaints concerning the high price of provisions, 
 and petitions having been presented to the House of Commons on that subject, 
 ascribing it to the practices of forestallers, jobbers, &c. a bill was brought into 
 parliament to enforce the law against such offenders ; but the Committee ap- 
 pointed to consider these laws, came to the following resolntions, viz. 
 
 1st. " That it is the opinion of this Committee, that the several laws relating to 
 badgers, engrossers, forestallers, and regraters, by preventing the circulation of 
 and free trade iu corn and other provisions, have been the means of raising the 
 price thpreof iu many parts of the kingdom. 
 
 Sndly. " That it is the opinion of this Committee, that the House be moved 
 or leave to bring in a bill to remedy the evils occasioned by the said laws." 
 
 In consequence of fresh petitions from the country to the same purport as the 
 former, the matter lay over till 1772, when the above mentioned bill was brought 
 in and passed. 
 
on the High Price of Provisions. 287 
 
 has been a matter of real detriment ' to the public or to an indivi- 
 dual. Till this or some other security shall be afforded to dealers, 
 men of credit, character and capital, through whom alone a fair 
 and regular supply of the market can be attained, will be entirely 
 driven from the trade which will fall into the hands of hucksters 
 and adventurers. I know for certain that these prosecutions have 
 already had a bad effect, and if they should still go on, will aggravate 
 the evils of the present deficient crop. Notwithstanding of the 
 shortness of this year's (1800) crop, and the want of the assistance 
 usual in other years from the surplus of the preceding one, .which 
 is generally equal to the supply of three months or more after 
 harvest, the public will look for some farther fall ; and if this shall 
 not happen, it will be difficult to assign any other causes for it than 
 the discouragement of commercial competition, and the great profits 
 necessary to enable growers to bring their own produce to 
 market, or to compensate for the risks to such unintimidated 
 dealers as may continue to supply the markets. a 
 
 Having thus humbly stated what I conceive to be the most ex- 
 pedient and practicable means of relieving and preventing scarcity, 
 there remains only one measure upon which some animadversion is 
 called, as it has been recommended through the press as very advisable 
 in the presnt crisis. I mean the establishment of a maximum of price. 
 As the principle of this has been exploded in the most satisfactory 
 manner by all the soundest writers on political economy, I shall not 
 enter into the reasonings on the subject, but only make a few- 
 references to history respecting the practical effects of it. It was 
 tried in the reign of Edward II. in the year 1315, under the pres- 
 sure of a great scarcity, and during one of the worst administra- 
 tions that England ever saw ; but was abandoned on its being 
 found mischievous and impracticable. It was tried in France 
 during an administration still more execrable and flagitious, that 
 of Robespierre, and without the excuse of that ignorance and 
 barbarism which prevailed in the 14th century. Here also it 
 was abandoned for the like reasons, after it had been promulgated 
 in a complicated system of regulations filling two quarto volumes. 
 In referring to ancient history we find similar proceedings. Sue- 
 tonius cap. 34<. mentions, that it was tried at Rome by Tiberius in 
 the plenitude of his tyranny. The Emperor Dioclesian, equally 
 ignorant and tyrannical, endeavoured to quiet the people by insti- 
 tuting a maximum, as we learn from the following passage in 
 Lactantius, De morte persecutorum. " Idem y quum variis imquita- 
 
 1 This idea seems to meef with some countenance from an expression of 
 Lord Coke, who say.s that " mi engrosser may be imHrted at the common law as 
 fw an offence, malum in se. '' Institutes of the Laws of England, p, iii. 
 
 7 See in Illustration IV. the farther niean^ of relief adopted by Parliameilt in 
 the course of the whiter subsequent to the publication of this letter. 
 
288 A Letter to Earl Spencer, 
 
 it bus f aver ft cart tat em, legem de pretio rerum venalium skatucre 
 conatus est. Time ob exigua et vilia multus sa?iguis effusus, net 
 veiiale quicquid metu apparebat, et caritas multo detenus exarsit, 
 donee lex necessitate ipsd post midtorum cxitium solveretur" Ix. 
 thus appears that in all ages and countries this measure has been 
 followed by an aggravation of the evil of dearth, with the addition 
 of those of discontent and bloodshed. Though persons in a situa- 
 tion above the vulgar, both in rank and education, are heard 
 approving and recommending this measure, yet> as it is reprobated 
 both by reason and experience, and as it could be dictated only by 
 ignorance and tyranny, and therefore abhorrent to the character 
 of our present rules, it is needless to dilate farther upon the 
 subject. 
 
 I have thus, my lord, unburthened my mind, by communicating 
 with all diffidence what I have felt it my duty not to withhold. 
 I am sensible that it might be made much more perfect both in 
 point of matter and arrangement ; but it has been composed at 
 those short intervals of leisure, which the duties of an active pro-* 
 fession admit of. The whole of this subject is a matter of the 
 utmost delicacy and importance to the cause of humanity and 
 public spirit ; upon which it behoves every man to inform him- 
 self, and to throw all the light in his power. The first step 
 towards alleviating the miseries of the poor, is to ascertain from 
 whence they proceed ; and if we cannot immediately relieve their* 
 wants, let us at least soothe their discontents, by endeavouring to 
 convince them, that the evils under which they suffer, are imput- 
 able to natural and uncontrolable causes, and not to inflame their 
 passions and exasperate their sufferings, by representing them as 
 flowing from the crimes of their fellow subjects, and thereby 
 impelling them to acts that aggravate the evil tenfold, and lead to 
 the most disastrous and tragical results. 
 
 If it were not taking up too much of your lordship's time, it 
 would be interesting and curious to enquire upon what principle 
 the strange credulity of mankind on these points is founded. I 
 shall only shortly remark that it is the nature of the human mind, 
 when galled by suffering, to yield readily to jealofcjy and suspi- 
 cion ; and in this mood " trifles light as air" are confirming evi- 
 dence. Fear is also very favourable to credulity, and it is upcn 
 this that superstitious terrors are chiefly excited. The strongest 
 emotions are created by the horrors of the invisible world. Next 
 to these, animal subsistence seems to excite the deepest interest ; 
 as may be exemplified in panics, in the irrational anxieties of avarice, 
 and the blind credulity with regard to the points now under dis- 
 cussion, so that these aberrations of the mind may be termed 
 temporal superstition. It is stated by one of tine most philosophi- 
 
on the High Price of Provisions. 289 
 
 cal of die classic poets, 1 as the principal advantage attending the 
 cultivation of reason, that it enables the mind to surmount such 
 vain fears. 1 But as this subject relates to the indispensable neces- 
 sities of our animal nature, ami is full of specious fallacies, it is 
 perhaps one of those upon which an uneducated mind finds it moat 
 difficult to form a correct and dispassionate judgment. The time will 
 come when our more enlightened posterity will be as much aston- 
 ished, that the belief in forestalling and monopolizing the neces- 
 saries of life, being the cause of die scarcity and high price of 
 provisions, should prevail at the end of the 1 8th century, as we 
 are at the grave characters who believed in ghosts and witches at 
 the beginning of the 17th century. It is not quite 2OO yeare 
 since not only the King on the throne and the judges on the 'bench, 
 but the majority of the whole legislature of England, believed in 
 witchcraft, as appears from an act of parliament pa&sed against 
 that imaginary crime in the reign of James I. ; and it appears faroon 
 t-he records of that age, that there were several execution's ki the 
 succeeding reign also for the same offence. 
 
 However mortifying it may be to human pride, and however 
 reprehensible that those who are styled the better sort should give 
 into such errors, let us make every allowance for those who have 
 not the same advantages of information, and who living froiai day 
 to day by their labor, are much more deeply interested in the ques- 
 tion, while their birth and education preclude them from the ad- 
 vantages which ought to counteract prejudice in those of more 
 liberal and enlightened minds. When this is duly weighed we 
 ought rather to admire the quietness and patience of the common- 
 alty of England, than be surprised at their late transient and par- 
 tial excesses. Whoever will study the character of the common 
 people of this island, will find much to admire in them, particu- 
 larly that aversion to shedding blood, and to the vindictive use of 
 edged weapons, which remarkably distinguishes them from all the 
 nations of Europe, particularly the more southern. How cruel 
 then to abuse the generous nature of such people ! It seems in- 
 cumbent on those in power, on the ministers of religion, and on all 
 persons of education, to sooth, console, and instruct, the industrious 
 artisan and laborer, on a subject in which they are so proiae to 
 errors of the most dangerous and fatal tendency ; to represent to 
 them that this island is like a ship at sea, on a voyage of twelve 
 months, with an inadequate store of provisions on board, and with 
 a precarious chance of any farther supply, and that too great an 
 expenditure in the beginning of the voyage would induce a famine 
 before they could arrive in port , that therefore it becomes them 
 
 1 I'eHx qui potuit rcrtiiu cognosccre cansas 
 At<]iie nictus omjies et inexorahiie tkinui 
 Snbjecit peditws, Ktrc]tit^mque Achlrdxtis arari. -Virgil. 
 
