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AN 
 
 EFFICIENT REMEDY 
 
 FOR THE 
 
 DISTRESS OF NATIONS, 
 
 BY JOHN GRAY, 
 
 AUTHOR OF " THE SOCIAL SYSTEM ; A TREATISE ON THE PRINCIPLE OF EXCHANGE.' 
 
 EDINBURGH: 
 
 ADAM AND CHARLES BLACK, 
 
 ISooltgellers to ti^e (Queen ; 
 
 LONGMAN, BROWN, GREEN AND LONGMANS, LONDON ; 
 
 AND JOHN GUMMING, DUBLIN. 
 
 MDCCCXLII. 
 

 ii'KfcOKaS 
 
 EDINBURGH ; 
 
 PRINTED BY ANDREW SHORTREDE, 
 
 GEORGE IV. BRIDGE. 
 
PRESENTATION COPY. 
 
 To the Editor of ^^^ ^ .^<^!^^g>^g^?- c ^I2^^a^ ^^^.ae^ ^C:^^^ 
 
 With the Author^ s compliments. 
 
 Any public notice of this work, which the Editor, 
 above named, may be pleased to bestow upon it, will be 
 esteemed a favour: which favour would be enhanced by 
 a copy of the paper, containing such notice, being trans- 
 mitted to the Author's address at foot. Or, if reviewed in 
 any Magazine, or other Monthly or Quarterly periodical, 
 a note to the same address, mentioning the name and date 
 thereof, would be equally obliging. 
 
 Faldonside, GalasM^h, Scotland, 
 
BY THE SAME AUTHOR; 
 
 AND MAY BE HAD FROM THE SAME PUBLISHERS, OR FROM ANY BOOKSELLER, 
 PRICE SEVEN SHILLINGS, 
 
 THE SOCIAL SYSTEM; 
 
 A TREATISE OH 
 
 THE PKINCIPLE OF EXCHANGE. 
 
 To the above named work, frequent reference is made 
 in the present one : see also some notices of it by the 
 public press in the ninth and tenth chapters of this 
 volume; from which notices the following are extracts, — 
 
 EXTRACrr FROM THE WORK. 
 " The specific object of this work is, to state, to prove, to exemplify, and to endeavour 
 to call the attention of the public to the important fact, that it would be by no means 
 difficult to place the commercial affairs of society upon such a footing, that production 
 would become the uniform and never-failing cause of demand : or, in other words, that 
 to sell goods for money, without any limit or restriction as respects quantity or value, 
 but not without regulation as to kind, may be rendered, at all times, precisely as easy 
 as it now is to buy them toith money." — Social System, p. 16. 
 
 EXTRACTS FROM THE PUBLIC PRESS. 
 
 " This book well merits an attentive perusaL It contains much which every man 
 interested in the subject will be glad to read and reflect upon ; and we do think the 
 System merits a trial." — Metropolitan Magazine. 
 
 " The Lord Chancellor could not have stated Mr Gray's case more clearly than he has 
 done himself. We recommend his work to all who have leisure and taste for such 
 speculations, and wish the latter class were more numerous ; and we take leave of Mr 
 Gray with very great respect for his natural abilities, and a much higher opinion of his 
 acquirements than he himself appears to entertain." — Edinburgh Chronicle. 
 
 " The author, being a commercial and a practical man, has treated his subject in a 
 straightforward and intelligible style ; and making no drafts whatever on the expected 
 improvement in our moral attainments, nor resting any thing on the hope, that we may 
 ultimately become all of one mind, he has proved, in the most clear and lucid manner, 
 that production may be rendered the uniform and never-failing cause of demand." — 
 Northern Whig. 
 
 " Mr Gray does not content himself with throwing out Delphic hints, oracular of 
 what may take place, by some possibility, in some indefinite future, but he goes at once 
 into the qua modo, and shews that the Millennium of the Useful Knowledge Society may 
 as well begin five years hence as five hnn^reHi." ~ Birmingham Journal. 
 
 " An important and philosophic work. It is full of novel views of society, and dis- 
 plays, generally speaking, more correct knowledge on almost every thing connected 
 with political economy, than we ever met with in tlve compass of a single volume," 
 — Edinburgh Post. 
 
May God of h.is infinite mercy grant, that -w-hatever the coming 
 'changes in the state and history of these nations may he, they shall 
 not he the resiolt of a sweeping and headlong anarchy ; hut rather, in 
 the pacific march of improvement, may they anticipate this tremendous 
 evil, and avert it from our borders.' There is a general impression upon 
 all spirits, that something must be done : but to be done well, it m.u8t 
 not be ■'hy the hand of violence, but by the authority of legitimate 
 power, under the guidance of principle, by a governm.ent having both 
 the wisdom and righteousness to direct, and the strength to execute. 
 
 Dr Chalmers ^* On PoliUcal Econemy, in Oonnection with the 
 Moral State and Moral Prospects ofSoc'uty." 
 
PREFACE, 
 
 A PERIOD of eleven years has elapsed since I pub- 
 lished a small edition (five hundred copies) of a book, 
 entitled, " The Social System ; a Treatise on the 
 Principle of Exchange ;" and of those five hundred 
 copies, just two hundred and sixty-four still remain 
 unsold in the hands of the publisher. I mention 
 this circumstance, not in the spirit of a disappointed 
 author ; for the little notice my book received from 
 the public press and otherwise, was not altogether 
 unfavourable : whilst, in a pecuniary point of view, 
 the loss I sustained by it, though considerable, was 
 not a matter of serious consequence to me. But I 
 refer now to my former non-success, principally for 
 the purpose of shewing, that expectation of praise 
 or profit can form but a small portion of the motive 
 which induces me once more to address the public 
 upon a subject which no section of that public 
 
X PREFACE. 
 
 appears to comprehend ; however deeply every per- 
 son, without a single exception, is, of necessity, 
 interested therein. 
 
 Unshaken confidence, however, in the correctness 
 of their own views, is motive sufficiently strong to 
 influence the conduct of most men. That motive is 
 mine : I am just as satisfied as if the fact had 
 already taken place, that the principle of exchange 
 herein advocated will one day govern the commercial 
 transactions of every civilized nation. Whether it 
 will govern those of any nation within the present 
 century, it may be difficult to say : but that this 
 country is embarrassed, is not more certain than the 
 reason why it is embarrassed : whilst an efficient 
 remedy seems to be as obvious as the disease itself. 
 The remedy I now propose inevitably must and 
 will be adopted, at some period or other : it might 
 as well be so within the next five years, as within 
 the next five hundred ; and it would be far better 
 to adopt it now, than even a century hence, so far 
 as the present generation is concerned. 
 
 Impressed with this belief, I resume, under the 
 discouragement mentioned, the task of contending 
 for the establishment of a rational method of ex- 
 changing one thing for another, not merely with 
 cheerfulness, but with satisfaction and pleasure. 
 
 In the Social System, I have taken a pretty 
 comprehensive view of the general state of society. 
 
PREFACE. xi 
 
 and proposed a scheme for its reconstruction upon 
 a large scale. I have here endeavoured, as far as 
 possible, to avoid unnecessary theory and detail ; 
 my object being to shew, in as plain and concise a 
 manner as possible, why so much unmerited poverty 
 exists, and hy what means the existence of un- 
 merited poverty at all, in well civilized nations, 
 may speedily be rendered matter of history. I 
 have also endeavoured to present here such a modi- 
 fication of the plan developed in the Social System, 
 as may be both easily and quickly brought into 
 operation. 
 
 Those persons, however, who would be glad to 
 see a change for the better in the condition of man- 
 kind, must be prepared to look for such bold and 
 comprehensive measures as may be requisite to 
 eflFect such change : to attain a mighty end -we 
 must employ powerful means ; and happy will it 
 be for all classes of society, should our rulers, who 
 alone can do it, see fit to move in this matter before 
 the patience and forbearance of this long-suffering 
 generation shall have for ever passed away. 
 
 Faldonside, Galashiels, 
 November 17, 1842. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Page 
 Introduction to, and general review of, the subject, . . 1 
 
 CHAPTER n. 
 
 Plan of a Standard Bank and Mint, . . . .16 
 
 CHAPTER HI. 
 
 The Manufactories and Depots ; with a few general observations 
 
 upon foreign trade, . . • . .38 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 A few words in explanation of the nature of the accounts, . 52 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 The Argument — The Impracticables — Direct and collateral 
 influence of the proposed change — Over-production — Effect 
 of Competition — Accumulation — Revenue — How Revenue 
 may be used — Extension of the Standard Plan — Miscella- 
 neous Observations, . . . . .64 
 
xiv CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Page 
 
 The Argument concluded, in explanation of the limits of produc- 
 tion ; what ihetf are, and what they should be, with a few 
 words upon the subject of population and emigration, . 99 
 
 CHAPTER Vn. 
 
 Some Observations on the political parties of the day — Conser- 
 vatives — Whigs — Chartists, and their Charter, . U& 
 
 CHAPTER Vni. 
 
 The Appeal ; being a few words in the way of solicitation for an 
 inquiry into the merits of the System of Exchange herein 
 developed — His Grace the Duke of Wellington reminded 
 of a public invitation, . . . . 132 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 Of rather an irregular character j being reprinted notices of the 
 Social System by the public press ; namely, by the Edinburgh 
 Advertiser, Edinburgh Literary Journal, Edinburgh Spec- 
 tator, Scots Times, Edinburgh Observer, London Spectator, 
 Glasgow Chronicle, Edinburgh Chronicle, Belfast Whig, New 
 Monthly Magazine, Metropolitan Magazine, and Edinburgh 
 Evenine: Post ; with a few Observations thereon, . 141 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 The Lapidary and his Pebbles — Dedicated without permission to 
 the Editor of the Westminster Review — Concluding Re- 
 marks, . . . . . . 171 
 
CONTENTS. XV 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 Piiga 
 
 Postscript — The Atlas Prize Essay, and the Atlas and Sir Robert 
 
 Peel — An Essay upon a Small Scale, . . 195 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 Consisting chiefly of quotations from the Social System, referred 
 
 to in the previous chapters, . . » .. 2 1.9 
 
V ft R A 
 or THE 
 
 VNIYER8ITY 
 AN EFFICIENT REMEDY 
 
 FOR 
 
 THE DISTRESS OF NATIONS, 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 ,: INTRODUCTION tO, AND OENEBAL REVIEW OF, THE SUBJECT. 
 
 Every section of political and of commercial 
 society has its favourite cause for the evils that 
 afflict us, as well as its favourite antidote. I shall 
 dispute but little with any of these sections. The 
 evils at which they point may be truly such, or 
 they may not. The changes they would introduce 
 might have a beneficial tendency, or they might not. 
 But if a captive be bound with many fetters, what 
 would it avail him, that all of them be removed 
 save one, if there be yet left one of strength sufficient 
 to defy his utmost powers of resistance ? Nothing ! 
 is the reply. Yet just so much, and no more, would 
 
 A 
 
2 AN EFFICIENT REMEDY. 
 
 it avail the distressed population of this country to 
 grant them all their popular requests, without effect- 
 ing, at the same time, a total change in the monetary 
 system of society. 
 
 Here, then, is the subject of our present investiga- 
 tion : — What is the matter v^ith the existing mone- 
 tary system? What better one can be adopted? 
 It is my purpose to answer both these questions. 
 
 The fault of our present monetary system is this : 
 — Money of the existing character cannot by any 
 possibility be made to increase as fast as the aggTe- 
 gate of other commodities is capable of being increased ; 
 and, consequently, whenever other commodities are 
 increased faster than money, they must either be 
 kept on hand until the balance be restored, or else 
 they must be disposed of at a loss, even although 
 half mankind should be in the utmost need of them. 
 
 That gold cannot be increased in quantity as fast 
 as the aggregate of other things, is self-evident. We 
 can multiply corn, hemp, flax, cotton, wool, and fifty 
 things beside, to an almost indefinite extent; and 
 we can convert these materials into articles of utility 
 and luxury, by processes always easy, in many 
 instances wonderfully so. But we cannot increase 
 gold in the same ratio ; and, therefore, as gold is the 
 measure of the value of all things, all things must be 
 sold at a loss, if sold at all, whenever they are caused 
 to increase faster than this one commodity. If goods 
 be now at one, and money at one, goods must re- 
 main at one until gold shall set the example of 
 increase by becoming two ; otherwise, the result of 
 production is loss. Practically speaking, money is 
 
 i 
 
INTRODUCTORY. 3 
 
 the demand, and goods the supply ; and the reason 
 why ' the aggregate supply always exceeds the 
 aggregate demand is, that gold cannot be increased 
 as fast as the aggregate of other things. 
 
 The object of manufacturing goods is to sell them 
 for more money than they cost. But, were we to 
 make all the goods we could make, it would be just 
 as impossible to sell them for more money than they 
 cost, as it now is to put two bottles of wine into 
 one wine bottle, and to keep them both there at one 
 and the same time. If the bottle be already full, 
 we cannot put any more wine into it, until it be 
 partially or wholly emptied ; and if the money de- 
 mand in the market be supplied, then must the 
 remaining goods wait on hand until that supply be 
 partially or wholly exhausted ; else loss instead of 
 profit will be the result of their disposal. If there 
 be as much value of goods in the market as there is 
 money in the market to obtain in exchange for them, 
 all the goods that may be sent to market additionally 
 must either remain unsold in the hands of their pro- 
 prietors, or else they must bring down the price of 
 the whole quantity to just that sum of money which 
 might have been obtained for a part of the goods, 
 had the remainder never existed. 
 
 It follows, then, that as gold, or what is practi- 
 cally the same thing, bank notes, payable on demand 
 in fixed quantities of gold, can never be made to 
 increase as fast as all other marketable commodities 
 put together, no more commodities can be advan- 
 tageously brought to market than there is money in 
 the market ready to be given in exchange for them 
 
4 AN EFFICIENT REMEDY. 
 
 on remunerating terms, that is to say, at a fair mer- 
 cantile profit. 
 
 Thus demand is the cause of production — its 
 governor and its guide ; often disobeyed and disre- 
 garded, no doubt, by individuals, and even classes of 
 the community; but alv^ays at the cost of the 
 transgressor. 
 
 What I have here stated v^dll probably be re- 
 garded as mere truisms, which every body , (not 
 exactly every body — Appendix, No. I.) is av^are of, 
 and admits. But, if so, how monstrous is the 
 admission ! how prodigious the absurdity ! That 
 mankind should have hit upon a system of acting 
 by means of which the attainable quantity of one 
 thing is made to regulate the attainable quantity of 
 every thing else; although that one thing cannot, 
 from natural causes, be had in any great quantities ; 
 whilst, so far as natural causes are concerned, {Af- 
 pendid?. No. II.) the other may be multiplied to an 
 extent altogether incalculable. Our storehouses, 
 says this generation, shall be of gold, and our stores 
 shall be such as our storehouses may be large enough 
 to contain. And this is practically the case. 
 
 Here, then, our first question is answered. The 
 fault of our present monetary system is — That it 
 fetters our productive powers; throws into inextri- 
 cable confusion and disorder the whole machinery of 
 commerce, and gives rise to the existence of a national 
 anomaly, of which the inmates of a lunatic asylum 
 might be ashamed — difficulty, embarrassment, dis- 
 tress, starvation, in the midst of superabundance. 
 
 But what better system can we adopt? This is 
 
INTRODUCTORY. 5 
 
 our second ii^quiry ; and I answer it by saying, that 
 we have merely to reverse that which at present 
 subsists ^—production, now the effect of demand, must 
 become the cause of it. This is the remedy' to which 
 I refer in my title-page. In this may at any time 
 be found — an efficient remedy for the distress of 
 nations; and I believe that the ingenuity of man 
 may be defied either to produce another remedy, 
 having even the semblance of efficiency, which shall 
 not comprehend this one ; or to shew that the 
 remedy I now propose is either impracticable, or 
 that on trial it also would prove to be inefficient. 
 
 How production may be rendered the cause of 
 demand; how those glutted markets of which we 
 hear so much may create a market for themselves, I 
 shall endeavour to shew. And, premising that a 
 comprehensive view of this subject has already been 
 taken in the Social System, I shall now attempt to 
 restrict as much as possible the plan therein deve- 
 loped, in the hope of being able to render it as 
 consistent as may be practicable with the existing 
 habits, customs, and prejudices of society. The 
 following may be considered as a general outline : 
 
 The Standard of Value. — There is only one 
 thing in this world that ever can be a true standard 
 of value, and that is the thing which creates value, 
 namely, labour: brought into operation upon fixed 
 principles, having the sanction of government, and 
 being recognized by government in all its pecuniary 
 transactions with, and exactions from, the governed. 
 Money should be the transferable representative of 
 wealth, increasing and diminishing in quantity in 
 
6 AN EFFICIENT REMEDY 
 
 eooact and invanable proportion to the increase and 
 diminution of that which it represents. But no 
 money whatever can constitute a standard of value, 
 unless it be in itself destitute of value ; because all 
 valuable commodities, of whatsoever kind, are, and 
 ever must be, liable to fluctuation, whilst a true 
 standard of value can never fluctuate. 
 
 To create and maintain the existence of a standard 
 of value, it will be necessary that a section of the 
 government be appointed to establish and control a 
 great number of extensive manufactories in various 
 branches of the least speculative character. That is 
 to say, the persons intrusted with this duty are to 
 make all such goods as there is a constant want of 
 amongst the various classes of society, with the 
 exception of those which are more than commonly 
 liable to injury from being stored in warehouses for 
 a reasonable length of time ; or to depreciation from 
 change of fashion, or other similar cause. 
 
 For example, I would suggest that the following 
 should be included in the selection of manufactures 
 to be established : — woollen cloths, in all their most 
 approved kinds, colours, and qualities ; blankets and 
 flannels ; carpets and druggets ; plain cotton goods, 
 of all kinds and qualities ; English, Scotch, and 
 Irish linens, of all ordinary kinds ; plain silk goods ; 
 hosiery, gloves, hats, and ready made shoes ; cabinet 
 furniture, avoiding the more fanciful articles ; hair- 
 cloth for chairs and sofas ; ironmongery in all its un- 
 speculative departments ; edge-tools; locks and hinges 
 of all kinds ; table cutlery ; scales and weights ; 
 plain plate and window glass ; wine bottles ; plain 
 
INTRODUCTORY. 7 
 
 and cut glass for domestic use, restricting the cut 
 department to such articles as should be quite un- 
 speculative ; china and crockery, under the same 
 limitation as glass ; guns and pistols, restricted to 
 the most useful kinds ; shot ; writing, printing, and 
 packing papers, of all qualities ; types for book and 
 newspaper work of all sorts, jobbing kinds to be 
 excluded ; books, consisting of standard works only ; 
 clocks and watches of the kinds in most general 
 use ; silver plate and plated goods, under the same 
 restriction ; brass and copper ditto ; soap and candles ; 
 corks ; umbrellas. I mention these articles just as 
 they occur to my mind, and without any particular 
 attention to the order in which they are put down. 
 
 On the other hand, I would not have any thing 
 to do with such articles as shawls, lace, artificial 
 flowers, jewellery, gunpowder, fishing or shooting 
 tackle, musical instruments, equipages, nor any 
 perishable article of food. 
 
 As I have already said, the control of these various 
 factories must be vested in the hands of commis- 
 sioners appointed by the government, whilst the 
 management of them must be intrusted to respectable 
 persons, thoroughly qualified by previous experience 
 and habits of life, to conduct them in the best man- 
 ner. The managers must be empowered to engage 
 and dismiss at pleasure their own clerks, and assis- 
 tants of every kind ; and the working men and 
 women must be hired and dismissed, as at present, 
 by the manager of each factory, or by those under 
 him, whom he shall empower to do so. 
 
 These factories are to be distinguished from all 
 
8 AN EFFICIENT REMEDY. 
 
 Others in the country by the designation of standard, 
 and, in all possible cases, the goods made in them 
 are to be distinguished from other goods by a patent 
 stamp or mark, also bearing the word standard; 
 whilst the proprietors of all other manufactories are 
 to be strictly prohibited from affixing the same mark 
 to any of their goods upon any pretext whatever. 
 
 These factories are to be wholly distinct from, and 
 unconnected with, all government works, strictly 
 so called, such as the dock -yards and others. 
 
 The products of these factories are to be lodged in 
 standard warehouses or depots, also the property of 
 the government, and placed under the control of the 
 commissioners. The business of the warehouses is to 
 be conducted by managers appointed by the com- 
 missioners, as in the case of the manufactories ; the 
 requisite number of clerks and assistants being left 
 to the discretion of each manager. 
 
 At the standard warehouses or depots, all goods 
 manufactured under the control of the trade com- 
 missioners are to be offered for sale ; but by wholesale 
 only ; and only in excliangefor the standard money to 
 be presently defined, and for payment in every case 
 before delivery. {Appendij^, No. III.) 
 
 Thus the disposal of the standard goods by retail 
 would, in common with all others, be left to open 
 competition ; any and every person who should 
 choose to deal in them, being at full liberty to do 
 so; and to sell them at whatever profit he could 
 obtain ; so that competition amongst themselves 
 would regulate the profits of the retailers in precisely 
 the same manner as it does at present. 
 
INTRODUCTORY. 9 
 
 The standard money is to consist of bank notes, 
 to be issued on demand by the standard bank, to be 
 estabUshed in connection with the factories and 
 depots. In this money the wages and salaries of 
 all the standard operatives, clerks, warehousemen, 
 and managers are to be paid ; such payment being, 
 in fact, a check or order upon the standard depots, 
 for the value of each man's contribution, in labour 
 or service, towards the enrichment of their stores. 
 But these notes, being rendered upon equitable prin- 
 ciples, to be hereafter defined, a legalized tender for 
 all pecuniary obligations whatsoever^ would, in fact, 
 pass freely in every case where money should be 
 required, just as the ordinary bank note and sove- 
 reign of the present day ; every holder of a standard 
 note being by its possession constituted a proprietor 
 of that portion of the standard wealth which the 
 note should represent and would command, {^p- 
 pendia;. No. IV.) 
 
 How these notes may be rendered a legal tender, 
 upon " equitable principles," for government taxes, 
 and all pecuniary obligations whatsoever, will be 
 duly shewn: as also, by what means the govern- 
 ment, in recognizing this kind of money, has it in its 
 power to render the value of the standard note, as 
 compared with the existing note and sovereign, 
 whatever it may think proper. But this must be 
 done at the outset ; for never can the value of the 
 standard note be altered with propriety at any after 
 period. 
 
 The immutable character of the standard note, 
 takes its rise from this circumstance — an average 
 
10 AN EFFICIENT REMEDY. 
 
 price of labour — by which average, all wages, 
 salaries, and payments whatsoever, are to be regu- 
 lated, — is to be fixed upon by the trade commissioners, 
 with the consent and approval of the government ; 
 and this average, once fixed, may remain the same 
 for ever. This subject will be more fully treated 
 of in a subsequent part of the work, as well as the 
 nature of small payments in silver and copper coins. 
 But, it may here be observed, that if the average price 
 of labour per week be, for example, one pound, and the 
 average weekly labour to be exacted from the opera- 
 tives sixty hours, a pound note from that time forth 
 would be just another name for sixty hours of the 
 labour of a good workman, employed under circum- 
 stances which would compel him to do his duty. 
 And there never could be any motive for altering 
 this sum; because to advance the average, would 
 afford no increase whatever, neither would a reduc- 
 tion occasion any decrease whatever, in the real 
 wages of the labourer, which would, in fact, consist 
 of the actual produce of his labour : whilst the money 
 paid him, however much or little it might be, would 
 consist of a mere transferable title to that portion of 
 the standard stores which his own labour would 
 have contributed towards them. 
 
 The wages of labour, then, added to the cost of 
 material, in standard money, would constitute the 
 first cost of commodities. But on the disposal of 
 them at the standard depots, a per centage must be 
 added sufl&cient to maintain and increase the stan- 
 dard capital ; as also to cover the expense of the 
 salaries, incidental expenses, and any depreciation 
 
INTRODUCTORY. 11 
 
 that might take place, from injury or otherwise, in 
 the value of any standard stock. 
 
 The business of the standard bank would be of 
 the simplest character imaginable. It would consist 
 merely in the keeping of accounts with, and issuing 
 notes upon demand to, the managers of all the stan- 
 dard factories and depots. The plan of the mint, or 
 coin factory, will be duly described. But gold, 
 silver, and copper, must be treated merely as com- 
 modities, and instead of fixing the value of the stan- 
 dard note, the standard note must fix their value. 
 Their value, in common with that of every other 
 commodity, is liable to fluctuation, therefore their 
 price per ounce, in standard money, must at all times 
 consist of that precise amount of standard money 
 which it should be found necessary to give in ex- 
 change for them. 
 
 The consequence of adopting this system of ex- 
 change, would be an enormous increase in the creation 
 and distribution of real wealth ; namely, of the 
 necessaries, comforts, and luxuries of life. But as 
 money would go on increasing in an exact ratio with 
 the increase of commodities, no fall of price whatever 
 could be occasioned by any increase of production, 
 however great. Things that are multipliable, almost 
 ad libitum, by human industry, such as most arti- 
 cles of food, clothing, habitation, and furniture, would 
 become wonderfully cheap, as compared with gold 
 and silver. But this is a matter of no consequence. 
 It is no practical evil now, that silver is cheaper than 
 gold, copper cheaper than silver, and lead cheaper 
 than all three. On the contrary, in a commercial 
 
12 AN EFFICIENT REMEDY. 
 
 point of view, these differences of value are rather a 
 convenience than otherwise. For domestic purposes, 
 ornaments, and such like matters, silver and gold are 
 very desirable things, because of their greater purity, 
 cleanliness, and elegance, as compared with the baser 
 metals. But if gold were to become so scarce, that 
 a score of fertile acres, or a well-built house, would 
 no longer purchase an ounce of it, no commercial evil 
 would arise therefrom, if mercantile exchanges were 
 once put upon a right principle. 
 
 From their convenience as articles of accumula- 
 tion, as well as for the purpose of making payments 
 in certain cases to foreign nations, gold and silver 
 may be at all times both useful and desirable. Yet 
 would it matter not a straw at what comparative 
 price they should stand in the market. Though 
 a standard pound should, at some future time, ex- 
 change for less gold than a fourth weight of the 
 present sovereign, it would still be the representative 
 of so many hours of the labour of a good workman, 
 employed under the most advantageous circumstances 
 that unbounded capital could command ; and it would 
 purchase whatever these hours of labour could create. 
 Whilst every thing that should facilitate production, 
 every invention which should enable a man to do 
 to-day double the work he did yesterday, would 
 halve the price of the thing produced, and — the 
 wages of labour being fixed and immutable — conse- 
 quently double its accessibility to all. 
 
 Upon this very briefly defined system of opera- 
 tions, production would ever be the cause of demand. 
 There is no limit or restriction to this principle. Not 
 
INTRODUCTORY. 13 
 
 to mention specific trades, let us take classes of them. 
 If the standard warehouses and external market 
 overflow with the necessaries of life, let labour be 
 applied to the production of that which is more 
 luxurious. If this appears to accumulate, proceed 
 still higher in the scale, and every step in advance 
 will have the effect of extending equally employment 
 and demand. It is, indeed, difficult to see to the 
 end of this view, or to say to what height of pro- 
 sperity a nation might not be raised by the adoption 
 of a rational method of exchanging one thing for 
 another. This, however, may be safely affirmed : — 
 Its people might possess and enjoy the utmost wealth 
 that their productive powers would enable them to 
 create, whilst no able individual whatever, except 
 the idle and the profligate, could fail to obtain his 
 respective share. 
 
 Let the government look to this subject ; let com- 
 petent persons be appointed to investigate the prin- 
 ciple, for the adoption of which I am contending. If 
 this prove to be unassailable, then let a committee 
 be instructed to mature the plan and to procure the 
 necessary estimates. Then give it the sanction of an 
 Act of Parliament, advancing the necessary funds to 
 begin with, and rendering the standard note a legal 
 tender in all domestic transactions whatsoever. And 
 though all considerable undertakings are attended 
 at the outset with dangers and difficulties, more or 
 less, none of an insuperable character could arise in 
 the present instance. Under the influence of the 
 system of exchange I contend for, production must 
 become the unfailing cause of demand, instead of 
 
14 AN EFFICIENT REMEDY. 
 
 remaining, in its present position, the effect of it. 
 Let this great truth be once publicly seen and under- 
 stood, and a flood of light will burst upon mankind 
 as to the nature and causes of their present distresses : 
 whilst all minor difficulties which might, and no 
 doubt would, attend the first establishment of this 
 system, will become as but a little dust in the balance, 
 and as easily will they be swept away. 
 
 No other means whatever can much longer save 
 this country from internal convulsion. The produc- 
 tive powers of labour that now exist may be com- 
 pared with the overcharged boiler of a powerful 
 engine, ready to burst, and to overwhelm us with 
 destruction. The only safety-valve is freedom of 
 exchange, by the opening of which, not only may 
 all be rendered safe, but the apparent evil will forth- 
 with become the greatest imaginable good. Refuse 
 to open this valve — refuse to alter the nature of the 
 currency, and all other schemes for the melioration 
 of the social condition will prove to be vain and 
 futile. The great political parties are equally and 
 thoroughly stone blind to the real nature of the 
 disease by which society is afflicted, and, conse- 
 quently, to the nature of the remedy that it is neces- 
 sary to administer. Abolish all import duties — 
 candfel the national debt — raise the money necessary 
 for the support of government by the aid of magic, 
 remitting every tax that now exists — place in turn 
 every class of politicians in power, — still, however 
 pure may be their intentions, and however wise their 
 general measures, the relief they may be able to 
 afford will be trifling and evanescent. The disasters 
 
INTRODUCTORY. 15 
 
 that have recently overtaken us will again and 
 again recur with equal and increasing violence, until 
 anarchy and confusion shall peril the very existence 
 both of public authority and of private right. 
 
 Having thus endeavoured to give a general out- 
 line of the proposed plan of exchange, I shall now 
 proceed to separate it a little into parts ; and before 
 I conclude, I hope to be able to demonstrate its suffi- 
 ciency for the purposes that have already been 
 defined. 
 
16 AN EFFICIENT REMEDY. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 t>LAN OP A STANDARD BANK AND MINT. 
 
 The first step to be taken towards the establish- 
 ment of a rational system of exchange, must be that 
 of appointing commissioners to carry the plan into 
 effect. These being selected and empowered to act, 
 they must first proceed to establish the standard 
 bank, with such a capital as the government shall 
 be pleased to allow it to begin with. 
 
 To enable the commissioners fully and fairly to 
 conduct the most extensive as well as the most im- 
 portant experiment that ever was made in this world, 
 a grant of fifty millions would be no great stretch of 
 liberality. And, seeing that much time must neces- 
 sarily elapse before the formation of details, erection 
 of buildings, and other preparatory works could be 
 completed, and the new mode of exchange brought 
 into operation, I think that such grant of fifty mil- 
 lions should not be chargeable with any interest, or 
 considered as a loan at all ; but that it should be 
 freely given back by the government to those who 
 would be called upon to contribute it, — the commu- 
 nity at large. 
 
THE BANK AND MINT. 17 
 
 With the means thus placed at their disposal, the 
 commissioners must now purchase or erect, in some 
 convenient part of London, the standard bank ; 
 which being done, and a bank governor appointed, 
 he is to become forthwith the custodier of the grant : 
 the first payment out of which fund would have been 
 already made for the bank premises thems^ves. The 
 commissioners must then, with the aid of competent 
 advisers, go on to purchase or erect all th-e buildings 
 and machinery necessary for the commencement of 
 the various manufactories ; every kind of manufac- 
 tory being established in the district or locality where 
 it is at present most extensively carried on. All 
 payments for these manufactories are to be made by 
 the standard bank ; which items of expenditure will 
 form the credit side of the bank-account with the 
 commissioners. At this stage of the proceedings, all 
 the payments by the bank are to be made in the 
 existing money of the country, not in its own 
 notes. 
 
 Thus much being effected, all the manufactories 
 selected to begin with being built, and fitted with 
 the requisite machinery and implements — not ma- 
 terials — ready to commence work, the whole of the 
 remaining capital of the bank should be forthwith 
 converted into bullion, and handed over to the 
 governor of the mint. So that if, for example, 
 twenty-five millions should serve to purchase a suffi- 
 cient fixed capital, consisting of buildings and ma- 
 chinery, to commence with, there would remain 
 twenty-five millions more to purchase the materials 
 necessary for the production of goods for the market. 
 
 ITY J 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
 ^' iViX 
 
18 AN EFFICIENT REMEDY. 
 
 Arrived at this point, the next requisition would 
 be an Act of Parliament, rendering the standard 
 note, to be now issued by the standard bank, in 
 payment for all materials, labour and expenses of 
 whatever kind, in and for the use of the standard 
 factories, a legal tender in payment of government 
 taxes, and of all pecuniary claims and obligations 
 whatsoever, existing and to exist. All other banks 
 having thenceforth the option of paying the demands 
 upon them in gold coin, at its current market price 
 in standard money, or in standard bank notes, as 
 they might prefer ; and which, in fact, would prac- 
 tically be the same thing. 
 
