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COMPARATIVE VIEW 
 
 THE INDUSTRIAL SITUATION 
 
 GREAT BRITAIN. 
 
London : 
 
 Printed by A. & R. Spottiswoode, 
 
 New-Street-Square. 
 
COMPARATIVE VIEW 
 
 OF 
 
 THE INDUSTRIAL SITUATION 
 
 OF 
 
 GREAT BRITAIN, 
 
 FROM THE YEAR 1775 TO THE PRESENT TIME. 
 
 WITH 
 AN EXAMINATION 
 
 OF 
 
 THE CAUSES OF HER DISTRESS. 
 
 BY 
 
 ALEXANDER MUNDELL, Esq. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 PRINTED FOR 
 
 LONGMAN, REES, ORME, BROWN, GREEN, & LONGMAN, 
 
 PATERXOSTER-ROW ; 
 AND JAMES RIDGWAY, PICCADILLY. 
 
 1832. 
 

 D 
 
 -^s 
 
MATTERS CHIEFLY ADVERTED TO. 
 
 The main points (all prominent in our present 
 situation) adverted to in the following pages 
 are, — 
 
 The State of our Shipping. 
 
 OF OUR Exports. 
 
 OF OUR Imports. 
 
 The Operation of our Money System. 
 
 OF OUR Corn Laws. 
 
 OF OUR Poor Laws. 
 
 The Mode of raising our Revenue. 
 The Amount of our National Debt. 
 
 It appears from the investigation, the result of 
 which is given in the following pages, that the 
 opinions which are generally prevalent upon 
 these subjects are altogether erroneous. It may 
 seem, and doubtless it is, singular, that opinions 
 should have been generally received upon mat- 
 ters of such paramount importance without ex- 
 amination. But the truth is, that, upon these 
 subjects, as upon many others, impressions have 
 
 A 3 
 
VI 
 
 been taken from persons whose interests were 
 affected, and whose opmions were adopted, 
 without reflecting that such persons were incom- 
 petent judges in their own case ; of which, more- 
 over, they took very partial and hmited views, 
 while every one shrunk from the investigation of 
 facts with which those who were more immedi- 
 ately concerned were supposed to be conusant. 
 Errors have thus multiplied ; but it is consoling 
 to find, that the sources of our prosperity remain 
 entire, and that we have only to correct those 
 errors, m order to advance in improvement with 
 a rapidity and to an extent hitherto unexam- 
 pled, even in this country. 
 
 August, 1832. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS. 
 
 Page 
 
 Increase of Shipping - - - 1 
 
 Increase of Exports _ _ _ 2^. 
 
 Distress prevalent nevertheless - - ib. 
 
 Chiefly in the Agricultural Districts - - ib. 
 
 Causes — Restraints upon Industry rendered 
 progressively severe by a Rise in the ex- 
 changeable Value of Money - - 2 
 
 Investigation proposed - - - 3 
 
 PART I. 
 
 INCREASE OF SHIPriNG AND EXPORTS. 
 
 CHAP. I. 
 
 Increase of our Shipping, and of the Exports 
 
 of Home Produce and Manufactures - 5 
 
 Table showing it - - - 6 
 
 Facts relative to British Tonnage - - 8 
 
 Foreign Tonnage - - - 9 
 
 Exports - - - - 10 
 
 Imports - - - - 1 1 
 
 A 4 
 
Vlll CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAP. II. 
 
 Page 
 
 Rise in the exchangeable Value of Money - 14 
 
 Shown by our Exports _ _ _ ih. 
 
 Commencement in 1811 - - - 15 
 
 Continuance ever since - - - 16 
 
 Causes of Depression _ _ _ ih. 
 
 Opinions as to Depression - - 19 
 
 How Depression is to be accounted for - 20 
 
 Measure of Rise in exchangeable Value of 
 
 Money - - - - 22 
 
 PART 11. 
 
 MONEY RESTRAINTS. 
 
 CHAP. I. V 
 
 The Bank of England and its exclusive Privi- 
 lege, with its immediate Consequence - 24 
 
 Establishment of the Bank without any exclu- 
 sive Privilege - - - 25 
 
 When granted - - - 26 
 
 Consequences _ _ _ _ /^. 
 
 Banking not a substantive Trade in England - 28 
 
 CHAP. II. J 
 
 Further Consequences of the exclusive Privilege 
 
 of the Bank of England - - 29 
 
 Amount of Currency _ _ _ ih. 
 
 Insecurity of Transactions - - SO 
 
 Upon what Security rests - - ib. 
 
 Insecurity of Paper issued by other Banking 
 
 Companies _ _ _ ih. 
 
 Insecurity of Deposits . _ _ ih. 
 
 Amount of Deposits _ _ _ ih. 
 
CONTENTS. IX 
 
 CHAP. III. W" 
 
 Page 
 
 The Effect of the exclusive Pi'ivilege of the 
 
 Bank with respect to the Amount of its Issues 31 
 
 Over-Issue of the Bank _ _ _ lb. 
 
 Manner of it - - - ib. 
 
 Issues of other Bankers limited - - ib. 
 
 Contraction of its Issues by the Bank - 33 
 
 Over-Issues by the Bank the Cause of over- 
 Issues by other Bankers - - ib. 
 
 Consequences - - - 34- 
 
 CHAP. IV. ' 
 
 The Removal of the exclusive Privilege - 35 
 
 Consequences _ _ _ ib. 
 
 Caution and Circumspection on the Part of the 
 
 Bank _ - _ _ ib. 
 Deposits — Importance of Security to, not con- 
 templated at Formation of the Bank - ib. 
 Deposits with other Bankers greater than De- 
 posits with the Bank - - S6 
 
 CHAP. V.yJ 
 
 The Nature of Coin, and of Bank and Bankers' 
 
 Notes - - - - 37 
 
 Coin — what - _ _ ib. 
 
 Bills of Exchange _ _ _ ib. 
 
 Bankers' Notes _ _ _ ib. 
 
 Currency when most perfect - - 38 
 
 Banking Operations — Period of Commence- 
 ment - - - - 39 
 
 Consequences of Freedom in - - 40 
 
X CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAP. VI. ^x 
 
 Page 
 
 Revulsion of 1825-6 similar to 1815-16 - 41 
 
 Causes - - - - 42 
 Cheapness of Abundance, added to Rise in the 
 
 Value of Money - - -■ 45 
 Country Bankers the Victims, not the Causes, 
 
 of the Revulsion - - - 46 
 
 Contrary Impression of the Minister - ih. 
 
 His Letter to the Bank adverted to - - ih. 
 
 CHAP. VII. '-^' 
 
 Metallic Standard - - .4.7 
 
 Alteration in 1816 - - - ih. 
 
 Effect of it - - - - 48 
 
 Gold Standard preferable to Silver - - ih. 
 Poor Parts of the Country cannot sustain a - 
 
 Currency in Gold - - - 49 
 
 Country Parts of England thence distressed - ih. 
 Standard of Silver must be resorted to, or small 
 
 Notes must agrain be issued - - ih. 
 
 PART III. 
 
 CORN-LAW RESTRAINTS. 
 
 CHAP. I. 
 
 Errors of the Agricultural and Manufacturing 
 
 Interests with respect to the Corn Laws - 52 
 
 Table of Imports from 1773 - - ih. 
 
 Home Growth increased previous to 1815 - 53 
 
 Has diminished since - _ _ 54 
 
CONTENTS. XI 
 
 CHAP. II. 
 
 Page 
 
 Protection afforded by the Corn Laws previous 
 
 to 181.5 - - _ - 54 
 The Reverse since - - -55 
 
 Freedom previous to 1815 - - ib. 
 
 Importable Price had no Operation - 56 
 
 Consequence _ _ _ _ ib. 
 
 Reverse in 1 8 1 5 - - - 57 
 
 CHAP. III. 
 
 Consequences of a restraining Corn Law to 
 
 the Home Grower - - - 59 
 
 Loss of Export - - - 60 
 
 Consequences - - - - 61 
 
 In Reign of Queen Ehzabeth adverted to (Note) ib. 
 
 Encouragement of Import -* " 63 
 
 Operation explained _ '^^ _ - 64 
 
 Every Season operates as a bad Season - ib. 
 
 CHAP. IV. 
 
 Consequences of the Restraint to Owners of 
 
 Land - - - -65 
 
 Diminution of Rent - - - ib. 
 
 What Rent is - - - - 66 
 
 Can be maintained only by Amount of Produce 67 
 
 CHAP. V. 
 
 Consequences of the Restraint to Agricultural 
 
 Labourers - - _ 67 
 
 Diminution of Employment - - 68 
 
 Increase of the Poor-Rates - - ib. 
 
XU CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAP. VI. 
 
 Page 
 
 Increase of Fluctuations of Price - - 69 
 
 Instances - - - - ih. 
 
 Fluctuations at Dantzic - - - 70 
 
 Fluctuations in other Countries - - ib. 
 
 Consequences - - - 71 
 
 CHAP. VII. 
 
 Injustice as well as Impolicy of Corn Laws - 72 
 
 Benefit to Growers at Expense of Consumers - ib. 
 
 Raising Prices of Corn with reference to Taxes 73 
 In principle the same with Immunity from 
 
 Taxes - - - - ib. 
 
 Consequences - - - 74 
 
 CHAP. VIII. 
 
 Remedy - - - - 75 
 Restoration of the Operation of the Laws which 
 
 prevailed previous to 1815 - - ib. 
 Operation of the Laws previous to that Year, 
 
 and since _ _ _ _ H,. 
 
 Object to be attained - - - 77 
 
 How to be attained _ _ _ il}. 
 
 Plan suggested - - - 81 
 
 Objections obviated - - - 83 
 
 PART IV. 
 
 POOR I-AW RESTRAINTS. 
 
 CHAP. I. 
 
 Money expended for the Relief of the Poor - 81' 
 
 Returns made - « _ jl,. 
 
 Sums expended in different Years - - ib. 
 
 Committees appointed thereon - - 85 
 
CONTENTS. Xlll 
 
 CHAP. II. 
 
 Page 
 
 Causes of Increase and Variations in the 
 
 Amount of the Poor's Rate - - 86 
 
 Seasons of Scarcity _ _ _ n^ 
 
 Enquiry' as to the Seasons and their Effects - 88 
 
 Interference of Magistrates - - 90 
 
 Occurrences in 1795 - - - 91 
 
 Consequences - - - 92 
 
 Explanation of the Increase and Decrease - ib. 
 
 CHAP. III. 
 
 Effects of the Mal-administration of the Poor 
 
 Laws on Morals and Industry - - 95 
 
 Effects upon unmarried Men - - ib. 
 
 Effects upon unmarried Women - - 96 
 
 Immorality incompatible with Industry - ib. 
 
 Consequent Carelessness and Recklessness - 97 
 
 Diminution of Work done by Labourers - ib. 
 
 CHAP. IV. 
 
 Effect of the Mal-administration of the Poor 
 
 Laws on Population - - - 98 
 
 Effect upon the Number of Births - - ib. 
 
 Effect of a contrary System - - 99 
 
 Errors committed in attempts to establish a 
 
 Rate of Increase - - - ib. 
 
 CHAP. V. 
 
 Practice — illegal - - - - 100 
 
 Provisions of 43 Eliz. _ - _ ib. 
 
 Distinction between Work and Relief - 101 
 
XIV CONTENTS. 
 
 Agricultural Labourers not contemplated by 
 
 the 43 Eliz. - - - - 102 
 
 Abuses greatest in Agricultural Counties - 103 
 Questions put to the Judges as to the Legality 
 
 of the Practice - - - - 104 
 
 CHAP. VL 
 
 Remedy - - - - 105 
 
 System established in the Parish of Cookham ih. 
 Parish to be the hardest Master and lowest 
 
 Payer - - - - 106 
 
 Adopted in other Parishes - - - 107 
 
 How it operates - - - - 108 
 
 How to be brought about - - 110 
 
 Practicable in all Parishes - - 112 
 
 Inadequacy of Acts of Parliament - - 113 
 
 Course to be taken - - - 114 
 
 CHAP. VIL 
 
 Expedients for the Relief of the Poor - - 115 
 
 Grant of Portions of Land - - ih. 
 
 System in the North of England - - ih. 
 
 General Enclosure Act - - - 116 
 
 Enabling Bills - - - - 117 
 
 Dangers to be apprehended therefrom - ih. 
 
 Emigration - - - - 1 1 8 
 
 All at best only Mitigants - - ih. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 XV 
 
 PART V. 
 
 
 REVENUE RESTRAINTS. 
 
 
 CHAP. I. 
 
 
 
 Page 
 
 Public Revenue 
 
 119 
 
 Customs - _ _ _ . 
 
 ib. 
 
 Excise - - - . 
 
 ib. 
 
 CHAP. II. 
 
 
 Best mode of raising the Public Revenue 
 
 121 
 
 Duties of Customs 
 
 ib. 
 
 Operation of Excise Duties 
 
 122 
 
 Industry thereby repressed 
 
 ib. 
 
 Operation of Duties of Customs 
 
 ib. 
 
 Home Industry thereby promoted 
 
 ib. 
 
 Increase of Duties of Customs 
 
 124. 
 
 Require Revision 
 
 ib. 
 
 A sure Source of Revenue 
 
 125 
 
 CHAP. III. 
 
 
 National Debt - _ _ , 
 
 127 
 
 How of no Importance 
 
 ib. 
 
 Yearly Amount of Returns of Industry 
 
 ib. 
 
 Nearly equal to the whole Debt 
 
 ib. 
 
 CHAP. IV. 
 
 
 Recapitulation 
 
 128 
 
 Reflections - _ _ 
 
 ib. 
 
 Facts neglected 
 
 129 
 
 Further Reflections 
 
 130 
 
 Questions - - - 
 
 131 
 
 Suggestions 
 
 132 
 
 Benefit _ _ _ 
 
 133 
 
PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS, 
 
 OF THe \ 
 
 OF 
 
 AUTHORS VIEWS AND PURPOSE UNFOLDED. 
 
 ^Ve have enjoyed seventeen years of peace, 
 during which our shipping, and our exports of 
 home produce and manufacture, have increased 
 in a greater proportion than ever they did in any 
 previous period of our history ; yet distress has, 
 nevertheless, prevailed generally throughout the 
 country, and particularly in the agricultural dis- 
 tricts. A transition from war to peace has 
 always produced a revulsion, as a transition from 
 peace to war has done, and to the extent of the 
 revulsion there always has been distress ; but 
 such distress has heretofore passed away with the 
 consequences of the revulsion which produced 
 it. It was reserved for our times, that distress 
 should not only continue, but should increase, 
 throughout so long a period of peace. 
 
 But distress is not confined to Great Britain. 
 It prevails in every country in Europe. It is 
 only felt more severely in Great Britain than in 
 other countries, except France, in which it is 
 felt still more severely than it is in Great Britain. 
 
 B 
 
 <] 
 
2 CAUSES OF DISTRESS. 
 
 The causes of the distress which thus prevail 
 must, therefore, be causes which are common 
 to every country in Europe, but operate most 
 powerfully in France and in Great Britain. The 
 only causes, of this description, which I have 
 been able to discover, are legislative and muni- 
 cipal restraints upon industry, rendered progres- 
 sively more severe by a continuous rise in the 
 exchangeable value of money. Such restraints 
 become progressively lighter, while money con- 
 tinues to fall in exchangeable value, but their 
 severity accumulates as it rises. Now, money 
 continued to fall in exchangeable value until the 
 year 1810. It has continued to rise since that 
 year. 
 
 It is then by restraints upon industry, as it 
 appears to me, that the distress which continues 
 generally to prevail is to be accounted for. Such 
 restraints operate more severely in France and 
 Great Britain than in other European countries, 
 because there is more of industry in France and 
 in Great Britain than in other countries ; and 
 such distress is more severe in France than in 
 this country, because industry is more fettered 
 there than it is here. Political causes, no doubt, 
 exist in both countries, which have their in- 
 fluence ; but, as it appears to me, effects are 
 frequently ascribed in either country to political 
 causes, which spring fi'om restraints upon in- 
 
RESTRAINTS UPON INDUSTRY. 3 
 
 dustiy, or are the consequence of combinations 
 among workmen to keep up wages, which must 
 come down with a rise in the exchangeable 
 vahie of money. 
 
 If this be SO, we have only to find out what 
 the restraints are which operate upon industry, 
 in order to remove the cause. 
 
 Such an enquiry would open a field too 
 vast to be brought to a close within a period to 
 be useful. It is, therefore, necessary to make a 
 selection ; and after showing that our shipping, 
 and the exports of our home produce and manu- 
 factures continue to increase, because they are 
 not affected by such restraints, I propose to 
 point out how our home industry suffers from 
 restrictions in our money system ; from the 
 operation of our corn laws ; of ill-administered 
 poor laws ; and from the manner of our raising 
 a revenue for the service of the state. All these 
 will be found to operate in the way of restraints 
 upon industry. The unfolding of the manner in 
 which they so operate, will also serve to show 
 how their operation, in this respect, may be 
 removed. 
 
 I shall state no fact, the evidence of which is 
 not to be found in documents laid before either 
 house of parliament ; nor shall I draw any con- 
 clusion, except upon grounds which I shall state, 
 so that every reader may verify the fact by re- 
 
 B 2 
 
4f INVESTIGATION PROPOSED. 
 
 curring to the evidence of it, to which I shall 
 refer. If I am right in the view which I take 
 of the causes of our continued and continuing 
 distress, others may be induced to follow my 
 example in tracing the operation of other re- 
 straints upon industry. But the investigation of 
 the subjects which I have selected, is so im- 
 portant in itself, that the facts which I shall pre- 
 sent with respect to all of them, can hardly fail 
 to lead to the correction of errors which will be 
 found in each of them, even though I should be 
 deemed wrong in the general view which I take 
 of the causes of our distress. 
 
PART 1. 
 
 INCREASE OF SHIPPING AND EXPORTS. 
 
 CHAP. I. 
 
 INCREASE OF OUR SHirPING, AND OF THE EXPORTS 
 OF HOME PRODUCE AND MANUFACTURES, SINCE THE 
 YEAR 1775. 
 
 In the year 177-5, the war with America began. 
 It ended in 1783, from which year we were at 
 peace until 1793 ; when began the revohitionary 
 war with France, which, with the exception of 
 one year (1802) and another before the battle 
 of Waterloo, finally closed in 1815 ; since which 
 year we have been at peace. 
 
 In order that an estimate may be made by in- 
 spection, I annex a table ; showing the tonnage 
 of British vessels and of foreign vessels that 
 cleared outwards from Great Britain in 177-5, 
 and every fifth year since that year ; with a 
 column showing the amount of the exports of 
 home produce and manufactures exported, with 
 our imports, in every fifth year since 1795 ; to 
 which I have added the net amount of our cus- 
 toms in 1775, and every fifth year thereafter. 
 
 B 3 
 
INCREASE OF SHIPPING. 
 
 PART I. 
 
 A TABLE, showing the Tonnage of Shipping that cleared Outw 
 Exports of British Produce and Manufactures in 1800, and e 
 every Fifth Year thereafter ; also Bank Notes and Bank Post Bil 
 February in every Year thereafter; with the Price of Gold 
 every Fifth Year thereafter, with the Population according td 
 
 Note. — The Amounts previous to 1805 inclusive, are taken 
 
 Accounts laid before Parliaii 
 
 In the 
 Years. 
 
 Number of Ships that cleared Outwards. 
 
 A 
 
 Tons, 
 British. 
 
 1775 
 1780 
 1785 
 1790 
 1795 
 1800 
 1805 
 1810 
 1815 
 1820 
 1825 
 1830 
 1831 
 
 783,226 
 619,462 
 951,855 
 1,260,828 
 1,030,058 
 l,269,3'i9 
 1,284,691 
 1,624,120 
 1,381,041 
 1,549,508 
 1,711,169 
 2,102,147 
 2,300,731 
 
 Tons, 
 Foreign. 
 
 64,860 
 134,515 
 103,398 
 144,132 
 370,238 
 654,713 
 572,961 
 1,138,527 
 751,377 
 433,328 
 851,354 
 758,368 
 896,051 
 
 Total. 
 
 848,066 
 753,957 
 1,055,253 
 1,404,960 
 1,400,296 
 1,924,042 
 1,857,652 
 2,762,647 
 2,132,418 
 1,982,836 
 2,562,523 
 2,860,515 
 3,196,782 
 
 Official Value 
 of Exports of 
 British Manu- 
 factures.* 
 
 22,831,936 
 22,907,371 
 33,299,408 
 41,712,002 
 37,820,293 
 46,453,022 
 60,492,637 
 60,090,123 
 
 Declared 
 Value of 
 Exports. 
 
 36,929,007 
 37,23-1,396 
 47,000,926 
 49,653,245 
 35,569,077 
 38,077,330 
 37,691,302 
 36,652,694 
 
 * The articles which form our 
 
 Alum. 
 
 Apparel, slops, and negro clothing. 
 Arms and ammunition. 
 Bacon and hams. 
 Bark, Britisii oak, for tanners. 
 Beef and pork salted. 
 Beer and ale. 
 Books printed. 
 
 Brass and copper manufac- 
 tures. 
 Bread and biscuit. 
 Butter and cheese. 
 Cabinet and upholstery wares. 
 Coals and culm. 
 Cordage. 
 
 Corn, grain, meal, and flour. 
 Cotton manufactures. 
 Cotton yarn. 
 Earthenware of all sort?. 
 
 exports, are the following : — 
 
 Fish of all sorts. 
 
 Glass of all sorts. 
 
 Haberdashery and millinery. 
 
 Hardwares and cutlery. 
 
 Hats, beaver and felt. 
 
 Hats of all other sorts. 
 
 Hops. 
 
 Horses. 
 
 Iron and steel, wrought and un- 
 wrought. 
 
 I,ead and shot. 
 
 Leather, wrought and unwrought. 
 
 Leather, saddlery, and harness. 
 
 Linen manufactures. 
 
 Machinery and millwork. 
 
 MatheiTiatical and optical instru- 
 ments. 
 
 Molasses. 
 
 Musical instruments. 
 
CHAP. I. 
 
 INCREASE OF SHIPPING. 
 
 ifn Great Britain in 1775, and every Fifth Year thereafter; also the 
 th Year thereafter ; also the Net Duties of Customs in 1775, and 
 eolation on the 26th of February, 1800, and in the last Week of 
 nee ; also the Net Revenue of Great Britain in the Year 1790, and 
 3ulation Returns. 
 
 .Chalmers's "Political Estimate;" and thereafter from 
 iefly the Finance Accounts. 
 
 OfBcial Value 
 of Imports. 
 
 28,257,781 
 27,334,020 
 37,^13,294 
 31,822,053 
 31,515,222 
 42,660,954 
 46,245,241 
 49,713,889 
 
 Net Duties of 
 Customs. 
 
 2,481,031 
 
 2,723,920 
 
 4,592,091 
 
 3,782,822 
 
 3,569,360 
 
 6,799,755 
 
 9,084,459 
 
 11,495,382 
 
 11,795,088 
 
 10,108,836 
 
 16,942,013 
 
 19,360,751 
 
 16,678,624 
 
 Bank Notes in 
 Circulation, in- 
 cluding Bank 
 Post Bills, on 
 26th February, t 
 
 15,236,670 
 17,234,460 
 20,429,280 
 26,673,370 
 23,569,160 
 21,060,144 
 20,050,735 
 
 Price of Gold 
 per Oz. 
 
 £ s. d. 
 
 3 17 9 
 
 4 
 4 6 
 4 9 
 3 17 10§ 
 
 Net Revenue 
 of Great Bri- 
 tain. X 
 
 16,451,450 
 18,456,299 
 33,427,561 
 44,278,384 
 61,952,294 
 72,151,181 
 48,732,354 
 51,769,992 
 46,431,159 
 46,293,646 
 
 Population. 
 
 10,912,646 
 12,609,864 
 14,391,631 
 16,537,398 
 
 Oil, train of, Greenland fishery. 
 
 Painters' colours. 
 
 Plate, plated ware, jewellery, and 
 
 watches. 
 Salt. 
 
 Saltpetre, British, refined. 
 Seeds of all sorts. 
 Silk manufactures. 
 Soap and candles. 
 Stationery of all sorts. 
 
 Sugar, refined. 
 Tin unwrought. 
 Tin and pewter wares. 
 Tin and tin plates. 
 Tobacco and snuff, British manu- 
 factured. 
 Umbrellas and parasols. 
 Whalebone. 
 
 Woollen manufactures. 
 All other articles. 
 
 t The amount of Bank notes in circulation, with the prices of gold, 
 is taken from Vol. XVI. 1821 ; in 1825, from Vol. XVII. 1825 ; and in 
 1830, from Vol. V. 1830. — Mem. No return has yet appeared of the 
 amount in the last week of February in the present year, but it is under- 
 stood not to have much exceeded 17,000,000^. ! In April, 1815, the price 
 of gold was 51. Is. per oz. See Appendix to Bank Report, 1819. 
 
 \ The revenue from 1790 to 1820, is taken from Vol. XVI. 1824; the 
 three last years from the Finance Accounts. 
 
 B 4 
 
8 INCREASE OF PART I. 
 
 With a view to what I have to state relative tc 
 our money system, the amount of bank notes 
 and bank post bills are given as they appear 
 from parliamentary returns in the last week in 
 February, 1800, and in the last week in February 
 in every fifth year thereafter, with the market 
 price of gold in bars, where that appears in such 
 returns. As important, also, in forming an esti- 
 mate of the situation of the country, the net 
 revenue of Great Britain is given for the year 
 1790, and in every fifth year thereafter ; with the 
 numbers of the people, as these appear from the 
 population returns. 
 
