THE 
 
 GROUNDS AND DANGER 
 
 OF 
 
 RESTRICTIONS 
 
 ON THE 
 
 CORN TRADE 
 
 CONSIDERED. 
 
 PRICK Is.
 
 TDK 
 
 GROUNDS AND DANGER 
 
 OF 
 
 RESTRICTIOSS 
 
 ON THE 
 
 C O R N T R A D E 
 
 CONSIDERED: 
 
 TOGETHER WITH A LETTER 
 
 ON THE 
 
 SUBSTANCE OF RENT. 
 
 " Nothing scorns necessary for the rc;>eal of such regulations hut to 
 " convince the public of the futility of that system, in cousetjU'.Mice ot 
 " which they have been established." 
 
 Adwii S uiHi'.t Wealth of Nations, b.b,c.'Z. 
 
 PRINTED nv 
 RICHARD CRUTTWELL, ST. J AMF.s's-STREET, BATH; 
 
 AND SOLD BY 
 
 LONGMAN, HURST, REES, ORME, AM) BROWN, PATER- 
 NOSTER-ROW, LONDON. 
 
 1II20.
 
 -.' 
 
 
 ADVERTISEMENT. 
 
 THAT the present age, so fruitful in 
 genius of every description, can boast of casuists 
 who dare assert the fitness of relaxing the long 
 acknowledged rules of equity, in regard to specific 
 contracts, according to the convenience of one only 
 of the parties ; and political economists, who fain 
 woidd preach up the expediency of taxing corn, 
 will not, perhaps, by those who have observed the 
 progress of the human mind, be matter of astonish- 
 mcnt. But that the former doctrine should issue 
 from the old school of social order and morality, 
 and the latter from the new school of liberal, en- 
 lightened patriotism, was hardly to be credited. 
 Little was it thought, that the one would hold the 
 inconvenience of paying public creditors the whole, 
 a sufficient plea for paying them a part only, of 
 their due; and little, that the other should at-
 
 [ vi ] 
 
 tempt to introduce an extended system of mono- 
 poly in articles of prime necessity. Had it been 
 proposed to tithe the property of public creditors 
 exclusively for the service of the state, would not 
 the former have frowned with indignation at so 
 revolutionary, so wicked a proposal ? Had it 
 been suggested to levy eight or six shillings in the 
 pound upon the necessaries of life, would not the 
 scheme, from whatever quarter, have been repro- 
 bated by the latter as the height of human folly? 
 Yet would it not have been far less injurious to 
 the Stockholder to have paid him one-tenth less 
 than his acknowledged due in undepreciated gold 
 and silver, than in paper depreciated, probably 
 two fifths ; far more profitable to the mass of the 
 community, that the produce of the soil should be 
 taxed to such enormous pitch for the service of the 
 State, than for the supposed exclusive benefit of 
 the Cultivators or Owners of the soil ? 
 
 It is with the viexv of exposing the main argu- 
 ments by which the restrictive system is attempted 
 to be supported, and of turning the minds of those 
 who have been misled by them, as well as of the 
 public generally, to the consideration of the serious
 
 [ vii ] 
 
 ills which threaten us, in case that system be pro- 
 longed, that the following pages are presented to 
 the world. They proceedfrom no spirit of hostility 
 to the landed interest; for that would be the spirit 
 of suicide; but from a firm conviction that its 
 cause has been, though not intentionally, be- 
 trayed, yet so ill understood and ill conducted, 
 and with so little proper regard to its honour and 
 true character, that it is high time some other 
 principle and course of proceeding should hence- 
 forth be adopted, by those who really xtish for, 
 and would promote, its welfare. 
 
 May, 18^0.
 
 ERRATA. 
 
 Page 50, 1. 17, for reduce read endure 
 52, 1. 5, for from read in. 
 54, 1. 25, after corn insert in case. 
 63, 1. (i, after Aare insert all. 
 69,1. 2, dele the semicolon. 
 75, 1. 2, for the colon insert a comma. 
 85, 1. 2, for these read the.
 
 The Grounds and Danger of Restrictions on the 
 Corn Trade, considered. 
 
 rjlHE alarm which has so repeatedly been 
 -*- sounded throughout the country by some 
 over-zealous partizans of the landed interest, and 
 as often answered by prompt and numerous mani- 
 festations in favour of the cause, has again burst forth. 
 Notwithstanding the early marked disapprobation 
 of their movements, which was in the preceding Par- 
 liament shewn by some members of the Government 
 as well as others in the Lower House, and the appal- 
 ling circumstances which have since occurred, still 
 are we threatened with some new attempt to raise 
 the price of corn. And indeed it cannot be denied, 
 that, even of those who lately stood so forward in 
 declaring their opposition to any new measures for 
 more effectually excluding raw foreign produce 
 from our markets, some coupled their declaration 
 with so warm an eulogy upon the operation of our 
 existing Corn Trade Laws, that the principle of 
 monopoly which they recognise seems to be as 
 
 B
 
 [ 2 ] 
 
 firmly fixed as ever ; while, from the line of policy 
 now to be pursued in respect to our circulating 
 medium, its practical effects, unless prevented by 
 some timely act of the legislature, are likely to be 
 most powerfully developed. 
 
 There indeed is something in this principle of 
 monopoly itself which seems to argue the necessity 
 of maintaining it, when once it is adopted ; at 
 least it is difficult to assign the limit beyond which 
 circumstances might not, in the estimation of those 
 who have hitherto advocated the policy of our Corn 
 Laws, still seem perpetually to require some additional 
 protection to our agricultural interests, by means of 
 stricter prohibition, or imposition of heavy and heavier 
 duties on the importations of foreign grain. As long 
 as either an increasing or diminishingpopulation may 
 happen to require additional or less supplies of food, 
 or it may be convenient to raise the money price of 
 goods, for the sake of getting loose from engage- 
 ments burthensome to individuals or the state, 
 there will not be wanting ostensible or real motives, 
 as well as ready advocates, for pushing the prin- 
 ciple of monopoly a few steps further. 
 
 But let us try the question on its real merits in 
 a few leading points. 
 
 As it would be absurd to contend for the utility 
 of employing labour for the production of that 
 which, however useful, may be procured without 
 it, for the fabrication of atmospheric air by means
 
 t 3 ] 
 
 of some expensive chemic process, when plenty is 
 perpetually surrounding us ; so is it, only in a less 
 degree, absurd to contend for the utility of em- 
 ploying more labour than is requisite #)r any given 
 purpose. If, at one-third of the expense of culti- 
 vation, Blackacre yields as much and as good corn 
 as Whiteacre, no one can doubt which of the two 
 it is most profitable to cultivate. If at one-third 
 of the expense at which Whiteacre can be culti- 
 vated, such a quantity of broad-cloth can be manu- 
 factured, as when sold would yield a sum equal in 
 value to, or with which we might purchase, the 
 whole produce of Whiteacre ; is it not as clear, that 
 it is more profitable to employ labour and capital 
 in such manufacture than such agriculture ? But 
 what is profitable for an individual here seems pro- 
 fitable also for a nation, which is but an aggregate 
 of individuals. To waste either capital or labour 
 is unreasonable in one case as well as in the other. 
 
 But it is not the mere waste of capital and 
 labour, which may be the first and immediate 
 consequence of mis-employing them on the culti- 
 vation of lands producing comparatively little in 
 return that is to be considered. As it is according 
 to the expense of raising corn, the prime neces- 
 sary of life, that the wages of labour, and the prices 
 of commodities in general, are chiefly regulated, it 
 seems to be a matter of great moment that no 
 useless expense should be incurred in raising it ; 
 
 u 2
 
 t * ] 
 
 no impediment thrown in the way of procuring it 
 as easily and at as low a rate as possible j so that 
 every member of the community may not only 
 obtain his requisite supply of this necessary, but 
 also of the comforts and luxuries, of life, as cheap 
 as possible ; and the population, wealth, and pros- 
 perity of the nation be most rapidly and effectually 
 promoted. 
 
 A strong case of public good to arise from a pro- 
 hibition to import corn from abroad, excepting at 
 high prices, in other words, to procure it at the 
 cheapest rate, ought therefore to be shewn, ere a 
 private natural right, as well as public and political 
 benefit of such importance, be sacrificed in order to 
 attain that good. The evi! of prohibition is pal- 
 pable. The good, therefore, ought to be so. It is 
 not sufficient to say that such prohibition may 
 probably, or even certainly will, be advantageous to 
 this or to another class of men alone, or that in one, 
 a narrow point of view, it may be advantageous to 
 the state at large ; but that on the whole the good 
 preponderates, and greatly, beyond the evil. 
 
 Stronger grounds, therefore, are required in sup- 
 port of the prohibitory system than the benefit 
 which it may be supposed to confer upon the 
 owners of second or third rate lands, by insuring 
 to them some annual profit on the cultivation of 
 such lands. For if it be proper to separate the inte- 
 rests of this class of men from every other in the
 
 [ 5 ] 
 
 community, to what do their pretensions in reality 
 amount? They have lands confessedly not worth 
 cultivation, if the free importation of foreign grain 
 be permitted ; and therefore, say they, it ought not 
 to be permitted. As if a plea like this can be 
 allowed to be of any weight in the great scale of 
 public justice! Where is the injury to owners of 
 such poor, ill-conditioned soil, though denied the 
 privilege of compelling others to purchase its 
 scanty produce, in order that the expenses impro- 
 vidently incurred upon it may be returned with 
 some little, however unreasonable, profit? What 
 right is infringed upon by such denial ? 
 
 Neither is it enough to say that, by prohibiting 
 the admission of foreign corn, more hands are cm- 
 ployed in agriculture at home. For though it were 
 unquestionably true, is it not equally so that those 
 hands might be more profitably employed in the 
 working up of goods exchangeable for a greater 
 quantity of corn, if permitted to be imported duty 
 free, and therefore in effect be conducive to the 
 maintenance of a greater number of people? 
 
 The only reasonable ground on which the policy 
 of restricting the importation from abroad can 
 be argued, seems to be the danger attending a 
 dependence on foreign countries for supply. And 
 yet it seems not without reason to be urged, that 
 the failure of the harvest in any country usually 
 supplied in great measure from other countries,
 
 [ e ] 
 
 is likely to be less severely felt, than if it were usually 
 wholly independent, that where the ports have 
 commonly been closed against all foreign grain, it 
 probably will not be so readily directed towards 
 them in time of scarcity, as if they were at all times 
 open for its reception, and regular communication 
 held with other countries usually enjoying a 
 redundancy j where the soil and climate are more 
 genial, and the harvests more generally propitious. 
 Of the frequent failure of our own, we have of late 
 years had abundant proof. Not only have the crops 
 of wheat, but corn of almost every description 
 has failed extensively throughout the kingdom; 
 shewing how little dependence we ought to place 
 on our home produce only for constant and com- 
 plete subsistence. 
 
 That the united kingdom might, however, in 
 common seasons, be brought to bear sufficient for 
 the inhabitants, can hardly be disputed, notwith- 
 standing the large importations which have of late 
 years taken place. Indeed it may reasonably be 
 supposed that those auxiliary supplies were more the 
 consequence of our high prices proceeding from 
 excess of currency, not balanced by a corresponding 
 depression of exchange, than of any such real de- 
 ficiency of our home supply, as of itself would 
 justify either that advance of price, or that vast 
 importation from abroad; so vast as at times to 
 produce considerable re-action in our markets, and
 
 [ 7 ] 
 
 at length to rouse the Legislature to deliberate and 
 decide upon the expediency of checking, and, except 
 in seasons of real scarcity, prohibiting the impor- 
 tation of foreign corn for our home consumption. 
 
 But in venturing to establish a system of high 
 prices, the Legislature seems egregiously to have 
 erred in its attempts to establish our independence 
 of foreign countries. This, however, was possibly 
 the secondary, the other the primary, object of its 
 measures. Be that however as it might ; the best 
 security against inadequate supplies of corn appears 
 to be the habitual growth of a larger quantity than 
 is usually consumed at home ; in other words, to 
 grow in part for exportation. And it is absurd to 
 think, unless our average prices are below the prices 
 in foreign markets, (allowance being made of course 
 for the difference of exchange,) that exportation 
 can be profitable. In seasons of extraordinary 
 abundance, it then might be enough if foreign 
 markets could be found to take the surplus produce 
 at something more than the usual prices of those 
 markets; which might be raised in consequence of 
 simultaneous deficiency of supply. The establish- 
 ment of high prices, and concomitant expedient of 
 prohibitory laws, such as those recently enacted, 
 seem therefore wholly inconsistent with such secu- 
 rity. We dread a competition, even in our own 
 markets. We are apprehensive, nay, we full well 
 know, that the foreign grower would undersell us in
 
 [ 8 ] 
 
 them, if at liberty to do so, after paying all the 
 charges of freightage and insurance. How then can 
 we bear a competition in the foreign market subject 
 to the like charges? The more powerful the argu- 
 ment for securing abundant home supplies, the more 
 powerful is that against high prices. 
 
 Our imports formerly were frequently exceeded 
 by our exports of bread corn. But our prices then 
 were lower far than they have lately been. Our 
 population, it is true, has since considerably in- 
 creased. But larger tracts of land have at the same 
 time been brought into productive tillage; and 
 much remains, in Ireland especially, to be profitably 
 cultivated . Moreover, the new system of husbandry 
 which has of late years been introduced, is doubtless 
 conducive to the more copious produce of the soil 
 in general. Is it not, therefore, probable, that 
 under such circumstances our exports might often- 
 times again exceed our imports of bread-corn, if 
 our prices were reduced nearly to a level with those 
 of other countries? 
 
 Whether our soil possess that natural fertility 
 or capability of artificial improvement, which may 
 enable us to enter into fair and equal competition in 
 the production of corn with neighbouring or distant 
 states, I will not venture to assert. But we are 
 not destitute of advantages far from unimportant. 
 Our active and extensive, though I trust yet in- 
 complete population, our enlarged but btill increas*
 
 L 9 ] 
 
 ing knowledge of the art of husbandry, our skill 
 in the fabrication and employment of machinery, 
 our long-established and wide commercial inter- 
 course, our insular situation, and numerous sea- 
 ports, roads, navigable rivers and canals, and finally, 
 our vast capital, which has been created from, or itself 
 created, these advantages, all combine to render 
 this, perhaps above every other, country in many 
 important respects so pre-eminent, that little appre- 
 hension need be entertained of the result, though 
 the trade in corn were absolutely free, or at most 
 but under very slight restrictions.* I speak of 
 ordinary seasons. In such as are unfavourable, 
 when the home supply falls far short of the demand, 
 it is manifest our ports cannot be closed without 
 extensive mischief.t 
 
 If, however, with advantages like those enume- 
 rated, our soil and climate are yet so unpropitious, 
 that we should fail in our attempts at competition, 
 even in our own markets, it is time that the clamour 
 which has been raised on behalf of the landed in- 
 
 * The above-mentioned facilities for export may be considered 
 as so many encouragements for raising a surplus produce beyond 
 our home consumption. 
 
 r In the part of North-America comprised within the Illinois 
 State, where land may be considered as almost free from rent, 
 the average produce of an acre of wheat in favourable soils is 
 fioin 20 to 30 bushels; being sold in the Chillicothe and Cincinnati 
 markets at 3s. 4id. per bushel. Dec. 1817. See Mr. Fearon's 
 Letters from America, pp. 217 257. He also mentions, that the 
 price of Hour at New-York was 45s. per barrel, (I presume, of 
 IWlbs.) P. 127.
 
 t Jo 1 
 
 terest should cease, and that the country should no 
 longer be wasting its resources, its capital, and in- 
 dustry, in supporting a system, attended with diffi- 
 culties insurmountable ; a system, illiberal and severe 
 towards numerous individuals, as it must be im- 
 politic and ruinous to the nation at large. At 
 all events, it is fit that the sacrifice we make should 
 be strictly measured with the advantages proposed 
 from it; and not only that these should certainly 
 be attainable, but worth obtaining at the expense 
 of such a sacrifice. In short, unless it can be made 
 to appear that there is real danger in trusting to 
 supplies from abroad, from the uncertainty of re- 
 ceiving them in time of need, we are without the 
 only argument worth adducing for the encourage- 
 ment of agriculture at home, beyond the natural 
 inducements held forth to individuals ; and that, 
 perhaps, will not be found sufficient to outweigh the 
 consideration of those numerous benefits arising 
 from a free or but little fettered trade on the one 
 hand, and the deplorable calamities which may 
 eventually issue from the want of it on the other. 
 
 It was, perhaps, an idle fear which we entertained, 
 when the Continent of Europe lay as it were under 
 the rule of one man, our adversary, and the United 
 States of America were also opposed to us, that our 
 country might perchance have been afflicted with 
 the dreadful scourge of famine; if, when our agri-
 
 [ 11 ] 
 
 culture had been neglected, corn had suddenly been 
 prohibited to be shipped from all the ports which 
 then were under the controul of those powers. Such 
 fear, however, cannot now immediately alarm us. 
 Though events, it must be admitted, may possibly 
 arise hereafter to realize the danger. An imperial 
 sway, as wide as that of France but now a common 
 jealousy of our prosperity, and more general con- 
 federacy against us, accompanied with more exten- 
 sive failures in the crops at home and abroad. The 
 contemplation of such events as these may still in- 
 duce some persons, in their abundant caution, to 
 join with a justly-celebrated writer in opinion of the 
 expediency of a system of restrictions to insure a 
 growth of corn at home nearly sufficient for our 
 own subsistence: an opinion, however, so far 
 evidently founded more in an apprehension of evils 
 which may possibly, than would probably, arise in 
 the contemplation of their ideal rather than their 
 real magnitude ; an opinion, the result of fear rather 
 than of reason, and such therefore as ought not to 
 prevail over great and important considerations of 
 the surer ills which such a system may naturally 
 be calculated to produce. The idea of our house 
 in flames is terrific ; but we do not therefore forbid 
 the use of fire. This would be to subject ourselves 
 to a real inconvenience, or rather misery, far out- 
 weighing the probable inconvenience or calamity 
 we would avoid. The case in question isdifferenti
 
 L 12 ] 
 
 no doubt. We debar ourselves the liberty of ob- 
 taining the necessaries of life at the cheapest rate, 
 in order, we are told, to insure a regular supply. 
 We close our ports, and contract our means of obtain- 
 ing plenty, in order to secure it. I do not say the 
 method is absurd j but surely it savours a little of 
 absurdity, thus to provide a remedy for by the in- 
 fliction of the very evil itself. 
 
 It is not, however, on the ground of security 
 from famine only that the writer alluded to seems 
 to take his stand in defence of the restrictive sys- 
 tem ; he urges his opinions, also, on the narrower 
 basis of a comparative estimate of the pecuniary loss 
 or profit resulting to the several classes of the 
 community from the operation of that system ; which, 
 on the whole, it seems, he considers beneficial to the 
 majority ; but apparently without sufficiently consi- 
 dering those great acknowledged principles of justice 
 which ought never to be sacrificed on the dangerous 
 ground of supposed temporary expedience, still 
 less of any partial good, accompanied with extensive, 
 though it were not perhaps with immediately equal, 
 mischief; principles, the preservation of which is 
 of importance, next, if not equal or superior, to the 
 existence of the government itself. For how can it 
 well, or to what good end, exist without them ? That 
 the author should have laboured thus, contrary to his 
 own declared interests and equity, to establish the 
 restrictive system, can perhaps be accounted for only
 
 I 13 ] 
 
 on the supposition that the difficulty of redressing 
 the evils which have grown out of an enormous 
 public debt, and excessive, depreciated currency, 
 appalled him. With an understanding so clear 
 and correct, and judgment so candid, it is to be 
 lamented that the question of our Corn Laws did 
 not more forcibly present itself to him in a severe 
 moral shape.* 
 
 For the rest, the numerously scattered advocates 
 for the new system of high prices, the petitioners 
 for and patrons of monopoly in the corn trade, 
 though active in their endeavours to promote the 
 cause they have in hand, it is to be hoped they 
 will not so far prevail over the common under- 
 standings as well as interests of other men, as 
 either to bear down by bold and loud assertions, or 
 undermine by fallacious arguments, the plain prin- 
 ciples either of justice or of policy; or, through 
 their influence and ascendancy, urge the Legislature 
 to the adoption of any fresh, or continuance even 
 of the already adopted, measures for enhancing the 
 price of the necessaries of life so much beyond their 
 natural level, as most seriously to affect the vital 
 interests of the community. 
 
 * " I own," says Mr. M. " it appears to me thai the necessary 
 effect of a change in the measure <>f value on the weight of a 
 large national debt, is alone suilieient << make the question fun- 
 damentally different from that of a simple question about a free 
 or restricted trade ; and that to consider it merely in this light 
 is to expect the same results from premises which have essentially 
 changed their nature." ih'mnuls nfnn Opinion, ike. p. l'i.
 
 [ 1* ] 
 
 Though we admit, what we are not, perhaps, 
 at all disposed to deny, that, in common seasons, 
 the united kingdom is capable of raising corn 
 sufficient for the subsistence of its inhabitants, does 
 it follow that we ought, at any rate of expense, to 
 raise it ; and with that view prohibit the introduc- 
 tion of foreign grain, excepting at enormous prices? 
 How can such a proposition be seriously maintained? 
 Though we admit the advantage, the expedience, 
 if insisted on, of growing fully sufficient for our 
 population ; what has this to do with prices, unless 
 to shew the advantage or expedience of low prices? 
 It may flatter a nation's vanity to be independent 
 of foreign countries for the supply of the common 
 necessaries of life. By an extraordinary concurrence 
 of events, great calamity might befal it, in conse- 
 quence of being greatly dependent on them. But 
 as any argument, drawn from the former circum- 
 stance, of the absolute necessity of growing corn 
 at home sufficient for our subsistence, is frivolous j 
 so any, from the latter, of the necessity of esta- 
 blishing a high price for it if thus grown, may be 
 shewn to be not less so. At all events, it must be 
 needless to prove, that no possible advantage can 
 accrue to British cultivators merely from our pay- 
 ment of enormous prices for such foreign, not to 
 mention Irish corn, as may happen to be imported. 
 For it is this which seems to have excited their 
 present jealousy, while they use their utmost efforts
 
 L I' ] 
 
 to maintain such prices for that which they them- 
 selves produce at home. 
 