 And this seems to be the place where it is proper 
 to shew how the standard notes may equitably be 
 rendered a legal tender in payment of all pecuniary 
 obligations. At least, I shall be able to shew in 
 what manner pecuniary claims of every kind may 
 be compensated, in standard money, as equitably as 
 it is possible to compensate them in money of any 
 description whatever. 
 
 A debt, then, is justly paid, and only justly paid, 
 when it is compensated in money, of whatever kind, 
 which gives back to the creditor as great a com- 
 mand over the necessaries, comforts, and luxuries of 
 life, as the money, or other value, which created the 
 obligation, gave to the borrower ; provided always 
 that the creditor get the benefit of all the public im- 
 provements and useful inventions that may have 
 come into existence during the interval subsisting 
 between the period of contracting the debt and that 
 of extinguishing it. As for instance, if one man lent 
 
THE BANK AND MINT. . 19 
 
 another, twenty years ago, as much money as would 
 then have commanded the labour of a given number 
 of good workmen for a year, employed under the 
 most advantageous circumstances, and aided by the 
 best skill and machinery then existing; I conceive 
 him to be justly repaid if he receive an equal sum 
 of money, of whatever kind, provided it will give 
 him the like command over the labour of an equal 
 number of good workmen for a year, employed under 
 the like circumstances, and aided by the best skill 
 and machinery now existing. This, at least, is the 
 nearest approximation that can ever be made towards 
 fairness. As to strict justice in every case it is out 
 of the question ; for such have been the fluctuations 
 in the value of money from time to time in this 
 country, that probably no old-standing debt has ever 
 yet been justly repaid; whilst the value of long 
 leases has, in hundreds of instances, been totally 
 changed by the operation of the same cause. 
 
 To approach as nearly, then, as may be possible 
 to the desideratum which has been defined, a deli- 
 berate and comprehensive view must be taken of 
 existing claims and obligations, including leases of 
 every kind ; and, a determination being once arrived 
 at, the value of the standard note must be fixed 
 accordingly : that is to say, it must be fixed with 
 reference to the situation of the greatest proportion 
 of creditors and obligants, in number and amount, 
 who may exist throughout the kingdom, or who may 
 have claims upon its inhabitants. I may mention, 
 that I have treated this subject before in the Social 
 System : Appendix?, No» V. 
 
20 AN EFFICIENT REMEDY. 
 
 But, I have said, that the government, in recog- 
 nizing the new system of exchange, has it in its 
 power to render the value of the standard note, as 
 compared with the existing note and sovereign, 
 whatever it may think proper. This is a very sim- 
 ple matter, as I shall .now endeavour to shew. 
 
 The average wages of labour to be paid in all the 
 standard factories to workmen of average skill, and 
 employed in works of an average character, and by 
 which all salaries and pecuniary remunerations 
 whatsoever are to be regulated, is to be fixed and 
 invariable. And, as has been already shewn, so far 
 as the operatives and other persons employed in the 
 standard works are concerned, its amount is of no 
 moment whatever. But its value would be of first- 
 rate consequence to all presently existing debtors, 
 creditors, and leaseholders, whenever the standard 
 note should be rendered a legal tender. 
 
 To exemplify this, we will put two extreme cases, 
 often the best possible tests of truth. Suppose, then, 
 first, that the average weekly wages of a good ope- 
 rative were to be fixed at five shillings. In this 
 case, it is clear that all old-standing creditors would 
 be great gainers ; because, whilst every five shillings 
 which they had lent would probably not have com- 
 manded the labour of a good workman for even a 
 couple of days, every five shillings they should receive 
 back, would command such labour for a week. This 
 would be obviously unjust towards the debtor, who 
 would be made to pay his real debt at least twice 
 in place of once. Again, let us suppose the average 
 wages to be fixed at five pounds, then all old-stand- 
 
 I 
 
THE BANK AND MINT. 21 
 
 ing creditors would be defrauded; because, whilst 
 five pounds of the money they lent would have 
 commanded the labour of at least three or four good 
 workmen for a week, the five pounds of repayment 
 would only command the labour of one such work- 
 man for a week. 
 
 Justice lies between these two extremes ; and it is 
 evident that the question. What should the average 
 rate of wages really be? is one of the very first 
 importance, requiring the most careful and deliberate 
 consideration of the commissioners. I shall not here 
 hazard even a conjecture upon the subject, my object 
 being solely to exhibit the principle upon which the 
 settlement of a matter involving enormous interests 
 ought to proceed. 
 
 To guard against a misconception which may 
 possibly arise at this point in the mind of a casual 
 reader, to whom the subject may be altogether new, 
 it may be necessary to remark, that whilst the ave- 
 rage rate of wages would be fixed and immutable, 
 the rate of individual wages would be as much open 
 to competition as ever. The best workmen would 
 everywhere receive the highest wages, inferior work- 
 men lower wages, and young persons of both sexes 
 payments in proportion to their respective ages and 
 abilities ; whilst operatives, in some trades requiring 
 extra skill or labour, would be paid more than the 
 average rate ; and those in trades requiring rather 
 less than the mediocrity of talent, or industry, some- 
 what less than the average. The average, indeed, 
 so often spoken of, would be merely the basis on 
 which all contracts would be founded. It would be 
 
22 AN EFFICIENT REMEDY. 
 
 the presumed weekly sum which every man would 
 be entitled to receive ; any variation therefrom, one 
 way or other, being fair subject for debate between 
 the hirer and the hired : the pound standard then, 
 like the pound sterling now, forming the unit of all 
 pecuniary transactions. 
 
 / From this digression, we go back to the business 
 of the standard bank, which would consist merely 
 in keeping accounts with all the standard managers; 
 debiting each one with all the money paid to him 
 or to his order, as also with all the goods sent to him 
 by other managers ; and crediting him with the 
 amount of all money received from him, and with 
 the value of all the goods he should transmit to other 
 managers ; all the managers employed in the standard 
 works and warehouses being accredited by the bank, 
 and by each other, to whatever amount they should 
 require. 
 
 But, as I have shewn in the Social System, it 
 would not be necessary for any manager to keep a 
 debtor and creditor account with any other; but 
 each one with the bank, and with it only. This 
 will be more fully exemplified hereafter. 
 
 And really, few as have been the words bestowed 
 upon it, the bank business seems to be already defined. 
 The bank would, in fact, be the mere counting-house 
 appertaining to the standard works, paying all claims 
 whatsoever upon it in its own notes. 
 
 Branch banks in Dublin, Edinburgh, and through- 
 out the kingdom, must be duly established. But as 
 it is my present purpose to exhibit the principles and 
 main features of a very extensive project, it would 
 
THE BANK AND MINT. 23 
 
 soon plunge us into too many details were I to 
 attempt the definition here of every minor arrange- 
 ment. Suffice it to say, that the business of the 
 branch banks would be to facilitate the transactions 
 of the head office, the nature of which I have already 
 pointed out. 
 
 We now arrive at a very important part of our 
 subject, being also one which may be a little startling 
 at first sight. But the proposition about to be sub- 
 mitted here, I am convinced will stand the test of 
 the most rigid scrutiny to which the mind of man 
 may be able to subject it. 
 
 The standard note has already been defined. A 
 thousand pounds of standard money, then, having, 
 for example, been paid to operatives as the wages of 
 their labour, and another thousand pounds expended 
 in the purchase of the materials on which they will 
 have wrought ; the combined value of such labour 
 and material in its wrought state will consequently 
 be two thousand pounds standard. But it is obvi- 
 ously impossible that an equal quantity of such 
 manufactured goods, of whatever kind they may be, 
 can go on from year to year, and from age to age — 
 as our present mode of acting would seem to suppose 
 they should — to exchange for a certain fixed weight 
 of gold or silver. These metals may become scarcer 
 and more scarce, in comparison with the generality 
 of manufactured goods, a thing most likely to happen : 
 or, they may be supposed to become more and more 
 plentiful ; an event, I conceive, not to be reasonably 
 looked for. It follows, therefore, that, adhering to 
 the present plan of reckoning money in pounds, shil- 
 
24 AN EFFICIENT REMEDY. 
 
 lings, and pence, and I see no good reason for 
 changing it, {Appendia;, No. VI.) it is quite impossible 
 that the shilling, being the twentieth part of a pound 
 of fixed vnlue, can go on for ever and ever to be of a 
 fixed weight, any more than the quantity of corn, 
 wine, coals, or mutton, attainable from time to time 
 in exchange for a pound note of fixed value, should 
 be immutable. The value of the proposed standard 
 note is precluded by its very nature from liabihty to 
 change ; and consequently, the weight of a silver 
 twentieth of such note must be precisely one-twen- 
 tieth part of the weight of silver attainable in ex- 
 change for it, however much or little that may chance 
 to be. And the same observation applies equally to 
 gold. The silver coins now in use are just so many 
 little silver absurdities, every one of which might 
 properly be impressed with the motto, " False pre- 
 tence," seeing that it is not, nor ever can be, 
 what it pretends to be, a thing of changeless 
 value. 
 
 But before I proceed to shew upon what footing 
 the coinage ought to be put, and upon what footing 
 it may be put, so as to work as smoothly and plea- 
 santly as a well constructed and well kept machine, 
 for all the purposes to which it is or ever can be 
 applied, it will be well for us briefly to review 
 one of the proposals that have already been sub- 
 mitted. 
 
 It has been said, not merely that the government 
 should consent to take the standard note in payment 
 of the taxes — the value of said note being previously 
 determined upon with government approval, and 
 
THE BANK AND MINT. 25 
 
 that it should be a legal tender in payment of all 
 existing claims and obligations, — but also that all 
 the banks should be thenceforth relieved from the 
 obligation of paying their notes in fixed quantities of 
 gold ; the option being given them of paying their 
 notes either in the standard paper currency, or in gold 
 at its market price in standard money for the time 
 being, which in effect is the same thing. It would, 
 therefore, be necessary, at the time of the introduc- 
 tion of the standard note into general circulation, to 
 cancel the whole of the silver and copper coin 
 throughout the country, and to substitute therefor 
 silver and copper coin constructed upon a rational 
 principle. That is to say, in case a shilling, the 
 twentieth of a standard pound, should chance to be 
 either heavier or lighter than the shilling of the 
 present day, as is most likely, then the existing coins 
 must be cancelled. For suppose that the new silver 
 coinage were to be only partially made use of, and 
 that the new shilling should be somewhat lighter 
 than the present one ; a consequence would be, that 
 as the new shilling would pass in the market for as 
 much as the old one, all the old ones would imme- 
 diately disappear, seeing that there would be an 
 obvious profit to be gained by the hoarding of them. 
 And the same may be said of copper. The change 
 of coinage must, therefore, be complete and entire 
 throughout the three kingdoms, and that simulta- 
 neously with the opening of the standard depots for 
 the sale of commodities to the public. 
 
 The plan of the mint, therefore, must be changed, 
 or at least a mint must be established in connection 
 
26 AN EFFICIENT REMEDY. 
 
 with the standard factories and warehouses, the busi- 
 ness of which I now proceed to define. 
 
 The master of the mint, then, being supposed, in 
 common with the other master manufacturers and 
 managers, to be prepared with buildings, machinery, 
 and apparatus, for the carrying on of his work — a 
 work differing in no respect in its principle of acting 
 from any ordinary manufactory — and having at 
 this stage of the proceedings the twenty-five millions 
 sterling of bullion, (the supposed surplus of the fund 
 advanced by government ; one half of which is pre- 
 sumed to be already expended in the purchase of 
 buildings, machinery, and other works,) in his pos^ 
 session, is to proceed thus : 
 
 The nature of the standard note being previously 
 explained to the public — (it being made known to 
 all whom it may concern, that the standard money 
 is to be forthwith used in payment of all the persons 
 employed in the standard works, as also for the pur- 
 chase of all goods and materials to be used and 
 manufactured in said works ; and that as the pay- 
 ment which an average workman is to receive will 
 be at all times so much, the standard note must, 
 therefore, of necessity, command such a portion, 
 defining it, of the produce of his labour ; or — the 
 note being a legal tender in all other purchases — of 
 the equivalent labour of any average man, howso- 
 ever employed, who shall bring the results thereof 
 into the market) — the master of the mint must pro- 
 ceed to offer a given sum, say, for example, one 
 million standard, for the largest quantity of pure 
 gold that any contractor will give in exchange for 
 
THE BANK AND MINT. 27 
 
 such sum, within a specified time ; another million 
 standard for the largest quantity of pure silver that 
 any contractor will give in exchange for it ; and, in 
 like manner, a few thousand pounds, suppose ten, 
 for the largest quantity of copper that may be 
 obtained in exchange for that sum. Every con- 
 tractor being, of course, required to find proper 
 security for the due performance of his engage- 
 ment. 
 
 ^ The first public contract of this kind would, 
 doubtless, be a puzzling one, affording the loan- 
 mongers a new and curious subject for speculation, 
 the problem for them to solve in their own minds 
 being — If I give so much gold, silver, or copper, for 
 a one pound note now, what will that note be likely 
 to purchase afterwards ? that is to say, within the 
 period when I propose to bring my adventure to a 
 balance ? and which will be of the greater value to 
 me, that which I propose to give, or that which I 
 am likely to obtain ? If I can replace the value I 
 part with, with a less number of standard notes 
 than I receive in exchange for it, I gain the diffe- 
 rence ; but if to replace that value I am obliged to 
 give more standard notes than I receive, then I lose 
 the difference. 
 
 This, I have admitted, would be a perplexing 
 question in the first instance, but it would be less 
 and less so on every future occasion ; because the 
 value of gold, silver, and copper in standard money, 
 would very speedily become as regular as that of a 
 loaf of bread, and indeed much more so. 
 
 Well, the contracts being concluded, a quantity 
 
28 AN EFFICIENT REMEDY. 
 
 of gold, of silver, and of copper, would be obtained 
 by the master of the mint, who would pay for the 
 same by an order on the standard bank ; and for 
 the amount of which order he would be debited by 
 the bank ; he is then to proceed as follows : 
 
 The weight of silver being ascertained, he divides 
 the quantity obtained in exchange for a million 
 standard into four millions of parts, and these are 
 his five shilling pieces ; into eight millions of parts 
 for his half crowns ; into twenty millions of parts 
 for his shillings ; into forty millions of parts for his 
 sixpences ; or into sixty millions of parts for his 
 fourpenny pieces ; or rather, this is the principle on 
 which his division must be made, a due portion of 
 the whole weight of silver being allotted to the 
 several denominations of coin that have been enu- 
 merated. 
 
 With the copper the master of the mint does the 
 same thing as with the silver : the quantity obtained 
 for each pound standard being divided into two 
 hundred and forty parts for pennies, and into four 
 hundred and eighty parts for halfpennies ; so that 
 here we have crowns, half crowns, shillings, six- 
 pences, fourpennies, pence, and halfpence, to which 
 may be added farthings, just as we have at present. 
 But it would not be a matter of the least consequence 
 whatever, what should be the actual weight of these 
 coins. Their weight may be the same as at present, 
 it may be more, or it may be less, even to the 
 extent of double or quadruple, or to the diminution 
 of a half or a quarter ; but still there would be no 
 depreciation of the currency, nor ever could be any ; 
 
THE BANK AND MINT. ^ 29 
 
 neither would there be any advance in the value 
 thereof, even though the weight of the shilling 
 should come to be doubled. Gold, silver, and copper 
 might, indeed, come to rise and fall in price ; and, 
 doubtless, from time to time they would do so. 
 But these are not the currency at all. The two 
 latter are merely the most convenient commodities 
 we can hit upon to convert into small pieces for the 
 purpose of rendering easy the effecting of small pur- 
 chases, and that of enabling us to pay the odd 
 shillings and pence which come at the end of larger 
 pecimiary transactions. And however public preju- 
 dice and public ignorance might startle at the first 
 exhibition of coins of variable weight and fixed 
 denomination, the objection to them would perish 
 almost in its birth ; seeing that the principle on 
 which such issue should take place being sound, the 
 public would very speedily come to recognize it as 
 such, more especially as the change would not 
 occasion a particle of inconvenience to a single 
 individual. 
 
 A sufficient quantity of silver and copper coin, 
 then, being manufactured by the mint on the prin- 
 ciple I have defined, it is ready for issue to the 
 public, and may forthwith be had at the mint, 
 either in exchange for standard notes, or for equal 
 weights of silver and copper, either in the shape of 
 old coin or otherwise. And thus the new coin 
 would be brought into general use throughout the 
 country. 
 
 Now, after the first general issue of the new silver 
 and copper coinage, it is obvious that one of three 
 
ao AN EFFICIENT REMEDY. 
 
 things would happen : — Either the material of the 
 new coin (I shall here speak of silver only) would 
 rise in price, or fall in price, as compared with its 
 price at the period of the first coinage, or it would 
 not do either. But, as has been already remarked, 
 a change in the value of silver would be much more 
 likely to take place soon after the first coinage, than 
 at any subsequent period. Let us take the three 
 cases, therefore, and see what would require to be 
 done in each. 
 
 I. If silver remain at the same price, that is to 
 say, if the standard note should continue to purchase 
 the same weight of it as at the starting, then no 
 change would be requisite in the weight of the future 
 silver coins ; but more and more must be made, of 
 the same weight as at first, as they should be re- 
 quired to supply the current demand for them : a 
 stock of coins being at all times on sale at the mint, 
 either in exchange for standard bank notes, or for 
 equal weights of silver, as should be demanded. 
 
 II. If silver should rise in price in the course of 
 time, as compared with its price at the time of its 
 first issue, then a new contract would be necessary ; 
 and these contracts should always be large, so as to 
 prevent as much as possible trifling and insignificant 
 variations. We shall suppose, then, that a less 
 weight of silver is now obtained for a million of 
 money standard than in the first instance. It follows 
 that precisely the same thing has to be done now 
 which was done before. The weight of silver ob- 
 
THE BANK AND MINT. 31 
 
 tained, be it whatever it may, must be divided into 
 twenty millions of parts to come at the shilling, and 
 so in like proportion with the rest of the coins. This 
 being done, the mint must forthwith issue equal 
 weights of the new coin for equal weights of the old. 
 But the old being somewhat heavier than the new, 
 every considerable holder of silver coin would gain 
 a certain number of coins by the exchange ; and, as 
 the price of other commodities would not be affected 
 by this procedure, every holder would be a gainer of 
 whatever articles of value the coins so gained would 
 enable him to purchase, — a matter of no more con- 
 sequence, in a public point of view, than it now is 
 that corn, wine, sugar, tea, and many other commo- 
 dities, are a little dearer at one time than they are 
 at another. Neither would there be any greater 
 temptation then to hoard silver on speculation, than 
 there now is to hoard any of the ordinary articles of 
 traffic. Indeed, there would be far less temptation 
 of the kind, because the fluctuations in the value of 
 silver would soon become very trifling, and easier to 
 be foreseen by every one, than those in the value of 
 such things as tea, coffee, sugar, and most articles of 
 present speculation. 
 
 III. Our third alternative is, that silver should 
 fall in price ; that is to say, more silver instead of 
 less may, in course of time, come to be given for the 
 standard note, as compared with the quantity that 
 could be obtained for it at the outset. Then, on the 
 occasion of the next contract for silver, and a greater 
 weight of it than formerly being obtained for a mil- 
 
32 AN EFFICIENT REMEDY. 
 
 lion standard, it follows, that the new silver coins of 
 every denomination are to be heavier in proportion. 
 In which case, all persons would be entitled to refuse 
 the old silver coinage, and to require the new in all 
 their pecuniary transactions with each other. And 
 thus, whilst in the former instance all holders of 
 silver would transmit their coins to the mint to be 
 exchanged for new, seeing that they would gain by 
 doing so, as they would get a surplus of new in 
 exchange for the old ; so now all persons must ex- 
 change them in the like manner for an equal weight 
 of new coin, although they would now get less in 
 number ; because the public would no longer consent 
 to take the old coins at their full nominal value. 
 
 In the case of the copper coinage, precisely the 
 same thing would have to be done as in that of 
 silver. 
 
 It is necessary, in a work of this nature, to endea- 
 vour to be clear at all points — to remove every 
 difficulty as we go on, and in some instances to 
 anticipate objections that may never arise, for the 
 purpose of shewing the bearings of the principle con- 
 tended for in its various ramifications. But practi- 
 cally speaking, there would be no semblance of diffi- 
 culty or inconvenience arising from the issue of coins 
 of a fixed denomination and variable weight. The 
 silver and copper coins would only be a legal tender, 
 the one for sums not exceeding twenty shillings, and 
 the other for sums not exceeding one shilling. The 
 variations in their weight would be quite inconsider- 
 able at any one time ; they might not, except at 
 first, occur but at long intervals ; and whenever they 
 
THE BANK AND MINT. 33 
 
 should occur, there would really be but little trouble 
 or inconvenience occasioned by them, — the more 
 especially as the variations of which I have spoken 
 need not take place in gold coin at all, but only in 
 silver and copper. In the latter of which, it is not 
 very likely that people would find it worth their 
 while to speculate upon minute differences between 
 the actual and nominal value of a coin, the legal 
 tender of which would be restricted to a shilling. 
 
 I shall here suggest, however, a very simple plan, 
 by means of which silver coins, (and copper coins too, 
 if it should be thought necessary,) of existing value, 
 may at all times be easily and instantly recognized. 
 By existing value, I mean the value at any given 
 period as compared with a former one ; the object 
 being to prevent coins of lighter weight than they 
 should be from being readily passed for others of 
 proper weight. This plan is merely to number each 
 separate issue of coin, whenever any change shall 
 take place in the weight of it. Say that an issue 
 take place now of all the five different kinds of silver 
 coin. Let this coin be conspicuously marked, in some 
 part of the reverse of it, No. 1 ; and continue the use 
 of this number until a change take place in the 
 weight. A change taking place in the weight, 
 whether for the heavier or lighter, let the next issue, 
 and all future issues, be marked No. 2, until a far- 
 ther change of weight call for the adoption of the 
 next numeral ; and so on. 
 
 Very rarely, however, would it, I suspect, happen 
 that old coins would be offered in place of new ones ; 
 for unless we find out a method of obtaining silver 
 
 c 
 
34 AN EFFICIENT REMEDY. 
 
 much faster than we can obtain it at the present 
 time, it is probable that the last-dated coinage will 
 generally be the lightest ; so that the old would dis- 
 appear from general circulation as a matter of course 
 it being at all times profitable to withdraw it. In 
 case, however, a change of the other sort should take 
 place, that is to say, if the new silver coin should 
 come at any time to be heavier than its predecessor, 
 then the conspicuous numbers I have suggested 
 would render the detection of the old coin the work 
 of an instant. If coin No. '2, for example, should 
 have superseded No. 1, no person would take No. 1 
 if No. 2 should be the heavier. 
 
 We now come to the last division of this subject — 
 the golden part of it. A gold coinage, for the ordi- 
 nary purposes of domestic exchange, is just as rational 
 a specimen of economy as would be that of a house- 
 wife who, for all domestic purposes of whatsoever 
 kind, should decline to make use of any but golden 
 pots and pans, even though iron or tin ones ivould 
 answer her purpose as well or better. 
 
 Whenever we shall adopt a rational method of 
 exchanging one thing for another, we shall cease to 
 have any use for golden money, of no greater value 
 than ten or twenty shillings. Paper is infinitely 
 preferable in exiery point of view. Paper may be 
 rendered a standard of value ; gold never. Whilst, 
 as compared with gold, paper is more convenient, 
 lighter, less liable to be paid away by mistake ; and 
 it is incomparably more difficult to forge a well 
 planned and executed bank note, than it is to imitate 
 gold with a baser metal sufficiently well to impose 
 
THE BANK AND MINT. 35 
 
 upon the public. {Appendia?, No. VIL) I can dis- 
 cover no utility, therefore, in gold coinage of the 
 existing kind. But if gold coins of ten and twenty 
 shillings value v^ere to be used in connection v^ith 
 the standard note, all that I have said of silver ap- 
 plies equally to gold ; there is no difference in the 
 two cases. The coins must vary in weight according 
 to the price of gold in the market, the principle and 
 plan of dealing with such changes being already 
 defined in what has been said of silver. I repeat, 
 however, emphatically, that I think we would be 
 infinitely better without any such golden toys. 
 
 For the purposes of foreign commerce, emigTation, 
 accumulation, and some others, a coin consisting of 
 an ounce of gold, bearing such a stamp as is usually 
 impressed on coins to certify at once their purity and 
 weight, would be one of great utility. A Queen or 
 King, as the case might be, would be a suitable 
 name for such a coin. A queen would not be very 
 liable to be worn out by grinding against other coins 
 in a man or woman's pocket ; neither would the mal- 
 practices of East Smithfield be so easily carried on 
 without detection as they are at present. I allude 
 to the well known method of manufacturing gold 
 dust. Few persons would lightly take coins of this 
 description. They would be worth the trouble of 
 weighing, when accepted in payment for any thing, 
 and they would be usually conveyed from place to 
 place in packages calculated to secure them from 
 friction and injury of every kind. 
 
 The 'calue of these coins in standard money must 
 be come at in the same manner as that of silver, 
 
36 AN EFFICIENT REMEDY. 
 
 namely, by contracts, offering large sums, such as a 
 million standard, for the largest number of ounces of 
 gold that shall be given in exchange for the same 
 within a stated period. Divide a million standard, 
 reduced to its lowest denomination, that of farthings, 
 by the number of ounces of gold obtained, and you 
 have the price of the ounce of gold in standard 
 money. 
 
 These coins, as well as similar ones of silver, 
 (ounces of silver,) which might be called Nobles, 
 should just be a commodity to be sold at the mint 
 at such prices as they might be worth in standard 
 money, upon the same principle as any other mar- 
 ketable article. The price of these queens and nobles 
 in standard money would serve as a guide, by means 
 of which foreign merchants and others would be 
 enabled to compare the price of goods in our market 
 with the price of them in other markets, in fixed 
 quantities of gold and silver. 
 
 So soon as it should have been ascertained, by 
 the test I have mentioned, that of large contracts, 
 what should be the relative value of the pound 
 standard as compared with the pound sterling, the 
 fifty millions sterling — now partly in buildings and 
 partly in bullion — first advanced by the government, 
 should be forthwith converted, in the standard bank 
 and mint books, into standard money; and every 
 money transaction throughout the kingdom, from 
 that time forth, should take place, and every account- 
 book should be kept, in standard money, and in it 
 only. 
 
 A right understanding of the foregoing chapter 
 
THE BANK AND MINT. 37 
 
 will be essential to enable the reader to form a cor- 
 rect judgment of the entire scheme, which I here 
 venture to lay before him under a title, not certainly- 
 remarkable for the modesty of its pretensions, — An 
 efficient remedy for the distress of nations. 
 
38i AN EFFICIENT REMEDY. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 IHff.MA«Ul?ACXO»lES AND DEPOTS, WITH A FEW GENERAL OBSERVATIONS UPOW 
 FOREIGN TRADE. 
 
 We are now to suppose a large nnmber of manu- 
 factories of various kinds to be in readiness for 
 working ; that is to say^ built or bought and furnished 
 with all the machinery and implements essential to 
 their operation in the most approved manner ; but 
 at this stage, without any of the materials to be 
 wrought up into marketable goods. Each of the 
 factories has also its appointed manager ; and, under 
 him, engaged by himself, the necessary clerks and 
 assistants ; and, lastly, operatives ready to put the 
 work into active operation. 
 
 The manager then proceeds forthwith to procure 
 the materials for his work, whatever they may be. 
 And these he buys, in the first instance, with money 
 drawn as he may require it, from the standard bank ; 
 his future materials being either bought as at first, or 
 else transmitted to him without payment from other 
 standard factories or warehouses,, as the case may 
 be. He also draws money from the bank to pay 
 weekly his operatives, and, at stated periods, hi& 
 clerks' and assistants' salaries, as also his own. 
 
MANUFACTORIES AND DEPOTS. 39 
 
 In engaging his operatives, he is to bear in mind, 
 that the average rate of wages is to be the basis of 
 every agreement. That upon no pretext whatever 
 is he to give what may he justly considered a fair 
 average workman, one farthing more qr less per week 
 than the average rate of wages, as fixed by the com- 
 missioners ; and that, in every instance where less 
 or more than such wages shall be given by him, a 
 reason is to be briefly noted in a book containing a 
 list of his workmen, why such variation shall have 
 been made. Which book, as well as all his other 
 account books, is at all times to be open to the in- 
 spection of, and periodically to be inspected by, 
 competent persons appointed to that duty by the 
 trade commissioners. 
 
 Certain classes of manufactures, requiring operatives 
 of less than average skill or industry, must pay their 
 average workmen a trifle less than the general ave- 
 rage rate of wages ; and certain other classes, requiring 
 operatives of extra skill or industry, must pay their 
 average workmen a trifle more than the general 
 average rate of wages. But all the works to be so 
 held as deserving of less or more than average pay- 
 ments, must be specified by the trade commissioners, 
 not left to the master manufacturers themselves. 
 The amount of such variation must also, in every 
 ease, be fixed by the commissioners ; and the varia- 
 tion in any given occupation, must also extend to all 
 the standard factories engaged in that occupation 
 throughout the kingdom. 
 
 The principle on ^ which these variations should 
 take place, and on which they do in fact take place 
 
40 AN EFFICIENT REMEDY. 
 
 at the present time, is sufficiently explained by Dr 
 Adam Smith, whom in my former work I have quoted 
 on the subject. {Appendia;, No. VIII.) But with- 
 out detailing all the reasons which might be given, 
 it is sufficiently obvious, that fifty ordinary workmen, 
 employed for a given number of hours in an iron- 
 foundery, for instance, subject to all the toil and broil 
 and natural unpleasantness of such a situation, ought, 
 in fairness, to receive a higher rate of wages than 
 that which should be given to fifty other men, 
 employed for an equal number of hours in some 
 occupation having no such toilsome or disagreeable 
 conditions : such, for example, as that of an ordinary 
 weaver, a printer, compositor, or a bookbinder. The 
 hours of labour per week, as well as the average 
 wages thereof, must also be fixed by the commis- 
 sioners in each respective department of productive 
 industry. 
 
 The master manufacturers, then, will be required 
 — to take proper care of the fixed capital, such as 
 buildings and machinery, committed to their charge : 
 to see that they get good average men in exchange 
 for average payments, and a corresponding value in 
 labour from such workmen as shall be considered and 
 paid either as superior or as inferior to the average : 
 to see that all persons employed under them perform 
 their duty : to procure the materials requisite for 
 carrying on their respective trades : to exert their 
 utmost skill and vigilance in the prosecution thereof: 
 to keep regular books and accounts upon one uni- 
 form plan dictated to them by the commissioners : 
 to transmit all goods they make to their appointed 
 
MANUFACTORIES AND DEPOTS. 41 
 
 warehouse or depot, or to the order of other standard 
 manufacturers, wheresoever required: to engage 
 and to dismiss whatever persons they may require 
 or can do without : and, finally, to draw money 
 from the standard bank wherewith to pay the wages 
 of labour, their own salaries, and those of their assis- 
 tants ; periodical statements and balances of the affairs 
 committed to their charge being made, in terms of 
 the standing orders of the commissioners, and trans- 
 mitted to the bank : and any difficulty or unusual 
 occurrence of whatever kind, rendering advice or 
 instruction necessary, being at all times promptly 
 communicated to the commissioners, with whom 
 they, the master manufacturers, would at all times 
 be placed in the relative situation of employer and 
 agent. 
 
 The nature of the accounts between the master 
 manufacturers and the bank will be duly explained. 
 
 The goods to be manufactured would necessarily 
 be of one of two kinds. They would consist either 
 of the material for some other branch of manufacture, 
 such as cotton or linen thread, to be afterwards con- 
 verted into cloth; or oi finished goods, ready for the 
 market, such as pieces of woollen, linen, or cotton 
 cloth. But there is no practical difference here, with 
 reference to the proposed system of exchange, because 
 both classes of goods would be disposed of by their 
 manufacturers in precisely the same manner ; all, 
 without ea?ception, being either transmitted to their 
 respective depot, or else to other standard manufac- 
 turers. No goods whatever are to be sold by the 
 master manufacturers to any one. 
 
42 AN EFFICIENT REMEDY. 
 
 The master manufacturers would thus be placed 
 in a situation very similar to that of many now- 
 existing, who are either wholly engaged by some one 
 or two great mercantile house or houses, which take 
 all the goods they make, or else, who, being in the 
 precise situation I have described, are the servants of 
 capitalists, employed to conduct certain works for 
 the benefit of their employers, to whom they are 
 responsible for their conduct, and by whom they are 
 paid fixed salaries proportionate to the estimated 
 value of their services. 
 