 Our shipping, which is affected by the revul- 
 sion occasioned by a transition from peace to 
 war, recovers afterwards ; and appears to in- 
 crease in a course of years, whether we are at 
 war or in peace. Though the tonnage fell off 
 in the five years ending in I78O, it increased 
 much more than the sum of this declension in 
 the five years ending in 1785 ; and though it 
 diminished in the five years ending in 1795, its 
 amount in the five years ending in 1800 ex- 
 ceeded its amount in the five years ending in 
 1790. It has since greatly increased, with the 
 exception of the five years ending in 1815 ; since 
 which year it has steadily increased. 
 
 Dividing the period of the table into four equal 
 parts, each representing fifteen years, though 
 
CHAP. I. SHIPPING. 9 
 
 every fifth year only is given, the amount of 
 tonnage in each period is as follows : — 
 
 Tonnage. 
 
 In the 15 years ending in 1785 - - 2,354,543 
 
 1800 - - 3,560,215 
 
 1815 - - 4,289,852 
 
 1830 - - 5,362,824 
 
 There thus appears to have been a continuing 
 increase of British shipping in each period of 
 fifteen years ; and the year 1831 gives us a rea- 
 sonable assurance of a continuance of augment- 
 ation : for the British tonnage which cleared 
 outwards, in the year 1831, was 2,300,731, 
 whereas in 1830 it was only 2,102,147 tons. 
 
 The tonnage of foreign ships frequenting our 
 ports has also increased. 
 
 
 Tonnage. 
 
 In the 15 years ending in 1785 it was 
 
 302,398 
 
 1800 - 
 
 1,169,083 
 
 1815 - 
 
 - 2,462,910 
 
 1830 - 
 
 - 2,043,050 
 
 The foreign shipping thus has not increased 
 in the same proportion with British shipping. 
 Though its proportion of increase was greater 
 than our own previous to 1815, yet the amount 
 of foreign tonnage clearing outwards has not 
 only not increased, but it has considerably di- 
 minished, since that year. 
 
 This fact alone may be sufficient to dispel 
 the fears of those who alarmed themselves with- 
 
10 INCREASE OF EXPORTS. PART I. 
 
 out cause, from their misapprehension of the 
 operation of our reciprocity system. 
 
 Those fears may be still more completely dis- 
 pelled, from the increasing amount of our ex- 
 ports since the year 1815. 
 
 In that year the amount of our exports, ac- 
 cording to official value, was 41 ,712,002/.* ; being 
 by much the greatest amount which we had ever 
 previously exported. The amount of that year, 
 doubtless, was much increased by the greatness 
 of our foreign expenditure required to support 
 the numerous army which we then had to main- 
 tain upon the Continent ; and, possibly, also by 
 an expectation of demand upon the Continent, 
 which appears to have been disappointed ; for 
 in the following year our exports, in official value, 
 amounted only to 34,77^,501 /.t Many well-in- 
 formed persons believed, that we should not be 
 able to maintain a competition with manufac- 
 
 * Pari. Papers, 1830. No. 315. Official value is according 
 to certain rates fixed in 1696, which never vary, and thus 
 show quantity. These rates will be found in Vol. xxii. of the 
 Sessional Papers of the House of Commons for 1826. De- 
 clared value, which was not required until 1797, is the value 
 declared to be the value of the articles exported at the 
 period of export. The difference between the official and 
 declared value of each year, shows the fall or rise in the 
 exchangeable value. The difference between official value in 
 different years shows the difference of the quantity exported. 
 
 f Parliamentary Papers, 1830. No. 315. 
 
CHAP. I. INCREASE OF IMPORTS. 11 
 
 turers on the Continent ; who, it was conceived, 
 could bring the products of their industry to 
 market at cheaper rates than we could. Such 
 apprehension has proved to be altogether 
 groundless. Our exports have greatly increased, 
 particularly since 1822, when they amounted in 
 official value to 43,558,488/., being greater than 
 their amount in 1815 ; and last year they were 
 in official value 60,090,123/., being, indeed, 
 402,514/. below their amount in the preceding 
 year, but nearly a third more than their amount 
 in 1815 ; which was 8,511,422/. in official value 
 above that of the preceding year (1814).* 
 
 Our imports affiard evidence upon which an 
 equally firm reliance may be placed in proof of 
 the increase of industry in Great Britain. Our 
 export trade consists in the exchange of our com- 
 modities for the commodities of other countries. 
 These foreign commodities so exchanged for 
 ours are stated in the Custom House books, 
 when they are imported, according to certain 
 rates, which never vary. The official value of 
 our imports thus shows the quantity of foreign 
 commodities imported from time to time, as the 
 official value of our exports shows the quantity 
 of our commodities exported from time to time. 
 The exchangeable value, or current prices, of 
 both at the time are estimated in gold in this 
 
 * Parliamentary Papers, 1830. No. 315. 
 
12 INCREASE OF IMPORTS. PART I. 
 
 country ; because gold now forms our standard 
 of value ; and in silver in other countries, be- 
 cause silver forms the standard of value in such 
 countries. But the proportion between the ex- 
 changeable value of gold and silver as against 
 each other is known, and can easily be estimated. 
 Coin will never be taken in exchange for more 
 than the quantity of the metal contained in it. 
 The only use of coin is to show the quantity of 
 metal in the coin without the trouble of weigh- 
 ing and essaying ; and the par rates of exchange 
 as between different countries have been fixed 
 according to the quantity of pure gold or pure 
 silver contained in the coins of each. 
 
 Our imports, like our exports, being stated 
 according to certain official rates of value, the 
 increase of our imports thus affords as unerring 
 evidence of the increase of the products of our 
 industry as the increase of our exports. Dividing 
 the last thirty years into two equal periods, the 
 imports, according to the amount every fifth 
 year, appear to have been as under : — 
 
 £ 
 In the 15 years ending in 1815 - - 96,769,367 
 1830 - - 120,421,417 
 
 As the exports in 1831 above the preceding 
 year gave assurance of a continuance of an in- 
 crease of export, so the increase of import in 
 1831 gives equal assurance of an increase of 
 
CHAP. I. INCREASE OF IMPORTS. 13 
 
 import. The imports in official value in 1831 
 were 49,713,889/., but in 1830 only 46,245/. 
 
 The amount of import has not always been 
 correspondent to the amount of export. On the 
 contrary, in the year 1815, when we had the 
 largest export ever previously experienced, being 
 41,712,002/. in official value, the import in official 
 value was only 31,515,222/. But the explan- 
 ation is, that the exchange of commodities is the 
 exchange of equivalents ; and an equivalent may 
 be received by Great Britain in another country, 
 as well as in Great Britain itself. In that year, 
 the equivalent was received abroad, in furnish- 
 ings and otherwise to our troops ; in satisfaction 
 of which a larger export became necessary. The 
 amount of the import, however, shows how much 
 of the equivalent is received in this country ; 
 and an increasing import shows increasing means 
 of consumption through the returns of home 
 industry, whose products are given in exchange 
 for foreign products.* 
 
 No doubt, therefore, can be entertained of the 
 
 * Our older statistical writers, even down to the late 
 George Chalmers (who had not been able to free himself 
 from their delusion), confounded themselves about a balance 
 of trade. Their error lay in not considering gold and silver 
 as commodities which may be always purchased by other 
 commodities. All trade consists in the exchange of equi- 
 valents, and we receive an equivalent, whether we exchange 
 commodities commonly so called for other commodities com- 
 monly so called, or whether we exchange them for gold and 
 silver. 
 
14 RISE IN THE EXCHANGEABLE PART I. 
 
 increase of our national industry, though that in- 
 dustry is depressed by legislative and municipal 
 restraints in a manner to be hereafter explained. 
 
 CHAP. II. 
 
 RISE IN THE EXCHANGEABLE VALUE OF MONEY. 
 
 By means of our exports, the period of the rise 
 in the exchangeable value of money can be 
 ascertained with the most perfect certainty. In 
 the year 1810, our exports were, in official value, 
 33,299,408/., and in declared value 47,000,926/. 
 In 1811, .they were, in official value, only 
 21,723,532/., and in declared value 30,850,618/. ; 
 the proportion of which to 21,723,532/. is much 
 less than the proportion which 47,000,926/. bears 
 to 33,299,403/. the amounts in the preceding 
 year. But the amount, as well as the period of 
 the fall of prices, — in other words, the rise in the 
 exchangeable value of money, — is still more 
 strongly marked by our exports. It so happens 
 that the amount of our exports, in official value, 
 in 1800, was 22,831,936/., and in declared value 
 36,929,007/.; so that an amount of exports in 
 1811, only 1,108,404/. under their amount in 
 official value in 1800, shows a difference of no 
 
CHAP. II. VALUE OF MONEY. 15 
 
 less than 6,078,329/. below the amount of de- 
 clared value in 1811, being a fall of upwards of 
 20 per cent. 
 
 Whatever the cause of the fall of prices, there- 
 fore, may have been, it is certain that it began in 
 this year, and was to this extent. It is not less 
 certain that, previous to 1811, declared value 
 continued to gain upon official value ; but that 
 since 1811 official value has continued to gain 
 upon declared value ; and the differences, while 
 they mark the continuance, also show the amount, 
 of the depression. 
 
 The amount of our exports in 1811, accord- 
 ing to declared value, as already stated, was — 
 
 £ 
 
 47,000,926 
 And according to the same value 
 
 in 1831 - - - 36,652,694 
 
 Difference - - £10,348,232; 
 
 which would be the amount of the depression, if 
 there had been no increase of export. 
 
 But the amount of Exports in official £ 
 
 value in 1831 was - - - 60,090,123 
 
 And in the same value in 1811, the 
 
 amount was - - - 21,723,532 
 
 Increase - - - £38,366,591 
 
 The annexed table will show the differences 
 between official and declared value in every 
 
16 
 
 AMOUNT OF DEPRESSION. 
 
 PART I. 
 
 year since 1811 to 1831, both inclusive, and also 
 the total amount of these differences : — 
 
 Difference of officia 
 
 value under 
 
 Difference of 
 
 offic 
 
 'al value over 
 
 
 declared va 
 
 ue. 
 
 
 declared value. 
 
 
 
 £ 
 
 
 
 
 £ 
 
 1811 
 
 - 
 
 9,127,086 
 
 1820 
 
 
 - 
 
 2,251,216 
 
 1812 
 
 _ 
 
 10,886,614 
 
 1821 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 4,371,554 
 
 1813* 
 1814 
 
 
 
 1829 
 
 
 
 7,381,591 
 8,576,629 
 
 . 
 
 10,246,793 
 
 1823 
 
 . 
 
 _ 
 
 1815 
 
 - 
 
 7,941,243 
 
 1824 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 10,424,931 
 
 1816 
 
 - 
 
 5,554,419 
 
 1825 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 8,375,692 
 
 1817 
 
 - 
 
 1,115,768 
 
 1826 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 9,485,326 
 
 1818 
 
 - 
 
 3,219,595 
 
 1827 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 14,884,285 
 
 1819 
 
 - 
 
 1,268,562 
 
 1828 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 15,869,349 
 
 
 
 
 1829 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 20,252,850 
 
 
 
 
 1830 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 22,801,335 
 
 
 
 
 1831 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 25,437,429 
 
 Difference of official value under declared 
 
 value, in 1811 - - - ^9,127,086 
 
 Difference of official value over declared 
 
 value, in 1831 - - - 25,437,429 
 
 Total amount of differences from 1811 to 1831^34,564,515 
 
 The amount of the depression thus appears to 
 increase every year, and must therefore proceed 
 from a cause which began to operate in 1811, 
 and has continued to operate ever since. 
 
 Now, there is no cause of this description, but 
 the defalcation in the supply of gold and silver, 
 which was occasioned by the overwhelming of 
 the South American mines, by the revolution in 
 the mining districts in 1810 ; at which time the 
 annual supply from these mines was nearly forty- 
 * Records destroyed by fire. 
 
CHAP. II. CAUSES OF DEPRESSION. 17 
 
 eight millions of dollars, but has not since ex- 
 ceeded twelve millions of dollars. 
 
 Mr. Tooke, who wrote his book on high and 
 low prices under the impression that there had 
 been no defalcation in the supply of gold and 
 silver from the mines, endeavoured to account 
 for the depression of prices from over produc- 
 tion. When the account of the supply from the 
 South American mines for the ten years which 
 preceded 1810, and for the ten years which 
 followed that year, was sent to him by Mr. Jacob, 
 Mr. Tooke published the account in a supple- 
 mental section to a second edition of his work. 
 But he doubted the extent of its operation, — 
 
 1. From thequantity of commodities, in the circum- 
 stances he adverted to, affecting the contingent 
 as weU as actual supply, compared to the average 
 rate of consumption, which it appeared to him 
 might account for the difference of bullion prices. 
 
 2. The diminution or cessation of the drain of 
 silver from hence to the East Indies and China, 
 and an inversion of the stream by the import- 
 ation of the" precious metals from the East Indies 
 to this country. 3. From the increased transport 
 to Europe of immense capitals in gold and silver, 
 consequent upon the migration of old Spaniards 
 from South America. 
 
 But none of these causes had any operation 
 in 1811. Increased production since has, per- 
 
 c 
 
18 CAUSES OF DEPRESSION. PART I. 
 
 haps, been rather a consequence from than a 
 cause of the rise in the exchangeable vahie of 
 money, from a defalcation in the supply of 
 the precious metals ; because all commercial men 
 have engagements to make good, and when they 
 become unequal to meet their payments from 
 returns falling off in money amount, they natu- 
 rally endeavour to make up for deficiency of 
 price by increase of quantity. The diminution 
 or cessation of the drain of silver to the East, 
 and the influx thence to this country (consequent 
 upon gold and silver becoming scarcer in Europe 
 than in Asia), did not take place for nearly ten 
 years after 1810 ; and the supply brought by 
 emigrant Spaniards could only be to a limited 
 amount, and could produce only a temporary 
 effect. 
 
 The termination of the war, and the prepar- 
 ation made for returning to a metallic standard 
 in 1819, to which so much effect beyond their 
 actual operation has been ascribed by others, 
 could not account for the fall of prices in 1811. 
 The one could not have any influence until 
 1816, nor the other for three years afterwards. 
 Mr. Tooke appears to me to have shown, very 
 successfully, that war or peace, or even taxes, 
 have little effect upon general prices. He ap- 
 pears to me to be not less successful in showing 
 that the diminution of prices, consequent upon 
 
CHAP. II. OPINIONS AS TO DEPRESSION. 19 
 
 returning to a standard of gold, could not have 
 any influence beyond the difference between the 
 mint and the market price of gold, in which he 
 supports Mr. Ricardo's opinion. It was the 
 rise in the exchangeable value of the standard, 
 and not the return to it, which has occasioned a 
 depression of prices so much beyond the differ- 
 ence between paper and bullion prices. 
 
 In reviewing Mr. Jacob's book on the produc- 
 tion and consumption of the precious metals, the 
 reviewer * questions a rise in the exchangeable 
 value of money, from a defalcation in the supply 
 of gold and silver from the mines, upon grounds 
 which either serve only to lessen tlie effects of 
 the defalcation, or which resolve the rise into an 
 increased supply of other commodities ; but, if 
 the supply of all other commodities be unquestion- 
 ably increasing, and the supply of gold and silver 
 be stationary, or increasing in a much smaller pro- 
 portion, it necessarily follows that a continuing 
 depression of prices must follow from the scanti- 
 ness of the supply of the precious metals ; and 
 the amount of the depression must increase in 
 proportion to the increasing abundance in the 
 supply of other commodities, and the scantiness 
 of the supply of gold and silver, varied by the 
 difference in the abundance or scantiness in the 
 
 * Edinburgh Review for April, 1832. 
 C 2 
 
20 HOW DEPRESSION IS PART I. 
 
 relative supply in particular years. It seems 
 impossible to account for a continuing depression 
 of prices, otherwise than by a rise in the ex- 
 changeable value of gold and silver, from a 
 scantiness in the supply. The comparative aggre- 
 gate of our exports in every succeeding year 
 shows continuing depression, which appears to in- 
 crease in a greater proportion of late years, than 
 attended the depression when it first began in 
 1811 ; but the commencement, unquestionably, 
 was occasioned by a defalcation in the supply of 
 the precious metals ; and the progressive de- 
 pression since is perfectly consistent with a pro- 
 gressive increase in the supply of other commo- 
 dities, conducing with the scantiness of the supply 
 of the precious metals to depress prices. 
 
 Since 1814, the official and declared value has 
 been given, in our finance accounts, of every 
 separate article exported. A list of them is sub- 
 joined to the prefixed table, comprising every 
 branch of home produce and manufacture. With 
 the exception of a few articles, the official and 
 declared value of which is always the same (um- 
 brellas and parasols for example), the declared 
 value of every article becomes less and less every 
 year. Depression has fallen much more heavily 
 upon some articles than upon others. The differ- 
 ences of depression can be accounted for, from cir- 
 cumstances applicable to each branch of manufac- 
 
CHAP. ir. TO BE ACCOUNTED FOR. ^1 
 
 ture ; but it can no more be explained how depres- 
 sion should increase upon every article every year^ 
 than it can be explained how a great and sudden 
 depression should have begun in the year 1811, 
 otherwise than by a defalcation in the supply of 
 gold and silver from the mines ; which, in point 
 of fact, we know happened in that year, and 
 still continues, to the extent of three fourths 
 of the previous annual supply. Other causes 
 may account for the differences, but no other 
 cause can account for the commencement or the 
 continuance of the depression, without the in- 
 termission even of a single year. How much of 
 the amount of the depression may arise from 
 this cause, and how much from other causes, it 
 is impossible to ascertain ; but there is one among 
 our articles of export which may afford reason- 
 able evidence in this respect, namely, tin un- 
 wrought. The Cornwall mines are worked now 
 exactly as they were in 1814. Tin is got no- 
 where else in Europe ; and at present, from no 
 other than the Cornwall and Banca mines. We 
 have, therefore, in some measure a monopoly of 
 the article, and are enabled to suit the supply to 
 the demand, the increase of which, as it should 
 seem, should be to increase the price. Yet the 
 quantity exported has increased yearly since 
 1814, until the three last years that it has fallen 
 off. The finance accounts do not enable me to 
 
 c 3 
 
22 MEASURE OF RISE IN THE PART I. 
 
 state how much depression fell upon tin in com- 
 mon with other articles of export in 1811 ; but 
 since 1814 the depression amounts to upwards 
 of 50/. per cent., which, as it appears to me, can 
 be ascribed only to the defalcation in the supplies 
 of gold and silver from the mines, increased by 
 the consequences attending the return to cash 
 payments in 1819, and the putting down of the 
 small notes in 1826. Its depression, as stated in 
 the finance accounts, accordingly appears to have 
 been greatest in the years 1819, 1820, and 1821 ; 
 again in the year 1826 j and again in 1830 ; 
 when the small notes were completely withdrawn 
 from circulation. 
 
 The general depression of the aggregate ex- 
 ports appears to have been also greatest in these 
 years. Still the general depression in these 
 years is much less than the depression expe- 
 rienced in 1811. The depression occasioned by 
 the alteration of our currency, therefore, while it 
 confirms the conclusion, that the commencement 
 of the depression can alone be ascribed to a de- 
 falcation in the supply of gold and silver fi-om 
 the mines, also shows that that defalcation must 
 have had a much more powerful influence upon 
 general prices than the alteration in the currency, 
 to which all the distress we have suffered has 
 been generally attributed. As the return to a 
 metallic standard, for which preparation was 
 
CHAP. ir. EXCHANGEABLE VALUE OF MONEY. 23 
 
 made in 1819, coiild not have an effect beyond 
 the difference between the mint and the market- 
 price of gold, so the withdrawing of small notes 
 from cumulation could not exceed the amount of 
 the exchangeable value of the gold required to 
 take the place of the small notes. Either effect 
 could only be temporary, and limited, in its 
 operation in depressing industry. But restraints 
 upon our money system, which I shall proceed 
 now to notice, have a more extensive and a more 
 lasting operation. 
 
 C 4i 
 
24 
 
 PART II. 
 
 MONEY RESTRAINTS. 
 CHAP. I. 
 
 THE BANK OF ENGLAND AND ITS EXCLUSIVE PRIVILEGE, 
 "WITH ITS IMMEDIATE CONSEQUENCE. 
 
 t-^ 
 
 The Bank of England was established in the 
 year 1694, by an act* passed for granting several 
 rates and duties on tonnage of ships and beer, 
 &c., for securing certain recompenses, &c. to 
 persons who should advance 1,500,000/. to the 
 state, by which their majesties were authorised 
 to grant a commission to take particular sub- 
 scriptions for 1,200,000/., part of the said sum 
 of 1,500,000/., to be paid to the receipt of the 
 Exchequer ; in consideration of which, the sub- 
 scribers were to receive an annuity of 100,000/. 
 per annum, being interest at the rate of 8/. per 
 cent., or 96,000/., and 4000/. for management : 
 and their majesties were authorised, by letters 
 
 * 5 W. & M. c. 20. 
 
CHAP. I. THE BANK OF ENGLAND. 25 
 
 patent, to incorporate the contributors by the 
 name of " The Governor and Company of the 
 " Bank of England," with the power " of deal- 
 ** ing in bills of exchange, or buying or selling 
 ** bullion, gold, or silver ; or selling any goods, 
 " wares, or merchandise whatsoever, which shall 
 *' really or bond fide be left with the said corpo- 
 *' ration for money lent and advanced thereon, 
 " and which shall not be redeemed at the time 
 " agi'eed on, or within three months thereafter." J 
 f No exclusive privilege was granted to the 
 Bank at its first establishment ; but three years 
 afterwards, when it was enabled to enlarge its 
 capital by receiving further subscriptions, it was 
 provided, " that during the continuance of the 
 " Governor and Company of the Bank of Eng- 
 " land, no other Bank, or other Corporation, 
 " Society, Fellowship, Company, or Constitu- 
 " tion, in the nature of a Bank, shall be created 
 " or established, permitted, suffered, counte- 
 " nanced or allowed by Act of Parliament within 
 " this kingdom." * 
 
 It would seem, however, that some chartered 
 companies, previously established, had attempted 
 to carry on the business of banking : for some J 
 years afterwards, upon the recital of its act of 
 establishment, and that " some corporations, by 
 
 * 8 & 9 W. 3. c. 20. § 28. 
 
.] 
 
 26 EXCLUSIVE PRIVILEGE OF PART II. 
 
 " colour of the charters to them granted, and 
 " other great number of persons, by pretence of 
 ** deeds or covenants united together, having 
 " presumed to borrow great sums of money, and 
 " therewith, contrary to the intent of the said 
 " act, to deal as a Bank, to the apparent danger 
 *' of the established credit of the kingdom," the 
 Bank got a clause introduced into an act of par- 
 liament passed in the year I7IO*, by which it 
 was enacted, that, " during the continuance of the 
 *' Governor and Company of the Bank of England, 
 *' it shall not be lawful for any body, politic or 
 " corporate, whatsoever, created or to be created, 
 " other than the said Governor and Company of 
 *' the Bank of England, or for other persons what- 
 *' soever, united or to be united in covenants or 
 ** partnership exceeding the number of six per- 
 *' sons, in that part of Great Britain called Eng- 
 " land, to borrow, owe, or take up any sum or 
 *' sums of money on their bills or notes, payable 
 " at demand, or at less time than six months 
 *' from the borrowing thereof." 
 \ This exclusive privilege could not fail to 
 retard the establishment of banking companies 
 in England ; and when they came to be estab- 
 lished, they appear to have been so insignificant 
 as to put forth notes for sums even under twenty 
 
 * 6 Anne, c.22. §9. 
 
CHAP. I. THE BANK OF ENGLAND. 
 
 «t 
 
 shillings. The first enactment we find concern- 
 ing them is in the year 1775, when an act was 
 passed to prevent the issue of notes for sums 
 under twenty shillings*, which were altogether 
 prohibited ; and notes for sums under 5l. were 
 put under such regulations, two years afterwards, 
 as made it impossible for bankers to issue them, t 
 The consequence of this exclusive privilege 
 has been, that, with some few exceptions t, bank- 
 
 N,^ 15G.3. C.51. tl7G.3. C.30. 
 
 / X The chief exceptions are in the county of Lancaster, 
 but they have arisen from this very exclusive privilege. It 
 being impossible that any six persons could be found equal 
 to the money transactions of that large manufacturing and 
 commercial county, a peculiar currency has been resorted 
 to. All manufacturers in that county having correspondents V 
 in London to whom they send goods for the purpose of being I 
 sold, or direct remittances to be made for goods sold else- I 
 where, it suits them to draw upon London. This they 
 generally do at short dates for sums of, or under, 50/. Such 
 bills of exchange form the main currency of Lancashire. 
 Each drawer or payer endorsing his name, or the name of 
 his firm upon them, as he uses them in making payments ; 
 and before any such bill of exchange arrives in London for 
 liquidation, the names of twenty or thirty indorsers appear 
 on it, all of whom th«s become sureties to each other and 
 the public. Such bills of exchange are deposited with 
 bankers, until they are required for making payments. Bank- 
 ers in Lancashire are thus depositaries not of the money, but 
 of the bills of exchange of others, which they issue upon the 
 orders of their customers and at their risk ; and if this exclu- 
 sive privilege shall be continued, mercantile men in other 
 places, and even, perhaps, in the city of London, may contrive 
 a similar system for themselves. / 
 
28 CONSEQUENCES OF PART II. 
 
 ing companies in England do not follow the 
 business of banking as a substantive trade, but 
 for the purpose of carrying on some other trade, 
 to which the business of banking is aiding and 
 assisting. [ 
 
 Banlcing companies in England have thus not 
 only the risks of banking to encounter, but also 
 the risks to which such other trade is exposed. 
 