 NO. XVII. Pam. VOL. IX. T 
 
290 A Letter to Earl Spencer, 
 
 to submit with Christian patience to being put on short allowance 
 not giving way to unmanly repinings, much less disgracing them- 
 selves by mutiny. This class of society should also have it ex- 
 plained to them, that it is only by means of high prices that general 
 frugality and reduced consumption can be effected: and it might 
 be made plain to them, that the farmer ought to have such a price 
 as to indemnify him for the shortness of his crop, and to enable 
 him not only to continue but to increase his tillage , making them 
 even comprehend that the profits ought injustice to be higher than 
 in the simple inverse proportion of the scarcity, as explained in the 
 .note at page 288 ; that high prices are necessary in order to ensure 
 adequate importation ; that the farmers who produce, and the 
 -dealers who bring that produce to market for the accommodation 
 and subsistence of the community at large, and of the poor in 
 particular, instead of being the objects of their indignation, ought 
 to be regarded as their best friends. 
 
 I have only farther to add, that as this letter is intended for the 
 public eye, and as a question may arise concerning the purity of 
 the author's motives, he thinks it right to declare, that he is not 
 only no dealer in any of the articles of life, but that he has not the 
 smallest acquaintance or connection with any one who is. And 
 lest it should be said that he is probably some one in the pay of 
 government, he equally disclaims this charge. He can bring proof 
 that such were his opinions before these questions were publicly 
 agitated, and that he has freely and publicly declared them since 
 they have been agitated, at a time when it was generally believed 
 that the majority of his Majesty's ministers were of a different 
 way of thinking. 
 
 But my great security against the misconstruction of my motives 
 is, that the public think too well of your Lordship to believe that 
 you would suffer yourself to be addressed by a sordid trader or an 
 unprincipled mercenary, but by one whose character is well 
 known to you, and who has the honor to be, &c. 
 
 ILLUSTRATION I. Pages 261. 264. 
 
 It is an important feature in the character of the human species, 
 as distinguished from the brute creation, that it could never have 
 attained to the perfection of its nature, whether in point of happi- 
 ness or intelligence, if it depended solely for its existence and ne- 
 cessary accommodation on the spontaneous productions of Nature. 
 If the articles for maintaining life, referriWe to the heads of food, 
 clothing, arid shelter, more especially the first, were as indepen- 
 dent of our industry as are the necessaries of light, air and water, 
 neither the virtues nor faculties of rational nature could even have 
 been developed. In such a state there could be no such thing as 
 property, no play for the active and inventive energiesof man, 
 wfeether mental or corporeal, moral or political, no roomfor the 
 
072 the High Price of -Provisions. 291 
 
 talents exercised in productive industry and commercial inter- 
 course, all the mutual and endearing ties and dependencies of 
 social and civilized life, all the trades, professions, arts, and sci- 
 ences, whether ministering to the necessary accommodation or 
 elegance of life, constituting man's greatest felicity, whether as 
 objects of pursuit or enjoyment, would have been unknown. The 
 agricultural class l constituting more than one third of the popu- 
 lation of this island, and a much larger proportion in most other 
 countries, could not have existed. This is no where better ex- 
 pressed than by Virgil. 1 Another poet less philosophical, but in 
 language still more enchanting and animated, has represented a 
 state of Nature in which all things necessary to man were yielded 
 spontaneously, and in which he is exempted from care and labor, 
 as the state of supreme felicity, calling it the golden age. As his- 
 tory^does not countenance the existence of any such state of things, 
 we may fairly regard it as a fiction equally remote from truth as it 
 is inconsistent with reason. What the poet paints as a condition 
 of exalted virtue and happiness, the philosopher reprobates as a 
 condition which, if it could exist, would be more miserable and 
 degrading than the rudest state in which any portion of the human 
 species has yet been found to exist. 3 
 
 Of all the classes of food, there is none so suitable to human 
 life as the farinaceous matter contained in the seeds of certain 
 gramineous and leguminous plants. They are salutary, nutritious, 
 and grateful, and hold a middle rank between recent vegetables 
 and animal food. They are also wisely adapted by Providence as 
 the subjects of tillage, for in the various operations required for 
 raising them and preparing them for food, consists the most health- 
 ful occupation, they employ in most countries the largest portion 
 
 1 By the returns of population of England, Scotland, and Wales in 1811, the 
 number of families chiefly employed in Agriculture, \vas 895,998, in trade, ma- 
 uofactnres, or handicraft, 1,129,049; not comprised in the two precedng classes 
 519,168. The total number of persons composing these families was 12,396,80:3, 
 exceeding the enumeration of 1301 by 1,654,157. A friend of the Author's, 
 extremely conversant in Mich researches, has computed from data, furnished by 
 doomsday book, that the population at the Conquest could not be more than 
 on*-sixth of this, and from the best records that can be found it was about one- 
 third of it in the middle of the 16th, and one half of it about the end of the l?th 
 eentuiy. For the progressive population of this century and the last, see the 
 luminous and ingenious disquisition of Mr. Rickman in his preliminary remarks 
 [*erixed to the abstract of the population returns of 1811. 
 
 % Pater ipse colendi 
 
 Hand facilem esse viam voluit, primusque perartem 
 Movit agros curis acuens mortalia corda. 
 
 3 In illustrating the advantage of food procured by industry, over that which 
 u spontaneous, we may here quote a fact mentioned by Mr. Turner in th nar- 
 rative of his embassy to Tibet. In passing through Bootan, he remarked that 
 tL- country was sufficiently fertile in a species of wild rice, to supply the inha- 
 bitant* with food without labor, but that no people could be more wretched nor 
 W<W'*e Bocoamiodukjd ill every reaped. 
 
292 A Letter to Karl Spencer, 
 
 of the community, and constitute directly or indirectly the great 
 stamina of all opulence and power. 
 
 I apprehend there is no better way of illustrating this than by 
 assuming an extreme case by way of contrast. Let us suppose 
 then, an article of food, the bread fruit for example, to be in- 
 troduced into this or any other agricultural country, affording by 
 its spontaneous production a sufficiency of wholesome food for th 
 whole community. It is conceivable that a sugar colony which 
 exists by the production of a staple article of commerce, ard 
 which subsists almost solely on imported food, would bear this : 
 but it is manifest that an article of this kind, which would sup- 
 plant agricultural labor, would shake to the centre, nay utterly 
 subvert and dissolve the whole frame of civilized society. 
 
 But if the principle which this extreme case is meant to illustrate 
 be correct, it follows that there may be certain intermediate cases, 
 wherein, though the srune degree of ruin would not ensue, yet the 
 most serious inconvenience and disturbance would aribe in the 
 wholesome and established order of things. Is there any known 
 article of food, which though not altogether spontaneous, yet which 
 in its cultivation falls far short of that labor, vigilance, and ingenuity, 
 indispensable in raising and preparing corn for the food of man ? 
 Potatoes I apprehend answer to this description ; and is it not 
 erident that if this root were to supersede the use of the grains by 
 two-thirds, or even one-half, there would be an approximation to 
 the evils that have been stated as resulting from spontaneous food ? 
 This remark is meant to apply to England in case of such an event, 
 and though the proportion is far from being two-thirds, or even 
 'one-half, this article has so sensibly encroached on the cultivation 
 of corn as to constitute in the opinion of many one of the causes 
 of the present agricultural distress. With regard to a sister king- 
 dom, where the proportion that potatoes bears to the whole food 
 of the country is probably double or triple, this is not felt as it 
 would be in England, for the state of agriculture was so low in 
 Ireland when they were introduced, that they could not be said 
 to supersede corn, but to come in aid of it. The inconveniences 
 that have been .described, have, however, been sensibly felt in Ire- 
 land, for to this cause -must be referred the poverty, indolence, 
 and vicious habits of that country. Hence the other necessaries 
 of life, such as clothing and habitation, do not keep pace with rh? 
 abundance of the subsistence, aod the redundance of the popula- 
 tion ; neither have the peasantry the means of giving their chil- 
 dren that share of education which is necessary to civilize them ; 
 and to this is also referrible the multiplication of atrocious crime* 
 so frequent at this moment, (November IS 16) in that country. 
 
 Ireland is 4ie .only country where tins is the -dominant article of 
 -food. While it remains only a subordinate weara ef 
 
on the High Price of Provisions. 293 
 
 it is inestimable by insuring plenty and by increasing population. It 
 is well calculated also for preventing famines, not only as it is less 
 dependent on weather than the grains, but as it may be made a 
 large proportion of the food of cattle and horses. These cattle 
 themselves not only prove a resource, but a large share of their 
 subsistence may be converted to the use of man in years of 
 scarcity, so that though the use of potatoes may be carried too far 
 as an article of human subsistence, there is riot the same objection 
 to their becoming the food of animals to any extent. Nay it seems 
 to be the duty as well as interest of every patriotic and prudent 
 farmer, to use as much as possible of this species of provender for 
 his cattle, sheep, and horses. 
 
 ILLUSTRATION II. Page 2SO. 
 