 The situation of a manager would be one of high 
 respectability and considerable emolument; whilst, 
 at the same time, it would be one of a very indepen- 
 dent character. Every person so employed, would 
 be guided in all his proceedings by fixed rules and 
 standing orders. He would be restrained in his acts 
 by no individual man, but only by a public board. 
 He would be free from all possible risk in every 
 transaction of his commercial life. And his duties, 
 however important, would be easy, from the extreme 
 simplicity and regularity of their nature. His situa- 
 tion would be almost exactly that of an existing 
 manager for a joint-stock bank, insurance office, or 
 other public company ; and commanding, as it would, 
 a liberal remuneration, it would at all times be one 
 of considerable competition whenever a vacancy 
 should occur. Hence thoroughly competent persons 
 could always be obtained to fill these important 
 situations. 
 
 In one particular, the situation of a standard 
 manager would be infinitely more pleasant than 
 
MANUFACTORIES AND DEPOTS. 43 
 
 that of any ordinary person in like employment 
 at the present time. He would be relieved from 
 the misery of giving and refusing credit — one 
 of the most painful duties, perhaps, which a man of 
 right feeling, habitually engaged in large transactions 
 for the interest of other people, can be called upon 
 to perform. Among the standard factories and 
 warehouses, there would be unbounded credit in 
 one sense, but none whatever in another. Every 
 manufacturer, or master of a work, would have to 
 transmit goods, without restriction as to quantity or 
 value, to the order of any other manufacturer, or 
 master of a warehouse. But he would do this in 
 compliance with the standing orders of his em- 
 ployers, whilst the act of so doing would never 
 occasion a bad debt. Such transit of goods would, 
 indeed, be the mere forwarding of them from 
 one' warehouse to another, both being the pro- 
 perty of the same company of employers. Fraud, 
 robbery, might take place in the standard works 
 and warehouses, as well as in others ; but the modus 
 operandi of the standard system of production and 
 exchange would render the commission of fraud a 
 task of extreme difficulty, whilst the existence of 
 credit, properly so called, and therefore of a bad 
 debt, would be impossible. 
 
 There seems to be nothing more to say upon this 
 subject, except that a work of any kind, being once 
 put into operation, is to continue to manufacture a 
 certain regular supply of goods, as originally ordered 
 by the trade commissioners, until by them farther 
 instructed to increase or diminish its supplies, or 
 
44 AN EFFICIENT REMEDY. 
 
 Otherwise to alter the kind or quality of its pro- 
 ductions. 
 
 The Warehouses or Depots. — The manage- 
 ment of these receptacles of goods would differ but 
 little from that of the ordinary wholesale houses, now 
 existing in London and elsewhere, excepting that 
 payment in standard money would invariably be 
 required for all goods that should be purchased 
 therefrom previous to their delivery. These ware- 
 houses would just be receptacles of goods ready for 
 the market ; and the mart at which all purchases of 
 standard goods would have to be made. 
 
 Their situations should be London, Dublin, Edin- 
 burgh, and the principal seaports throughout the 
 kingdom ; in each of which cities and towns, as well 
 perhaps as in some few other places, an extensive 
 range of warehouses should be erected and fitted up 
 for the reception and sale of the standard goods. 
 Whilst one warehouse, upon a very large scale, 
 should also be established in each of the towns 
 where the several factories exist, for the recep- 
 tion and sale of the particular kind of goods therein 
 manufactured ; as, for instance, a cotton warehouse 
 in Manchester ; a cutlery warehouse in Sheffield ; 
 a linen warehouse in Belfast ; and others in like 
 manner. 
 
 The price of the goods sold in the standard ware- 
 .houses would be made up of th6 cost of the materials, 
 and of the wages of labour expended in their pro- 
 duction, added to a per centage estimated to be 
 sufficient to pay all the expenses of salaries, inci- 
 dents, loss by depreciation of stock, wear and tear 
 
MANUFACTORIES AND DEPOTS. 45 
 
 of buildings, machinery, and other fixed capital ; and, 
 finally, of the rate which should be resolved upon to 
 insure the gradual increase of the standard capital, 
 and consequent extension of the sphere of the stan- 
 dard operations to the utmost desirable limit. 
 
 This per centage — the rate of which is to be 
 fixed by the trade commissioners, and may be 
 higher in some classes of manufactures than in 
 others, for sufiicient reasons — being added to the 
 cost of goods in labour and material, we arrive at 
 their selling price by wholesale; at which price, all 
 persons coming under the denomination of wholesale 
 buyers, are to obtain at the standard warehouses 
 whatever goods they may require, in exchange for 
 standard money. Persons requiring standard money 
 may obtain it in any quantity at the mint, in ex- 
 change for its value in gold or silver coin, or bullion; 
 or indirectly from the mint, through the agency of 
 any person acting for the standard bank. 
 
 The goods thus purchased may thenceforth be 
 used, exported, or retailed to the public, in the ordi- 
 nary manner ; the retail price thereof being regulated 
 as at present by competition amongst the venders. 
 And as the retail department of trade would be in 
 every respect of the ordinary and everyday kind, to 
 which we are now accustomed, there seems to be 
 nothing more to say about it. The influence of the 
 standard rules and regulations, the object of which 
 is to fix the value of the currency, and to render 
 production the cause of demand, terminates in the 
 wholesale warehouses ; once out of which the stan- 
 dard goods become the property of whomsoever may 
 
46 AN EFFICIENT REMEDY. 
 
 be pleased to buy them, and they may be used or' 
 appropriated in any manner whatsoever. To pre- 
 vent any misconception, however, as to the invaria- 
 bility of the balance between supply and demand, it 
 may be remarked, that if any retailer sell standard 
 goods for one hundred pounds, which cost him but 
 ninety pounds, still the entire hundred must be ex- 
 pended at the standard depots before one hundred 
 pounds worth of good^ at standard prices can be 
 withdrawn from them. 
 
 And this perhaps may be as good a place as any 
 other to bestow a few words upon the subject of 
 foreign comnierce. 
 
 With the intention of shewing in what manner a 
 standard of value may be safely and permanently 
 erected on a basis at once firm and imperishable, I 
 have endeavoured to divest the subject of every 
 thing resembling a speculative kind, and to restrict 
 the plan to one of a purely domestic character. The 
 nature of its foreign transactions will therefore be 
 easily defined. 
 
 In one sense, every article of necessity or use is 
 foreign to us all, with the exception of that which 
 we construct by the labour of our own hands. 
 Every thing is foreign to a shoemaker except shoes. 
 Even the leather of which he makes them, although 
 it may consist of the skins of calves fed in his own 
 parish, is as foreign to him, as the most curious and 
 remote produce of a distant land. In his capacity 
 of shoemaker, he is equally incapable of making 
 either the one or the other ; therefore, if he require 
 them, he must buy both. 
 
MANUFACTORIES AND DEPOTS. 47 
 
 In like manner, the whole corps of standard 
 manufacturers must buy, wherever they can procure 
 them cheapest, whatever materials they may require 
 for the carrying on of their respective works. And 
 it will render our view of their situation very dis- 
 tinct, if we adopt the method of considering every 
 thing foreign to them, with the exception of that 
 which they can create by their own labours. 
 
 Now there are just two ways in which a man 
 can obtain, through the medium of exchange, that 
 which he requires. He may give the immediate 
 produce of his own labour for it ; as, for instance, a 
 pair of shoes for a piece of leather ; or, in the other 
 case, as the leather merchant may not require shoes, 
 the shoemaker may sell his shoes for some article 
 which the leather merchant is willing to accept in 
 exchange for his leather. The article least likely to 
 be refused is money, by means of which every one 
 is enabled to buy whatever he may think proper. 
 
 The standard managers, then, would require mate- 
 rials with which to commence their works ; and 
 these materials, whether foreign or domestic, could 
 at all times be purchased with standard money — 
 which, being a legal tender throughout the country, 
 would give to its possessor the means of procuring 
 whatsoever commodity or service he might require. 
 If the receiver of the money should present it at any 
 of the standard warehouses, it would procure for 
 him any article or articles made in the standard 
 works ; or, none of these things being required, it 
 would procure him gold or silver at their current 
 price in standard money. 
 
48 AN EFFICIENT REMEDY. 
 
 Now, as the standard works could neither create 
 gold nor silver; and as these metals would be in 
 constant requisition to be given in exchange for 
 many of the standard notes previously circulated, it 
 is clear that goods of some kind must be given in 
 exchange for them. But, as I have mentioned 
 before, it matters not how much, or how little, gold 
 or silver comes to be obtained in exchange for other 
 goods, provided always a fair effort be made to get 
 as much of them as any one may be found willing 
 to give ; because, if much gold and silver be obtained 
 for goods, the result is merely, that gold and silver 
 are not dear in standard money. Whilst, if little 
 and less of them come to be obtained in exchange 
 for goods, then it is plain that gold and silver are 
 rising in price, a thing of no earthly consequence 
 whatever ; for, if a great quantity of the products of 
 human industry come to be regularly required from 
 the standard warehouses in exchange for the precious 
 metals, it is quite clear that the same precious metals 
 will, in their turn, command a large quantity of com- 
 modities for the use of the standard factories ; and 
 that, too, whether those commodities be the pro- 
 ducts of this country, or of any other. 
 
 Two examples will probably suffice to shew the 
 subject of foreign commerce, as already defined, in its 
 different bearings. — The standard works embrace, 
 amongst others, we shall suppose, the business of 
 tanning hides; which hides, being converted into 
 leather, form the stock of one of the great standard 
 warehouses. The hides themselves are originally 
 the property of the butchers, by whom they are sold 
 
R A 
 or THE 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
 MANUFACTORIES AND DEPOTS. 49 
 
 to the managers of the tan- works for standard money. 
 Now this money, being a legal tender, will procure 
 the butcher cattle and sheep — it will pay his rent 
 and taxes, and it will buy him food, clothes, and 
 furniture — pay the wages of his servants, — and, in 
 short, it will do every thing for him that a bank of 
 England, Ireland, or Scotland note will do for him 
 at present. He^ therefore, does not seek to convert 
 the standard money he receives in payment for his 
 hides into gold or silver, because there is obviously 
 no occasion for him to do so. 
 
 But the standard works will also embrace the one 
 of dyeing cloth. Now a great number of the articles 
 used in this business are the productions of foreign 
 countries. The master dyer, then, pays his mer- 
 chant, as in the case of the tanner, with standard 
 notes. But the importer of dyes may find it neces- 
 sary to pay for his merchandise in gold or silver; 
 and therefore, knowing beforehand what weight of 
 these he can procure for every pound standard, and 
 knowing also the relative value of these metals and 
 of his dyes in the market whence he procures them, 
 he will of course contract for such a price for his 
 commodities, in standard money, as will enable him 
 to realize a fair profit by his transactions : that is to 
 say, he will take care that the amount of standard 
 money he is to receive in exchange for his dyes shall 
 be sufficient to buy more gold at the standard mint 
 than will be required to replace the dyes he will 
 have so disposed of, — the difference between the 
 two being his profit on the transaction. 
 
 It often requires a number of sentences to explain 
 
 D 
 
56 AN EFFICIENT REMEDY. 
 
 a very simple matter ; a fact pretty generally dis- 
 Govered by those who may sit down to give instruc- 
 tions in writing as to the manner in which some very 
 trivial matter may be performed. There is, in reality, 
 nothing more complicated in what I have been just 
 now attempting to describe, excepting only perhaps 
 in the description itself, than there is in the making 
 of any every-day purchase. Gold would not com- 
 monly be requisite even for the making of foreign 
 payments. For, whenever the standard system of 
 operations should come to be understood abroad as 
 well as at home — when it came to be known that 
 the millions upon millions of accumulated wealth, 
 stored in England's public depots, were all the bona 
 fide products of which English paper money was the 
 representative, and would at any time command ; 
 that money would pass as freely in all civilized 
 nations as it would at our own doors. 
 
 As respects the convenience of the public, there 
 would be no variation whatever in the making of 
 purchases, small or large, from the plan which at 
 present exists. Bank notes, as well as silver and 
 copper coins, would circulate just as they do at pre- 
 sent ; whilst the grand distinction between the old 
 and the new modes would be in the principle on 
 which exchanges would be made : there would not 
 be any change which would be at all perceptible 
 during the act of buying or selling. A difference of 
 some importance, however, would be, that whilst a 
 rise of one quarter, for instance, now in the value of 
 gold would reduce the aggregate price of commodi- 
 ties twenty-five per cent, and reduce tens of thou- 
 
MANUFACTORIES AND DEPOTS. 51 
 
 sands of people to ruin ; a standard of value being 
 established upon the principle I have laid down, a 
 rise in the value of gold to the extent I have men- 
 tioned would not affect the price of one other com- 
 modity, or disturb the relative situation of a single 
 debtor or creditor, landlord or tenant. Such rise 
 would be a great boon to all the holders oi gold itself, 
 whether in the shape of coin, bullion, or articles of 
 domestic utility or ornament, just as a similar rise in 
 the value of any other property (shares in a railroad, 
 for instance) would do at present. But all rents, 
 contracts, and transactions whatsoever, would have 
 been put upon a basis at once firm, fair, and beyond 
 the reach of all adventitious circumstances to alter 
 or affect ; seeing that an Act of Parliament, altering 
 the average price of labour — an act too glaringly 
 unjust and monstrous ever to be tolerated or thought 
 of — or else gross laxity, carelessness, or fraud, in 
 enforcing the law of average — a thing which, under 
 the arrangements I have defined, could never happen 
 — are the only circumstances which could affect the 
 equity of a money bargain, however remote might be 
 the stipulated day of settlement. 
 
52 AN EFFICIENT REMEDY. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 A FEW WORDS IN EXPLANATION OF THE NATURE OF THE ACCOUNTS. 
 
 So far, then, we have defined the plan of a bank 
 and mint, of factories, and warehouses for the recep- 
 tion and sale of goods ; the whole of which being but 
 parts of one extensive manufacturing and commercial 
 establishment, it is now desirable that we see in 
 what manner the books of such a business should 
 be kept. 
 
 And this subject, which has been partially ex- 
 plained already, naturally divides itself into three 
 parts, — namely, first, the bank accounts with the 
 master manufacturers and warehousemen ; secondly, 
 the said parties' accounts with the bank ; and, thirdly/, 
 the periodical balances of the bank books themselves 
 for the approval of the commissioners. And it is 
 almost impossible to conceive that any extensive 
 accounts could be more entirely divested of every 
 semblance of intricacy than these accounts may be. 
 
 I. The bank accounts with a master manufacturer 
 will consist, — the debit side of the value of fixed 
 capital committed to his care, as buildings and ma- 
 
 % 
 
THE ACCOUNTS. 63 
 
 ehinery ; of all sums of money transmitted to him or 
 paid to his order ; and of all goods sent to him by 
 other standard manufacturers, including in their 
 number the master of the mint, whose manufactured 
 goods, coins, must be treated in precisely the same 
 manner as every other kind. The credit side of this 
 account will be made up of the items, sums paid in 
 name of salaries, as contradistinguished from that of 
 wages ; and of the value of goods transmitted to 
 other standard manufactories or depots, charged at 
 their cost price in material and wages of labour ; the 
 balance being the amount of property — fixed capital, 
 goods, and money — then resting in his hands. 
 
 The bank account with a master warehouseman 
 would be exactly similar to the foregoing ; only that, 
 in addition to debiting him with all the items afore- 
 said, he must also be debited with the per centage 
 put on the price of his goods by order of the com- 
 missioners, for the purpose of meeting the expenses 
 of maintenance and increase of capital, salaries, and 
 depreciation of stock. There would also, on the 
 credit side, be the additional item of — money re- 
 mitted to bank so much, the manufacturers never 
 having occasion to remit any. 
 
 On the subject of depreciation of stock, it is neces- 
 sary to say a few words. Goods, from two distinct 
 causes, must always be liable to become less valuable 
 after having been kept on hand for some time, than 
 they were when first manufactured. They may 
 receive injury — glass, for instance, may be broken 
 — and goods of even a less hazardous character than 
 glass, may receive injury from being kept too long a 
 
54 AN EFFICIENT REMEDY. 
 
 time on hand, or, from change of fashion or other 
 cause, their use may come to be altogether super- 
 seded. This is one cause. The other is, that the 
 materials of which they are constructed may come 
 to be more easily obtained than formerly: or, by 
 the application of greater skill or better machinery, 
 the materials may be converted into the requisite 
 shape at a less cost of time and labour than hereto- 
 fore. These are natural causes for a fall in the price 
 of goods ; and, whenever they come to operate, all 
 the previously existing goods of the kind that may 
 be on hand in the standard warehouses, must of 
 necessity be reduced to the price of the new ones, 
 otherwise they would never sell at all. 
 
 To meet this expense of depreciation, on the occa- 
 sion of every annual balance of the books of the 
 manufacturers and warehousemen, all the goods that 
 may be too dear, must be reduced to their proper 
 price ; and the difference, being loss, must be placed 
 to the credit of their possessors in the bank books and 
 in their own ; whilst the loss so arising, whenever it 
 shall take place, will form one of the items on account 
 of which a rate of profit must be put on all goods in 
 the standard warehouses previously to their being 
 sold. 
 
 The amount of this loss — provided we adhere to 
 the rule I have laid down at the outset, that of con- 
 fining the standard works, as far as possible, to the 
 production of unspeculative, and not very perishable 
 goods — should be but trivial ; the more especially, 
 when it is considered that an advance in the cost of 
 materials would sometimes have the effect of increas- 
 
^tlE ACCOUNTS. 5S 
 
 inff the value of large quantities of goods on hand. 
 The balance between such losses and profits would 
 be the actual amount of either the one or the 
 other. 
 
 This kind of depreciation, the reader will not fail 
 to observe, is of a totally distinct character from that 
 to which every tradesman who keeps any consider- 
 able stock of goods is now liable, — a /ailing market, 
 occasioned by no natural cause whatever, but merely 
 by the operation of the worse than insane system of 
 exchange on which we are at present acting. Upon 
 the standard plan, good new commodities, or long- 
 time made ones, as good as new, could never be 
 subjected to the evil of a falling market by any cause 
 whatever, except a natural one, such as I have 
 already described. It is not a natural, but a most 
 unnatural and absurd condition of things, which 
 causes goods of a hundred different kinds to fall in 
 price, merely because they chance to have been in- 
 creased in quantity a little faster than o?ie other 
 commodity ; which mankind, acting under the influ- 
 ence of the most extensively prevalent and fatal error 
 that ever pervaded society, have agreed to nominate 
 as the criterion of their wealth ; which criterion, in 
 reality, it never was, is not, and never by any human 
 possibility can become. 
 
 II. The master manufacturers' and master ware- 
 housemen's accounts with the bank, would be juSt 
 the foregoing reversed: the debtor side becoming 
 that of the creditor, and the creditor side becoming 
 that of the debtor. 
 
56 AN EFFICIENT REMEDY. 
 
 And these are all the debtor and creditor accounts 
 that would exist, namely, those of the bank with every 
 master manufacturer and warehouseman, including 
 amongst the former the master of the mint, and those 
 of everymaster manufacturer and warehouseman with 
 the bank, and with it only. A. B., a master manufac- 
 turer, sends goods, for example, to C. D., who may 
 be either another manufacturer, or a warehouseman ; 
 which goods are accompanied by an invoice indica- 
 tive of their kind, quality, and value. But A. B. 
 merely credits his own account with the hank for 
 the amount of these goods, whilst, on the other hand, 
 C. D., on receipt of them, debits his own account 
 with the hank for the same ^amount. And a weekly 
 statement of accounts being sent to the bank by all 
 the manufacturers and warehousemen, the items are 
 forthwith posted to the debit and credit of the re- 
 spective parties in the bank books. By means of 
 which arrangement, not only is every account be- 
 tween all these accredited agents kept entirely clear, 
 without a single debtor and creditor account existing 
 between themselves, but a most effectual check would 
 also be kept upon the accuracy and integrity of all 
 the parties : seeing that not a single false statement 
 respecting any transmission of goods betwixt agent 
 and agent, could go beyond a week without detec- 
 tion in the bank. Whilst, at the same time, as no 
 one of these accredited agents would have the slightest 
 right of control over, or interference with, any other 
 — all being equally independent and irresponsible, 
 except to the bank, to the commissioners, and to the 
 inspectors by them appointed — all connivance, be- 
 
THE ACCOUNTS. 57 
 
 tween each other, at any laxity of duty, would be 
 rendered in the last degree difficult, as would also 
 the commission of fraud in any shape, as compared 
 with the facilities afforded for its perpetration at the 
 present time. 
 
 III. The periodical balances of the bank books 
 themselves, for the inspection and approval of the 
 commissioners. — Suppose these to be annual, the 
 bank has merely to make up a statement of its 
 affairs upon a given day, in the same manner as 
 every ordinary tradesman is, or should be, in the 
 habit of doing at present. 
 
 The bank's first step is to strike the balance of its 
 accounts with all the accredited agents; that i&to 
 say, with all the master manufacturers and ware- 
 housemen. This being done, the bank debits itself 
 with the whole amount of its existing issues, these 
 being, in fact, just so many outstanding claims upon 
 the standard stores ; as also, with the original grant 
 of fifty millions, converted into standard money, 
 which latter should be surplus ; and credits itself 
 with the united value of all the agents' balances. 
 And if these latter exceed the amount of the former 
 by more than fifty millions, added to the sum of 
 intended annual addition to the standard capital, 
 then it follows that the per centage on the sale of 
 goods will have been unnecessarily high, and may 
 forthwith be reduced. Whilst if the amount of the 
 latter shall not equal that of the former by fifty 
 millions, and the sum of intended addition to capital, 
 
58 AN EFFICIENT REMEDY. 
 
 then it follows that the per centage on the sale qf 
 the , standard goods will have been too low, and 
 must, therefore, in future, be somewhat higher. 
 
 The price of the standard goods, then, being 
 wholly made up of the cost of the materials, of the 
 wages of labour, of the expenses of transit, and other 
 incidents, and of the per centage or profit put on 
 the cost price of the goods, in order to cover the ex- 
 penses of salaries, depreciation of stock, and main- 
 tenance and increase of capital; which cost of 
 materials, of labour, of transit, of per centage, and of 
 every thing, woiild he paid in standard monei/, it 
 follows that the amount of standard money in circu- 
 lation must, at all times, be precisely equivalent 
 to the value of the stock in the standard factories 
 and warehouses ; that the aggregate holders of this 
 money would be the aggregate proprietors of the 
 standard stock ; and that every individual holder of 
 money would be a proprietor of the exact portion of 
 said stock, which his money, be it much or little, 
 should represent. 
 
 Demand, therefore, must ever be coequal with 
 production. Double the stock, quadruple it ; multi- 
 ply it by itself; let it be of the value of a hundred 
 millions, or of a thousand millions standard, still the 
 increase of money must have gone on in the same 
 precise ratio ; therefore production can no more, by 
 any conceivable possibility, overstep demand, than 
 can her majesty's mail coach get on faster than the 
 horses by which it is drawn. The two things, pro- 
 duction and demand, are inseparably united ; their 
 
THE ACCOUNTS. 59 
 
 relative increase, diminution, or permanent quantity, as 
 the case may be, must at once become, and for ever 
 remain, one and the same. 
 
 People, indeed, might save their property, as at 
 present, when they are able and inclined to do so ; 
 but this circumstance disturbs not one iota the 
 balance of supply and demand. Not to spend is 
 merely to postpone the claim : it is not to abandon it. 
 A deposit bank at present may possess millions of 
 undemanded money, but the liability remains the same 
 as ever, and demand is sure to make its appearance 
 a,t some time or other. And seeing that in our case 
 the money held by the creditors is intrinsically of no 
 value whatever, to contend that it will never be 
 used, is equivalent to contending that men, having a 
 just and undisputed title to property, will yet never 
 seek to possess themselves of it. 
 
 An enormous mass of accumulated wealth would, 
 doubtless, at all times exist in the standard ware- 
 houses ; but this accumulation would not proceed in 
 the manner of a blind man, destitute of a proper 
 guide as to the path which he should pursue: it 
 would proceed upon a plain and rational principle of 
 operation, by means of which the existence of a 
 surplus of commodities would be rendered just as 
 obvious an impossibility as the over-supply of every 
 want, real and imaginary, which human beings may 
 ever be found to entertain. 
 
 Here, however, it may be proper to anticipate 
 and refute an objection that may probably have 
 already arisen in the mind of the reader to what has 
 been stated. I have said, that gold, silver, and 
 
60 AN EFFICIENT REMEDY. 
 
 copper coins, may still be used as instruments of 
 exchange between man and man, nation and nation; 
 and also, that so far as silver and copper coins are 
 concerned, there does not appear to be any thing at 
 all preferable to them for the effecting of small pur- 
 chases ; that is to say, whenever they shall come to 
 be used upon a right principle. How, then, it may 
 be asked, is your demand — money — to be always 
 coequal with your supply — goods — seeing that your 
 operatives, for instance, being paid for their labour 
 partly in silver coin, may expend the same in the 
 purchase of commodities in this country, forming no 
 part of the standard stock ; or they may take it or 
 send it abroad, in which case it may be lost to this 
 country for ever ? 
 
 The answer is obvious. Gold, silver, and copper 
 coins, are themselves commodities, as much so, indeed, 
 as Irish linens or Scotch whisky ; and the man who 
 receives them in payment for his labour, has demanded 
 and received the value thereof. His demand has 
 already been equal to his production ; and, therefore, 
 he has no farther claim upon the standard stores : 
 and, if he had any, it would be an evil, not an 
 advantage ; for how is he to be paid ? The whole 
 stock we at any time possess is the property of the 
 holders of the standard paper money ; and, therefore, 
 it could not be taken away without diminishing our 
 means of paying the just claims existing upon us. 
 
 It is true, that the proprietors of coin may spend 
 it, if they please, in the purc^hase oi goods from the 
 standard depots. But this, again, is no evil, for they 
 merely give us goods for goods, and the value of our 
 
THE ACCOUNTS. 61 
 
 stock will be precisely the same after thoky have 
 made their purchases, as it was before. The kind 
 of value will have been altered. Cloth may have 
 been given for gold coin, a convenience, no doubt, to 
 the man who is supposed to have made the purchase, 
 otherwise he would have kept his money, but 
 we are not one farthing richer or poorer by the ex- 
 change. 
 
 If an operative receive twenty-five shillings a- week 
 for his labour, one pound in paper and five shillings 
 in silver, the pound part of his wages is no payment 
 at all. Strictly speaking, no man is paid a farthing 
 who receives a mere piece of paper for his wages. 
 What he actually receives is, an order on the pro- 
 perty which he has contributed to bring into existence, 
 for the value of his own contribution, and he never 
 receives payment until he present his order for pay- 
 ment ; that is to say, until he spend his money. But 
 whenever he shall spend it, the person to whom he 
 shall pay it — be he a shopkeeper or the driver of a 
 stage-coach, physician, musician, or whatever else 
 he may — then comes in his room and place ; he, 
 instead of the operative, is now constituted a pro- 
 prietor of the standard stock ; and such he must 
 remain so long as he holds the note that shall have 
 thus been transferred to him. And this kind of 
 transfer may go on for an indefinite length of time, 
 until at last the note comes to be presented with 
 others in exchange for goods bought at the standard 
 stores ; when, however often it may have changed 
 hands before, it is now, for the first time, paid ; 
 and forthwith ceases to exist as money until 
 
62 AN EFFICIENT REMEDY. 
 
 re-issued in remuneration of new labour, or in the 
 purchase of some article of value for the enrichment 
 of the standard stores. 
 
 But the five shilling portion of the supposed ope- 
 rative's payment, being made in silver coin, is a very 
 different affair. Itself is a bona fide payment, and 
 he who receives it has no farther claim on the stan- 
 dard wealth. If he keep the money, the standard 
 stores are none the fuller, and if he spend it with 
 them, they are not the less full. 
 
 Thus, if an operative contribute by his labour the 
 value of one pound five shillings to the standard 
 stock, and if he receive in payment for such contri- 
 bution a one-pound note and five shillings in silver, 
 he adds to the said stock the value of but one pound, 
 the additional five shillings of value which he puts 
 in being merely an equivalent for the five shillings' 
 worth of silver which he takes out. Thus the con- 
 tents of the standard stores must ever be equal to 
 the amount of the . standard paper money in circu- 
 lation. 
 
 And here it may be remarked, that whatever may 
 be the average weekly wages of labour, whether a 
 pound, one pound five shillings, thirty shillings, or 
 other sum, more or less, than these ; there would be 
 a great convenience in having a standard note created 
 for that amount, seeing that an immense majority of 
 men throughout the entire standard works would be 
 weekly earning that precise sum. All such would 
 be thus paid with less trouble to their employers, 
 than if there were always a sum of odd shillings in 
 the wages to be paid in silver coin ; besides which, 
 
THE ACCOUNTS. 63 
 
 far less silver coin would in the aggregate be requi- 
 site. And farther, the existing quantity of coin, 
 whatever it might be, would circulate principally 
 amongst the retailers, and amongst the public at 
 large ; and would not have to be sought up frequently 
 in large quantities for the use of the manufacturers. 
 
 This plan could, however, be adopted only in the 
 event of the average rate of wages being either an 
 even pound or pounds, or else a pound and a quarter, 
 half, or three quarters ; because paper money of any 
 less regular character than this would be far too 
 troublesome. 
 
64 AN EFFICIENT REMEDY. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE ARGUMENT — THE IMPRACTICABLES — DIRECT AND COLLATERAL INFLUENCE 
 OF THE PROPOSED CHANGE — OVER-PRODUCTION — EFFECT OF COMPETITION — 
 
 ACCUMULATION — REVENUE HOW REVENUE MAY BE USED — EXTENSION OF 
 
 THE STANDARD PLAN — MISCELLANEOUS OBSERVATIONS. 
 
 Here, then, within the small compass of four 
 short chapters, and, I trust, in a sufficiently intelli- 
 gible form, are the main features of a plan of opera- 
 tions, by the adoption of which, I hesitate not to 
 say, that the existing distresses of this country may 
 be quickly alleviated, and that, eventually, every 
 semblance of unmerited poverty may be annihi- 
 lated. 
 
 And first I shall remark, that shelter can hardly 
 be sought for, in the present instance, in that very 
 convenient retreat wherein so many persons are apt 
 to ensconce themselves, whenever a subject is pre- 
 sented to their minds requiring the exercise of a 
 little serious thought, and deliberate investigation, — 
 I mean the well-frequented harbour of impractica- 
 bility. 
 
 There is hardly, perhaps, any thing of much im- 
 portance in this world which has ever resulted from 
 
THE ARGUMENT. 65 
 
 human science or investigation, which has not been 
 in its turn impracticable. And this one word, to 
 which time and experience have given a thousand 
 and a thousand times the He, even when it has been 
 uttered by nineteen-twentieths of the nation, is still, 
 and probably will ever be, the one brief comment 
 upon all projected improvements upon a large scale, 
 by the great majority of an undiscerning public. 
 
 But there is not the faintest shadow of a pretext 
 for any such allegation in the present instance. I 
 have proposed to establish a Bank, the business of 
 which would not be nearly so difficult to manage, 
 neither would its transactions be nearly so intricate, 
 as the business and transactions of any one extensive 
 banking house, private or joint stock, now existing 
 in this country or in any other. 
 
 I have proposed that a Mint should manufacture 
 gold, silver, and copper coins, upon certain fixed 
 principles, very easily understood, and as easily 
 acted upon. 
 
 I have proposed that the government should ad- 
 vance a sum of fifty millions of money for the fur- 
 therance of a certain object. Such advances have 
 been made before, and for purposes absolutely name- 
 less and insignificant as compared with this one. 
 
 I have proposed that certain manufactories should 
 be established upon a large scale, and that the 
 management of each one should be given to a man 
 found duly qualified to conduct it ; that man's busi- 
 ness being divested of at least one half of the usual 
 troubles and difficulties appertaining to the like em- 
 ployments at the present time. 
 
66 AN EFFICIENT REMEDY. 
 
 Lastly, I have proposed that the goods to be made 
 in these factories should be sent to certain ware- 
 houses suitable for their reception ; where they are 
 to be sold for ready money to all persons who may 
 be pleased to buy them. 
 
 In a word, I have proposed that certain things 
 should be done upon a very simple and easy plan, 
 and upon a right principle, all of which are now 
 done, and have for centuries past been done, upon a 
 very intricate and difficult plan, and upon a wrong 
 principle. 
 
 I thus dismiss at once the plea of impracticability. 
 There is nothing proposed here but what it is quite 
 possible, and, indeed, most easy for the government 
 of this country to do at any time. I go, therefore, 
 to consider the influence which the change I have 
 defined would have upon society. This influence 
 would be of a twofold character, — it would be 
 direct, and also collateral. 
 