 From the necessity of corn bearing a high price, 
 we are reasonably to infer the impossibility of raising- 
 it, unless at a high expense of labour. But as the 
 rate of the wages of labour must chiefly depend upon 
 the price of corn, it should seem as necessarily to 
 follow, that the lower the price of corn, the lower 
 must be the wages of labour ; hence the possibility 
 of growing corn at a low as well as at a high rate. 
 In other words, the increase or diminution of its 
 nominal or money price does not alter its real in- 
 trinsic value, which may continue the same, what- 
 ever be its nominal or money price; therefore the 
 same degree of encouragement may be afforded to 
 its growth, whether thai be high or low, provided 
 there remain the same demand for it. 
 
 It is true, that a greater quantity of labour may 
 be necessary for the cultivation of some soils than 
 of others, in order to render them equally produc- 
 tive, if they can by any means be made so. Yet 
 such labour being expended in the production of 
 that which forms the chief component part of the 
 price of all other articles, not only no greater fa- 
 cility for its growth, but no greater advantage 
 from its sale, is afforded by the acquisition of a high 
 than of a low price for it, when produced, supposing 
 that price to be permanently established. If the price 
 of bread corn be increased, for instance, from f)*.
 
 [ 1G } 
 
 to 10s. the bushel, and of other articles of necessity 
 (the demand for them being presumed to remain the 
 same) be increased, as they naturally would, in the 
 same proportion, so likewise must the wages of la- 
 bour; of common labour, for example, from six to 
 ten shillings the week. And nearly the same rate of 
 increase might attend the rent of land, the poor's- 
 rates, and commodities in general, if it were not 
 that from the peculiar operation of high prices, as 
 we shall hereafter have occasion more at large to 
 consider, the increase of the poor's-rates might 
 for a time exceed this general ratio, and thus affect 
 the rent of land, whilst the real prices of commo- 
 dities in general might in some degree decline. 
 
 It seems, therefore, a mistake, and not an im- 
 material one, to suppose, that in order to secure 
 its cultivation, there is the least necessity that corn 
 should bear a high price. Could this be perpetually, 
 or for any great length of time, established, and yet 
 its growth insured at a comparatively low rate of 
 expenditure ; were it not, in short, an indispensable 
 article of subsistence to those employed in raising 
 it, as well as all other persons ; the extravagance of 
 price might, for a while, prove an encouragement to 
 agriculture, as it does in all other branches of in- 
 dustry. But sucli encouragement would tend to 
 render corn more plentiful in proportion to the 
 demand ; since the quantity would be absolutely in- 
 creased, and the demand, though not perhaps abso-
 
 [ 17 3 
 
 lutely diminished, yet remaining stationary, would 
 scarcely equal the supply. But the more plentiful 
 it is, the lower must its price become : the cause thus 
 counteracting itself through its own operations. 
 So, on the other hand, without the aid of artificial 
 means to raise the price, the supply would soon be 
 made to reach to the extent of the demand, as in 
 the case of manufactured goods; and the nominal 
 or money price, like that of the latter, depend upon 
 the relative quantity of the precious metals em- 
 ployed in circulating them. To imagine that in 
 a country, whose produce of corn is by the way 
 confined to the consumption of its own inhabitants, 
 and the price of every article of subsistence is, or 
 ought to be, nearly proportionate to the price of 
 corn, any real permanent advantage can accrue, 
 either to the owner or cultivator of land, from the 
 establishment of high prices, except on grounds 
 hereafter to be noticed, seems utterly inconsistent 
 with reason and experience. It is time that we 
 correct our errors, and not by pursuing the shadow 
 neglect the substance of real wealth. 
 
 To raise the price of corn is, in other words, to 
 lower the value of money ; which is here to be un- 
 derstood as consisting of the precious metals, 
 though any common standard may serve the pur- 
 pose. But as by lowering it in one country we 
 render it more valuable in others, it sooner or later 
 quits the former for the latter ; and thus, by a na- 
 
 c
 
 C is 3 
 
 Uiral re-action, amove equal value is restored to all. 
 This may not indeed be the work of a month or 
 year, but of a series of years ; not confined to the 
 transactions of this or that country in particular, 
 but of many ; and is the effect of a principle which 
 I apprehend will be found to prevail, notwithstand- 
 ing all the interference of governments to clog and 
 impede the naturally beneficial tendencies of free 
 industry and commerce. 
 
 For it is manifest that by raising the money price 
 of corn, and hence of all other commodities grown 
 or manufactured at home, a check is given to the 
 importation of the precious metals ; which would 
 flow from, rather than into, a country, where the 
 prices of commodities are already above the level 
 of those of the surrounding countries. The mer- 
 chant will not exchange his gold and silver for the 
 raw or manufactured produce of this, when he can 
 purchase the like produce at a considerably lower 
 rate in another country. His aim would rather 
 be to sell the latter here, where he may obtain a 
 larger quantity of gold and silver in exchange for it. 
 
 Thus high prices encourage the importation of 
 foreign goods without encouraging the exportation 
 of our native produce, but merely that of the 
 precious metals. As soon as the country is deprived 
 of its superfluity of these, or suffers such diminu- 
 tion of their quantity as renders what remains in it 
 as valuable as it would elsewhere be, their exporta-
 
 [ 19 ] 
 
 tion will naturally cease. These are not new prin- 
 ciples, nor are they yet quite out of date. They 
 are, however, so old, that I should be ashamed 
 of repeating, had not so many seemed in ignorance 
 of, them, or at least to deny them to be of any 
 force amongst us, while the laws which regulate 
 our trade are so strenuously opposed to them. 
 
 But, however opposed to them, such laws could 
 probably only delay, and that improfitably to our- 
 selves, a return to the more natural state of things. 
 Heavy duties may be imposed on imported goods 
 equal to the forced reduction in the value of the 
 precious metals. But is there no danger of reta- 
 liating duties? And though none, is it not evi- 
 dent that this expedient must tend to prevent the 
 introduction of such goods, and consequently to 
 lessen the demand for our own manufactures, as 
 well as for the superabundant precious metals cir- 
 culating in our country, both of which might 
 otherwise be taken in exchange? If not as art 
 expedient to retain the precious metals, it probably 
 would fail. For unless our manufactures were to 
 fall in price, which would argue a reduction of the 
 relative quantity of gold and silver, these would 
 continue to be sought for as before. And though 
 the duty on imported goods might be intended to 
 operate only as a tax on foreign manufacturers and 
 growers, compelling them to sell to us at a price pro- 
 uortionally reduced ; it surely would little answer 
 c <2
 
 C 20 1 
 
 such intention : since it cannot reasonably be ex- 
 pected that they would sell at a reduced rate, 
 unless they could purchase at a rate reduced pro- 
 portionally. Neither are the means of effectually 
 doing this altogether wanting on the part of foreign 
 merchants, as long as they can exchange their 
 gjoods with profit for the precious metals so depre- 
 ciated, or for such manufactured or raw productions 
 as, notwithstanding that depreciation, cannot else- 
 where be procured by them at so low a rate. 
 The skill of its manufacturers and excellence of 
 its machinery, together with great strength of 
 capital, may indeed for a long time enable a nation 
 to render many articles of merchandize compara- 
 tively cheap, and thus insure their sale abroad ; 
 but these advantages will gradually subside, as its 
 improvements are adopted by other countries ; 
 which they doubtless the more readily will be, as 
 the more profitable and important they appear. 
 Whilst as all the vigilance which can be exercised 
 is insufficient to prevent, especially in a free state, 
 the secret introduction of commodities on which 
 high duties are imposed, so opportunities are not 
 wanting for the exportation of such excess of the 
 precious metals as may happen, by extraordinary 
 means, or under peculiar circumstances of manu- 
 facturing superiority, to have been introduced. 
 The utter impracticability of effectually guarding 
 against the clandestine transmission of the one, even
 
 I 21 j 
 
 more than the admission of the other, is notorious ; 
 and the laws which have here been enacted to 
 prevent it, have, by men of intelligence, experience, 
 and judgment, been considered as decidedly 
 impolitic; as productice of inconvenience and 
 mischief, in a commercial as well as moral point of 
 view; and, in truth, of no material utility whatever; 
 and they have, therefore, been at last repealed. 
 
 But if the imposition of heavy duties on all other 
 imported goods would not effectually and perma- 
 nently retain the precious metals, neither would the 
 exemption of them from all import duty effec- 
 tually and permanently augment their quantity, 
 even should they continue to be imported. 
 Like the natural sea tide, the influx would be 
 equalled by the efflux. But since the main induce- 
 ment to import the precious metals is their ex- 
 changeable value, or their command of raw or 
 manufactured produce, the inducement to import 
 tli em into a country already overflowing with them 
 must chiefly be the comparative cheapness of certain 
 manufactured articles, which, as was observed 
 above, is likely to continue only for a time; after 
 which their power of attracting the precious metals 
 would be lost. 
 
 It is, however, to be considered, that as low 
 duties only can with prudence be imposed on cer- 
 tain foreign articles of raw produce, and some 
 others must be left entirely free from duty, as being
 
 C ^ ] 
 
 the materials on which much of a nation's industry 
 may be employed; and the high taxing, or at all 
 taxing, of which cannot prove otherwise than 
 injurious to the public interest ; by the copious 
 importation of these, ready means are afforded of 
 restoring, in some degree, the value of the precious 
 metals, and that in a manner most advantageous in 
 the result, by exchanging them for those articles. 
 Nay, the importation of foreign com itself, which 
 in unproductive seasons at home must be allowed, 
 fenced about, as in ordinary times it may be, with 
 all the nice conditions of previous average market 
 prices, and calculations of navigating power from 
 this quarter and from that, affords, in a variable 
 climate such as ours, frequent opportunity of attack- 
 ing the principle of high prices ; and, at one period 
 oranother, more or less remote, of equalizing, insome 
 degree, among the civilized nations of the earth, 
 the value of the precious metals. So averse it 
 seems, is the natural order of things to the regula- 
 tions by which their partial depreciation is 
 attempted to be enforced. 
 
 If, then, the disease will remedy itself; if the 
 changes effected by our corn laws on the value of 
 the precious metals be counteracted by the very 
 nature of things, what signifies either the repeal 
 or the enactment of such laws? A simplification 
 of the question, on the ground of its insignificancy, 
 it must be confessed, not much in favour of the ori-
 
 [ 23 ] 
 
 ginal enactment. But mark the intermediate steps 
 by which the balance of the precious metals is to 
 be restored : whether our national industry be not 
 impeded, our acquired wealth disposed of, for the 
 benefit of other states, while misery and wretched- 
 ness are the portion of our own people. 
 
 Sic vos non vobis lanificatis oves! 
 Suppose, however, it were possible to devise 
 means for obtaining and retaining a redundancy of 
 precious metals, so that their value here should not 
 exceed one half their value in other countries, 
 would there not, as soon ,ns our manufacturing su- 
 periority had ceased, be a fall in the exchange, 
 correspondent with the excess of our currency 
 beyond its proper quantity ; that is, beyond the 
 quantity which would circulate, if its relative 
 value were equal to the relative value of the cur- 
 rencies of neighbouring states ? or a total stoppage 
 put to all our intercourse with these, except by 
 way of barter? For the precious metals would not 
 be a common measure of the value of the merchan- 
 dize in both. And barter, too, could hardly be 
 maintained without a repeal of the heavy duties 
 on foreign goods, which would even at present 
 operate as a prohibition on their importation, if the 
 object of trading with us were not the acquisition of 
 our superfluous gold and silver, or such manufac- 
 tured articles as cannot, in consequence of our
 
 [ a* J 
 
 superior machinery and skill, or other peculiar ad- 
 vantages, be elsewhere purchased at so low a rate. 
 What profit then, from the reduction of the 
 value of the precious metals in this below their 
 value in every other country? What the utility 
 of establishing such high prices for the common 
 necessaries of life, that in seasons of scarcity 
 enormous sums must be disposed of for procuring 
 the requisite supplies from other quarters? We 
 complain of this result, the natural result of our 
 variable climate and continued high prices ; yet, at 
 the same time, would aggravate the evil by raising 
 them still higher ; and all, forsooth, under the vain 
 pretence of encouraging the productions of our 
 own soil; which, on the contrary, appear, as has 
 been attempted to be shewn, to be more effectually 
 encouraged by the establishment of low prices. At 
 all events, it can hardly be reasonably and consist- 
 ently maintained, if any were so infatuated as to 
 believe, that by the diminution of the value of the 
 precious metals we in effect augment the produc- 
 tive energies of the soil, or the inducements to its 
 owners to cultivate it. The increase of monied 
 wealth or capital which may seem to attend the 
 general advance of price, may also seem conducive 
 to such improvement. But the real power of mo- 
 nied wealth or capital is to be measured, not merely 
 by its numerical amount, but by the quantity of 
 labour or commodities it can command ; which
 
 [ 2.', ] 
 
 becomes less in proportion to the reduction of the 
 value of the medium of which that wealth or ca- 
 pital may happen to consist. To conceive, there- 
 fore, that, by raising the price of wheat to 80s. 
 the quarter, or, which is nearly the same thing, by 
 lowering the value of gold to less than one quarter 
 of wheat the ounce, any additional quantity of the 
 latter is likely to be permanently raised in this 
 country, is an error, perhaps, of no inconsiderable 
 moment. For the effects of such partial reduction 
 in the value of the precious metals, look to the 
 examples of Portugal and Spain, where they have 
 most abounded. These ought to be sufficient 
 warning to other states. 
 
 But what, in truth, is the real object sought to 
 be obtained by the enhancement of the price of 
 corn, to which the exclusion of foreign competition 
 is acknowledged to be now necessary ? Is it, that 
 cultivated lands may not be thrown out of cultiva- 
 tion ? that capitals expended on them may not be 
 wasted? that rents reserved out of them may not 
 be diminished? that the speculations of individuals 
 may be protected in this, as in any other, branch of 
 domestic industry ? But it is contended, that the 
 high price of corn does not insure its cultivation 
 better than, if so well as, its low price; and that 
 the value of all capital, as well as rent, depends 
 upon the quantity of labour or commodities they 
 an command, and becomes greater in proportion
 
 [ 26 ] 
 
 to the reduction of the price of these. So that the 
 capital employed on, and the rents reserved out of, 
 lands thus recently improved, need not really and 
 materially, however much they may nominally, suf- 
 fer diminution by a reduction of the price of corn. 
 Indeed, when we consider the large capitals 
 which have been employed in enclosing, breaking 
 up, and bringing into tillage, many of our waste 
 lands, for the purpose of growing corn ; and which, 
 it seems, in the opinion of those who urge the ex- 
 pediency of restricting the importation of foreign 
 corn, cannot otherwise be protected ; when we 
 consider, also, the permanent annual expense of 
 keeping such lands in proper heart and condition, 
 and the comparatively small rent which they yield j 
 it may well be doubted, not only whether the nation 
 is essentially benefited by such improvements, as 
 they have been termed, but whether the owners of 
 the lands themselves might not, in many instances, 
 have been better remunerated by applying them to 
 their former or some other purpose, to pasture or 
 plantation. We know, indeed, that the specula- 
 tions of sundry individuals have failed, not only 
 from the reduction of the price of corn, but from 
 the precariousness of the climate, or the inaptitude 
 of the 3oil, if not of both. It may further be ob- 
 served, too, that by neglecting the cultivation of 
 the coarser sorts of grain, of oats or barley, for the 
 sake of growing wheat, the loss of food, perhaps,
 
 [ *7 ] 
 
 has on the whole been far from inconsiderable. To 
 indemnify the undertakers of improvements such 
 as these from the pockets of the public, if other- 
 wise expedient and just, might, by way of prece- 
 dent, be impolitic and pernicious. 
 
 Much has been said of the encouragement af- 
 forded to our manufacturers. But the grounds on 
 which the claims of manufacturers and agricul- 
 turists for prohibitions and protecting duties are 
 respectively founded, appear, in some essential 
 points, most perfectly distinct and widely different. 
 By prohibitions and heavy duties on the im- 
 portation of foreign manufactured goods, we do 
 not, as on the importation of foreign corn we do, 
 enhance the price of labour, and, consequently, of 
 all home-manufactured goods whatever. For the 
 price at which these can be produced depends 
 upon the price of corn. The expense of raising 
 corn depends upon the price of the article itself. I 
 do not mean to say there are not other circum- 
 stances which may tend to vary, more or less, the 
 price of the one as well as of the other. But as it 
 is the price of corn which must chiefly regulate that 
 of labour, it is plain that the necessity of protecting 
 our manufactures, by the imposition of heavy duties 
 or prohibitions on foreign goods, arises, in a great 
 measure, if not wholly, from the bigh price of corn 
 itself. Therefore, to adduce the cases as essentially 
 similar is erroneous.
 
 f 28 ] 
 
 Again : what serious injury is sustained by any 
 class of people from the imposition of heavy duties 
 or prohibitions on foreign manufactured goods, es- 
 pecially on such as may with ease be produced at 
 home, and that in almost any quantity required ? 
 The supply is almost sure within a little time to 
 equal the demand, without the necessity of increas- 
 ing, in any material degree, the expense of manu- 
 facture j though, from a deficiency and consequent 
 enhancement of the price of the raw materials, that 
 of the finished goods may be augmented. And 
 even, if for a time there were an almost total failure 
 of supply, the consequences would not be tremen- 
 dously afHicting. We might well exist without 
 them, or at least with patience wait till they be- 
 come more plentiful. But without food we cannot 
 live. A partial failure in the supply of bread must 
 always be severely felt, and, if general, becomes 
 most dreadfully calamitous. Even a suspicion of 
 its scantiness is sufficient to raise its price enor- 
 mously, beyond all justifiable limits. The demand 
 continuing the same, or nearly so, it is not lessened 
 in proportion to the supply; which, on the other 
 hand, cannot certainly and suddenly be so increased 
 as to meet the regular demand. We cannot only 
 calculate upon and ascertain, but pretty certainly 
 insure, any quantity of raiment, and other articles of 
 use and ornament, which may be required. But 
 though we calculate upon and ascertain, we can bv
 
 [ 29 ] 
 
 no means insure, the quantity of food which may he 
 requisite ; we cannot regulate the seasons. 
 
 Besides, the intention of prohibiting or laying 
 heavy duties on certain foreign goods was not 
 merely to encourage the speculations of individuals 
 for their own private and exclusive benefit, but for 
 the sake of augmenting the wealth and prosperity of 
 the country, and deriving hence a revenue to the state. 
 So far, however, as it regards the trade in corn 
 especially, the restrictive system is not here now, 
 as in former times it was, and in some other coun- 
 tries may still be, a politic expedient, for the re- 
 duction of the prices of the necessaries of life, the 
 encouragement of industry in all its branches, and 
 the acquisition both of private and of public wealth. 
 In the early periods of civilization, from the in- 
 fancy to the maturity of husbandry, prohibitions 
 or protecting duties may not unwisely, under spe- 
 cial circumstances, be established. A naturally 
 fertile soil, but indolent inhabitants; a stupid neglect 
 of the readiest means to augment the strength and 
 riches of a community, by promoting the first and 
 most useful of arts, the increase of human food, and 
 maintenance of a more abundant population, may 
 justify restrictions. But surely it will not be said 
 that we are still backward in the knowledge of the 
 art, or in application to the practice, of agriculture, 
 that we are averse from, or any way discountenance, 
 such experiments to render the soil more productive,
 
 [ 30 J 
 
 as the boldest theorists can devise. What numerous 
 and enlightened associations ! What eagerly-sought 
 honours and rewards on success in the experiments 
 they propose ! What analyses of soils and manures ! 
 What exhibitions of ploughmen and of ploughs, 
 both north and south of Tweed ! What crosses and 
 re-crosses of neat cattle, sheep, and swine ! What 
 more can be desired? Surely, with such advantages 
 as these, the united kingdom might already have 
 attained that degree of cultivation, which could in 
 favourable, or shall we say in ordinary, seasons yield 
 sufficient for the consumption of its inhabitants. 
 If more land be brought into cultivation, for the 
 sake of meeting constantly the demand, our vari- 
 able and too frequently unfavourable climate would, 
 notwithstanding, probably prevent the attainment 
 of that object ; whilst, under the prevailing system 
 of high prices, an occasional excess, much beyond 
 the demand, must inevitably be followed by such 
 reduction of the price, in consequence of the com- 
 parative cheapness of foreign markets, as must occa- 
 sionally prove greatly injurious to British cultivators. 
 Yet the established high prices of our markets 
 would, in seasons of deficiency, be still further 
 heightened to an excessive pitch, and importations 
 from abroad encouraged, as we have of late expe- 
 rienced, far beyond what they would have been, had 
 our prices generally been moderately low. These 
 would consequently decline most rapidly, and thus
 
 C 31 ] 
 
 again distress the cultivator; so that, instead of 
 eagerly augmenting the supply by further tillage, 
 he would be apprehensive of too great plenty, and 
 therefore rather limit it according to the certain 
 actual demand, and narrowly to this. In short, 
 that steadiness of price, that assurance of regular 
 and constant sale, which is so beneficial to the land- 
 lord and the tenant, by enabling them to assign the 
 fair proportions of the profits of the soil between 
 them, and so necessary for the due regulation of 
 the wages of labour, and the prices of commodities 
 in general, as well as to the fair observance of con- 
 tracts, is totally destroyed by the operation of the 
 present system of restrictions: all is uncertainty 
 and risk. 
 
 But independent of these considerations, while 
 it cannot, on the one hand, be reasonablycontended, 
 that where there is an inaptitude of soil and climate 
 for the production of corn, or any other raw pro- 
 duce, so that it could not be grown without much 
 greater expense of labour than would be necessary 
 in order to procure it from abroad, the wealth and 
 prosperity of a country can be at all advanced by 
 prohibiting, or laying heavy duties on, the impor- 
 tation of such produce, the effect of which, as has 
 been shewn, must rather be directly the reverse, 
 by preventing the employment of capital in more 
 profitable undertakings; it must, on the other hand, 
 be admitted, that no one nation is naturally so far
 
 t an ) 
 
 surpassed by others as to be precluded from all 
 possibility of competition in the works of art. Pro- 
 vided it be duly furnished with the raw materials 
 requisite, and its industry be properly directed, it 
 may possibly in time excel. A Phidias may flourish 
 in the Cape of Good Hope; and the Hottentot 
 boast a Venus to vie with the Medicean.* At all 
 events, if the pursuit of such works do not occa- 
 sion the neglect of others more useful or profitable, 
 doubtless such pursuit must in some degree prove 
 advantageous. But if it do occasion such neglect, 
 it were absurd to listen to their idle claims to par- 
 ticular protection. 
 