 The introduction of potatoes has afforded a greater addition to 
 the general stock of subsistence than all the modern improvement 
 in agriculture. There is no other article constituting the suste- 
 nance of man, of which so large a quantity can be raised on so 
 small an area nor with so little labor; nor do they exhaust the 
 soils like the grains. They are also more independent than these, 
 of the fluctuation of seasons. It is moreover a victual highly nu- 
 tritious and wholesome, and requires no preparation but the sim- 
 ple action of fire. Yet such has been the rapid increase of popu- 
 lation in England, that with the aid of potatoes, added to the im- 
 mense accessions of home-grown corn and cattle, from the great 
 extension of tillage and the improved skiil in agricultur 1 opera- 
 lions, the collective mass of subsistence has not kept pace with the 
 augmented number of consumers, insomuch that at no xra has 
 there been so much corn imported from foreign countries. This 
 has been owing to the great demand for manufacturing labor, far 
 exceeding the wants of the native population, such indeed as to 
 furnish the materials of an export trade, to an amount unknown in 
 the history of the world. England is peculiarly adapted for sup- 
 plying other countries with various necessaries, accommoda- 
 tions, and luxuries, as well by the spirit of enterpnze, generated 
 and fostered by the security of their persons and property, con^- 
 forred by the constitution of their government and the laws of 
 their country, as by their ingenuity in the invention and applic?- 
 tion of machinery, by their superior capital, and by the abundance 
 and cheapness of fuel both as a necessary of life, and as a requisite 
 in many of the processes of manufacture.' It cannot be denied 
 
 1 It is from pit-roal ih;it Great li;tai:i tia* to look fuiu;:ni ;.; ;i!I timp to come 
 for IK- r lfi.vtu)r and ocli.sivc M-perion! \ tn niiiinii'.irtii; :;;ti and machi- 
 
 nery; IHT o!,rrt\vo advanint-es ii!;>\ in' anii'm <! l>\ oll.rr countries. ']':,< Mcam- 
 oiginc in panu-mar, could not tor maintained, to ul toy llu* clu-ap HW! abundant 
 snnply ot eo.iis pcf'nlrar to tills i-i.uul. In a co ivi-is.ition < Hh^ .infi-or's on this 
 subject us" . i.iiv minister from Spam to tin- court, he rc- 
 
 ni.irkfd, tbt liu- English coal-mines nii^ht pioprrly moduli toe c.tlu-u liuir IJiack 
 [mlios, meaning, no doubt, that they \v re as valuable to this country as those 
 of Mexico aud Peru to this country. They ait* Inyoiui a doubt much more so. 
 
294 A Letter to Earl Spencer, 
 
 that these are the main constituents of national wealth and power, 
 but it is equally true that agriculture has till lately been robbed of 
 its due share of capital and labor, by the superior profits and higher 
 wages of those engaged in manufactures. Accordingly we find 
 that the great increase of population in our times, has not been 
 in those districts in which the soil is most fertile, but where fuel 
 is most abundant. Those counties in which the population is 
 most dense, and in which it has chiefly increased since the begin- 
 ning of the last century, are Lancashire, Gloucestershire, War- 
 wickshire, Staffordshire, and the West Riding ot Yorkshire. No 
 reason can be assigned for these becoming the favorite seats of 
 industry, but the attraction of abundant and cheap fuel. The soil 
 in some of these is so far from being superior, that in Lancashire, 
 where the greatest increase of population has taken place, it is of 
 an inferior quality. 
 
 It is quite plain from all this that the advancement in popula- 
 tion in this or any other country is referrible to the motives held 
 out for the encouragement of early marriages, the chief of which is 
 the prospect of persons being able to command a sufficiency of 
 food, fuel, clothing and lodging for themselves and their offspring. 
 
 In going a little deeper into this subject, it may be remarked 
 that nature is extremely profuse in the production of the seminal 
 principle, both in the vegetable and animal kingdom. Of the 
 seeds and eggs which are generated, not one in many thousands is 
 developed. It is observed by naturalists that a single thistle 
 produces 24,000 seeds, and that in the roe of a single sturgeon, 
 there is a number of eggs equal to the whole number of human 
 beings on the face of the earth. It may be remarked, that corn 
 itself is a seed of which the purposes of nature require that a very 
 small proportion should be developed in perpetuating the plant. 
 Jn the animal kingdom, if even the small proportion which is 
 developed, were in some species of animal to arrive at maturity, 
 and if a great part of them were not cut off in early life by disease, 
 by accident, or as food for other animals, the earth would be over- 
 stocked. 
 
 In the human species the physical powers of procreation are 
 indefinite, for it is demonstrable that no country ever has supported, 
 nor ever can support the number of human beings, which might 
 be brought into existence by the exercise of those powers to their 
 utmost extent. If every male and female were to marry as soon 
 as they are marriageable, the species would double every ten or 
 twelve years, according to the computation of some theorists. 
 But they have been found actually to double in fifteen years. Let 
 this last be assumed nsthe maximum, and if any one will try itby 
 the rule of geometrical progression, he will find that in about 110 
 years, there would be more inhabitants in the island of Great Bri- 
 tain, than the present amount of the whole human species, reckon- 
 
On tte High Price of Provisions. 295 
 
 ing the population of this island to be 12 millions, which is some* 
 what less than the late enumeration in 1811, and assuming the 
 population of the world, according to a gross computation of 
 some political economists, to be 1,200 millions. 
 
 The most rapid increase of population ' that has been actually 
 ascertained to take place, has been in the English American colo- 
 nies, where the inhabitant?;, soon after the first occupation of the 
 soil, doubled in most districts in '25 years, but in one of them in 
 15 years. It is manifest that this rate of progression could not 
 go on for more than one or two steps, * as no fertility of soil could 
 keep pace with it. The country in Europe, in which there has 
 been by far the most rapid increase of population in this age, has 
 been Ireland. Sir William Petty computed the population of 
 it about the time of the revolution at a million. Captain South, 
 in an article in the Phil. Trans. Vol. XXII. p. 518, computes 
 it in the year 1695, at 1,034-, 102. It appears, from an enquiry, 
 instituted by the Parliament of Ireland in 1732, that the computa- 
 tion then was 2,011,319. Mr. Newenham in an elaborate work 
 published in 1805, entitled, A Statistical enquiry into the population 
 of Ireland, computes it at upwards of 5 millions, and calculates 
 that it had doubled in 46 years. 
 
 An Act of Parliament passed for the enumeration of the inhabi- 
 tants of Ireland in the year 1812, but so many difficulties occurred 
 that returns have not yet (November 1816.) been made, but there 
 is good reason to believe that it contains upwards of five millions, 
 so that it has quintupled in about 120 years. There has perhaps, 
 during that period, been less political disturbance and misrule than 
 
 1 See Political and Philosophical Miscellanies by Benjamin Franklin, LL. D. 
 P. 263. Loud. 1779. 
 
 2 This is admirably elucidated by Mr. Malthus in his Essay on the principle 
 of Population page 4, 2d Edition. * See also Price on Reversionary payments, 
 P. 274. and 83. That there can be no greater number of inhabitants in any 
 country than there is food to maintain them, seems at first sight a mere insipid tru- 
 ism, hardly worthy of being enunciated in words. 1 1 has been from over-looking it 
 however, that historical and political writers have been led into gross errors and 
 inconsistencies, nor before the work of Mr. Malthus was it ever clearly laid down 
 and reasoned upon as a fundamental axiom in political economy, thai subsistence 
 IN the great regulator ^population. Neither war, emigration, nor epidemic dis- 
 ".iscs have any sensible nor dnvable effect in impairing population! If subsis- 
 tence remains um'.iimnished, such losses are immediately repaired. As a proof of 
 the very crude state in which this branch of political science remained at a very late 
 period of En<r!hh literature, it may be remarked that Lord Lyttleton in his His- 
 tory of the life of Henrv IT. observes' that there arc no data for computing the po- 
 pulation of that period, bet that it is to be prcsuim 1 from the orderly habits of 
 the people enforced by strict police, --ind from the hfalthy and robust constitu- 
 tions of the inhabitants, conducive? to propagation, that the population must have 
 been great. An author of the present day, veisaut in what is noyv (itemed the 
 sound principles of political science, would say that considering the scanty stock 
 of nourishment, in consequence of the want of skill in agriculture, which was 
 also depressed in tii;;t. age, not only by feudal oppression in common with 
 the rest of Europe, but by the vexations and exactions of the Norman invaders,, 
 the population must have been very low at that period, and probably under ^ 
 temporary decline. 
 
 1 Sc Lord Lyttleton's Life of II. II. Vol. 2. T. 336. London, IjdT. 1st Edition. 
 
296 A Letter to Earl Spencer, 
 
 
 i preceding ages, a circumstance no doubt favorable to that 
 security of person an<i property, which encourages industry and 
 the rearing of families ; but the main and nearly the sole cause has 
 been the abundance of easily procurable food from the introduction 
 of potatoes. The other causes assignee! by political writers for the 
 increase of population, namely, wise institutions and the increased 
 demand for labor, could have but little share in it. It is ascriba* 
 ble therefore exclusively, we may affirm, to the facility of procur- 
 ing food operating as a motive to early marriages. This reasoning, 
 though founded equally on fact, and on the principles of human 
 nature, has been controverted ami even slighted and ridiculed by 
 those who will not take the trouble of reflecting seriously on the 
 subject. They allege, that prudential considerations can have but 
 little weight in restraining the animal propensities among the 
 lower orders any where, and least of all in a nation so heedless and 
 improvident as the Irish. This being a curious as well as impor- 
 tant subject of research, it may be, worth while to take a closer 
 view of it. 
 