 It will have been observed, that at the outset 
 of this proposition I have noted the importance 
 of restricting the standard range of manufacturing 
 operations within the limits of the plain, the useful, 
 and the unspeculative. The reason is obvious. 
 Goods such as I have enumerated in the first chapter 
 may easily be watched over through all the dif- 
 ferent processes of their manufacture. They can be 
 warehoused when completed, and they may be kept 
 a moderate length of time on hand with little com- 
 parative injury, — the money paid for their produc- 
 tion being their representative. And it is certain, 
 that the great majority of all the articles of com- 
 
THE ARGUMENT. ^y 
 
 merce are of this description. But, except upon a 
 very refined plan of operations indeed, it would not 
 be practicable to extend this system to very perish- 
 able commodities ; such, for example, i(corn excepted,) 
 as farm and dairy produce ; or to very speculative 
 manufoctured goods ; such as fancy jev^ellery, fancy 
 articles of dress, domestic ornaments, and the like ; 
 whilst professional occupations could never be com- 
 prehended within its sphere at all, with any thing 
 like justice or propriety. The beneficial influence of 
 the change may, however, be extended to all these 
 branches of occupation ; but only, as I have said, by 
 an indirect or collateral process. 
 
 With reference, then, to the direct effects of the 
 plan of operations that has been suggested, and as- 
 suming that the standard factories would embrace a 
 very extensive range of works, including as nearly 
 as may be practicable all, the results of which may 
 be pretty easily warehoused ; it is clear that all the 
 persons so furnished with employment would be 
 amply provided for. For, as the money they would 
 receive would be a legal tender, it would enable 
 them to pay their rents and taxes, as well as to 
 purchase whatever commodity or service they might 
 require; whilst the amount of their wages being 
 fixed at the result of their labours, it is obvious that, 
 under no circumstances whatever, could they be 
 better paid. See a few words on the subject of 
 fixed payments in the ^ppendia?, No. IX. 
 
 It may be asked, — If we commence upon a large 
 scale of operations, and call into existence such various 
 and extensive works as have been proposed, shall we 
 
68 AN EFFICIENT REMEDY. 
 
 not go on producing and producing until we overstock 
 the market with every thing, when our standard goods 
 will stand fast in our warehouses, instead of going 
 steadily out of them, to be replaced by others in pro- 
 cess of manufacture ? The answer to this question 
 is — Never hy any conceivable 'possibility I And this 
 brings us to the great blunder of the day — over- 
 production, — the stumbling-block of every dabbler 
 in political economy, who for ever confuses produc- 
 tion to an extent which occasions a falling market, 
 with over-production truly so called ; that is to say, 
 the production of some one commodity, or of 2, few 
 commodities, in disproportion with the general mass. 
 
 If a universal genius could make for himself what- 
 ever he should require, he would begin by supply- 
 ing his most urgent wants, as food, clothing, and 
 habitation. Having enough of these, he would go 
 on to furnish his house and to embellish it — to orna- 
 ment his grounds, and by degrees to seek a higher 
 and still higher quality in all the various sources of 
 his enjoyment ; or he would plunge into the sea of 
 luxury and amusement. Mankind in general would 
 do this, because mankind in general do act in this 
 manner ; it is the ordinary usage of our nature. But 
 here there is no over-production, seeing that the 
 desire to rise a step higher, to possess something more 
 than we have at present, is a feeling so universal in 
 the human mind, that probably there is not one per- 
 fectly contented man or woman in existence. 
 
 But if a man, endowed, as we have supposed, with 
 super-human powers, were wise enough to make 
 two shoes for one foot, and none for the other, or 
 
THE ARGUMENT. 69 
 
 two gloves for one hand, and none for the other, 
 here would be over-production clearly. But, at the 
 same time, it would as clearly be under-ipTodnclion 
 also. Both of which terms might perhaps be ad- 
 vantageously dismissed from our politico-economical 
 vocabulary, to be replaced by one concentrating the 
 meaning of the two, — I mean the word dispro- 
 portion. 
 
 Goods may be produced in disproportion to each 
 other. Two shoes, as has been already said, may 
 be made for the right foot, and none for the left. 
 But increase the production by making two left shoes, 
 and the disproportion ceases. And in like manner 
 a nation may make too many goods of a particular 
 kind, but this is only a proof of the deficiency of 
 others, and the evil may be as easily cured by e*r- 
 tending i\iQ sphere of operations as by contracting it. 
 
 To bring these views home to the subject of our 
 present discussion, let us apply the argument ; and 
 at the same time take along with us a condition 
 which is very likely to be our companion whether 
 we desire it for such or not, namely, that as years 
 roll on, machinery will continue to improve as it is 
 doing at present, until one man, aided by its powers, 
 may be enabled to do the work of many, even when 
 compared with the present advanced state of mecha- 
 nical science. And how monstrous is the supposi- 
 tion, though by no means an uncommon one, that 
 this should tend to the injury of mankind ! 
 
 Without, then, mentioning particular trades, which 
 would only render our argTmient more intricate, 
 without making it at all clearer, let us call the first 
 
70 AN EFFICIENT REMEDY. 
 
 necessaries of life, as food and clothing, by the letter 
 A ; the second class of commodities, tending to 
 raise a little higher the scale of enjoyment, by the 
 letter B ; the third, a still higher class, by the letter 
 C ; a fourth, a step still higher, being articles of 
 luxury, by the letter D ; and a fifth, the highest, 
 being within the reach of those persons only whose 
 means of expenditure are profuse, by the letter E. 
 And let us suppose that a number of men, furnished 
 with the requisite land and capital, can, in the first 
 instance^ make for themselves all the commodities 
 necessary for their own use or consumption, which 
 we have designated by the letter A ; and, for the 
 sake of the argument, we will call their products by 
 the number one hundred. 
 
 Well ! it presently happens that, from improved 
 skill or machinery, or some such cause, these men 
 come to produce double of what they could at 
 first; and, consequently, twice the quantity they 
 require for their own consumption : this will be two 
 hundreds. Then it follows that there is now em- 
 ployment for another set of men equal in number 
 with themselves, in the capacity B : and the result 
 is, that whilst B require the spare half products of 
 A to live upon, A are very glad to amend their own 
 condition by taking half the products of B in ex- 
 change for half their own; by means of which 
 exchange the condition of both A and B is equally 
 improved. But a farther advance takes place in art 
 and industry, in consequence of which both A and 
 B come to have a superfluity of their own pro- 
 ducts. Then it follows that they can employ that 
 
THE ARGUMENT. 71 
 
 superfluity, be it little or be it much, in calling into 
 active operation the class C, who in their turn again 
 create a surplus, until D are also employed. And, 
 a still farther superfluity arising, the final letter 
 E comes to be admitted into the circle. Hence, the 
 very idea of over-production may be put alongside 
 the wildest dream of an idiot, and common sense be 
 puzzled to determine whether of the twain is the 
 offspring of the imbecile. 
 
 It is, however, an error to suppose that the pre- 
 sent state of our productive resources is capable of 
 advancing us to any very high state of luxury, 
 however fully employed all mankind may be, and 
 however invariable the operation of the principle — 
 production the cause of demand. The result of one 
 man's labour or talents, however productive the one 
 or brilliant the other, can only equably exchange for 
 the results of one other equally qualified man's labour 
 or talents. An individual cutler, for example, though 
 the products of his industry be distributed during 
 his lifetime over half the globe, on the one hand, and 
 though his wages, on the other, be expended in the 
 purchase of articles more numerous than his own 
 knives, still all that he gives and all that he receives 
 are but in the aggregate the produce of two men's 
 labour ; for if they be more than this, on the one 
 side or on the other, the exchange is not an equitable 
 one. If, then, we consider how much labour is 
 expended in the production of those commodities 
 which constitute the ordinary articles of use and 
 consumption, even in a moderate station of life, our 
 house, furniture, food, clothes, and innumerable 
 
72 AN EFFICIENT REMEDY. 
 
 articles of convenience and luxury, to which are to 
 be added, all that we assign to others in payment 
 for medical or legal advice, taxes for the support of 
 government, general and local, travelling expenses, 
 amusements, charitable institutions, and so on ; and 
 when we consider that all these things -^ whenever 
 they are enjoyed by a person who had no accumu^ 
 lated wealth or fortune to begin the world with — 
 are practically held by mankind to be merely an 
 equivalent for the labours given to, or services con- 
 ferred on them by the one indimdual who enjoys 
 them, how wonderful it seems, not that a man is 
 able to consume so much, but that so large a portion 
 of the good things of this life should have fallen to 
 his share. And, at the same time, how destitute of 
 rationality comes to be the notion of over-production, 
 when it is considered that even the men who already 
 consume the labour of hundreds of their fellow-crea- 
 tures, would most gladly convert those hundreds 
 into thousands, could they but obtain permission to 
 do so. 
 
 There is no limit or restriction whatever to the 
 power of consumption, except that of an empty 
 pocket ; but there is a limit to the power of pro- 
 duction. One man can consume the labours of 
 thousands, whenever he can command them ; but, 
 upon equitable principles, no man can have the 
 power of consuming any more value than he himself 
 is able to create, added to that which may be given 
 to him by others. For an example of the power of 
 consumption, we have only to look to our own Eng- 
 lish nobility, the sole business of whose immense 
 
THE ARGUMEPsT. 73 
 
 establishments, is, with almost nominal exceptions, 
 that of consumption : the whole, in each separate 
 ease, being supported by the annual income of one 
 man. But even these instances pf large expenditure 
 may be outdone. A rich man might fancy some 
 article for a meal which it would take a dozen of 
 men a twelvemonth to discover, in which case, he 
 would eat up the twelve years labour of a fellow- 
 creature for his breakfast. And though this is an 
 extravagant example in kind, it is not so in degree. 
 What is it that constitutes the value of a large dia- 
 mond, for instance, but just what I have stated? 
 Years and years are expended in its discovery, and, 
 when discovered, the cost of years and years of 
 labour, added to a corresponding charge for the risk 
 of not finding it at all, constitute its price ; as fairly 
 too as half-a-crown may be given and received for 
 any trifling article or service. 
 
 And in a properly constituted society, one in 
 which money should be of a rational kind, the 
 demand for that which is ornamental, pleasing, and 
 luxurious, including the fine arts in all their approved 
 branches, must ever increase as fast as the increased 
 powers of production should enable a smaller propor- 
 tion of the community to perform the more humble 
 and laborious operations ; just as a man who, 
 being already in possession of an abundant supply 
 of the ordinary comforts and enjoyments of life, 
 and having still money to spare and the desire to 
 spend it, proceeds to obtain whatever else may 
 chance to please his fancy : whilst the one and 
 only barrier to the existence nationally of this state 
 
74 AN EFFICIENT REMEDY. 
 
 of things at the present time, is a fake system of 
 ea^change. 
 
 The second part of this subject, embraces the col- 
 lateral influence of which I have spoken. And this 
 would be of two distinct kinds. The first of which is, 
 that the millions of money which would be in con- 
 stant course of payment to the operatives and others, 
 employed in the standard works, would have the effect 
 of creating an enormous demand for the results of all 
 such useful kinds of labour as could not be very well 
 admitted within the pale of the standard system. 
 
 Foremost of these is agricultural produce — food — 
 to which may be added a great variety of manufac- 
 turing trades of a fancy, and, if I may so term them, 
 uncontrollable character ; the goods produced being 
 such as no man could or ought to value, except the 
 producer himself: the too high claim on his part, 
 being always kept within the bounds of moderation 
 by the prudent customers with whom he has to deal. 
 Add to these, the entire class of what may be called 
 jobs ; that is to say, work of every description exe- 
 cuted for persons on terms of agreement, or on the 
 faith of a good understanding subsisting between the 
 parties at the time of settlement. Add, also, lastly, 
 professional occupations of every kind; as, for in- 
 stance, those of the divine, the lawyer, the physician, 
 the player, the musician, and others, by whose 
 avocations no commodity which may be accumu- 
 lated is produced. 
 
 But the standard money would pay all these persons, 
 because it would serve as the instrument of exchange 
 between their customers and themselves, just as an 
 
THE ARGUMENT. 75 
 
 ordinary bank note does at the present time. Which 
 note, even now, is but a mere transferable security, 
 and not a bona fide payment at all, any more than 
 would be the standard note so often spoken of. The 
 subject of professions is mentioned in the Social 
 System, from which I have already made an extract : 
 see again A'pyendiw, No. IV. 
 
 But the second kind of collateral influence would 
 be greater than the first. Its nature is as follows : — 
 A standard of value having been called into existence, 
 and an average price of labour fixed upon for all the 
 operations to be carried on within the standard sys- 
 tem, that same average price of labour would of 
 necessity be the same also throughout the whole of 
 the commercial society. Because, as the standard 
 system is capable of indefinite extension — subject 
 only to the condition of regulation as to the kind of 
 products — capable of being gradually thrown open 
 to all persons otherwise unable to obtain employ- 
 ment, it is clear that no good workman would engage 
 himself to a private manufacturer or trader for a 
 lower rate of remuneration than that which would 
 be ready for his acceptance within the public or 
 standard works. And the operation of this principle 
 would extend itself to the army and navy, as also to 
 all domestic and other servants, agricultural labourers, 
 and indeed to every class of society, professional, 
 mercantile, and laborious. 
 
 There is still another important view of this sub- 
 ject. The incubus being removed from the operations 
 of all the existing bankers, they would be enabled to 
 assist with safety to themselves, a vast number of 
 
76 AN EFFICIENT REMEDY. 
 
 manufacturing and commercial undertakings, which 
 are now wholly excluded from any such assistance 
 by the circumstance of the banks being liable to pay 
 all the notes they issue in fixed quantities of gold. 
 Their notes would now be payable either in standard 
 money, or in such quantities of gold as a standard note 
 would purchase, which in effect is one and the same 
 thing. Thus their issues could never, for any con- 
 siderable time, be excessive ; because, whenever they 
 should issue so much paper as to cause the goods out 
 of the standard depots to be dearer than those within 
 them, all the holders of their notes would require 
 them to be exchanged for standard ones, in order 
 that they might spend their money in the better 
 market ; whilst, on the other hand, their issues might 
 always extend to the point of equality in this respect, 
 but not farther. 
 
 In this way, it would happen that no sound or 
 useful project could fail to obtain the requisite capital 
 to carry it on. For although the money issued by 
 the joint-stock and private banks could never proceed 
 with the mathematical precision and regularity of 
 the standard issues, wherein the bank itself would 
 be virtually the custodier of an equivalent for every 
 note that it should have in circulation, still the joint- 
 stock and private banks could always, with advan- 
 tage to themselves, extend their issues sufficiently to 
 keep the average rate of wages out of the standard 
 system as high as the average rate should be within 
 it, but no higher. And this is equivalent to saying, 
 that they could always issue money enough for every 
 sound and useful purpose, but no more. 
 
THE ARGUMENT. 77 
 
 It has been said that the standard system of ope- 
 rations, as here defined, is capable of indefinite 
 extension^ subject only to the condition of regulation 
 as to the kind of goods that are to be produced. 
 And this, indeed, has been already proved, seeing 
 that it has been shewn that, under a rational system 
 of exchange, supply and demand must ever be one 
 and the same thing ; that to multiply one of them 
 by any given figure, is to multiply the other by the 
 same figure. We shall, however, be able to follow 
 this argument a little farther, now that we have 
 taken a glance at the external, or non-included part 
 of society. 
 
 The trade commissioners, then, aS head of the 
 standard works, having used a great portion of their 
 original fifty millions in setting on foot the standard 
 system of producing and exchanging commodities, 
 and these works being now supposed to exist in full 
 operation ; it is clear that in the aggregate the 
 demand for goods and the supply of them will be 
 equal, because all persons employed under this system 
 being paid by orders on the standard stock itself, 
 every addition to the stock must be simultaneous 
 with the grant of a transferable order to some one 
 to draw it out again. But although it is self-evident 
 that supply and demand must ever be equal in the 
 aggregate, there are still certain matters which 
 naturally present themselves for our consideration, 
 some of which I shall now endeavour to set forth 
 and explain. 
 
 Adhering, then, to the principle of keeping all the 
 standard warehouses well stocked with the various 
 
78 AN EFFICIENT REMEDY. 
 
 commodities in which we are to deal, (which stocks, 
 it cannot be too often repeated, are the property of 
 the public holding the standard money,) but at the 
 same time taking care not to make to the extent of 
 disproportion any commodities which we find by 
 experience do not go off as rapidly as others, it 
 follows that the quantity made of such articles 
 must be diminished, or else that the quantity of 
 other productions must be increased ; either of which 
 plans will have the effect of restoring the balance. 
 
 It is here, then, important to remark, that wherein 
 the increase should be required, must of necessity be 
 precisely as obvious as where the diminution should 
 take place ; and for this plain reason — The standard 
 money being itself of no value, every holder thereof 
 would require something in exchange for it ; and 
 whatever that something should prove to be, would 
 be indicated by the demand for it in the market, just 
 as it is at the present time. Now this required 
 commodity must belong to one of two classes of 
 valuables — it must be something which the stan- 
 dard warehouses should possess, or which they should 
 not possess. If the former, then diminished demand 
 in one place would be precisely balanced by increased 
 demand in another place. If the latter, then the 
 claimant naturally purchases the thing he wants in 
 the external market ; the supplying of which with 
 such articles as should not form any part of the 
 standard stock, must at all times form a profitable 
 mode of employing capital : or else he asks for gold, 
 with which he may be enabled to go to any market, 
 at home or abroad. 
 
THE ARGUMENT. 79 
 
 Seeing, then, that a certain commodity may have 
 been asked for in exchange for standard money which 
 the standard warehouses do not contain, and that, 
 therefore, gold has been taken in its stead, it is forth- 
 with optional with the trade commissioners either to 
 establish the manufacture of such article, supposing 
 it to be one of this country's wares, to meet the like 
 demands in future ; or else to manufacture in its stead 
 such articles as are found to exchange most readily 
 for gold. And, as I have before shewn, it is really 
 a matter of no consequence how much or how little 
 gold we get in exchange for our goods. For if gold 
 should rise in value as compared with the standard 
 stock of wealth, it must of necessity do so in like 
 proportion with all other commodities capable of 
 being increased by the application of human industry. 
 Were it, indeed, otherwise, the commissioners would 
 forthwith proceed, if possible, to make such commo- 
 dities as had not fallen in price as compared with 
 gold, in place of giving gold in exchange for their 
 notes wherewith to buy them. 
 
 But, it may be asked. How are we to get the ma- 
 terials wherewith to carry on these extensive works ? 
 Materials are of two kinds, foreign and domestic. 
 The latter could be bought in any requisite quantity 
 with the standard money, seeing that in receiving it 
 in payment for their goods, all venders of material 
 would be receiving the established money of the 
 country, with which they could buy any thing they 
 might require, pay their rents and taxes, and meet 
 every demand upon them whatsoever. The foreign 
 materials could be purchased in the same way with 
 
80 AN EFFICIENT REMEDY. 
 
 Standard money, in exchange for which, any and 
 every marketable commodity, gold included, in or 
 out of the standard stores, could be procured. And 
 if gold should come to be much in request to pay for 
 foreign products, it follows that a precisely corres- 
 ponding degree of activity would pervade those 
 branches of domestic industry in exchange for the 
 produce of which gold could be most readily pro- 
 cured. If China send us tea, and will not take any 
 thing but gold in payment, we must apply our labour 
 to the production of such things as will best exchange 
 for the gold wherewith to buy our tea. If manufac- 
 tured cottons, for instance, should be the article, we 
 virtually buy our tea with calico and muslin, even 
 though we never send a yard of either to the place 
 whence our tea is obtained. We sell the cotton /or 
 gold, that we may buy the tea with gold. If little 
 and still less gold come by degrees to be obtained 
 for our cotton goods, — if cotton, after having been 
 converted from the raw into the manufactured state, 
 will not fetch very much more gold in the latter 
 condition than it would have done in the former one, 
 then it follows that there is the greater necessity for 
 us to use the best possible machinery, and the highest 
 available art throughout the procedure, which should 
 be no great evil in a country always complaining of 
 over-production. 
 
 In truth, however, all difficulties about obtaining 
 the material of wealth, are purely imaginary ; and 
 for centuries to come, they must continue so. The 
 boundless. wisdom and stupendous power by which 
 the universe exists and is controlled, has left his 
 
THE ARGUMENT. 81 
 
 creatures nothing to desire. But he has prescribed 
 conditions on which alone they can come to the pos- 
 session of those blessings which, so far as He is con- 
 cerned, are constantly at their disposal. Man must 
 use his intellects as well as his corporeal powers, 
 else he may flounder on for centuries yet to come, 
 under the inflictions of privation, misery, and conse- 
 quent discord, yet surrounded with a superabundance 
 of every thing he requires ; and with the idiotic cry 
 oi poverty and over-production ever in his mouth. 
 
 The materials of wealth are plentiful enough surely. 
 Houses are made principally of stone, clay, wood, 
 and iron. Wool, cotton, flax, hemp, and leather, 
 are the chief ingredients of our clothing. Cattle, 
 sheep, fish, corn, rice, sugar, and tea, with dairy and 
 garden produce, are the principal articles of our subsis- 
 tence. All of these are multipliable or attainable to 
 an indefinite extent by the application of capital, skill, 
 and labour. Then, if we turn to the higher sources 
 of our enjoyments, we find that the materials of their 
 construction are of a still more insignificant descrip- 
 tion. Take, for example, the fine arts, — literature, 
 painting, sculpture, music ; or the sciences — -as astro- 
 nomy, natural philosophy, chemistry, botany, and 
 others. The physical materials of these pursuits are 
 absolutely trifling. A few yards of canvass, with a 
 few shillings' worth of paint and brushes, are mate- 
 rial enough for a man of art to produce exchangeable 
 value worth a thousand pounds. Books are made 
 of old, worn-out wearing apparel, and such like 
 valuables ; the printing materials — types and presses 
 — constituting, from their very durable nature, but 
 
 F 
 
82 AN El^FlClENT REMEDY. 
 
 a mere fraction of the entire cost of a book ; whilst 
 that of ink is almost nominal : all the rest is human 
 skill and industry. The same observation applies, 
 in a greater or less degree, to all the higher sources 
 of human enjoyment : deduct the cost of skill and 
 industry, and the rest — material — will generally 
 prove to be a very small affair indeed. Nor is there 
 any thing really essential to the happiness of man 
 which the Creator has not placed at his disposal in 
 superabundance, and even that is too limited a word 
 to express the boundless nature of His liberality to- 
 wards us. 
 
 Why, then, is a human being, able and willing to 
 work, in want of any of these things ? It is because 
 we have not yet exercised as we should have done 
 that spirit of investigation and inquiry which the 
 nature of the case demands. It is — I speak now of 
 my native land — because, instead of concentrating 
 our faculties into one united and impartial inquiry 
 into the causes of the evils that afflict us, we are split 
 into little contemptible parties and sections of parties 
 — religious, political, commercial, social ; each one of 
 which is much more industriously occupied with the 
 endeavour to gain a mean and pitiful victory over 
 its especial antagonist, than with the pursuit of truth : 
 whilst the clergy, whose especial duty it is to con- 
 sole and comfort us under our afflictions, being 
 enveloped, in common with others, in the general 
 mist, tell us, with the utmost placidity and coolness 
 — That it is by the wise dispensation of God's pro- 
 vidence that we are thus afflicted. I suspect we 
 shall be much nearer the truth if we affirm — that 
 
THE ARGUMENT. 83 
 
 to the ignorance, the folly, and the perversity of man 
 alone are attributable all those social evils which 
 come under the denomination of commercial embar- 
 rassment, poverty, and consequent distress and crime. 
 
 To resume the argument. It would very soon be 
 seen, that upon the principle of issuing a pound note 
 for every pound's worth that should be created, and 
 of recalling a pound note for every pound's worth 
 that should be consumed, an infallible specific would 
 have been found for the evil of over-production. But 
 the ingenuity of man, ever alive and ready to turn 
 new general circumstances to the account of indivi- 
 dual advantage, might imagine a method of proce- 
 dure alike calculated to embarrass the standard plan 
 of operations, and to advance private interests, by 
 one and the same process. And here I must declare, 
 that I am not conjuring up difficulties for the sake of 
 answering them, confining myself to such, and such 
 only, as I am able to dispel : on the contrary, I 
 know of none whatever of the least importance but 
 those which I am endeavouring to bring to light. 
 That which I now refer to is this : — What would 
 be the effect of competition by private individuals, 
 who, by giving a lower rate of wages to their men 
 than should be given in the standard works, might 
 thereby be enabled to bring the same kind of goods 
 into the market at a lower price, and so to undersell 
 the standard merchant at his own door ? 
 
 The answer is plain : they could not do any such 
 thing. Suppose that a private manufacturer of linens, 
 for example, should feel inclined to undersell the 
 standard linen merchant. He must dispose of his 
 
84 AN EFFICIENT REMEDY. 
 
 goods for one of three kinds of money — for the 
 standard money, for joint stock or private bank notes, 
 or for gold. For the last the standard salesman can 
 afford to give just so many of his goods as may be 
 necessary to buy the gold required; the relative 
 quantity obtained being a matter of no moment, as 
 the gold bought merely takes the price in standard 
 money of the goods given in exchange for it : and, 
 as I have alread}^ shewn, it matters^ not v^hether 
 gold be cheap or dear. For gold, then, no under- 
 selling could take place. For joint-stock, or other bank 
 notes not standard, the private manufacturer must 
 sell upon the same terms as if he were selling for the 
 standard money itself; because, as all such notes 
 would be liable to be paid by their issuers in stan- 
 dard money, they must, in the first place, command 
 as much produce in the market as the standard notes 
 themselves. For, if they should not do this, their 
 holders would forthwith exchange them all for stan- 
 dard money, and then go to market with the latter. 
 Again, it is also certain that joint-stock and private 
 bank notes could never be more valuable than the 
 standard notes ; for if they were so, the latter being 
 a legal tender, a man might borrow a thousand 
 pounds joint-stock, and repay that sum with a thou- 
 sand pounds standard on the same day, pocketing 
 the difference of value: and, moreover, he might 
 repeat the process every day of his life. 
 
 It is always the interest of bankers to circulate 
 as many of their notes as possible, provided they do 
 not issue so many as to cause them to be of less value 
 than the thing they are bound to give in exchange 
 
THE ARGUMENT. ^5 
 
 for them, when presented at their offices for payment. 
 It is, in fact, the value which bankers are obhged to 
 give in exchange for their notes, when so presented, 
 which restricts their issues. Were it not for such 
 restriction, paper money would be issued in such 
 quantities as probably to realize the very pretty 
 dream of a Westminster reviewer, about a waiter 
 and a cup of coffee, of which mention is made in the 
 tenth chapter, of this book. 
 
 Thus the value of all paper money must be regu- 
 lated by that of the standard money : it could 
 neither rise above it, on the one hand, nor sink below 
 it on the other. 
 
 Then, to take the third case, — suppose that the 
 competing linen manufacturer should propose to sell 
 his goods for less standard money itself than should 
 be demanded for a like commodity in the standard 
 depots. This could hardly come to pass : for in so 
 doing, he would be giving more goods for a pound 
 note, than the note itself would purchase, and thus 
 a voluntary loss of the difference would be the result 
 of every such transaction. No man could buy ma- 
 terial at a lower rate than the standard merchant ; 
 and from the very extensive scale on which all the 
 operations would be carried on, no one could sell 
 commodities at a less profit than the small per cen- 
 tage which must be put on the first cost of goods for 
 the purposes enumerated. So that in the article of 
 labour only could there be any saving. It is true, 
 that the average rate of wages in the standard 
 works would be fixed, whilst the price of labour out 
 of them would be open to competition, just as it is 
 
86 AN EFFICIENT REMEDY. 
 
 at present. Now, suppose that an article made in 
 the standard works should cost in material 10s., in 
 labour 10s., and in per centage Is., its selling price is 
 of course 21s. Again, a competitor with these works 
 gives the same price for his material, and adds, we 
 shall say, the same rate of profit. But, as he may 
 be supposed to give but 5s. of wages in place of 10s., 
 the selling price of his commodity is thus but 1 6s. in 
 place of 21s. 
 
 Here, then, are three good reasons against the 
 practicability of any such proceeding. In the first 
 place, he will certainly not sell such goods for 16s. 
 standard, when every 1 6s. he may get for them shall 
 be of no value in themselves, but merely an instru- 
 ment to which he must add 5s. more before lie can 
 recover in any shape an equivalent for the commodity 
 he is supposed to sell. Every such transaction would 
 virtually be the act of giving 21s, for 1 6s. Secondly, 
 take this view of the matter. The standard article 
 costs 10s. in material, and Is. in per centage, and its 
 price in the market is 21s. In this case, the opera- 
 tive who makes it is placed in this situation: — 
 Being charged 10s. material, and Is. profit, the arti- 
 cle is his own for lis. and the labour he bestows 
 upon it. Not so the ex-standard man ; he also is 
 charged lis. for material and profit, but the market 
 price of the article necessarily rises to 21s. ; so that 
 he must give 16s. and his labour, for that which a 
 standard workman is enabled to obtain for lis. and 
 his labour. No such state of things could exist. 
 But even if these reasons should be insufficient, there 
 is still a third: — The manufacturer, we have sup- 
 
THE ARGUMENT. 87 
 
 posed, would be obtaining so immoderate a rate of 
 profit, that competition betwixt himself and others 
 would very soon bring up the price of labour to its 
 proper level. 
 
 View the matter, then, in any way we can, it 
 just comes to this : — The price of standard goods, 
 in standard money, must regulate the price of all 
 similar goods, by whomsoever made, in the same 
 money ; whilst competition with the standard stores 
 for gold, would be out of the question, seeing that 
 any one quantity of gold — it being the greatest at- 
 tainable quantity — that could be got for an article, 
 would, so far as the interests of commerce are con- 
 cerned, be as good as any other. For useful purposes, 
 it is desirable that all things should be cheap : but 
 let a standard of value be created, and thenceforth 
 it will matter nothing, in an exchangeable point of 
 view, how much or how little of any one article 
 must be given for any other. Though coal were to 
 take the price of gold, and gold the price of coal, no 
 exchangeable inconvenience would ensue, no commer- 
 cial disorder would arise in consequence. As regards 
 utility, such change would be a fearful evil : so true 
 is it, that in almost all cases, the useful article is 
 abundant, that which we can better spare, the 
 rarity. 
 
 But there is another point of view in which this 
 subject may be presented, whence we shall be 
 enabled to obtain a new and cheering prospect for 
 the over-toiled and ill-remunerated operative, as also 
 another glance at the doctrine of over-production. 
 
 Let us, then, suppose, that all our warehouses are 
 
88 AN EFFICIENT REMEDY. 
 
 full, that articles of use, convenience, and luxury 
 abound even to profusion, being the realities of mil- 
 lions and millions of wealth, the representatives of 
 wrhich are supposed to exist, in the shape of bank 
 notes, in the pockets of the community at large, and 
 that there are still persons desirous of employment : 
 what are we to do with them? I have already 
 said, that it is only necessary to take a step higher 
 in the scale, and all may be employed ; and let it 
 never be lost sight of, that, whatever be the actual 
 number of persons employed in creating wealth, the 
 act of adding to that number, is also the act of adding 
 equally to the demand upon the standard stpres. 
 Another path, however, is open to our steps, into 
 which I shall now introduce the over-productionist, 
 and then leave him to walk to the end of it — if he 
 he able. 
 
 Our warehouses, then, are full : we need no more^ 
 but just the same uniform and regular supply of 
 hands to keep up the standard stock to a proper 
 level ; that is to say, always replenished with goods 
 sufficient to meet the current demand, but not to the 
 extent of superfluity. Here, then, is an answer to 
 all farther argument upon the subject of over-pro- 
 duction, in the one word — - accumulation. Have we 
 enough for present use, then can we afford to accu- 
 mulate : to lay up stores of gold and silver, of houses, 
 villages, towns, canals, railroads, bridges, docks, 
 navies, and public works of utility in every depart- 
 ment of wealth ; and, finally, by purchase, lands- 
 Do we want a demand? Truly, here may we find 
 enough of it : here is a fund in which we may in- 
 
THE ARGUMENT. S9 
 
 vest the wealth of nations ; a field in which we may 
 deposit all that we may have to spare, be it little or 
 be it much : and here, also, is the proof of my asser- 
 tion, that the standard system of operations, as deve- 
 loped, is capable of indefinite extension. 
 