 Exclusive of the comparatively small expense of 
 labour to which they most of them are liable, the 
 advantages possessed by other nations over us in re- 
 gard to manufactures generally are, if any, (which 
 may with reason be denied,) in effect so trifling, that 
 the smallest encouragement to our own, provided 
 the necessaries of life were moderately low, or not 
 materially above the common level, would enable 
 us to maintain for many years a decisive superiority, 
 at least in some of the most important branches. 
 
 * An event the less improbable, since this country has passed 
 into the possession of (Jreat-Britain, and become the seat of 
 British settlers ; who may afford the artist some more perfect 
 specimens of female symmetry, than he could find among the 
 preposterous aborigines, or perhaps almost as preposterous 
 Dutch colonists : for models may be considered in the light of 
 raw materials.
 
 C 33 ] 
 
 We even yet excel in many, and in a few only are 
 under the necessity of yielding. 
 
 When we contemplate, indeed, the amazing pro- 
 ductions of our manufactories, and the ready sale 
 which for a long series of years they have met with 
 in all parts of the world, where admission has been 
 allowed to them; combating successfully, till of late, 
 with all rival productions in foreign markets, nay, 
 forcing themselves into those very countries where 
 the raw materials of which they are composed are 
 actually raised, and where the price of labour is 
 almost beneath comparison lower ; it can hardly be 
 supposed, that like foreign goods would, after the 
 expense of conveyance hither, be sold with reason- 
 able profit to the merchant, though the duties or 
 prohibitions now imposed on them were absolutely 
 to cease. Some of our manufactured goods there 
 doubtless are, in regard to which we might be under- 
 sold, but they are comparatively of small amount. 
 Vet to render free the trade in such as these, and 
 exempt them from all import duties, whilst our corn 
 trad'.: laws remain in force, would surely be most 
 impolitic, as well as most unjust. In regard to 
 others, the mere expense of freightage would serve 
 as a sufficient security against our being undersold 
 in the home, though in that respect there would 
 be a similar advantage enjoyed by some of our com- 
 petitors in the foreign, market. But, on the whole, 
 our insular situation, our numerous and well-con- 
 
 [>
 
 C a* ] 
 
 ditioned seaports, and other advantages before 
 specified, together with the abundance of our coal 
 and iron stone, afford us such facilities of convey- 
 ance and for manufacture, as cannot be obtained by 
 art alone; whilst our skill, and capital, and enter- 
 prise, are not surpassed, if equalled, by any nation 
 of the earth. We therefore fairly may conclude, 
 that if heavy duties or prohibitions still seem neces- 
 sary for the protection even of the least of our 
 manufactures, it is in consequence of the high price 
 of the necessaries of life, rather than from any 
 reasonable apprehension of the results of universally 
 free competition. Suffer the price of labour, without 
 injury to the labourer, to be reduced, by reducing 
 the price of corn to the level which it keeps in neigh- 
 bouring countries, our manufactures would need 
 no further protection whatever. 
 
 But with no artificial impediment, if we except 
 the operation of the tithe system;* on the contrary, 
 
 * That this system, when strictly enforced, discourages im- 
 provement, is pretty well seen and acknowledged. But as 
 modified in practice, is seldom more injurious than the common 
 system of leasing for short terms of years. For how else does 
 the former operate as a bar to improvement, than by preventing 
 the cultivator from reaping the full benefit of it i Does it 
 materially alter the case, whether the landlord or the parson 
 should participate in the profits ? Tithe is rent, payable, but 
 seldom paid, in kind. And whether he who receives it wear a 
 coat of black or of green, is really but of small importance to 
 him who pays it. Were tithes abolished, wiio but the owners of 
 the soil would be materially benelited, after the expiration of 
 subsisting leases, when a proportional increase of rent would 
 of course take place ! Tithe owners, at least the clergy, as far as
 
 [ a5 ] 
 
 with every idly fancied, as well as deeply pon- 
 dered, encouragement to the growth of grain, what 
 is the quantity exported? Prohibit totally all 
 importation, is it probable a single bushel would be 
 exported? Is there a foreign market that would 
 not instantly reject it at the price which can be had 
 for it at home? Whilst, notwithstanding our re- 
 strictions, the quantity imported is so considerable 
 as still to excite the cupidity of our land-owners. 
 Without restrictions, therefore, the importations 
 would be much more copious, and the price inevi- 
 tably fall much lower. So that it is evident we are 
 indebted to the corn trade laws, if not alone yet 
 chiefly, for the late, and even present, exorbitancy 
 of price. Nay, was it not notoriously with the 
 view of establishing its minimum, though some 
 may say its maximum also, that they have been 
 enacted ? 
 
 Hence, then, also there arises a distinction far 
 from unimportant; since it seems mainly, if not 
 mcrelv, with a view to public revenue, or else to 
 counteract the natural effect of the high price of 
 com, which would serve as an encouragement to 
 foreign competition with our manufacturers in our 
 own markets, rather than for the sake of giving 
 them any, whether fair or unfair, advantage, that 
 
 the author ha* sera, are as ready to eompoimd, and on at least 
 as favourable terms to farmers, as their landlords would all'ord ; 
 beiii as i< ;ul\ to allow t Ik in the full advantage . of inipio-. < ment. 
 
 i) <2
 
 L 36 I 
 
 such heavy duties, or prohibitions need any longer 
 be continued on foreign manufactured <roods. 
 But if they be yet continued really with no other 
 view than that of encouraging our own manufac- 
 tures, the landed interest would have but slender 
 cause of jealousy or complaint. 
 
 What, however, would be the consequence of 
 repealing the protecting duties, which are, it seems, 
 the more offensive, because they fall in part upon the 
 land ? Must not taxes to the same amount be 
 levied otherwise, and equally on the productions 
 of our own soil or labour, by an aggravated system 
 of more general assessment or excise? And how 
 much less would this affect the agriculture of the 
 country ? Even now complaints are made against 
 the oppressive operation of this method of taxation 
 on the land. But would not its weight then 
 become intolerably greater? Whilst as the demand 
 for many of our home manufactured goods would 
 be diminished in consequence of the supplies which 
 would be received from abroad, so the demand of 
 our manufacturers for corn and other raw pro- 
 duce of the land would likewise be diminished. 
 For though, in exchange for foreign goods imported 
 duty free, a larger demand might arise for some of 
 our manufactures, yet the chief demand at first 
 would be for the precious metals, which might thus 
 be obtained with increased facility and profit; 
 and till the equilibrium of these were well nigh
 
 [ 37 ] 
 
 established, by which the prices of all things (save 
 perhaps occasionally of corn) would be brought to 
 their just level, our manufacturers could hardly 
 hope to receive from abroad an equivalent for that 
 loss of demand in the home market which a repeal 
 of the import duties would occasion. If, indeed, 
 the trade in corn were likewise open, the price of 
 labour would be so reduced, they could scarcely, 
 as I apprehend, be undersold, either in the home 
 or foreign market, and therefore their demand for 
 our raw produce would speedily revive or continue 
 unabated. But to suppose that this, at its present 
 price, would be exported and exchanged with profit 
 for foreign articles, though to be imported duty 
 free, is childish in the extreme. It would be the 
 least marketable of our commodities. As, how- 
 ever, the precious metals would rapidly escape, the 
 prices of raw produce, as well as of other goods, 
 would rapidly decline, and with them rents ; for it 
 should not be forgotten, that, notwithstanding this 
 complaint of the heavy pressure of our import 
 duties upon land, and the protection they afford 
 to our manufacturers, it is by these duties that high 
 rents and prices are in part upheld. 
 
 Let the landed interest, then, be satisfied with 
 the comparison which may lie drawn. Let us no 
 longer hear such murmurs about monopolies, 
 fostered by impositions and prohibitions, for the 
 protection of our manufacturers. Let these no
 
 [ 38 ] 
 
 Jonger be adduced as grounds of precedent or 
 analogy for establishing a monopoly in respect to 
 grain. But let the partizans of such monopoly 
 endeavour on some other principle to advocate it, 
 and to justify the legislature's interference to aug- 
 ment, or non-interference to reduce, the price, at 
 present much too high, but lately carried to so much 
 higher pitches of extravagance. 
 
 Enough has indeed been said in reprobation of 
 the taxes charged indirectly upon agriculture; and 
 many still affirm that it is to these its difficulties 
 are chiefly and unquestionably owing, and from 
 which it may boldly, therefore, ask indemnity, by 
 means of restrictive laws, and regular high prices. 
 Admit that taxes charged on horses, on implements 
 of husbandry, or any article of necessity, so far as 
 they augment the expenses of production, may 
 fairly, if they can, be thrown on the consumer of 
 the produce, so as to indemnify the cultivator ; 
 though it may be doubted whether taxes such as 
 these do not eventually fall in great measure upon 
 the owner of the soil.* Yet well aware as they 
 pretend to be of the impolicy of taxing the neces- 
 saries of life, so contrary to the first principles of 
 sound political economy, but so congenial, in a 
 slight degree at least, to the practice even of some 
 modern statesmen ; would it not have been far 
 better for the nation and themselves, if the efforts of 
 
 * See Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations, vol. iii. p. 330", ct seq.
 
 [ 39 ] 
 
 our landholders had been directed to the repeal of 
 these obnoxious imposts, instead of aggravating the 
 evil, by establishing a monopoly and minimum of 
 price by way of compensation for them, though far 
 exceeding all just measure? For what, in reality, 
 is the amount of such taxes beyond what it was 
 when the price of corn was comparatively low ? Is 
 it so great as to justify more than the least percepti- 
 ble advance of price?* Within these twenty years 
 the average price of corn may be considered as 
 increased two-fifths. Had the taxes affecting the 
 cultivation of land, and within that period actually 
 imposed, been augmented ten or twenty fold, they 
 would not justify the late high prices, still less the 
 attempt to fix as it were the minimum of wheat at 
 eighty shillings the quarter, and of other grain pro- 
 portionally. So important, indeed, have been the 
 improvements in husbandry within the same period, 
 that to suppose any additional weight of taxes, with 
 which the land is now burthened, would disable 
 the cultivator from rendering its produce at the 
 same rate as heretofore, even if he himself, and 
 not his landlord, were ultimately charged with 
 it, provide:! no other cause existed to enhance the 
 price, is a notion utterly inconsistent with every fair 
 conclusion from easily ascertained, if not generally 
 acknowledged, facts. t 
 
 * We here, speak merely of parliamentary, not parochial, levies. 
 
 i Suppose ordinary land to \icldhuf twent) lmshels of wheat per 
 acre, an advance of sixpence per bushel would produce from one
 
 [ 4<() 1 
 
 But the poor's-rates are to be considered. Many 
 efforts have been made to exonerate the land from 
 this oppressive load ; and greatly as, in some par- 
 ticular instances, it is to be lamented, and highly 
 desirable as it is to afford relief in them, on what 
 ground do land-owners found their claim to general 
 relief? Without minutely inquiring into the 
 policy or justice of the laws when first they were 
 enacted for maintenance of the poor, and why the 
 land has become mainly charged with it ; though it 
 ought always to be borne in mind, that in manufac- 
 turing districts, where these rates run highest, the 
 value of the land is greatly augmented by the 
 manufacturing establishments, and the rates are 
 chargeable, more or less, upon the manufacturers 
 themselves, who at the same time afford the means 
 of support to many families which might otherwise 
 prove a weighty burthen on their parishes through- 
 out the kingdom ; whilst the value of land has 
 moreover generally been much augmented by the 
 increase of demand for its productions, in conse- 
 quence of the additional population, for which our 
 m mufactories provide employment : without in- 
 quiring or qualifying further on these heads, is it 
 not enough to insist, that lands are purchased with 
 full knowledge of such incumbrance, and the price 
 
 hundred acres fifty pounds. What farmer pays to government 
 taxes, direct or indirect, upon the cultivation of his land al th^t 
 enormous rate'
 
 [ 4'i ] 
 
 of purchase fixed accordingly ? For what pretence 
 lias he to claim exemption, or the least indemnity, 
 who, when treating for an estate, considers well or 
 ill, and at his peril, the actual and probable out- 
 goings, the present and the future, and agrees upon 
 a price he deems the worth of the net income only ? 
 He may be mistaken in his judgment and his pros- 
 pective calculations. The charges may prove more 
 than he expected. They may perchance prove 
 less. A matter of pure speculation. It is hard 
 if others are to suffer from its failure, who would 
 not benefit from its success; but more especially 
 hard, if, as it appears, the land-owners themselves, 
 by the conduct they have long pursued, and are 
 still pursuing, effectually contribute, and would yet 
 contribute more, to raise the real amount of poor's 
 rates much beyond their natural level. If Phi- 
 loges think fit to purchase an estate bordering on 
 the sea, and subject, as he knows, to frequent inun- 
 dation; it surely is not consonant to justice, should 
 his cattle happen to be drowned, that others should 
 be made to pay the forfeit of his rashness; still less 
 if he himself had cut the bank, and thus facilitated 
 the water's entrance. 
 
 It must naturally have occurred to those who 
 have in the least investigated the subject, that our 
 poor's rates have increased with the increase in the 
 price of grain. But as long as they did not advance 
 jji any greater ratio, \\k heard but little of their
 
 [ ] 
 
 pressure. A rate ot'Jlve instead of three shillings 
 in the pound on the rack-rent annual value, was 
 not to be deemed a grievous load, provided that 
 instead of six, ten shillings were obtained for every 
 bushel of wheat, and a proportional advance on 
 every other article which our farmers bring to 
 market, even when reckoning the annual value of 
 the total produce from three to four times only the 
 amount of annual rack-rent value; especially in 
 those instances where the actual rent was, under the 
 existing leases, much below that value. The case 
 at present is, however, somewhat different ; and 
 from almost every quarter we hear of their intole- 
 rable weight. Landlords bv degrees availed them- 
 selves, and not unjustly, of the advance of price, and 
 raised their rents proportionally ; leaving, perhaps, 
 a bare sufficiency for their tenants, after having 
 made allowance for all future, according to the 
 previous, average amount of the outgoings. But 
 these unfortunately have been augmented, without 
 proportionally augmented prices of raw produce; 
 and hence the present difficulties. The reader will 
 anticipate the cause to which this state of things 
 may be ascribed. It is of importance, however, just 
 to trace the progress in regard to the sudden aug- 
 mentation of the poor's-rates. 
 
 In consequence of our excessive paper currency, 
 the nominal or money price of corn having been 
 greatly raised in this country, opportunity was
 
 I 1-3 ] 
 
 soon afforded for its importation from abroad almost 
 free from duty, till the Act for more effectually 
 restricting it was passed in 1815. This compara- 
 tively open trade proved the more beneficial to our 
 manufacturers, on account of the increased demand 
 which was made for their goods, as the course of* the 
 exchange became more and more unfavourable to 
 us, and thus in effect enabled foreigners to purchase 
 them at a rate proportionally reduced. While, at 
 the same time, the profit attending the exportation 
 of gold and silver was gradually lessening, in con- 
 sequence of the approximation of their value in this 
 to that in other countries, by means, in part, of the 
 almost free admission and plentiful supply of foreign 
 grain. Hence the real wages of labouring manu- 
 facturers became much advanced, notwithstanding 
 the advanced price of corn. But, subsequently, 
 the Act of 181.5, by raising the importation price 
 nearly in proportion to the depreciation of our 
 currency, and thus influencing the course of the 
 exchange in an opposite direction, and lowering the 
 value of the precious metals accordingly, has, on 
 the contrary, put a check to the exportation of our 
 manufactures, which cannot be purchased at so low 
 a rate, that is to say at so low a bullion price, for 
 the foreign market; and it is natural, therefore, 
 that the demand for them should be diminished, 
 and the precious metals sought for in preference, 
 as a more profitable commodity for export. The
 
 [ 44 ] 
 
 necessary result of this diminution of demand for 
 our manufactures, has, of course, been the employ- 
 ment of fewer hands, and payment of lower wages 
 for those employed. Hence an increased applica- 
 tion to parishes for relief, and increased rates 
 charged upon the land.* 
 
 Thus may we easily and shortly deduce the 
 heaviest evil of which they now complain, from the 
 very source whence it was conceived, by the advo- 
 cates for the corn laws, that nothing could issue but 
 what was advantageous to the landed interest. 
 And yet, with such plain facts before their eyes, 
 they persist in requiring more rigorous restrictions. 
 They complain of the pressure of the poor's-rates, 
 yet would multiply the force of a system naturally 
 calculated to aggravate them. They seem altoge- 
 ther to forget that it is the general increase of 
 demand for labour which can alone effectually im- 
 prove the condition of the labouring classes, and 
 elevate above the class of paupers those who have 
 not wages adequate to their maintenance. Surely 
 the gain is pitiful, or rather the loss serious, which 
 land- owners must experience from so forcing up 
 the price of corn, that the demand for labour be- 
 
 * It may be worthy of remark, that the operation of high 
 prices on such of our charitable institutions as are supported 
 only by speciiicsums of money granted long ago is to reduce the 
 efficacy of sucli funds, and render a larger portion of the poor 
 chargeable on parish rates. This is an evil but partially expe- 
 rienced, yet may, notwithstanding, in some instances, be found 
 exlremeh grievous.
 
 L ] 
 
 comes so materially diminished as to render the 
 augmentation of the poorVrates greater in propor- 
 tion than the augmentation of the rent of land ; 
 which, after all, is rather nominal than real, if in 
 proportion only to the advanced price of its produce. 
 I3ut, besides the increase of demand for manu- 
 facturing labour, and consequently real, though 
 not nominal, reduction of the poorVrates, which 
 resulted from the open corn trade, there might 
 have seemed at first some compensation even for 
 the nominally augmented rates in the real, though 
 not nominal, decline of wages to agricultural la- 
 bourers. Since the increase in the price of the 
 necessaries of life, which resulted from the excess 
 of paper money, was not immediately and generally 
 followed by a correspondent increase in those wages, 
 which is commonly resisted to the utmost. It is 
 lamentable, indeed, to think how small a real ad- 
 vance has in some districts taken place within these 
 twenty years. Whilst the price of wheat has risen 
 from six or seven to ten or twelve shillings the 
 bushel, and occasionally much higher, wages have 
 been raised in the proportion only of one half the 
 difference, nor every where so much as that. But 
 whatever increase of the poor's-rates may have ori- 
 ginated from this cause, it is plain the landed in- 
 terest can have no just reason to complain of it, 
 since what is paid in rates is saved in wages. And,
 
 [ 16 J 
 
 in either case, the augmented price of farming pro- 
 duce would indemnify the farmer. 
 
 Yet the mere depreciation of our currency could 
 not of itself alone have effected so important a 
 change in the condition of our working classes as 
 they have actually experienced. Their wages 
 would, though gradually and slowly, at length have 
 risen nearly in proportion to the relative increase in 
 the quantity of the circulating medium ; the de- 
 mand for labour continuing the same. But as, in 
 consequence of the virtual suspension of our late 
 corn laws, we became furnished, as already noticed, 
 with larger supplies of grain, and at a lower real 
 price, than if these laws had any practical effect, 
 the demand for labour seems to have been posi- 
 tively increased. We, therefore, in this point of 
 view, may reasonably conclude, that, till the enact- 
 ment of our present corn laws, the poorVrates 
 were substantially reduced by the operation of 
 the paper money system, though nominally aug- 
 mented with the nominally augmented price of 
 provisions. But the real augmentation of the 
 poorVrates, which has taken place in consequence 
 of our present corn laws, is such, I apprehend, that 
 in some, it is to be hoped but few, parishes the 
 land is hardly able to sustain the pressure. 
 
 All this may seem but theory and dry conjecture; 
 yet it is much in favour of what has been advanced, 
 that it has reference, on one hand, to the flourish-
 
 r 47 ] 
 
 ing condition of our trade, previous to the late 
 alteration of our corn laws, during a period of war, 
 when the weight of taxes was extraordinarily se- 
 vere, and the occasional deficiency of the home 
 supply of food remarkably distressing ; and, on the 
 other, to its subsequent declining state in time of 
 peace y comparative abundance, and relief from no 
 small portion of our taxes. We have been told, 
 indeed, that our prosperity was owing to the cir- 
 cumstance of war, and calamity to that of peace; 
 but surely a more reasonable solution of the cause 
 of each should be required, and humanity no longer 
 be insulted by doctrines so hostile to her feelings 
 and her interests. 
 
 Should the view, however, which has here been 
 taken of the subject of our poor's-rates appear cor- 
 rect, it may be matter of surprise, that landholders 
 should have the conscience to ask for general re- 
 lief from them, by charging them on others, cither 
 by direct assessment, or by recurring to the very 
 means which have been already tried, and found to 
 be not inadequate alone, but highly prejudicial. 
 Their claims to such relief seem wholly inadmis- 
 sible upon the score of justice. As a matter of 
 mere charity and generosity, if not of policy, it 
 maybe worthy the consideration of the public and 
 the legislature, whether the average of the last 
 few years ou^ht not to be declared the maximum of 
 poorVrate chargeable on land ; I mean not the
 
 L 1 
 
 specific average amount which lias been charged,- 
 but the ratio of such average to the average rea) 
 annual value of the land to be the highest ratio of 
 charge in future, whatever be the value ; and all 
 deficiency in the amount of sums so chargeable, 
 below the necessary expenditure for maintenance 
 of poor, to be supplied either by a tax on land in 
 general, or by taxes affecting other property as well 
 as land. Such schemes as these have, if I mistake 
 not, been suggested, and deserve attention. But 
 should the latter be adopted, it seems quite indis- 
 pensable to justice that it should be accompanied 
 with perfect freedom in the corn trade ; not only 
 in consideration of the burthen to be borne by 
 those who now are, for the most part, comparatively 
 almost totally exempt from it, and that it is, there- 
 fore, fit that any additional burthen should be made 
 as light as possible, the amount of poor's- rates 
 being at all times governed in great measure by the 
 price of provisions; but that if this be so exor- 
 bitant as to render it impossible to employ the la- 
 bouring classes with profit in the production of 
 goods for the home or foreign market, it is a plain 
 proof they ought to be reduced ; as it would be 
 the worst of tyranny and oppression, as well as 
 folly and absurdity, in such a state of things, to 
 interdict the people from purchasing the neces- 
 saries of life at a far cheaper rate from abroad.
 