 Potatoes constitute probably much more than two thirds of the 
 subsistence of the Irish nation, but let two thirds be assumed as 
 the proportion which this article bears to every other. We do 
 not mean to affirm that if this root had never been introduced, 
 the population would amount to only one third of five millions, 
 foT in this case the cultivation of corn would probably have been 
 more attended to. Let it be admitted that the population had 
 by these improvements been doubled in place of being quintupled, 
 which is more than a fair allowance, for it is nearly as much al 
 England, a country so much more prosperous, has increased in the 
 same time. This being granted there remain three millions to be 
 placed to the account of potatoes. It may next be asked what would 
 have become of these three millions had potatoes notbeen introduced ? 
 how would they have been disposed of, had this root never been 
 brought to Ireland ? They could not have been destroyed by infanti- 
 cide, this being a practice never known nor heard of in a nation so 
 remarkable for its attachment to offspring. Would epidemic dis- 
 eases or famine account for the destruction of so many human 
 beings ? This is equally contrary to historical truth, for the cli- 
 mate of this country is one of the finest in the world, no coun- 
 try has been less afflicted with pestilential disorders, nor is there 
 any country in the history of which famines have been more rare- 
 ly recorded, either before or since the introduction of potatoes. 
 It follows that there is no possible solution of this difficulty, but 
 by admitting that had it not been for this new article of food, 
 these three millions of human creatures would ?iever have been 
 called into existence. 
 
 There is undeniably among all conditions of mankind a check 
 imposed by prudence, which more or less restrains and regulates 
 
On the 1-Iigh Price of Provisions. 297 
 
 the physical powers of procreation, and adjusts population to sub- 
 sistence. It operates slowly and silently, arid therefore not per- 
 ceptibly, till the accumulated effect become sensible, and affords 
 a demonstrative proof that motives of prudence influence even 
 the most thoughtless, deterring them from such premature mar- 
 
 inade in 1 801 and 1811. During the two years of great scarcity 
 1800 and 1801, the number of marriages,, as appears by these 
 returns, was considerably diminished in the metropolis, and still 
 more in the kingdom at large. The average number of marriages 
 for the five preceding years, was 67,7 13 : in 1800 they were only 
 6:'i,4f29. And in 1801 they were 63,800. The statement in the 
 latter will appear still stronger, when it is considered that tne enu- 
 meration was made from an amount, including 612 parishes more 
 than the preceding year. This was evidently imputable to the 
 discouragement to marriage among the laboring orders, from the 
 prospect of the difficulty of maintaining a family, under the exist- 
 ing scarcity and high price of provisions. Tn the first two years 
 after the return of plenty, that is, in the years 1802 and 1803/ 
 the number of marriages considerably exceeded the above men- 
 tioned average, the number in the former standing 85,84-5, and in 
 the latter 89, 1*6. This was no doubt owing to the solemnization 
 of the marriages of those who had been betrothed in the years of 
 scarcity, but who had deferred the consummation till better times. 
 That these fluctuations were neither casual nor proceeding from 
 errors in computation, is clearly evinced by the baptisms under- 
 going a like fluctuation in the corresponding years , and we have in 
 all this, a fine example of the silent, slow, and imperceptible, but 
 sure and efficient workings of moral causes in regulating, con- 
 trolling, and meliorating the physical condition of the human 
 species. 
 
 When these causes are left to their own natural and undisturbed 
 operation, they produce the salutary effect of adjusting population 
 to subsistence, but when defeated by artificial institutions and per- 
 verted notions, the most pernicious consequences result. This is 
 very strikingly exemplified in China, where nature is thwarted by 
 a sendment interwoven in the national character, originating pro- 
 bably in false policy or superstition, by which celibacy is held to 
 be disreputable. This giving occasion to premature marriages, 
 accounts for that excess of population, which there is no means of 
 repressing, so as to keep it within the limits of subsistence, but by 
 the practice of infanticide. This expedient is so abhorrent to the 
 
 1 It has be :-u bi'fim- suit! that tm- ycr 1799 and Uu> ( .- unc tin- two years of 
 scarcity. This is reronciled witli the text above, by remarking tliat fliest> lw 
 yars were the yean of short crops, but it is not till the subsequent year that 
 want is much feft. 
 
298 A Letter to Earl Spencer, 
 
 feelings of nature, that it is not carried to such an extent as to be 
 adequate to its end, for we are assured by travellers, that a year 
 rever passes without famine being felt in a greater or less degree 
 in one province or another of the empire. Is not the mental and 
 bodily imbecility, the meanness, fraud, and other degrading quali- 
 ties so conspicuous in the Chinese character, referrible to the 
 anxiety in seeking, and the difficulty of obtaining, the means of 
 supporting life ? 
 
 There is nothing so conducive to the happiness, dignity, and 
 virtue of man, as the due adjustment of population to subsist- 
 ence, unless it is that principle by which all parents hold them- 
 selves bound, whether from motives of duty, affection, or decent 
 pride, to maintain their own offspring. Wherever this principle is 
 wanting, the sure foundation is laid of misery, vice, and meanness, 
 and it is with the deepest and most heartfelt regret, that every good 
 and considerate man must contemplate these effects, as necessarily 
 flowing from the poor-laws, and the great aggravation of these 
 effects in our time, from a provision made by the legislature in the 
 year 1800, in consequence of the concurrence of scarcity with the 
 .depreciation of money, whereby the wages of laborers became in- 
 adequate to their maintenance, and it was judged more advisable 
 to direct an allowance from the funds of the poor, than to in- 
 crease their wages. This provision for the families of laborers and 
 artisans, according to their number, was continued after the scar- 
 city, which alone could justify it, had ceased, and the effect of it 
 on their uncultivated minds, has been to -add to those habits of 
 idleness, debauchery, and improvidence, induced by the poor- 
 laws, and to extinguish the last sparks of that decent pride, (per- 
 haps more properly termed self-respect,) the only guide and safe- 
 guard of industry, sobriety, frugality, and chastity. One of the 
 greatest evils engendered by this system, is that of marriages con- 
 tracted with little other prospect of future maintenance for the 
 parties and their offspring, but the dependance on parish relief; and 
 many of those who earn high wages, are so destitute of every good 
 sentiment and virtuous principle, that in place of prosecuting in- 
 dustry, and laying up a provision for the support and education of 
 their children, or to provide for themselves and their families, in 
 case of sickness, old age, or deatn, waste the remaining days of 
 the week in dissipating their gains in grovelling and licentious 
 pleasures. To this depravity of morals, bad example, and neglect 
 of education, may be attributed the juvenile delinquency, prevail- 
 ing at this time in this metropolis to a degree never before known ; 
 and it has appeared from the researches of a committee of the 
 House of Commons appointed to enquire into the state of the 
 police, that these vicious children were uneducated, whereas in a 
 report by Mr. Raikes, it appeared that of 4000 young persons 
 who had been properly educated, only one case of criminal con- 
 
On the High Price of Provisions. 299 
 
 duct had occurred , and the like beneficial effect of instruction 
 was evinced by the evidence of Mr. Robert Owen, superintendant 
 of the cotton mills at New Lanark, in his examination last summer 
 before the committee, for enquiring into the state of education 
 of the lower orders, as well as in his printed work, entitled, A NEW 
 VIEW OF SOCIETY. It will not be denied, that in that portion 
 of the community which lives independently of manual labor, the 
 liberal manners, good principles, and decent comportment, which 
 distinguish them from the vulgar, is the fruit of education. It is by 
 these qualities that they are preserved from flagitious as well as 
 from grovelling vices, and from inconsiderately contracting mar- 
 riages, in circumstances which would entail poverty arid distress 
 on their offspring. Will it be said that one portion of the hu- 
 man species is so different from another, that the like ends are 
 not attainable by the like means in the one as in the other ; and 
 that a degree of knowledge suitable to their respective con- 
 ditions, will not have a like influence on the character and con- 
 duct of each ? This is not a speculative conceit, for it has been 
 practically exemplified in Scotland, where by the superior in- 
 telligence and virtuous principles, early impressed on the minds of 
 all ranks, the relative duties are inculcated, understood, and prac- 
 tised, the mutual attachments of kindred are cherished, habits of 
 industry and frugality are acquired and exercised, not merely for 
 their own maintenance, but for the support and education of their 
 children, and as a provision against age and sickness, so as to 
 avoid the degradation of parochial relief to themselves, their off- 
 spring, their brothers, sisters, or parents. It is well known from 
 authentic historical evidence, that these benefits were derived 
 from the institution of parochial schools, for we learn from the 
 works of Fletcher of Salton, and from some passages in the statis- 
 tical account of parishes collected by Sir J. Sinclair, that the com- 
 monalty of Scotland before that time were extremely brutal, idle, 
 and vicious. 
 