 Such are the goods with which the standard 
 warehouses may be stocked, whenever they seem 
 likely to overflow with the more ordinary and 
 everyday articles of use or consumption. Here is a 
 demand which will drain us fast enough of all the 
 consumeables we may have to spare; whilst the 
 result, a new one to the ear of British labourers, so 
 far as they have ever had an interest therein, would 
 be ^^ — Revenue, 
 
 The reader will please to observe, that I am here 
 refuting the notions prevalent amongst mankind, 
 upon the subject of over-production ; otherwise, he 
 may think that we are jumping to a conclusion 
 rather too rapidly, seeing that an enormous capital 
 would be i:equisite to enable us to attain the objects 
 that are here briefly hinted at. I shall have some- 
 thing to say upon the subject of capital by and by. 
 What I here wish to be understood is — that as a 
 man can always afford to save money whenever he 
 possesses more than he cares to spend, so may a 
 nation do precisely the same thing. Its productive 
 powers being already exerted to a sufficient extent 
 to give its inhabitants a sufficiency of all things that 
 seem to be required for present use, it may begin to 
 accumulate ; and, proper objects of accumulation 
 being fixed upon, and these are numberless, it may 
 go on to enrich itself, more and more, to an extent 
 
90 AN EFFICIENT REMEDY. 
 
 altogether indefinite : whilst, under proper arrange- 
 ments, every such addition to its wealth would 
 occasion a corresponding addition to its revenue. 
 
 And here it occurs to me to suggest a method in 
 which revenue might be advantageously disposed 
 of: but first of all, let us consider the nature 
 of the thing itself. The standard goods and money 
 being equal, a man expends part of his income — 
 standard mone}'' — in payment of charges for the use 
 of standard property in some shape, as contra-dis- 
 tinguished from the act of paying /or such property. 
 Thus, large masses of people doing this, a sum of 
 money is returned into the standard coffers, in ex- 
 change for which no goods have been given out of 
 the standard stores. This sum of money being, 
 therefore, paid to any party for a sufficient reason, 
 the receivers thereof forthwith become the proprie- 
 tors of that portion of the standard wealth which it 
 represents. 
 
 The revenue, then, so arising, being a part of the 
 standard wealth, would belong to the holders of the 
 standard money, in exact proportion to the amount 
 of such money which each person should possess. 
 And there are, perhaps, several ways in which it 
 might be equitably divided amongst them, without 
 the formality of any distribution whatever. 
 
 The first object might be to pay off all borrowed 
 capital — to be spoken of presently — so that interest 
 of capital might not form any part of the cost of 
 the standard goods. The effect of this would be to 
 give the producers of wealth themselves the whole 
 interest of the capital by which they would be em- 
 
THE ARGUMENT. 91 
 
 ployed; and, after this should have been accom- 
 plished, I conceive that revenue might be advan- 
 tageously expended in paying the salaries of all 
 persons — managers, masters of v^arehouses, clerks, 
 and assistants of every kind — employed in the 
 standard works. This mode of appropriating re- 
 venue v^ould have the effect of giving to every 
 standard operative and other person, in just proposi- 
 tion, according to the amount of his earnings, more 
 than the whole produce of his labour or services ; and 
 as such it would operate as a perpetual premium 
 upon industry and good conduct. For, the salaries 
 being paid in this manner, the price of goods in the 
 standard stores not being advanced by any profit 
 put upon them, for the purpose of meeting the ex- 
 pense of salaries, every labourer would thus get 
 back the whole produce of his own labour, and his 
 share of the value of the labours of all the standard 
 servants besides, whenever he should spend his 
 money. And farther, as the standard goods would 
 be sold only for standard money, no person out of 
 the pale of the standard system of operations could 
 deprive him of this privilege. The value of every 
 standard note would, in fact, be enhanced in exact 
 proportion to the amount of revenue that should 
 thus be added to it ; and as these notes would 
 always be first issued to members of the standard 
 community, it would be their business not to part 
 with them for less than an equivalent. 
 
 Here it may be necessary to observe, that this 
 kind of increase in th^ value of standard money 
 would form no sort of exception to the invariahility 
 
92 AN EFFICIENT REMEDY. 
 
 of character that has been ascribed to it. If the 
 average rate of wages should be a pound a-week, a 
 pound note would be just another name for a week's 
 products of the labour of an average man, employed 
 under the most advantageous circumstances that wealth 
 and power could command at any given time ; but 
 these circumstances would, of necessity, be liable to 
 change. One of the most frequent occurrences 
 would be, that improvements in machinery would 
 increase the products of individual labour, and con- 
 sequently lower the money price, not of labour, 
 but of the commodity produced by it. Again, the 
 gradual reduction of the interest of capital, as it 
 should come to be paid off, would reduce the price 
 of goods, but not of labour ; and a third circum- 
 stance, just noted, is, that by the application of 
 revenue to the payment of salaries, the vast ex- 
 pense of management and superintendence might 
 gradually be reduced, and perhaps eventually can- 
 celled altogether. These circumstances, and others 
 of a similar character, might and would affect the 
 market price of commodities, tending invariably to 
 lower them in standard money ; but the standard of 
 value remains the same, unaltered and unalterable. 
 It is the average price of labour, employed under 
 circumstances of the highest attainable advantage ; 
 and the circumstances under which production shall 
 take place, will probably become more and more 
 advantageous, so long as the earth shall continue to 
 be inhabited by the family of man. 
 
 With reference to the extension of the plan of 
 operations which is here laid down, it is obvious 
 
THE ARGUMENT. 93 
 
 that this must depend upon the amount of capital 
 that may be embarked therein. And, a sufficient 
 grant being given, in the first instance, by govern- 
 ment, to put the system fairly into healthy existence, 
 the amount of capital may be increased by two dis- 
 tinct methods. The one by laying a per centage on 
 the sale of goods in the standard warehouses for the 
 express purpose of creating such increase, as has been 
 already pointed out.- And this being the proper 
 capital of the standard establishment, would not be 
 chargeable with any interest. The standard capital 
 might also be increased by another method ; namely, 
 by that of allowing gradual but unlimited contribu- 
 tions from private capitalists, in sums of not less than 
 so much money, in exchange for transferable standard 
 bonds, bearing a certain rate of interest. But these 
 bonds, as they would represent a portion of the 
 fia^ed capital of the standard works -^ though they 
 may be transferable, and pass from one proprietor to 
 another, at the option of their holders, as many kinds 
 of public securities do at the present time — must 
 not be 'payable in any shape, but only the interest 
 thereon ; seeing that they would be of the same 
 character as the contribution of a partner, in any 
 ordinary business, to the capital stock of the company 
 of which he may be a member, to withdraw which 
 — all the other partners having the same right — 
 would be to break up the concern altogether. 
 
 At the same time, the trade commissioners, or 
 governors of the standard works, should retain the 
 right of paying off these bonds, as the increase of |the 
 proper capital of the concern — that created by a 
 
94 AN EFFICIENT REMEDY. 
 
 rate on the sale of goods or by revenue — should 
 enable them to do so. By these means every person 
 employed in the standard works v^ould come by de- 
 grees to be virtually his own capitalist, as has been 
 shewn in a preceding paragraph, seeing that there 
 would be no charge upon the produce of his labour 
 to pay for the use of capital in any shape. In a 
 word, the standard capital might be rendered, with 
 all convenient speed, a national capital; just as we 
 have at present the untaxed use of many public 
 works, as roads, bridges, the British Museum, and 
 «ome others, merely on the condition of maintaining 
 them in good order. 
 
 But there is another side of this picture. It is 
 very desirable, certainly, that the labourer should 
 have the whole produce of his industry ; and, more 
 than this, that he should be allowed to participate 
 in the advantages that would result from the esta- 
 blishment of a free national capital. But it is also 
 desirable that in all nations there should be a public 
 fund, in which every individual may be allowed to 
 invest whatever capital he may have to spare ; and 
 for which he may receive a fair return in the shape 
 of interest. Such a fund is useful in various ways. 
 It forms a bond of union between man and man, by 
 assimilating their interests. It gives to all who have 
 any thing to lay by, a stake in the general peace, 
 prosperity, and happiness of their native or adopted 
 land: and it forms a resting-place in which provi- 
 sion for the widow and orphan may be deposited 
 under circumstances attended with no risk, and with 
 the certainty of a fair return. Upon a balance of 
 
THE ARGUMENT. 95 
 
 considerations, therefore, perhaps it is better that 
 such a fund as this should exist in connection with 
 the standard system — any superfluous capital being 
 employed in extensive undertakings yielding revenue 
 
 — than that, by the refusal to allow any interest 
 for the use of capital, individuals should be driven to 
 invest their money in private or joint-stock specula- 
 tions. But I shall not dwell upon this subject. 
 
 There is another question which may very proba- 
 bly arise in the mind ofv any one who may take the 
 trouble to bestow a little consideration upon the con- 
 tents of this volume : — If money, as at present 
 constituted, exists upon a false principle, and must 
 keep us in a state of perpetual trouble so long as 
 we may persevere in the use of it, can we not effect 
 the necessary improvement without resorting to so 
 extensive a change as that which is recommended 
 here ? — I can only answer this inquiry by stating, 
 that, for these twenty years past, I have seen the 
 error of the existing monetary system ; that I have 
 habitually devoted a portion of my thoughts to the 
 consideration of a remedy ; and that, as yet, I have 
 been totally unable to discover any shorter road out 
 of the dilemma than the one which is here pointed 
 out. Man cannot live, like a bird, or beast, or fish, 
 upon the direct results of his own industry: he is by 
 nature an eocchanging animal. And if this be so — 
 mere barter being out of the question in an advanced 
 state of society — he must have a medium of exchange 
 
 — money, — and that money must become his stan- 
 dard of value ; the measure of quantities, and the 
 balance in which his respective contributions to the 
 
96 AN EFFICIENT REMEDY. 
 
 general stock of wealth must be weighed. And this 
 standard, as I have again and again asserted, can 
 never hy any possibility be itself valuable; because 
 every valuable thing, without a single exception, 
 must always be liable to considerable change in its 
 relative value with other things. Hence the inex- 
 tricable confusion of commercial affairs, not at this 
 day merely, but during all times that have passed 
 since the word money had any meaning. If, then, 
 money be not a commodity — if in itself it be desti- 
 tute of value, it follows — that it can only be allowed 
 to ewist upon some fiwed and unerring principle ; by 
 means of which its representative value may be ren- 
 dered permanently the same. And I verily believe 
 that there is no method whatever in which this may 
 be so easily and thoroughly effected as by the go- 
 vernment, or a section of the government, or a sepa- 
 rate commercial government, acting in concert with 
 the political one, guaranteeing the inflexible integrity 
 of the public money, by making it the representative 
 of bona Jide weslih, called into existence under cir- 
 cumstances combining every attainable advantage, 
 and guarded with the utmost vigilance ; until such 
 wealth shall be demanded out of the public stores in 
 exchange for the money previously given for it: 
 when it ceases to be a matter of the least impor- 
 tance, in a public point of view, what may become 
 of it afterwards. Thus, I repeat, a standard of value 
 may be created, whilst the production of commodi- 
 ties would, in consequence, become the uniform and 
 unfailing cause of a demand for them. And in 
 reiterating this assertion, / challenge the united critical 
 
THE ARGUMENT. 97 
 
 acumen of the three kingdoms^ to shew that I am 
 wrong. 
 
 Far be it from me, however, to say, that a stan- 
 dard of value can not be created by any other 
 means — I cannot see any other. All that I pro- 
 pose to do may be put into a very few words : it 
 is merely to allow all men, who are able and will- 
 ing to do any thing for the good of society, to throw 
 their contributions into one great heap, and then to 
 take them back again in portions, equal to the 
 amount of their respective contributions, but in kind 
 such as they themselves shall prefer. This method, 
 reduced to a complete system, and governed by 
 equitable laws in all its departments, seems to me 
 to be a very natural one. But if any person can 
 shew a better — that is to say, a shorter and easier 
 — method, by means of which exchange may be 
 unfettered, and our tremendous powers of produc- 
 tion set free, to exert themselves for their legitimate 
 object, the supplying of our wants ; instead of main- 
 taining an eternal struggle to keep up prices in gold 
 coin, whilst goods can be increased by tens, it only 
 by units, — I shall be the first person to admit that 
 he has done so. 
 
 I know, however, as well as most men, how hard 
 it is to draw the attention of the public towards 
 any particular subject ; as well as how difficult it 
 may be to instil into the minds of others the strong 
 conviction that now urges me to place these sen- 
 tences before the public eye. And far from feeling 
 any sanguine expectation that this system of opera- 
 tions will be adopted in this, country within the 
 
 G 
 
9'8 AN EFFICIENT REMEDY. 
 
 brief space of time which, in the ordinary course of 
 nature, may yet be left to one who has somewhat 
 passed the meridian of his days, it would rather 
 surprise me than the reverse, if these pages should 
 excite any considerable degree of attention. Man- 
 kind, in general on a wrong scent, may, for many a 
 day to come, refuse to adopt not merely the plan, 
 but the principle of exchange here laid before them. 
 Be it so : then will they do one thing besides : 
 they will go on in their perplexity, floundering like 
 a fish in the shallows, a little more at ease at one 
 time than at another perhaps, but always in diffi- 
 culty, always in distress ; from which every succes- 
 sive scheme, device, and expedient, shall utterly fail 
 to deliver them ; until too late, perhaps, to benefit a 
 single human being now alive, the world shall at 
 length come to discover, acknowledge, and remove, 
 the tremendous error in its commercial constitution, 
 which it is the aim of these pages to exhibit and 
 uproot. 
 
 I shall conclude the argument in the following 
 chapter, on the limits of production. 
 
LIMITS OF PRODUCTION. 99 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THE ARGUMENT CONCLUDED, IN EXPLANATION OF THE LIMITS OF PRODUCTION ; 
 WHAT THEY ARE, AND WHAT THEY SHOULD B/?, WITH A FEW WORDS UPON 
 THE SUBJECTS OF POPULATION AND EMIGRATION. 
 
 If, under the influence of a reformed monetary 
 system, there could be no other limit to demand 
 than that of properly regulated production, an im- 
 portant inquiry comes to be — What, then, are the 
 limits of production itself? If the act of selling to 
 any amount shall come to be rendered by any pro- 
 cess, the act also of buying, or agreeing to buy, to 
 the same amount, what is to be the consequence ? 
 where is production to stop ? 
 
 In the foregoing chapter, I have already men- 
 tioned, that the result of one man's labour or talents 
 can, in fairness, exchange for the equivalent results 
 of one other man's labour or talents only ; so that 
 the utmost an operative can enjoy is, the whole 
 that, under the most favourable circumstances, he 
 may be able to create. It is desirable, however, to 
 follow out this subject ; and, therefore, I shall now 
 endeavour, more particularly, to shew what are the 
 existing limits to production ; as, also, what are the 
 
100 AN EFFICIENT REMEDY. 
 
 natural and proper limits — those which must con- 
 tinue after the present bond shall have been broken. 
 Some repetition of argument may occur here ; but so 
 impressed is my mind with the importance of the 
 one doctrine upon which I so strenuously insist, that 
 I willingly risk the imputation of dwelling on it too 
 much, rather than consent to leave unsaid any thing 
 which may seem to have a tendency to illustrate 
 the subject. 
 
 The existing limit to production may be easily 
 defined. Nature is at all times willing that we 
 should enjoy whatever our industry and ability are 
 competent to fashion out of the material that she 
 has so profusely spread before us. Man can have 
 nothing without exertion ; but he ought to possess 
 every thing that his labour can procure for him, as 
 limited either by its positive exhaustion, or by his 
 own indisposition to activity; but he has not yet 
 exhausted his productive powers, neither has he 
 satisfied his wants. The former are so great, that it 
 would be a difficult task to estimate or measure 
 them ; whilst the latter, real or imaginary, are so 
 numerous, that the supplying of them is but as the 
 sowing of seed destined to produce a crop. 
 
 This nation, then, has fixed upon a certain com- 
 modity, and rendered it the standard of value. It 
 has declared that a certain fixed weight of gold 
 shall be denominated a pound sterling ; and that the 
 value of all other things shall be determined by the 
 number of pounds sterling, or portions thereof, which 
 they will buy and sell for. The consequence of this 
 regulation is, -that gold being the standard of value, 
 
LIMITS OF PRODUCTION. 101 
 
 whatever may be the existing quantity of it, and of 
 its representative, bank notes, in the hands of per- 
 sons requiring marketable produce, that quantity, be 
 it much or little, is the utmost that can be obtained 
 in exchange for the simultaneously existing quantity 
 of goods seeking to be exchanged for money — in 
 other words, for sale in the public market. If the 
 quantity of money in the hands of persons willing 
 to part with it for goods be one hundred and no 
 more, the goods in the market can fetch but one 
 hundred ; consequently, if there be more goods than 
 are considered by their proprietors to be worth that 
 sum, say, for example, by one half, then it is obvious 
 that the surplus half must either remain on hand 
 unsold, or else the entire quantity must be reduced 
 in price to the sum of one hundred — pounds, hun- 
 dreds of pounds, thousands, or millions, it is all the 
 same. 
 
 Start, then, with an example, in which both 
 money and goods may be said to be at par ; that is 
 to say, when all the goods for sale in the market 
 find ready purchasers at a remunerating price ; and 
 when, also, the demand for goods is equalled by the 
 supply of them. Such being the state of the case, 
 we have only to keep adding to the stock of goods, 
 without adding to the stock of money, in order to 
 obtain a very clear view of the present state of the 
 commercial society — thus. 
 
 Goods, . . 100, money . 100, a fair price. 
 Increase the goods to 110, money still 100, loss 10 per cent. 
 Increase the goods to 120, money still 100, loss 20 per cent. 
 Increase the goods to 150, money still 100, loss 50 per cent. 
 Increase the goods to 200, money still 100, loss 100 per cent. 
 
102 AN EFFICIENT REMEDY. 
 
 The modes of employing it, then, remaining the 
 same, the necessity for a circulating medium, which 
 may constantly and habitually increase as fast as 
 the aggregate of all marketable produce, is suffi- 
 ciently obvious ; for, if money do not do this, one of 
 tv/o things must inevitably happen — either prices 
 must fall in exact proportion to the difference be- 
 tween the increase of goods and that of money, or 
 e\?>Q production must stop. There is no alternative, 
 no evasion to which we can resort ; no scapegoat of 
 any kind whatever, by means of which these con- 
 sequences can be avoided. 
 
 Such being the case, the first question which 
 seems to suggest itself is — Why not increase the 
 money as fast as the goods, so that the same rate of 
 profit may attend the sale of the two hundreds, as 
 is supposed to attend the sale of the one hundred ? 
 The answer is, that so long as gold, or any other 
 intrinsically valuable commodity whatever, shall con- 
 tinue to be the standard of value, to increase money 
 as fast as we can increase goods, is an absolute and 
 glaring impossibility, inasmuch as one thing cannot, 
 by any human contrivance, be increased as fast as 
 every thing else. 
 
 And this is the existing limit to the material 
 sources of human enjoyment — this is the enemy 
 which bestrides the path of the producer, and says 
 to him — So far may you advance, but no farther — 
 — a falling market 
 
 As, then, the aggregate of goods cannot be in- 
 creased faster than the aggregate of money, without 
 loss being the inevitable result of their production, 
 
LIMITS OF PRODUCTION. 103 
 
 an ordinary consequence is, that loss is the result of 
 production. Tempted by a craving disposition to 
 employ their capital, and to make money, as they 
 call it, by the exercise of their trades, manufac- 
 turers, one or other of them, are for ever over-step- 
 ping the line of demarkation ; but, unfortunately, 
 they do not in this case make money, but goods, or 
 rather bads, for a good that can hardly be, which 
 sends its maker into the gazette, and his wife and 
 family into the poor house. 
 
 And this it is which constitutes what is called 
 over-production. Goods being increased faster than 
 money, their price falls ; and the world exclaims — 
 Oh, the evils of over-production ! whilst it may be 
 demonstrated in twenty different ways, that there 
 never was, and never can be, any such thing as an 
 aggregate over-production of commodities. It is 
 the under-production of money, added to a total 
 want of any definite principle, either of increase or 
 diminution thereof, which constitutes the real evil. 
 Start again at par, as already defined, a fair profit 
 being the result of production ; regulate the increase 
 of money by the existing supply of goods, instead of 
 regulating, as at present, the increase of goods by 
 the existing supply of money, and you may multi- 
 ply your productions a hundred, a thousand, a mil- 
 lion, or a hundred thousand million fold, and be still 
 as far from over-production as ever. There will be 
 no such thing ; there cannot be any such thing, nor 
 the least imaginable prospect of it. 
 
 Regulation, as to the nature of the things pro- 
 duced to insure their proportionate increase, is the 
 
104 AN EFFICIENT REMEDY. 
 
 one and only qualification required to this asser- 
 tion. 
 
 But the increase of goods does not generally go on 
 when that of money stops ; for, although imprudence 
 frequently oversteps the boundary, prudence much 
 more frequently says stop : this, indeed, is the rule, 
 the other the exception. Production, then, does 
 stop, and when? When the wants of the public 
 are supplied ! when we are all physically happy 
 and comfortable ! when each and all of us have a 
 house and home, and the means of supporting a 
 wife and family, if we chance to have them ! furni- 
 ture, musical instruments, books, maps, globes ; and, 
 in a word, every thing which is necessary to make 
 life comfortable^ in the ordinary acceptation of the 
 term ! No ; with the ability in our hands to supply 
 every individual inhabitant of these realms with the 
 necessaries, comforts, and many of the minor luxuries 
 of life, our productive efforts stop; and stop they 
 must, so long as the present system of exchange shall 
 subsist, long ere we have supplied the numhers of 
 society with a sufficiency of even the first necessaries 
 of human life — food, raiment, and decent habitation. 
 
 The remedy for this evil, which is not to be found 
 in the vocabularies of whigism, toryism, radicahsm, 
 chartism, or any other ism that I am acquainted 
 with, must consist of a reformed monetary system,, 
 by means of which the existing quantity of money 
 shall be made to depend upon the existing quantity 
 of goods, instead of allowing the former to regulate 
 the latter, as it does at present. 
 
 Bankers, as banks are now constituted, cannot do 
 
LIMITS OF PRODUCTION. I05 
 
 this. Bank notes are payable on demand in a fixed 
 weight of gold, therefore must they not be issued in 
 such quantities as to cause themselves to stand 
 lower in the scale of price than gold itself; for, 
 should they ever exceed this limitation, there is an 
 end to the profits of banking, and a beginning to its 
 loss. Every note would be returned to its respec- 
 tive bank as fast as it could be issued, and the 
 result of every such issue would be a loss ; because, 
 if bank notes were to be issued with sufficient free- 
 dom to allow production to go unchecked, gold 
 would inevitably rise in price as compared with 
 bank notes. The goods which the notes would buy 
 would no longer exchange for the former weight of 
 gold, because the existing quantity of gold would 
 have diminished, as compared with the aggregate of 
 goods, by the mere increase of the latter. Thus, it 
 is evident, that bankers are as completely fettered 
 as to the extent of their operations, as the rest of the 
 community. 
 
 Hence, neither gold, bank notes payable on de- 
 mand in fixed weights of gold, silver, copper, brass, 
 iron, tin, lead, nor intrinsically valuable commodities 
 of any description, can ever be used as a standard 
 of value, without as effectually checking production 
 as iron chains bound around the limbs of the labour- 
 ing classes would do it. 
 
 To allow production to go on unchecked-^ — the 
 demand for that which is more luxurious increasing 
 as fast as the demand for that which is less luxuri- 
 ous shall come to be supplied, the aggregate demand 
 being ever equal to the supply, the supply to the 
 
106 AN EFFICIENT REMEDY. 
 
 demand, and the price of commodities being unaf- 
 fected by any increase of quantity, unless attended 
 with an alteration in the labour of creating them — 
 the standard of value must be a bank note, repre- 
 senting a definite quantity of labour and skill use- 
 fully employed ; that is to say, employed in the 
 creation of something necessary, useful, or advanta- 
 geous, which mankind in general are found by 
 experience to use, consume, or appropriate, when- 
 ever they possess the means of doing so. To shew 
 upon what principle such a note, with its SOths, 
 240ths, 480ths, and 960ths, may be made, issued, 
 and recalled, with mathematical precision, is a task 
 I have already, in these pages, accomplished. 
 
 Our next inquiry then is — What are the essential 
 limits to production ? those which in the nature of 
 things are fixed and immutable. 
 
 I have already observed, that the natural limita- 
 tion to the material sources of human enjoyment, 
 is the exhaustion of our inclination, or of our ability, 
 to produce them. {Appendix^ No. X.) But this 
 reply is evidently of too general a character to be 
 very satisfactory to those persons who imagine that 
 our powers of production are exhaustless, and that 
 all we require is an outlet for our goods. A fuller 
 exposition of this subject is therefore desirable, seeing 
 that the inability to perform any given act may arise 
 from numerous and very different causes. 
 
 The sources of a nation's wealth are its land, capi- 
 tal, skill, and industry. Bring all these into full 
 operation, and the annual result will be, the utmost 
 amount of annual wealth that it is able to create- 
 
LIMITS OF PRODUCTION. J07 
 
 The modes of employing these powers may, perhaps, 
 be classified under four distinct heads ; not that every 
 occupation falls, of necessity, under some one of them, 
 for it may very frequently happen to be of a com- 
 pound character. A preliminary view^, however, of 
 these sections, may perhaps be useful to us. 
 
 I. A nation may employ its land, capital, skill, 
 and industry, in the creation of wealth, out of its 
 own materials, for its own direct use, consumption, 
 and enjoyment. This species of production is of a 
 very independent character ; for the same reason 
 that a man is independent who has few wants, most 
 of which he can supply, Robinson Crusoe fashion, 
 with his own hands. 
 
 II. Or a nation may devote a great portion of its 
 productive resources to the creation of wealth to be 
 given in exchange for the products of other countries. 
 This implies an exchange of kind merely, and not an 
 increase of value ; because, whatever may be re- 
 ceived is supposed to be merely equivalent to that 
 which is given for it. Yet is this species of produc- 
 tion very commonly the cause of a bona fide increase 
 of wealth, because we may pay for foreign products 
 out of our own superfluity. Enough being produced 
 for home consumption, we create more than enough, 
 that we may expend the surplus in the purchase of 
 something from other nations, which we cannot 
 make at home. In this case, the payment consists 
 of something which would never have existed had 
 there not been any opportunity of using it in the 
 
108 AN EFFICIENT REMEDY. 
 
 manner that has been described. Whilst the nation 
 with which we deal, being in precisely the same 
 situation, is also benefited to the whole amount of its 
 produce. 
 
 This is also a healthy and desirable species of em- 
 ployment. It is the same division of labour extended 
 to nations which is found to be so very beneficial to 
 every society, however small. The products so 
 created for the express purpose of being exchanged 
 for the wealth of other nations, may consist either of 
 raw material or of manufactured goods ; and whether 
 the exchange be made directly or indirectly, the re- 
 sult is precisely the same. That is to say, we may send 
 goods to America in payment for American corn, to 
 be consumed in our own country ; or we may send 
 goods to America in exchange for American corn, to 
 be sent to France, in payment for wine or silks im- 
 ported from that country. 
 
 III. A third method of employing capital, skill, 
 and industry, may be that of merely working for 
 other nations. We may buy foreign materials which 
 we do not want for our own use ; work them up 
 into certain forms, still not for any home purpose ; 
 and then send them to a foreign market ; their price 
 in which, over and above their cost elsewhere, being 
 the remuneration we receive for our risk and trouble. 
 
 This is scarcely to be called a desirable class of 
 occupation; and when large masses of people are 
 led to embark in it, they are necessarily placed in a 
 situation of some risk. For whatever capital, skill, 
 or industry, may be brought into operation under 
 
LIMITS OF PRODUCTION. IQ9 
 
 these circumstances, the whole is necessarily placed 
 in the situation of a day labourer, liable to be dis- 
 missed at an hour's notice. The people to whom we 
 may look for employment may come to do the work 
 themselves ; or they may find a substitute article ; 
 or they may discover another people who may do 
 the same thing for them on more acceptable terms. 
 True, upon a powerful nation like England, these 
 changes generally come gradually, and are more 
 or less foreseen : but come they do sometimes, and 
 whenever that happens, enormous evil is the result. 
 Whilst, were any petty and nearly powerless state 
 to embark the greater part of its capital and labour 
 in employments of this description, a powerful enemy 
 might almost annihilate its existence merely by inter- 
 cepting its foreign commerce, and without ever once 
 setting a foot upon its shores. To be merely the 
 workers up of foreign materials, for the use of foreign 
 consumers, is not, therefore, a desirable position in 
 society for great multitudes of people. And it would 
 be well if this circumstance were a little more gene- 
 rally apprehended than it appears to be at the present 
 time. 
 
 IV. Capital and skill may also be employed in the 
 business of speculation — mere buying and selling. 
 This occupation is an unexceptionable one, in so far as 
 it takes cognizance of the wants and superfluities of 
 different nations, and obtains its own advantage from 
 the act of equalizing the condition of mankind. One 
 country is rich in some kinds of produce, another is rich 
 in other kinds ; and whoever acts in the capacity of 
 
no AN EFFICIENT REMEDY. 
 
 fjgent for the exchange of their respective superfluities 
 is a benefactor to them both. Such is the legitimate 
 occupation of the merchant. But when he adventures 
 upon the sea of speculation, and, as a consequence 
 thereof, drav^s thousands of his fellow-creatures into 
 the third class of occupation above defined ; he is 
 often little better than a common cheat, and ought 
 to be stigmatized as such, were it not for the redeem- 
 ing circumstance, that, whilst he ruins others, he 
 himself generally participates in their common de- 
 struction. — We now resume the more immediate 
 subject of our present inquiry. 
 
 As then it has been shewn, that under the influ- 
 ence of a rational plan of exchange, supply and 
 demand would be just two names for the same thing ; 
 and that, therefore, they may go on hand in hand 
 for ever ; it follows — regulation being the only 
 condition contended for — that our ability to produce 
 ought to be co-extensive with our ability to regulate ; 
 and this is in fact the case. 
 
 If a large number of persons, supplied with the 
 requisite capital, come to be employed in a great 
 variety of occupations, and paid for their labours by 
 orders on their own productions, it follows, that the 
 aggregate demand will be equal to the aggregate 
 supply. Yet is it quite possible that a surplus may 
 exist of certain commodities, which surplus must, 
 however, be precisely balanced by a deficiency of 
 others. If, for example, we call the commodities 
 produced by the letters A, B, C, and D, and their 
 producers by the same denominatives, the latter, on 
 receipt of their wages, may desire to expend all their 
 
 ■^.icSL 
 
LIMITS OF PRODUCTION. JH 
 
 money in the purchase of goods A and B only, in 
 which case, there will be but just half enough to 
 meet their demand on the one hand ; whilst, on the 
 other, for commodities C and D, there will be no 
 demand at all. 
 
 Here, then, the obvious course is to double the 
 productions A and B, and to discontinue those of C 
 and D. And as the necessity for changes of this 
 kind would in general come upon us gradually, there 
 would be but little difficulty in effecting them, so 
 long as we may be in possession of the materials 
 wherewith to form the thing desired ; or so long as 
 we may be able to obtain such materials in exchange 
 for any thing which we can spare, and may be will- 
 ing to give for them. 
 
 It is possible, however, that a time may come 
 when we may neither be able to make the thing we 
 want, nor any thing else wherewith to buy it. Then 
 it is clear that we must do without it, and devote the 
 capital and labour that we should have been willing 
 to bestow upon the desired object to some other pur- 
 pose, which may not be attended with any such 
 insuperable difficulty. But if it should happen that 
 the desired commodity be an iiidispensahle one, as 
 for instance food — if we shall have produced the 
 utmost quantity of food that we can produce at 
 home, and are also unable to create, by our labour, 
 any thing else, in exchange for which other nations 
 will give us food — then it is obvious that we shall 
 have arrived at a natural limit to production ; seeing, 
 that being now unable to regulate — unable to make 
 either the thing we most want, or any thing else 
 
112 AN EFFICIENT REMEDY. 
 
 wherewith to buy it — all additional employments 
 that we may go into can have but one effect ; 
 namely, that of increasing the demand for the very 
 thing of which we had not enough to meet the lesser 
 demand that previously existed. And this natural 
 limit to production is the first, so far as I can see, at 
 which nations are ever likely to arrive. 
 
 Probably the assertion might be adventured, that 
 whenever a nation shall be unable to suppli/ its 
 markets with any article of an indispensable charac- 
 ter, either by means of its own labour, or by means 
 of employing a portion of its population in the 
 attainment of the thing desired, by the indirect 
 method of exchange, then, and not till then, is 
 emigration necessary. Emigration may be desirable 
 before this period arrive, but the necessity cannot, I 
 conceive, be very pressing : whilst it is to be kept 
 in mind, that the distant approach of such a state of 
 things would invariably be indicated, under the 
 standard system of operations, by a constantly in- 
 creasing demand upon the standard stores for the 
 desired article, or upon the stocks thereof in the 
 external market, as the case might be. 
 