 [ M> 1 
 
 In the preceding observations, the subject of re- 
 strictions on the corn trade has been treated with 
 reference to the commonly alleged grounds, and 
 natural and practical tendency, of such restrictions 
 in general. Some remarks, however, have inci- 
 dentally been made on the countervailing effect of 
 the depreciation of the currency prior to the adop- 
 tion of the present subsisting regulations in 1815. 
 What may have been the real intention of the chief 
 promoters of these regulations, whether more ef- 
 fectually to depress the value of the precious metals, 
 by which the course of exchange might appear to 
 be improved, and the issue of paper money to be 
 restrained within due limits, or simply to check the 
 importation of foreign grain, that more might be 
 raised at home, or higher prices gained for whatever 
 might be raised there, they themselves best know. 
 There seemed, however, to arise on this occasion a 
 partial coalition of the parties usually in opposition 
 to each other, not consisting of individuals only, 
 whose interest lay chiefly in the land, but of some 
 few others, who, entertaining certain melancholy 
 notions of financial expediency, no doubt looked 
 forward to some favourable result to our resources 
 from the new measures. 
 
 It might easily, indeed, for some time previous 
 to the introduction of these measures, have been 
 perceived, that the provisions of the Act of 1804 
 had become an inadequate remedy for the effects of
 
 [ 50 ] 
 
 our paper money system on the trade in corn ; 
 though it does not seem that all who interested 
 themselves in the question clearly saw the almost 
 absolute dependence of the latter on the former; 
 at least it was to other causes that the facility 
 of underselling the British grower in his own mar- 
 kets was pretty generally ascribed, to the pressure 
 of the taxes, parochial and parliamentary; tithes 
 and high price of labour ; to say nothing of high 
 rents, whicli were deemed, perhaps, of trifling import. 
 But the pressure of the rest, it was conceived, 
 could not be materially lessened, without the sacri- 
 fice of interests which ought to be upheld as sacred. 
 And yet, regardless as it seemed of some of these 
 as well as other interests in reality not less sacred, 
 the question was, how to enable the patient farmer 
 to reduce the burthen, if not remove it. To feed 
 him with high prices, was most gratifying to his 
 appetite, if not most likely to afford him some truly 
 invigorating nourishment; and as the readiest mean* 
 of doing this, recourse was had to the expedient of 
 prohibiting the importation of all foreign corn for 
 the British market, when the average prices were 
 below the limits newly to be specified, and thus, as 
 it was thought, of establishing a minimum. The 
 legislature, seemingly well satisfied of the justness 
 of the representations which led to such a measure, 
 and of the propriety of the measure itself, hardly 
 stopped to examine how small an advance in the
 
 [ 51 j 
 
 price of the produce of land would fully indemnify 
 the cultivator from all taxes which had recently been 
 imposed, and were necessarily attendant on the 
 cultivation of it ; or how much the recent improve- 
 ments in agriculture had kept pace with, if not 
 outrun, and therefore in effect altogether negatived 
 the pressure of all such additional taxation ; or how 
 greatly the poor's-rates and price of labour must 
 necessarily have been augmented by such advance 
 in the price of raw produce as had of late years taken 
 place, and how dangerous, as well as inconsistent 
 and absurd, it were to admit any claim of indemnity 
 in these respects, by means of regulations such as 
 those proposed ; that tithe was a fixed proportion 
 only of the produce, and therefore that this bur- 
 then, ancient and impolitic as it might be deemed, 
 has neither increased nor diminished by the varia- 
 tion of its nominal value, or amount of composition 
 money. Still the fact was notorious, that large 
 quantities of grain were annually imported from 
 abroad, and threatened so to reduce the price of 
 that grown at home as to prevent its yielding any 
 profit to the British grower, or such as would be 
 sufficient, after payment of the rent and charges 
 to which he actually was subject. At all events, 
 the competition was obtrusive, it was odious, and 
 excited the jealousy and apprehension of our land- 
 holders : and well it might. For notwithstanding 
 the market prices were as low as, or lower than* 
 
 e 2
 
 [ 52 ] 
 
 they have lately been, our harvests probably not 
 less abundant, but the rate of the exchange greatly 
 unfavourable ; yet it was deemed profitable, at much 
 expense of freightage, and in some instances, it 
 seems, after payment of a tax or export duty from 
 the foreign country, to bring grain into this. 
 Neither can any doubt be reasonably entertained, 
 that if our present corn laws were now to be 
 repealed, and the trade entirely laid open, so large 
 would be the importation, that the prices would 
 decline most rapidly, till they reached their natural 
 level ; in other words, till the value of the precious 
 metals were restored; till the bullion price here 
 approached so near to the bullion price abroad as 
 not materially to exceed it, beyond the expense of 
 conveying foreign grain to this, and the precious 
 metals in return for it to another, country; 
 while the paper money price would exceed the 
 bullion price, or that at which corn might be sold 
 in case there were no paper money, in the same pro- 
 portion only as the quantity of paper-money now in 
 circulation exceeds the quantity of gold and silver 
 which would circulate in the same case. 
 
 Had the importation, therefore, been allowed to 
 continue under the preceding regulations, which 
 had in effect been rendered almost nugatory,* 
 
 * Suppose our currency to have been depreciated about 40 per 
 cent, below the former value of gold and silver, (that is, when the 
 average price of wheat was about 50s. the quarter,) as may be 
 inferred fiom the limit prescribed for importation by the late Act:
 
 [ 53 ] 
 
 it would have been attended with so great a drain 
 of the precious metals, that what would have been 
 left of them would not have exceeded the propor- 
 tion which would naturally float in this country 
 beyond what might have arisen by means of the 
 previous corn laws. The depression of the ex- 
 change would more nearly, then, have equalled the 
 depreciation of the currency, and have been a fairer 
 criterion of its excess. A check would thus have 
 soon been given to the importation of foreign corn, 
 and the bullion price of this as well as of all other 
 commodities would more nearly have approached 
 the natural level : an event highly advantageous 
 to the manufacturing, and, as it may be shewn, if 
 it has not already been, to the agricultural interests 
 also of the country. 
 
 What, indeed, can be clearer than that a demand 
 for our home manufactured goods is infinitely more 
 beneficial to our manufacturers, than that for the 
 surplus of the precious metals ? which is attended 
 with an influx of foreign goods, perhaps no way or 
 but little conducive to our real wealth and pros- 
 perity, but as being the means of restoring to those 
 
 the price of 63s. the quarter, which was the average at which it 
 mi^lit have been imported under the preceding Act, paying only 
 the .small duty of 2s. (id. the quarter, was equivalent to about 3<>s. 
 only in bullion ; al which price it would probably have been un- 
 profitable to import it, in case it had fallen so low. So that in 
 such case fresh regulations would have been unnecessary. The 
 price, however, far exceeded o'.">s., and the preceding rt gulfttious, 
 therefore, woe inoperative.
 
 [ 54 ] 
 
 metals the equilibrium of value, and thus occasion- 
 ing such reduction of the bullion or metallic price, 
 as to lead to a renewal of demand for our manufac- 
 tured goods. And that a reduction in the price of 
 corn would also, in like manner, tend to an aug- 
 mentation of demand for our rude produce, inde- 
 pendent of that augmentation which would arise 
 from the increased prosperity of our manufactures, 
 is not only deducible from principles already stated, 
 but likewise from experience. 
 
 Under the corn trade laws, which were in force 
 long previous to the suspension of cash payments 
 in 1797. and therefore to the advance of price which 
 was the consequence of that measure, considerable 
 quantities of corn were occasionally exported, by the 
 aid indeed of bounties towards discharging the 
 expenses of transportation, when the prices were 
 below the limits regulated. So that without looking 
 for any further proof, it may fairly be inferred, that 
 the average prices here did not reach, if at all ex- 
 ceed, those of the foreign markets, notwithstanding 
 the then existing laws. The security against a 
 glutted market was the settled lowness, or rather 
 moderateness, of our prices, and probability of a 
 profitable export trade in corn, of any surplus be- 
 yond our own consumption. Hence for nineteen 
 years, from 174-6 to 1J65 inclusive, the imports, 
 excepting in 17^7 were constantly exceeded by 
 the exports, the average annual excess amounting
 
 [ S3 ] 
 
 to upwards of 690,000 quarters, and the average 
 prices stated being 32s. 3d. per quarter of wheat, 
 17s. 8d. of barley, and 14s. of oats. During the 
 live succeeding years, the home growth appears to 
 have been unequal to the consumption, and exporta- 
 tion was prohibited. During the eighteen years, 
 from 1770 to 1788 inclusive, the exports were on 
 the whole exceeded by the imports, but chiefly in 
 respect to oats, nearly to the extent of 5,000,000 
 quarters,* or at the average rate of 274,429 qrs. per 
 annum. But the average price of wheat had risen 
 to 44s. 9d., of barley to 28s. 7d., and of oats to 
 16s. 2d. the quarter.? The annual average prices 
 during the first series having fluctuated between 
 26s. lOd. and 53s. 4d. and between S3s. 8d. and 
 52s. 8d. the quarter during the latter. Nor was 
 it till the scanty harvests of 1794 and 1795, which 
 were not long after followed by the suspension of 
 cash payments, t that the yearly average prices, which 
 were sometimes below, ever much exceeded the 
 last-mentioned amount ; nor till some time after that 
 they attained that exorbitancy, which has utterly 
 precluded us from all attempt at competition in 
 
 The excess of oats imported above the quantity exported is 
 stated to have been 4,780,627 quarters. 
 
 t See the Report of the Committee of Privy Council, 8th 
 March, 1790, with the Appendices. 
 
 I From 1790 to 1797 inclusive, the yearly average prices of 
 wheat fluctuated between 42s. lid. and 77s. Id. the quarter, 
 excluding 1795 and 1796 from the series ; the highest difference 
 between the yearly average amounted only to lis, lOd. the <jr.
 
 t 5(i ] 
 
 the foreign market. During the continued pre- 
 valence of these high prices, the export, prior as 
 well as subsequent to the recent alteration of our 
 corn laws, has been constantly and often greatly 
 exceeded by the import, not excepting the com- 
 parison of 1815, when the course of exchange being 
 still much against us, the yearly average price of 
 wheat fell to 64s. 4d. the quarter, and caused that 
 terror and alarm to the landed interest which 
 must ever attend abundant harvests, in a country 
 where the prices in common years exceed exorbi- 
 tantly those in other countries.* 
 
 It would hardly, perhaps, have seemed to suit 
 the interests of any class, not even exactly that of 
 agriculturists, that they should wait in patience till 
 the paper money system had in its consummation 
 wrought, as they might think, its worst j till the 
 
 * Neither is the moral evil, which such a state of things is 
 calculated to produce, unworthy of our serious reflection. It has 
 introduced amongst a class of men, whose character stood well 
 for liberality, a sordid principle of selfishness, and want of feeling 
 for the miseries of others, highly disgusting and offensive, a 
 disunion of common interest incompatible with the security 
 of private property, and the welfare of the state. Formerly 
 abundant harvests were the harbingers of universal gladness, 
 a blessing to the farmer, who participated in a nation's gratitude, 
 satisfied with the assurance of a sale abroad for all the surplus 
 produce of his land beyond the home consumption, without a 
 diminution of his accustomed profits. But now how different 
 are his feelings! Have we such abundance, the home markets 
 arc quickly overstocked; the prices fall full rapidly; but no 
 lelit-f < ;in be expected from abroad. His rent continues high, 
 but >\ ill) abated means of paying it. To him abundance is the 
 .souice of poverty and ruin.
 
 [ 57 ] 
 
 value of the precious metals, which had been greatly 
 lowered by the Corn Trade Act of 1804, should 
 have been redeemed by means of copious importa- 
 tions of foreign corn, and corresponding exportations 
 of those metals. Better, however, it might have 
 been that the value of the latter should even thus 
 have been redeemed, than have continued in that 
 degraded state, from which it seems we have of 
 late so eminently suffered. The remedy, though 
 painful, need not have been administered much 
 longer than it was, and it was such as nature has 
 herself provided. But the value of the precious 
 metals might have been restored by other means, 
 and without the sacrifice of any just and real inte- 
 rests of British agriculture, by extirpating the 
 system of unlimited paper issues unexchangeable 
 for gold, and forming, at the same time, such 
 equitable arrangements in respect to previous con- 
 tracts as might in consequence be requisite. Such 
 measures would have effectually relieved the culti- 
 vators of land from all reasonable fears of unfair 
 competition, and have placed their cause on a sure 
 and solid footing : not perhaps without some 
 comparatively trifling temporary difficulties, and 
 new financial regulations, yet on the whole with 
 infinite advantage to the community at large. But 
 the policy of such measures was at that time doubted 
 or denied. Nay, the fact of our currency's depre- 
 dation was not generally admitted, either in or out
 
 [ *8 ] 
 
 of Parliament, and accordingly the plan pursued 
 was widely different. Yet while it was professedly 
 intended only to relieve the landed interest from 
 an unequal competition, it established, unless during 
 a gross depreciation of the currency, an absolute 
 monopoly in the trade of corn at home, except when 
 bearing exorbitant high prices, a monopoly op- 
 pressive to the manufacturing and other branches 
 of the people, and likely in the end injuriously to 
 affect the landed interest itself. It may for a 
 time, indeed, have formed a counterpoise to the 
 depreciation of the currency, so as to guard our 
 cultivators from foreign competition in the sale of 
 corn below the prices limited for importation. But 
 it so reduces the value of the precious metals to the 
 standard of the currency's depreciation, as will 
 hereafter more particularly be shewn, that it operates 
 as a legislative veto to the export of much of our 
 native produce, not only rude but manufactured, 
 and hence as a mighty and a lasting check upon 
 the industry of the people. 
 
 If, therefore, the efforts of our landholders were 
 intentionally directed to the depreciation of the pre- 
 cious metals, such efforts were unjustifiable in respect 
 to others, however they might in the event affect 
 themselves. Though they sought only to counteract 
 the effects of the paper system, that is, a depreciated 
 currency, as being productive of immediate injury 
 to themselves, by virtually abrogating the then
 
 t 9 ] 
 
 existing corn laws; they ought first to have con- 
 sidered the general policy and justice of such laws, 
 and at least been careful that the new measures they 
 proposed should not work still greater injury to 
 others. They ought well to have been assured that 
 the precious metals would not thence become still 
 more depreciated, an effect not necessarily result- 
 ing in any very material degree from the further 
 increase and consequent depreciation of Bank paper; 
 the evil of which, as far as our manufacturers and 
 agriculturists were concerned, and ought properly to 
 have been considered, would in a little time have 
 been corrected by the fall of the exchange. Though 
 rather than an evil, it was to them, for the most 
 part, especially the latter, a substantial good. 
 
 But had land-owners duly weighed the general 
 mischief which had arisen from the abuse of the 
 paper money system, and considered how inade- 
 quate the alteration of our corn laws was to meet 
 *t, they could hardly have been satisfied with such a 
 measure, or have doubted the expedience of at once 
 reforming the paper money system itself. It was 
 sufficient, we might have thought, had they perceived 
 the particular injury which it inflicted on themselves^ 
 But the total annual loss of rent occasioned by it, 
 in other words, the difference between the rents 
 reserved by subsisting leases, and those which might 
 have been obtained, had the lands comprised in 
 them been out of lease, seemed to be forgotten,
 
 I 60 ] 
 
 though it well might baffle all their calculating 
 powers; whilst their thoughts turned, notwith- 
 standing, chiefly on the happy rapid augmentation 
 of the prices of fanning produce, and consequently 
 of rent, (whenever opportunity might offer,) which 
 the superabundant medium of circulation had like- 
 wise gradually effected. This, therefore, appeared 
 so unquestionably advantageous to the landed in- 
 terests ; and, on the other hand, the free admission of 
 foreign corn so evidently injurious to them, tending 
 to the reduction both of price and rent ; that land 
 lords seemed anxious only to adopt the readiest 
 means of maintaining them at the highest limit 
 a limit adapted nearly to the then depreciated state 
 of the currency, if not more extravagant than that. 
 Whence they naturally imagined they would possess 
 the readiest means of meeting all the charges on 
 their estates, augmented taxes, and prices of com- 
 modities, in a manner, at the same time, easy to 
 their tenants, and advantageous and honourable to 
 themselves. 
 
 The accommodation thus apparently afforded to 
 the proprietors of land, by the joint operation of an 
 excessive paper currency, and monopoly of the 
 corn trade, was probably the main and most sub- 
 stantial argument for the adoption, as it since has 
 been for the continuance, of this doubly restrictive 
 system. *' How," say country gentlemen, " unless 
 " the price of corn and rents be high, can we pay
 
 [ 61 ] 
 
 " the taxes and other charges on our estates." 
 Yet would they then be guilty of a fraud? For what 
 is it in effect but fraud to pay a debt with counter- 
 feited money, or money so debased or so reduced in 
 value, and partly through our own machinations, 
 as to be equivalent to three-fifths or two-thirds 
 only of the money borrowed? For whether we 
 debase the money by actual alloy, or an excessive 
 augmentation of paper money, unexchangeable 
 without loss for gold or silver, or otherwise reduce 
 its value by artificially forcing up the prices of the 
 necessaries of life, is in this respect of little moment. 
 In their endeavour to establish high prices, do they 
 not strive in reality to shift the burthen from the 
 landed on the funded and the monied interests, 
 and at the same time deal a deadly blow upon the 
 manufacturing ? But they have not many of 
 them the audacity to avow, if they have the dis- 
 honesty, which I trust but few of them have, to 
 practise fraud. Yet how can they escape the im- 
 putation? They do not, all at least, openly or 
 privately contend for the necessity of cancelling 
 the public debt, or even any part of it. They do 
 not declare the government to be bankrupt. Yet 
 have not many of them countenanced the restriction 
 of cash payments at the Bank of England, and 
 excessive issues of paper money from country bankers, 
 by which the currency has become greatly depre- 
 ciated, and afterwards by means of fresh corn
 
 [ te ] 
 
 laws, contrived to lower the value of the precious 
 metals themselves nearly to the extent of that de- 
 preciation; whilst in this depreciated currency, 
 the claims of public as well as private creditors are 
 legally discharged? 
 
 It is unnecessary at this time to tire the patience 
 of the reader in pointing to the several instances of 
 the cruel operation of the paper money system, which 
 originally engendered the high prices, and of the 
 corn laws which confirm them, upon those persons 
 especially who ought above all to be the peculiar 
 care of government, the widow, the infant, and the 
 indigent in general, whose scanty property is in 
 effect thus iniquitously invaded. It is enough to 
 assert, without fear of contradiction, that thousands 
 have been, and still continue to be, deprived of their 
 undoubted due; and that in the aggregate to an 
 enormous, and in many cases, considered indivi- 
 dually, to a very serious and distressing amount, 
 fixing a stain upon the government of our country 
 which may never be effaced. 
 
 Doubtless we all regret these things But how 
 many console themselves with thinking they are 
 unavoidable. Moreover they will say, debts and 
 charges have been created since the depreciation of 
 our currency ; and it is fair the land should be 
 protected from overpayment on account of these, 
 which would happen, if the former value of our 
 money were restored. A reason this against return-
 
 [ 63 ] 
 
 ing to cash payments, and removing the restrictions 
 on our corn trade, built upon the ground of the 
 injustice which would ensue good, perhaps, for 
 something in the mouths of those who have all 
 along insisted on the actual depreciation of the 
 currency, but of those who have along denied it 
 inconsistent and contemptible. Yet at all events 
 it is but half a reason for the continuance of the 
 present system. For he must be a sorry arbitrator 
 who could not decide with some tolerable equity 
 between the cases arising out of it. In vain might 
 he attempt a perfect retribution. The time is 
 past. But much might still be done, and better it 
 were done quickly. We only aggravate the evil by 
 delaying to remove it. 
 
 It is far from my intention to urge, notwith- 
 standing something, but not sufficient, could be 
 said, in favour of the justice of discharging the in- 
 terest of the public debt entire in an undepreciated 
 currency. But the value of the money borrowed 
 ought to be the standard of that which should be 
 paid, whether principal or interest. And any ar- 
 rangement which may be made to effect such pay- 
 ments ought to satisfy the stockholder, and all other 
 public as well as private creditors. If the currency 
 of 1810 were depreciated to the extent of SO or 40 
 per cent, for every hundred pounds now payable by 
 way of principal or interest on the sums then bor- 
 rowed, seventy or sixty only should respectively be
 
 [ 64 ] 
 
 payable hereafter in an undepreciated currency. Arid 
 in like manner, a certain ratio should be fixed for 
 every such distinct period, since the suspension of 
 cash payments, as appears to have been marked by any 
 considerable alteration in the value of the currency. 
 Thus may the whole principal and interest, payable 
 on the public or any other debt, be fairly regulated. 
 Any relief from taxation on the former score, or 
 from private claims on the latter, beyond what such 
 a regulation might afford, the landed interest ean 
 have no right to ask. Nor can it, whatever may 
 be its legislative influence, be justified in maintain- 
 ing high prices, either by means of forced excessive 
 paper money, or restrictions on the importation of 
 foreign corn, for any other purpose but such as this, 
 even if for such as this. If it seek to throw a larger 
 share of the burthen of taxation on any other class of 
 people than their fair proportion of it, or to escape 
 from the completely fair discharge of what is owing 
 from themselves to individuals, the attempt is base 
 and dishonourable ; and the government, it may be 
 added, which would intentionally sanction and faci- 
 litate such proceedings, would be unworthy of the 
 confidence and support of the people. Ours, we 
 trust, is so far otherwise, that now since the cur- 
 rency has been admitted to have been depreciated, 
 (though not, I apprehend, to the full extent of the 
 real fact,) it will not stop at a bare removal of re- 
 strictions from cash payments, but remove them also
 
 [ te ] 
 
 from the corn trade, so far at least as will satisfy 
 the ends of common justice. 
 