 Can it admit of a doubt that instruction being the only means 
 of infusing good principles and self-esteem is the greatest boon 
 that can be conferred on a nation, and the only grounds of hope 
 for recalling the labouring classes of England from that state of 
 degradation into which they have fallen ? Can it be in the order 
 of Providence, that this canker which preys on the moral vital* 
 of the community is irremediable ? The radical remedy however 
 will be sought for in vain, by any other means than that of operat- 
 ing a change in the dispositions and principles of the people, 
 through the medium of instruction. It is manifest that all legal 
 regulation and co-ercion must prove either totally abortive, or 
 merely palliative, without an improvement in those fundamental 
 principles of religion and morality, those sentiments of duty and 
 
SOO A Letter to Eari Spencer, 
 
 self -respect, upon which alone the edifice of human happiness, 
 dignity, and virtue, is reared. 1 
 
 ILLUSTRATION III. Page 278. 
 
 The function of money as an instrument for promoting the con- 
 venience, and facilitating the transactions of human life is two-fold" : 
 it serves as a medium for effecting and expediting the transfer of 
 commodities and the purchase of labor ; and it serves as a standard 
 or measure of value, for ascertaining and comparing the value of 
 the subjects of property. The depreciation of it, therefore, must 
 be a matter of serious moment in the affairs of social and civilized 
 life. It is obvious that much inconvenience must arise, when the 
 same denomination of money, a pound for instance, can be 
 exchanged for only half the quantity of the necessaries of life, 
 which it could formerly procure under the same circumstances. 
 
 The term Depreciation was originally applied to coin whether adul- 
 terated by base admixtures, or reduced in weight by monetary fraud, 
 or by wear, at a time when metals were the only circulating medium. 
 When it is applied to paper currency, it means either that reduction 
 of value which takes place in consequence of the suspected 
 solvency of those who issue it, or that which is caused by excess 
 of issues. In the two first senses it affects money, chiefly as a 
 medium of exchange, in the last chiefly as a standard of value. 
 It is in this last sense that we are here to consider it. 
 
 The evils resulting from this depreciation are, 1st. The great 
 hardships arising from it to annuitants and others living on fixed 
 incomes. 2dly. The injustice and confusion arising in all contracts 
 for time ; for when a depreciation of money takes place in the 
 interim between the stipulations of a covenant and its fulfilment, 
 the terms, though the same in name, become totally different in 
 substance and meaning. This holds true, not only in the trans- 
 actions of private life, but between the public debtor and creditor ; 
 for it is obvious that the value of the national stock falls in 
 proportion to this depreciation, and that a portion of the 
 national debt, equal to the difference of the original value and the 
 depreciated value, is virtually paid off to the advantage of the state, 
 and to the prejudice of the stockholder. Sdly. The difficulty of 
 adjusting wages, particularly agricultural wages, to the enhanced 
 price of the necessaries of life. The evils which arose from the 
 attempts to correct this by the legislature directing allowance to 
 be made to laborers in health from parochial funds have been 
 already adverted to. 
 
 In those ages in which metals were the only medium of ex- 
 
 * See this subject treated with a comprehension of mind, a force of argument, and 
 a manly elocution, which has rarely been equalled, by Mr. Malthus in the 1 1th 
 and 12th chap, of the 4th book of his Essay on the Principle of Population, 2d Ed. 
 
On the High Price of Provisions. 301 
 
 change, great inconvenience arose from the deterioration of coin 
 both in quality and weight, and we know of no country in which 
 frauds and abuses in this branch of public administration have not 
 been practised to a great extent, as is denoted by the difference 
 of weight of metal equivalent to a pound in money, and that of a 
 pound weight of the same metal, of which the money originally con- 
 sisted. This is remarkable enough in England, but still moreinFrance. 
 The universal tendency to such depreciation is such, that its opposite, 
 that is, an increase of the value of money is unknown in history as 
 fir as I know, and in proof of it there is no word in any language 
 with which I am acquainted, to serve as a co-relative to it. The de- 
 preciation and neglect of the coin, as has been already remarked, rose 
 to such a pitch in the reign of Edward VI. 1 that those who brought 
 commodities to market, did not know what to ask for them, and not 
 unfrequently returned home with them and endeavoured to find 
 a market in foreign parts. This, together with the impolitic and 
 impracticable laws enacted in this reign against forestalled, nearly 
 suspended all commerce by precluding the supplies of the market, 
 so that it was found necessary to make a total reformation in the 
 coin in the end of this reign, and that of Oueen Elizabeth. 
 
 The great multiplication of the precious metals by the discovery 
 of America, caused a great depreciation of coin, but this was not 
 felt in proportion to the magnitude of this increase, for the growth 
 of commerce was so rapid about that time, that a greater quan- 
 tity was found necessary for carrying on the extended dealings of 
 the world. Metallic money was found soon afterwards to be a very 
 cumbersome and inadequate method, for fulfilling engagements and 
 settling accounts in countries remote from each other. To 
 obviate this, bills of exchange a were brought in aid of money. 
 This was soon improved upon, by the employing of written obliga- 
 tions founded upon credit, as a medium of circulation, so as to 
 make paper perform the function of money ; and England being 
 the country in which credit was most vigorous, on account of the 
 superior security of person and property, and superior good faith, 
 grounded on public and individual morality ; this species of 
 currency had here the earliest and fullest scope, and has been 
 found of incalculable utility in facilitating commercial transactions, 
 in giving activity to capital, and in stimulating industry. It has the 
 advantage over metallic currency, of not being susceptible of 
 physical deterioration, in being more transportable, of being capa- 
 ble of being increased or diminished, at will, according to the 
 
 1 See treatise on the COHJS of tlie Realm, by the Earl of Liverpool, p. 
 Ixmdou 1C').'). 
 
 * See this subject as well as other branches of political economy, treated v.ith 
 great clearness and precision, in a work m titled " Conversations on Political 
 Economy," a work which from the plain am' familiar styk in which it is written, 
 h well adapted to diffuse this branch of useful knowledge. London, 1816. 
 
3O2 A Letter to Earl Spencer, 
 
 exigences of society, and in its materials costing comparatively 
 nothing. Its disadvantages are, that it may become depreciated 
 by distrust in those on whose credit it is issued, and that it may 
 become totally annihilated by their insolvency. It is liable also to 
 be multiplied to excess, so as to disturb the regularity arid fairness 
 of commercial dealings, for if the quantity of any sort of currency 
 is carried beyond a certain point, it loses that useful attribute by 
 which it serves as a standard of value in other words, it becomes 
 depreciated in virtue of the law of supply and demand by which 
 the exchangeable value of all articles is ascertained ; for as com- 
 modities and labor are purchased with money, so money may be 
 said to be purchased by these, and the price of money will depend 
 on the quantity at market, like any other article. 
 
 It has been alleged in the text, that currency cannot be carried to 
 excess by creating paper money to answer such discounts and loans as 
 the exigencies of manufactures, agriculture, and commerce demand, 
 being the expression and measure, as it were, of what is requisite for 
 these legitimate purposes ; and it was farther alleged, that in case 
 either bankers or traders should carry their speculations beyond the 
 bounds ot prudence, there was a principle of self-correction which 
 brought them back to what was moderate, and what would prove salu- 
 tary to themselves and to society. That there has been an excess 
 of circulating medium in the last twenty years is evident, however, 
 from the prices of the necessaries of life, and the wages of labor 
 having nearly doubled in that time. Nor can there be a doubt that 
 this has been mainly owing to the advances made to the State, and 
 the payment of the yearly increasing dividends on the national 
 stocks in their own paper only, and to an unexampled amount, an 
 amount rendered necessary by the peculiar circumstances of the 
 times, the nation having been engaged in a war the most extensive, 
 the most expensive, the most portentous, and the most protracted 
 in the history of the world. This great and rapid creation of cir- 
 culating medium augmented the price of the precious metals, in 
 common with every other commodity, so that in the year 1797, 
 the Bank found that they could not purchase them for the purpose 
 of coin without ruin to themselves. This gave occasion to the 
 restriction act of that year, prohibiting the Bank of England from 
 paying their notes in cash. This Bank being thus set free from 
 those prudential restraints which co-erce private Banks, it has been 
 alleged that they have abused this licence by making exorbitant 
 issues. This, however, has never been proved, nor does it appear 
 that it could ever be either their wish or their interest to do so. 
 With regard to the discounts made to individuals, it was equally 
 their interest and their duty now, as in time past, to satisfy themselves 
 of the responsibility of those whom they trusted ; and with regard 
 to the public accommo4atkm and payments, they h^ve no choice. 
 
On the High Price of Provisions. 3O3 
 
 They had no other means of paying the interest of the public debt 
 or dividends, as they are called, which from the beginning of the 
 war in 1793, till its conclusion in 1815, had increased from nine 
 millions to twenty-nine * millions. The gold had all disappeared 
 by clandestine exportation or hoarding, and if these payments had 
 been made in specie, this would equally have added to the mass of 
 circulating medium. This mass went on increasing in the course 
 of the war by the continued creation of paper currency. 
 