 The Bank of England itself does not carry on 
 the business of banking as a substantive concern. 
 It is the factor as well as the banker of the state, 
 and often advances money to this great customer 
 to the prejudice of its other customers, and often 
 to its own inconvenience, and sometimes even 
 danger. It also deals largely in the purchase and 
 sale of Exchequer bills, by which it expands or 
 contracts its circulation at pleasure ; and the 
 contraction is always more sudden than the ex- 
 pansion, to the derangement of the general in- 
 dustry of the country, and the not unfrequent 
 ruin of individuals. 
 
CHAP. II. EXCLUSIVE PRIVILEGE. ^9 
 
 CHAP. II. 
 
 FURTHER CONSEQUENCES OF THE EXCLUSIVE PRIVILEGE 
 OF THE BANK OF ENGLAND. 
 
 Besides the consequences adverted to, this ex- 
 clusive privilege is liable to the following objec- 
 tions : — 
 
 1. The amount of currency in England per- 
 haps does not exceed 60,000,000/., of which 
 perhaps not so much as one third is in gold and 
 silver ; but the sum of labour, and of the pro- 
 ducts of labour, put and kept in motion by these 
 60,000,000/. is perhaps notless than 600,000,000/. ; 
 a large portion of which (perhaps one half) is 
 embodied in bills of exchange discounted by 
 bankers ; so that the security of transactions does 
 not consist in a metallic currency, as is generally 
 supposed, but in the solidity of banking estabUsh- 
 ments based upon a metallic standard, all of 
 which are rendered insecure by this exclusive 
 privilege of the Bank of England. 
 
 2. Of the paper currency of England perhaps 
 not more than one half of it, or a third of the 
 whole (paper and metallic), is in notes of the 
 Bank of England. Its exclusive privilege, there- 
 
30 FURTHER CONSEQUENCES PART II. 
 
 fore, renders insecure the paper currency of 
 bankers issuing notes to an equal, if not a greater 
 amount. But it further operates a much more 
 extensive mischief, in rendering insecure de- 
 posits made by individuals with bankers to an 
 amount perhaps exceeding fifteen times the 
 whole currency of England, both metallic and 
 paper. 
 
 / 3. Of the amount of these deposits an esti- 
 mate may be formed by what was proved (as 
 satisfactorily as such a fact admits of proof, unless 
 returns were to be required from every banker, 
 namely, by an estimate formed by persons exa- 
 mined competent to make it,) to be the amount 
 of deposits in Scotland in 1826 ; namely, that 
 the sums deposited with bankers in Scotland ex- 
 ceeded 20,000,000/., while from returns actually 
 made, it appeared, that the whole paper circula- 
 tion of Scotland was then under 3,200,000/. ; 
 which, with the silver coin circulating there, 
 formed the whole currency of Scotland, and 
 could not amount in all to 4,000,000/. If the 
 sum of currency in England can be taken to 
 afford any rule for estimating the amount of de- 
 posits with bankers in England, or the relative 
 wealth of the countries be assumed for this pur- 
 pose, deposits with bankers in England probably 
 exceed 300,000,000/. They must, at all events, 
 amount to a very large sum ; every part of which. 
 
CHAP. III. OF EXCLUSIVE PRIVILEGE. 31 
 
 with the exception of deposits in the Bank, is 
 rendered insecure by this exclusive privilege. / 
 
 CHAP. III. 
 
 THE EFFECT OF THE EXCLUSIVE PRIVILEGE OF THE 
 BANK, WITH REFERENCE TO THE AMOUNT OF ITS 
 ISSUES. 
 
 From the situation in which the Bank of Eng- 
 land is placed by this exclusive privilege, the 
 Bank is enabled to put forth more of paper cur- 
 rency than the wants of the country require. 
 
 The manner in which the Bank puts forth its 
 notes is chiefly by discounting bills of exchange, 
 and purchasing Exchequer bills ; but it not un- 
 frequently also makes advances to Government 
 to an inconvenient amount, and sometimes it ap- 
 plies its means in a manner altogether inconsist- 
 ent with the principles of banking. 
 
 Bankers in the country put forth their paper 
 also by discounting bills of exchange. But 
 whatever paper bankers in the country put forth 
 in discount forthwith returns to them in the way 
 of deposit from their customers. But not so in 
 the case of the Bank of England. Its notes go 
 
32 EFFECT AS TO ISSUE OF NOTES. PART II. 
 
 in deposit chiefly with bankers in the cities of 
 London or Westminister, who do not issue notes. 
 In a district in the country, also, where there are 
 a number of bankers issuing notes, who divide 
 with each other the circulation of the district, it 
 is the interest of each to prevent his rivals from 
 encroaching upon the general circulation. But 
 bankers in the city of London or Westminster 
 have no interest in limiting the issues of the 
 Bank of England, but the contrary ; for an in- 
 crease of issue tends to increase the amount of 
 their deposits^ 
 
 In the'county of Lancaster*, again, where at 
 first sight the currency used there appears to be 
 the most expansive of all, because it seems to 
 have no limit but the wants of the issuers, it 
 is, nevertheless, very effectually limited in two 
 ways : — 1 . No one will gi'ant a bill of exchange 
 without receiving present value. 2. The cir- 
 cumstance of its being payable in London im- 
 poses a loss upon him, if he has not funds there 
 to make the payment. 
 
 A similar consequence restrains bankers in 
 other parts of England, from over issuing ; be- 
 cause wherever they do they have consequently 
 a balance to pay to a rival banker, who will insist 
 upon having either gold or bank notes, or a draft 
 upon London. 
 
 * See the nature of its currency stated, p. 27. 
 
CHAP. III. EXCHEQUER BILLS. 33 
 
 But the mode by which the Bank can most 
 conveniently extend the issue of its paper, is by 
 the purchase of Exchequer bills ; because such 
 bills also enable the Bank to contract its circu- 
 lation, whenever it pleases, to the whole amount 
 of the Exchequer bills which it holds. Its notes, 
 which it gives in exchange for Exchequer bills, go 
 into the hands of other bankers ; and the Ex- 
 chequer bills which it purchases with its notes, 
 go in deposit with the bank, in place of the notes 
 it may have had in store ; but, whenever the 
 Bank sells Exchequer bills, the whole of the notes 
 which it receives in exchange for them are 
 received by the Bank itself, and immediately 
 destroyed. 
 
 Every over issue by the Bank of England 
 produces a corresponding increase of issue by 
 bankers in the country, where more currency is 
 required, in proportion to the fall in the change- 
 able value of money through the over issue of 
 the Bank ; which, however, is not ostensible 
 until it produces an effect upon the foreign ex- 
 changes, and then the Bank contracts the issues 
 of its paper, in order to prevent a drain of gold.* 
 
 * With two exceptions, every director of the Bank, who 
 has been examined before the Secret or Select Committees 
 which have sat on the affairs of the Bank, has shown himself 
 altogether ignorant of the nature of exchanges. They have 
 said, they cannot see how the issues of the Bank of England 
 
 D 
 
34 CONSEQUENCES OF OVER ISSUE. PART II. 
 
 The operation and consequences of the over 
 issue are most mischievous. Mercantile men are 
 induced by the apparent plentifuhiess of money to 
 extend their transactions, and for a time they 
 are encouraged by the free discounts of tlie Bank, 
 and of other bankers from the increased amount 
 of their deposits ; but when the consequence fol- 
 lows, which sooner or later must attend an over 
 issue of paper currency, then mercantile men 
 suffer distress and loss through the contraction of 
 discounts, consequent upon the Bank contracting 
 its issues ; and such distress is the greater that it 
 is sudden and unexpected. 
 
 can have any effect upon prices, or upon foreign exchanges. 
 Mr. Ricardo has well expressed himself upon this point : — 
 " A circulation can never be so abundant as to overflow, for 
 " by diminishing its value, in the same proportion you will 
 " increase its quantity, and by increasing its value, diminish 
 " its quantity." — Principles of Political Economy, third 
 edition, p. 4-22. The directors bring into the board-room 
 a knowledge of the business in which they are engaged, but 
 they know little else. Like other traders, they know the 
 practice, but little of the principles, of trade, and even little 
 of the practice beyond their own trade. 
 
CHAP. IV. OF THE EXCLUSIVE PRIVILEGE. 35 
 
 CHAP. IV. 
 
 THE REMOVAL OF THE EXCLUSIVE PRIVILEGE. 
 
 If this exclusive privilege were at an end, the 
 personal liability of shareholders in joint stock 
 companies, which ought not to be removed, 
 would probably render slow the formation of 
 such companies for the purposes of banking in 
 England. But the fear of competition would 
 immediately induce caution and circumspection 
 on the part of the directors of the Bank. Some 
 of the banking companies in the country would 
 probably coalesce, and, having a head establish- 
 ment in the most convenient situation, would 
 have branches in the places where they now 
 carry on business, and, in other places also. 
 Coalitions, perhaps, would also be formed among 
 the bankers of London and Westminster, who 
 would have a head office for the issuing of notes, 
 and preserve their present establishments for 
 receiving deposits. 
 /p The receipt of deposits, which now constitute 
 / the chief source of the profit of bankers, was not 
 contemplated at the formation of the Bank. 
 Mr. Godfrey, who was the able assistant of 
 Mr. Paterson in the institution of this great 
 establishment, observes, in his " Brief Account 
 
 D 2 
 
36 DEPOSITS. PART II. 
 
 of the Bank of England." — "If the Bank can 
 *' ch'culate then' foundation of 1,200,000/. with- 
 " out liaving more than 300,000/. lying dead at 
 " one time with another, the Bank will be, in 
 " effect, as 900,000/. fresh money brought into 
 *' the nation." But the Bank now receives de- 
 posits to a larger amount than its foundation or 
 its now subscribed capital, not less than three 
 fourth parts of which, perhaps, it may use in 
 discounting bills of exchange (by doing which it 
 best assists industry), or in the purchase of 
 Exchequer bills, or in temporary advances to the 
 state. 
 
 If the deposits made with bankers in the cities 
 of London and Westminster could be ascer- 
 tained, the aggregate would be found much to 
 exceed the amount of deposits made with the 
 Bank of England. Deposits spring from Banking 
 and form the most beneficial part of it. The sum 
 of deposit which each person makes is as useful 
 to him, and more safe, in the hands of his banker, 
 than it would be in his own ; while by means of 
 'j these deposits a fund is created, which is ren- 
 dered usefid to the purposes of general industry, 
 without in the least degree impairing the use of 
 any part of it to the persons by whom it is made. 
 But the security for such deposits is lessened by 
 the exclusive privilege of the Banki 
 
CHAP. V. NATURE OF COIN. 37 
 
 CHAP. V. 
 
 THE NATURE OF COIN, AND OF BANK AND BANKERS' 
 NOTES. 
 
 Coin of gold or silver denotes the quantity of pure 
 gold or pure silver contained in the coin, which 
 may thus be taken, in exchange, without the 
 trouble of weighing or assaying. Gold or silver 
 having been assumed by civilised nations as the 
 measure of exchangeable value, coin of gold and 
 silver is thus rendered conveniently useful for the 
 purpose of making exchanges, and in the em- 
 ployment of labour, which, as well as commo- 
 ditigSr^s measured by gold or silver. 
 I Bills of exchange have been resorted to for 
 the purpose of making payments, as between one 
 country and another, and between one individual 
 and another in the same country. The ex- 
 changeable value of the commodities for which 
 they are gTanted is estimated in gold or silver ; 
 and the bills granted in exchange for com- 
 modities are payable in gold or silver, if required 
 by the holder. Such bills of exchange are well 
 known among merchants every where ; but a 
 banker's note, such as it exists in the United 
 Kingdom, is hardly known in any other country 
 in Europe, though approaches have been made 
 
 D 3 
 
38 banker's note part ii. 
 
 to it in America. Our standard being gold, a 
 banker's note is in the nature of a receipt for so 
 much gold : not that gold is always given for 
 it ; but no banker issues a note without receiving 
 value for it, estimated in gold.) 
 
 The only part of the United Kingdom where 
 banking has not been interfered with by the 
 legislature (except that no note shall be issued 
 for less than twenty shillings) is Scotland, and 
 there the most perfect security has been the con- 
 sequence of the most perfect freedom. The 
 currency of Scotland has attained the perfection 
 described by Mr. Ricardo, but which he was not 
 aware actually existed : — "A currency is in its 
 '* most perfect state, when it consists wholly of 
 " paper money, but of paper money of an equal 
 " value with the gold which it professes to re- 
 " present. The use of paper in place of 
 *' gold, substitutes the cheapest, in place of the 
 " most expensive, medium ; and enables the 
 *' country, without loss to any individual, to ex- 
 " change all the gold which it before used for 
 " this purpose for raw materials, utensils, and 
 " food, by the use of which both its wealth and 
 *' and its enjoyments are increased." He adds : — 
 " Experience shows that neither a state nor a 
 " bank ever has had the unrestricted power of 
 
 * Principles of Political Economy, third edit. p. 432. 
 
CHAP. V. IN SCOTLAND. 39 
 
 " issuing paper money, without abusing that 
 " power : in all states, therefore, the issue of 
 *' paper money ought to be under some check 
 ** or control ; and none seems so proper for 
 " that purpose, as that of subjecting the issuers 
 " of paper money to the obligation of paying 
 *' their notes either in gold coin or bullion." 
 
 Silver is necessary for the purpose of making 
 payments under twenty shillings ; but gold is 
 hardly ever seen in Scotland, where a banker's 
 note is preferred to it. A banker's note in Scot- 
 land has every quality of the coin of the realm ; 
 for it is taken in exchange as money in every part 
 of Scotland. A banker's note in Scotland is not 
 only superior in that respect to a banker's note 
 in England, which has only a limited circulation, 
 in the neighbourhood of the place where it is 
 issued ; but it is even superior in this respect to 
 a note of the Bank of England, which does not 
 circulate generally in the country of England, 
 where the note of a banker known in the neigh- 
 bourhood is preferred to it. 
 
 Banking appears to have extended itself in 
 Scotland sooner than it did in England, and to 
 have made its commencement, as England did, 
 by the issue of notes under twenty shillings, 
 which were prohibited in Scotland ten years 
 before they were prohibited in England.* For- 
 * 5G.3. C.49. 
 D 4 
 
40 CONSEQUENCE OF FREEDOM. PART II. 
 
 tunately for Scotland, her banking operations 
 escaped observation from the passing of that act 
 in 1765, until the year 1826, when the proscrip- 
 tion of small notes in England, in that year, was 
 also fortunately prevented from being extended 
 to Scotland. 
 
 The consequence of this freedom had been, 
 that, previously to the present year, three banking 
 companies * only, who issued notes, have stopped 
 payment in Scotland, all of whom paid twenty 
 shillings in the pound. The banker who 
 became bankrupt in the present year had the 
 vice, common to bankers in England, of not 
 carrying on the business of banking as a sub- 
 stantive trade, and his banking engagements 
 were to a comparatively small amount. 
 
 Seeing that deposits with bankers in Scotland 
 were proved to exceed 20,000,000/., no security 
 for their notes, that could have been required 
 
 * Thirty-one banking companies, issuing notes in Scotland, 
 were the number returned to the Small Note Committee, in 
 1826; but the number of companies conveys a very inade- 
 quate impression with regard to the business of banking in 
 that country. The Bank of Scotland was proved to have 
 sixteen branches, at as many different places ; the British 
 Linen Company twenty-seven ; the Commercial Banking 
 Company thirty-one. These were the greatest number ; but 
 almost all the thirty-one banking companies had somebranches, 
 so that no place in Scotland, of any note, was without a bank- 
 ing establishment. 
 
CHAP. VI. REVULSION OF 1825-6. 41 
 
 from bankers, would have been of any avail.* 
 But the course of transactions consequent upon 
 a free system of banking, has practically worked 
 out a security for the issue of notes in Scotland, 
 which no legislative provision could have at- 
 tained. 
 
 The cash credits in Scotland, for which ample 
 security is always taken, were proved in 1826 to 
 exceed 5,000,000/., while the whole paper cir- 
 culation of Scotland was proved to be under 
 3,200,000/. ; so that the security taken for cash 
 credits, in Scotland, was found to be much more 
 than equal to the whole paper circulation of 
 Scotland. 
 
 CHAP. VI. 
 
 THE REVULSION OF 1825-6. 
 
 The revulsion of 1825-6 was similar to the re- 
 vulsion of 1815-16, which last proved as fatal to 
 
 * Many persons who advocate the freedom of banking 
 propose that bankers should give security for the issue of 
 their notes, forgetting that such a regulation is a restriction, 
 and an infraction of the very principle they advocate. Ad- 
 verting to the amount of deposits and discounts, any security 
 that would be required would be unavailing ; with freedom 
 of banking it is useless. 
 
T" 
 
 42 CAUSES OF REVULSION. PART II. 
 
 bankers in England as 1825-6. The number of 
 bankers who became bankrupt at the former pe- 
 riod was even greater than at the latter, at least 
 up to the period when the return was made.* 
 
 Capital applied to war purposes was set idle 
 by the termination of the war. The continuing 
 defalcation in the supply of gold and silver from 
 the mines continued to raise the exchangeable 
 value of money, whereby so much less of capital 
 and currency became necessary for the purposes 
 of industry ; but this consequence of a rise in 
 the exchangeable value of money was not ad- 
 
 * The number of bankers in England who became bank- 
 rupt in 
 
 1815 were - - - 26 
 
 1816 - - - 37 
 
 1825 - - - 37 
 
 1826 - - - 22 
 
 63 
 
 59 
 
 The numbers in 1815-16 are taken from the Appendix to 
 the Lords' Report, 1819, p. 426. The numbers in 1825-6 
 are taken from vol. xxii. of the Sessional Papers of the 
 House of Commons, for 1826, p. 6.; which, however, gave 
 only the return down to the end of February, 1826. / 
 
 Scotland evinced the superiority of her banking establish- 
 ments at both periods. None of them failed in 1 825-6 ; and 
 the only one that failed in 1815-16 was the Falkirk Union 
 Banking Company, a company of little note, the whole of 
 whose debts proved amounted to no more than 51,009/c 5s. 8d., 
 of which 45/. per cent had been paid at the period of the 
 return. (Appendix to Report of Small Note Committee, 
 1826, No. 5.) 
 
CHAP. VI. CAUSES OF REVULSION. 43 
 
 verted to, and the Bank continued to issue as 
 usual. These were the causes of the revulsion 
 in 1815-16, which induced mercantile men to 
 embark largely in purchases of colonial produce 
 and other commodities, for which it was ex- 
 pected there would have been a great demand 
 upon the Continent from the return of peace. 
 But depression of price having come upon all 
 commodities, from the continuing rise in the 
 exchangeable value of money, distress was ex- 
 perienced upon the Continent as well as here ; 
 and such expectations having been disappointed, 
 those who had entertained them were not able to 
 stand their ground, and involved with them the 
 bankers who had discounted their biUs of ex- 
 change. 
 
 Similar causes produced the revulsion of 
 1825-6. We had the most abundant harvests 
 ever known in 1820 and in 1822. The con- 
 sequence was, that we imported of foreign corn, 
 in 1821, only 257,654 quarters; and in 1822, 
 no more than 125,804 quarters. The import- 
 ation in 1823 was brought down even to 53,641 
 quarters ; and in 1824 it reached only 610,037 
 quarters. But in 1819 we had imported 
 1,707,510 quarters, and in 1820, 1,341,850 
 quarters.* The capitals required for these large 
 
 * Pari. Paper, 1832, No. 426. 
 
4*4} CAUSES OF REVULSION. PART II. 
 
 importations, thus rendered useless, in 1821, 
 1822, 1823, and 1824, run riot in quest of em- 
 ployment in 1825, when the defalcation in the 
 supply of gold and silver from the mines still 
 continued, without a corresponding diminution in 
 the issue of bank notes.* To this cause of rise 
 in the exchangeable value of money was added 
 the further cause arising from the cheapness of 
 
 * When these sheets went to press, no account had ap- 
 peared of the issues of the Bank in the last week of February 
 in the present year ; but it is understood not much to have 
 exceeded 17,000,000/. If this be so, the Bank has pro- 
 nounced its own condemnation. 
 
 I am no foeman to the Bank ; but I wish to render it 
 useful, and to prevent it from continuing to be mischievous 
 to the country, and to make it more beneficial withal to its 
 own proprietors. I have elsewhere said, " There should be 
 " but one receiver and one payer, with whom the responsi- 
 " bilit}'^ of ever}' payment should rest. Upon this principle, 
 " the Exchequer should merge in the Treasury ; which should 
 " receive such additional assistance from officers in the Ex- 
 " chequer capable of active service, and such others, as the 
 " new and increasing duties of this superintending esta- 
 " blishment require. All public monies should be paid into 
 " the Bank of England, upon accounts to be opened under 
 " the direction of the Lords of the Treasury, subject to their 
 " order, and that of the persons authorised by them (with a 
 " proper check and control), to operate upon such accounts. 
 " The Bank of England should be to the state what a private 
 " banker is to an individual ; and the same certainty, regu- 
 " larity, and simplicity of account should be introduced into 
 " every department of the public service that is observed in 
 " the well managed concerns of an active and prudent indi- 
 " vidual." (Bevisioti of our Fiscal Code, 1 828.) 
 
CHAP. VI. IMPOLICY OF INTERFERENCE. 45 
 
 abundance, and the continuance of the issue of 
 bank notes as usual, in ignorance of all these 
 causes which rendered less currency necessary. 
 All sorts of schemes were in consequence re- 
 sorted to, in order to employ this excess of 
 capital and currency. Many of those who em- 
 barked ill them became involved ; and bankers 
 who had discounted their paper were involved 
 with them.f 
 
 Capital and activity will always seek employ- 
 ment ; but they are not always guided by know- 
 ledge and skill, which the legislature cannot 
 impart, even if it possessed both ; nor are they 
 always exerted under favourable circumstances, 
 which the legislature can still less command, 
 though, unfortunately for industry, it is too apt 
 to make the attempt. In periods of prosperity, 
 however, the exuberance of capital and activity 
 is termed enterprise ; in periods of revulsion it 
 is termed speculation : but the principle is still 
 the same. The consequences of interference 
 may teach us the wisdom of non-interference 
 with the natural course of things. Whenever 
 we attempt to regulate matters which an Al- 
 mighty Providence has so constituted as to 
 regulate themselves, results never fail to follow 
 altogether different from what we expected, and 
 oftentimes contrary to what we intended, 
 f The revulsion in 1825-6 did not differ from 
 
46 IMPOLICY OF INTERFERENCE. PART II. 
 
 the revulsion of 1815-16, nor much from that of 
 1810-11, or even from that of 1793-4. But 
 " the principal source of it was said to be found 
 ** in the rash spirit of speculation which had per- 
 '* vaded the country for some time, supported, fos- 
 *' tered, and encouraged by the country banks*," 
 who, in truth, were the victims, not the causes, 
 of it : and, at aU events, small notes, which have 
 been assimilated, but have no more resemblance 
 to coin than bills of exchange have to com- 
 modities, had no share in producing it ; nor 
 could the prohibition of issuing them improve 
 the paper of bankers, or enable the country 
 parts of England to sustain a currency of gold. 
 I Under a contrary impression, however, the 
 f minister violated the law, by commanding the 
 , Commissioners of Stamps to suffer no more small 
 ' notes to be stamped : and the legislature was 
 prevailed upon to cause them to be discontinued 
 after April, 1829. t 
 
 The minister was not less violent against the 
 exclusive privilege of the Bank, the removal of 
 which certainly would have improved the paper 
 of bankers ; but here he was not equally suc- 
 cessful. The Bank would only consent to 
 
 * Letter of the First Lord of the Treasury, and the 
 Chancellor of the Exchequer, in January 1826, \ol. xix. 
 Finance Accounts. 
 
 f 7 Geo. 4. c. 6. 
 
CHAP. VII. 
 
 METALLIC STANDARD. 
 
 Previous to 1816, gold and silver coin were 
 equally a legal tender, to any amount, in Eng- 
 land ; but, since that year, gold coin has been 
 declared the only legal tender for sums above 
 forty shillings.t 
 
 Another important alteration made in this 
 year was, that our pound of Mint silver, in place 
 of being coined into 62.9. as formerly, from 
 the time of Queen Elizabeth, was directed to be 
 
 * 7 G. 4. c. 6. t 56 G. 3. c. 38. § 1 1, 12. 
 
 CHAP. VII. METALLIC STANDARD. 47 
 
 relinquish its exclusive privileges sixty-five "^ 
 miles beyond London : and even what they 
 appeared to give up was in a great measure 
 preserved, by a clause which prohibited any of 
 the joint stock companies, which the Act might 
 originate, from drawing upon London for sums 
 of or under 50/. ; thereby giving a monopoly in 
 such paper to the existing banking companies, 
 who were supposed to be in default, to the ex- 
 clusion of the better companies, which it was 
 passed to establish. 1 
 
48 NEW MINT REGULATIONS. PART II. 
 
 coined into 66s. of which, however, 62.9. only 
 were to be dehvered from the Mint. * 
 
 The effect of this regulation was, to prevent 
 any person from carrying silver to the Mint to be 
 coined, because no person would carry a pound 
 of silver to the Mint to have ^\ parts of it 
 retained. 
 