 Talk not of the difficulties of accomplishing sucli 
 measures as are required, unless they can be shewn 
 to be really insurmountable. If we cannot restore 
 to all all their due, we may to many the greater 
 part of it. Existing laws are not abolished, because 
 they cannot reach exactly every offence against 
 which they may be directed : neither ought the 
 Legislature, from the like cause, to refrain from 
 passing others needful : they will be good for 
 what they do ; not despised for what they leave 
 undone. The subject which we contemplate 
 scarcely yields to any in magnitude or importance. 
 The mischief to be removed is vast beyond what 
 we could have imagined would have been permitted 
 to grow up to its present enormity, without some 
 vigorous effort on the part of all honest men to 
 correct it long ago. But those who saw and strove 
 against it strove in vain. Its existence was denied, 
 and by some we must admit as honest. Had they 
 not been restrained by novel statutes, our courts of 
 law would soon, indeed, have proved a safeguard to 
 the rights of money claimants on the one hand ; 
 whilst, on the other, our courts of equity might, 
 perhaps, without much stretch of authority and 
 principle, have modified them according to its 
 liberal rules. But both were soon obliged to bend 
 beneath the gigantic force of the paper-money 
 
 F
 
 t 60 ] 
 
 system, which was not thus to be enchained ; its 
 time was yet to run. It now, however, has 
 begun to yield its strength. But with the con- 
 tinuance, the modification, or total abolition of the 
 system, it is absolutely necessary to justice that 
 some remedy should be provided against the daily 
 breaches which it otherwise must suffer, against 
 the perpetual violation of property which must 
 otherwise be endured. 
 
 Without sufficiently or at all considering the 
 flagrant injustice of such a principle, or rather its 
 crying absurdity, there are those who, in their infi- 
 nite simplicity, appear to think that, by way of 
 paramount peculiar privilege, and as if it were 
 necessary to the salvation of the state that they 
 should live in undiminished splendour, not only 
 their property in land should be exempt from all 
 additional direct impost, but that its produce should 
 from time to time be so augmented as to indemnify 
 them from any other, to which they, in common with 
 the rest of the community, may happen to be liable. 
 So that the creditors of the public, after having 
 advanced their capital for the public service, should 
 alone, or together with other money or trading capi- 
 talists only, be taxed to pay themselves the interest. 
 Now, with every due respect for the landed interest, 
 and almost every unity of interest with it, I can see 
 no good ground for violating those commonly re- 
 ceived notions of justice, by which the frame of
 
 [ 67 J 
 
 human society has so long been held together, in 
 order to secure this class exclusively, and at the 
 expense of every other, from an overwhelming weight 
 of debt. If the necessities of government have 
 called for a large proportion of the property of the 
 nation, it is fit that it should be yielded up rateably 
 and fairly, according to their respective means. 
 It is not in reason to be expected, at the close 
 of so many long and expensive wars, bringing such 
 heavy charges on the state, that the pressure 
 should not be severely felt by individuals, from what- 
 ever sources their incomes may be derived. But 
 to hold that the prices of the produce of the soil 
 and rents are to be raised in proportion to the 
 increase of taxes charged upon or payable by the 
 owners of land, in common only with other mem- 
 bers of the community, in order that they may be 
 thus evaded by the former, is a doctrine reserved for 
 the present times, but monstrous and absurd in 
 these, from whatever quarter it may proceed. 
 What ! did not our land-owners join full as heartily 
 as any other class in the war cry against France 
 and her dependent states? Was not our sword 
 drawn as much in the defence of their property, 
 their laws, and their religion, of their wives, their 
 children, and themselves, as of all that was dear to 
 every other class? What just grounds or pretence 
 have they to be excused from contribution ; or ex- 
 clusively and alone, amidst so many sacrifices, to 
 
 i 1
 
 [ C8 ] 
 
 fatten untouched and sacred as it were in their 
 holy places? 
 
 Upon the whole, are we not compelled to think, 
 that the case exhibited on behalf of the landed 
 interest wants argument in almost every point for 
 its support? It was the chief error of our land- 
 owners not to combat in time against the de- 
 preciation of the currency. This they were able 
 with success to do, and the country would have 
 been indebted to them for the service ; but they 
 heeded not the warning voice of those who pro- 
 claimed the danger. They would listen to no 
 counsel, aid no project for their deliverance from 
 the thraldrom to which they were subjected, but on 
 the odious principle of monopoly.* They would 
 not fairly meet and try their strength with their 
 only enemy, but allowed themselves to be cajoled 
 into an acquiescence, under the pernicious paper- 
 money system, receiving from time to time such 
 mere palliative, insufficient concessions in their 
 favour as they thought would prove of benefit, but 
 which have tended to the introduction of still more 
 serious, because more general and lasting, mischief. 
 
 Having so frequently, in the course of our in- 
 quiry, had occasion to advert to the influence of 
 
 * These observations are intended to apply to them, not indi- 
 vidually, but as a body. Had Lord King, instead of being 
 vehemently censured as he was, been backed by the landed 
 interest, both in and out of Parliament, we should not since have 
 
 beard such dismal lamentations over its distress.
 
 [ 69 ] 
 
 our superabundant circulating medium upon the 
 corn trade, as well as our corn laws ; on the state 
 of the exchange and value of the preciousmetals, of 
 which last, notwithstanding, in tracing the operation 
 of the principles by which the commerce of nations 
 is naturally regulated, we are brought shortly to 
 conclude, that there is a perpetual tendency to 
 equalize the value, in spite of all attempts to alter 
 and degrade it in one country more than another; 
 it may be proper to consider some of tliose pecu- 
 liar circumstances, under which such attempts may 
 happen to be made, and what has been the imme- 
 diate effect of those which have actually been made 
 in this country, before we venture to observe more 
 fully upon their probable ulterior consequences. 
 
 In countries rich in the production of corn, it 
 may matter little how high the importation price 
 may be fixed. The supply would soon be made to 
 reach to the extent of the demand, and even to ex- 
 ceed it ; so that the market price could no longer 
 be regulated by the importation price. But in this 
 country, whatever may be the final result of re- 
 striction from importation, the more immediate is, 
 I apprehend, to keep the prices, with occasionally 
 great and rapid declension, frequently, and for no 
 inconsiderable periods of duration, nearly up to 
 the limits which authorize importation; and hence 
 to reduce the value, not only of the currency, if 
 before undepreciated, but of the precious metals
 
 !L 7<> ] 
 
 themselves, nearly in the same degree as the excess 
 of the importation price of corn beyond its natural 
 price, or that at which it might be sold in our 
 markets in case the trade were free. It is not 
 only the variableness of our climate which tends to 
 favour this result, by preventing the home pro- 
 duction of constant adequate supplies, but the 
 hitherto unrivalled excellence of our manufactures, 
 which have insured a continual influx of the pre- 
 cious metals; whilst our heavy import duties and 
 strict commercial regulations have thrown impedi- 
 ments in the way of exchanging them for other 
 foreign merchandize. 
 
 Without such means as these, it being plain that 
 restrictions on the importation of foreign corn 
 cannot actually increase the quantity of gold and 
 silver which may happen to be in circulation, it may 
 be questioned whether the general average bullion 
 price of corn would, in fact, be much advanced by such 
 restrictions. At all events, it could not be, with- 
 out some great and violent check on industry, since, 
 if the quantity of gold and silver absolutely re- 
 mained the same, but the price of the necessaries 
 of life were much augmented, the quantity of other 
 commodities to be circulated must be materially 
 diminished. At the same prices they could not, to 
 the same extent, continue to be circulated, and by 
 the supposition they could not be produced at less; 
 on the contrary, the expenses of production would
 
 [ 71 J 
 
 be increased with the increased price of the neces- 
 saries of life. Such effects must, therefore, be 
 most mischievous. 
 
 But the average price of corn would, probably, 
 not be materially increased. For supposing, that, in 
 consequence of the exclusion of all foreign grain, 
 we were driven to the necessity of raising constantly 
 sufficient for our home consumption, it would not 
 naturally follow that its relative value, compared 
 with gold and silver, would be in the least degree 
 augmented. Because more labour is employed in 
 the production of corn, and more corn produced 
 than heretofore, metallic money is not, therefore, 
 rendered in the least degree more nlentiful. The 
 cultivation of land on Dartmoor cannot make the 
 mines of Chili more productive, or attract a larger 
 proportion of the precious metals from that or any 
 other quarter; on the contrary, more labour being 
 expended on the soil, and a larger growth insured, 
 so as to correspond more nearly with the demand, 
 the prices would decline, and be brought more 
 nearly to the level of other countries. 
 
 We find, indeed, that the restrictive laws of I67O, 
 though they imposed a duty of lfis. the quarter 
 on wheat imported, when the average price was 
 53b. :4d., the previous duty being only .5s. when 
 the price was 48s., instead of causing any perma- 
 nent augmentation of that price, were, alter no long 
 interval, followed by the contrary.- ' From the
 
 I 72 ] 
 
 tables which we have, it seems that the average of 
 the ten years ending I67O, was about 48s. :10d. 
 the quarter ; of the next ten, 50s. : 8d. ; but of the 
 succeeding ten, 39s. : Id.* England was then com- 
 paratively backward in the arts both of agriculture 
 and manufacture. Much and highly improveable 
 land no doubt lay uncultivated ; and it was with the 
 view of promoting its cultivation, that these restric- 
 tive laws were then enacted. It probably, however, 
 was never so foolishly intended as to reduce the value 
 of the precious metals lower here than in other coun- 
 tries, but rather to prevent such reduction ; nor to 
 force the cultivation of lands, which could not be 
 expected to yield a fair return. The former would 
 have been a discouragement to agriculture as well 
 as manufacture, and the latter an improvident di- 
 rection, as it would tend to the waste of capital j 
 and both would, therefore, have proved injurious to 
 the common interest. Neither could the prices, 
 whatever the intentions were, have been easily 
 maintained beyond their natural level, when there 
 existed no such extraordinary attraction of the pre- 
 cious metals from such superiority of manufacturing 
 capital, machinery, and skill, as we have since 
 attained. 
 
 * From 1690 to 1700 the average was much higher, being 
 raised to 5Gs. : 9d. but, doubtless, partly in consequence of the 
 great diminution in the weight of the coin, and partly of the 
 scarcity which, it seems, prevailed subsequent to the reforma- 
 tion of the coin. From the commencement of the last century, 
 the average price of a long course of years hardly exceeded the 
 lowest average above mentioned.
 
 [ 73 ] 
 
 By the modem prompt expedient of putting 
 paper money into circulation, the nominal price of 
 all things may be raised to almost any pitch in this 
 or any other country ; but the bullion price may, 
 notwithstanding, rest as low in it as elsewhere, 
 unless peculiar circumstances, such as have been 
 mentioned, should operate to uphold it. For the 
 nominal price of gold and silver would naturally 
 rise, and nearly in the same degree, with that of 
 other commodities, and their value, in regard to 
 corn, would, therefore, remain but little affected 
 by the excess of such paper money. But if the 
 bullion price of corn were not advanced, it would 
 be a nominal or apparent, rather than a real, rise 
 of price. This nominal or apparent rise, however, 
 is evidently not always insignificant in effect, but 
 may be greatly otherwise; working, perhaps, a 
 higher injury, in many instances, than all the at- 
 tempts which have been made to raise the bullion 
 price above the natural level by means of restrictive 
 laws ; which, as it has been contended, cannot of 
 themselves alone, or without the aid of manufac- 
 turing superiority, effectuate the object, at least 
 for any permanency. 
 
 But without restrictions on the corn trade, the 
 bullion price of corn, notwithstanding our manu- 
 facturing advantages, could not be long maintained 
 above the common level. We may observe, indeed, 
 that when the corn trade laws of 1801 were, as
 
 C 71 ] 
 
 already noticed, rendered almost nugatory by the 
 depreciation of our currency, large quantities of 
 grain were annually imported, so as materially to 
 affect the bullion price, which was at length reduced 
 from upwards of an ounce to .74 or nearly three 
 fourths of an ounce of gold the quarter of wheat, 
 the average bullion price of three months next 
 preceding the enactment of the present corn laws ; 
 the average money price but just surpassing the 
 limit below which the heavy duty of 24s. per quarter 
 then attached on importation, which, probably, 
 under the then existing state of the exchange, 
 could not, therefore, profitably have been con- 
 tinued, if below that limit. 
 
 Our manufacturing superiority alone could 
 scarcely have so enriched the nation with the 
 precious metals as to have rendered thus com- 
 pletely nugatory the corn trade laws of 1791> 
 which fixed, as it were, the importation price of 
 wheat at 50s.; still less those of 1804, which, in 
 like manner, fixed it at 63s. subject only to the 
 trifling duty of 2s. 6d. per quarter; or, if it had, 
 they would, ere long, in consequence of an aug- 
 mented importation, have again been rendered ef- 
 fective. So that they might till now have remained 
 unaltered, and yet in force, had there been no excess 
 of paper money. But as the immediate effect of 
 this excess was to lower the value of the coin, 
 and, in time, successively to annul those laws ; so
 
 L r> ] 
 
 did those laws themselves, the former, perhaps, 
 only in a small, but the latter in a material, degree : 
 though the subsequent laws of 1815, prohibiting 
 the importation for home consumption when the 
 average is below 80s. the quarter, do in a much 
 greater degree, whatever may be the final result, 
 operate, under the peculiar circumstances in which 
 this country has happened to be placed,' to the 
 reduction of the value of the precious metals them- 
 selves; which appear, indeed, to have been, by 
 these means, adapted to the value of the currency 
 for the time being ; a contrivance, ingenious 
 enough for certain purposes alluded to, though in 
 the end, perhaps, somewhat mischievous. It has 
 had, however, the unexpected effect of stifling the 
 clamours of many who were urgent for a return to 
 cash payments, on account of the alleged depre- 
 ciation of Bank paper, whilst it seems to afford a 
 ground of triumph to those who ventured to 
 deny it. Yet it has so far actually advanced the 
 cause of the former, as to deprive the latter of one 
 of their chief arguments against such return, 
 namely, the unfavourable state of the exchange, 
 and vast difference between the mint and market 
 price of gold and silver. Although a little reflec- 
 tion might have convinced both the one and the 
 other, that by the alteration of our corn laws the 
 value of our currency became subject to another 
 and far different test.
 
 [ 76 ] 
 
 For though the state of exchange, and price of 
 gold and silver, have often been advanced, conclu- 
 sively, as it was thought, to prove the excess of 
 currency, or the reverse, as it might happen ; 
 yet this can strictly be taken only with reference to 
 its value compared with the precious metals. So 
 that if the medium of circulation, though consist- 
 ing of paper only, be not so abundant as to exceed 
 the quantity of the precious metals which would 
 circulate in case there were no paper money, it 
 might, rightly perhaps, be said not to be excessive. 
 But it is evident that these metals may be depre- 
 ciated in one country more than in others ; and that 
 they are so, whenever the increased bullion price of 
 corn, the chief necessary of life, cannot be main- 
 tained, excepting through monopoly. This, accom- 
 panied with great superiority in regard to capital, 
 machinery, and other arts of manufacture, may, for 
 a time, and even for a long time, retard the fall of 
 the bullion price of grain, or, in other words, the 
 rise of the real price of gold and silver, so as to 
 depress the one far below, and uphold the other far 
 above, their respective levels in surrounding coun- 
 tries. How far these objects have lately been 
 attained, and how they have been counteracted by 
 the means already mentioned, let us proceed more 
 particularly to inquire. 
 
 Supposing the price of corn to have derived no 
 additional value from inadequacy of supply subse-
 
 f 77 ] 
 
 quent to the alteration of our corn laws in 1 804, 
 and taking the average price of gold at this period 
 at 80s. the ounce, and of wheat at 60s. the quarter,* 
 which was therefore worth three-fourths of an ounce 
 of gold ; taking also the average price of this in 
 1805, as before, at 80s. and the average price of 
 wheat 87s.:10d. consequently as worth 1.0977, or 
 nearly 1 T V ounce of gold; it should seem, that the 
 immediate result of the corn trade act of 1804 was 
 to lower the value of that metal nearly to the ex- 
 tent of 32 per cent. But this increase of the bul- 
 lion price of wheat arose, perhaps, in part, from 
 insufficiency of supply ; the average price of the 
 three succeeding years, taking the price of gold as 
 still at 80s. the ounce, being only .9625 of an ounce 
 the quarter, or nearly 22 per cent, above the price 
 of 1801. The average of the ten years immedi- 
 ately succeeding 1804 was, however, 1.036 of an 
 ounce of gold, or nearly 2J per cent, above the 
 price of that year. It is true, the average of ten 
 years, ending with 1804, was .924 of an ounce of 
 gold, but of these, 1795 and 1796, as well as 1799, 
 1800, and 1801, were years of extraordinary 
 scarcity. These omitted, the average would be 
 considerably below that of 1801; whereas of the 
 
 * In the earl} part of 1804, the prices were considerably below 
 this ; the average of the first live months not amounting to 
 .00s. the quarter. The subsequent advance of price may, in 
 great measure, lie attributed tu the subsequent enactment.
 
 [ 78 ] 
 
 ten following there was not one, except the last, of 
 which the average did not exceed it. 
 
 From what cause this continued high bullion price 
 of grain, excepting that of real scarcity, can have 
 proceeded, (for the excessive issue of paper money 
 does not afford a satisfactory solution of every 
 difficulty,) is hard precisely to determine. The 
 average money price of every year was much be- 
 yond the importation price of 63s. the quar- 
 ter; so that the Act of 1804 must be deemed 
 to have been almost totally inoperative; whilst 
 the course of the exchange was by no means 
 so unfavourable, though greatly unfavourable it 
 was for more than half the time, as to reduce the 
 actual payment, except perhaps in 1814, so low as 
 the average bullion price of 1804. It was natural, 
 indeed, that the expenses of freightage and insur- 
 ance, and the price of corn in parts abroad, should 
 have been raised in correspondence with its in- 
 creased bullion price in this country, the more 
 rapid fail of which might thus for a time have been 
 retarded.* Its extravagance at length, however, 
 attracted such copious supplies, not only from 
 Ireland, but other foreign parts, and the quantity 
 
 * It was remarkable, that while the precious metals were 
 thus evidently much reduced in value, a notion prevailed 
 amongst many commercial men, as well as some politicians, that 
 they were extremely scarce ; confounding- all distinction between 
 nominal and real value, they seemed unable to discern the dif- 
 ference.
 
 [ 79 ] 
 
 produced at home by the extension and improve- 
 ments of our agriculture, became in favourable sea- 
 sons so abundant, whilst a diminution of paper 
 money was also rapidly taking place, under the 
 apprehension of an early return to cash payments, 
 that the money and the bullion prices both at last 
 declined, the former nearly to the limit below which 
 the first low duty on exportation became payable, 
 and the latter lower than in 1804. Soon, there- 
 fore, the evil of importation, if such it ought to be 
 considered, would have remedied itself. 
 
 Acting, however, on the self-same principle as 
 in 1804, the Parliament pursued the like method, 
 and again it raised the importation price. The 
 inefficacy of such laws in restraining importation, 
 while the issues of paper money are unlimited, 
 as well as in maintaining high prices during seasons 
 of abundance, had not, it seems, become sufficiently 
 apparent. Another proof was wanted, and accord- 
 ingly the Act of 1815 was passed; which neither 
 had the effect of immediately raising the price, nor, 
 in the sequel, of precluding foreign corn from the 
 British market. The supplies at first had altogether 
 proved so copious, and the reduction of country 
 bank-paper so general, that the price of wheat fell, 
 not only below the average price of 1804, but to 
 52s. 6d. the average price of January, 1816. In 
 the latter half of that year it rose, however, above 
 80s. the quarter, aud in June of the following,
 
 t 80 J 
 
 attained to Ills. 6d. ; nor did it fall again below 
 the importation price till the beginning of the year 
 last past. But the interval of high prices had 
 also again afforded so much encouragement to im- 
 portation, rendered more profitable in consequence 
 of the more favourable course of the exchange, and 
 our harvests had since proved so productive, that 
 the prices gradually declined to 6 Is. the average at 
 the commencement of the present year; that of the 
 last five appearing to be more than 78s. 
 
 The money price of gold, however, appears also 
 in the mean time to have considerably varied, rising 
 from 4 : 6s., the average at which it stood for 
 nearly three months previous to the passing of the 
 present Act, to 5 : 7s. the ounce, the price in 
 the succeeding ; then falling rapidly in the course 
 of the same year to 4 : 3s. ; and, with but lit- 
 tle irregularity, gradually declining since to 
 o : 17s. : 10id.; the average of the last five years 
 being nearly 8 c 2s. 6d. So that the average bullion 
 price of wheat just previous to the enactment of 
 1815 being taken, as has been stated, at .74, or 
 three-fourths of an ounce of gold per quarter, 
 and the five years average to the present year at 
 .93, it would seem to have increased nearly 20- 
 per cent. ; about one-tenth less than the average 
 of the ten last preceding years, and approaching 
 nearly to the average of the next preceding ten, 
 that is to say, from 1794 to 1804 inclusive, in
 
 I 81 ] 
 
 which it is to be remembered were four or five of 
 extraordinary scarcity. 
 
 It hence appears that not only in the money price 
 of corn a material advance has been effected, but 
 also in its bullion price, which now in ordinary 
 seasons has been raised as high as it formerly ex- 
 tended in those of great deficiency ; and conse- 
 quently that the value of the precious metals has, 
 on the whole, become most perceptibly diminished. 
 But as it cannot be denied, that without the re- 
 strictive laws of 1815 the bullion price of corn 
 would not only have fallen lower than it lately has, 
 but lower than in 1816; neither can it be denied, 
 that the tendency of such laws is to uphold the 
 bullion price considerably beyond the level of sur- 
 rounding countries, so long, at least, as our unri 
 vailed manufactures afford the means of obtaining, 
 and our fiscal and commercial regulations the means 
 of retaining, a superabundance of the precious 
 metals. For though it may be true, that the fre- 
 quent rise of the market price above the limit pre- 
 scribed for importation for our home consumption 
 presents repeated opportunity of lowering that price, 
 which the higher it reaches is the more likely sud- 
 denly to be reduced, and thus be liable to dan- 
 gerous extremes of fluctuation ; yet the mean 
 elevation has long been much above the common 
 level of other countries, and so may possibly con- 
 tinue for some time longer: since a check is give- 
 
 u
 
 [ 82 ] 
 
 to the issues of bank paper, by which the currency in- 
 general docs not appear at present to be materially 
 depreciated below the value of the precious metals, or 
 the operation of the corn laws thence to be affected. 
 Plain as to many it appeared, that it was in conse- 
 quence of our excessive currency that the corn 
 laws of 1791 were superseded by those of 1804, and 
 the latter by those of 1815; yet perhaps it was 
 by few expected that these would work so important 
 a change as seems to have taken place in the value 
 of the precious metals. Not that the result has 
 been at all unnatural, but that the vulgar vision 
 did not immediately foresee it. Monopoly, and 
 consequent high prices, were the chief objects of 
 the landed interest : a copious demand for manu- 
 factures in return for corn imported, and large pro- 
 fits upon importation, the object of the trading. 
 Neither the land-owner, the manufacturer, nor 
 merchant, looked, perhaps, much further ; and the 
 alteration in the value of the precious metals was 
 probably but little heeded, excepting by the politi- 
 cian. So efficacious on the whole, however, appears 
 to have been the operation of our present laws in 
 lowering their value, that, notwithstanding the 
 quantity of our circulating medium may not be 
 much less than it was previous to the passing of 
 those laws, when the market price of gold exceeded 
 the Mint price to the extent of 15 or 20 percent, 
 and the state of the exchange was proportionably
 
 L S3 ] 
 
 unfavourable, the market price of gold has since 
 become so materially reduced as not at all to exceed 
 the mint price, and the exchange considerably 
 above par; and this almost at a time when the 
 average value of wheat was nearly equal to an 
 ounce of gold the quarter,* and the foreign demand 
 for our home produce notoriously and lamentably 
 defective. 
 