 It does not appear to a plain man like the writer of this, what 
 grounds there were in all this for censure, either of the Bank or of 
 the Government. To say that they did not pursue the best possible 
 course, is merely saying that they did not possess that perfection 
 which does not belong to human nature nor human conduct. 
 Great and singular difficulties and dangers called for great and sin- 
 gular exertions, for novel, untried, and unheard-of resources, and 
 we cannot look back with other sentiments than those of gratitude 
 and admiration at the genius, firmness, and perseverance of those 
 statesmen, and on the talents and intrepidity of those warriors by- 
 sea and land, who have conducted this arduous and dubious con- 
 test to a happy issue. And who will say that the prize has been 
 won at too high a cost, the country having not only saved itself, but 
 delivered the civilised world from the most degrading and almost 
 hopeless subjugation and oppression ; and the successful result of 
 the struggle has left it doubtful whether this era in the History of 
 Britain will appear to posterity most, wonderful for her unexampled 
 wealth and power, the wisdom -and energy of her counsels, the mag- 
 nitude of her productive industry, and commercial enterprizes, or her 
 martial spirit, the high atchievements and renown of her fleets and 
 armies. 
 
 During the whole course of this war, there was an accelerated 
 increase, not only of currency which is merely the sign or sha- 
 dow of wealth, but also of agriculture, of manufacture, of popula- 
 tion, of commerce, foreign and domestic, in short, of whatever is 
 understood to constitute the substantial opulence, power, and pros- 
 perity of a country. Every one acquainted with history knows that 
 there are particular objects which temporarily excite the human mind 
 in particular ages and countries, and which spread through communi- 
 ties as it were by contagion. The most signal of these objects are the 
 spirit of war and conquest, the pursuits of literature and science, but 
 above all, political and religious phrensies. A more sober and less 
 dangerous species of excitement has possessed the minds of the 
 inhabitants of Gre'at Britain the last twenty years, consisting in an 
 universal spirit or rage for agricultural and manufacturing adventure. 
 
 With regard to agriculture, a satisfactory proof of this assertion 
 
 1 This applies only to the unredeemed debt, and is exclusive of the sinking 
 fynd which amounted to fourteen millions. See Chalmers's State of the United 
 1816. 
 
304* ..'' Letter to Earl Spencer, 
 
 vil! be found in a comparison of the number of inclosure bills at 
 different periods, from the beginning of the last century till the 
 present time.' In the reign of King William III. there were none. 
 In the reign of Queen Arine there were thr-eer In the reign of 
 George I. there were sixteen. In that of George II. 144. During 
 tfoat pa.rt of the present reigri which preceded the Jate war, that is 
 fom !7<>0ti!l 1792, the- number of these bills was one thousand four 
 hundred and forty, making an annual average of about forty-four. 
 From that tiwie, tilt 18! 3, their number was seventeen hundred and 
 ninety-eight, which makes an annual average of about eighty-two. 
 During that part of the present century which had elapsed before 
 this account was taken, that is from 1801 to 1813, both inclusive, 
 the number of these bills was one thousand two hundred arid 
 ninety-six, making an annual average of about ninety-nine. In 
 die year 1811, the number was one hundred and thirty-three, 
 which is only eleven less than the whole number in the reign of 
 Ceorge II. and the number in any two of these years taken toge- 
 ther, is greater than the whole number in the first sixty years of 
 the last cenftiry. 
 
 This statement presents a true picture of the accelerated rapidity 
 with which this, the most important branch of national industry, lias 
 advanced, and arTb-rds an authentic specimen of the -spirit of the 
 times. The improvement of agriculture in point of skill, added 
 still more perhaps to the sum total of production, than the exten- 
 sion of it implied in the number of inclosure bills, and proves that 
 the intelligence of this age -keeps pace with its spirit. 
 
 With regard to manufactures and commerce, let us endeavour 
 to find out also some criterion whereby to judge of their progress 
 ia the same space of time. Perhaps none better can be pitched 
 upon than the export trade, for the wealth and prosperity of a 
 country must be in proportion to that surplus of its productive 
 industry which remains after the supply of domestic wants. The 
 magnitude of this is asoertainable from the account kept at the 
 Custom-house, both of the tonnage of the ships employed in this 
 trade, and of the value of their cargoes. It appears from this that 
 the average tonnage of ships cleared outward from the ports of- 
 Great Britain, including foreign vessels, in the years 1755-6-7 was 
 572.710, that in the years 1793-4-5, it was 1.518.498, that in the 
 years 1803-4-5, it was 2.059.924, that in 1609, it was 2.2S0.982, 
 and that in 1S14, it was 2.447.263, and from the finance account 
 delivered to the House of Commons, March 1816, it appears that 
 it amounted to 2.777.306 in the year 1815. And it appears that thr 
 *alue of cargoes exported in the same periods was as follows : 
 
 1 iSoc Report of the Committee of the House of Lords, rommnnicated the 2Sd 
 of Nov. 1814. 
 
 z See State of the United Kujgdoirss at thje peace -of Paris, by Ge*rg CbaS- 
 er*, Esq. London, 1S15. 
 
On tlie High Price of Provisions. 305 
 
 12.371.552/. on an average of the years 1755-6-7, 33.6H.902/ on 
 an average of the years 1793-4-5, 50.301.763/. in 1809, 
 56.59 1 . 1 54/. in 1 8 1 4. It is here observable that the value of cargoes, 
 at the beginning of war, bears a much smaller proportion to that at 
 the end of it, than the amounts of the tonnage at the same period. 
 This is what might be expected, being the necessary result of the de- 
 preciation of money in the interim. It follows that the tonnage is 
 the fairest criterion. The export trade therefore, that is, the products 
 of national industry, including that of the colonies in the beginning 
 and at the end of the war, stood in the ratio of 1.518.495 to 
 2.447.268. 
 
 It seems natural to think that war should at all times greatly dis- 
 courage and obstruct commerce. In reviewing historically, how- 
 ever, the comparative commerce of this country at different periods, 
 it does not appear that war has had a very prejudicial effect upon 
 it. In the seven years war the exports were diminished in the first 
 years of it, but this was more than made up by the increase in the 
 latter years of it. In the American war, which partook of the 
 nature of a civil war, it was diminished near a fourth part, com- 
 pared to the preceding seven years. But it is peculiar to the late 
 war, that the trade should, in the course of it, have increased very 
 near two thirds. This was not owing merely to the annihilation 
 of the fleets of the maritime powers of Europe, all of which were 
 at war with this country, but to the vast increase of production. 
 The enterprising spirit already adverted to, was animated not only 
 by the great quantity of currency set afloat by the issues and 
 accommodations of the Bank of England, but by that of the mul- 
 tiplied country Banks. It appears from the investigations of the 
 bullion committee in 1810, that the number of these Banks in 
 1797, was 230, and that they had from that time^ till 1810, grown 
 to the number of seven hundred and twenty-one. 
 
 The first impression made o,n the mind by reflecting on these 
 statements, is the picture which they exhibit of a great nation, en- 
 gaged in an extensive war, and pursuing, at the same time, the 
 occupations of peace with singular ardor and success. 
 
 The next reflection which naturally occurs is, that as the wants 
 of mankind are limited, this rapid creation of the products cf 
 industry must also be limited. From investigations made in the year 
 1800, it appeared clearly that even in years of plenty, the agri- 
 culture of England could not maintain its population. The high 
 prices in that year of scarcity proved an additional stimulus to agri- 
 culture, which proceeded as has been already stated with an acce- 
 lerated pace, so that in the year 1813, the domestic production, 
 together with the importation from the Continent and Ire-land, 
 proved more than sufficient for the general subsistence. In the 
 month of February of that year, the average price of wheat 
 was one hundred and nineteen shillings the quarter. After 
 
 NO. XVII. Pam. VOL. IX. U 
 
306 A Letter to Earl Spencer, 
 
 the gathering in of the crop, which proved a very plentiful one, the 
 price of corn began rapidly to fall, so that the average of December 
 was seventy-two shillings. This fall involves an internal evidence of 
 superabundance ; for however the case may be with regard to arti- 
 cles, the demand for which fluctuates with fashion and fancy, it is 
 not conceivable that under the same demand, the price of articles 
 indispensable to life can be affected by any other means than the 
 amount of the supply. Corn continued to fall still lower in 1814, 
 but notwithstanding an enormous importation from France after 
 the conclusion of the treaty of peace, where it could be procured 
 at thirty-three shillings per quarter, none of the monthly averages 
 of that year fell lower than sixty-seven. But the bill brought into 
 parliament for the protection of British agriculture having been 
 thrown out, the importation continued, and the accumulation of 
 foreign grain was so great, that notwithstanding the ports being 
 shut in the month of March 1815, the prices continued falling the 
 whole of that year, so that the average of December, was fifty-five- 
 shillings and ninepence. The lowest price was in the middle of Ja- 
 nuary following, the weekly average having been -fifty-two shillings 
 and sixpence. It continued about fifty-five till April, when it 
 began to rise, and continued to do so gradually till harvest, and the 
 new crop proving very deficient in quantity and bad in quality on 
 account of the cold and wet weather of summer, resembling 
 very much the season of 1799, and its being on account of the 
 continued rains badly got in, it rose rapidly, so that in the middle 
 of November the ports were opened in conformity to the act of par- 
 liament, the average of the maritime counties having for six weeks 
 been above eighty shillings The rise since that time has been so 
 rapid that the average of England and Wales was stated in the 
 London Gazette of the 21st of June to be 104.2 that is double 
 of what it was the first month of this year. 
 