 The silver coin, however, being estimated in 
 gold, this prevention is of no further conse- 
 quence than as it throws upon the government 
 the duty of providing a sufficiency of silver coin, 
 without having the means of ascertaining what 
 will be required. 
 
 So long as small notes were in circulation, 
 these, in some measure, regulated the amount of 
 silver coin ; because bankers in the country, 
 issuing small notes, were obliged to keep a stock 
 of silver to meet demands upon them ; while 
 their being obliged to keep such a stock of silver 
 tended to limit the issue of notes. But, not small 
 being now obliged, they no longer keep such a 
 stock of silver, and the country parts of England 
 are thus distressed from the want of means to 
 make small payments. 
 
 A standard of gold, however, is preferable to 
 a standard of silver, in this respect, that it is less 
 liable to change ; but a poor country cannot 
 
 * 56 Geo. 3. c.68. § 11, 12. 
 
CHAP. VII. CONSEQUENCES. 49 
 
 sustain a currency of gold ; and though England 
 be a rich country, yet many parts of it are poor, 
 particularly the agricultural districts, which thus 
 suffer from a want of silver currency, and also 
 from a want of gold currency, which they are 
 unable to retain. Gold travels up to London, in 
 the same manner, and for the same reason, that 
 Bank of England notes return thither. Both 
 may come in to bankers in the country, who, 
 however, do not issue either, but send both to 
 their correspondents in London, as remittances, 
 on account of the bills of exchange which they 
 draw upon such correspondents. 
 
 In this situation, one of two things is unavoid- 
 able. Either we must adopt a standard of silver, 
 and again coin our pound of Mint silver into sixty- 
 two parts or shillings ; or, preserving our gold 
 standard, with our present Mint regulations as 
 to silver coin, we must again allow small notes 
 to be issued.* 
 
 * Many persons have suggested that the vakie of gold 
 should be declared by law to be 4?. per ounce. The sug- 
 gestion shows that those who make it know nothing of the 
 matter. By our Mint regulations, the exchangeable value of 
 gold is fixed as in regard to silver, in the proportion of 15.2096 
 to 1 ; and our pound of Mint silver, consisting of 12 ounces, 
 having been, previous to 1816, coined into 62 parts or shil- 
 lings, and each shilling representing 12 pence, our Mint 
 price of silver is said to be 5s. 2d. an ounce ; so that an ouncf 
 of gold, estimated in silver at 5s. ^d. an ounce, is exactl 
 
 E 
 
60 ISSUE OF SMALL NOTES. PART II. 
 
 If the exclusive privilege of the Bank of 
 England shall be withheld from it, upon the 
 renewal of its charter, whereby an over issue of 
 paper could not take place, I should say that 
 small notes should again be allowed to be issued; 
 because the same sanction which keeps notes of 
 a large denomination sound also keeps notes of 
 a small denomination sound, namely, their con- 
 vertibility into coin at the option of the holder. 
 A banker's note, being in the nature of a receipt 
 for so much gold, while gold is our standard, 
 there is no reason which I have been able to 
 discover why a receipt should not be granted for 
 a small sum as well as a large sum, but the 
 contrary. 
 
 3L 17.V. lOld. By 3/. 17^. lOhd., therefore, we mean an 
 ounce of Mint gold ; and whether we call this ounce 4/. or 
 31. lis. lO^d., it will still be an ounce of gold, and nothing 
 else. Befoi'e we can, however, call an ounce of gold 4/., we 
 must alter the whole of our Mint regulations ;and we should 
 alter them with no benefit whatever, but the contrary : we 
 should depreciate the standard, and raise money-prices 
 according to the depreciated standard : but an ounce of gold 
 would still be an ounce of gold, and the exchangeable value 
 of gold would be still the same. 
 
 Our ounce of gold at 31. 17s. lO^c?. now regulates the 
 exchangeable value of our silver coinage, though at 5s. 6d. 
 per ounce, of which 31. 2s., only are delivered from the Mint. 
 Our silver coin is, in truth, now nothing but counters, and 
 copper counters would do equally well, if it were not that we 
 should be inundated with counterfeits. 
 
CHAP. VII. PERFECTION OF CURRENCY. 51 
 
 Our currency will then attain that perfection 
 which is described by Mr. Ricardo. The ex- 
 changeable value of our paper currency wUl 
 always be equal to the exchangeable value of our 
 gold coin. All the amount of gold now re- 
 quired to supply the want of small notes will 
 return to the general purposes of commerce ; and, 
 with small notes, a silver currency will return to 
 the country parts of England, where it is most 
 wanted, for the purposes of industry. 
 
 E 2 
 
52 
 
 PART III. 
 
 CORN LAWS' RESTRAINTS. 
 CHAP. I. 
 
 ERRORS OF THE AGRICULTURAL AND MANUFACTURING 
 INTERESTS WITH RESPECT TO THE CORN LAWS. 
 
 J- HE agricultural and manufacturing interests 
 are both in error with respect to the operation 
 of the Corn Laws. The home growers of corn 
 believe these laws afford them a protection ; 
 whereas the laws passed in and since 1815 have 
 deprived them of the protection they formerly 
 enjoyed. The manufacturers again conceive, that 
 the operation of these laws is to restrain the 
 importation of foreign corn, and to prevent them 
 from exchanging the products of their industry 
 for foreign produce ; whereas the effect of the 
 Corn Laws since 1815 has been to increase the 
 importation of foreign corn. 
 
 This will appear manifest from the annexed 
 table, showing the imports into, and exports from, 
 Great Britain of all sorts of grain, from 177^ to 
 
[ To face page 52. 
 
 Showing the[ into Periods of Five Years after the first Three Years, and 
 again into ige Price of Wheat in Great Britain, and the Highest and 
 Lowest Pr 
 
 L 
 
 on Bounties paid 
 Exportation 
 
 3n 
 
 
 Highest and Lowest 
 
 Average Price of 
 
 Wheat in Great 
 
 Britain. 
 
 Highest and Lowest 
 
 Price of Wheat at 
 
 Dantzic. 
 
 
 . d. £ 
 
 s. 
 
 d. 
 
 
 S. 
 
 d. s. 
 
 d. 
 
 S. 
 
 d. s. d. 
 
 In the Three 
 
 - 10,979 
 
 1 
 
 2i 
 
 1775 
 
 51 
 
 1—47 
 
 8 
 
 41 
 
 8 — 37 6 
 
 In the Five 
 
 - 272,462 
 
 11 
 
 9 
 
 1780 
 
 46 
 
 — 34 
 
 6 
 
 32 
 
 6 — 24 2 
 
 Ditto 
 
 - 160,241 
 
 10 
 
 n 
 
 1785 
 
 52 
 
 3 — 41 
 
 4 
 
 35 
 
 2 — 30 
 
 During whicl 
 in operatic 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 443,683 
 
 3 
 
 7 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 to be impc 
 the price v 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 quarter, an 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 per quartei 
 wheat was 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 During whi( 
 31 G. 3. c 
 
 which raist 
 wheat to 5 
 the duty w 
 reached 54 
 duty was 6 
 
 - 248,139 
 
 15 
 
 4 
 
 1790 
 
 51 
 
 11—39 
 
 2 
 
 48 
 
 3 — 34 
 
 - 97,695 
 B 2 5,613 
 
 15 
 
 7 
 
 n 
 11 
 
 1795 
 1800 
 
 74 
 113 
 
 2 — 42 
 7 — 50 
 
 11 
 3 
 
 58 
 
 72 
 
 4 — 34 4 
 6 — 31 2 
 
 351,448 
 
 19 
 
 0| 
 
 
 
 
 During whic 
 c. 109. w£ 
 raised the 
 per quarter 
 low 66^. tl 
 
 I lOi 16,140 
 9 11 78 
 
 - X 
 
 12 
 5 
 
 2| 
 Hi 
 
 1805 
 1810 
 1815 
 
 118 
 106 
 125 
 
 3 — 56 
 
 2 — 73 
 
 3 — 64 
 
 6 
 3 
 4 
 
 73 
 63 
 50 
 
 5 — 49 5 
 
 4 — 44 8 
 
 10 — 32 11 
 
 when at or 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Qd. per qua 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 In 1815 the 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 operation, 
 
 _ 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 1820 
 
 94 
 
 9 — 65 
 
 7 
 
 92 
 
 1—42 8 
 
 portation o 
 
 . 
 
 
 - 
 
 1825 
 
 70 
 
 7 — 39 
 
 11 
 
 36 
 
 0—18 8 
 
 per quarter 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 1830 
 
 76 
 
 7 — 50 
 
 9 
 
 72 
 
 11 — 18 10 
 
 c. 60., whic 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 when the 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 duty of 12. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Oni 
 into a 
 per q 
 dinun^ 
 reach 
 
 POOR-RATE. 
 
 Last Year - - ^6,798,888 
 
 In 1815 - - 5,072,028 
 
 Increase - <€l,726,860 
 
 * The amoilies received in 1789 and 1V90. 
 
 t The Cus(i on that account, the exportations in the five years ending in 1815 
 will be 1,196,^ 
 
 I Bounties ^ent of the existing act on the 1 5th July 1828. 
 § Of which! 
 
 II The expol appears to be no more than £"'101,199, and in the five years ending 
 in 18^0 only .=< 
 
A TABLE, 
 
 [To/ac€ page 52. 
 
 Showing the Liiports into and Exports from Great Britain oi' all sorts of (irain, &c. from 1773 to 1830 (both inclusive), divided into Periods of Five Years after the first Three Years, and 
 again into Periods of Fifteen Years ; showing also the Duties received and Bounties paid, and the Highest and Lowest Average Price of Wheat in Great Britain, and the Highest and 
 Lowest Price at Dantzic in each Period of Five Years; with an Abstract of the Laws passed in and since 1773. 
 
 In the Three Years ending 
 
 In the Five Yeai-s ending 
 
 Ditto 
 
 During which the 13 0.3. c.43. > 
 in operation, which allowed wheat ^ 
 to be imported at 6rf. of duty when 
 the price was at or above 48s. per 
 quai-ter, and granted a bounty of 5s. 
 per quarter upon exportation when 
 wheat was under 44s. per quarter. 
 
 During which, and until 1804, the' 
 31 G. 3. c. 80. was in operation, 
 which raised the importable price of 
 wheat to 50s. per quarter, at which 
 the duty was 2s. 6d., until the price 
 reached 54s., at or above which the 
 duty was Gd. per quarter 
 
 During which, after 1804, the 44 G. 3." 
 c 109. was in operation, which 
 raised the importable price to 63s. 
 per quarter, when at which and be- 
 low 66s. the duty was 2s. 6f/., and 
 when at or above 66s. the duty was 
 6d. per quarter 
 
 In 1815 the 55 G. 3. c. 26. came into") 
 operation, which prohibited the im- 
 portation of wheat till it reached SOs. 
 per quarter, was varied by the 3 G. 4. > 
 c. CO., which admitted of importation 
 when the price reached 70s., with a 
 duty of 12s. - - - 
 
 From Ireland. All other Parts. 
 
 27-2,037 
 373,791 
 616,776 
 
 2,362,202 
 1,811,480 
 2,130,123 
 
 1,396,639 1,923,994 
 2,009,333 4,402,314 
 1,543,380 6,131,246 
 
 1,428,278 
 3,153,638 
 3,649,396 
 
 5,166,506 
 8,252,044 
 10,874,059 
 
 24,292,609 
 
 5,935,906 
 3,780,337 
 2,282,297 
 
 8,700,467 
 2,104,714 
 11,277,466 
 
 2,634,239 
 2,183,271 
 2,746,899 
 
 3,520,653 
 6,411,647 
 7,674,826 
 
 7,365,184 
 6,933,975 
 5,931,693 
 
 1.3,866,973 
 10,356,958 
 22,151,525 
 
 243,130 
 
 1,385,382 
 
 9il,(W4 
 
 1,229,594 
 
 828,282 
 415,499 
 
 703,011 
 327,194 
 
 t 957,281 
 
 • 18,864 2 53 
 97,194 10 11 
 86,322 19 9 
 
 79,143 17 
 205,443 14 
 59,962 8 
 
 484,857 1 9 
 3,098,614 9 1: 
 
 3,583,471 10 101 
 
 647,294 18 2 
 
 2,206,246 U lOi 
 267 19 1 ' 
 
 
 £ s. 
 
 10,979 1 
 272,462 11 
 160,241 10 7J 
 
 443,683 3 7 
 
 248,139 15 
 97,695 15 9J 
 5,613 7 
 
 351,448 19 0- 
 
 16,140 12 2| 
 ^ 78 5 IH 
 
 52 3 — 41 4 
 
 51 11—39 2 
 74 2-42 11 
 113 7—50 3 
 
 118 3 — 56 6 
 106 2 — 73 3 
 
 94 9-63 7 
 70 7 — 39 11 
 76 7 — 50 9 
 
 41 8 — 37 6 
 32 6 — 24 2 
 35 2 — 30 
 
 48 3 — 34 
 58 4 — 34 
 72 6 — 31 
 
 73 5 — 49 
 63 4 — 44 8 
 50 10 — 32 11 
 
 92 1—42 
 36 0—18 8 
 72 11 — 18 10 
 
 On the 15th of July 1828 tlie present law (9 G. 4. c. 60.) came 
 into operation, which allows wheat to be imported when at G2s. 
 per quarter, upon pajment of \l. is. Sd. per quarter of duty, 
 diminishing Is. for each U. of increase of price, until the latter 
 reaches 73s., when Is. only of duty becomes payable. 
 
 POPULATION. 
 
 Numbers. Increase. 
 
 1800 - - 10,942,646 
 
 1810 - - 12,596,830 1,654,184 
 
 1820 - - 14,391,631 1,794,801 
 
 1830 - - 16,537,398 2,145,597 
 
 POOR-RATE. 
 
 Last Year - - .£6,798,888 
 
 In 1815 - - 5,072,028 
 
 Licrease - i;i,726,860 
 
 The amount of duties received upon importation is not on record previous to 1789. This sum is therefore only the amount of the duties received in 1789 and 1790. 
 ,t, ■"'.', ';"*i°"'''°"^'^'"'°'"''^''''S been destroyed by fire in 1813, there is no return of the exports for that year. If onefourtli be added on that account, the elportations in the five years endulg 
 
 till be 1,190,602 quarU 
 
 t Bounties ceased in 1814, and duties in 1815, until the latter 
 
 § Of which 316,448 quarters were from Ireland. 
 
 II The exports since 1820 appear no otherwise than by the Finance Accounts, in whicli the official value 
 n ISIO only ^86,309. 
 
 wed by the 3 G. 4. c. CO., whicli continued until the commencement of the existing net on the 15th July 1828. 
 
 ve years ending in 1825 appears to be no more than ;£101,199, and in the fivi 
 
 s ending 
 
CHAP. I. STATE OF THE IMPORTATIONS. 53 
 
 1830, botli inclusive, which are divided into 
 periods of five years after the first three years, 
 and again into periods of fifteen years ; showing 
 also the duties received and bounties paid, and 
 the highest and lowest average price of wheat in 
 Great Britain, and the highest and lowest price 
 at Dantzic in each period of five years, with an 
 abstract of the laws passed in and since 1773. 
 The numbers of the population are also stated, 
 with the poor-rates in 1815 and in 1830. 
 
 This table thus presents, at one view, all the 
 facts from which any conclusion can be drawn. 
 It thence appears that, from the year 1773 to 
 the year 1815, the home growth of corn in Great 
 Britain, indicated by the imports and exports, 
 not only kept pace with the increase of the popu- 
 lation, but outstript it, with the exception of the 
 years of scarcity, which began in 1794-5, and 
 continued, with little intermission, until 1801-2. 
 But what followed the years of scarcity proves 
 the beneficial operation of the laws which then 
 prevailed, inasmuch as the importations of corn 
 in the five years, ending in 1805, were upwards 
 of 300,000 quarters less than they were in the 
 five years ending in 1800 ; and in the five years 
 ending in 1815, the importations were upwards 
 of 1,700,000 quarters less than they were in the 
 five years ending in 1800. 
 
 The average amount of the importations in the 
 E 3 
 
CHAP. I. STATE OF THE IMPORTATIONS. 53 
 
 1830, both inclusive, which are divided into 
 periods of five years after the first three years, 
 and again into periods of fifteen years ; showing 
 also the duties received and bounties paid, and 
 the highest and lowest average price of wheat in 
 Great Britain, and the highest and lowest price 
 at Dantzic in each period of five years, with an 
 abstract of the laws passed in and since 1773. 
 The numbers of the population are also stated, 
 with the poor-rates in 1815 and in 1830. 
 
 This table thus presents, at one view, all the 
 facts from which any conclusion can be drawn. 
 It thence appears that, from the year 1773 to 
 the year 1815, the home growth of corn in Great 
 Britain, indicated by the imports and exports, 
 not only kept pace with the increase of the popu- 
 lation, but outstript it, with the exception of the 
 years of scarcity, which began in 1794-5, and 
 continued, with little intermission, until 1801-2. 
 But what followed the years of scarcity proves 
 the beneficial operation of the laws which then 
 prevailed, inasmuch as the importations of corn 
 in the five years, ending in 1805, were upwards 
 of 300,000 quarters less than they were in the 
 five years ending in 1800 ; and in the five years 
 ending in 1815, the importations were upwards 
 of 1,700,000 quarters less than they were in the 
 five years ending in 1800. 
 
 The average amount of the importations in the 
 E 3 
 
54 STATE OF THE IMPORTATIONS. PART III. 
 
 five years ending in 1815 had come down to very 
 nearly the average amount in the three years 
 ending in 177*5.* Deducting exports, the yearly 
 
 average, m 
 
 1815, was 
 and in 1775 
 
 Quarters. 
 
 - 947,418 
 
 - 757,036 
 
 Difference only 
 
 - 190,382 
 
 If the operation of the laws which prevailed 
 previous to 1815 had been suffered to continue, 
 there can hardly be a doubt that the home growth 
 of com would have still further improved ; but, 
 in 1815, we passed a restraining law, which we 
 have altered twice for the worse since ; and the 
 
 * The Importations in the three years ending Quarters, 
 in 1775 amounted to - - - 2,634,239 
 
 Deduct Exports - - - 243,130 
 
 2,357,109 
 
 Yearly Average - - 757,036 
 
 The amount of the Importations in the Jive years 
 
 ending in 1815 was - - - 5,931,693 
 
 Deduct Exports - - - 1,196,602 
 
 4,737,091 
 
 Yearly average - ~ 947,418 
 
CHAP. II. CONSEQUENCE OF ALTERATION. 55 
 
 consequence has been, that the importations in 
 the very first five years of the restrained period 
 were very nearly three times the amount, and the 
 importations in the five years ending 1830 were 
 upwards of four times the amount, of the import- 
 ations in the five years ending in 1815 ; and the 
 importations may be expected to continue to in- 
 crease ; for, in the year 1831, the foreign import- 
 ations were upwards of 1,000,000 of quarters 
 above the amount of the preceding year.* 
 
 CHAP. II. 
 
 PROTECTION AFFORDED BY THE CORN LAWS PREVIOUS 
 TO 1815. THE REVERSE SINCE. 
 
 The trade in corn was virtually free in Great 
 Britain from the year 1773 to the year 1815. 
 By the law passed in 177^ *, wheat was import- 
 able when at or above 48*., on payment of a duty 
 
 Quarters. 
 
 * In 1831, we imported from abroad - 3,528,998 
 
 and in 1830 - - 2,427,750 
 
 Increase in 1831 - - 1,101,238 
 
 See Pari. Paper, 1832, No. 89. 
 t 13 G. 3. C.43. 
 
 E 4 
 
5b CONSEQUENCE OF FREE TRADE. TART IT. 
 
 of 6d. per quarter, and other grain at equally 
 low duties. The importable price was raised by 
 the law of 1791*, whereby wheat was made im- 
 portable when at 50s., on payment of a duty of 
 Qs. 6d. per quarter ; and when at 54.9. , on pay- 
 ment of 6d. per quarter. The importable price 
 was again raised in 1804t, when wheat was not 
 importable until it reached 63s., when importa- 
 tion was allowed on payment of 2s. 6d. per quar- 
 ter ; and when wheat rose to 66s. per quarter ; 
 it was importable on payment of 6d. per quarter, 
 and, by these two statutes, proportionate import- 
 ation prices and duties were assigned to other 
 grain. 
 
 Though importable prices were fixed by all 
 these acts of Parliament, yet, from the fall which 
 then continued to take place in the exchangeable 
 value of money, the prices fixed ceased to have 
 any operation whatever as importable prices ; and 
 grain was at all times importable upon payment 
 of the duties fixed by these statutes, which gene- 
 rally were the low duties. 
 
 " The necessary consequence (as observed by 
 *' the Agricultural Committee of 1821) of the 
 " trade in corn having been virtually ojien with 
 *' the Continent, and the importation allowed at 
 *' prices merely nominal during the period of 
 
 * 31 G. 3. C.80. t 44- G. 3. c.l09. 
 
CHAP. II. OPERATION OF FREE DEMAND. 57 
 
 *' forty years, has been, that the general price of 
 " tlie shippmg ports on the Continent has not, 
 " upon an average, been materially lower than 
 *' the price in England, except to the amount 
 '* of the charges to be incurred in bringing the 
 *' foreign corn to the markets of this country." 
 
 It had been remarked by the Committee on 
 the Corn Laws, in 1814, that " the price of wheat 
 " at the shipping ports on the Baltic is entirely 
 " regulated by the demand in the other countries 
 " in Europe ;" and the remark might have been 
 extended to all corn whatever, the price of which, 
 like the price of every thing else, is regulated 
 by the demand for it. But this effect is pro- 
 duced only when the demand is suffered to 
 operate. It was, then, by the operation of the 
 great demand for corn in this country being 
 allowed to operate freely at all the shipping ports 
 on the Continent that the price of corn previous 
 to 1815 was always the same therewith the price 
 here, with the difference only of the expense of 
 bringing it here. 
 
 But, in 1815, we passed a law*, which said that 
 wheat should not be imported at all until it 
 reached 80s. per quarter ; which we altered in 
 1822, by saying it should be importable when at 
 70^., upon the payment of a duty of 12,?.t ; and, 
 
 * 55 G. 3. c. 26. t 3 G. 4, c. 60. 
 
58 REVERSE AFTER 1815. PART III. 
 
 in 1828, we adopted an ascending and descending 
 scale of duties, of which 6'2s. per quarter was the 
 pivot; at which price a duty of ll. 4<s. 8d. per 
 quarter was payable, diminishing as the price 
 rose until it reached 73*., when 1*. of duty only 
 was payable* ; and similar provisions were made 
 by all these laws for the importation of other 
 grain. 
 
 The consequence has been, that the price of 
 wheat at Dantzic, which, as stated by the Agri- 
 cultural Committee of 1821, for forty years ending 
 in 1814, had not, upon an average, been mate- 
 rially lower than the price in England, except as 
 to the amount of the charges to be incurred in 
 bringing it to this country (which average ap- 
 pears, from the annexed table, to have been 
 about 12*. per quarter), was, after 1815, some- 
 times within 3s. of the price in Great Britain, 
 and sometimes upwards of 30*. under it; that 
 is, when our great demand operated at Dantzic, 
 it brought the price nearly to the price here : 
 and when it ceased to operate, the price fell in 
 proportion to its previous rise. 
 
 It thus appears manifest how the home gi'ower 
 of corn enjoyed a protection under the laws 
 which prevailed previous to 1815, of which he 
 has been deprived by the laws which have pre- 
 
 * 9G,4. C.60. 
 
CHAP. III. PROTECTION WITHDRAWN. 59 
 
 vailed since. Under the former laws, the price 
 of corn at the shipping ports being always tlie 
 same with the price here, with the difference 
 only of the expense of bringing it here, a risk 
 was constantly presented which the dealer in 
 foreign corn was afraid to encounter. But now, 
 when the price at the shipping ports falls so 
 much, he is encouraged then to purchase corn 
 abroad, which he stores in warehouses at home, 
 for the purpose of foreign trade ; and he has at 
 all times a quantity of foreign corn ready to 
 enter for home consumption, whenever the price 
 reaches the impoilable price : and, as the home 
 growth diminishes (which it necessarily does 
 under the operation of the existing law), the 
 trade of the dealer in foreign corn becomes the 
 more certain and gainful, and the situation of 
 the home grower becomes the more uncertain 
 and hazardous. 
 
 CHAP. III. 
 
 CONSEQUENCES OF RESTRAINING CORN LAWS TO THE 
 HOME GROWER. 
 