 It may by some, however, still be doubted, whe- 
 ther this alteration in the value of the precious 
 metals has arisen from the alteration of our corn 
 laws. But, with a circulating medium increas- 
 ing by such rapid strides from 1799 nearly up 
 to the period of the enactment of thac^laws, and 
 perhaps at no time much more abundant than 
 at the commencement of the year last past, the 
 money prices of almost all commodities, excepting 
 the precious metals, and even of these till the 
 enactment just mentioned, bcinggrcatly augmented, 
 and then subsequently so rapidly reduced as has 
 been pointed out; is it not altogether reasonable 
 with much confidence to infer, from the facts which 
 have been stated, as well as from the deductions of 
 theory, that it is to these laws that the great dimi- 
 nution in the value of gold and silver, which has 
 taken place in this country, is mainly attributable ? 
 On what other principle, not excepting the supe- 
 
 * In March I H I L, the price of gold was quoted at 4 : Is. pel 
 ounce, of wheat at C$ : l!Js. : lid. per quarter.
 
 L si ] 
 
 riority of our manufactures, for this could not of 
 itself long avail, if the trade in corn were free, can 
 we satisfactorily account for their being so under- 
 valued here? Other causes may, indeed, co-operate, 
 but in a very slight degree, and with comparatively 
 insignificant effect. Such as the facility afforded 
 for the importation of these metals, which, by the 
 way, has practically extended almost equally to 
 their exportation, notwithstanding the difficulties 
 which till lately have been attempted to be raised 
 against it. The fresh supplies which are constantly 
 poured forth from South America could not, though 
 at first received, be long retained by us, were 
 there no restrictions on our corn trade. They 
 would quickly, in exchange for that commodity, 
 overflow to others not provided with their due 
 proportion of them. Nay, these very restrictions 
 themselves, though they primarily reduce the value, 
 cannot to the end depress it much below the com- 
 mon level, but the equilibrium must be restored at 
 last. The cylinder may continue to be more and 
 more highly charged, but the fluid must escape at 
 last, either by gradual and gentle dissipation, or 
 by sudden and violent explosion. 
 
 It is the primary effect, however, which we 
 have been here examining, from which we may 
 conclude, not only that the influence of our recent 
 corn laws in lowering the value of the precious 
 metals has been most decisive, but will continue to
 
 [ 8.5 ] 
 
 depress them as long as the issue of paper money 
 does not prove so excessive as to render these former 
 inoperative for the prevention of importation, or tbe 
 failure of our manufacturing and commercial pros- 
 perity so extensive as to preclude us from the means 
 of maintaining a superabundance of the latter. 
 And further, it may be assumed, that, as the in- 
 creased money price of corn and other commodities 
 was, previous to the passing of these laws, a test of 
 the depreciation of the currency, so has their high 
 bullion price since become a test of the depreciation 
 of the precious metals ; tests approaching to identities. 
 Should it be objected, that, in comparing the value 
 of the precious metals at different times in the same 
 country, or at the same time in different countries, 
 the price of corn alone ought not to be taken as the 
 criterion, but that their value should be estimated 
 from the prices of commodities in general; that 
 these have not even here of late increased in the 
 same ratio ; and that although, compared with corn, 
 the precious metals may be of less, yet compared 
 with divers other commodities, such as coal or 
 cutlery, cotton or woollen cloths of a given quality, 
 they may be of greater, value, in this than any 
 other country: Notwithstanding, it must be ad- 
 mitted, that the frequent changes in the price of 
 corn are not to be received as proof of the general 
 alteration in the value of the precious metals, yet 
 that the average price for stated periods, that is to
 
 [ 80 ] 
 
 say, for ten or twenty years, for instance, ought to 
 be received as the test of that value during such 
 periods, has been commonly admitted, and cannot 
 reasonably be disputed. For since it is on the price 
 of corn that the price of labour must principally 
 depend, though influenced, of course, by the rela- 
 tive state of demand for, and supply of, each re- 
 spectively, it follows that the prices of all commodi- 
 ties produced by labour must, in the long run, be 
 principally regulated by the price of corn ; which, 
 therefore, seems to be the fittest measure of the 
 comparative value of the precious metals, whether 
 at different times in the same country, or at the 
 same time in different countries. Although cir- 
 cumstances, natural or artificial, accidental or poli- 
 tical, may occasionally appear to disturb, and either 
 lessen or augment, their value, at one time or place 
 more than another, in reference to certain articles 
 of merchandize, the value of which, in regard to 
 commodities in general, rather than gold and silver 
 in particular, being different at different times or 
 places, ought not to be considered as affording any 
 satisfactory proof of uncertainty or alteration in 
 the general value of those metals. 
 
 It is to be observed, indeed, not only that pecu- 
 liar causes have long been operating in this coun- 
 try to counteract in part the effect of an increased 
 medium of circulation or quantity of gold and 
 silver on the price of corn itself, the raising of
 
 f 87 ] 
 
 which, as before noticed, has been under an im- 
 proved system, which, therefore, would naturally 
 have reduced its real price j but also that by the 
 valuable improvements in the sciences and arts, by 
 the application of newly-invented machinery, and 
 more economical processes in working up their 
 goods, our manufacturers have, in many instances, 
 been enabled to reduce their real prices, and thus 
 have augmented but little, or rendered stationary, 
 or positively reduced, their money price. But 
 still in spite of all this, from the almost general 
 increase in the prices of commodities, (for there 
 are but few exceptions,) it is plain that the value 
 of the precious metals has, on the whole, been 
 materially diminished ; and that this diminution is 
 partial, not common to other countries, appears by 
 the comparatively low price of foreign corn, against 
 the free introduction of which, as well as of those 
 commodities for the free introduction of which, 
 our agriculturists arc contending. 
 
 Nor let it be supposed that the difference in 
 price between foreign and British produce proceeds 
 altogether from the different intensity of taxation. 
 That, through the operation of our taxes, the prices 
 of divers commodities have been considerably aug- 
 mented, is evident enough ; but it does not there- 
 fore follow, that such taxes affect the prices of all 
 commodities whatever: the price of furze, heath, 
 stone, and wood, seem in no degree whatever to be
 
 [ 88 J 
 
 enhanced by them. And in respect to grain, as is 
 before remarked, our recent taxes enter compara- 
 tively but little, if at all, into the proper composition 
 of its price, notwithstanding the repeated assertions 
 of those who take no pains to investigate the subject 
 to the contrary.* Whether they enter into it at all, 
 we will not here stop to discuss, but observe only 
 that as the increase of taxes does not increase the 
 quantity of the precious metals, and the demand 
 for and supply of com would probably, notwith- 
 standing the increase of the former, continue rela- 
 tively the same, it is reasonable to think that a tax on 
 corn would fall at first upon the cultivator, but ulti- 
 mately on the owner, of the soil, rather than the 
 consumer ; and hence, that the price of corn would 
 not be raised by such a tax. By raising it, indeed, 
 the demand would be diminished, and hence ere 
 long the price reduced. 
 
 Without further questioning, at present, the 
 reasonableness of extending the importation price 
 of corn in 1804, and again in 1815, in proportion 
 to the depreciation which the currency had suffered 
 at those respective periods ; it seems to be of no 
 small moment, if the view which has hitherto been 
 taken of the subject be correct, to consider, now that 
 we are adopting measures leading to a return of 
 
 * Sec p. 39, supra,
 
 [ 89 ] 
 
 cash payments, by which it is professedly intended 
 to conform the value of our paper money to that of 
 the precious metals, whether we ought not to pro- 
 vide for the restoration of the value of these by a 
 simultaneous alteration of our corn laws which have 
 so debased them. 
 
 If the price of wheat is to be maintained in 
 common seasons, according to these laws, at 80s. 
 the quarter, and the necessity of so maintaining it 
 has over and over again been alleged on the part of 
 the landed interest, nay a still higher average would 
 be demanded But if this price, which is nearly 
 two-fifths higher than that which prevailed pre- 
 vious to the suspension of cash payments, when the 
 practicable importation price did not exceed 50s. 
 the quarter, for the duty of 2s. Cd. could hardly 
 have operated as a prohibition, excepting on very 
 rare occasions j it is manifest, that, under circum- 
 stances such as these a return to cash payments is 
 no effectual restorative of the value of the cur- 
 rency, but merely the shadow and unsubstantial 
 appearance. If such return be attended with no 
 material fall in the price of corn and other com- 
 modities, of what utility will the boasted measure 
 prove? If, on the other hand, it be followed, as at 
 no very distant period it may, by some great reduc- 
 tion in the quantity of the circulating medium, a 
 decline in the wages of labour, and the price of all 
 things except of corn in seasons of scarcity, by the
 
 [ 90 ] 
 
 continued prohibition of the importation of the 
 latter, unless at average prices, calculated as they 
 have been on the supposition of a depreciation of 
 currency no longer existing to the same extent, 
 much distress is likely to prevail. But the prohi- 
 bition in such a case would be removed. It 
 might be. The greater danger, therefore, to be 
 feared is, that in the mean time the price of corn 
 and other commodities will not so immediately and 
 materially fall, as to afford that nourishment and 
 assistance to the manufacturing branches of the 
 community which already they so much require. 
 So nearly does the present growth of corn corres- 
 pond with the consumption in this countiy, that, 
 except in seasons of extraordinary abundance, high 
 prices may long continue to be maintained, as they 
 always may be for articles of necessity, when the 
 supply does not exceed the demand, provided there 
 be money in circulation sufficient for the purpose. 
 
 And yet we might almost be induced to think 
 that the precious metals have already begun to acquire 
 a higher value than they lately held in this coun- 
 try. The bullion, as well as the nominal or money 
 price of corn, has at least declined considerably: 
 whether from the abundance of our home and 
 foreign supplies alone, for these appear to have been 
 great, or from a diminution of the relative quantity 
 of our circulating medium, might be disputed. It 
 probably is the effect of both. Though the conse-
 
 [ 91 ] 
 
 quence may seem so much the same to many, that 
 they will heed but little what may be the cause. It 
 is, notwithstanding, of material importance to the 
 public: for the former is in great degree for- 
 tuitous, and not to be depended on beyond the 
 season ; whilst the latter may be symptomatic of 
 the natural, though possibly dangerous, working 
 for a correction of the evil. 
 
 Means indeed there are, to some of which I 
 have alluded, and which have long been safely 
 though slowly operating to raise the value of the 
 precious metals. Not only has corn been imported 
 whenever opportunity has offered, but other raw 
 commodities and manufactured goods, which are 
 exempt from duties, or subject only to such as are 
 trifling in amount, compared with the depreciation 
 of the precious metals. These, it is true, are few 
 in number, and our market may soon be overstocked 
 with them. Still the effect, however small, is to 
 withdraw these metals in exchange, while the in- 
 ducement to import them is lessened in proportion 
 to their degradation. And the acquisition of such 
 articles as maybe imported at a low rate from abroad 
 is further advantageous, as they may give employ- 
 ment to our manufacturers at home, and enable them 
 to work with profit for the foreign market. It is 
 thus, indeed, that our woollen and cotton manu- 
 facturers have long preserved their footing, whence 
 ihey otherwise would probably have been driven
 
 [ 92 1 
 
 long ago, had the raw materials been subjected to 
 heavy duties. But the policy which, it seems, has 
 lately been adopted in regard to foreign wool, is at 
 variance with these principles: whether with a 
 view to benefit the revenue or the landed interest, 
 or to discourage the export of the precious metals, 
 or accomplish all at once, is not declared : a weak 
 device, whatever be its object ; since it holds out 
 another premium to foreign manufacturers, already 
 much too near us in the race. 
 
 But there are other means, and stronger remedies, 
 both natural and moral, to which I also have al- 
 luded, and which are likewise constantly at work 
 for the correction of that unnatural and immoral 
 state of things which may be attempted to be forced 
 upon a country; whatever skilful or awkward 
 contrivances the temporizing and mistaken policy 
 of governments may from time to time invent in 
 order to uphold it. 
 
 By raising exorbitantly the money price of goods, 
 the demand for them will be diminished. Our 
 manufactures may be rejected at prices, below 
 which they cannot with profit be produced : num- 
 bers hitherto employed in working them up, may 
 be deprived of such employment: more general 
 poverty and wretchedness would then ensue. Yet 
 if the capital of the country should not be almost 
 totally extinguished, many would be driven to the 
 further cultivation of the soil at wages materially
 
 [ 93 ] 
 
 diminished j and the quantity of raw produce would 
 hence be proportionally augmented, so as to effect 
 a great reduction of its price, by which the value 
 of the precious metals might be in part restored. 
 But what, perhaps, is not less probable, our popu- 
 lation would decline, the demand for the produce 
 of the soil would be lessened : the cultivation of 
 our poorer lands would gradually be abandoned, till 
 those only were retained in cultivation, on which 
 corn might be raised at as small an expense of 
 labour in this as in other countries. The quantity 
 of the precious metals would in the mean time 
 rapidly diminish. With no inducement to import 
 them, though our laws, still further unmindful of 
 the real interests of the community, should posi- 
 tively prohibit the importation of all goods whatever, 
 whether raw or manufactured, excepting under 
 enormous duties, which must recoil upon ourselves. 
 yet if the inclemencies of our climate should oc- 
 casionally render necessary large importations of 
 foreign grain, our gold and silver must be exported 
 in exchange. And though such opportunities of 
 withdrawing these metals did not occur, can it for 
 a moment be believed, that, under such a state of 
 things, the course of the exchange would not de- 
 cline, that the wealth of individuals would not 
 with themselves be transported whither they could 
 be so much more advantageously employed and
 
 L 9* ] 
 
 enjoyed? This is no trifling question. The fact 
 is already too notorious. 
 
 It can no longer be concealed, that we have al- 
 ready felt, and still severely feel, the evil conse- 
 quences of this restrictive system ; and time, it is 
 to be feared, will only aggravate them, if we persist 
 in our endeavours, our foolish endeavours, to main- 
 tain it. It is not to be expected, contrary to all 
 reason and experience, that the ordinary rate of 
 profit upon capital will be relinquished, without 
 some struggle on the part of the manufacturer to 
 retain it. So that if there were no serious danger 
 of his transferring that capital to another country; 
 if this were, as in many cases perhaps it is, imprac- 
 ticable ; will he not, must he not, nay has he not 
 been compelled to, reduce the wages of his work- 
 men, or, which is the same thing, not advance 
 them in proportion to the reduction of the value of 
 the precious metals? A considerable portion of 
 our manufactured goods is destined for the foreign 
 markei, where the same reduction in the value of 
 those metals has not taken place. Already, there- 
 fore, has it become necessary, in order to preserve 
 our manufacturing preponderancy, that the real 
 wages of manufacturing workmen should be dimi- 
 nished. But diminished as they are, establishments 
 are formed abroad with the view of further compe- 
 tition. So that it is reasonable to expect the prices 
 will be reduced yet lower, till competition on our
 
 C 95 ] 
 
 part cannot be maintained without material reduc- 
 tion in the prices of the necessaries of life. By 
 their excessive augmentation, the wages of manu- 
 facturing labour have in effect been so diminished, 
 and so many have been totally deprived of employ- 
 ment, from the want of demand for the produce of 
 such labour, that their situation has become still 
 more and more distressful : whilst the profits of 
 manufacturing capital have been barely sufficient to 
 keep alive the trade in which it has been vested. 
 Not only have the wings of enterprise been clipped, 
 but humble industry has been clogged. They may 
 linger on awhile during the infancy and paucity of 
 foreign establishments. But how will our master 
 manufacturers be enabled to bear any further re- 
 duction of their profits, or workmen of their wages, 
 such as more extended competition may occasion? 
 A few years will, perhaps, determine. The crisis 
 seems fast approaching. 
 
 It can hardly be believed, if it could be wished, 
 that skilful artizans will long be content to receive 
 much lower wages, I mean not nominal but real 
 wages, in this than in any other country; but 
 rather that they will migrate from the former as 
 from a land that is blasted, where labour is in 
 vain, or a miserable subsistence only can be procured 
 by it. Yet what if fear or poverty prevent their 
 emigration, and they remain a burthen on their 
 country, unemployed, till, worn down by disease
 
 I 90 ] 
 
 and want, their numbers be so reduced as at last to 
 become adapted to the supply of the home market 
 only! These, we say, are not merely speculative 
 forebodings, but sad matter of actual observation 
 and experience, arising from the natural course of 
 events now in progress.* 
 
 We have reckoned too much on our skill and 
 capital. If the exercise of such skill be underpaid, 
 and the employment of such capital can no longer 
 bring a reasonable profit, they will avail us little. 
 Laws may prohibit the free use of both : but to 
 enslave the one or the other is not to render them 
 really serviceable to the state. An illiberal system 
 of coercion and jealous prohibition cannot, ought 
 not to prosper : it tends to destroy that beautiful 
 order of things which would, ever by the simplest 
 and the mildest means, correct what is rank and 
 purulent in the body mercantile, and guard against 
 
 * The expedient lately hit upon of transporting paupers and 
 other volunteers as settlers on the Cape of Good Hope, is a 
 dreadful comment on our system of political economy. We 
 seem to acknowledge a superabundant population 'the inade- 
 quacy of the soil of the united kingdom to produce sufficient for 
 its maintenance and yet prohibit the free importation of sup- 
 plies ! If capital alone be wanting for the cultivation of our own 
 soil, which is not otherwise inadequate, how do we improve our 
 condition by sending our surplus labourers to distant quarters of 
 the globe, at no small expense of conveyance and of settlement? 
 Must not the removal of many hands from home render labour 
 more expensive, and therefore a larger quantity of capital requi- 
 site to employ it ? The disease has been mistaken : no wonder 
 the remedies should fail.
 
 [ 97 ] 
 
 what may be amiss in the distribution of the industry 
 of a people. 
 
 The vast exertions of our manufacturers, deve- 
 loped in those admirable systems of machinery which 
 their establishments exhibit, the effects of com- 
 bined capital, science, ingenuity, and skill, (favoured, 
 no doubt, by the absence of that competition which 
 the continent of Europe, so long convulsed by war, 
 would, if in a state of tranquillity, have presented,) 
 have hitherto enabled them, not without many risks 
 and losses, and, in some instances, utter failures 
 and total overthrow of fortunes, to maintain a foot- 
 ing in foreign markets, notwithstanding the in- 
 
 DO* ^ 
 
 jurious operation of our corn laws. But our recent 
 discoveries and improvements we cannot reasonably 
 expect exclusively to retain. Neither are our soil 
 and climate so pre-eminent as to be preferred above 
 all others. Even our mercantile policy, it is con- 
 ceived, may be materially ameliorated, and many 
 of its vexatious restraints removed. France and 
 the United Netherlands, in their regenerate state, 
 free as they may now be considered m their forms 
 of government, and the enjoyment of the fruits of 
 their industry, whilst so small a portion is allotted 
 to their respective creditors and churches, active 
 and enterprising, they will hardly fail to profit from 
 our example, both in creating establishments which 
 may vie with ours, and adopting such commercial 
 regulations as may as effectually encourage them. 
 
 II
 
 r 98 ] 
 
 3o that they will little need that further encou- 
 ragement which we seem willing to afford them 
 from the overthrow of our own, and, what is more, 
 by the transfer of a part of the capital and skill 
 which supported them. 
 
 The reliance placed by some on our monopolies 
 over our colonies in the Eastern and Western 
 Hemispheres, which in a manner force upon them 
 the consumption of many of our manufactured 
 goods, harsh and perhaps impolitic as they are, ought 
 not to mislead us. A spirit of independence has 
 occasionally burst forth. We know what it has 
 already atchieved amongst the North, and is now 
 atchieving amongst the South, Americans, whose 
 brilliant career may prove not only another example, 
 but another source of immediate encouragement 
 and assistance to their neighbours. While the 
 sceptre of dominion which we hold in the East, 
 accompanied as it is with scales of justice unknown 
 to the despotism which before prevailed there, is an 
 object of jealousy and aversion to the prostrate 
 princes which it has subdued : and though no dan- 
 ger were reasonably to be apprehended from them, 
 yet may itself ere long, in the pride of victory, 
 and impatience of distant mercantile controul, 
 bid defiance to the state from which its power and 
 authority originally emanated. 
 
 But however strong the hold we have upon our 
 colonies, and however arbitrary our rule over them
 
 t 99 ] 
 
 hi respect to all commercial affairs, the loss of 
 independent foreign markets, such as those to which 
 we have been accustomed, cannot but prove exten- 
 sively ruinous to our trade. We have found it so 
 already. There may be some who think but meanly 
 of this trade, and care but little for its complete 
 extinction, fondly imagining we might prosper well 
 without it ; that still the land would yield its 
 increase, and its owners flourish. With political 
 empirics such as these it is not worth while to argue 
 seriously. Tell them that multitudes will be de- 
 prived of all employment, that our revenue will 
 decline, that our government will be bankrupt, it 
 is of no avail : the land will yet survive, and with 
 them the land is every thing. 
 
 But can all these fatal consequences have been 
 considered by the Legislature? If the average 
 price of wheat is to be maintained at 80s. that is, 
 by the Mint regulations, above an ounce of standard 
 gold, and nearly fourteen ounces and a half of 
 standard silver, the quarter, and of other grain 
 proportionally, is it possible this country can long 
 withstand a competition, even as to manufactures, 
 with other states? 
 