 From the end of 1813, till the summer 1816, the prices had 
 been so low as in many places not to pay the expences of cultiva- 
 tion, and in none to yield living profit and fair rent. Had the pro- 
 tecting act passed at the beginning of this period, what an infinity 
 of public calamity and individual misery would have been pre- 
 vented! The evil consequences of the prejudices which prevented 
 this salutary measure, was not confined to farmers and landlords, 
 but recoiled on the authors of it j' for the cheapness of bread was 
 much more than countervailed by the want of employment. The 
 great defalcation of the rents of landlords, and of the profits of farm- 
 ers, disabled them from employing the same number of laborers, and 
 from consuming those articles by which thousands of artisans earn 
 their subsistence. Mr. Western, member of parliament for Essex, 
 in a most able and luminous but affecting speech on this subject, 
 
 1 While the bill was pending in parliament in 1814, the im>b of London broke 
 into the house of the Hon. F. Robinson, who bronght it in, destroying and defacing 
 the furniture, and committed various outrages in the houses of several other 
 members who were considered as favorable to it. 
 
On tfie High Price of Provisions. 307 
 
 on the 6th of March 1816, computed that the animal receipts of 
 farmers throughout England arid Wales, had suffered a diminution 
 of seventy millions in 1815, compared to 1812, the greater part 
 of which would have been expended in the maintenance of laborers 
 and artisans, and might therefore be regarded as so much withheld 
 from them. The laboring part of the community might therefore 
 be considered as starving in the midst of plenty, as Mr. Western 
 expressed it, being much less able to maintain themselves now than 
 when bread was one third dearer. This blindness was not confined 
 to that class of the community who have ignorance and want of edu- 
 cation for their excuse. The measure was opposed by some of 
 those belonging to the superior classes, both in and out of parlia- 
 ment, who pertinaciously resisted, and effectually defeated it in 
 1813 and 1814, and it passed after considerable opposition in 1815. 
 These incidents have had the good effect at least of proving the 
 reasonableness and efficacy of protecting the domestic production of 
 corn, which is certainly as well entitled to such protection as certain 
 other branches of manufacture of "much less importance. They also 
 illustrate the mutual dependance which all ranks of society have 
 upon each other. What can be more obvious than that the surplus 
 production of the farmer could not be disposable unless there were 
 artisans and manufacturers to consume it, and that the latter could 
 not exist without that large branch of consumption depending on 
 the profits of farmers and the income of landlords. 1 
 
 1 Some eminent political economists regard mere consumers as a burden to the 
 community. The Roman Poet might very justly stigmatise his rich countrymen 
 by the epithet ot'fruges consumere miti, for they supported their luxury by plunder 
 and extortion in subjugated countries, and from the same resources, corrupted 
 the populace by largesses and shows. On the other hand, the luxury, or rather 
 the liberal indulgences, the becoming elegance and splendor of the nobility 
 and gentry of England, is a necessary part of that economical machinery which 
 maintains the circulation and mutual dependance of these two great departments 
 of productive industry, agriculture, and manufactures. It is this state of society, 
 and not the ojther, which is so aptly characterized in the fable of the belly and 
 the limbs, by which, in the purer ages of the Roman Republic, a dangerous sedi- 
 tion was appeased. If one were called upon to name who was the fatherand founder 
 of the science of political economy, one would name neither Sir W. Petty, nor M. 
 Qut'snoy, nor M. Mirabeau, nor Adam Smith, nor Sir James Stewart, nor any 
 modern author, but Menenius Agrippa, the author of this most ingenious and 
 very apposite apologue, which if it had been equally well understood by the high 
 and low vulgar of this metropolis, as it was by the populace of Rome, we should 
 not have seen the corn bill twice defeated, nor would this city have been dis- 
 graced by the scandalous riots of 1814, nor polluted by the still more audacious 
 and seditious outrages of the 2d of Dec. 1816. It has been disputed whether 
 ignorance, faction, or intimidation, had the greatest share in defeating the corn 
 bill. This is a question which the writer of tins does not feel himself called upon 
 to decide, nor would it become him to impute motives to any one. But ought not 
 we of this age which calls itself enlightened, and enjoying the boasted benefit of 
 the press in diffusing knowledge, to take some degree of shame to ourselves, that 
 we are less intelligent and more deaf to reason, than the common people of Rome 
 in an early and unlettered age of that state. No science has been more cultivated 
 in the last forty years, than that of political economy, but no subject has been 
 less generally studied and understood, none has produced fewer practical and use- 
 ful results. 
 
308 A Letter to Earl Spencer, 
 
 What has been said of agricultural distress applies to the manu- 
 facturer's distress. The like sanguine spirit of enterprise brought 
 on the one as it did the other. It appears from preceding state- 
 ments, that the exports of 1814- and 1815, greatly exceeded those 
 of former years, but the foreign markets were so glutted that great 
 loss was incurred by these adventures. It has already been re- 
 marked, how much the distresses of this class were aggravated by 
 the domestic consumption being diminished in consequence of the 
 deficient income from agriculture. 
 
 It has not been universally believed nor admitted, that excess of 
 production has been the main cause of the late distresses. Some 
 other causes have been much more insisted on, such as the transi- 
 tion from war to peace, the deficiency of circulating medium, the 
 want of foreign vent for commodities, on account of the Continent 
 having been so recently exhausted and impoverished by war, and 
 from other sources of supply being opened by the peace. 
 
 "With regard to the first of these, it seems equally irreconcilable 
 to chronology as to truth and reason to maintain it. We have 
 seen that the great fall of the price of corn took place in 1813, 
 before there was either peace or the prospect of it. 1 It is true that 
 the quarter of wheat fell a feVr shillings lower in 1814, the year 
 of the peace, but this was the necessary consequence of the increased 
 importation. It was plausibly alleged, that the diminution of 
 demand, in consequence of the cessation of the government- con- 
 tracts, had the principal share in it. But besides this being inad- 
 missible in point of time, it has been shown at page 278 what an 
 insignificant proportion the consumption of soldiers, sailors, and 
 prisoners of war, bears to that-of the whole community. But it has 
 been farther alleged, that the agents of government being conspi- 
 cuous persons in markets, their absence would tend to depress 
 prices, and that markets, when fully supplied, fall greatly upon very 
 small additions, just as when the scales of a balance are nicely 
 poised, a single grain sinks one of them deeply. All this is admit- 
 ted, yet it is quite plain, that whatever secondary causes there may 
 have been, the main cause, whatever it was, must have been in full 
 operation before the peace or the prospects of it, and that this 
 cause could be no other than a redundant supply. 
 
 Nor is it historically true, that similar distress has usually 
 occurred on the event of a peace. I can find no traces of any such 
 thing after the treaties of Utrecht nor Aix la Chapelle, nor after 
 the seven years war. On the latter event in 1 763, this was so far 
 from being the case, that the London merchants were in the high- 
 est state of prosperity, and stepped forwards to prop the tottering 
 
 1 There were certainly very sanguine hopes entertained by many of the fall of 
 Buonaparte, after the battle of Leipsic on the 18th of October of this year, but 
 the contest continued dubious till the capture of Paris in the beginning of April 
 1814. 
 
On the High Price of Provisions. 309 
 
 credit of some of the foreign Banks. 1 After the close of the Ame- 
 rican war, there was very considerable distress in consequence of 
 a very bad crop in 1782, by which, some of the districts of the 
 northern parts of the island were brought to the brink of famine, 
 and a few persons were said to have died of want. Whatever 
 partial distresses there might be at these periods from the state of 
 commerce, they were confined to merchants, bankers, and stock- 
 jobbers, and did not in the least partake of the nature of the cala- 
 mity, which since 1813 has pervaded the body of the population. 
 The most serious mercantile distresses in the last fifty years, 
 have occurred in time of profound peace, that is in the years 1771 
 and 1792, originating in an excess of speculation. 2 
 
 And with regard to the deficiency of circulating medium, this will 
 certainly not apply to the country at large in a year in which there 
 are proofs of more floating and disposable, as well as circulating 
 money, than ever was before known in> this, or probably any other 
 country ; for the sum total of the taxes in 1813 amounted to 62 
 millions, and the sum of two loans contracted for in the same year 
 was 43 millions, which was obtained at a very moderate interest. 
 But it may be alleged that, however this might be, the farmers 
 found actually greater want of money than in former years, and 
 were compelled to bring their grain to premature markets, and to 
 dispose of it at inadequate prices. These facts are incontrovertible, 
 but they were the effect and not the cause of the distress ; for in 
 consequence of the sudden and unexpected fall of the price of 
 agricultural produce, the farmers could not make the usual deposits 
 with the provincial bankers, who were thereby in their turn inca- 
 pable of furnishing the usual accommodations to the farmers. 3 
 
 The remedies which have been proposed for these evils may be 
 classed under the three heads of the benevolent, the spontaneous, 
 and the legislative. 
 