 The first consequence of the restraining laws 
 passed since 1815 has been to deprive the home 
 
60 LOSS OF EXPORT. PART III. 
 
 grower of corn of the foreign market, which, 
 jirevious to 1815, it appears from the annexed 
 table, he enjoyed to the extent of one sixth and 
 more of the quantity imported ; a fact confirmed 
 by the Agricultural Committee of 1821.* 
 
 The amount of export in the fifteen years 
 ending in 1800 was very little less than the 
 amount of the export in the thirteen years end- 
 ing in 1785 ; so that it appears, that the export 
 in the fifteen years which followed 1785 had im- 
 proved, and the export in the fifteen years ending 
 in 1815 was very nearly equal to the export in 
 the fifteen preceding years.t Whether the state 
 of our agriculture, therefore, is to be judged of 
 from the continuance of the diminution of the 
 imports of corn, or the prevalence of its exports, 
 both afford unerring evidence of its improvement 
 from 1773 to 1815. The export did not fall off 
 
 * The Agricultural Committee of 1821, state our total 
 imports to have amounted to 30,438,189 quarters, in the 
 forty years ending in 1814; during which forty years, they 
 also state our total exports to have been 5,801,440 quarters. 
 It appears, from the annexed table, that, in the forty-two years 
 ending in 1815, our total imports of corn were 45,404,387 
 quarters ; and our total exports 7,229,937 quarters, which 
 gives nearly the same proportion. 
 
 •j- The export in 1813, in which the Custom House was 
 burnt, could not be given. If to the amount returned one- 
 fourth be added to the exports in the five years ending in 
 1815, the exports in these fifteen years amount to 2,426,807 
 quarters, which brings the amount to within 45,568 quarters 
 of the export of the fifteen years ending in 1800. 
 
CHAP. III. EFFECT UPON HOME INDUSTRY. 6l 
 
 to much in the five years ending in 1820 as is 
 did afterwards ; because the depreciation of our 
 currency, until that year, kept our bullion prices 
 on a par with those on the Continent : but now 
 our export of corn has dwindled to nothing. 
 
 This consequence alone would afford a suf- 
 ficient reason why the present corn laws should 
 be repealed ; because no branch of domestic in- 
 dustry can be in a wholesome state when, by 
 operation of law, its products cannot be ex- 
 ported.* 
 
 * It may not be unprofitable, at the present time, to recur 
 to the consequences which followed the prohibition of the 
 exportation of corn at a remarkable period of our history. 
 In the year 1596, a judicious paper was drawn up by a 
 magistrate of the county of Somerset, preserved by Strype, 
 and adverted to by Hume, in an Appendix to the volume 
 which contains the history of the reign of Elizabeth, in which 
 the author says, that " forty persons had been there executed 
 " in a year for robberies, thefts, and other felonies ; thirty- 
 " five burnt in the hand ; thirty-seven whipped ; one hun- 
 " dred and eighty-three discharged : that those who were 
 " discharged were most wicked and desperate persons, who 
 " never would come to good, because they would not work, 
 " and none would take them into service ; that, notwith- 
 " standing the great number of indictments, the fifth part of 
 " the felonies committed in the county were not brought to 
 " trial : the greater number escaped censure, either from the 
 " superior cunning of the felons, the remissness of the ma- 
 <' gistrates, or the foolish lenity of the people ; that the 
 " rapines committed by the infinite number of wicked, wan- 
 " dering, idle people, were intolerable to the poor country- 
 " men, and obliged them to keep a perpetual watch on their 
 
62 ENCOURAGEMENT OF IMPORTATION. PART III. 
 
 But the laws passed in and since 1815 not 
 only prevent the exportation of com, but en- 
 
 " sheepfolds, their pastures, their woods, aud their com- 
 " fields ; that the other counties in England were in no better 
 " condition than Somersetshire, and many of them even in a 
 " worse ; that there were at least three or four hundred 
 " able-bodied vagabonds in every county who lived by theft 
 " and rapine, and who sometimes met in troops, to the 
 " number of sixty, and committed spoil on the inhabitants; 
 " that if all the felons of this kind were assembled, they 
 " would be able, if reduced to good subjection, to give the 
 " greatest enemy her majesty has a strong battle ; and that 
 " the magistrates themselves were intimidated from exe- 
 " cuting the laws upon them : and there were instances of 
 "justices of the peace who, after giving sentence against 
 " rogues, had interposed to stop the execution of their own 
 " sentence, on account of the danger which hung over them 
 " from the confederates of the felons." 
 
 The exportation of corn had been prohibited by the 
 34 Ed. 3. c. 20., and the 1 & 2 Ph. & M. c. 5., as well as by 
 the 5 Eliz. c. 5. § 26. ; 13 Eliz. c. 13.; and 35 Eliz. c. 7. § 23., 
 to which these consequences are ascribed by Hume. They 
 may serve to account for the numerous acts passed, in the 
 reigns of the Tudors, for the encouragement of tillage, ren- 
 dered unprofitable by the impossibility of exporting its 
 produce ; and for the numerous acts passed in these reigns 
 relative to the poor, deprived of work through the operation 
 of restrictive corn laws, finally made permanent by the 
 43d Eliz. c. 2., generally supposed to have been rendered 
 necessary by the abolition of the monasteries. 
 
 The consequences of the non-export of corn in the time of 
 Queen Elizabeth, from the operation of prohibitory laws, may 
 also serve to account for the burnings of agricultural produce 
 in Normandy, under the operation of restrictive corn laws 
 
CHAP. III. ADVANTAGE TO FOREIGN DEALER. 63 
 
 courage the importation of it, by conferring 
 upon the dealer in foreign corn an advantage, 
 and exposing the home grower of corn to an in- 
 equahty of competition which he cannot sustain. 
 The dealer in foreign corn has always the 
 foreign market open to him, which is shut 
 against the home grower. He can also avail 
 himself always of the home market when he 
 chooses, after the importable price is reached, 
 under circumstances favourable to him and dis- 
 advantageous to the home grower; while the 
 home grower has only his own market to resort 
 to, in which he is interfered with by the dealer 
 in foreign corn, when such interference is most 
 inconvenient and most disastrous to him. There 
 being a deficiency of growth in Great Britain, 
 the dealer in foreign corn is certain that, sooner 
 or later, the price must rise to the importable 
 price, and he will enter his foreign corn for 
 home consumption at the time when he can 
 gain most by a rise in the price, and by saving 
 upon the duty. Moreover, he knows the state 
 
 even worse than our own ; and for the disturbances in our 
 agricultural districts that occurred two years ago,which were 
 ascribed to seditious agitators, as the burnings in Normandy 
 were ascribed to the excitement produced by the Parisian 
 three days of July, 1830; though these burnings happened 
 three months before the events of these three days. 
 
64 OPERATES AS A BAD SEASON. PART III. 
 
 of the market much better than the home grower, 
 whom he can always deprive of a good price, at 
 the time when it is most necessary to him, and 
 when he has counted most upon it. The ad- 
 vantage is thus always on the side of the foreign 
 dealer, and the disadvantage on the part of the 
 home grower, who cannot escape loss under this 
 inequality of competition. 
 
 Every farmer knows, that, in bad seasons, a 
 high price does not compensate for the smaller 
 quantity; and the inferior quality of the grain 
 he can send to market. The attempt made by 
 the Corn Laws to ensure to him a high price in 
 plentiful seasons has deprived him of a high 
 price in bad seasons. It has, moreover, made 
 every season operate as a bad season to him : 
 his crops are becoming every year more scanty, 
 through tlie operation of restraining Corn Laws, 
 which, in place of preventing, progressively in- 
 crease the importation of foreign corn. A high 
 price, in Great Britain, if it were suffered to 
 arise from natural causes, and to operate abroad 
 as it does at home, would always ensure to him 
 a preference in the home market ; but, produced 
 by artificial means, the higher it is raised by such 
 means, it only enables the more distant foreign 
 grower to come into competition with the nearer 
 foreign grower, and all to come into competition 
 
CHAP. IV, CONSEQUENCES OF RESTRAINT. 65 
 
 with the British grower in the home market,* 
 whereby his growth is progressively diminished, 
 while theirs is progressively increased; and all the 
 benefits of an increasing price, arising from the 
 increasing demand of an increasing population, 
 is transferred from the British grower to the 
 dealer in foreign corn. 
 
 CHAP. IV. 
 
 CONSEQUENCES OF THE RESTRAINT TO OWNERS OF LAND, 
 
 Mr. Burke said, the squires of Norfolk must 
 have dined when they attempted to regulate the 
 price of labour. If he had lived until 1815, he 
 would have said the legislators of the United 
 Kingdom must have supped as well as dined, 
 when they attempted to regulate the price of 
 corn. 
 
 The result has been, that, notwithstanding the 
 high price of corn, the rent of land continues to 
 come down.t Rent being the surplus produce 
 
 * The number of places abroad from whence we imported 
 corn in 1823, when the plentiful harvests of 1820 and 1822 
 brought down the price of corn to a natural price (which 
 became the lower in proportion to the previous artificial 
 rise), was only nine! (Pari. Paper, 1832, No. 406.) whereas 
 the number of places abroad, from whence we imported corn 
 in 1830, was twenty-four ! ! (Pari. Paper, 1832, No. 89.) 
 
 f The following account of the average prices of each 
 sort of grain, in each year, from the 5th January 1827, to the 
 
 F 
 
66 
 
 FALL OF RENT. 
 
 PART III. 
 
 which remains after defraying the cost of pro- 
 duction, it necessarily follows, that as the price 
 of corn rises the cost of production is increased, 
 because the price of food enters into the cost of 
 everything,* and as cultivation declines produce 
 diminishes, as has been shown in the three pre- 
 ceding chapters ; so that if the operation of re- 
 straining Corn Laws in this respect be suffered 
 to proceed much longer, there will be no surplus 
 produce in Great Britain ; in other words, there 
 will be no rent, and owners of land must them- 
 selves become the cultivators of the soil, t 
 
 5th of January 1832, both indusive, was laid on the table of 
 the House of Commons on the 16th January, 1832. 
 
 Year ended 
 
 Wheat. 
 
 Barley. 
 
 Oats. 
 
 Rye. 
 
 Beans. 
 
 Peas. 
 
 
 «. 
 
 d. 
 
 s. d. 
 
 s. d. 
 
 s. d. 
 
 s. d. 
 
 s. d. 
 
 5th Jan. 1828 
 
 56 
 
 9 
 
 36 6 
 
 27 4 
 
 39 
 
 47 7 
 
 47 7 
 
 — 1829 
 
 60 
 
 5 
 
 32 10 
 
 22 6 
 
 34 2 
 
 38 4 
 
 40 6 
 
 — 1830 
 
 66 
 
 3 
 
 32 6 
 
 22 9 
 
 34 10 
 
 36 8 
 
 36 8 
 
 — 1831 
 
 64 
 
 3 
 
 32 7 
 
 24 5 
 
 35 10 
 
 36 1 
 
 39 2 
 
 — 1832 
 
 66 
 
 4| 
 
 38 
 
 25 4 
 
 40 
 
 39 10 
 
 41 11 
 
 * The operation of the Poor Laws powerfully assists the 
 operation of the Corn Laws in increasing the cost of pro- 
 duction. See p. 95. 
 
 -j- Tithe having existed equally before 1815 as since, does 
 not fall within the scope of this enquiry. But tithe pre- 
 senting a practical hinderance to the improvement of land, it 
 is impossible not to say that it would be desirable to have it 
 removed. It is capable of being removed in such way as to 
 keep the right in the same relative position with respect to 
 the exchangeable value of pi-oduce in which it is at present ; 
 and, when so removed, the tithe receiver will be a gainer, and 
 not a loser. 
 
 % Every thing being relative, the sum of 66s. 4:d. per 
 
CHAP. V. CONSEQUENCES OF RESTRAINT. 67 
 
 It is by the increase of produce alone that 
 rents can be raised, and by preventing its di- 
 minution, alone can they be maintained. Now, 
 the necessary operation of the present Corn 
 Laws being to diminish the gross produce, it 
 requires no ghost to tell us that, in proportion as 
 the gross produce diminishes, so must the sur- 
 plus produce, unless the cost of production be 
 diminished ; but the necessary operation of re- 
 straining Corn Laws being also to increase the 
 cost of production, our legislators, in passing 
 such laws (to make use of a vulgar but forcible 
 expression), have lit the candle at both ends. 
 
 CHAP. V. 
 
 CONSEQUENCES OF THE RESTRAINT UPON AGRI- 
 CULTURAL LABOURERS. 
 
 The average import, deducting exports, in the 
 five years ending in 1815, was less than 1,000,000 
 quarters per annum. In the five years ending 
 in 1830 there were no exports to deduct, and 
 the average import was nearly 4,500,000 quarters 
 per annum. 
 
 The ratio of the increase of the population 
 
 quarter for wheat, in 1831, was as much as 132*. would have 
 been in 1815, having regard to tlie rise which has since 
 taken place in the exchangeable value of money. 
 
 F 2 
 
68 CONSEQUENCES OF RESTRAINT. PART III 
 
 in the five years ending in 1815, throughout 
 which the home growth of corn improved nearly 
 2,000,000 quarters, was just as great as the ratio of 
 the increase of the population in the fifteen years 
 ending in 1830, during which the home growth 
 of corn fell off upwards of 20,000,000 quarters. 
 It therefore follows, that Great Britain has ceased 
 to grow at the rate of about 3,500,000 quarters 
 of corn per annum, which were raised there 
 previous to 1815. 
 
 The number of labourers required to raise this 
 quantity have consequently been deprived of 
 employment, and thrown for subsistence upon the 
 poor-rate; which, in 1815, was only 5,072,028/.*, 
 but, in 1830, it was 6,829,042/.; so that there 
 was an increase in the rate, at the end of these 
 fifteen years, of 1,737,014/. per annum, whereas 
 there ought to have been a decrease to nearly 
 that amount, seeing the exchangeable value of 
 money in these fifteen years had nearly doubled. 
 
 If this operation of the existing laws be not 
 removed, more agricultural labourers must con- 
 tinue to be thrown out of employment, as must 
 have happened in the last year (1831), in which, 
 
 * This amount is taken from the Report of the Committee 
 upon the Poor Laws in 1817. More complete returns show 
 that the sum expended on the poor in 1815 was 5,418,84'5/. 
 But the same returns also show, that there were expended 
 in the relief of the poor in 1818-19 no less than 7,531,650/., 
 as will be afterwards noticed in considering the operation of 
 the Poor Laws as restraints upon industry. 
 
CHAP. VI. FLUCTUATION OF PRICES. 69 
 
 as already shown, the import of foreign corn has 
 been upwards of 1,000,000 quarters above the 
 import of the preceding year. 
 
 CHAP. VI. 
 
 INCREASE OF FLUCTUATION OF PRICES. 
 
 The Agricultural Committee of 1821 ob- 
 serve, " When your Committee find, in the 
 *' seventeen months which passed between Jan- 
 " uary 1816 and June 1817, the price of wheat 
 " varying from 53s. Id. to ll^s. 7^- ; and again, 
 *' in the three months which ensued, from June 
 " to September, 1817, from 112.9. to 74^. ; they 
 '* cannot but ask whether fluctuations so rapid 
 " and extensive have existed in any other com- 
 *' modity of universal supply and demand, or in 
 " any other country ? and whether these fluc- 
 *' tuations may nOt have been aggravated by 
 *' some of the effects of the present law." 
 
 Such fluctuations were not found to exist in 
 any other country, either under the law of 1815, 
 which prevailed when these questions were sug- 
 gested, or under the law of 1822, passed upon 
 the report of that committee. But they have 
 been extended to other countries, through the 
 operation of the existing law, which received the 
 royal assent on the 15th July, 1828. 
 
 F 3 
 
70 FLUCTUATION OF PRICES. PART III. 
 
 The price of wheat m England, throughout the 
 month of January 1828, did not exceed 51*. Sd. 
 per quarter, when it was Q3s. 4c?. at Dantzic. 
 The highest price in the month in which the act 
 passed was only 51*. 8d. per quarter, when it 
 was Q5s. 4^d. at Dantzic ; but it rose in the last 
 week of the month of October in that year to 
 76*. in England, when it ranged at Dantzic from 
 51*. 7d. to 71.9. 6d. ; while, in the preceding 
 w^eek of the same month, when wheat had 
 reached '75s. lOd. in England, it ranged from 
 54*. Jd. to 74*. 5d. Sit Dantzic* In the first 
 week of January 1829, the price of wheat in 
 England was 72*. lOd.^ when it ranged from 
 50*. 7d' to 70*- 7d. at Dantzic ; and, in the last 
 week of September of that year, it fell to 58*. 4d, 
 in England, and to between 30*. 9d. and 48*. 8d. 
 at Dantzic.t 
 
 Since the passing of our law of 1828, our 
 fluctuations appear to have reached other places 
 besides Dantzic, which were not previously 
 affected by them. Thus, in January 1828, when 
 wheat was 40*. 3d. at Leghorn, it was 69*. Sd. 
 at Marseilles, 53s. Id. at Alicant, and 63s. at 
 Lisbon t. In January 1829, wheat w^as at from 
 55s. 5d. to 63*. at Leghorn ; from 60*. Id. to 
 67*. 6d' at MarseiUes ; from 37*. 8^. to 42*. Id. 
 
 * Consul's Return, 1829. f Ibid., 1830. % Ibid., 1829. 
 
CHAP. VI. FLUCTUATION IN OTHER COUNTRIES. Jl 
 
 at Cadiz ; and from 66s. 2d. to 83*. 5d. at 
 Lisbon.* 
 
 Similar consequences have attended the Corn 
 Law of France, which is worse than our own in 
 this respect, tliat France has divided her king- 
 dom into four parts, and no one part is allowed 
 to trade with another in the article of corn, until 
 the price shall have reached in each a certain 
 amount. Thus, in July 1829, when the price of 
 wheat was from 48.S-. 8d. to 65s. 8d. per Enghsh 
 quarter at Caen ; it was from 52s. 6d. to 56s. 4<d. 
 at Brest ; from 46*. lid. to 53s. at Nantes ; from 
 47*. 4</. to 50*. 5d. at Charente ; and from 44*. 9d. 
 to 51*. 6d. at Bordeaux.! 
 
 There ever must be fluctuations occasioned by 
 the seasons in the price of corn ; but, to the fluc- 
 tuations produced by the seasons, we have added, 
 as France has done, the fluctuations produced 
 by restraining Corn Laws ; and it appears that our 
 present law, aided no doubt by that of France, 
 has increased the frequency and extent of fluc- 
 tuations at other places as well as at home. 
 
 This consequence produces a consideration of 
 great importance with reference to our manu- 
 factures. Our Corn Laws being found to produce 
 in other countries effects similar to those pro- 
 duced at home, the growth of corn is rendered 
 
 * Consul's Return, 1830. f Ibid., 1830. 
 
 F 4 
 
72^ CONSEQUENCES. FART III. 
 
 hazardous in corn growing countries from whence 
 we can obtain a supply ; and thus industry there, 
 as here, may be expected to desert the cultivation 
 of the soil, and apply itself to manufactures, 
 which are thus made there, as here, to bring a 
 more sure, and always do bring a more speedy, 
 return ; whereas, if we allowed the great demand 
 of our manufacturing population for food, to 
 bring up the price in countries from whence we 
 can derive a supply, to a price commensurate to 
 the price here, we should thus make the number 
 of our manufacturing population, which increase 
 the demand for food, the means of preserving our 
 manufacturing superiority, by inducing those 
 countries to continue to apply themselves to the 
 raising of com, in order to supply that demand. 
 
 CHAP. VII. 
 
 INJUSTICE AS WELL AS IMPOLICY OF THE CORN LAWS, 
 
 If the object of these laws was to promote the 
 home growth of corn, they have not merely 
 failed, they have produced the reverse of their 
 purpose. 
 
 But could the object be attained, without bene- 
 fiting the growers at the expense of the con- 
 sumers of corn ? 
 
CHAP. VII. INJUSTICE OF THE CORN LAWS. JS 
 
 And who are the consumers ? Are they not 
 the growers of corn themselves, as well as the 
 rest of the community ? 
 
 And how few are the owners and occupiers of 
 land, compared to the labourers ? And is not the 
 high price of food the heaviest burden which 
 can fall upon the labourers ? 
 
 But it has been said that it is necessary to keep 
 up high prices, in order to enable the tax-payers 
 to pay high taxes. 
 
 But can high prices be kept up ? and what is 
 the consequence of a high price in corn, when the 
 price of every thing else is falling ? Does not 
 the high price of corn then become the heaviest 
 of all taxes ? and can the tax-payers be the better 
 enabled to pay taxes, by having a larger share of 
 taxes to pay ? Are there any taxes paid by the 
 growers of corn, w^hich are not paid by the rest 
 of the community ? and are not any means which 
 keep up the price of corn, by reason of taxes, 
 an attempt to relieve from taxes the growers of 
 corn to the extent of the price so raised, and 
 to increase the burdens of the rest of the com- 
 munity in the same proportion ? 
 
 Are not such means, in principle, the same 
 with an immunity from taxes enjoyed by a 
 favoured class, which was a main ingredient in 
 the first revolution in France, and has reduced 
 Spain and Portugal, from having been two of the 
 
741 INJUSTICE OF THE CORN LAWS. PART III. 
 
 finest, to two of the most beggarly, kingdoms in 
 Europe ? 
 
 The country has not yet arrived at the state 
 in which England was in the latter part of the 
 reign of Queen Elizabeth, through the operation 
 of laws which then, as now, prevented the ex- 
 portation of corn ; but we had indications of 
 similar consequences in the agricultural districts, 
 which prevailed two years ago. And can we 
 believe, that, if we do not remove the cause, such 
 disturbances will not break forth again with re- 
 doubled violence ? 
 
 But have we not poaching attended with out- 
 rage ; and do not these practices proceed from 
 the want of employment, occasioned by the 
 operation of the Corn Laws? 
 
 We have not yet the distress and poverty, in 
 our country districts, that are found in Spain and 
 Portugal. But if we maintain a principle which 
 has destroyed industry in these countries, can 
 we believe that it will not produce similar con- 
 sequences here ? Does any one imagine that 
 even the freedom of our institutions will save us 
 from this consequence ? And, if industry shall 
 continue thus to be fettered in the first and 
 greatest of all its branches, are we sure that even 
 those free institutions will protect us from the 
 horrors of a Revolution, which has distorted and 
 distracted France ? 
 
CHAP. VIII. REMEDY. 7^ 
 
 CHAP. VIII. 
 
 KEMEDY. 
 
 It is evident that the operation of the Corn 
 Laws ought to be restored which prevailed pre- 
 vious to 1815 ; and it is material to leave no 
 doubt as to what that operation was. 
 
 Importable prices were fixed in the three 
 Corn Laws which were passed previous to 1815; 
 but the importable prices fixed were so very low, 
 that they soon ceased to have any operation 
 whatever. 
 
 The importation duties also were so very low, 
 that they also had very little effect. 
 
 A high bounty upon exportation was, no doubt, 
 granted by these acts of Parliament, but it 
 ceased to have any operation after 1805, and had 
 very little for some years before that year ; but 
 after 1805, as before it (with the exception of 
 the years of scarcity), the home growth of corn 
 continued to improve, from the year 177^ to the 
 year 1815. 
 
 In Great Britain there is only one third of the 
 whole population employed in agriculture. This 
 is a much smaller proportion than exists in any 
 
76 DEMAND FOR FOOD. PART III. 
 
 other country * ; and it is the great and increas- 
 ing demand of our manufacturing population for 
 food that raises the price of corn in Great Bri- 
 tain, and would raise it, if we would allow it, in 
 all countries from whence we can obtain a supply, 
 equally high as it is here, with the difference 
 only of the expense of bringing it here. 
 
 It was this great demand for food, operating 
 abroad as it did at home, which, by raising the 
 price there as it did here, lessened the import- 
 ation of grain from abroad, and encouraged the 
 grower of corn at home previous to 1815. If 
 our landed proprietors and our finance minister 
 could be so persuaded, the most advantageous 
 measure that could be adopted for the home 
 grower of corn and the country at large, would 
 be to have no Corn Law at all. But a contrary 
 impression is so deeply rooted among landed 
 proprietors, that they will not consent to give 
 up what they conceive to afford them what they 
 call protection ; and the state of the public 
 
 * In the countries from whence Great Britain derives her 
 chief supply of foreign grain, nearly the whole population 
 are employed in agriculture ; so that for one man, perhaps, 
 required to raise a quarter of grain in Great Britain, ten men 
 are made use of in these countries ; a circumstance never 
 taken into account in estimating the comparative cost of 
 production as between this country and another, which is 
 withal an enquiry of all others the most uncertain and the 
 most useless. 
 
CHAP. VIII. NO IMPORTABLE PRICE. 77 
 
 revenue is such that the Chancellor of the Ex- 
 chequer will not venture to relinquish the in- 
 come derived to the state from a duty on 
 foreign corn. 
 
 The object, then, must be so to levy a duty as 
 not to prevent the great demand of our increasing 
 population for food from operating abroad as it 
 does at home, and so also as to put the growth 
 of corn in Great Britain, as nearly as may be, in 
 the situation in which it would be if no tax 
 were imposed upon imported corn. 
 
 For this pui*pose, there must be a fixed duty^ 
 but no importable price, because an importable 
 price not only prevents our great demand from 
 operating freely and equally at all times, abroad 
 and at home, but increases the frequency and 
 amount of fluctuations. 
 