 Without pretending to any more than a very 
 slight and superficial knowledge of their resources, 
 or of the actual reduction of the value of gold and 
 silver, if actually reduced throughout the world, it 
 surely must occur to every man's reflection, that to 
 
 ii '_'
 
 L 100 ] 
 
 |ix the price of wheat at so high a limit is to lower 
 the value of these metals to such an extraordinary 
 degree, if they can be so lowered, as must be at- 
 tended with consequences the most alarming, not 
 only to the trade and manufactures, but even the 
 agriculture of the country. Is it possibl", that if 
 corn, and with it the other necessaries of life, can 
 be raised abroad, if not transmitted hither, at less 
 or little more than half the expense at which it is 
 raised by us at home, which I apprehend is not 
 denied, we shall not only lose all foreign custom 
 for our raw and manufactured produce, but a great 
 part also of our manufacturing capital itself? 
 
 And are the uncertain advantages of our inde- 
 pendence on foreign supplies, even if the necessary 
 result of the present system of our corn laws, which 
 may confidently be denied, and pronounced rather 
 incompatible with them, to be purchased by such 
 certain and extensive mischief as this? Is it fit, we 
 should expend our labour and capital on land com- 
 paratively so unproductive, for the sake of an ideal 
 good, when the probability or rather absolute 
 certainty exists, that occasional deficiencies of crops 
 will render foreign aid at times quite indispensable, 
 and compel us then to waste our wealth in enrich- 
 ing other states, in the manner and to the extent 
 which we have lately done?* But to think of 
 
 * Had corn been moderate in price, not only would a less 
 sum have been payable, but a smaller quantity would probably 
 have been imported.
 
 [ ioi ] 
 
 purchasing our Independence by raising the price 
 of corn, and all other commodities, to twice their 
 natural amount in gold and silver, is such a stretch 
 of policy, such a master-stroke of statesmanship, as 
 probably but few can understand. 
 
 What though it were admitted, that, for the sake 
 of giving such encouragement to agriculture as 
 might perhaps ensure a growth in common years 
 commensurate with the consumption, it would be 
 wise and politic to impose a trivial duty on the im- 
 portation of foreign, or grant a trivial bounty on the 
 exportation of British, corn; and thus to suffer the 
 value of the precious metals to continue at a rate, 
 in a small degree below that in which they are held 
 by surrounding states ; is it thence to be inferred, 
 that their value here ought forcibly to be reduced 
 one half,ormore, or in any degree so far, below the 
 average of foreign markets, as to put in jeopardy 
 the industry of the people, or to compromise the 
 character of the government as a debtor? 
 
 Yet not content with even the existing regula- 
 tions, there are those who still persist in urging 
 the expediency of more rigorous restrictions on 
 the corn trade than those which now exist, wholly 
 overlooking the plain argument so often used 
 before, that, by greatly lowering its price, the 
 precious metals would no longer be an object 
 peculiarly sought for here in preference to other 
 articles, and the importation of foreign grain would
 
 [ 102 ] 
 
 cease to be attended with extraordinary profit ; that, 
 if rendered here nearly at the same rate as in fo- 
 reign markets, there would probably be no induce- 
 ment to import rather than export it. 
 
 The expediency of our present corn laws appears 
 in truth to depend upon the existence of these laws 
 themselves. Repeal them, and no such expediency 
 will exist. It must be confessed, indeed, that what- 
 ever advantages w r ere derived from the previous 
 laws, were almost wholly counteracted by the de- 
 preciation of our currency. So that if the principle 
 were founded in good policy, and at all events to 
 be maintained, it became expedient to adjust them 
 afresh to the altered condition of the currency, unless 
 the value of this were ( itself restored. Unfortunately, 
 the labours of those who chiefly undertook the cause 
 of the landed interest were directed mainly to the 
 former measure rather than the latter. Yet ven- 
 turing to deny, as we do, the policy of prohibit- 
 ing the introduction of all foreign raw produce s 
 which can at any rate of expense, however extra- 
 vagant, be raised at home, especially of corn, as an 
 encouragement to the cultivation of land, on which, 
 in a national point of view, no capital can profitably 
 be expended, or not so profitably as in divers other 
 branches of industry; we hold such measure to 
 be a rash misguidance of the natural energies of a 
 people a mischievous counteraction and impedi-
 
 [ 103 ] 
 
 ment to their attainment of wealth and prosperity, 
 by the most direct and easy means within their reach. 
 
 Whatever nominal or money price we may en- 
 deavour to affix to corn, its real value must be esti- 
 mated by the quantity of labour it can purchase, 
 not of that improvidently laid out on its produc- 
 tion. It is, therefore, vain, or worse, to attempt, 
 though even for a time only, to enhance its real value 
 by restrictive regulations; which are calculated 
 rather to affect the value of the precious metals, 
 and to drive them (contrary, perhaps, to the inten- 
 tion) from this country, since they cannot for ever 
 be retained where they have become least valuable. 
 
 The reader will excuse the tedious prosecution of 
 the question. But the plainest inferences of 
 reason have been denied: the plainest facts have 
 been perverted: a new system has been broached, 
 founded, it may be suspected, in fraud, raised in 
 error, and upheld by ignorance. To the landed 
 interest every other is to be sacrificed : the weight 
 it carries with the legislature we have already wit- 
 nessed, and are fearful of its vast preponderancy. 
 But let the landed interest beware : it uses a two- 
 edged sword, which recoils with vigour on itself. 
 
 Agriculturists complain, indeed, of the greater 
 encouragement afforded, as they affirm, to manu- 
 facturers in preference to themselves; while the 
 encouragement afforded to themselves is not only 
 in preference, but highly injurious, to all other
 
 L io* ] 
 
 classes of the people. Notwithstanding the re- 
 proach of monopoly with which our manufacturers 
 have been assailed, by their exertions and their 
 sacrifices they have kept alive the spark of com- 
 merce; they have contrived to send to foreign 
 markets goods which have been exchanged for 
 foreign articles saleable at home, after payment of 
 heavy importation duties for the service of the 
 state: they have given employment to the poor: 
 they have encouraged population, and thus contri- 
 buted largely to the strength and resources of the 
 empire; enabling it to maintain a high place 
 amongst nations, to establish unbounded confi- 
 dence in its resources, to extend its colonies to 
 distant quarters of the globe, and conduct its 
 armies to glory and conquest. In doing this, they 
 have necessarily occasioned an increase of the de- 
 mand for the produce of the soil ; thus causing, as 
 it were, extensive wastes to be brought into cultiva- 
 tion, which would otherwise have yielded only a 
 scanty profit to their owners. And whilst the 
 general real rise of rent or value of land, the con- 
 sequence of this march in wealth, has proved highly 
 beneficial to land-owners, a present market has also 
 been afforded them for the purchase of almost all 
 commodities of convenience and luxury at as low a 
 rate as the price of the necessaries of life, and 
 operation of the taxes, would permit. Had the 
 price of commodities in general kept pace with that
 
 f ios ] 
 
 of corn, our trade would more rapidly have declined, 
 our finances been overwhelmed with still greater 
 difficulties, and the ruin of the country more than 
 half, if not perfectly, accomplished long ago. 
 
 Can the promoters of these rigorous restrictions 
 on the corn trade think of, or, thinking of, care 
 for, the evil which their principles, when carried 
 even to their present extent, must inevitably pro- 
 duce? the distress and ruin they must occasion, 
 not only in their operation upon those whose pro- 
 perty is thus in effect materially deteriorated, but 
 upon those also who have nothing but their industry 
 to depend on for support, the multitudes thrown 
 out of employment, or receiving only a wretched 
 pittance for their labours! What is the limit 
 which these agricultural reformers, call them rather 
 revolutionists, would put to the privations of the 
 manufacturers? Would they reduce them to the 
 lowest possible state but that of most absolute 
 and utter penury, an inability to purchase any 
 thing beyond the merest necessaries ? to any point 
 but that of rendering them chargeable on their 
 parishes ? But they have not stopped at this. This, 
 indeed, is the practical consummation of their 
 principles; the natural, though by them the un- 
 foreseen, issue of their labours. In vain may they 
 establish banks for savings, and project new schemes 
 for emigration, in order to reduce the poor's-rates. 
 How, with diminished means, will our artizans be
 
 [ 106 ] 
 
 enabled to lay aside a weekly or a monthly saving 
 for the future day of want ? It is well if they pro- 
 vide only for the present.* What profit will arise 
 from this attempt to rid the country of its poor, 
 by transporting them to distant quarters of the 
 globe? If the seeds of poverty continue to be sown 
 and cherished among us, it is to be feared we shall 
 see no end of its growth. But we deprive the 
 country of the sinews of its strength, if we dismiss 
 our labouring classes from its shores. It is em- 
 ployment only which they want ; and this will best 
 enrich the state where capital abounds. Repeal 
 those laws which stand as obstacles in the way of 
 their employment, and allow our capital the exercise 
 of all its force. We talk of the demoralizing effect 
 of the poor laws : does not the denial of fair 
 remuneration for their labours, exorbitant high 
 prices of the necessaries of life, and lack of regular 
 employment, tend still more to demoralize the poor? 
 and is not the system now pursued pregnant with 
 those evil consequences? 
 
 If our manufacturers continue to be undersold 
 in the foreign market ; if their goods continue to 
 be thrown back upon their hands, and inadequate 
 or no returns be made for them ; it is not only in 
 the impoverished condition of the working classes, 
 
 * It is to be suspected, that much of the investments in Savings* 
 Banks has not been made by persons who would otherwise be- 
 come chargeable on (heir parishes, but by those of a higher class,
 
 [ 107 ] 
 
 and the heavy charges brought in consequence on 
 the land, but in a diminished public revenue, that 
 we shall feel the effects of the present system ; in 
 our inability to discharge the interest of the public 
 debt, even in a currency more depreciated than the 
 present. But our agricultural petitioners* are well 
 prepared for such a crisis. They would annihilate, 
 perhaps, the whole, as they would now annihilate a 
 part, of the public debt. Disinterested, enlight- 
 ened patriots! They would render us a wretched 
 people, a thing of nought, a by-word amongst 
 nations. Nor would they themselves escape from 
 the common ruin. Their creditors would hardly, 
 in this career to perdition, permit them to hold 
 as theirs what might most fairly be deemed 
 pledged to themselves. Neither would starving 
 artizans and manufacturer. ., any more than starving 
 creditors, be disposed to leave the self-styled land 
 proprietors, or their tenants, in peaceable posses- 
 sion, without some struggle to obtain a due propor- 
 tion of that land or its produce. Our musty 
 parchments would not avail us. Our seats of jus- 
 tice would be overturned ; or those who should 
 
 * Gon forbid, that all comprised in this denomination should 
 be influenced by one and the same spirit of selfishness! But the 
 coolness with which certain gentlemen speak of the abolition of 
 the debt is truly astonishing. They would hang a man for felo- 
 niously taking a bank-note, or stealing a fat wether, but think il 
 good nubstantial justice to cancel government sr'Mirilics. \\ itli 
 I', u. the magnitude of a crime seems io be its Lest apologj
 
 [ 108 ] 
 
 dare to sit on them, would no longer respect the 
 ideal rights of men who valued not the real rights 
 of others. A new order of property would arise ; 
 whether founded in equity or iniquity, no matter ; 
 it at least might have the plea of uncontroulable 
 necessity. 
 
 But suppose this torrent of desolation to be 
 arrested in its course, and that the arm of partial 
 law should be sufficiently powerful to protect exclu- 
 sively the landed interest, to which all other in- 
 terests are destined to succumb, and by turns be 
 sacrificed. Do we wish for such protection and such 
 sacrifice? Is it decent, in a moral light, that pa- 
 tient industry should be so ill requited, for the sake 
 of promoting the mistaken views of a set of men 
 intent only on the advancement of their own pe- 
 culiar interests, and anxiously striving to establish 
 a monopoly more terrible than all other monopolies 
 whatever? Is it fit, the currency should be first de- 
 preciated by an excessive issue of Bank paper, un- 
 exchangeable for the precious metals ; the value of 
 these be afterwards lowered by means of restrictions 
 on the corn trade nearly to the same extent ; for the 
 sake of obviating in part the effects of the depre- 
 ciation of the former on the landed interest, in 
 destroying the previous monopoly which it had en- 
 joyed ; so that the same class should virtually 
 evade its fair contribution towards the public exi- 
 gencies, and discharge of their private debts, by
 
 I 109 ] 
 
 enhancing the prices of the produce of their land, 
 and compelling the purchase of it at the prices so 
 enhanced; the creditors of government, and all 
 other money claimants, of whatever description, 
 being left without remedy for the injury they thus 
 sustain ? 
 
 It may seem illiberal and harsh to say, that these 
 were the ends contemplated by those who have been 
 foremost in promoting the measures which have led 
 to them. Yet how otherwise do such measures be- 
 nefit the landed interest ? Why, otherwise, is it 
 anxious not only to continue them, but to extend 
 them still further? That the suspension of cash 
 payments has been continued hitherto with a view 
 to facilitate the payment of, in other words, to 
 reduce the interest on, the public debt, there 
 seems, indeed, but too much reason to suspect ; and 
 little less, that, with the same view, the restrictions 
 on our corn trade have hitherto, and are henceforth 
 sought to be, continued ; the measures seem so 
 much in unison with each other, and as parts of 
 the same symphony. But, whatever may have been 
 the original and main or secondary objects proposed 
 in maintaining an excessive paper currency and mo- 
 nopoly in the corn trade, it is high time to terminate 
 them both : not rashly, and without consideration, 
 but with ample provision for the consequences, and 
 in a manner most consonant to justice.
 
 t no 3 
 
 It is, therefore, to be hoped, now that the first 
 steps are taken towards a return to cash payments, 
 this may be rendered more substantially complete 
 by being accompanied with a repeal of our present 
 corn trade laws ; lest from our neglect to accom- 
 plish both, we stand accused of a wilful and disho- 
 nourable breach of public and of private faith, a 
 fraud upon the public and the private creditor ; 
 such as ought not for a moment to be tolerated, 
 but so exposed that it may meet with the scorn 
 and opprobrium which it merits. 
 
 Nor let it be objected, that, by a return to cash 
 payments and repeal of these obnoxious laws, the 
 excess of currency and degradation of the precious 
 metals being corrected, debtors, public and private, 
 would, in many instances, become liable to pay intrin- 
 sically more than what is due ; for appropriate laws' 
 may be timely enacted, providing remedies for their 
 respective cases.* But let us not persist in this 
 system of iniquity, or afford countenance to those 
 who are so eager to extend it. Let them be taught 
 rather how their interests may be maintained with- 
 out any violation of the rights of others. Instead 
 of petitioning for further restrictions on the corn 
 trade, and the exclusion of all foreign produce, such 
 as can be raised at home, let them petition for the 
 restriction of paper money issues, till the precious 
 metals be brought into circulation without risk of 
 
 * See p. G3, supra.
 
 [ 111 ] 
 
 being exported ; for the reduction of lately aug- 
 mented pay and salaries; for the regulation of the 
 public and every private debt. If obstacles such 
 as these be removed, our corn laws may be repealed 
 without the shadow of an injury to the landed in- 
 terest, to landlords or their tenants ; and with great 
 advantage to the community at large. If the pre- 
 sent system be really beneficial to some, it is inju- 
 rious to others : if it favour the debtor, it wrongs 
 the creditor. But it is the worst of errors, or if 
 not of errors, the worst of truths, to believe that 
 injustice will prosper to the end. 
 
 But, perhaps, it was only to support the paper 
 currency, to prevent the depression of the exchange, 
 to reduce the price of gold and silver, so that their 
 value might be approximated to the value of the 
 currency, and the credit of the latter be redeemed, 
 that the corn trade laws have been re-modelled ; 
 a mere scheme of policy adopted, not so much to 
 favour and indemnify the landed interest, as to 
 confound the principles of those who looked for 
 proofs of the currency's depreciation no farther 
 than the state of the exchange, and price of gold 
 and silver. And, indeed, we must confess, that 
 had the currency been left to its own natural fate, 
 its depreciation would have continued all along so 
 grossly manifest from the course of the exchange 
 and price of gold and silver, that it could not de- 
 cently have been denied; and measures, therefore,
 
 [ 112 ] 
 
 must earlier have been adopted to correct the evil. 
 But by altering our corn laws, and fitting them to 
 the depreciation, the subject has, it seems, accord- 
 ing to the aim of these crafty politicians, been 
 really so confounded in the eyes of many, and, as 
 it may be suspected, also in their own eyes ; that, 
 though the currency does not appear to have been 
 materially diminished in amount, its value is com- 
 monly conceived to be restored ; because, forsooth, 
 the course of the exchange has latterly been favour- 
 able, and the market price of gold and silver does 
 not exceed the Mint price : the certain fact of 
 those metals' gross depreciation being overlooked, 
 though manifested by the continual high price of 
 corn and commodities in general. A fact the 
 more remarkable, from the extensive mischief which 
 has attended it, and the danger with which it 
 threatens us of more. 
 
 Were it not for this, to what still higher pitch 
 might our manufactures rise ! Even now, but with 
 difficulty indeed, they maintain a footing in the 
 foreign market, where the contest, as it is for life, 
 is almost deadly to both parties. The energies of 
 our rivals, till lately dormant, have been excited 
 by our own improvidence ; and their awakened jea- 
 lousies have naturally led them to throw fresh ob- 
 stacles in the way of our success. By a more liberal 
 policy in regard to the trade in corn, which would 
 enable us to purchase and produce the necessaries of
 
 [ "3 ] 
 
 life at a far more reasonable rate, our goods might 
 be worked up, and rendered at so low a price, as 
 would effectually beat down all attempt at foreign 
 competition for many years to come. The returns 
 of profit and accumulation of active capital would 
 contribute greatly to the resources of the country, 
 whilst the encouragement given to our manu- 
 facturing population would be so effectual, that the 
 demand for the produce of our soil, not for corn 
 alone, but every other article of necessity, if not of 
 luxury, would be amazingly augmented and thus 
 far more important benefits bestowed on land- 
 owners than they can reasonably hope to reap under 
 the withering system of high prices. Manufac- 
 turing and other labourers might then, as formerly, 
 be enabled to maintain their families in decent in- 
 dependence of all but their own industry; and 
 hence contribute most effectually to the reduction 
 of the poor's-rates, whilst, at the same time, a 
 larger share of comforts and enjoyments would lie 
 within the reach of many other classes of the 
 people. 
 
 And who amongst us would be really injured? 
 Would even they, whose land is forced beyond its 
 natural powers to raise productions which might be 
 obtained at much less cost of labour from abroad ? 
 They would be divested of the privilege of taxing 
 others to defray the charges of their own improvi- 
 dent speculations. They would cease to employ 
 
 i
 
 [ 11* ] 
 
 their capital, as heretofore, and abandon tillage for 
 pasturage j or both, perhaps, for planting and for- 
 warding the growth of copse or timber. And 
 well would it have been for many had they received 
 an earlier check, and striven less to overcome the 
 strong propensities of inanimate yet stubborn 
 nature. 
 
 That rents would nominally fall is true. But 
 if they fall only in proportion to the prices of com- 
 modities they would not in effect be less valuable. 
 Landlords would not be less capable of procuring all 
 the comforts and enjoyments which they now possess, 
 without deriving them from the injury of others. 
 Rents, however, which arise under old leases might 
 fairly be considered as in reality improved j and 
 such improvement set against the possibly heavier 
 pressure which certain taxes might be said to im- 
 part. Whilst, from the probable necessity of raising 
 large supplies in time of war by taxes upon property, 
 or other subjects of assessment, the termination of 
 a perpetually increasing depreciation of the currency 
 could not but be advantageous to all whose incomes 
 were not increasing in as great proportion. 
 
 It is not to be dissembled that the revenue would 
 decline ; that, indeed, it would become expedient 
 to lower many of the existing duties ; but the ne- 
 cessary expenditure of the Government would be 
 diminished in the same proportion. The public 
 creditors would, doubtless, well be satisfied, or
 
 f 115 ] 
 
 ought to be so, if paid according to the value of 
 the money lent : their condition would, in many in- 
 stances be much improved. Whilst that of all the 
 various officers of Government would suffer no ma- 
 terial change by the merely nominal reduction of 
 their salaries. And, on the whole, the pressure of 
 the taxes would not be so severely felt as now it is, 
 because it then would be more equally distributed. 
 
 To say there are difficulties in the way of such 
 arrangements as we contemplate is no sufficient ar- 
 gument for shrinking from the duty of attempting 
 them. To be deterred from acting justly, to persist 
 in gross iniquity upon such a plea as this, is not 
 the admitted rule of human conduct in matters of 
 comparatively trivial importance : it ought not to 
 be in those of the very highest ; for such, when 
 viewed in all relations, we must consider the con- 
 dition of our currency, and the means of procuring 
 the necessaries of life ; on the first of which the 
 security of property, and on the last the very ex- 
 istence of a people, evidently depend. 
 
 But to maintain that it is any but the most pro- 
 fligate abuse of power, arbitrarily to deprive any 
 portion of the people of their fairly earned, un- 
 doubted due, for the sake of bestowing it unme- 
 ritedly on another, is to attempt the otherthrow 
 of the most sacred principles of human society. 
 Cases may arise in which the laws as they exist 
 cannot enforce just retribution; but to legalize 
 
 l ( 2
 
 [ 116 ] 
 
 most palpable injustice is treason against mankind. 
 What shall we say of those who would urge the 
 Legislature to such an act ? And though not, 
 perhaps, immediately and manifestly comprehended 
 within that description of offence, yet to hold that it 
 is good economy and sound policy unnecessarily to 
 augment the prices of the necessaries of life, is to 
 hold a doctrine which, I believe, at all times but the 
 present would not only have been rejected as unrea- 
 sonable, but ridiculed and abhorred from its gross 
 folly and its cruelty. Heavy duties have been laid 
 on the export of provisions, with a view to prevent 
 their removal, or obtain a revenue j on their im- 
 port partly, perhaps, for the latter purpose, but 
 mainly to encourage home production, not (avow- 
 edly at least) to enhance the price, but rather to 
 reduce it. May such, before it be too late, prove 
 the real (however unexpected, unintended, and im- 
 probable,) result of our present corn laws, if the 
 Legislature be resolved on their continuance. Be- 
 fore it be too late: before rival manufacturers expel 
 us from foreign markets, and British capital be 
 transferred to foreign shores. 
 
 Our situation is appalling, but not hopeless. It 
 may be that we are on the very verge of ruin, yet 
 we may escape. It seems we are reduced to this 
 dilemma, either the bullion price of corn or our 
 manufacturing prosperity must decline considerably 
 lower. In the former case it may be expedient
 
 [ H7 J 
 
 nominally to cancel a portion of the public debt, but 
 on such equitable principles as would in reality leave 
 little just ground of complaint to the public cre- 
 ditor. In the latter, it seems utterly irnpre 
 that the public debt should not in part be cancelled, 
 if not nominally, yet effectually, through more abso- 
 lute, unqualified, and real bankruptcy; and with -:; 
 much the more calamitous result, because the means 
 of meeting the fair demands of the public creditor 
 must become materially diminished. 
 