 1. The relief best adapted to an evil in its nature temporary 
 seems to be that of individual benevolence. However much the 
 labouring class may be blameable for their improvidence, it be- 
 
 1 See Chalmers's Estimate. 
 
 a It is remarkable that these three great epochas of commercial distress, name- 
 ly, 1771, 1792, and 1813, have fallen out at exactly the same interval of 
 tune from each other, that is twenty-one years. Is this merely casual, or is there 
 a sort of cycle in human affairs like certain periodical revolutions in nature ? 
 
 1 The reader may possibly expect that the author should not here pass entirely 
 unnoticed certain political causes to which the distresses of the country have 
 been imputed ; but as he knows of no process of reasoning which can induce a 
 conviction, or even a suspicion in any rational mind, that parliamentary reform, 
 or sinecure places have any connexion with the present question ; it is impos- 
 sible to combat such gratuitous assumptions by serious argument, and he can only 
 deplore in common with every oue who values the public peace, or feels for the 
 honor of the age and country in which he lives, that such assertions should have 
 been employed to excite the late tumultuary and seditious outrages, and still 
 more, that such sentiments should have been entertained and acted upon by cer- 
 tain corporate bodies. Sea the Address of the City of London, Dicembtr 9, 1816. 
 
310 A Letter to Earl Spencer, 
 
 comes the opulent, in such moments of distress, to come forward 
 with voluntary and gratuitous relief, a species of relief recommend- 
 ed by its being an exercise of the best affections of the heart, and 
 by its superseding such legislative relief as might lead to perma- 
 nent evil and inconvenience, as has been strongly adverted to in the 
 text, in the scarcity of 1800. The generosity of landlords in re- 
 mitting rent has been very efficient in relieving the farmers, and 
 the ample pecuniary subscriptions now on foot will go far towards 
 the relief of the other classes. A fine example of the wisdom and 
 efficacy, as well as of the practical philanthropy of this species 
 of bounty came last summer before the Committee cf Education in 
 the examination of Mr. Robert Owen, superintendant of the Cot- 
 ton Works near Lanark, on the river Clyde. When the rupture 
 with America*occurred in 18:2, there was a suspension of these 
 works, in consequence of the cessation of the demand. The ope- 
 rative people, of whom a great proportion was very young persons, 
 were retained and supported at the expense of the owners till the 
 return of employment. The expense incurred by this was j7000, 
 and the owners declared that they never expended the like sum 
 more to their advantage and satisfaction. 
 
 2. There is in the body politic, as in the natural, a certain self" 
 healing principle, by which its disorders are removed by spontane- 
 ous processes. If the author is right in assigning an exuberant 
 supply as the main cause of distress, the evil necessarily leads to 
 cure itself by continued consumption, and has already, in a great 
 measure, done so. That principle also, by which every derange- 
 ment of supply and demand tends to correct itself through the 
 operation of the natural propensities and fair self-interest of man- 
 kind, has already been fully adverted to. It will now be said, perhaps, 
 by the adversaries of the corn-bill, that the country is fortunate in 
 possessing a store of foreign corn to meet the present exigency of a 
 short crop. But on the other hand, may it not with more reason 
 be alleged, that the native cultivation has been discouraged and 
 abridged, not less by the inundation of foreign corn thrown into 
 the market than what was allowed to be warehoused duty free, 
 thereby damping the prospects of the English farmer. Had not 
 this been the case, the domestic production would have compen- 
 sated the bad harvest. At the period of ploughing and sowing the 
 bad season could not be foreseen. 
 
 3. Of the legislative means of relief, the act for prohibiting im- 
 portation, till wheat should be 80 shillings the quarter, was the 
 measure most calculated to mitigate the general calamity. Much 
 censure was cast on the Government by those who conceived the 
 distresses to arise from a scarcity of circulating medium, for not 
 stepping forward with pecuniary relief to the farmer. This is 
 certainly not without precedent ; for in the year 1792 the Grenada 
 merchants were accommodated with five millions in Exchequer 
 
On the High Price of Provision. 311 
 
 Bills ; an operation which succeeded perfectly by relieving these 
 merchants, and proving no loss to Government. But the magnitude 
 and universality of the present distresses are plainly such as to 
 render this sort of relief hopeless and impracticable. The only 
 other substantial relief afforded by the legislature, besides the corn 
 act above-mentioned, w^as a repeal of the war duties on malt, as pro- 
 posed by Mr. Western, who proved that these duties had been raised 
 so high as to diminish the cultivation of barley. There was also 
 a protecting duty imposed on foreign butter and cheese. The other 
 means of relief proposed by him were chiefly, the repealing the 
 act for warehousing foreign corn, a bounty on exportation, a high 
 duty on certain articles, such as rape, seed, and tallow imported, 
 as they depreciated the same articles of domestic production. And 
 he alleged, that as the tithes and poor's rates were paid almost exclu- 
 sively by those engaged in agriculture, the land ought to be relieved 
 as much as possible from other burdens. 
 
 It has been found that the power of the legislature in such a 
 matter is extremely limited, and it will be seen from the next illus- 
 tration that it is as apt to do too much as too little, by its interference. 
 
 ILLUSTRATION IV. 
 
 After the publication of this letter in 1800, the principal measures 
 which were taken by Parliament, with a view to the farther alle- 
 viation of the public distress, were 
 
 1. On the 15th of December an additional bounty was granted 
 on the importation of corn and flour, ensuring the importer against 
 a fall of the market, by making up to him as much as the market 
 price should fall below 100 shillings, and as much as the sack of 
 flour should fall below 70 shillings. 
 
 2. An act passed for the suspension of the distilleries, and of the 
 manufactory of starch, from the 8th of December, 1800, to the 
 1st of January, 1802. 
 
 3. A bounty was granted on the importation of rice and Swe- 
 dish herrings. 
 
 4. A law passed on the 31st of December, 1800, restricting the 
 miller from grinding any flour except what is used in making the 
 yrheaten standard bread, that is, the whole grain except the bran 
 and pollard, and prohibiting the baker from baking any bread of 
 pure fine flour, from the above date till November, 1801. 
 
 All these measures proved salutary, except the last, which was 
 found so impracticable and detrimental, that it was suspended on 
 the 9th of February following for six weeks, and at the end of 
 that time it was repealed. This, like the importation by Govern- 
 ment in 1795, and the Bread Company of 1800, both of which 
 proved either detrimental or nugatory, affords a proof of that co- 
 incidence of public and private interest, to illustrate which has been 
 one of the principal objects of the preceding letter. The reasons 
 
312 A Letter to Earl Spencer, <r. 
 
 alleged for this bill were, that in preparing white flour, a great pro- 
 portion of the wholesome part of the grain is excluded, which 
 might be turned to human subsistence. The advocates of this mea- 
 sure seem to have forgot that though these portions of the grain are 
 rejected in the manufacture of bread, they are by no means lost to 
 human subsistence, inasmuch as they serve for the feeding of 
 poultry and hogs, which would perish without this resource. It 
 is clearly the interest of the miller and baker, as it is of every other 
 manufacturer, so to prepare and apportion the different forms of 
 his commodity, a to meet the several wants of the different 
 classes of the community, and in so doing, he best consults their 
 advantage by avoiding misapplication and waste. 
 
 Among the new legislative enactments made in consequence of 
 these two successive years of scarcity, that for the enumeration 
 of the people should not be forgot. In the course of the discus- 
 sions on this subject $ frequent references were made to the 
 amount of the population, with a view to ascertain the measure 
 of consumption and to adapt the resources to it. But as there were 
 no means of ascertaining this but by inference and conjecture 
 founded on very vague data, a bill was brought in and passed, for 
 making an enumeration of the people in Great Britain, which was 
 carried into effect, and the result reported next year, 1801, and 
 has been again acted upon in 1811 : affording valuable documents 
 to the statesman, and interesting materials for the cultivation of 
 natural, as well as political and moral science. The quotations 
 made in the course of this discussion may serve as an example of 
 this. 
 
 The purpose however of greatest utility to which such reports 
 could be turned, would be that of computing the value of lives, 
 with a view to the equitable calculation of reversionary payments 
 and life insurances. They could not answer this end however 
 without an addition to the present heads of information. This 
 addition would consist in a division of both sexes into classes 
 according to their ages, specifying the number under 3 years from 3 
 to 10, from 10 to 20, and so on as far as 90. The calculations 
 could then be adjusted to the respective rates of mortality in town 
 and country, and in different districts of the country. As this 
 would be of incredible utility in a country such as this, where 
 institutions of this kind are so numerous and still increasing, it is 
 to be hoped it will be adopted in the next enumeration. That 
 it is quite practicable is demonstrated by its having long made 
 part of the Swedish tables of population. These remarks were 
 suggested in a conversation with M~. Morgan, actuary of the 
 Equitable Insurance Office, who has perhaps applied his mind with 
 as much assiduity and success to such subjects as any one ever did. 
 
 THE END OF NO. XVII. 
 
I 
 

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