 Thus, whilst aggregate supply and demand would 
 ever be the same under the influence of a right 
 system of exchange, wherein to increase, and wherein 
 to diminish production would, at all times, be as obvi- 
 ous as the sun at noonday ; increased or diminished 
 demand for particular commodities forming a per- 
 petual index — out qflhe standard pale of operations 
 as well as in it — to the right way. Fill your empty 
 stores ; slacken a little where you are already full, 
 
LIMITS OF PRODUCTION. 113 
 
 and be it specially noted — that the over full must 
 ever be in exact ratio with the 'over empty ^ and vice 
 versa* 
 
 Alas ! Great Britain and Ireland have no need of 
 any index now to point to their full and empty 
 depots. Full ! full ! full ! is the one monotonous 
 response to every inquiry of the kind. Houses, 
 furniture, clothes, and food, are all equally abundant; 
 v^hilst a market ! a market ! is the everlasting cry 
 of myriads, who, to become a market to each other, 
 have only to eschew the enormous error which per- 
 vades their system of exchange. 
 
 Neither has Great Britain any reason to fear that 
 the day may soon arrive, when her productions must 
 come to a stand-still from any natural cause : her 
 resources are tremendous ; and were she but free to 
 use them, the brightest page of past history that 
 any spot upon the earth can boast, would present 
 but a gloomy picture of the race of man, compared 
 with that which England's newly opened gates of 
 prosperity would place before her eyes. Her re- 
 sources for the <ireation of wealth are almost illimit- 
 able ; whilst the me^ns of disposing of it to advantage 
 are herein demonstrated to be precisely as illimitable. 
 
 It may here be proper to remark, that in entering 
 upon the standard system of operations, even the 
 chance of having occasion to diminish the scale of 
 any productive employment, may be almost, or alto- 
 gether, avoided ; and that merely by beginning upon 
 a far less extensive scale than the capital at com- 
 mand would allow of: for, in this case, the due 
 'proportion of supply may be constantly maintained 
 
 H ^<^T^ « aT^^ 
 
 /^ or THE 
 
 { UNIVERSITY 
 
 I VNiYbKbll T j 
 
114 AN EFFICIENT REMEDY. 
 
 by the very agreeable method of increasing pro- 
 duction whenever there should be any deficiency ; 
 instead of being obliged to contract it vi^henever 
 there should chance to be a surplus. 
 
 If, for instance, the existing state of the standard 
 stock, in all its various departments, should at any 
 time be represented by the figures 
 
 2 4 S 4 2 4 
 
 whilst "proportionate supply would, of course, require 
 them to stand thus — 
 
 3 3 3 3 3 3 
 
 it is obvious that the balance may be restored either 
 by converting the three twos into fours, the three 
 fours into twos, or the whole six into threes ; the 
 first plan requiring an increase of operations, the 
 second a decrease, and the third an equal increase 
 and diminution. The first plan is obviously the 
 most desirable ; but to enable us to act upon it, it is 
 necessary that we should at all times have at com- 
 mand a surplus capital, ready to advance into what- 
 ever situation it may be required to fill ; and this, 
 indeed, is the only necessity that the case requires. 
 
 I have proposed at the head of this chapter, to 
 offer a few words on the subject of population and 
 emigration ; but as this is not a regular treatise on 
 political economy, but rather an attempt to call 
 attention to the present wretched condition of that 
 science, I shall merely observe, that all discussions 
 
LIMITS OF PRODUCTION. 115 
 
 about population and emigration are at present pre- 
 mature ; for we are not now in a condition to judge 
 of either. There is one evil, to which alone is first 
 due every consideration of a remedial character : give 
 us free trade at home — unchain production ; let it 
 have its full scope. Strike off the golden fetters that 
 bind us to poverty ; then shall we be able to view 
 many objects from an eminence, and through a clear 
 atmosphere, which we now fruitlessly endeavour to 
 discern through the mist and darkness of commercial 
 error. 
 
 In the Social System, I have devoted a chapter 
 to the subject of population, and have made a few 
 remarks, also, upon that of emigration ; but I desire 
 not to extend this work to any great length, or to 
 withdraw attention from the one main doctrine it 
 inculcates, by going too freely into other subjects. 
 
1 16 AN EFFICIENT REMEDY. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 SOME OBSEKVATIONS ON THE POLITICAL PARTIES OF THE DAY — CONSERVATIVES 
 — WHIGS — CHARTISTS, AND THEIR CHARTER. 
 
 There could hardly be any more conclusive 
 evidence of the general ignorance which pervades 
 society, respecting the causes of human troubles, 
 than the great diversity of opinion that exists upon 
 the subject — I say emsts, because there is every 
 reason to believe that, in the main, all parties are 
 tolerably sincere in their declarations relative thereto ; 
 in other words, that very few oT them support any 
 particular set of opinions, merely because such opi- 
 nions chance to favour their own especial interests. 
 To some extent interested partiality may, no doubt, 
 prevail individually, but I believe it to be the ex- 
 ception rather than the rule ; and it is no libel on 
 any man's understanding to say, that in matters 
 relating to commerce or politics, he affirms black \o 
 be white, or white black : for there are contradic- 
 tions enough in the facts that are before us, to justify 
 the most opposite conclusions, just as a man happens 
 to reason from one set of circumstances, or from 
 another set. 
 
POPULAR OPINIONS. 117 
 
 If a steam engine were to go wrong, so that it 
 would not perform its work, and if a number of 
 engineers were sent for separately to examine it, 
 and to report upon its faults, the chances are, that 
 all of them would ascribe the non- working of the 
 machine to the same cause, and that the true one ; 
 because, as every engineer would be presumed to 
 understand the nature and construction of the thing 
 submitted to him, its defects, whatever they might 
 be, would be at once apparent. I wonder what 
 degree of similitude would exist between the reports 
 of a number of committees, appointed to sit in judg- 
 ment, for six months, upon the question of commercial 
 difficulty, its cause and remedy ! Alas ! how various 
 and contradictory are the reports of the political and 
 social engineers of the present day: they seem to 
 agree in nothing, except that evils do exist, and in 
 contradicting each others' opinions respecting their 
 origin, and the nature of the required remedy. 
 
 The Tory or Conservative party, indeed, seem to 
 have no particular cure. As their latter designation 
 implies, they appear to have assumed a sort of guar- 
 dianship against frequent and extensive changes ; 
 lest in seeking by experimental processes to make 
 our condition better, we should make it worse in- 
 stead. Their faculties seem to be mostly of the 
 order which the phrenologists call knowing. They 
 arrive at opinions as it were intuitively ; and with- 
 out attempting, in all cases, to reply to the reason- 
 ings of their opponents, they take the shorter method 
 of saying, you have failed to convince us. 
 
 And there is much good sense in this habitual 
 
lis AN EFFICIENT REMEDY. 
 
 caution : for in things incapable of actual demonstra- 
 tion, it by no means follows, as a matter of course, 
 that one man is right, because another man, even of 
 equal talents, is unable to shew that he is wrong. 
 The Conservatives do not exactly say to their oppo- 
 nents — what you desire to do would be injurious ; 
 but rather^ — we cannot see in what manner it 
 would be beneficial, therefore do we oppose you. 
 This party may not inaptly be compared with a 
 stern old guardian, who listens with the utmost 
 composure to some ardent and speculative notions of 
 his ward; but after all, without deigning very 
 much reply, puts a cool veto on the whole affair, by 
 refusing the supplies. The Duke of Wellington, in 
 a published note of the 16th July last, to one Mr 
 Taylor, who wished to confer with his Grace upon 
 the subject of the anti-corn law league — " Declines 
 to receive the visits of deputations from associations, 
 or of individual gentlemen, in order to confer with 
 them on public affairs ; but if any gentlemen think 
 proper to give him, in writing, information or in- 
 struction on any subject, he will peruse the same 
 with attention." This resolve seems to be at once 
 wise and liberal. A subject which has puzzled 
 mankind for centuries can hardly be agreed upon 
 within the short space of time usually allotted to an 
 interview. Opinions, too, may always be stated in 
 a clearer and better manner in a written or printed 
 form, than in a conversational one. The former 
 may be perused and reperused, and so deliberately 
 understood; but in conversation the meaning in- 
 tended to be conveyed is often misapprehended 
 
POPULAR OPINIONS. 119 
 
 more or less ; whilst three-fourths of the arguments 
 on both sides are very soon forgotten. Public meet- 
 ings, and discussions public and private, are very- 
 useful in calling the attention of parties to particular 
 subjects; as also on account of their tendency to 
 induce the formation of opinions respecting them ; 
 but if the subject be a difficult one — and that of 
 public poverty, in the midst of superfluity, seems to 
 puzzle folks a little — it may always be far better 
 studied and elucidated in the closet than in the 
 debating room ; in which latter place, the cleverest 
 elocutionist, rather than the most correct thinker, 
 generally gains the victory. That the free importa- 
 tion of corn would not very much diminish the 
 existing and prospective distresses of this nation, 
 without a simultaneous change in the nature of the 
 currency, I shall presently endeavour to shew. 
 
 The Whigs reason from cause to effect ; and did 
 they but take all the circumstances of the case into 
 the account, their logical conclusions must, of course, 
 be unanswerable. But they have never done this 
 yet. They would adopt those measures which 
 have a natural tendency to do good: they would 
 avoid unnecessary expenditure, reduce the taxes as 
 much as possible, and allow to some considerable 
 extent the exercise of free trade. The natural ten- 
 dency of these things is a good one. A nation 
 wants bread ; and if it can obtain corn more easily 
 by spinning cotton to be given in exchange for corn, 
 than by growing corn itself, the indirect is plainly 
 more effective, than the direct way of getting at 
 the thing required. If one man work at a loom, 
 
120 AN EFFICIENT REMEDY. 
 
 and another man work on a half-barren Scottish hill, 
 both for the purpose of obtaining bread, the weaver 
 is the better agriculturist of the two, if it happen 
 that his labour have the effect of bringing more corn 
 into the granary than the labour of his fellow. In 
 fact, the cheapest method of obtaining what we 
 want, is never to make the thing itself, so long as^ 
 by the act of making something else, we can com- 
 mand, by means of exchange, a greater quantity of 
 it with the same amount of labour. 
 
 But what would the free importation of corn avail 
 us ? Look at America ! there is corn enough surely, 
 yet is America in no better plight than Great Britain. 
 It is, on the contrary, in a worse. A paper, pub- 
 lished on the 27th August, 1842, says, — " A New 
 York paper contains a list of nearly seven hundred 
 bankrupts ! a number that, if printed in the usual 
 manner in England, would half fill the Times news- 
 paper ! This shews what a hurricane has passed 
 over the trading world in America, and the frightful 
 ravages left behind." Why is this, but because the 
 Americans, like ourselves, are utterly destitute of any 
 proper instrument of exchange, or measure of value. 
 Because there, as well as here, money is a thing 
 rather cast amongst the multitude to be scrambled 
 for, than issued upon any defined principle ; anti 
 hence, the more good things of this life, which the 
 people have the power of creating, the more are 
 their merchants and traders likely to lose by them. 
 They, in common with ourselves, might as well 
 attempt to substitute a force-pump for the veins and 
 arteries of the human body, wherewith to circulate. 
 
POPULAR OPINIONS. 121 
 
 the blood, as to attempt, beneficially, to effect ex- 
 changes without a plan of doing it as mathematically 
 accurate in character as the veins of the human body 
 •are , anatomically so. 
 
 Were corn as cheap in this country as it is in 
 America, a year or two at most would bring us back 
 into our present position. Wages would fall in an exact 
 ratio with the fall in the price of bread ; the same 
 disparity between the power of creating goods and 
 money would subsist as at the present time. Goods 
 would be chealper than ever, but no profit could be 
 obtained by them ; and the final result would be 
 twofold, — the old mad cry about over-production 
 would revive ; and Englishmen would have made 
 one grand step towards the attainment of better 
 things ; they would have discovered, that it is not 
 cheap corn that is to save us, ergo, it must be 
 something else. But, whilst so many efforts are 
 made to cheafen every thing, it should at least be 
 kept in mind, that to reduce the aggregate price of 
 commodities to one half, would just exactly double 
 the interest of the national debt ; as also the amount 
 of rents in all cases of lease ; and the interest of 
 every existing debt, until the same should be extin- 
 guished. 
 
 At present there is plenty of corn in the market, 
 and the evil is /not so much the want of corn itself, 
 as of money to buy it. Increase the supply of corn, 
 and the evil becomes rather worse than better ; for, 
 without a corresponding increase of money, the corn 
 will only tend to swell the aggregate demand for 
 money, already immeasurably too great. All the 
 
122 AN EFFICIENT REMEDY. 
 
 arguments for the free importation of corn presup- 
 pose the existence of a free system of exchange at 
 home ; but no such thing exists. There are millions 
 of people in England, Scotland, and Ireland, able 
 and most anxious to be of mutual service to each 
 other ; who can be of none for want of a proper 
 medium of exchange between them. People, by 
 dozens, living in the same street of one great city, 
 are in the same situation. Men do not live by 
 barter; the baker cannot give bread for cloth, nor the 
 clothier cloth for bread. The cabinetmaker cannot 
 give furniture for the thousand and one articles he 
 requires for his own use and consumption. The 
 baker, the clothier, the cabinetmaker, to which add 
 a hundred others, must all live, if they live at all, 
 by the profits of their respective trades ; tJie surplus 
 in money which they can obtain for their goods, over 
 and above the money they give for them. It is this 
 surplus which forms their income; and if the in- 
 crease of money do not go hand in hand with the 
 increase of goods, the more goods they make the less 
 surplus or income is it possible for them to obtain. 
 And, as I have said twenty times already, the in- 
 crease of money of the existing character cannot go 
 hand in hand with that of goods. Thus is it that 
 millions of the human race, able and willing, speak- 
 ing of them collectively, to supply to each other 
 every rational article of use, consumption, and en- 
 joyment, are condemned by a mere piece of juggling 
 in human affairs — a false measure that might be 
 kicked out of existence in two or three years — 
 to perpetual difficulty, embarrassment, and conten- 
 
POPULAR OPINIONS. 123 
 
 tion. Do not let it be supposed that I am here 
 contending for the continuance of the corn laws. 
 No person would more gladly witness their total 
 abolition than the present writer ; but as to any 
 great good to be expected from the change, so long 
 as the present system of exchange shall exist, it is 
 the merest delusion. 
 
 For the reasons I have noted, the Whigs can make 
 nothing of their otherwise rational ideas. They 
 must first get rid of the counteracting principle 
 which pervades commercial society. They must 
 put commerce upon such a footing, that 710 increase 
 whatever in the quantity of commodities can have 
 any tendency to occasion a Jail in their money price, 
 unless attended with diminished cost of material, or 
 labour of production. Let them do this first, and 
 then give us free trade in every thing ; in doing 
 which no rational being will oppose them ; neither 
 will any sane country be long in following their 
 example. v 
 
 But it is useless and hopeless to look for any 
 permanent good from the mere extension of our 
 present commercial system. It is rotten at the 
 heart, and must be cast aside like an old and worn 
 out garment, to make room for one of better mate- 
 rials, and new construction, to be established in its 
 stead. 
 
 The next and last class of politicians which I shall 
 notice are the Chartists ; whose opinions are entitled 
 to especial consideration on account of the multi- 
 tudes of people by whom they are espoused. They 
 
124 ^ AN EFFICIENT REMEDY. 
 
 have, moreover, at least one merit, which we may 
 look for in vain elsewhere — they are agreed so far 
 at least, that they desire the power to govern to be 
 forthwith placed in their own hands ; and, consider- 
 ing their vast numbers, agreement of any kind is no 
 inconsiderable merit. 
 
 The objects of the Charter then — I quote from a 
 recent number of the Times newspaper — are : — 
 
 I. Universal Suffrage. — To obtain for each man 
 of twenty-one years of age the right of voting for 
 representatives to serve in the Commons House of 
 Parliament. 
 
 II. Electoral Districts. — That, for the purpose 
 of securing a fair and equal representation of the 
 people, it is necessary that the whole country be 
 divided into districts, each containing, as nearly as 
 may be, an equal number of electors. 
 
 III. Annual Parliaments. — That it is of great 
 importance to secure and maintain the responsibility 
 of members to their constituents ; and that annual 
 parliaments are a proper means for securing this 
 object. 
 
 IV. No Property Qualification. — That every 
 elector shall be eligible to be elected. 
 
 V. The Ballot. — That the right of voting for a 
 representative shall be exercised secretly by ballot. 
 
 VI. Payment of Members. — That each re- 
 preseritative of the people shall be paid for his 
 services. 
 
 Such is the desiderated Charter ; and the Charter,, 
 if we are rightly informed, is at this moment the 
 
POPULAR OPINIONS. 125 
 
 political creed of millions of the people of this 
 country : let us examine it a little. 
 
 Universal Suffrage. -r- The rights of all men are 
 by nature equal ; and the first and most inalien- 
 able right of man is the possession, use, and enjoy- 
 ment of the produce of his own industry ; and this 
 right is the foundation of every other. A number 
 of men have an indisputable right to take possession 
 of any part of the earth previously unappropriated ; 
 to give it a name ; to divide it into portions ; every 
 individual being allotted a share or no share, as the 
 parties may agree amongst themselves. I say, or no 
 share ; because it is impossible, consistently with the 
 general good, for every man to be an agriculturist ; 
 wherefore many, even in the rudest state of society, 
 may find their advantage in following mechanical 
 or other avocations, selected by themselves, in pre- 
 ference to becoming cultivators of the soil ; even 
 where the soil may be had by the mere act of taking 
 possession of it. 
 
 Land being thus appropriated, is next cultivated : 
 labour is applied to the earth, seed scattered upon 
 its surface, and a crop is the result ; which crop is 
 the property of the man by whom it is caused to 
 exist. Or, it may be the property of any man, who, 
 having merely taken undisputed possession of the 
 land, may cultivate it by the hands of others, those 
 others having consented, for a certain remuneration 
 agreed upon with their employer, to cultivate the 
 land for his use and benefit instead of for their own. 
 
 And equally, in both these cases, the land must 
 continue to belong to its original possessor, or to 
 
126 AN EFFICIENT REMEDY. 
 
 whomsoever he may give it, sell it, or leave it at the 
 time of his death, so long as he or his successors shall 
 think proper to retain it. This seems to be the pro- 
 per foundation of all landed property. 
 
 Personal property, again, may be created by 
 labour, or obtained by traffic. A hunter, provided 
 he trespass not on private property in the exercise of 
 his calling, may obtain the skins of wild animals, 
 useful for clothing, and for various domestic purposes. 
 These skins are his property, as much so as his own 
 right hand. But he may give them to another per- 
 son, or he may sell them for some agreed considera- 
 tion ; then are they the property of the person to 
 whom they may be consigned. Another man may 
 traffic ; he may give a price to the hunter for his 
 skins ; and he may dispose of them to other persons, 
 who may consent to give him a higher price for them 
 than he is supposed to have given to the hunter ; 
 the difference between the two being at once his 
 profit and his property. 
 
 But, as property comes to be accumulated, and 
 mankind to increase in numbers, laws and regula- 
 tions are found to be necessary for the protection of 
 property, of the weak against the oppression of the 
 strong, and for the government of society generally. 
 These laws are necessarily of three distinct classes : — 
 those for the protection of the person ; those for the 
 protection of property ; and those for the adjustment 
 of the rights, duties, and privileges of mankind. 
 
 Now, I should like to know in what chapter of 
 the book of nature it is written, — that a man, who 
 has no property of his own, has yet a right to govern 
 
POPULAR OPINIONS. 127 
 
 that which belongs to other people ! In vain shall we 
 look for any such : the very notion is preposterous ; 
 and, were we to admit it for a moment, we must 
 admit also, as a necessary consequence, that nature 
 refuses her sanction to the existence of property at 
 all ; whilst, at the same time, there is hardly a bird 
 of the air, or wild beast of the forest, that has not a 
 distinct notion of property, in common with all man- 
 kind. A man, who has no property, has no more 
 right to claim a voice amidst the assembly of those 
 who meet together to devise measures for the govern- 
 ment and regulation of that which is their own, than 
 he has to assume forcible possession of a house he did 
 not build, of a crop which he did not cause to grow, 
 or of a garment which he neither made nor pur- 
 chased. The foundation of all property is labour, 
 and the right to govern property is theirs, and theirs 
 alone, who have any property to govern — of those 
 who have either produced it, succeeded to it, or ob- 
 'tained it by fair purchase, or by gift. 
 
 The /r5^ requisition, then, of the Chartists is, for 
 the reasons that have been given, unjust, therefore 
 should it never be granted ; and for the same reason, 
 if it were granted, good could never come of it. 
 Compliance with this requisition would, in a word, 
 be the legalization of robbery ; and every thief in the 
 three kingdoms might plead it in justification of 
 whatever fraud or depredation he might think 
 proper to commit. 
 
 Electoral Districts. — The foregoing observations 
 apply equally to the electoral district proposition. 
 A man has an estate, but he engages others to 
 
1-28 AN EFFICIENT REMEDY. 
 
 cultivate it for him on terms mutually agreed 
 upon. Here, then, is an electoral district : the 
 proprietor is one, the labourers are many ; what is 
 to prevent them from sending a member to Par- 
 liament; who will vote the master out of his 
 estate, and his servants into it ? Nothing on earth* 
 This is the essence of article number two ; and 
 extend the scale of operations as much as you please, 
 the principle remains the same. 
 
 Annual Parliaments are the next desideratum. 
 New brooms sweep clean, it is said ; but there 
 is also a vulgar notion amongst mankind, that old 
 servants are generally the best. A man must be 
 in Parliament more than a year before he can be 
 half at home in it. 
 
 An infinitely better thing would be, to make the 
 situation of a member of Parliament permanent, so 
 long as he should continue to perform the duties of 
 his office satisfactorily ; being, however, subject to 
 removal at any time by a majority of the votes of 
 his constituents, on a requisition to pass judgment on 
 his conduct being signed by a proportion, a third, 
 perhaps, of their entire number. 
 
 No property qualification. — Of this admirable 
 idea I have already disposed. 
 
 Vote by ballot comes next. — I have read most 
 of the popular arguments in favour of the ballot, 
 but have hitherto been unable to form any better 
 opinion of it than that the adoption thereof 
 would be a proceeding at once un-English, mean» 
 pitiful, despicable ; and that its tendency would be 
 rather to increase than to diminish the evil of 
 
POPULAR OPINIONS. 129 
 
 bribery. It would enable every man to do that in 
 secret, which he is now more or less ashamed to do 
 openly ; namely ,ybr a price to vote against his known 
 political sentiments. And it is a wild notion to sup- 
 pose that men would not continue to bribe because 
 they could no longer have absolute security for the 
 performance by the voter of his part of the contract. 
 It argues the existence of a very low state of moral 
 feeling and self-respect, that men can be found to 
 sell their votes ; but how infinitely lower a degree of 
 turpitude would be requisite to induce a man to 
 receive payment for doing a certain thing, and then 
 to go forthwith and do the very opposite one. Of 
 the number of those who would consent to vote for 
 a bribe, not one in a hundred would be guilty of the 
 double villainy of accepting the bribe, and cheating 
 the briber. 
 
 Moreover, vote by ballot would open the door to 
 at least the possibility of trickery in the electoral 
 process itself, which by open voting is entirely pre- 
 cluded. And if this should not exist in reality, the 
 suspicion of it would be sure to do so. Nothing, 
 perhaps, was ever fairer than the mode of drawing 
 the state lotteries ; yet is it notorious that an opinion 
 very generally prevailed amongst the ignorant — 
 and by no means exclusively amongst the ignorant 
 — that the managers of the affair could give the 
 prizes to whomsoever they pleased. 
 
 Were mankind liberated from their present 
 wretched state of poverty, and degradation conse- 
 quent thereon, there would be little need for the 
 ballot, even if we concede to it all the merit claimed 
 
l;30 AN EFFICIENT REMEDY. 
 
 by its most strenuous advocates. Every person, 
 from the labourer in the field to the richest member 
 of private society, would be independent in his 
 respective station as the Queen upon her throne, 
 were but a rational system of commerce established. 
 Classes of men are far too dependent upon other 
 classes, and upon individuals, at the present time ; 
 and the remedy is to be found in the general 
 improvement of their physical condition, out of which 
 would speedily arise a higher degree of mental and 
 moral culture, together with a much higher grade of 
 political virtue than any which now . exists. Let 
 mankind possess and enjoy that which they are 
 naturally able and willing to produce, and we shall 
 hear no more of the ballot ; man^ naturally a proud 
 and independent animal, would be ashamed of it. 
 It is his dependence, his poverty, and his wretched- 
 ness, that now humble him into the condition of a 
 political tool, to be at once used and loathed by the 
 Parliamentary seat-monger. 
 
 Payment of Members. — With respect to the last 
 article of the charter, it is altogether beyond my 
 comprehension how ^^o^ or six hundred men of 
 respectability can be got, not exactly to abuse each 
 other gratis, but often for the reward of hoots and 
 hisses frbm their most grateful constituents. Honour 
 there may be much for ought I know, though I think 
 it would sometimes require the aid of a microscope to 
 discern it ; but there is more honour far attached to 
 the profession of a bishop, a judge, or a general, than 
 to that of a member of Parliament. Yet members 
 of the sacred, legal, and military professions, seem . 
 
POPULAR OPINIONS. 131 
 
 to entertain the notion, that if honour be a good 
 thing, a respectable sum of pounds sterhng per 
 annum is not a bad one. In their last item I 
 cordially agree with the Chartists, that every mem- 
 ber of the Comnwns House of Parliament should be 
 paid for his services ; and moreover, it is certain that 
 the best and fittest men to fill the office of legislators 
 v^ill never be disposed to accept of it until some 
 profit, as w^ell as honour, shall come to be the accus- 
 tomed reward of their services. 
 
132 Al^ EFFICIENT REMEDY. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 THE APPEAL ; BEING A FEW WORDS IN THE WAY OF SOLICITATION FOR AN 
 INQUIRY INTO THE MERITS OF THE SYSTEM OF EXCHANGE HEREIN DEVELOPED 
 — HIS GRACE THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON REMINDED OF A PUBLIC INVITATION. 
 
 Reader ! to whatever class of society you may 
 belong, deign to listen to a few homely observations. 
 
 The world is full of misery ; it meets us at the 
 corner of every street, and penetrates into the 
 remotest recesses of our cities, towns, and villages ; 
 whilst the public press, like a constant flowing 
 river, teems with the details oi its existence. The 
 chief cause of all this evil is poverty ; other causes 
 there are, no doubt, but this is the great, the over- 
 whelming one of all. You pity the distress you see, 
 and hear about, and would gladly alleviate it, did 
 you but know how. These are truisms. 
 
 Here, then, is a book which sets out with the 
 declaration, that all unmerited poverty may be 
 sweeped away ; that as mankind are able and 
 willing to create by their labour an abundant 
 supply for all men, all may be supplied. The 
 reason why so many are in poverty at present is 
 pointed out, and the remedy is before you, in the 
 
THE APPEAL. I33 
 
 shape of a new commercial system, by no means 
 intricate in its nature, neither would its adoption be a 
 task of very much difficulty; on the contrary, the plan 
 is at once simple and practicable. The consequence 
 of its establishment would be, to render the produc- 
 tion of those things which constitute the necessaries, 
 conveniences, and comforts of life, the unfailing cause 
 of a demand for them. Such is the author's asser- 
 tion : Has he made out his case, or has he not f 
 
 If your answer be in the negative, then are we at 
 issue as to the facts, and there is an end to the dis- 
 cussion. But in parting, the author defies your 
 utmost ingenuity to detect an important error, either 
 as respects the reason he assigns for the existence of 
 so' much distress, or as to the efficacy of the remedy 
 which he advises to be administered. 
 
 It may be, however, that your reply is different. 
 You may be inclined to admit, not merely that the 
 secret evil which afflicts us has been exposed to view, 
 but also that an efficient remedy has been pointed 
 out. Granted, then, on my part, that the project is 
 an extensive one ; that it supposes a considerable 
 change in the construction of commercial society; 
 that some pecuniary interests might be affected ; 
 that the modes of employing the capital of indi- 
 viduals would be somewhat changed ; that a sort of 
 secondary government must be established in the 
 country ; and that many other things must come to 
 pass, even to the extent of revolutionizing the whole 
 system of manufactures and commerce as at present 
 carried on. — Granted all this ; still, if the chain 
 
134 AN EFFICIENT REMEDY. 
 
 which binds us to poverty would be broken by the 
 change, I conceive it to be the bounden duty of 
 every man, from the premier to the peasant, to ga 
 boldly to the root of the evil, and to apply the axe 
 thereto with the least possible delay. 
 
 Something must be done, ere long, to appease the 
 cravings of a hungry multitude. I write these sen- 
 tences in August 1842. Look at the state of the 
 country ! What is it that fills the columns of half 
 the public prints but accounts of riot, disorder, out- 
 rage ! True, the evil is just now subsiding, as well 
 it may ; because consumption is going on whilst pro- 
 duction is at a stand-still. But the same causes will 
 continue to operate, and the same evil will come back 
 upon us, from time to time, vnth equal and increased 
 violence. Men will be fed so long as there shall be 
 any food on which they may be able to lay their 
 hands ; and, if the defective arrangements of com- 
 mercial society shall continue to prevent them from 
 obtaining food by the exercise of their industry, 
 they will seize it with the lawless arm of the depre- 
 dator. It is in vain to talk about these things 
 remedying themselves ; they will never remedy 
 themselves. It is in vain to tell us, that poverty 
 and distress, even though unmerited, are the natural 
 accompaniments of an advanced and highly artificial 
 state of society. / have demonstrated the assertion to 
 be false. There exists no natural cause for poverty 
 except those of mental or physical incapacity, idle- 
 ness, vice, and crime. It is in vain for the rich to 
 lull themselves into a false and insecure repose by 
 
THE APPEAL. 135 
 
 the constant reiteration of the common-places of the 
 day — over-production, too great a spirit of specula- 
 tion, too much machinery, over-population, and the 
 like nonsense. Something of a decided character 
 must be resorted to : the evil must no longer be 
 left in hiding, like a tiger in its den, ready to spring 
 upon us at any moment when chance circumstances 
 may furnish the opportunity. It must he removed ; 
 and it is the duty of every man to give a helping 
 hand during the performance of the work. 
 
 The Duke of Wellington has said — He will per- 
 use with attention information or instruction given 
 to him in writing, upon any subject connected with 
 public affairs. 
 
 With the profound respect which is due by a 
 humble individual to the most illustrious and in- 
 fluential man of his time, I beg most respectfully to 
 remind his Grace of the invitation above quoted ; 
 and though the contents of this volume are of the 
 nature of an argument, rather than " information or 
 instruction," yet I here venture to request, that his 
 Grace will do me the honour to peruse the copy of 
 this little book, which I shall not fail to forward to 
 his residence. 
 
 But the Duke of Wellington cannot be reasonably 
 expected tp take a very active part in public affairs 
 now. In the nature of things, the sun of his Grace's 
 public course is on the decline towards the western 
 horizon; and to use the language of another great man 
 of the age, put into the mouth of a third of distin- 
 guished talent, the Duke may be supposed ere long 
 
136 AN EFFICIENT RExMEDY. 
 
 — yet may it be long first ! — to exclaim in the 
 words of Sir Walter Scott, written for the late 
 John Kemble — 
 
 Higher duties crave 
 Some space between the theatre and the grave ; 
 That like the Roman in the Capitol, 
 I may adjust my mantle ere I fall : 
 My life's brief act in public service flown. 
 The last, the closing scene, must be my own. 
 
 All that I would venture to solicit from the illus- 
 trious individual, with whose name I have taken so 
 much liberty, is a declaration, if he should see reason 
 to make it, that, in his opinion, the monetary system 
 herein developed is worthy to receive a full and 
 deliberate examination ; and thus, as I believe, might 
 his Grace add one benefit more to the many that he 
 has conferred on his country : for whatever he should 
 consider worthy of examination, most men would 
 examine; and then the subject must necessarily 
 come before the public in the shape of a pretty 
 general discussion. 
 
 Next to the influence to which I have ventured 
 to allude, is that of the public press. I shall not 
 fail to give a considerable number of that respect- 
 able fraternity the opportunity of forming an opinion 
 upon this subject ; and if the opinions that are ex- 
 pressed in this volume be correct, opposition or 
 approval are very much alike in tendency : for an 
 unsound argument against a sound doctrine is often 
 the best kind of support that can be rendered it — of 
 
THE APPEAL. I37 
 
 which I shall endeavour to give a practical illustra- 
 tion a little farther on — whilst, if these opinions 
 form but an additional chapter to the great book of 
 error, the sooner their fallacies are detected and ex- 
 posed the better. 
 
 But it is to the middle and lower classes of 
 society, rather than the higher, that the subject 
 of this volume particularly addresses itself: they, 
 and especially the latter, are in no condition to treat 
 any proposal, having for its object the removal of 
 their distresses, and having, at the same time, even 
 the semblance of rationality, as a mere philosophical 
 speculation, which may, at some distant period, or 
 may never, have influence upon the practical busi- 
 ness of life. If good ever be done, some class or 
 classes of persons must effect it ; and whose busi- 
 ness is it to set about the work, if it be not the 
 business of those for whose especial benefit the work 
 itself has to be performed ? 
 