 A duty upon the importation of foreign corn 
 will, however, operate mischievously, and afford 
 no relief to the home grower, unless a di'awback, 
 commensurate to the duty be allowed upon the 
 exportation of home grown corn, as well as 
 foreign corn, upon which the duty may have 
 been paid ; because the price abroad will, other- 
 wise, be always so much less than the price at 
 home, not only by all the difference of bringing 
 foreign corn to this country, but to all the 
 amount of the duty also ; and the British grower 
 
78 FIXED DUTY AND DRAWBACK. PART III. 
 
 will thus be unable to export his surplus 
 produce.* 
 
 As our home growth is not equal to our con- 
 sumption t, it may be supposed that we have no 
 
 * It is remarked, by the author of the "Wealth of Nations," 
 that " a rise in the money price of commodities, when pecu- 
 " liar to a country, tends to discourage more or less every 
 *' department of industry carried on within it, enabling other 
 *' nations to undersell it, not only in the foreign, but the 
 " home market." If this remark holds good in the case of all 
 commodities, it is not less true in the case of any one com- 
 modity. By the operation of our Corn Laws, we raise the 
 money-price of corn in Great Britain above the money-price 
 in other countries, by preventing our great demand from 
 producing the same effect abroad that it does at home. 
 We thus make a rise in the money-price of corn peculiar to 
 Great Britain, and thereby discourage this branch of industry ; 
 whereas if we did not prevent our great demand from raising 
 the money-price in other countries reached by that demand, 
 the consequence would be that the price of corn would not 
 be much lowered here, but would be greatly raised in such 
 countries ; and, by suffering our great demand so to operate, 
 we should cease to render a rise in the money-price of corn 
 peculiar to Great Britain, which tends to discourage our own 
 agriculture. But in proportion as we raise the price of corn 
 in Great Britain, by a tax upon the importation of foreign 
 corn, we shall render a rise in the money-price of corn still 
 peculiar to Great Britain, unless we allow a drawback com- 
 mensurate to the duty upon the export of home grown corn. 
 
 ■f It was stated by the Agricultural Committee of 1821, 
 that our consumption in horse corn alone then amounted 
 to 30,000,000 quarters yearly ; and there having been 
 then a tax upon horses used in husbandry as well as for 
 pleasure, they had the means of estimating it. In meat and 
 drink, each individual of the population is computed to con- 
 
CHAP. VIII. EXPORT OF SURPLUS PRODUCE. 79 
 
 occasion to export. But, from 1773 until 1815, 
 when our home growth kept pace with the in- 
 crease of the population, we always had a de- 
 ficiency, and yet we exported. The reason is, 
 that though there is a deficiency in the total 
 growth, there is always a surplus of some par- 
 ticidar grain ; and, moreover, we require, and 
 therefore import, grain of one quality and export 
 it of another. The necessity of export will 
 further be manifest, when we advert that, if Great 
 Britain and Ireland can gi'ow grain enough, or 
 nearly enough, for the consumption of the popu- 
 lation of Great Britain in middling years, they 
 must grow a great deal too much in very abundant 
 seasons. The diminution of the importations con- 
 sequent upon the abundance of the seasons of 1820 
 and 1822 may satisfy every reflecting person that 
 we have only to grow enough of grain to prevent 
 the importation of it ; but, to be enabled to grow 
 enough, we must be enabled to export our sur- 
 plus produce. We should export it if there were 
 
 sunie at the rate of two quarters of corn of all sorts in 
 the year. This would give us a consumption of about 
 60,000,000 of quarters of corn per annum. There being 
 27,000,000 of acres used in cultivation in England, besides 
 about 6,000,000 of acres uncultivated, this extent of surface, 
 if duly cultivated, with the arable land of Scotland, should 
 be sufficient to produce even this large quantity, of which 
 Great Britain imported, in 1815, less than a sixtieth part, 
 but now imports nearly a twelfth part. 
 
80 EXPORT OF SURPLUS PRODUCE. PART III. 
 
 no law upon the subject, and we must not be pre- 
 vented from exporting it by the operation of any 
 law we make. As already stated, we imported, in 
 1 823, only 53,641 quarters of foreign grain. Every 
 one remembers the ruinously low prices of corn 
 in that and the two j^receding years. But if we 
 had then been enabled to export grain, prices 
 would not have fallen so low. Wheat was as 
 high as 98*. M. in 1818, when we imported 
 3,522,729 quarters of foreign grain *, and it fell 
 only to 77*"« ^d. in 1819, when our foreign im- 
 portation was 1,707,522 quarters. Prices in 1821, 
 1822, and 1823 thus fell proportionally lower, 
 and were felt more severely in proportion to the 
 high price in these two years. 
 
 In order to enable the home grower to export 
 his surplus produce, and in order to prevent such 
 fluctuations, it is absolutely necessary that there 
 should be a drawback commensurate to the 
 import-duty. I say commensurate, because, as 
 the effect of a duty upon importation is to bring 
 in the best grain, so the effect of a drawback is 
 to send out the worst. The drawback, therefore, 
 should be as much less than the duty as may be 
 sufficient to compensate the difference of tlie 
 quality of the grain. 
 
 The rise or fall in the exchangeable value of 
 money being uncertain, and its amount incapable 
 
 * Appendix to Agricultural Report of 1821, p. 392. 
 
CHAP. VIII. PLAN SUGGESTED. 81 
 
 of estimation, I should wish to see an ad valorem 
 duty imposed upon importation. In settUng 
 the amount, regard should be had to the average 
 difference of price at Dantzic and in Great 
 Britain, in the forty years preceding 1815, when 
 our demand for corn was allowed to operate 
 freely abroad as it did at horn This I find to 
 have been 12^. per quarter, on wheat, ac- 
 cording to the exchangeable value of money 
 throughout these forty years ; during thirty-five 
 of which, money continued to fall in exchange- 
 able value. If, therefore, the value of a quarter 
 of grain be taken out of every quarter imported, 
 this, with the expense of bringing foreign corn 
 to this country, will be as much as a due regard 
 to the interests of the grower of corn and of the 
 Exchequer on the one hand, and the interests of 
 the consumers on the other, will warrant. 
 
 Such a measure may be easily accomplished, ^ 
 by providing that corn shall always be importable 
 on payment of an eighth part of its value, ac- 
 cording to the highest price of the kind of grain ( 
 imported in the London market in the week 
 immediately preceding the importation ; and by 
 providing that grain shall be always exportable, 
 and shall entitle the exporter to a twelfth part of 
 the value, according to the highest price of such 
 kind of grain in the London market in the week 
 immediately preceding the exportation. / 
 
82 AD VALOREM DUTY. PART lii. 
 
 Such a duty and drawback will apply equally 
 to all sorts of grain, and will continue to operate 
 equally at all times, whether money rises or falls 
 in exchangeable value, or whether grain rises or 
 falls in price, and will enable us to get rid of the 
 machinery of averages, and all machinery what- 
 ever. The highest price in the London market 
 can always be easily ascertained ; and, as the price 
 is always highest there, so it is fit the duty and 
 drawback should be according to that price ; 
 because, as akeady said, the effect of a duty on 
 importation is to bring in the best grain. 
 
 But if a fixed money-duty shall be deemed 
 more advisable, then regard must be had to the 
 different sorts of grain in fixing the duty, and a 
 drawback must be apportioned to each. In the 
 case of wheat, I should say that a duty of 8s. per 
 quarter will be quite sufficient, with a drawback of 
 6s. per quarter ; and the duties and drawbacks 
 on other grain should be fixed according to a 
 similar proportion. 
 
 The Chancellor of the Exchequer need be 
 under no apprehension of having a large draw- 
 back to pay. During forty years of a virtually 
 free trade in com, when the bounty was fre- 
 quently ten times the amount of the duty, the 
 exportation was equal only to about one-sixth 
 part of the quantity imported ; and, after 1805, 
 the di'awback dwindled to nothing. 
 
CHAP. VIII. OBJECTIONS OBVIATED. od 
 
 It perhaps may be objected to an ad valoi'emy 
 or a fixed duty, upon the importation of foreign 
 corn, that it adds to the price in seasons of 
 scarcity, when it would be desirable to lower it. 
 But seeing the restrained system which has pre- 
 vailed since 1815 has been to diminish the home 
 growth of corn to nearly 4,500,000 quarters 
 per annum, upon the average, of the five years 
 ending in 1830, and this diminution has been 
 progressive, and increased last year ; and seeing, 
 also, that, to our great and increasing demand for 
 corn, is to be added the great and increasing de- 
 mand for corn in France, proceeding from a Corn 
 Law worse than our own, it is obvious that the 
 growing increase of demand abroad, arising from 
 the decreasing supply at home, here and in France, 
 must have the effect of raising the price in other 
 grain growing countries in years of scarcity, in 
 proportion as the deficiency is increased by the 
 severity of the season, to an extent much beyond 
 the operation of a steady and not excessive ad 
 valorem or fixed duty, which, operating equally 
 at all times, the consumer, in years of scarcity, 
 will share with the grower of com the con- 
 sequences of a bad harvest. He would share 
 them if there were no Corn Law at all ; and no 
 Corn Law should alter, or attempt to alter, the 
 natural course of things. 
 
 G 2 
 
84 
 
 PART IV. 
 
 POOR LAWS' RESTRAINTS. 
 
 CHAP. I. 
 
 MONEY EXPENDED FOR THE RELIEF OF THE POOR. 
 
 In the year 1815, returns relative to the ex- 
 pense and maintenance of the poor in England 
 were ordered to be made to the House of Com- 
 mons.* Such returns have continued to be made 
 every year since. The House was in possession 
 of some previous returns, which, with these re- 
 turns, were referred to a select committee in the 
 year 1821 ; and a committee upon these returns 
 was appointed in each of the four following 
 years ; but no such committee has been ap- 
 pointed since 1826, possibly because these com- 
 mittees found themselves unable to make any 
 useful suggestions with respect to them. 
 
 The amounts, as given in the appendix to the 
 
 * 55 G. 3. c. 47. 
 
CHAP. I. MONEY FOR RELIEF OF THE POOR. 85 
 
 report of 1826, are annexed, with the amounts 
 returned in subsequent years. 
 
 Sums expended in the Relief of the Poor. 
 
 Average of 1748-49-50 - - 689,971 
 
 1776 - - - 1,521,732 
 
 1783-4-5 - - 1,912,241 
 
 1803 - - - 4,077,891 
 
 1812-13 - - 6,656,105 
 
 1813-14 - - - 6,294,584 
 
 1814-15 - - 5,418,845 
 
 1815-16 - - - 5,724,506 
 
 1816-17 - - 6,918,217 
 
 1817-18 - - - 7,890,148 
 
 1818-19 - - 7,531,650 
 
 1819-20 - - - 7,329,594 
 
 1820-21 - - 6,958,445 
 
 1821-22 - - - 6,358,703 
 
 1822-23 - - 5,772,958 
 
 1823-24 - - - 5,736,898 
 
 1824-25 - - 5,786,991 
 
 1825-26 - - - 5,928,501 
 
 1826-27 - - 6,441,088 
 
 1827-28 - - - 6,298,000 
 
 1828-29 - - 6,829,042 
 
 1829-30 - - - 6,798,888 
 
 The committees appointed upon these returns, 
 in 1826 and preceding years, remarked the in- 
 crease and decrease of different years of which 
 they gave averages, and the great amount in 
 1803, compared to the amounts in 1750, 1776, 
 and 1785 ; but they did not offer any explana- 
 tion how such differences had arisen, or how the 
 great amount in 1803 was to be accounted for. 
 
 G 3 
 
86 CAUSES OF INCREASE AND PART IV. 
 
 CHAP. II. 
 
 CAUSES OF INCREASE AND VARIATIONS IN THE 
 AMOUNT OF THE POOR's RATE. 
 
 The Rev. Henry Duncan, a clergyman of the 
 Church of Scotland, who was examined before 
 the Committee on the Poor Laws of the House 
 of Commons, in 1819, gives this reason for 
 the increase of parochial assessments in Scot- 
 land, which applies with equal force to England. 
 Speaking with reference to Scotland, he says, — 
 " Years of scarcity and embarrassment have had 
 *' a very distressing tendency in that respect : " 
 and he states how they operate : — " In years of 
 " scarcity the landed proprietors meet for the 
 *' purpose of affording relief to the poor; when, 
 " on other occasions, they have not been ac- 
 *' customed to meet. They afford such relief, 
 *' in general, by a voluntary assessment ; and 
 *' this voluntary assessment teaches the poor to 
 •' look up to a mode of supplying their wants 
 *' which they had not been accustomed to." He 
 gives this instance: — "A poor labourer in a 
 *' neighbouring parish apphed to me about two 
 " years ago (previous to 1819), requesting that 
 " I would inform him of the best method of 
 
CHAP. II. VARIATIONS IN THE POOR's RATE. 87 
 
 ' compelling the heritors to assess themselves 
 ' for the relief of the indigent. He told me 
 ' that the poor in his parish had been receiving 
 
 * relief from a voluntary assessment ; but he un- 
 
 * derstood that this was to last only for one 
 ' year ; and there was a deputation of the poor 
 
 * of that parish, who were to come to my house 
 ' in a day or two, for the pui-pose of enquiring 
 ' into the law on the subject, that they might 
 ' compel the heritors to continue their assess- 
 ' ment." Mr. Duncan's answer was, — " I con- 
 
 * ceived poor-rates had a very injurious tendency, 
 ' and I certainly would not assist him in any 
 ' method that might serve to introduce them." 
 
 He adds, — " What I said to him had the effect 
 of preventing the deputation from waiting 
 upon me, for I heard no more of it." The 
 observation which Mr. Duncan makes upon the 
 occurrence is, — "I am persuaded that this 
 " would not have happened at any time before 
 " the years of distress : and it was to me a very 
 " melancholy proof of the demoralising influence 
 " even of voluntary assessments." 
 
 If such was the effect of voluntary assessments 
 in Scotland, which are temporary, need we be 
 surprised at the result of compulsory assessments 
 in England, which are permanent. 
 
 But, availing ourselves of the clue given to 
 G 4 
 
88 CAUSES OF INCREASE AND PART IV. 
 
 US by this intelligent observer, let us see how it 
 applies to the case in hand. 
 
 The bounty on corn was granted in 1689*, in 
 consequence of the abundance of produce, as 
 " a reward to persons exporting corn." The 
 price of middling wheat at this period, accord- 
 ing to an average of five years, was 286'. 9^- per 
 quarter. The seasons in 1690 and 1691 were 
 so favourable, as to reduce the price to 26s. 
 A bad season ensued in 1692 ; and bad seasons 
 followed until 1702 ; when a plentiful harvest 
 brought down the price, which had risen, in the 
 intermediate period, to 56s. per quarter, below 
 its amount in 1691. It w^as even so low as 
 25*. lid., upon an average of six years ending 
 in 1707. With the exception of three unfavour- 
 able seasons which followed, and brought up the 
 price to 62.9. in 1709, which fell only to 61 s. Jd. 
 in 1710, the seasons continued favourable until 
 1749 ; when, upon an average of five years, the 
 price of middling wheat in England was only 
 27 s. 9d. per quarter. 
 
 This brings us to the year 17-50, when, upon 
 an average of three years, the sum expended in 
 the relief of the poor in England amounted 
 only to 689,971^- per annum. 
 
 We now come to a period of a different de- 
 
 * 1 W.&M. c. 11. 
 
CHAP. II. VARIATIONS IN THE POOR's RATE. 89 
 
 scription. The author of the Corn Tracts, who 
 is frequently quoted by Dr. Adam Smith, says 
 the seasons from 1752 to 1755 were of doubtful 
 produce ; and the harvest of 1756 was greatly 
 deficient in this country and throughout Europe, 
 insomuch that the sufferings of the poor in that 
 year were adverted to in a speech from the 
 throne ; and there was a succession of bad sea- 
 sons for ten years after I765.* 
 
 Circumstances arose in the execution of the 
 Poor Laws, which mainly increased the operation 
 
 * In the account given of the seasons, I have followed 
 Mr. George Chalmers, Dr. Adam Smith, and Mr. Tooke. 
 
 The reason why Adam Smith entertained so strong an 
 opinion against the Corn Laws which prevailed in his time 
 thus appears : — though 485. per quarter, the importable price 
 fixed for wheat in 1772, became a low price from the fall 
 which continued to take place in the value of money, yet it 
 must have appeared to him a high price, having regard to the 
 prices which prevailed for so long a period previous to the 
 year 1750, when wheat was only 28^. per quarter. Dr. Smith 
 also conceived that money had begun to rise in value in his 
 time ; but the produce from the mines, which he states to have 
 been about 6,000,000/. sterling when he wrote in 1775, soon 
 amounted to nearly twice that sum ; which induced the con- 
 tinuance and increase of the fall in the value of money. Under 
 a contrary impression, however, and believing 48*. the quarter 
 to be by much too high a price, it appeared to him that the 
 Corn Laws of his time would operate as a restraint upon in- 
 dustry ; and if the value of money had not so fallen as to 
 make 48s. the quarter cease to operate as an importable price, 
 these laws would have operated such restraint, as the laws 
 passed since 1815 have done. 
 
90 CAUSES OF INCREASE AND PART IV. 
 
 of the seasons in increasing the rates. The 
 manner in which such circumstances, as described 
 by the Rev. Mr. Duncan (to whose evidence 
 I have already referred), appear to have arisen 
 in Scotland, serves to show (though he was not 
 aware of it) how these circumstances operated 
 in England. He says, — " The particular cir- 
 
 * cumstance which led to the establishment of 
 ' the poor-rates in two parishes within the pres- 
 ' bytery to which I belong, viz. the parishes of 
 ' Middlebie and Kirkpatrick Fleming, was the 
 ' interference of the sheriff when the Kirk session 
 ' refused relief. In the parish of Middlebie, a 
 ' farmer, who was much given to litigation, 
 
 ' took an interest in a poor man who lived on 
 ' his farm, and he endeavoured to obtain for 
 ' him a certain weekly allowance from the ses- 
 ' sion. The session offered to give to this man 
 
 * such relief as they gave to others ; this, how- 
 ' ever, did not satisfy the farmer, and he ap- 
 ' pealed to the sheriff, who listened to his 
 ' complaint, and ordered an allowance very con- 
 ' siderably above what the session had been 
 ' accustomed to grant to persons in similar cir- 
 ' cumstances." The slieriff of the county of 
 
 Dumfries, in Scotland, here assumed a power of 
 abuse similar to that which was granted by the 
 43 Eliz. to a single magistrate in England. 
 
 This abuse in England, with the severity of 
 
CHAP. II. VARIATIONS IN THE POOR*S RATE. 91 
 
 the seasons which prevailed for ten years pre- 
 vious to 1776, may account for the great in- 
 crease in the poor-rates which took place in that 
 year, which was 831,761/. above the amount in 
 I75O ; being an increase, in fifteen years, gi'eater 
 than the whole amount that had arisen in the 
 century and a half which had intervened be- 
 tween the 43 Eliz. and the year 1750. 
 
 The seasons from I776 to 1785 were good, 
 and prices moderate*, which may serve to ac- 
 count for the little increase in the nine years 
 ending in that year, being only 391,509/. above 
 the amount in I776. 
 
 The seasons, from 1794-5 to 1 801-2 1 were 
 the worst ever known in living memory ; and an 
 occurrence arose at this period, which extended 
 the abuses of the Poor Laws. The magistrates 
 of Berkshire met at Speenhamland, and, in their 
 wisdom, drew up a table, apportioning the relief 
 to be granted to a poor man according to the 
 price of the peck loaf of wheat, and the number 
 of his children. This notable table, which is 
 adverted to by Sir Frederick Eden, was circulated 
 all over England ; and, unfortunately, was acted 
 
 * According to the Eton Tables, wheat, at Michaelmas 
 1776, was 6s. per bushel ; at Michaelmas ] 779, it was only 5s. ; 
 and at Michaelmas 1785, it was no more than 6s. 6d. 
 
 + According to the same tables, wheat, at Michaelmas 
 1795, was \\s. 6d. per bushel; at Michaelmas 1800, \6s. ; and 
 at Lady Day 1801, as high as 225. \^d. per bushel. 
 
92 CAUSES OF INCREASE AND PART IV. 
 
 upon, more or less, in all the southern counties. 
 The Rev. Mr. Becher, who was examined be- 
 fore the Lords' Committee on the Poor Laws, in 
 1831, recollects this table reaching the county 
 of Nottingham in 1795, and mentions the con- 
 sequences which followed from it. 
 
 The increase of abuses in the administration 
 of the Poor Laws thence arising will account for 
 the great amount of the rate in 1803, showing an 
 increase of no less than 2,165,750/. in eighteen 
 years. 
 
 It is unfortunate that no returns have been 
 made for any year between 1785 and 1795. 
 The seasons, down to 1794, were good ; the 
 prices of corn moderate* ; and it is therefore 
 probable that the great proportion of increase 
 was after 1795. 
 
 It is not less unfortunate that no returns have 
 been made for any year between 1803 and 1813. 
 The six years ending in 1812 were all bad sea- 
 sons, and prices were high.t This may account 
 
 * According to the Eton Tables, the price of wheat, at 
 Lady Day 1786, was only 5s. lO^d. per bushel; and the 
 highest price, before 1795, was at Lady Day 1790, when it 
 was 85. 3d. per bushel. 
 
 •j- According to the Eton Tables, the price of wheat, at 
 Michaelmas 1803, was only 7^. 6d. per bushel; but, at Mi- 
 chaelmas 1808, it was 12s.; at Michaelmas 1809, 145.; at 
 Michaelmas 1810, 13s. ; at Michaelmas 1811, 14s., and at 
 Michaelmas 1812, 15s.; and at Lady Day in that year, it 
 was as high as 17s. per bushel. 
 
CHAP. II. VARIATIONS IN THE POOR's RATE. 93 
 
 for the increase of the rate between 1803 and 
 1813, being no less than 2,578,214/. in ten 
 years. 
 
 There was a decrease, however, next year, of 
 361,521/. ; and in the following year, of 875,739- ; 
 forming a diminution of 1,237,260/. in two years. 
 The harvest of 1813 was one of undoubted abun- 
 dance* ; but the crop of 1814 was otherwise.t 
 To the diminution of the rates in 1813 and 1814, 
 occasioned by the abundance of the season of 
 1813, must be added the rise in the exchange- 
 able value of money, which began in 1811, and 
 increased the cheapness produced by abundance. 
 
 Though the season of 1815 was good, yet the 
 effect of the Corn Law passed in that year be- 
 gan to operate ; and the rate increased next year 
 368,661/. over the amount in the preceding year. 
 
 This increase continued until 1818-19, in 
 which year the rate had increased no less than 
 2,112,805/. above the amount in 1815-16; no 
 doubt occasioned in part by the bad harvest of 
 1816 : but the harvest of 1817 afforded an 
 average crop, and that of 1818 was abundant.t 
 
 * According to the Eton Tables, the price of wheat, at 
 Lady Day ISH, was 10,s. 9d per bushel. 
 
 t The price of wheat, on the 22d of March 1815, was 
 7O5. 4!d, per quarter. — Appendix to Agricultural Report of 
 1821, p. 381. 
 
 ■^ Prices of corn afford a pretty safe guide in estimating 
 the seasons. The price of wheat in December, 1816, rose to 
 
94 VARIATIONS IN THE POOIl's RATE. PART IV. 
 
 The great increase of the poor-rates from 1815-16 
 to 1818-19 must, therefore, be ascribed to the 
 operation of the Corn Law passed in 1815 ; 
 which, by lessening the home growth, tended to 
 make every year operate as a bad season to home 
 ndustry, and this is evident from the state of the 
 foreign importations.* 
 
 There was a decrease in the amount of the 
 rate in 1819-20, occasioned, no doubt, by the 
 anticipation of the good harvest of that year ; and 
 the decrease continued thereafter progressively 
 until 1823-4, the amount in which year was less 
 than the amount in 1818-19 by 1,794,752/. 
 
 This reduction was, no doubt, owing to the 
 abundant harvests of 1820 and 1822, assisted by 
 the continuing rise in the exchangeable value of 
 money. 
 
 But though, with the exception of one year 
 (1827), the seasons have been since favourable, 
 the increase of the rise in the exchangeable 
 value of money has been unable to keep down 
 
 1035. 11 (/.per quarter ; in January 1817, it rose to ll2s.7d.per 
 quarter ; in January 1818, it was still as high as 875. per quar- 
 ter ; but it fell, in January 1819, to 77*. 6d. per quarter. — 
 Appendix to Agricultural Report of 1821, p. 381. 
 
 * In 1816 we imported from abroad only 315,773 quarters 
 of all sorts of grain ; but in 1817 we imported 1,797,181; 
 and in 1818, no less than 3,322,729 quarters. — Appendix to 
 Agricultural Report of 1821, p. 392. 
 
CHAP. III. OF THE POOR-LAWS. 95 
 
 the increasing effects of diminished produce at 
 home, and, with the decrease of home growth, 
 and consequently of the employment of home in- 
 dustry, the poor's rate increased with the foreign 
 importation, in the five following years, in so 
 much that the amount of the rate in 1828-29 
 was 1,092,144/. above the amount in 1823-24 j 
 being an increase to this amount in five years. 
 
 There was a small improvement in 1829-30, 
 the amount being 30,154/. below the amount in 
 the preceding year, a diminution too insignificant 
 to draw any conclusion from ; though, probably, 
 owing to the good season of 1829, in which, 
 though the crops were comparatively abundant, 
 they were still unable to prevent a large foreign 
 importation in the following year. 
 
 CHAP. III. 
 
 EFFECTS OF THE MAL-ADMINISTRATION OF THE POOR 
 LAWS UPON MORALS AND INDUSTRY. 
 