 Since the preceding sheets have been put to 
 press, Mr. Malthus's recent publication on Poli- 
 tical Economy has been in my hands ; and from a 
 slight inspection of its contents I find, that, what- 
 ever were his previous notions, he here observes, 
 that " there is no duty which ought to be held more 
 " sacred on the part of the administrators of govern- 
 " ment than to prevent any variations of the cur- 
 " rency beyond those which necessarily belong to 
 " the varying value of the precious metals:" 
 (Note, p. 18,3 :) notwithstanding, in the pre-
 
 t 118 ] 
 
 reding portion of his work, (ch. iii. s. 9) he ap- 
 pears still to incline to the doctrine of restrictions 
 on the corn trade ; which, under the peculiar cir- 
 cumstances in which this country is placed, it is 
 difficult to shew have not only a tendency, but are 
 verily the result of an intention, on the part at least 
 of some of our legislators, to vary the value of the 
 precious metals. Nay, is not their operation 
 at the present moment mainly pointed against the 
 public creditors ? But they are not therefore 
 necessary. Neither can they be fairly deemed so 
 advantageous to the state as Mr. M. seems to ap- 
 prehend them to be, upon the ground of the greater 
 profit which he supposes the state to enjoy from 
 capital employed in agriculture than in manufacture 
 and commerce ; when, in order to obtain that higher 
 profit, the price of the necessaries of life must be main- 
 tained above, and hence the profits of manufacture 
 and commerce reduced below, their natural level ; 
 more especially when we bring into account what 
 Mr. M. expressly has omitted, the value of the land 
 itself, as part, and no small part it is, of the 
 capital from which a profit might arise, if vested in 
 commerce or m manufacture.
 
 [ 119 I 
 Table of the Prices of Gold and Wheat. 
 
 
 Price of Gold 
 
 
 P 
 
 er Oz. 
 
 
 . 
 
 s. d. 
 
 1790 
 
 3 
 
 17 6 
 
 1 
 
 3 
 
 17 (I 
 
 2 
 
 3 
 
 17 (J 
 
 3 
 
 3 
 
 17 6 
 
 4 
 
 3 
 
 17 (J 
 
 5 
 
 3 
 
 J7 (> 
 
 G 
 
 3 
 
 17 (> 
 
 7 
 
 3 
 
 17 7k 
 
 8 
 
 3 
 
 17 10i 
 
 9 
 
 3 
 
 17 9 
 
 1800 
 
 4 
 
 5 
 
 1 
 
 4 
 
 4 
 
 2 
 
 __ 4 
 
 3 (i 
 
 3 
 
 3 
 
 19 
 
 4 
 
 4 
 
 
 
 a 
 
 4 
 
 
 
 <> 
 
 4 
 
 
 
 7 
 
 4 
 
 
 
 8 
 
 4 
 
 
 
 J) 
 
 4 
 
 10 11 
 
 1810 
 
 4 
 
 7 5J 
 
 1 
 
 4 
 
 14 10 
 
 2 
 
 5 
 
 :V. 
 
 3 
 
 5 
 
 1J 
 
 4 
 
 __ 4 
 
 1(> 7 
 
 5 
 
 4 
 
 12 1 
 
 (> 
 
 1 
 
 2 
 
 7 
 
 :j 
 
 19 5 
 
 8 
 
 1 
 
 1 7 
 
 !> 
 
 3 
 
 19 ."> 
 
 * The priors from lliis period in 
 little above the average of standard 
 price of Spanish doubloons being oc< 
 average, when neither Portugal coin nor bar gold appear in th 
 returns. 
 
 L'rice of Wheat 
 
 perQr 
 
 
 . s. 
 
 d. 
 
 2 13 
 
 2 
 
 2 7 
 
 
 
 2 2 
 
 11 
 
 2 8 
 
 11 
 
 2 11 
 
 8 
 
 3 14 
 
 2 
 
 3 17 
 
 I 
 
 2 13 
 
 I 
 
 2 10 
 
 3 
 
 3 7 
 
 (J 
 
 5 13 
 
 7 
 
 5 18 
 
 3 
 
 3 7 
 
 5 
 
 2 Hi 
 
 (J 
 
 3 
 
 1 
 
 4 7 
 
 10 
 
 3 19 
 
 
 
 3 13 
 
 3 
 
 3 19 
 
 
 
 4 15 
 
 7 
 
 5 7 
 
 
 
 4 17 
 
 
 
 (> 8 
 
 
 
 5 7 
 
 10A 
 
 3 14 
 
 7 
 
 . 3 4 
 
 4 
 
 . 3 15 
 
 11 
 
 . 1 14 
 
 4i 
 
 . 4 4 
 
 2} 
 
 . 3 11 
 
 oi 
 
 some instances be a 
 
 Id, in consequence of the 
 
 sionallv included in the
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 \ LETTER TO * * * * 
 
 On the Substance of Rent. 
 
 H - 
 
 DEAR * , 
 
 IIOW far the progress of events may 
 have induced you to abandon opinions which re- 
 sisted all the force of argument formerly employed 
 against them whether you still conceive that at 
 no time has the currency of the country exceeded 
 its due measure, that it was good there should be 
 a redundant medium of circulation, and that the 
 Bank of England, and Country Banks, should vie 
 with, and strive to exceed, each other in the pro- 
 fusion of their paper issues, or, retiring gradually 
 from that dangerous and now untenable position, 
 you hold only that their excess was a necessary evil, 
 great indeed and alarming, but under the influence 
 of which our national independence, and that of 
 Europe in general, if not our exclusive commercial
 
 [ 122 ] 
 
 prosperity, were maintained and promoted: Whe- 
 ther to either of these opinions you still adhere, our 
 late infrequent communication with each other has 
 not enabled me with certainty to discover. Your 
 good sense, however, if I mistake not, arguing from 
 the experience of the five or six last years, will 
 hardly fail to ascribe to the proper cause that rapid 
 decline in the price of almost all articles whatever, 
 and that almost general backwardness, if not ab- 
 solute failure, in the payment of lately augmented 
 rents, which have been so notorious throughout 
 the country. 
 
 It scarcely can have escaped your observation, that 
 two great evils are liable to attach to a paper cur- 
 rency ; the one an excessive augmentation, the other a 
 too sudden diminution of its quantity. For we have 
 evidently experienced both. It more particularly 
 concerned you to mark the effects which they pro- 
 duced on property in land; the subject to which I 
 beg leave to call your present attention. 
 
 The advantage which for a time accrued from the 
 former to tenants under lease, was most decisive, 
 and exactly proportionate to the injury sustained 
 by landlords, which could not well be guarded 
 against in the established form of renting under the 
 special provisions which had been enacted to uphold 
 the currency. At the expiration of a lease, in- 
 deed, the rents might be increased according to its 
 actual depreciation, but not to the further depre-
 
 L 183 1 
 
 ciation which it might afterwards be destined to 
 undergo. Neither did the rise which since has 
 happened to take place in the value of the currency 
 much avail them to repair the losses which landlords 
 had sustained during its greater depreciation. For 
 when the period arrived, in which a check was 
 given to the issue of Bank paper, and a reduction 
 suddenly took place, but few continued to receive 
 their full augmented rents. Some missed them 
 altogether, and became burthened with an unprofit- 
 able, if not expensive, self-occupation of their land. 
 In the uncertainty whether the paper money 
 system is shortly to be terminated for a season only, 
 or for ever whether the value of our gold coin is 
 to be reduced after the example of our silver coin, or 
 continue at its present standard yet without some 
 strong assurance that the former will not be revived, 
 and notwithstanding the strong assurance that the 
 latter will undergo no alteration, you will acknow- 
 ledge it is of importance that some better rule should 
 be constructed for the adjustment of a reasonably 
 durable and sufficient rent. The average nominal 
 or money price of agricultural produce which was 
 wont to be our guide, is now no longer to be relied 
 upon. Such rapid rise and declension as we have 
 latterly experienced, can afford no just criterion of 
 (he probable level at which the price may settle for 
 the space of two or three, still less of seven, four- 
 teen, or one and twenty years. Contracts embracing
 
 [ 124 J 
 
 such terms as these are hazardous and foolish : yet 
 the inconvenience and mischief to landlord as well 
 as tenant, from short and uncertain occupation, are 
 sufficiently well known and felt by both ; so that it 
 is difficult to resolve what course they should pursue. 
 
 To return to the long exploded custom of re- 
 serving rents in stated quantities of corn, or its 
 estimated yearly average value in current money, 
 is inconvenient in practice, and liable to some abuse, 
 but most distressing to the tenant, in case of a 
 deficient harvest; with much of the objection, but 
 less of the advantage, which attaches to the pay- 
 ment of tithes in kind, the principle of which has 
 long been matter of so much reprobation, and the 
 practice of no small trouble and dispute, not to add 
 of reprobation likewise. 
 
 From the comparatively trivial variation which was 
 observed in the value of silver throughout a long 
 course of years previous to the discovery of South- 
 America, and which, except during the temporary 
 glut consequent upon that event, has since been 
 experienced, it naturally became a most approved 
 measure of value, and was deemed the fittest me- 
 dium of compensation for the use of land, as well as 
 for the circulation of commodities in general, till 
 it was in great part superseded by the more 
 common application of gold to the like purposes, 
 which was sanctioned by the declaration of the 
 Legislature that silver should not be a legal
 
 [ "5 ] 
 
 tender beyond the sum of five and twenty pounds. 
 No serious difficulty appears to have resulted from 
 the use of these metals, which was not overbalanced 
 by the facilities they yielded. If in time of war the 
 demand for gold and silver happened to be so great 
 as to render them more scarce, the effect, so far 
 as it regarded the lessees of land, seems to have 
 been in great measure, if not wholly, counter- 
 acted, by the brisk demand for its raw produce, 
 which prevented any great reduction of the price. 
 Nor was it till the refined policy and supposed 
 necessities of Government had induced it to put 
 aside the established securities of property, and in 
 a manner to set at nought the plain assurances 
 of written contracts, by giving to a depreciated 
 paper currency nearly all the practical force of a 
 legal tender, that any very material injury or in- 
 convenience arose from the partial substitution of 
 Bank paper in lieu of gold and silver, into which it 
 might at any time, without loss, have been converted. 
 On the contrary, much advantage was derived from 
 the ready means of transfer which it afforded, as 
 well as from the large amount of capital which it 
 rescued from unprofitable inactivity. 
 
 That there was, however, a gradual diminution 
 in the value of the precious metals, during the latter 
 part of the last century, is reasonably to be inferred, 
 from the increased price of corn and divers other 
 commodities prior to the suspension of cash pay-
 
 L 16 J 
 
 ments in 1797* Whether that diminution of value 
 was general throughout Europe, or more particu- 
 larly confined to this and some few other countries, 
 it is unnecessary here to inquire ; though it might 
 afford some satisfaction, and indeed be highly ex- 
 pedient for certain purposes to know. The evil 
 which may thus have resulted, however, from the 
 gradual relative increase of the precious metals, can 
 have affected but little the general interests of* 
 landlords ; or if it have in any material degree, it 
 must be rather beneficially than otherwise, except 
 in cases where their lands were leased for lives, or 
 long terms of years. Since the loss from insuffi- 
 ciency of rent, on terms for seven, fourteen, or 
 one and twenty, could have been but trifling; whilst 
 charges of long standing, such as younger children's 
 portions, annuities by way of jointure, and other 
 rent charges, chief rents, and mortgages, as well as 
 sundry taxes, all must have become somewhat lighter 
 in their pressure from the gradual augmentation 
 which in a lon course of time had been effected in 
 the amount of rents. It was the ancient money 
 claimant upon land who sustained important injury. 
 But it is needless to discuss at large the particular 
 advantage of a system which so long prevailed, 
 without any question as to its propriety; or to 
 deplore the substitution of another in its stead, which 
 has led to such distress and difficulty. It were 
 better shortly to point out the simple mode in which
 
 [ 127 ] 
 
 the precious metals may be again employed as the 
 material of rent ; and to offer such remarks upon 
 it, and on the measures by which it ought to be 
 accompanied, as appear of most importance. 
 
 Simple indeed you must esteem the mode, by 
 which no more is meant than that a specific weight 
 of standard gold or silver, instead of legal monev, 
 should be reserved by way of rent, for such is the 
 sum of my expedient;* no matter then how greatly 
 or how suddenly the quantity of Bank paper be 
 augmented or diminished, whether fifty or five and 
 twenty millions be in circulation. The condition 
 of the landlord and his tenant would be the same 
 in reference to each other. Nor can it be main- 
 tained, that in this project there is any innovation, 
 properly so called ; but, on the contrary, a near recur- 
 rence only to our former practice, which the sus])en- 
 sion of cash payments has disturbed, and rendered 
 quite unfeasible, according to the usual form of 
 reservation. For whether the rent consist of gold 
 in the current coin of Great-Britain, the coin of 
 Portugal, or bars of gold, provided they be of the 
 same intrinsic value, is of little moment. But the 
 
 The method here proposed for preventing the deterioration 
 of rent, which may otherwise proceed from a depreciation of the 
 currency, appears so natural, that the writer hardly can imagine 
 it has not elsewhere been suggested. He has, however, neither 
 heard nor seen it in conversation or in print, a circumstance 
 which almost leads him to suspect there may be difficulties 
 attending it which he has not yet been able to discover.
 
 [ 128 ] 
 
 first, by being lessened in its circulating value, from 
 the excessive issue of Bank paper, and liable here- 
 after to further alteration, seems less adapted for 
 the purposes of rent than foreign coin or bullion, 
 which are free from that objection. 
 
 Against the method here proposed if it be alleged 
 that we have not gold sufficient to answer the 
 increased demand which would arise, in case it 
 should become the common medium or material 
 of rent throughout the kingdom; it may be an- 
 swered, that such rents could not all at once be 
 created, but present leases must expire, and in 
 proportion to the scarcity of gold and silver must 
 such rents inevitably decline. Moreover, the like 
 argument might, with equal reason, have been urged 
 against the reservation of all rents in legal money 
 prior to the suspension of cash payments ; for such 
 rents were strictly payable in gold and silver coin, 
 which consisted of a part only of those metals float- 
 ing in the country. So long, indeed, as the cur- 
 rency continued undepreciated, there need be little 
 doubt that Bank paper would, in almost every 
 instance, be preferred ; and in case only of its gross 
 depreciation would bullion payments, or their value 
 in Bank paper, be insisted on ; whence, perhaps, 
 the circulation of the latter might be reduced within 
 more narrow limits, and its value be more equably 
 preserved. Should it, however, unfortunately again 
 happen that the supposed necessities of Government
 
 [ 129 ] 
 
 compel it to cause a larger portion of Bank paper to 
 be put into circulation than is consistent with the 
 integrity of its value, landlords entitled to such 
 bullion rents would continue harmless ; unless by 
 some imprudent, I had almost said insane, act of the 
 legislature, (which, constituted as it is, one hardly 
 can suppose it would be brought to entertain,) the 
 condition of their ""rants should be virtually and 
 expressly set aside, or arbitrarily altered. 
 
 It is true that the expedient to which Lord King 
 resorted was effectually counteracted by the legisla- 
 ture: but though the rule which his Lordship ven- 
 tured to adopt differed but little in principle from 
 that which has been here suggested, yet the danger 
 which was threatened by his example being par- 
 tially followed in case of newly-created rents was 
 extreme; for the power with which he was invested 
 would have enabled him to recover the whole 
 amount of rent reserved in legal coin, though his 
 Lordship was content with so much only as was 
 equivalent in value to the quantity of gold which 
 the sum reserved by way of rent would have com- 
 manded in the market, at the period of his contract. 
 But others less conscientious might, notwithstand- 
 ing, if preventive laws had not been introduced, 
 have insisted on the payment of the rent reserved in 
 full in legal coin; though their leases had been 
 granted subsequent to the suspension of cash pay- 
 ments, and at the time of contract the Mint price of 
 
 K
 
 [ 130 ] 
 
 the precious metals was far exceeded by the market 
 price ; so that tenants under recent leases might 
 have been damnified to as great extent as landlords 
 under old have been. 
 
 It must, however, be admitted, that, during the 
 operation of our present corn trade laws, there is no 
 assurance of that steadiness of value even in the 
 precious metals themselves, which is so necessary 
 to constitute a lit material of rent. By the altera- 
 tions which were made in 1804, and again in 1815, 
 their value appears to have been so suddenly and 
 greatly lowered, that they scarcely seemed a fit 
 measure for the value of commodities from year to 
 year; and as it is not at all improbable they will again 
 advance in value, gradually if not suddenly, and 
 slowly if not rapidly, there may be reasonable ob- 
 jection, in the present state of things, to the mode 
 which has been here proposed of reserving rents 
 in bullion ; indeed the same objection as has been 
 urged against a reservation of the legal coin or paper 
 of the Bank of England. Though the precious metals 
 being, as it were, the basis of the former, of which 
 the latter purports to be only the representative, 
 sorry, we might almost add treacherous, represen- 
 tative, as it has proved itself to be, seems liable to 
 that objection in the least degree. 
 
 It was, indeed, an unanswered argument (used 
 if 1 rightly recollect by Mr. Brougham) against the 
 alteration of our com laws, that the value of the
 
 [ 131 1 
 
 precious metals would be thereby altered, perhaps 
 an unheeded argument, the force of which, how- 
 ever, needs not to be practically confirmed. And 
 if there were no prospect of the restoration of their 
 value, either by the repeal of the subsisting laws, or by 
 the natural operation of our commercial intercourse 
 with foreign states ; or if, after such restoration , 
 any well-grounded fear should be entertained of 
 the enactment of other laws, whereby the value 
 might be again disturbed, it were absurd to 
 plead for their introduction and employment for 
 the purpose which has been specified. But if 
 no solid proof of the necessity or utility of de- 
 grading the value of the precious metals in 
 this, below that in which they are held in every 
 other, country, can be adduced, I regard not 
 the convenience of a day, nor the pitiful ma- 
 chinery which may be set to work in support of a 
 tottering, unstable fabric of finance, nor the mean 
 shifts and subterfuges which may be devised, to 
 escape from the full and fair performance of public 
 as well as private pecuniary engagements; these 
 are not occasions of sufficient importance ; these 
 are not grounds of proof of the necessity or utility 
 of departing from the known maxims and sound 
 practices of impartial justice. If no stronger 
 grounds than these can be exhibited, why are not 
 the present corn trade laws repealed, before they 
 generate still greater mischief? Why are not gold
 
 [ 13<2 ] 
 
 and silver suffered freely to attain their natural 
 level ? Where is the wisdom of degrading them, 
 when by most simple regulations the ends of justice 
 may be met consistently with the preservation of 
 their due value, and cannot possibly without it? 
 If it were for the sake only of maintaining a fit 
 medium of compensation for the usufruct of land, 
 (for after all, what other medium can serve the pur- 
 pose half so well,) it were surely a sufficient reason 
 to satisfy the land proprietor at least of the expe- 
 dience of restoring that value. 
 
 That the legislature which listened and assented 
 to the prayer for the alteration of our corn trade 
 laws, and subjected it to fresh and rigorous restric- 
 tions, would more gladly join in a repeal of these, if 
 prayed for also on the part of the landed interest, we 
 would not for a moment doubt. 
 
 But though the best, perhaps the only proper, 
 means of insuring an uniformity of value to the pre- 
 cious metals, is the reduction of the importation price 
 of corn nearly to the common level of surrounding 
 countries ; yet, probably without much inconve- 
 nience, it might be fixed so far above that level as 
 would, in seasons of deficient home supply, secure 
 the native cultivator from loss too heavy to be borne: 
 the expense indeed of freightage from distant parts 
 abroad would well nigh serve as a protection : but the 
 rent with which his landshould be charged ought not 
 to be fixed so high as to distress him under casual
 
 [ 1** ] 
 
 losses. It may be enough, therefore, if we return 
 to that comparatively liberal system which allowed 
 of importation when the average price of wheat 
 was 48s. or 50s. (subject to the duty of 2s. 6d. only) 
 the quarter, and of other grain in proportion, when 
 much of our native produce was exported for the 
 foreign market. Had that system been continued, 
 and rents been payable in undepreciated paper, 
 coin, or bullion only, they might also have continued 
 with little variation in nominal amount, unless the 
 quantity of gold and silver were relatively aug- 
 mented. But the increase of demand for its pro- 
 ductions, in consequence of the increase in our 
 population, would, in reality, have enhanced the 
 value of our land, and tended to increase its produce. 
 One thing more, however, you must be aware 
 would in justice be required, should we recur to those 
 regulations of the corn trade which were in force 
 during the greater part of the last century, and the 
 provisions which have been lately made for a return 
 to cash payments should be carried into their com- 
 plete effect. Specific money contracts of a date 
 posterior to the depreciation of our currency must 
 be newly modified; a step which the latter measure 
 would probably of itself have rendered necessary, 
 when the value of the precious metals were restored, 
 which they eventually would be, though without 
 the aid of any legislative enactment : for by greatly 
 raising the value of the precious metals, any con-
 
 [ 134 ] 
 
 siderable excess of paper money would soon become 
 apparent, and their nominal price would quickly 
 rise in proportion to that excess ; so that it would 
 become expedient without delay to narrow the 
 issue of such paper money, and thus in effect to 
 reduce considerably the quantity, and raise pro- 
 portionally the value, of the currency in general. 
 Hence to discharge a debt contracted ten or fifteen 
 years ago, a sum equivalent in worth to two-fifths 
 more than that which actually was borrowed, might 
 be requisite, should no provisions such as have 
 been mentioned be made in time to meet the 
 several cases. Into the detail of these provisions it 
 is not necessary, however, here to enter. Another 
 object was before me, which I trust I have not been 
 altogether unsuccessful in my endeavours to attain ; 
 and that your endeavours will not be wanting in 
 the proper place, and at the proper season, to for- 
 ward the good cause of reformation, where you 
 cannot but admit it now is almost indispensable. 
 
 May, 1820. Yours, &c. 
 
 FINIS, 
 
 ft 
 
 Printed hy Richard CruttwpU, 
 Bath Chronicle Office, St. James's-.Street.
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY 
 
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