 To ascertain the soundness or fallacy of the doc- 
 trine here promulgated, would be no very difficult 
 task. The proposed machine, of which this book 
 may be looked upon as the model, consists of few 
 parts, and may, therefore, be easily examined and 
 understood. If it be a good one, let the labouring 
 classes petition for its adoption, and let them peti- 
 tion, and petition again, until it be adopted : if its 
 qualities be really such as I have represented them 
 to be, refusal will be in vain. The members of the 
 government are the servants of the country — they 
 are not its masters : they hold the power they 
 
138 AN EFFICIENT REMEDY. 
 
 possess by the consent and appointment of those they 
 govern; and it is for the governed to continue them 
 in office, or to transfer their confidence to others, as 
 they may see fit. If, then, the people can satisfy 
 themselves that any particular plan of operations 
 would alleviate their distresses in the first instance, 
 and gradually bring them into a state of permanent 
 prosperity and enjoyment, they have only to solicit 
 for its adoption, and it must be adopted. 
 
 In vain may the Chartists and others adduce as 
 an argument against the correctness of this opinion, 
 the deaf ear that has been ever turned to the peti- 
 tions of wild and visionary declaimers, whose 
 demands have never been for any specific end or 
 object, but merely for the transference oi power from 
 the hands of others into their own : which power, if 
 given to them at all, must be ceded upon the ground 
 of their presumed superior wisdom and sagacity to 
 make a better use of it than those persons are doing 
 in whose hands it is at present vested. This class 
 of projectors keep entirely out of view the use they 
 would make of power could they but obtain it ; and 
 for the best possible reason are they silent upon this 
 point — they do not themselves know what they 
 would be at : they have no specific object, therefore 
 are they unable to define it. Such are the Union 
 Repealers and the Chartists. 
 
 The object herein contended for is the reverse of 
 all this. It is defined. Any intelligent man, by a 
 careful examination of its nature, may ascertain 
 pretty accurately, by a mere mental process, to 
 
THE APPEAL. 139 
 
 what it would lead, as also to what it would not 
 lead ; and as the whole proposition is, in an especial 
 manner, the very reverse of intricate, if there be 
 any error in the author's calculation of its advan- 
 tage, such error may be very easily detected and 
 exposed. 
 
 One observation more, and with this I conclude- 
 Let it not be supposed that I claim for the 'precise 
 plan of operations here very briefly elucidated, any 
 superlative merit : what I contend for is, that the 
 present monetary system must be abolished in toto ; 
 and that another must be established in its stead, by 
 means of which that condition of things shall be 
 brought about, with respect to man, which now 
 exists, and ever has existed, with respect to every 
 beast, bird, fish, and creeping thing upon the face of 
 the earth, and in the waters that divide the earth. 
 Let man enjoy as much wealth as he is able and 
 willing to create ; an artificial cause prevents him 
 from doing so at present : this artifice must be 
 abolished. 
 
 It would have been useless and senseless to have 
 broached this principle, without shewing, at the 
 same time, in what manner it could be brought into 
 operation. I have done this to the best of my pre- 
 sent ability, and in a manner far preferable to that 
 in which I did the same thing eleven years ago ; 
 the present proposition being divested of much that 
 was both intricate and difiicult in the former one. 
 But all I contend for is — let production become the 
 cause of demand: it is so naturally, let it be so 
 
]40 AN EFFICIENT REMEDY. 
 
 'practically: let the terms buying and selling be- 
 come synonymous. This must be the foundation 
 of our commercial edifice, for upon no other can it 
 permanently stand. As to the superstructure, let 
 every architect be invited to give in his plan ; and 
 in the selection of one for our adoption, let substan- 
 tiality, amplitude, just proportion, and simplicity, be 
 amongst the indispensable conditions of its accep- 
 tance. 
 
CRITICISMS. 141 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 OP RATHER AN IRREGULAR CHARACTER ; BEING REPRINTED NOTICES OF THE 
 SOCIAL SYSTEM BY THE PUBLIC PRESS ; NAMELY, BY THE EDINBURGH ADVER- 
 TISER, EDINBURGH LITERARY JOURNAL, EDINBURGH SPECTATOR, SCOTS TIMES, 
 EDINBURGH OBSERVER, LONDON SPECTATOR, GLASGOW CHRONICLE, EDINBURGH 
 CHRONICLE, BELFAST WHIG, NEW MONTHLY MAGAZINE, METROPOLITAN MAGA- 
 ZINE, AND EDINBURGH EVENING POST J WITH A FEW OBSERVATIONS THEREON. 
 
 The reader has already been told, that the prin- 
 ciple of exchange here advocated was laid before the 
 public, by the present author, several years ago, and 
 that, although the book was a failure, considered as 
 a mercantile speculation, some notice, favourable 
 and otherwise, was taken of it by the public press. 
 Presentation copies were sent, as is usual when a 
 new book comes out, to some of the reviews, maga- 
 zines, and newspapers, very few of whose editors 
 condescended to notice it at all ; whilst the following 
 are verbatim copies of the few observations upon 
 it that did appear, being all that ever met the eye 
 of the author, or that he has any reason to suppose 
 were ever published. To him they are rather an 
 interesting collection ; seeing that, however conflict- 
 ing the verdict of his critics, his own opinions are 
 only so far altered, after the lapse of eleven years, 
 that what was then clear to his mind is now clearer ; 
 whilst his conviction of the necessity for a total 
 
142 AN EFFICIENT REMEDY. 
 
 change in the monetary plans of society, has only 
 assumed, if possible, a more fixed and decided cha- 
 racter. He has, moreover, a few observations to 
 offer upon the verdict of one of his critics ; arid has 
 only farther to declare, by v^ay of introduction to 
 these notices, that, so far as he is av^^are, not one of 
 them vi^as v^ritten, either out of personal favour, or 
 enmity, tow-ards himself. No favourable notice was 
 ever solicited by him from any man, either directly 
 or indirectly, and none will ever be ; whilst it is also 
 the fact, that, without a single exception, the follow- 
 ing remarks were written by persons altogether 
 unacquainted with him, that is to say, so far as he 
 is aware, or has any reason to believe. 
 
 Some apology is due to the reader for the irregula- 
 rity of introducing criticisms of one book into the body 
 of another ; but, the theory of both volumes being sub- 
 stantially the same, the author trusts, that a review of 
 what has already been said upon the subject, by some 
 public writers, may not be altogether uninteresting. 
 
 The Thirty-second number of the TVestminster 
 Review. — First in rank and importance is the notice 
 of the Social System by the Westminster Review ; 
 the oracle of free trade, the baneful corn laws, the 
 instrument of exchange, the gTeatest happiness prin- 
 ciple, and so on. But while I thus concede to the 
 Westminster the right of precedence, I shall reserve 
 for it the last place instead ; for the same reason, that 
 minor and inconsiderable personages are often quickly 
 attended to and dismissed, that a more important 
 guest may be the better entertained. I shall give 
 the Westminster a chapter to itself. 
 
CRITICISMS. 143 
 
 From the Edinburgh Adder User of November 18, 1831. — 
 <* This is the dream of an ingenious but erratic mind. Mr Gray 
 attempts to shew, that the commercial system at present esta- 
 blished, in which the general interest is consulted by the free- 
 dom with which each man pursues his own advantage, would be 
 well exchanged for a system of universal comprehension, resolving 
 all commercial transactions into onejirm^ and therefore render- 
 ing it as easy at any time to sell goods for money, as it is at this 
 moment to buy. There is but one fallacy in the proposed new 
 scheme: it makes no allowance for the constitution of the human 
 mind, or for the prejudice of habit. If Mr Gray's system be 
 otherwise good, it could have only been of any effect if published 
 in paradise, carefully inculcated by Adam upon his children, 
 and by them transmitted with earnest recommendations to all 
 subsequent generations. Coming thus late, <jan any reasonable 
 hope be entertained that it will even get a fair hearing from 
 society ? We could have wished that this literary labour and 
 ability — for there are both in Mr Gray's very elegant volume 
 — had been spent upon a subject more likely to be of service to 
 his kind." 
 
 From the Edinburgh Literary Journal of November 12, 
 1831. — " Our study table — Who comes first ? John Gray and 
 his Social System. Mr Gray is a man of ardent and sanguine 
 temperament — a keen speculator and projector — seldom teased 
 with doubts, and recking little of impediments. His intellect 
 has considerable range and power. But he wants clearness, and, 
 above all, he wants methodical and systematic habits of arrange- 
 ment. Nor have his studies been very extensive. He sees the 
 failures of others better than how they are to be amended. His 
 Social System is a plan for obviating the slacknesses under which 
 commerce labours, by substituting an artificial system of society 
 for that which has hitherto obtained. Demand, we all know, is 
 the first cause of production. But, in an old established society, 
 where capital has been accumulated, and where labourers have 
 multiplied, production often precedes the demand. This pro- 
 duces gluts, beggary, and bankruptcy. By an ingenious play 
 upon words, it may be said, that these evils might be avoided, 
 could we arrange matters so that production should create 
 
144 AN EFFICIENT REMEDY. 
 
 demand. This paradox, this quibbling problem, has Mr Gray 
 gravely attempted to solve. He has drawn up a scheme, by 
 which this inversion of the laws of nature may be effected. He 
 has engaged to turn the world upside down. Entertaining this 
 opinion of the result of his lucubrations, it is however but jus- 
 tice to say, that though by no means an accurate, he is a daring 
 and vigorous thinker. No one can read his book without having 
 new ideas suggested, or being brought to look upon something 
 in a new light. Mr Gray expresses himself strongly, but of this 
 he is himself aware, and his confession of it is one of the most 
 pleasing and manly traits of character we have met with for a 
 long time." 
 
 From the Edinburgh Spectator of February 18, 1832 : A 
 work of very brief existence, a few numbers only, if I remember 
 right, having been published. — " It is now some time since we 
 first began to dabble a little in political economy ; and, by dint 
 of some acquaintance with the great work of Adam Smith, and 
 the speculations of Malthus, Ricardo, Sadler, and M'Culloch, we 
 were beginning to flatter ourselves that we understood something 
 about the matter. The words, exchange, labour, production, con- 
 sumable and unconsumable commodities, appeared no longer for- 
 midable in our eyes, and we had fairly made up our minds that 
 the labours of the political economist certainly tended to pro- 
 mote the advantage of society. It is true, our experience did 
 not warrant our expecting, for some little time, much unanimity 
 among the professors of this science, in regard even to some of 
 its leading principles ; but we at least thought they were in the 
 right way, — especially, as they generally agreed to regard the 
 existing state of society as a machine which called for certain 
 alterations and improvements in some of its parts, rather than 
 total demolition and entire reconstruction upon new principles. 
 
 But here is a book which adopts a bolder tone, and treats as 
 little better than idle dreams, those modifications and improve- 
 ments, by means of which former political economists hoped to 
 rectify the inequalities and deficiencies in the present system of 
 things. It seems they were only pruning the branches, when 
 they ought to have been rooting up the tree itself. Mr Gray 
 affirms, that a radical evil has pervaded the whole civil economy 
 
CRITICISMS. 145 
 
 of the world, from the days of Adam till now, and that this great 
 error must first be rectified, before states become prosperous, 
 or man rationally happy. This evil our author undertakes to 
 point out, and, by the introduction of his Social System, entirely 
 to remove. His system appears to us to resemble, in many par- 
 ticulars, the plans of that unfortunate speculator, Mr Owen, of 
 New Lanark, while, in other respects, it differs from them very 
 widely ; but, upon the whole, it bears the impression of original, 
 as weJl as ingenious thinking. The worst of it is, that although 
 we are satisfied that the whole plan is Utopian, — a sort of Plato's 
 republic, which will never, under any circumstances, be attempted 
 to be carried into effect, it is at the same time so apparently 
 simple, so plausibly supported, and so consistent in its various 
 parts, that we are rather puzzled to point out its fallacy. Under 
 these circumstances, we think it right, in the first instance, to 
 give our readers a short and impartial view of the system, using, 
 where we can do it conveniently, Mr Gray's own words : 
 
 * A notion appears to prevail amongst mankind, that there 
 exists in our Social System a self- regulating principle, and that 
 the stream of commerce, like that of water, only requires to be 
 let alone to find its own level, and to flow on smoothly and 
 prosperously. Ten years ago, I doubted, and I now deny the 
 existence of any such principle. I also deny the possibility of 
 eiFectually removing the distresses of this country, by any other 
 means whatever than those of association in the employment of 
 capital ; and I affirm, that by such association, under well 
 digested principles, and with an improved plan of exchange, un- 
 merited poverty may be removed, commercial difficulties of 
 every denomination annihilated, and individual, as well as na- 
 tional, prosperity, established upon an ample and imperishable 
 basis.' 
 
 *' Mr Gray thinks the present time peculiarly favourable to the 
 introduction of his new system, the prevailing feature in which 
 is, to make production the cause of demand, a principle which he 
 elsewhere informs us is to be understood without any limit or re- 
 striction, as respects quantity and value, but subject to regula- 
 tion as to kind. In this way, he proposes to do away the evils 
 which at present arise from the glut in our markets, occasioned 
 by over production, in consequence of the improvements i« 
 
 K 
 
146 AN EFFICIENT REMEDY. 
 
 machinery. According to the new system, you cannot over 
 produce. You may produce to an indefinite extent; and this 
 very extent of production will ensure you a market, instead of 
 destroying it, — in other words, you can always exchange your 
 produce for an equivalent. For this purpose, our author recom- 
 mends the establishment of a National Chamber of Commerce, 
 somewhat after the manner of a joint stock company, upon an 
 extensive scale. This plan will admit of the investment of capi- 
 tal to any amount, in agriculture, manufactures, &c. of which 
 the produce is to be placed in national depots, whence retail 
 shops will be supplied, and where in the way of exchange or 
 barter, a labourer may always receive whatever he wants for an 
 equivalent in whatever he may have to spare. Thus, no one 
 will be obliged to part with a commodity at less than its proper 
 value, as frequently happens under the existing order of things. 
 The chamber of commerce is to have the superintendence of 
 these depots, or warehouses, and to give intimation when the 
 supply of any one article is more than sufficient, that the super- 
 numerary hands employed in it may turn their attention to some 
 luxury, or to a necessary, of which the supply happens to be 
 deficient. 
 
 * It will be already understood, that the Social System recog- 
 nizes as useful, but one controlling and directing power, but one 
 judge of what it is prudent and proper to bring into the market, 
 either as respects kind or quantity, — the Chamber of Com- 
 merce, — who, having the means of ascertaining, at all times, the 
 actual stock of any kind of goods on hand, would always be able 
 to say at once where production should proceed more rapidly, 
 where at its usual pace, and where also it should be retarded. 
 
 * A master manufacturer, therefore, as he is now termed, should 
 be an agent, because he must be liable to increase or decrease the 
 extent of his productions, whenever required to do so, or even 
 to give up his business altogether, if needful.' 
 
 " Now, here we must remind our author, that his Social System 
 contemplates the perpetuityofoneof the greatest evils to which 
 the manufacturer is at present liable, viz. being checked in the 
 production of his particular manufacture, and obliged to turn his 
 attention to something else. Even under the strictest regula- 
 tions of his Chamber, there will be an occasional superabundance 
 
CRITICISMS. 147 
 
 of certain articles, and deficiency of others. This is inevitable, 
 from the fluctuations of taste alone. It is easy for the Chamber 
 of Commerce to say, like a theatrical check-giver, — ' Pit full, 
 — plenty of room in the galleries.' Our author may tell the 
 workman to turn his attention to such or such a manufacture ; 
 but he must know this to be in many cases quite impossible. 
 Can the supernumerary tailor become all at once a skilful 
 optician^ to supply the deficiency in telescopes ? Or will the 
 cordwainer, who is advised that there is a sufficient stock of 
 shoes on hand at the depot, be able to avail himself of the inti- 
 mation conveyed to him at the same time, that there is an 
 extraordinary demand for lace 9 Besides, this shifting from one 
 kind of manufacture to another, even were it at all practicable, 
 would prevent those improvements and that excellence, which 
 can only be attained through undivided attention to one parti- 
 cular branch. As for a national provision for those who are 
 forced to change their employment, this is out of the question, 
 as it may be done as well at present. 
 
 " The next great alteration which our author proposes to 
 make, is in the matter of exchange. It is upon this, indeed, 
 that his whole system hinges. 
 
 < Exchange may be denominated the bond and principle of 
 society ; but it is a matter of legitimate inquiry, whether the 
 existing plan of exchange is a good one ? whether it is founded 
 in right principles ? and whether it is calculated to confer upon 
 us all the benefits which the present advanced state of human 
 knowledge and resources entitles us to look for and expect ? 
 
 < And these questions I answer with an unequivocal and 
 emphatic No. It is our system of exchange which forms the 
 hiding place of that giant of mischief which bestrides the civi- 
 lized world, rewarding industry with starvation, exertion with 
 disappointment, and the best efforts of our rulers to do good, 
 with perplexity, dismay, and failure ; and it is our system of 
 exchange which has produced the worse than Babylonian con- 
 fusion in the ideas of men upon the subject of their collective 
 interests.' 
 
 " Mr Gray, accordingly, proposes to substitute for the present 
 defective system, what he calls an improved plan of exchange, 
 
148 AN EFFICIENT REMEDY. 
 
 where paper should be the standard, instead oT gold, and money 
 should be a mere receipt, or evidence of stock, in the national 
 depots. We have not room for a detailed account of this sys- 
 tem of exchange, or the description of the proposed national 
 bank, which, nevertheless, we esteem the most ingenious part 
 of the whole book, displaying considerable philosophical acute- 
 ness, with minute acquaintance with the business of the count- 
 ing-house. Upon this subject, we refer the reader to the fifth 
 chapter of the Social System ; and, in the meanwhile, beg to 
 offer a iew remarks, which have occurred to us since we took 
 up Mr Gray's volume. 
 
 " We agree with the author of the Social System, in thinking 
 the question of exchange one of first-rate importance ; and in 
 so far as our domestic economy is concerned, we do not see 
 that his plan of substituting a medium of no intrinsic value, — 
 paper, for instance, — instead of gold, is liable to any insuper- 
 able objection. In fact, this would be little more than the ex- 
 tension of our present system of bank bills and notes of credit. 
 But then, by making paper instead of gold the standard, or 
 measure of value, we are deprived in our foreign commerce of 
 an universal medium. Export your gold, says Mr Gray. True ; 
 but, as by his theory gold will be merely a commodity, not a 
 representation of produce, — and as it has not a tendency to 
 multiply in proportion to produce, it will, under the Social Sys- 
 tem, be liable to great alterations in value. 
 
 " Thus, at one time the sixtieth, at another the six hundredth 
 part of an ounce of gold, will be equivalent to the same standard 
 paper. This, as we have already said, may be of little conse- 
 quence in our domestic commerce, as one six hundredth will, in 
 the one case, purchase as much produce, as one sixtieth in the 
 other. But, in foreign commerce, this would be a serious 
 grievance. Strangers would naturally insist upon receiving gold, 
 instead of our produce, since, if they wished for the latter, they 
 could buy, in our own market, for one sixth hundredth of the 
 gold which they received for a piece of their merchandise, as 
 much gold as they would have got for the whole piece by ex- 
 change. The great use of gold at present, is, that it is a universal 
 medium ; and this universality depends upon its intrinsic, or, at 
 least, universally acknowledged intrinsic value ; so that the 
 
CRITICISMS. 149 
 
 price of gold throughout the civilized world varies only in a 
 trifling degree. It is idle to say, that under the Social System 
 gold could always be procured in foreign markets for our com- 
 modities ; for this, in the first place, supposes the certainty of 
 a forejgn market for our goods, the want of which is the xery 
 thing which creates our present distress : and, in the second place, 
 even if gold could thus be obtained to any extent, yet as an un- 
 productive commodity which did not admit of usage, it would lie 
 upon our hands a dead weight, or our trade would suffer from 
 its temporary deficiency. Even under the present system, it is 
 deemed bad policy to export gold instead of native produce and 
 manufactures, and the evil must be still greater under the Social 
 System, unless, indeed, that system could be brought to com- 
 prehend the whole civilized world. 
 
 " One grand objection, however, to the Social System is, that 
 we conceive it to be altogether impracticable. It supposes that 
 all men may be brought to see, and steadily to pursue, their 
 real interests. Now, were this the case, the present system 
 would correct itself, and there be little suffering in the world, 
 and still less crime. Were it possible to convince men practi- 
 cally of what is unquestionably true, that individual happiness 
 would be best secured, by our abandoning what we iermedi selfish 
 views, and acting as part of a beneficent union, really loving 
 our neighbour as ourselves, and regarding our own interest, by 
 promoting his, — no doubt the Social System might come into 
 full operation. Man is neither naturally perfect till spoiled by 
 education, nor is he capable of being tricked into perfection, 
 under the industrious habits and beneficial operation of the 
 Social System. Mr M'Culloch and the political economists are 
 undoubtedly in the right, when they look to man's selfishness as 
 the source from which society fnust expect its most valuable 
 contributions. Men will not regard the interests of society in 
 the first instance ; and it is only by steadily pursuing their own 
 aggrandizement, that individuals contribute effectually to the 
 creation and support of social union and the public good. 
 
 « We, therefore, consider a Social System, other than that 
 which is naturally formed from the acknowledged wants, and 
 the gradual improvements of society, as little better than^^those 
 quack political constitutions^ which have sometimes been 
 
150 AN EFFICIENT REMEDY. 
 
 imposed, but never with good effect, upon a people who have been 
 created^ not nursed, to freedom. We read Mr Gray's specula- 
 tions as the dream of an amiable, and, we must add, intelligent 
 man, who wishes to see the commercial embarrassments of his 
 country relieved, but who, in his ardour, forgets, that although 
 society admits of certain and very great improvements, there is 
 an eternal barrier opposed to uniform prosperity and universal 
 happiness, by individual shortsightedness and indolence, by the 
 recklessness of passion, and by the inborn wickedness and depra- 
 vity of our nature. Where are the men of comprehensive wis- 
 dom and exalted virtue, who may be trusted with the manage- 
 ment of Mr Gray's Chamber of Commerce ? Where will he 
 find his virtuous retail shopkeepers and hinds ? — where his 
 versatile manufacturers, who can, with equal skill, use the loom 
 and the furnace, the trowel and the plough ? Our author must 
 look for a directing power to regulate society, not in the provi- 
 sions of his * Social System,' but in the ordinary provisions of 
 Providence, and in the motives, principles, and passions, which 
 have always led men to combine in social union for mutual ad- 
 vantage, and by means of which society has been rendered, not 
 indeed a paradise of peace and plenty, but that which it has 
 been from the beginning, and, with certain modifications, must 
 continue till the end of time — a mixture of good and evil, where 
 the actors are the great and the insignificant, the weak and the 
 powerful, the industrious and the idle, the prosperous and the 
 unfortunate. It is a state best fitted for probation, since it is 
 continually calling forth the virtues and the vices, the passions 
 and the charities, of our nature. 
 
 " We have confined ourselves to that part of Mr Gray's book, 
 which lays down the principle of his system. The greater part 
 of his volume is taken up with a consideration of the existing 
 evils, with some of the more popular views of political econo- 
 mists, and shewing how the Social System would affect them. 
 His strictures on Mr M'Culloch bear marks of an acute and 
 vigorous mind. But our critique has already extended too far, 
 to permit our following him through this portion of his work. 
 
 *' In conclusion, we have only to say, that the author displays 
 extensive and accurate knowledge of commercial business ; and 
 that, putting his own peculiar views out of the question, much 
 
CRITICISMS. 151 
 
 useful information upon general subjects may be obtained from 
 his very interesting work." 
 
 " S'nce writing the above, we have been favoured with a sight 
 of letters to the author of the Social System^ from two eminent 
 individualsj of very opposite political principles, Mr Sadler, M. P. 
 and Mr Atrwood of^Birminghara. Both speak in very hand- 
 some terms of the author ; and we are happy to hnd our own 
 high estimate of Mr Gray's acuteness and intelligence thus con- 
 firmed by the testimony of men, whose opinions, especially in 
 matters affecting commerce and civil economy, are so justly 
 entitled to respect." 
 
 [The letters here mentioned were borrowed from me by the 
 printer of the Social System ; by whom they where shewn to 
 his friend the writer of the foregoing notice. — Author.'] 
 
 From the Scots Times of December 27, 1831.— ■" Mr Gray's 
 volume is full of acule thinking and of clever and frequently 
 vigorous writing ; but is thoroughly tainted by the doctrine he 
 advocates, viz. that production may be made the cause of de- 
 mand by the establishment of a vast commercial constitution, the 
 members of which shaH be induced to combine their capital for 
 the supply of the necessaries, conveniences, comforts, and luxu- 
 ries of life. This, our readers will perceive, is just a modifica- 
 I'on of the scheme of Mr Owen — certainly strlpt of some of the 
 most objectionable portions of his theory, but retaining its radical 
 fallacies. We must not, therefore, go over the ground we have 
 already trodden in our examination of Mr Owen's plans — yet 
 we cannot dismiss Mr Gray without observing, that his acute- 
 ncss, though, in our opinion, ill directed, is obviously very con- 
 siderable ; and that his volume contains so many remarks, not 
 merely able, but true, that we think its perusal may be bene- 
 ficial even to those who, like us, reject his conclusions. As the 
 feeling that his scheme is a mere reissue of Mr Owen's plans, 
 might warp the judgment of a reader who perused the volume 
 in a regular way, we would suggest to all who examine it the 
 propriety of perusing the preface and appendix before entering 
 into the body of the work." 
 
152 AN EFFICIENT REMEDY. 
 
 From the Edinburgh Observer of December ^2^ 1831. — " Who 
 shall set bounds to the march of intellect, or define the limits 
 of possibilities ? In populous and commercial countries teem- 
 ing with productions, it frequently happens that they exceed 
 the demands, till the markets become glutted, and commerce 
 clogged with unproductive stock. In such cases, what is to be 
 done ? This question is answered by Mr Gray, who proposes 
 a scheme, by which demand, instead of being the cause^ shall be 
 the consequence of production. If Mr Gray can make his sys- 
 tem * work well,' he will be the first of political economists, 
 and entitled to the gratitude of mankind. His work exhibits 
 much bold and original speculation." 
 
 From the London Spectator of November 26, 1831. — " The 
 Social System^ by John Gray, is an elaborate volume, the ob- 
 ject of which is to expound to the world a new theory of societ3^ 
 Mr Gray examines the present social system, as far as it is 
 connected with industry and commerce, and exhibits in a for- 
 cible manner the various evils to which it is liable. He does 
 not present us with a view of its advantages, by way of compen- 
 sation ; neither does he shew the remedies which may be applied 
 with the hope of a cure, — or state, what is true, that many of 
 these vices are transitory, and only connected with a portion of 
 the progress of mankind. He goes to work more boldly, and 
 invents a perfectly new system of trade, manufactures, and 
 commerce. 
 
 "According to the present system of political economy, demand 
 is the cause of production ; in Mr Gray's system, production 
 would be the cause of demand. As the world wags at present, 
 trade and every thing else is managed individually ; a manufac- 
 turer fabricates broad cloth or any other article until the price 
 falls, and as he has to sustain a competition with another, a race 
 of low prices is run, until one or the other, or both, may be 
 ruined. The excess of supply above demand is one of the fre- 
 quent causes of bankruptcy. Such is one of the evils of the 
 present system of trade. Another more fertile cause is the na- 
 ture of the circulating medium ; it is a commodity, like all other 
 commodities, subject to fluctuations in value, and consequently 
 causing fluctuations in the price of all marketable commodities^ 
 
CRITICISMS. 153 
 
 — a circumstance which introduces confusion^ uncertainty, and 
 even injustice, into the affairs of the world. 
 
 " For these, and many other evils, Mr Gray has a remedy in 
 a total change of system. 
 
 " The whole capital employed in trade, agriculture, and every 
 branch of production, is to be placed in the hands of one com- 
 pany or board ; this capital the board will employ in producing 
 all such articles as may be wanted, by means of their agents, 
 who will be conveniently placed at the head of manufacturing, 
 agricultural, and other establishments. The entire production of 
 all the working classes of the country is to be entered into grand 
 depots, from which all retailers are to be supplied. In this way, 
 the directors can always regulate the quantity wanted by the 
 quantity consumed. If stock accumulates, indicating that the 
 demand has ceased, capital is immediately withdrawn from that 
 direction and employed in some other. 
 
 " The instrument of exchange is the representative of the 
 capital of the country : it will consist of receipts for property or 
 capital vested in the National Company, and can never vary 
 from the value at which it is estimated in the national books. 
 
 " Hence it would appear, that under this system, it is always 
 as easy to sell as to buy. Any person possessing property has 
 simply to enter it on the books of the company ; and his receipt 
 is money, which he may either turn into any other property 
 contained in the national warehouse, or employ as he sees fit. 
 
 " Connected with the National Company, is a National Bank 
 which manages every thing connected with the instrument of 
 exchange. 
 
 " Under this system, wages would be fixed, and price be com- 
 posed of capital and labour added together, and in the same 
 article would also be fixed. 
 
 *< This is but a very general outline of Mr Gray*s curious and 
 ingenious theory ; for the details of it — for his answers to ob- 
 jections, and also for his objections to the prevailing doctrines 
 of political economy — we must refer to the copious volume 
 itself. 
 
 " We may add an objection of our own to Mr Gray's plan, 
 which we think insurmountable. In the working of his system, 
 it would be found that the stimulus which now excites men to 
 
152 AN EFFICIENT REMEDY. 
 
 the discoveries and inventions which have made us what we are, 
 and more than any thing tended to the increase and accumulation 
 of capital, would be altogether taken away. It is not the nature 
 of man to remain stationary ; if the exciting motive to progress 
 were relaxed, the vis inerticB of contented man would come into 
 play, capital would diminish in comparison with population, and 
 we should ultimately sink into a great nation of systematic 
 paupers. It is the individuality of the present system which is 
 the secret of our acceleration. The alternative of fortune and 
 beggary is the condition under which the greatest enterprises 
 and the most ingenious discoveries are brought into play. True 
 it is, that individual miseries and private losses occur ; but on 
 the whole, the nation gains, and greatly." 
 
 From the Glasgow Chronicle of October 12, 1832. — " From 
 time to time we have given various notices of Mr Owen's attempt 
 to effect the exchange of commodities, without the use of money, 
 merely by certificates of value, called labour-notes. Mr Owen 
 may thus succeed in exchanging a great many commodities ; 
 but we shall be surprised at his success, if his scheme turn out 
 to have any other principle at bottom than that of an ordinary 
 commission shop. 
 
 " Mr John Gray, in his able treatise, entitled * The Social 
 System,' inculcates the great advantage of having warehouses 
 for the deposit of goods, in connection with banks for the issue 
 of a nominal equivalent in paper money; so that any man might 
 carry to them the produce of his industry, whatever it might 
 be, and get a certificate of its value, in the same way as any 
 man now gets bank notes for gold or silver coin. This certi- 
 ficate would enable him to purchase any other commodity in 
 the warehouses, and, having thus effected its object, would be 
 cancelled." [Then follows a long quotation from the book, after 
 which the writer concludes as follows : — ] 
 
 " The scheme, we fear, is utterly impracticable. It would be 
 next to impossible to fix the amount of labour expended upon 
 many commodities. In the great articles of meat and drink the 
 diversity of seasons would occasion unavoidable fluctuation ; 
 and the limitation of the quantity of land would inevitably occa- 
 sion gluts of manufactured goods. The scheme might go swim- 
 
CRITICISxMS. 155 
 
 mingly on for a few months ; but by and by it would be found 
 that the manufactures of cotton, wool, and iron, would be as 
 superabundant as at present." 
 