 A DISTINCTION having been created between 
 married and unmarried labourers, so that, gene- 
 rally speaking, the latter do not receive above 
 half the sum paid to the former, it follows that 
 an unmarried labourer can save nothing to pro- 
 
96 EFFECTS OF MAL-ADMINISTRATION PART IV. 
 
 vide the means of keeping a family, which he is 
 nevertheless induced to have in order that he 
 may increase his parish pay. The effect of this 
 abuse is to produce habits of improvidence among 
 the lower orders. 
 
 The moral effects upon young women are 
 still more to be deplored. Among the lower 
 orders, chastity in unmarried women has almost 
 ceased to be a virtue. No harm is conceived 
 to be done, until the fruit of this promiscuous 
 intercourse promises to be a child ; and then 
 the expectant mother swears the child to any 
 man she likes best, or finds most convenient ; 
 who, by another abuse in the administration 
 of these laws, is obliged to marry her or go 
 to prison. A young woman has thus only to 
 get a child in order to get a husband: the 
 consequence of which, besides degrading the 
 woman, is to multiply children without any pro- 
 vision having been made for the means of main- 
 taining them, and to destroy the natural love of 
 parents for their offspring, by setting them free 
 from the natural obligation to maintain their 
 , children, and by removing that solicitude about 
 them which endears them to their affections. 
 
 Where mankind are immoral, they are rarely in- 
 dustrious. Carelessness, idleness, and indolence, 
 are the natural consequence of this state of things j 
 which further obliging the labourer to look to 
 assistance from the parish to supply his wants, in 
 
CHAP. III. OF TIIK POOR-LAWS. 97 
 
 place of being obliged to rely upon his own in- 
 dustry for his means of support, he becomes dis- 
 contented with his condition, which being unable 
 to improve by any exertion of his own, he fur- 
 ther becomes helpless and hopeless, but reckless 
 withal, and ready for any sort of mischief that 
 may be presented to him.* 
 
 The consequence of all these things to industry 
 is, that thework doneby a labourer lessens progres- 
 sively. The Rev. Mr. Becher, already referred 
 to, (who has introduced a correction of the abuses 
 of the poor-laws into his part of Nottingham- 
 shire, which will be afterwards noticed,) says, 
 that the work of a labourer in his district 
 is four times the quantity of the work per- 
 formed by a labourer in the other districts of 
 
 * This consequence may serve to explain the aptitude 
 found among our agricultural labourers to become incen- 
 diaries two years ago. The burnings of ricks and barns, 
 however, may have originated from the same cause which 
 produced burnings in Normandy, long before they happened 
 in England, namely, the operation of the Corn Laws in de- 
 priving labourers of employment ; for France, having divided 
 her kingdom into four parts, and not allowing any one of these 
 divisions to trade with another in the article of grain, until, 
 in each, it rises to a certain price, she has a worse Corn Law 
 than even we have ; and labourers there, as here, burnt 
 corn, in order that, in raising a further supply, they might 
 receive better wages. The Game Laws, also, have had 
 ascribed to them an increase of crime, a large portion of 
 which springs from the operation of the Corn Laws in throw- 
 ing labourers out of employment. 
 
 H 
 
98 EFFECTS OF MAL-ADMINISTRATION PART IV. 
 
 that county where these abuses still prevail ; so 
 that a farmer, while he supposes he and the 
 parish are paying such labourer only at the rate 
 of 2.V. per day, he and the parish are actually 
 paying such labourer at the rate of 8,9. per day. 
 
 It thus becomes manifest how the mal-admin- 
 istration of the Poor Laws powerfully assist the 
 operation of the Corn Laws in diminishing home 
 produce by increasing the cost of production. 
 
 CHAP. IV. 
 
 EFFECT OF THE MAL-ADMINISTRATION OF THE POOR 
 LAWS UPON POPULATION. 
 
 The Rev. Mr. Whateley, vicar of the parish of 
 Cookham, in Berkshire, who has introduced into 
 that parish a system corrective of the abuses of 
 the Poor Laws (to be afterwards adverted to), 
 stated, in his examination before the Lords* Com- 
 mittee on the Poor Laws in 1831, that he had 
 examined the register of births in his parish for 
 eighteen years before his system began, and for 
 nine years afterwards, and he found the number 
 of births in each period of nine years to have 
 been as follows : — 593, 706, 676 ; so that the 
 number of births, which increased 113 upon 593, 
 
CHAP. IV. OF THE POOR-LAWS. 99 
 
 the number in the first nine years, diminished, in 
 the nine years after his system commenced, 30 
 upon 706, the number in the nine years imme- 
 diately before it came into operation. 
 
 Nothing can sliow in a more striking manner 
 the effect of the abuses of the Poor Laws, in 
 inducing an over-population, than the mere 
 statement of this fact, which, with the operation 
 of the Corn Laws in diminishing the home growth 
 of corn, may serve to point out the errors com- 
 mitted by our political economists in their at- 
 tempts to establish a ratio for the increase of the 
 population. In every country there are restraints 
 upon industry, which limit or diminish the growth 
 of food, and increase the numbers of the popu- 
 lation, which they do not take into the account ; 
 and most assuredly, in their reasonings upon the 
 ratio of the increase of the population of Great 
 Britain, they have altogether overlooked these 
 two very prominent facts. The accounts of the 
 imports and exports of grain enable us to mea- 
 sure the diminution of the home growth of corn ; 
 but we are not yet in possession of sufficient 
 details to enable us to appreciate the proportion 
 of over-population, produced by the abuses of 
 the Poor Laws ; though the above fact leaves us 
 no room to doubt that their operation is ex- 
 tensive in this respect. 
 
 H 2 
 
100 PRACTICE ILLEGAL. PART IV. 
 
 CHAP. V. 
 
 PRACTICE ILLEGAL. 
 
 The abuses which have been noticed, and 
 other abuses committed in relation to the poor, 
 do not derive any support from the 43 EUz. c. 2., 
 which was among the last acts of her reign, and 
 is the governing law upon the subject to this 
 day. 
 
 Its main provisions are, that order shall be 
 taken, — 
 
 1. *' For setting to work the children of all 
 " such whose parents shall not be thought able 
 *' to keep and maintain their children. 
 
 2. " For setting to work all such persons, 
 *' married or unmarried, having no means to 
 " maintain them, and use no ordinary or daily 
 " trade of life to get their living by." 
 
 For these purposes, direction was given to raise, 
 by taxation, &c. 
 
 1. "A convenient stock of flax, hemp, wool, 
 " thread, iron, and other necessary ware and 
 ** stuff, to set the poor to work. 
 
 2. " Competent sums of money for and to- 
 *' wards the necessary relief of the lame, im- 
 " potent, old, blind, and such other among them 
 *' being poor and not able to work ; as also for 
 
CHAP. V. PRACTICE ILLEGAL. 101 
 
 ** putting out of such children to be ap- 
 *' prentices." 
 
 Two distinct objects were aimed at by this 
 act of parhament : — 1 . To set to work those 
 who were able to work, and ought to work, to 
 gain their living. 2. To reheve persons of the 
 description mentioned, requiring rehef, who were 
 unable to work. These last alone were to re- 
 ceive relief; and, in prevention even of this last, 
 it is provided " that the father and grandfather* 
 " and the children of every poor, old, blind, 
 " lame, and impotent person, or other poor per- 
 " son not able to work, being of a sufficient 
 " ability, shall, at their own charges, relieve and 
 ** maintain every such poor person in that man- 
 " ner, and according to that rate, as by the jus- 
 •* tices of the peace of the county, &c. shall be 
 *' assessed." 
 
 The legislature here made a great mistake in 
 attempting to enforce a moral obligation which 
 rests upon a higher sanction ; but it serves to 
 show that, even where it directed necessary relief 
 to be given, it meant it should be without pre- 
 judice to to an obligation which should render it 
 unnecessary. * 
 
 * This moral obligation has never been found to fail in 
 parishes in Scotland, where no compulsory provision is in- 
 troduced. Mr. Duncan says, " The poor (in his parish) are 
 " principally supported by their own relations. There is 
 
 n 3 
 
102 PRACTICE ILLEGAL. PART IV. 
 
 Relief, when it was to be given, however, was 
 to be confined to persons unable to work ; but 
 the two objects of this act have been confounded, 
 and both industry and charity suffer from the 
 confusion. 
 
 Among those who were to be set to work, 
 however, agricultural labourers do not appear to 
 have been contemplated ; at least, if they were 
 to be set to work, it was by being employed in 
 
 <' that feeling, in Scotland, of independence, that laudable 
 " desire among the poor to provide for themselves, and that 
 " dislike of any thing approaching upon charity, that the 
 " labouring classes, in those quarters where poor-rates have 
 '' not been introduced, universally consider it to be their 
 " duty to make every sacrifice to support their poor re- 
 " lations." 
 
 Wherever this moral obligation has been interfered with in 
 Scotland it has been found to be prejudicial. A committee 
 of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, in a 
 report made to the Select Committee of the House of Com- 
 mons upon the Poor Laws, in 1817, say, "it is clear to the 
 " committee that, in almost all the country parishes which 
 " have hitherto come under their notice, where a regular 
 " assessment has been established, the wants of the poor 
 " and the extent of the assessment have gradually and pro- 
 " gressively increased from their commencement ; and it 
 " does appear to be a matter of very serious interest to the 
 " community at large to prevent, as far as possible, this prac- 
 " tice from being generally adopted ; to limit the assessments 
 " as much as they can be limited, where the circumstances of 
 " particular parishes render them unavoidable ; and, where- 
 " ever it is practicable, to abandon them." 
 
CHAP. V. PRACTICE ILLEGAL. 103 
 
 working up the raw materials mentioned in the 
 act, which thus limits the employment to be 
 given to persons who could be set to work upon 
 the necessary ware and stuff which was to be 
 provided for them to work upon. 
 
 But the abuses of the Poor Laws, where they 
 have once been let in, have increased most in 
 agricultural counties. It is remarked by the 
 Committees appointed upon the Poor Returns, in 
 1826, that "the county of Sussex is still the dis- 
 " trict in England in which the expenditure 
 ** bears the highest proportion to the number of 
 " the people, and Lancashire is still on the oppo- 
 *' site side of the scale." 
 
 It is further certain, that it never was intended 
 by this act of Parliament that the labour of an 
 able-bodied labourer should be paid out of the 
 rate. Notwithstanding the prevalence of the 
 practice, therefore, it is a practice unwarranted 
 by law, arising from and resting upon a mistaken 
 impression of self-interest in the employer, who 
 seeks to throw upon others the payment of wages 
 which ought to be borne by himself. It is plain, 
 that if an able-bodied workman is not allowed 
 parish pay, he will not hire himself to work, 
 unless at the rate of wages determined by the 
 demand for able-bodied workmen. He ouglit 
 never to have more, and no employer of labour 
 ought to pay less. 
 
 H 4 
 
104 PRACTICE ILLEGAL. PART IV. 
 
 Tlie Committee on the Poor Laws, appointed 
 by the House of Lords, in 1831, appear to have 
 doubted the legaUty of paying labour out of the 
 rate, or of paying money to parents for the main- 
 tenance of their children ; for they suggested that 
 the following questions should be put to the 
 judges : — 
 
 1. " Does the 43 Eliz. c. 2., or any other law, 
 *' authorise magistrates to order any relief to be 
 " given to poor persons who are able to work, or to 
 " afford them any assistance, except by procuring 
 *' some employment for them where employment 
 *' can be obtained? 
 
 2. " If it be satisfactorily proved that employ- 
 *' ment cannot be procured within a reasonable 
 " distance of the parish to which able-bodied poor 
 " belong, will the magistrates, in such case, be 
 " authorised to order relief? 
 
 3. " Where able-bodied poor persons can 
 " maintain only part of their family by the wages 
 " of their laboiu', are magistrates authorised to 
 " order any relief to be given to them for the 
 " maintenance of such of their children, not 
 " being able to work, as they cannot maintain ?" 
 
CHAP. VI. REMEDY. 105 
 
 CHAP. VI. 
 
 REMEDY. 
 
 It happens, singularly enough, that, as Berkshire 
 set the example of extending the abuses of the 
 Poor Laws in England, so the same county has 
 set the example of correcting them. 
 
 The Rev. Thomas Whately, Vicar of Cookham, 
 in his examination before the Lords' Committee 
 on the Poor Laws, in 1831, states the practical 
 effects in money of a system for the management 
 of the poor, introduced by him into that parish, 
 to have been, to reduce its poor rates (which 
 were 3907/. 10.9. in 1812-13) to 1155/. Is. their 
 amount in 1829-30. 
 
 If this system be practicable in every other 
 parish, the amount of the poor-rates in England, 
 which now approach 75^)00,000/. sterling per 
 annum, may be reduced to less than 2,000,000/. 
 sterling per annum. 
 
 This fact alone may be sufficient to show the 
 mischievous operation of restraints u})on industry, 
 even if it were limited to the money-saving effect. 
 But in the case of the poor (as in every other 
 case of restraint), the removal of the restraint will 
 be to increase the returns of general industry 
 
106 MR. W HATELy's system. part IV. 
 
 tenfold, by restoring industry to the exertion of 
 its own resources. 
 
 Mr. Whately thus describes his system : — 
 " The employment of the able-bodied poor who 
 " apply for relief at low wages and hard work, 
 *' showing them that the parish is the hardest 
 " taskmaster and the lowest paymaster they can 
 " apply to ; never giving any thing in aid of 
 " labour, rent, or rates ; dividing the paupers 
 '* in the w^orkhouse into two classes : the old, 
 ** infirm, and impotent form the first ; the idle, 
 " improvident, and vicious constitute the second. 
 " To the former is allowed an ample supply of 
 " butcher's meat and other suitable food ; to the 
 " second class nothing but bread and cheese. 
 " Every possible encouragement is given to 
 " honest industry, providence, and frugality, by 
 " the establishment of a Savings Bank, a 
 " Friendly Society, a Lying-in Charity, and all 
 " other means that can be devised." 
 
 The money part of the success arising from 
 this system is the least part of its recommend- 
 ation ; its effect upon the numbers of births have 
 been already stated. But its further effects, as 
 stated by Mr. Whately, have been to diminish 
 the number of unemployed labourers, — to render 
 the situation of the poor better than ever it was, 
 — and to improve their morals as well as their 
 condition, insomuch (Mr. Whately says) " those 
 
CHAP. VI. REMEDY. 10? 
 
 " who were very disorderly are very much the 
 " reverse;" and he has had ** only two bastardy 
 ** cases in two years.'* 
 
 The system of management introduced by Mr. 
 Whately into the parish of Cookham has been 
 adopted with equal benefit and success in the 
 neighbouring parish of White Waltham. 
 
 Mr. Becher, who has published a tract, en- 
 titled " The Anti- Pauper System," of which he 
 gives an account in his evidence before the 
 Lords' Committee on the Poor Laws, in 1831; 
 and also of a system adopted in his parish of 
 Thurgaton, in the county of Nottingham, of 
 which he is the incumbent, and also in the 
 neighbouring parish of Southwell, in which he 
 resides, describes such system as having been 
 attended with equally beneficial effects in the 
 reduction of the rates, and in improving the 
 conduct and condition of the poor. 
 
 In the parish of Uley, in the county of Glou- 
 cester, Mr. Becher's system has been established ; 
 and his correspondent, Mr. Baker, gives this ac- 
 count of its beneficial effects : — "I have heard, 
 *' from different persons who reside in the parish, 
 " and who, from the difference in their stations 
 " and habits, I have every reason to believe had 
 ** never conversed together on the subject, such 
 *' accounts of the poor as give me the strongest 
 " ground for hoping that, since the establishment 
 
108 MR. becher's system. part IV. 
 
 *' of your system, crime is rapidly decreasing, 
 '* and that good order, industry, and all that can 
 ** make a poor man respectable, will increase and 
 ** be firmly established."* 
 
 The system of Mr. Becher operates as that of 
 Mr. Whately does, in inducing the poor to find 
 work for themselves, through regulations intro- 
 duced by him, particularly with reference to the 
 management of the poor in the workhouse, to 
 
 * He remarks, — " One part of the eflPect which we see 
 " is, I must confess, above my comprehension. I was much 
 " afraid that withdrawing parish relief from persons who had 
 *' been during their whole lives used to work in their houses, 
 " or at least under cover, and thus forced to adopt other employ 
 " ments, would, at first, be an exceeding great hardship upon 
 " them, and that it would be injurious to the health of many 
 " of them. 1 thought, also, that at first they would not know 
 " how to find work for themselves ; I therefore took much 
 " pains to get work for many of them during the harvest, 
 " and I was fortunate in finding it for them at a distance 
 " from the parish. I had no hope but that when this was 
 " over, and the men had returned home, they would again 
 " have applied for parish pay. I was afraid of pressing the 
 " thing too hard at first ; and, having decreased our pay about 
 " 12/. during the summer, we were all well satisfied with it 
 " as a beginning, and hoped to do more next year ; but, to my 
 " astonishment, though the harvest is over, and the men have 
 " long been returned, we have no more applications for relief 
 " than we had when it continued. When we found them 
 " work, we took off their pay ; and now that the work is over, 
 " they do not ask us to put it on again. It seems, therefore, 
 " almost as if we had done no good by finding work for 
 " them." He adds, " How they find work for themselves 
 " I cannot conceive ! " 
 
CHAP. VI. MR. WHATELY S SYSTEM. 109 
 
 which he has mainly apphecl himsetf, probably 
 from his parish having been united with forty- 
 nine others under Mr. Gilbert's Act. It may 
 be valuable in such cases, but it is of more im- 
 portance that attention should be paid, as Mr. 
 Whately has done, to the means of lessening the 
 number of inmates in the workhouse, and of 
 ceasing to pay wages out of the rate, which Mr. 
 Whately has accomplished ; and of simplifying 
 the question of settlement as he has also done, 
 by rendering a settlement not worth having ex- 
 cepting by the aged and helpless, whom the 43d 
 Eliz. intended should be the only occupiers of 
 the dwellings which it directed to be provided.* 
 
 * Workhouses, as they exist in England, are a perversion 
 and abuse of the 43 EHz., which directed, " That it shall be 
 " lawful for the churchwardens and overseers, &c. to erect, 
 " build, and set up in fit and convenient places of habitation, 
 " in such (some) waste or common, &c. convenient houses 
 " of dwelling for the said impotent poor ; and also to place, 
 " inmates, or more families than one, in one cottage or house, 
 " one act, made in the one and twentieth year of her Ma- 
 " jesty's reign, intituled, ' An Act against the erecting or main- 
 " taining of Cottages,' or any thing therein contained to the 
 " contrary notwithstanding; * which cottages, or places for 
 " inmates, shall not at any time be used or employed to or 
 " for any other habitation, but only for impotent and poor of 
 " the same parish, that shall be there placed from time to 
 " time by the churchwardens and overseers of the poor of 
 " the same parish, or the most part of them, upon the pains 
 
 * See this act noticed in p. 113. 
 
1 10 OPERATION AND EFFECTS PART IV. 
 
 The mode by which Mr. Whately brought 
 about so great an improvement in his parish was 
 
 " and forfeitures contained in the said former act of the 
 " one and thirtieth year of her majesty's reign." 
 
 Workhouses were not erected any where in England until 
 the time of Charles the Second, and then only in the cities 
 of London and Westminster, upon a recital that " the neces- 
 " sity, number, and continual increase of the poor, not only 
 " within the cities of London and Westminster, but also 
 " through the whole kingdom of England and dominion of 
 " Wales, is very great and exceeding burthensome, being 
 " occasioned by reason of some defects in the law concerning 
 " the settling of the poor, and for want of a due provision 
 " of the regulations of relief and employment in such parishes 
 " or places where they are legally settled, which doth enforce 
 " many to turn incorrigible rogues, and others to perish for 
 " want, together with the neglect of the faithful execution 
 •' of such laws and statutes as were formerly made for the 
 " apprehending of rogues and vagabonds, and for the good of 
 "the poor." — 13 & 14 Car. 2. c. 12. In the confusion of 
 evils here enumerated, this statute increased them, by giving 
 additional powers to justices to remove paupers, and to 
 restrain the labouring poor from going from one parish to 
 another in search of employment ; a regulation than which 
 nothing could be more mischievous foir the purpose of its 
 object, or more inconsistent with the principles of industry, 
 but which remained in force for upwards of a century and a 
 half afterwards, until it was repealed by 35 G. 3. c. 101. 
 
 The power granted by the 13 & 14 Car. 2. c. 2., to erect 
 workhouses, however, was confined to the cities of London 
 and Westminster, and was not extended to other parishes 
 until 1722, when it was enacted, " that for the greater ease 
 " of parishes in the relief of the poor, it shall and may be 
 " lawful for the churchwardens and overseers of the poor in 
 " any parish, town, township, or place, with the consent of 
 
CHAP. VI. OF MR. WHATELy's SYSTEM. Ill 
 
 was as simple as it has been effectual. His is 
 an entirely agricultural parisli, in which no great 
 proprietors reside ; and he prevailed upon the 
 farmers to allow him to say to any poor man ap- 
 
 " the major part of the parishioners or inhabitants of the said 
 " parish, &c., in vestry or other parish or public meeting for 
 " that pm-pose assembled, or of so many of them as shall 
 " be so assembled, upon usual notice thereof first given, to 
 " purchase or hire any house or houses of the same parish, 
 " &c., and to contract with any person or persons for the 
 " lodging, keeping, maintaining, and employing any or all 
 " such poor in their respective parishes, &c., as shall desire 
 " to receive relief or collection from the same parish, and 
 " there to keep, maintain, and employ all such poor persons, 
 " and take the benefit of all work, labour, and service of any 
 " such poor person or persons who shall be kept or maintained 
 " in any such house or houses, for the better maintenance 
 " and relief of such poor person or persons who shall be 
 " there kept or maintained ; and in case any poor per- 
 " son of any parish, &c. where such house or houses shall 
 *' be so purchased or hired shall refuse to be lodged, kept, 
 " or maintained in such, house or houses, such person or per- 
 " sons shall be put out of the book or books where the names 
 " of the persons who ought to receive collections in the said 
 " parish, &c. are to be registered ; and shall not be entitled 
 " to ask or receive collection or relief from the churchwardens, 
 " or overseers of the same parish," &c. 
 
 The last is the best part of this enactment, because it 
 enables the parish to withhold relief, unless the applicant 
 will go into the workhouse, where the helpless young and 
 feeble old should be separated from the able-bodied idle, who 
 by poor fare, and low wages, should be taught, as Mr. Whately 
 has taught them, that their industry may enable them to live 
 better any where than in the workhouse. 
 
112 MR. WHATELy's system part IV. 
 
 plying for relief, — We find work for able-bodied 
 men in this parish, but give no relief: if you 
 want work, farmer such-a-one has an acre to 
 delve, for the digging of which you will be paid 
 so much a rod as your work is done. The 
 poor thus finding they got only hard work and 
 little pay by applying to the parish, soon ceased 
 to apply at all, and found better work for them- 
 selves. The farmers conceived the poor would 
 dig all the land in the parish ; but Mr. Whately 
 tells us they did not dig quite half an acre in all. 
 This was the short and simple, but effectual, 
 method by which Mr. Whately laid a foundation 
 for the improvement of morals and industry in 
 his parish. It is plain that a similar method may 
 be followed in every agricultural parish. It may 
 not be so obvious, but it is not less certain, that 
 means exist of laying a similar foundation for the 
 improvement of morals and the increase of in- 
 dustry every where. Thus, in the parish in 
 which I write, the mud is allowed to accumulate 
 on the banks of the river, to the injury of health 
 in the neighbourhood, thought it would form ex- 
 cellent manure, particularly for meadow-land, and 
 may be carried by water-carriage wherever it 
 may be wanted. In so far as the parish is con- 
 cerned, the hiring of a few barges would be all 
 that would be required to set the idle able-bodied 
 poor of the parish to fill them. As in Mr. 
 
CHAP. VI. PRACTICABLE EVERY WHERE. 113 
 
 Whately*s parish the poor did not dig quite half 
 an acre, so the poor in St. Margaret's parish pro- 
 bably would not fill quite half a barge : but if 
 they did not, others, probably, would ; and that 
 which is now a source of annoyance and discom- 
 fort, as well as injurious to the health of the 
 vicinage, might, as it would, prove a means of 
 gain to industry, which would, at all events, be 
 relieved from the burden of enabling able-bodied 
 workmen to live idle who ought to work in order 
 to gain their living. 
 
 Herein may appear the inadequacy of the Act 
 of Mr. Sturges Bourne*, and, in truth, of every 
 act of the legislature that attempts to regulate in- 
 dustry or interfere with charity. Neither can 
 be dealt with by act of Parliament : the attempt 
 can only lead to restrain the one and to banish 
 the other.t 
 
 But we have had the 43 Eliz. for upwards 
 
 * 59 G. 3. c. 12. 
 
 •\ Herein may also appear the inexpediency of a Poor Law ■ 
 for Ireland, whose poor are almost all able-bodied. It would | 
 not be difficult to show that the evils which afflict Ireland 
 have proceeded from legislative restraints upon industry, but . 
 this is not the place for it. I trust, however, I have said I 
 enough to show, that any Poor Law for Ireland would only I 
 increase evils springing from restraints upon industry, and | 
 that if industry in England were set free from restraints, in | 
 place of having too many, we should find we have too few 
 labourers, and in place of Irish vagrants being a burdenj 
 we should find them a benefit. 
 
114 INADEQUACY OF OTHER REMEDIES. PART IV. 
 
 of two centuries j and are we to reject it? — 
 No ; but we are to cease to make it the instru- 
 ment of abuses contrary to its intendment. Let 
 us no longer confound relief with work : let no 
 relief be given to the able-bodied ; and before 
 even relief is given to the aged, the infirm, or 
 the helpless, let it be enquired, and let it be 
 ascertained, whether it be necessary ; for the 
 43 Eliz. allows only of necessary relief. 
 
 For the sick poor, charity, free and unre- 
 strained, has never been wanting in this country. 
 Palaces, in the name of hospitals, have been largely 
 provided for the relief of every kind of human 
 suffering except poverty. Supported, as they are 
 founded, by voluntary contributions alone, can 
 we believe that institutions or associations for 
 the relief of honest poverty, or the encourage- 
 ment of honest industry among the poor, would 
 have been wanting if it had not been for the 
 abuses of the Poor Laws? Let, then, every 
 parish in England set about putting an end to 
 these abuses, as the parishes of Cookham, White 
 Waltham, Thurgaton, and Uley have done ; and 
 then in every parish of England, as in those 
 parishes, honest poverty will be relieved, and 
 honest industry encouraged. 
 
CHAP.Vri. EXPEDIENTS. 115 
 
 CHAP. VII. 
 
 EXPEDIENTS FOR THE RELIEF OF THE POOR. 
 
 The grant of small portions of land to cot- 
 tagers, which is a favourite measure with many, 
 can only have a very limited effect in remedying 
 the abuses of the Poor Laws. It may tend to 
 produce a better description of labourers, and 
 may be highly beneficial as an encouragement to 
 well doing ; but this is the extent of it. 
 
 It is like a system which has grown up in the 
 northern counties of England, and in the south- 
 ern counties of Scotland, where every married 
 farm servant has a cottage on the farm, with a 
 piece of garden-ground attached to it, to whom 
 the farmer allows the keep of a cow and a pig, 
 with some poultry, and ploughs for him a piece 
 of potatoe-ground, which is manured with the 
 dung of the cow and pig ; and whose services 
 are paid in kind of the produce of the farm, 
 with a very small portion in money.* These 
 
 * The particulars of this system are given by Mr. Grey, 
 a proprietor and extensive occupier of land in the county of 
 Durham, in his evidence before the Lords' Committee on the 
 Poor Laws, in 1831. It removes all the objections to large 
 farms which prevail in these districts. 
 
 I 2 
 
116 GENERAL INCLOSURE. PART IV. 
 
 things do excellently well when left to them- 
 selves, but become vitiated when touched by an 
 Act of Parliament, as may be exemplified by the 
 31 Eliz. c. 7'j which prohibited the erection of 
 any cottage, unless there should be assigned 
 " to the same cottage or building four acres of 
 " ground at the least, to be constantly occupied 
 *' and manured therewith, so long as the same 
 "cottage shall be inhabited;'* an enactment 
 which has been as little regarded in practice as 
 the 43d Ehz. c. 2. 
 
 A general Inclosure Act, which has been re- 
 commended by the Committee of the House of 
 Commons on the Poor Laws of 1828, and for 
 which purpose a Bill was introduced in the 
 Session about to close, and is still pending, is 
 a good thing in itself; but there are so many 
 local interests to reconcile, that, in order to re- 
 move their opposition, provisions will be intro- 
 duced, which, operating in the way of restraint, 
 may do more harm than good. Though it is of 
 great importance that the remaining commons 
 and commonable lands of England should be 
 brought under cultivation, it is of more import- 
 ance that the lands already in cultivation should 
 be well cultivated ; and if land in severalty is 
 not or cannot be improved, by reason of the in- 
 jurious operation of our Corn Laws, still less can 
 land yet in common ; so that a general Inclosure 
 
CHAP. VII. ENABLING ACT. 117 
 
 Act will remain a dead letter, in so far as relates 
 to its main purpose, mitil the Corn Laws shall 
 be altered ; and in regard to the poor, it can 
 only carve out of the inclosure a pauper farm ; 
 and this is incompatible with Mr. Whateley*s sys- 
 tem, which renders any such farm unnecessary, 
 and would prevent its cultivation as a pauper 
 farm. 
 
 A bill to enable the majority of rate-payers to 
 come to an agreement as to the mode of em- 
 ploying the poor, is unobjectionable, in so far as 
 it gives only enabling powers ; but the danger 
 is, that these powers will be abused. This is 
 not said lightly, seeing all the powers given by 
 the statute of Elizabeth have been perverted as 
 well as abused. But the bill introduced for 
 this pui-pose in the House of Commons in the 
 session about to close and now passed, as first 
 brought in, proposed to enable the majority 
 of rate-payers not only to send a pauper for 
 employment to any rate-payer they pleased, but 
 to compel such rate-payer to employ the pauper; 
 as if a master was to be obliged to take a 
 servant, whether he wanted him or no ; and to 
 take a servant, not of his own choice, but of his 
 neighbours, to say nothing about treating the 
 pauper as a slave. I, therefore, cannot be with- 
 out apprehension that any such enabling bill 
 may be perverted to this purpose, or to establish 
 
 I 3 
 
118 EMIGRATION. PART IV. 
 
 a labour rate, which is a favourite object with 
 many country gentlemen, but would only in- 
 crease the evils it meant to remove. As a mere 
 means of enabling a parish to adopt Mr. Whate- 
 ley's system, such a bill may be harmless ; but 
 no bill whatever is necessary for the adoption of 
 his system by any parish. 
 
 Emigration, upon which so much time and 
 money have been spent, is the worst experiment 
 of all, because it deprives us of our able-bodied 
 workmen. Emigration should neither be en- 
 couraged nor discouraged. There will always 
 be stirring spirits desirous of going abroad ; these 
 may be left to their own impulse : but, if industry 
 be set free from restraint, all our able-bodied 
 workmen will be required at home. 
 
 I have noticed these things, in order that I 
 may not seem negligent of any matter which 
 has relation to this important subject. But, at 
 the best, they are only mitigants, and not re- 
 medies. 
 
119 
 
 PART V. 
 
 REVENUE RESTRAINTS. 
 
 CHAP. I. 
 
 PUBLIC REVENUE. 
 
 We had duties of customs in England long be- 
 fore we had duties of excise ; the first of which 
 ever imposed was in the time of Charles II., 
 when a duty on beer and ale was granted to 
 that monarch during his life* ; but tonnage and 
 poundage composed the earliest subsidies of the 
 crown, and formed the first grant made after the 
 Restoration, t 
 
 These duties of tonnage and poundage, which 
 form the foundation of our duties of customs to 
 this day, were gi'anted upon goods exported, as 
 well as upon goods imported ; the effect of which 
 was to restrain and limit home industry. Par- 
 ticular interests, which are always allowed to 
 have too much influence in our legislation, ob- 
 
 * 12 Car. 2. c. 23. f Ibid. c. 4. 
 
 I 4 
 
120 ERRORS IN IMPOSING DUTIES. PART V. 
 
 tained, in I7OO, the removal of these duties on 
 the export of woollen, corn, meal, and bread.* 
 But it was not until I72I that the duties of 
 export upon other articles of home produce or 
 manufacture were repealed t : and still, under a 
 mistaken notion of preventing other countries 
 from having raw materials for the purposes of 
 manufacture, alum, lead, lead-ore, tin, leather 
 tanned, copperas, coals, wool-cords, white woollen 
 cloths, lapis calaminaris, skins of all sorts, glue, 
 cony-hair or wool, hares' wool, hair of all sorts, 
 horses, and litharge of lead were excepted t; 
 and export duties since imposed on British 
 sheep and lambs, wool and woollen yarn, are 
 still levied, as well as upon most of the above 
 articles. With notions alike adverse to industry, 
 custom-house duties are also still levied on coals 
 and culm, and slates carried coastwise. 
 
 To the amount of the rates of tonnage and 
 poundage, (that is, duties of customs first granted 
 in the time of Charles II.,) thirds and two thirds 
 of subsidies and per centages have been added 
 by various acts of parliament in subsequent 
 reigns. These have been consolidated by late 
 acts ; but the whole present a mass of incon- 
 gruities which require revision. 
 
 * 11 & 16 G. 3. c. 20. 
 
 t 8G. 1. c. 15. §7. t Ibid. §8. 
 
CHAP. II. THE PUBLIC REVENUE. 121 
 
 CHAP. II. 
 
 BEST MODE OF RAISING THE PUBLIC REVENUE. 
 
 Every excise duty tends to repress home in- 
 dustry in tlie branch of it upon which such duty 
 is imposed.* But duties of customs, hmited to 
 articles of import, have no such effect : thougli 
 they cannot be said to encoiu'age, they do not 
 repress home industry : and, seeing we must 
 
 * It is not merely on account of the effects of the tax in 
 repressing industry, that duties of excise are to be avoided. 
 They are attended with regulations, which " involve matters 
 " of important inquiry in a national and moral, as well as a 
 " financial point of view. If such regulations occasion ex- 
 " pense, trouble, or loss of time, in the process of any manu- 
 " facture, an increase is made in the price of the article to 
 " compensate such expense, trouble, or loss of time, as well 
 " as the amount of the tax. If they limit the extent of any 
 " manufacture, so many fewer people receive employment 
 " than otherwise would be employed, whereby the aggregate 
 " returns of industry are lessened in proportion to the fewer 
 " number of persons employed ; and the public revenue is 
 " also lessened in proportion to the lesser consumption of 
 " the taxed commodities which they require. If fiscal regu- 
 " lations work out a monopoly, in addition to all the other 
 " consequences above stated, the price of the article, in the 
 " manufacture of which such regulations intervene, is thereby 
 " raised still further. Such regulations thus come to operate 
 " as an additional tax upon the consumers of all taxed com- 
 " modities." {Revision of our Fiscal Code, 1828.) 
 
122 REPRESSION OF INDUSTRY. PART V. 
 
 raise a revenue for the service of the state, we 
 ought so to raise it as not to repress home in- 
 dustry. In this way duties of customs may be 
 said to promote home industry ; inasmuch as, for 
 all articles imported from abroad, articles of 
 home industry must be exported to pay for 
 them. But all mankind have been kept in 
 chains by erroneous impressions respecting gold 
 and silver : and in matters of revenue, as of in- 
 dustry, men have been alike wrong in all that 
 relates to these metals, which are only com- 
 modities, at all times purchasable by other 
 commodities, as other commodities are by them. 
 The total quantity of all the gold and silver in 
 the world is small, compared to the total quan- 
 tity of all the other commodities in it. As ma- 
 terials for industry, gold and silver are not to be 
 compared to other commocUties. It is industry 
 alone, however, that enables a country to acquire 
 riches, which consists not in gold and silver, but 
 in the products of industry, by which a country 
 becomes rich through the accumidation of the 
 proceeds arising from those products : and wliere- 
 ever any country has products of industry to give 
 in exchange, it can always obtain, in exchange 
 for them, any quantity of gold and silver it may 
 requu'e. 
 
 In raising a revenue, however, too little regard 
 has been paid to industry, though industry is the 
 
CHAP. 11. REPRESSION OF INDUSTRY. 123 
 
 source of revenue, as it is of wealth. I put forth 
 a pamphlet, in the spring of 1828, entitled 
 *' Reasons for a Revision of our Fiscal Code ;" 
 in which, remarking that, in the year 1815, taxes 
 to the gToss amount of 85,311,706/. l6s. lid. 
 were raised in Great Britain, with much less pres- 
 sure upon the people than 58,417,7^9/. 7s. Q^d. 
 were raised in the year 1827, hi the United 
 Kingdom, I suggested the enquiry, how it hap- 
 pened that, with an increase of our foreign 
 trade, and with an amount in taxes, in 1827, 
 less by 25,000,000/. and upwards than in 1815, 
 the raising a lesser sum in 1827 should have 
 borne more heavily upon the people ? The de- 
 tails in that pamphlet had relation chiefly to 
 taxes of excise ; and its object was, to show how 
 inflnitely more good might be done, even in the 
 way of revenue, by relieving industry from fiscal 
 restraints, than by any thing that could be done 
 by diminishing expenditure, though there was 
 no reason why every practical saving that could 
 be attained should not be made also.* 
 
 * A copy of this pamphlet was sent to the Chairman and 
 two other Members of the Committee. The branch of the 
 enquiry therein suggested, however, was altogether over- 
 looked, though it forms the main subject of the publication 
 of the Chairman in the following year. With the views taken 
 in that publication, it is very singular that the improvement 
 of the revenue, by relieving industry from taxation which 
 pressed upon it, should have entirely escaped him while the 
 Committee was sitting. 
 
124 INCREASE OF CUSTOMS. PART V. 
 
 The Finance Committee of that year con- 
 fined their labours to what appeared to me 
 to form the least important branch of the en- 
 quiry ; namely, the diminution of expenditure. 
 In the following year, however, its chairman 
 made up for the omission by the publication of 
 his book on Financial Reform. 
 
 But, without going into details, it remains to 
 point out how almost all taxes of excise may be 
 much chminished, if not removed, by deriving a 
 larger portion of our revenue from duties of 
 Customs. 
 
 These did not amount, at the commencement 
 of the reign of George III., to 2,000,000/. They 
 have risen regularly ever since, and now yield a 
 net revenue approaching to 17,000,000/. The 
 amount was much larger in 1830 ; but the duty 
 on coals brought into the port of London has 
 been since repealed, and the duties on corn im- 
 ported last year have diminished.* 
 
 Duties of customs having been imposed at a 
 time when the principles of taxation were little 
 understood, and being levied by per-centage in- 
 creased from time to time upon articles imported, 
 
 * Duties of customs on coals carried coastwise, however, 
 and on slates, continue to be levied. All duties of customs 
 on any article whatever, carried coastwise, should be repealed, 
 and also on all articles of home produce and manufacture 
 exported, some of which still remain. 
 
CHAP. II. REVISION REQUIRED. 125 
 
 according to fixed official rates, established up- 
 wards of a century and a half ago, it is obvious that 
 the amount of duties now levied cannot be upon a 
 proper scale. A commencement has been made 
 by what has been done in the present session, in 
 adopting abetter scale for certain articles of import. 
 The whole list of articles imported should be gone 
 through, and as the revenue of the customs im- 
 proves, from the adaptation of a scale of duties 
 corresponding with the present state of things, 
 duties of excise should be repealed or diminished. 
 Among such a variety of articles, it is impossible 
 to lay down any rule ; but thus much is evident, 
 that the duty levied shoidd not be dispropor- 
 tioned to the exchangeable value of the article ; 
 and the gi*eat rise which has taken place in the 
 exchangeable value of money, moreover, renders 
 a revision of our duties of customs peculiarly 
 necessary. There may be exceptions ; and so 
 heavy a duty has been so long levied upon to- 
 bacco, that upon this plant, perhaps, an excessive 
 duty may and ought to continue to be levied 
 upon its importation. 
 
 The very large amount of duties of customs 
 now, compared with their amount at the ter- 
 mination of the war, shows that this source of 
 revenue, from increasing consumption, may be 
 safely relied upon. Of the duties of customs at 
 present levied, a very small proportion is paid by 
 
126 SURE SOURCE OF REVENUE. PART V. 
 
 the people of Ireland ; * but as that country in- 
 creases in wealth, (and, with all its disturbances, 
 it is increasing in wealth,) the improvement of 
 Ireland, as well as the further improvement of 
 Great Britain, presents an additional source 
 of increase. Here, as in every other case of 
 taxation, consumption affords a sure rule ; and 
 
 * With reference to Ireland, I have observed in another 
 place that " the exports from Ireland compared to her popu- 
 " lation, and the sum of taxes which she pays, contrasted 
 " with the amount of the exports from Great Britain, her 
 " population, and the taxes raised in the latter country, sug- 
 " gest ground for doubting that the amount of the exports of 
 " a country furnishes a sure proof of her prosperity. From an 
 " account laid upon the table of the House of Commons in 
 " April, 1824 (to be found among the finance accounts of 
 " that year), showing the amount of the gross revenue of 
 " each country from the year 1792 to that period, the net 
 " revenue, the expense of management, the funded debt un- 
 " redeemed, the charge, the supplies voted, the payments for 
 " national objects, and the amount of the population, it 
 " appears that the net revenue of Great Britain, with a 
 "population of 14,379,677, in 1823, was 53,788,496/.; 
 " whereas the net revenue of Ireland, with a population of 
 " 6,846,949, was only 3,718,098/, Yet Ireland, it appeared 
 " from an account taken from the finance accounts of 1826, 
 " exported in each of the years, 1823, 1824, and 1825, pro- 
 " duce and manufactures to an amount in official value nearly 
 " double the sum paid by her in taxes ; while the produce 
 " and manufactures exported from Great Britain in the same 
 " years, according to official value, were about ten millions 
 " less than the net sum raised by her in taxes, upon the ave- 
 " rage of these three years." — Revision of our Fiscal Code, 
 1828. 
 
CHAP. III. NATIONAL DEBT. 127 
 
 as the consumption of articles imported increases, 
 the amount of the duties of customs upon them 
 should be diminished ; for, as increase of industry 
 arises from small profits with quick returns, so 
 the increase of the revenue of customs arises 
 from small duties on the small but increasing 
 consumption of large numbers. 
 
 CHAP. III. 
 
 NATIONAL DEBT. 
 
 Large as the amount of our public debt is, it 
 need not give us much concern. The sum of 
 the gross orcUnary revenue of Great Britain last 
 year, was 49,836,354/. This is a sum which the 
 people of Great Britain are enabled to spare from 
 the annual returns of their industry, which can- 
 not therefore well be less than 5 or 600,000,000/. 
 But our debt, unfunded as well as funded, does 
 not amount to 800,000,000/. Now, a landed 
 proprietor would not be deemed very heavily 
 burdened, if the debt which he owed was less 
 than two years' returns from his estates. It is 
 not, therefore, the want of means, but the mal- 
 conformation of them, that occasions distress ; and 
 this mal-conformation arises from legislative re- 
 
128 RECAPITULATION. PART V. 
 
 straints upon industry, whicli, as the legislature 
 has imposed them, so the legislature must remove 
 them, by a cautious and careful enquiry into the 
 operation of such restraints, and by repealing 
 or diminishing them wherever it is practicable, 
 which in most cases it will be found to be. 
 
 CHAP. IV. 
 
 RECAPITULATION. 
 
 In war or peace, and under every adminis- 
 tration, whether tory or wliig, our national in- 
 dustry has extended itself wherever it has not 
 been checked or controlled by legislative pro- 
 visions. This is a melancholy reflection, very 
 humiliating to public men.* The business of 
 government, or the science of legislation, is no 
 light matter. It requires the cultivation of mind, 
 the acquisition of knowledge, and the exercise 
 of patient and diligent enquiry, inducive of 
 habits of attention and application in youth, in 
 order to qualify man to gi'asp principle, and to 
 
 * " In retirement," said a public man of no mean attain- 
 ments, " I became sensible that, when in place, I had been 
 " deficient in almost every thing but diligence." — Huskisson 
 on the Bullion Questioti, 1809. 
 
CHAP. IV. FACTS NEGLECTED. 159 
 
 master practice in its details, as he advances in 
 life. But are the modes of teaching, the matters 
 taught, the moral discipline and habits acquired 
 at our schools and universities, conducive to 
 those attainments ? * 
 
 In every session of Parliament, facts of the 
 most useful kind are embodied in reports and 
 accounts laid upon its tables, which seem to be 
 thus loaded for no other purpose but to rise up 
 in evidence against the negligence of those for 
 
 * This is not the first time the question has been put. In 
 an essay in a little book, published seven years ago, (The 
 Influence of Interest and Prejudice on Proceedings in Par- 
 hament;) after remarking upon the prejudice which excluded 
 our great schools and universities byname, with every school 
 that had a special visitor, from the enquiry concerning cha- 
 rities, I suggested, that the heads of those foundations should 
 themselves be required to report upon them. This may be 
 done by a royal sign manual ; or, if a royal commission 
 to special commissioners shall be deemed more advisable, 
 such commission may be issued, as it has been issued in the 
 case of Scotland : it is much more necessary in England. 
 Let not the heads of our schools or colleges be startled ; no 
 harm is intended, or will be done, to them : but the well- 
 being of the state requires that our youth should be well 
 tutored, and wholesomely nurtured. Reports, however, are 
 made in vain, if no use is to be made of their contents. 
 
 The powers of the current commissioners upon charities 
 should be enlarged. They should be enabled to appoint 
 managers, where managers have lapsed, or even to correct 
 abuses, where these can be immediately corrected, subject to 
 special reports to Parliament in this behalf, that their acts 
 may be forthwith corrected, if they appear wrong. 
 
 K 
 
130 REFLECTIONS. PART V. 
 
 whose use these facts are collected. With the 
 facilities afforded in the titles and contents de- 
 livered to them, it should be the business of 
 every member of Parliament to have his ses- 
 sional papers bound regularly in volumes ; and, 
 before he places them on the shelves of his 
 library, to peruse every volume, and mark in it 
 what he may deem useful. What w^ould be the 
 consequence, if the judges of the land did not 
 "read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest" the 
 acts of the session ? Would not such acts be 
 badly executed, or altogether neglected ? But 
 are they not often badly made, from the failure 
 to read and understand the documents upon 
 w^hich they proceed? and, if these were read 
 and understood, would not many laws that are 
 made, never be made at all ? 
 
 Is it possible to attend to the facts disclosed 
 in these pages without making these reflections ? 
 Seeing our shipping has increased with the re- 
 moval of restraints, and our foreign trade with 
 the absence of restraints, can we believe that 
 our home industry would not have increased 
 also, but for the presence of restraints? Can 
 assent be refused to the consequences arising 
 from the exclusive privilege of the Bank of 
 England? W^hen a rise in the exchangeable 
 value of money is going on, are the Directors of 
 that bank, who are ignorant of its operation, and 
 
CIIAl'. IV. QUESTIONS. 131 
 
 could not stay its course if they were aware of 
 it, to be allowed to increase the mischiefs of its 
 consequences, and to derange the general in- 
 dustry of the country? Are the evils of mo- 
 nopoly to be continued in an exclusive privilege, 
 the most extensive in its operation of all mo- 
 nopolies, to the insecurity and uncertainty of all 
 transactions ? Are the restraints arising from a 
 dear currency to be continued, and the benefits 
 of a cheap currency to be withheld from the 
 country, in ignorance of the nature of coin, 
 bills of exchange, and bankers' notes ? Are the 
 products of industry to be limited by such re- 
 straints throughout the country ? With the in- 
 creasing demand of an increasing population for 
 food, could the most important branch of 
 industry of all have declined, and continue to 
 decline, unless by reason of the restraints im- 
 posed upon it since 1815 ? Is land to be suffered 
 to continue to be unproductive, and our agri- 
 cultural labourers to be thrown out of employ- 
 ment, through the operation of the corn laws ? 
 Is our population to be unwholesomely increased, 
 and the morals as well as industry of our labour- 
 ing poor to continue to be destroyed, by abuses 
 in the administration of the poor laws ? And, 
 in raising a necessary revenue for the state, are 
 we not to raise it in the manner which shall 
 press the least upon the general industry of the 
 
 K 2 
 
IS'-^ SUGGESTIONS. PART V. 
 
 country ? Amidst all our boasted love and cry 
 for liberty, is the freedom of industry, of all 
 kinds of freedom the most important, neither to 
 be understood nor attended to ? 
 
 Ministers, legislators old and new, men of 
 all parties, I call upon you not to take my posi- 
 tions for granted, but to enquire patiently and 
 diligently, as I have done, in order to ascertain 
 results by the evidence of facts, and then deny, 
 if you can, the conclusions I have arrived at. 
 If I am wrong as to the causes of our distress, 
 find out what those causes are. Are we to have 
 enquiries about West India distress reiterated and 
 renewed ; and are we to have no enquiry into 
 the causes of British distress ? Can the latter 
 have proceeded without a cause, or is it less 
 deserving of inquiry, or less capable of being 
 ascertained, than the former ? 
 
 Let an unrestrained impulse be given to ge- 
 neral industry, by withholding from the Bank of 
 England the renewal of its exclusive privilege, 
 and by the issue of small notes, with our present 
 standard ; or by the rejection of a standard of 
 gold, and the adoption of a standard of silver'. 
 Let capital be enabled to return to the cultiva- 
 tion of the soil, by restoring to the home grower 
 the advantages of the increasing demand of our 
 increasing population for food, which he enjoyed 
 previous to ISl.), but which have been trans- 
 
CHAP. IV. BENEFIT. 133 
 
 ferred to the dealer in foreign grain since that 
 year. Let the natural employment in the culti- 
 vation of the soil, which the poor enjoyed pre- 
 vious to 1815, be also restored to them; and then 
 the correction of the abuses of the Poor Laws, as it 
 has been already put in practice in three different 
 counties in England, will be as extensive as it will 
 be certain. Finally, let industry cease to be re- 
 strained through any legislative restraints, and 
 particularly through fiscal restraints, by a proper 
 modification of our duties of customs ; and 
 lessening our duties of excise, as our revenue 
 from customs increases ; and then — but not till 
 then — will the country take a rebound, and pro- 
 ceed in a career of prosperity, even in this 
 country before unexampled. Every thing is ripe 
 for it, — capital, — intelligence, — skill, — en- 
 terprise, — industry, swelling even to overflowing, 
 but pent up and diverted from their natural 
 course by legislative interference. 
 
 THE END. 
 
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