 From the Edinburgh Weekly Chronicle of December 17, 
 1831. — " Another work on Political Economy, by a bold and 
 strong, though, it may be, on many points, an erroneous thinker. 
 We have gone over this work with some care to be able to give 
 an intelligible account of Mr Gray*s speculations on a subject 
 which every one agrees is defective, where it is not positively 
 bad, — though where the fault lies, and how it is to be remedied, 
 as far as it admits of remedy, must for some time longer remain 
 a subject of controversy and doubt. In the science of Society 
 — Political Economy — or, to adopt Mr Gray's apt name, the 
 Social System, mankind is at this moment in the ferment of 
 vast, and, we believe, most advantageous change. His book is 
 a small fragment thrown up in this general fermentation of 
 active and powerful intellects ; and, though we do not think 
 that many will join in his conclusions, or become converts to 
 the doctrines of the new sect or system he would establish, his 
 discussions are likely to meet with much more attention than 
 they would have done even five years back, — but certainly not 
 with more than from their ingenuity they deserve. This is, 
 we are sorry to think, a dry subject for newspaper readers, 
 though, in reality, the most interesting and important in which 
 men can engage; and we shall, therefore, endeavour to give, in 
 one sentence, the principle which forms the basis of Mr Gray's 
 system. It is, * To make production the uniform and never- 
 failing cause of demand ; or to render it as easy to sell for 
 money, as it is at present to buy for money.* This may be 
 called * putting the cart before the horse,' in relation to esta- 
 blished notions ; but if Mr Gray is able to shew that it is much 
 easier, and, consequently, more profitable and agreeable to make 
 horses propel carts instead of dragging them, the new plan can 
 form no well-grounded objection to his novel doctrine. To 
 learn how this happy change may, according to Mr Gray, be 
 produced, read his book, — especially the first six chapters. 
 The remaining part of the work is devoted to ingenious general 
 discussions on branches of Political Economy, and the method 
 
156 AN EFFICIENT REMEDY. 
 
 of organizing Mr Gray's system and bringing it into successful 
 operation. Many superfluous apologies are made for faults of 
 style. We venture to assure Mr Gray that so far as we are 
 aware there is no Mason Word in the mechanical part of litera- 
 ture that he does not fully possess. Clear thinking on any sub- 
 ject will make perspicuous writing — strong conviction will 
 < voluntarily move' forcible sentences ; the rest is but leather 
 and prunella. The Lord Chancellor could not have stated Mr 
 Gray's case more clearly than he has done himself; and this is 
 high praise. We commend his work to all who have leisure 
 and taste for such speculations — and wish the latter class was 
 more numerous — and take leave of Mr Gray with very great 
 respect for his natural abilities, and a much higher opinion of 
 his acquirements than he appears to entertain himself. It may, 
 however, be his fate to labour only among the pioneers in the 
 march of society." 
 
 From the Belfast Northern Whig, of April 2, 1832 ; headed, 
 * From a correspondent.' — " In attempting to analyze the struc- 
 ture of society, and its present commercial arrangements, the 
 Political Economist finds himself, at the very outset, involved 
 in a maze of contradictions and paradoxes. Many of these dif- 
 ficulties, by a close and scrutinizing examination, he is enabled 
 to comprehend and elucidate ; whilst there are others which 
 defy the utmost stretch of his ingenuity to unriddle or reconcile. 
 Such, for instance, are the following : Uncultivated lands — 
 Capital unemployed — Redundant population — Over produc- 
 tion — Poverty I One would naturally suppose, that in a society 
 where all these exist, an amalgamation would take place, which 
 would neutralize the evils of each, and universally diffuse the 
 benefits that such a combination might be expected to produce : 
 and such would inevitably be the case, were there not some 
 counteracting power to prevent it. The existence, however, of 
 such anomalies as^ those noticed, proves, wherever it may be, 
 that such society possesses the principal ingredients of pros- 
 perity and happiness ; and that, whenever arrangements are 
 made, so as cordially to unite them, such will be the effect 
 produced. 
 
 " The propounding of a system, and, to a certain extent, ex- 
 
CRITICISMS. , 157 
 
 plaining its details, whereby such arrangements may be made, 
 comprises the subject of the work now under notice ; 'and, in 
 my opinion, ably has the author accomplished his task. Being 
 a commercial and a practical man, he has treated his subject in 
 a straightforward and intelligible style. Making no drafts 
 whatever on the expected improvement in our moral attain- 
 ments, nor resting any thing on the hope, that we may ulti- 
 mately become all of one mind, he has proved, in the most 
 clear and lucid manner, < that production may be rendered the 
 uniform and never-failing cause of demand ;' or, in other words, 
 * that to sell for money may be rendered, at all times, precisely 
 as easy as it now is to buy with money ; and this, without any 
 limitation or restriction, as respects quantity and value, but 
 not without regulation as to kind. He affirms, that, upon the 
 plan of exchange which he recommends, ' if every man were to 
 work twenty-four hours a-day, and if, moreover, the labour of 
 each man was equal to that of a steam-engine of fifty horse 
 power, production could never overtake demand ; and neither 
 could the market be overstocked, for a single hour.* He 
 observes, ' the kind of produce brought into market might 
 change from necessary to luxury, and from luxury to profusion ; 
 professions (not the legal, indeed, nor the medical, but the arts 
 of painting, sculpture, music, and many others,) would multiply 
 to an incredible extent ; but there would be no more gluts' 
 
 " These announcements are certainly startling ; and the feeling 
 with which such theoretical statements are generally received 
 by society, cannot be better characterized than in his own 
 words :" — 
 
 [Here follow some long quotations, interspersed with a few 
 words only; and then the writer concludes as follows: — ] 
 
 " By endeavouring to lay before the readers of your valuable 
 Journal, the main principles of the plan of exchange, or com- 
 mercial constitution, proposed by Mr Gray, I am necessarily 
 precluded from entering into the details. The chief objections 
 to its immediate introduction and practicability, he has clearly 
 set forth, and ably answered ; and I would wish particularly to 
 impress upon the individuals who may peruse this, that before 
 they set it down as an unnecessary or impracticable plan, they 
 will endeavour to obtain and peruse the work itself. This 
 
158 ^^ AN EFFICIENT REMEDY. 
 
 course is strongly recommended by the enlightened editor of 
 The New Monthly Magazine, and I do not think I could render 
 the public a greater service than by seconding his recommen- 
 dation ; for I feel convinced that those who give it an attentive 
 and unprejudiced perusal, will find good reasons to induce them 
 to agree with the author in thinking, that * England has only to 
 be made acquainted with the immensity of her own strength, to 
 spring, as it were in an instant, from the very depths of poverty 
 and wretchedness, into the heights of commercial prosperity 
 and happiness.' 
 
 " ' All she requires, is to let loose her enormous powers of pro- 
 duction, which are now tied and bound down by the chain of 
 commercial error. Like a mighty engine wanting a single 
 wheel, she now stands still, the wonderment of those who, 
 ignorant of her construction, are not aware that any wheel is 
 wanting ; but re-arrange her parts, and give her that one wheel, 
 and nations shall awaken, as from the sleep of death, to see her 
 operate and erect her counterpart.* " 
 
 From the Neiv Monthly Magazine for January, 1832. — « The 
 title-page of this book prepared us to find the author an 
 Owenite, or, at best, a doctor of the doubting science. But he 
 cares for none of these things ; he has got a crotchet of his own 
 into his head, about the reformation of society, and he stands 
 up for it in a bold, bluff, straight-forward sort of way, that 
 pleases us extremely. The specific object of his book, as he 
 tells us, is to state, to prove, to exemplify, and to force upon 
 public attention the important fact, ' That it would be by no 
 means difficult to place the commercial affairs of society upon 
 such a footing, that production would become the uniform and 
 never-failing cause of demand ; or, in other words, that to sell 
 for money may be rendered at all times precisely as easy as it 
 now is to buy with money.' Assuming that our whole system 
 of exchange is at present founded in the depth of ignorance 
 and folly ; that a proper or rational instrument for effecting 
 exchange between man and man has never existed since the 
 world began ; he undertakes to shew how produce, in quantities 
 without any known or conceivable limit, may be disposed of 
 advantageously, at all times, in a single hour, and without the 
 
CRITICISMS. 159 
 
 chance of the time ever arriving when there can, by any pos- 
 sibility, be a market overstocked, or demand be overtaken by 
 production. 
 
 " * England,' he assures us, * has only to be made acquainted 
 vi^ith the immensity of her own strength, to spring, as it were, in 
 an instant, from the very depths of poverty and wretchedness, up 
 to the height of prosperity and commercial happiness. All she 
 requires is to let loose her enormous powers of production, which 
 are now tied and bound down by the chain of commercial error.* 
 < Freedom, domestic freedom of exchange,' he adds, ' is what this 
 nation chiefly wants to make its people prosperous and happy. 
 No miracle on human nature has to be performed to bring this 
 plan of exchange into operation. Apply that principle of unity 
 of action to the whole that has ever been found indispensable to 
 the right working of every part of man's affairs, and the thing 
 is done.' But how is this momentous exchange to be effected ? 
 * Read the book,' is the author's answer, and we cannot con- 
 clude with a better." 
 
 From the Metropolitan Magazine for January, 1832. — " When 
 we take up a book of this kind we scarcely know how to treat 
 it. If we once begin to enter upon the interminable subjects to 
 which it inevitably leads, there is no end to the task, and after 
 all, we leave off little wiser than we began. We mean this as 
 no implied censure on Mr Gray's book, but on the science of 
 which it treats. From Mr Gray we must travel to Mr Malthus, 
 and then to Mr Sadler, and from these to Mr M'CullocJhi, until 
 ' in endless mazes lost.' We may, however, exerting a quantum 
 of self-denial, which we hardly thought we possessed, just state, 
 that Mr Gray's book well merits perusal : that his candour re- 
 specting his work and himself, in his preface, entitles him to an 
 attentive perusal ; and that so far from the character given by 
 his friend to his work, as stated in the preface, being correct, 
 we think there is much which every man interested in the sub- 
 ject will be glad to read and reflect upon. Social science is a 
 distasteful study, perhaps because it is not a fixed science, or 
 rather, a science, the principles of which are well and clearly 
 defined. The sketches of a commercial constitution are ingeni- 
 
 Unfortunately, we cannot 
 
IGO AN EFFICIENT REMEDY. 
 
 act on great bodies of men as we can do on a few individuals. 
 Our author censures the modern practice of exchange ; he cen- 
 sures gold because of the change in its value. Money, he says, 
 should be merely a receipt — money should not be intrinsically 
 valuable. ' The desideratum in money is,' says Mr Gray, 
 < that it may enable any man, at any time, to exchange any 
 article, of any value, for an equal value of whatever marketable 
 commodity he pleases to have in its stead, with the least pos- 
 sible expense of time, of labour, and of anxiety.' He then 
 says very truly, that no description of money in use at present 
 comes up to this standard. We must not proceed farther, but 
 recommend the reader to the work itself." 
 
 From the Edinburgh Saturday Evening Post of November 
 12, 1831. — "The subject of the present volume is, in our 
 opinion, one of such vast importance to society at large, that, 
 in attempting to make a few observations in reference to the 
 principles to which Mr Gray has addressed himself, we cannot 
 but feel our utter inadequacy to the task imposed on us, and 
 we lament that the untowardness of the present time should 
 render it so morally certain, that any thing we may say will be 
 totally unavailing for the purposes of the author. Men are so 
 thoroughly pre-occupied with the political baubles of selfish 
 and narrow-minded partisans, that the true philosopher and 
 economist must be content to have his claims overlooked by 
 the very people who are most interested in them. It is in vain 
 that he demands inquiry — in vain that he calls for attention — 
 he is neglected, despised, treated as a quack, and his labours 
 are consigned to the tomb of all the Capulets. Much as we 
 fear that this will prove the fate of Mr Gray's important and 
 philosophic work, we earnestly hope for a very different result. 
 He may, however, rest assured that, humble as our good word 
 is, we are very deeply impressed with the great value of his 
 studies. 
 
 ^. " To all thinking men, it has long been apparent, that there 
 exists some radical error in the system of human society — 
 something which inevitably prevents the demonstration of what 
 the Benthamites call the * Greatest Happiness Principle.' 
 The beneficence and wisdom of a Divine Providence would 
 
CEITICISMS. 161 
 
 lead us to expect, that the great majority of our fellow beings 
 are living in a state of happiness and contentment. But, strange 
 to say, the reverse is the fact. Accordingly, numerous political 
 sects have lately arisen, each desirous of promulgating its own 
 particular views on this subject. Some — the political econo- 
 mists, for instance — consider over-population, and a paper 
 currency, to be at the root of the evil ; others — the Owenites 
 — suppose that the want of co-operation amongst the labouring 
 population is the real source of human misery ; and then, again, 
 we have the Radicals and Republicans, who, in their impene- 
 trable ignorance attribute every possible affliction to a particular 
 form of Government. We need not here attempt to demon- 
 strate the utter inefficacy of the various panaceas which these 
 sects would propose for the eradication of our social and politi- 
 cal grievances. It is enough to say that, giving them all the 
 credit which their concocters demand, they must ever fall far 
 short of the real necessities of the system under which we live. 
 " When we mention that none of these political sects has 
 ever even dreamt that the operation of the present plan of 
 exchange might possibly lie at the bottom of our social evils, 
 we think we shall have said quite enough in proof of the 
 shallowness of their speculations. It is true, that the political 
 economists have advocated certain changes in our monetary 
 system, but they have always professed to consider such changes 
 as of entirely secondary consequence, in comparison with their 
 other theories — such as free trade, emigration, &c. It has 
 apparently never occurred to these sages, that when every 
 body, save the capitalisty cries for money, and complains of the 
 want of it, in spite of all exertions to procure it, the great fault 
 may possibly rest with the money itself. We seldom or never 
 hear of any body complaining of a want of commodities — money 
 alone is the desideratum. The labourer may be ever so indus- 
 trious, the consumer may be ever so needy, the merchant ever so 
 well supplied with goods, but unless there is plenty of money,^one 
 and all of them must starve. Although nobody ever takes^it 
 in his head that he could eat money- — that is, gold, or its repre- 
 sentative, bank notes — all confess that they cannot possibly ^do 
 without it. In short, money is the very pivot upon which the 
 system of society turns. It is, therefore, important to the last 
 
 L 
 
162 AN EFFICIENT REMEDY. 
 
 degree, to ascertain whether moneys that is, whether the pre- 
 sent material or manner of exchange is properly constituted, in 
 relation to the purposes which it is intended to forward. 
 
 " Without going into the complicated considerations which this 
 question ought naturally to embrace, it must be obvious to every 
 person who can connect one thought with another, that gold is 
 altogether inadequate to accomplish the objects of commercial 
 exchange. In a state of society like that which exists over 
 Europe, where the industry of man is taxed to an almost in- 
 credible amount, and where every particle q^ money \^ required, 
 merely to keep the machinery of the different governments in 
 motion, how, it may be asked, is it possible for one nation to in- 
 crease its exertions, without injuring another ? The working 
 of the monetary system which at present exists, can only have 
 one effect — it must cripple and confine the natural powers of 
 society. It imposes an artificial restraint upon the industry of 
 man, it sets a limit to his capacity of production, it puts a chain 
 upon the freedom of his efforts ; in short, it has the very 
 opposite effect to that which, no doubt, it is generally sup- 
 posed to produce. Instead of operating as a convenience to 
 society — instead of facilitating commercial exchanges — instead 
 of being an improvement upon the barbarous practice of barter, 
 it is the very reverse. The reason why this should be the case, 
 is simply, because gold, or any thing which merely represents 
 gold, and which can exist only in a certain quantity, is held 
 alone to be the measure of the aggregate wealth of society ; a 
 thing which, while gold is valuable on its own account, and at 
 the same time stationary in its amount, must ever place the 
 wealth of the community at the mercy of a particular commo- 
 dity. Gold has this advantage over every kind of production — it 
 not only is supposed to represent its own value, but is considered 
 as the only representative of every other species of wealth, and 
 its own value, which is fluctuating, regulates every other kind 
 of value, as if we should make the price of coals regulate the 
 price of beef. But to place this anomaly in a still more glaring 
 light, we would ask, how is it possible that the four thousand 
 millions of property which belongs to Britain should find a 
 market, when, if it were attempted to make it change hands, 
 no more than eighty or a hundred millions of money could be 
 
CRITICISMS. 163 
 
 found in the country to pay the price of the purchase ? Yet, 
 in this state of things, it is obvious that the L.4,000,000,000 
 must be exchanged only for the L.100,000,000, with a loss to 
 the sellers of L.3,900,000,000. And if we push the supposition 
 a little farther, we shall find, that were the purchasers to in- 
 crease their wealth, by eking out their credit one-half, they 
 would not be able to procure in exchange for it more than 
 the sum they originally paid, incurring a loss proportionally 
 greater than that which overtook their precursors I 
 
 " These startling facts are of themselves sufficient to explain 
 a great deal of the delusion which exists. But philosophers 
 are too wise in their own conceits generally. They are the 
 very last persons to discover a practical evil. That gold should 
 be a bad thing, must appear to many a pig-headed political 
 economist a most incomprehensible doctrine. But so it is ; 
 and we trust the day is not far distant, when the fact will be 
 acknowledged by the civilized world. We confess that we look 
 upon Mr Gray's work as a most favourable omen. It is to us a 
 powerful proof that the subject does not want for zealous and 
 able investigators. We happen to know, that the very ideas 
 which he has put upon paper, evidently in the belief that they 
 never occurred to another human being but himself, have been 
 previously published by economists. We have been acquainted 
 with the system which Mr Gray has propounded in the volume 
 before us, for years ; and we can assure him that it is to us 
 perfectly familiar. We were not, therefore, at all surprised at 
 the views which he has so ably advanced ; but we were certainly 
 not a little astonished to find that they had been brooding in 
 the mind of a Scotsman. Whatever other people may think of 
 his volume, we can safely assert, that its novelty is to us its 
 least recommendation. 
 
 " Mr Gray sets out with the declaration, that * the specific 
 object of this work, is to state, to prove, to exemplify, and to 
 endeavour to call the attention of the public to the important 
 fact, that it would be by no means difficult to place the com- 
 mercial affairs of society upon such a footing, that production 
 would become the uniform and never failing cause of demand ; 
 or, in other words, that to sell for money, may be rendered, at 
 all times, precisely as easy as it it now is to buy toith money.' 
 
164 AN EFFICIENT REMEDY. 
 
 " This is exactly the desideratum to which we have before 
 alluded. But it may be asked, how does Mr Gray, or any one 
 else, propose to carry this principle into effect ? Mr Gray gives 
 a skeleton of a Commercial Constitution which, if adopted to the 
 extent which he proposes, would enable society to buy and sell 
 at will. The principal features in this document are, that pro- 
 duce of every description should be lodged in national ware- 
 houses — that all retail shops should be supplied therefrom — 
 and that the price of commodities should be entirely regulated by 
 the cost of the material, the wages of labour, and a per centage 
 by way o^ profit. The author suggests the formation of a joint 
 stock company, as a beginning. 
 
 " We must frankly own, that the idea of erecting national ware- 
 houses, however valuable in an abstract point of view, has always 
 appeared to us to be impracticable. No government, we fear, 
 could be sufficiently impressed with a sense of its utility — no 
 nation could comprehend its importance — and, therefdre, it 
 might be allowed to languish and die, like many other valuable 
 speculations, for want of that gradual evolvement which would 
 render it familiar to those who are to be benefited by it. By 
 this, we would have Mr Gray to understand, that we fully con- 
 cur in the utility of establishing departmental warehouses, such 
 as he appears to contemplate ; but we, nevertheless, entertain 
 strong fears that the means for calling them into existence can- 
 not be had until the people shall have attained a degree of en- 
 lightenment which is scarcely to be expected. The same kind 
 of objections, we are afraid, will apply to the system of national 
 banks, which he proposes shall form part of his commercial 
 scheme. It looks all very well on paper ; but it will not be 
 therefore the less objectionable to many. 
 
 " In truth, it is the general object of this work which we so 
 highly approve. That object appears to us to be the complete 
 exposure of the existing system of exchange, which makes ^o/cf 
 the only represented or representing commodity. It also places 
 in a very clear light the nature of money — or what money 
 ought in fact to be. As Mr Gray observes, it is entirely in the 
 nature of a receipt ; and so that it represents efficiently and in- 
 corruptibly a certain value in wealth of any kind, it matters not 
 whether it be paper, leather, or iron. The cheapest and most 
 
CRITICISMS. J 65 
 
 plentiful substance which is the most difficult of imitation — 
 and paper seems to be that substance — must ever be considered 
 as the most appropriate material for a currency. The only other 
 point for consideration is what ought to be the criterion of 
 wealth. We can easily conceive that a British government 
 would consent to meet the existing difficulties upon these 
 grounds, which would accommodate themselves to existing 
 habits, and in the end be equally efficacious. Nay, we believe 
 that the best remedy for all the evils with which our commer- 
 cial operations are impeded, would be an almost unlimited issue 
 of paper money — limited, we mean, to the extent of the wealth 
 which is known to exist in the country. Any measure which 
 would tend to widen the circulating medium would, in our eyes, 
 be a blessing ; and we think that, in the eyes of Mr Gray, it 
 would be a step towards the completion of the system which he 
 has proposed in the volume under consideration. 
 
 " We have not attempted to enter into a lengthened detail of 
 the various points which Mr Gray handles in the work before 
 us. Indeed, although we entertained such a design at one 
 time, on farther consideration, we fear that we must content 
 ourselves with referring the reader to the work itself for a 
 proper idea of its contents. It is full of novel views of society, 
 and displays, generally speaking, more correct knowledge on 
 almost every thing connected with political economy than we 
 ever met with in the compass of a single volume. We shall 
 perhaps take occasion to refer to it at a future time." 
 
 With the exception of a few kind words in the 
 London Courier, which I have lost ; a very long and 
 favourable notice in a Birmingham paper, but far too 
 much mixed up with other matters to be suitable for 
 quotation here ; and a single sentence in a number of 
 Chambers's Edinburgh Journal, something about in- 
 genuity, the foregoing are all the public notices of the 
 Social System that ever came into my hands. 
 
 And I now embrace the first opportunity I have 
 
166 AN EFFICIENT REMEDY. 
 
 had of doing so, to return my most cordial thanks to 
 the writers of them. I have perused all their obser- 
 vations with attention, but have sought in vain for 
 an argument, worthy of the name, against the prin- 
 ciple of exchange, for the adoption of which I have 
 contended. The writers make this objection, and 
 that objection, but it is remarkable, that not one of 
 them ever calls in question the fundamental principle 
 of the book at all. The opposing artillery is, for the 
 most part, directed against certain imaginary atten- 
 dant circumstances, which have just as little to do 
 with any part of my proposal as they have to do 
 with the politics of Pekin. Some declare the plan 
 to be impracticable, whilst it is undeniable, that the 
 whole machinery thereof would not be one-hundredth 
 part as complicated, nor, on any view whatever, so 
 difficult to manage, as the business of any one depart- 
 ment of the existing executive. Then, as to the 
 'perfectibility of man, which, according to others, 
 must precede the establishment of any such system 
 as that which I propose ; it would really be idle to 
 reply ; for it is perfectly obvious, that a nation of 
 very indifferent characters would be much more 
 easily managed, under my system, than a nation of 
 saints under that which now exists : the power to 
 do mischief being reduced a hundred fold on the one 
 hand; whilst, on the other, the temptation to do 
 wrong would be diminished to an equal, or even 
 greater, extent. 
 
 I forbear to particularize, but the truth is, that a 
 great many of the foregoing observations upon the 
 theory of the Social System only tend to exhibit the 
 
CRITICISMS. 167 
 
 backward state of the science of political economy ; 
 and to shew how very little that science is either 
 appreciated or understood by even the public writers 
 of the day ; many of whom, in objecting to my 
 system, are evidently not aware that their arguments 
 apply with equal force against some of the doctrines 
 of the most celebrated political economists. Several 
 of the critics exclaim, as if at a miracle, at the idea 
 of production becoming the cause of demand ! Did 
 these gentlemen ever open a book entitled " The 
 Principles of Political Economy, by J. R. M'Culloch?" 
 in which it is as strenuously, though erroneously, in- 
 sisted, that production is now the cause of demand, 
 as I insist that it should become so. 
 
 There is but one valid objection to the plan of the 
 Social System in the whole of the foregoing criti- 
 cisms ; — and, as I have already stated, there is 
 not so much as the ghost of an argument against 
 the principle of it. The one valid objection to 
 a portion of the plan is contained in the article 
 from the Glasgow Chronicle ; which, however, in 
 the present work, is entirely obviated. To sweep 
 away every other objection contained in the fore- 
 going criticisms, and to turn the tables a little 
 where something like ridicule has been attempted 
 by some of the writers, would be but child's- 
 play. The critics, most of them at least, seem to 
 shut their eyes to the astounding fact, that there is 
 a law in the very construction of commercial society, 
 as it exists at present, equivalent to an act of parlia- 
 ment, having for its express object the perpetuation 
 and increase of poverty, distress, and crime. With 
 
168 AN EFFICIENT REMEDY. 
 
 this subject they never grapple : and if I have truly 
 pointed to a land of plenty, it is a poor thing to say, — 
 But there are not yet a railroad and steam coaches to 
 convey us thither ! A sufficiently good road is open 
 to us at any time ; if any one can discover a shorter 
 and better one, by all means let it be preferred : if 
 not, it is worse than madness not to avail ourselves 
 of that which is already discovered. 
 
 But — one excepted — I am not going to contend 
 with the critics, nor to adventure upon the danger- 
 ous ground of provoking their hostility. On the 
 contrary, I would rather humbly crave at their 
 hands a deliberate investigation of the subject here 
 laid before them ; and, at the same time, entreat 
 them, if merely for the argument's sake, to endeavour 
 to suppose it possible that there may he some secret 
 cause, in the construction of society itself, for the 
 enormous evils that surround us ; and then, preju- 
 dice aside — alas, how hard the task ! — to make 
 inquiry of their own reasoning faculities, whether 
 the proposed alteration in the currency would or 
 would not, if adopted, have the effect that I have 
 ascribed to it. 
 
 I would also venture to remind them, that it is 
 worse than childish to say, — The proposition resem- 
 bles this, that, and the other theories, some of which 
 have been put to the test of experiment ; whilst the 
 others have been disposed of long since by the 
 political economists, and other writers. I ask them 
 to judge of my project by its own merits or demerits, 
 not by the merits or demerits of other projects. I 
 remind them too, that one thing may be very like 
 
CRITICISMS. 169 
 
 another at first sight, and yet as different from it in 
 reaUty as chalk from cheese ; and they need not go 
 far from home for an example. Let them look to 
 their own printing machines : how like they are in 
 general and external appearance to many that have 
 utterly failed ! How many attempts were made to 
 construct effective machines for their purposes before 
 the days of Konig, Cowper, and Napier ! whilst, at 
 this hour, one single tooth more or less in some of 
 the important wheels would throw the whole into 
 disorder. May not then the same thing be true 
 with reference to the machinery of commerce ? 
 
 Neither ought the magnitude of the advantages I 
 propose to attain, in the least degree startle them ; 
 for the improvement in man's physical condition 
 which- 1 contemplate would not be one atom greater 
 nor more wonderful, than many improvements which 
 have already taken place in various departments of 
 human art. ^re the means equal to the proposed 
 end? — This is the one proper question before us; 
 and if the answer be in the affirmative, let us leave 
 it for the gaping multitude, to substitute wonder for 
 argument, and then to fancy it the same thing. It 
 may also be added, that so far from there being any 
 thing to wonder at, should unmerited poverty be 
 wholly expelled from this country, the real marvel 
 is, that any such thing exists. 
 
 Call your great-grandfather from his mother earth 
 — tell him that mankind have found out a plan, by 
 means of which they are able to enjoy as many of 
 the good things of this life as they are able to 
 create ; and let the additional piece of information 
 
170 AN EFFICIENT REMEDY. 
 
 be given, that during the week ending September 3, 
 1842, 33,879 people came from Glasgow to Edin- 
 burgh — the whole distance, or part of it — in a 
 regiment of coaches drawn by steam, paying £7194, 
 5s. Id. for their fare, and see which of the two 
 items of information he will be most inclined to dis- 
 believe. I think the latter one would have the 
 least chance of acceptance in his eyes ; for it is no 
 long time since a steam coach projector was only, in 
 the estimation of nineteen-twentieths of mankind, 
 another name for a monomaniac. 
 
 Tried, I may perhaps be told, the money I re- 
 commend has already been, in the shape of some- 
 thing called a labour note, issued somewhere in or 
 about London, by the followers of Mr Owen, upon 
 a no more complete, or better digested plan of opera- 
 tions, than that which regulates the first rude effort 
 of a schoolboy to construct a ship, or to build a 
 village of cards. Put the kettle on the fire ; call it 
 a steam engine ; say it will not drive a mill ; ergo, 
 steam as a motive power is powerless. Or, I may 
 be told, that the alteration in the state of things 
 which I propose is so great. Gentle critic — Do 
 you really think it is a small matter to meet the 
 difficulties of this country? as also, to open a channel 
 for an uninterrupted course of future prosperity ? 
 
THE LAPIDARY. 171 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 THE LAPIDARY AND HIS PEBBLES — DEDICATED WITHOUT PERMISSION TO THE 
 EDITOR OP THE WESTMINSTER REVIEW — CONCLUDING REMARKS. 
 
 There is, however, one commentator upon the 
 Social System, upon whose lucubrations I shall make 
 a few remarks, and hope to be acquitted both of im- 
 propriety and presumption in venturing to do so. 
 Concerning matters of taste, and elegance of thought 
 and diction, it may be for a Byron, and for such 
 only, to review reviewers. Not so as to matters of 
 fact : two and two are four : all the critics in the 
 world can make no more, nor any less of them ; and 
 whenever they attempt to do either, they are just 
 as easily refuted as other people. Critics, in general, 
 are necessarily of the omnibus character : they are 
 presumed to examine all things, to understand all 
 things, and to be able to dictate upon all subjects ; 
 so that if they do play at blind-man's buff a little 
 sometimes, it is no great wonder : and we all know 
 that political economy is not exactly one of their pet 
 subjects. 
 
 But there is also the critic peculiar — the man 
 who confines himself to one subject, or class of 
 subjects, which he is not merely, in general terms, 
 
172 AN EFFICIENT REMEDY. 
 
 supposed to understand, but which he ought to under- 
 stand thoroughly ; and if he do not, he is unfit for 
 the oJ0&ce he presumes to fill. Such is the mecha- 
 nical, the chemical, the medical, and the musical 
 reviewer ; and last not least, such also is the West- 
 minster reviewer upon all subjects connected with 
 political economy. Here, if any where, are we 
 entitled to look for sound doctrine ; seeing, that if it 
 be not found amongst the professors of the science, 
 whence are we to direct our steps ? Alas ! if mis- 
 representation, misstatement, and nicknames are the 
 best weapons they are capable of wielding, a West- 
 minster schoolboy, with a little common sense in his 
 head, would be a more formidable antagonist. The 
 two former modes of attack will be very easily dealt 
 with here ; whilst, for the use of the latter, there 
 exists no patent right. However, had the nonsense I 
 now proceed to laugh at appeared in any publication 
 of less repute, I should have deemed a reply, in any 
 shape, superfluous. But the Westminster has as- 
 sumed a very high place on the judgment-seat of 
 criticism ; and it is, moreover, the oracle of one of 
 those political /«zM.s, which are so admirably calcu- 
 lated to save her majesty's subjects the trouble of 
 thinking for themselves. 
 
 Under the very comprehensive title, then, of " St 
 Simonianism," &c. are noticed, in the thirty-second 
 number of the Westminster Review, — " F'irst, The 
 doctrine of St Simon ; Secondly, The religion of St 
 Simon; Thirdly, The -Social System; Fourthly y 
 Outline of the rational system of society; and 
 Fifthly, the British co-operator." 
 
THE LAPIDARY. I73 
 
 Leaving the doctrines of St Simon and company, 
 to the vindication of their respective authors or 
 advocates, the re vie veer's remarks upon the Social 
 System I shall here transcribe verbatim : 
 
 " The opinions of the St Simonians are reproduced on this 
 side of the Channel in an octavo volume * by John Gray ;* with 
 the addition of a new discovery, on ' The Principle of Ex- 
 change.' The principle resolves itself into a proposal that the 
 Government should issue a kind of billets or bank notes to 
 every person who chooses to lodge property in certain ware- 
 houses, and the billets are to be circulated as money. The 
 effect of this, it is supposed, would be to produce < a market 
 ad infinitum' 
 
 * Produce without any limit ; call in the aid of magic, if you 
 please, to increase the respective products of labour, and still 
 the market can never be overstocked, nor can any difficulty be 
 experienced in selling, for a fair price, that which you produce.' 
 
 " The mistake is simply in believing, that such billets, when 
 they came to be multiplied, would go on purchasing the same 
 amount of commodities they were first given for. It is a repeti- 
 tion of the fallacy produced in one form by Pitt and Sinclair, 
 and in another by those who call for the issue of Bank of Eng- 
 land notes to any body who will lodge property in return. There 
 is such a thing as depreciation ; which the moment the medium 
 of whatever kind in circulation exceeds a certain amount, 
 causes the value of all additions to its numerical volume to be 
 swallowed up, by reducing the value of the whole circulating 
 medium in the pockets of the holders, to the same value as be- 
 fore the increase. Suppose the proposed billets to have super- 
 seded all other kinds of circulating medium, and that forty 
 millions of them are just sufficient to carry on the business of 
 the country as at present. Let the number in circulation be 
 made fifty millions, and the exchangeable value of each billet, — 
 the quantity of beef and butter that will be to be had for it in 
 the market, — will fall in exactly the proportion of four to five; 
 
174 AN EFFICIENT REMEDY. 
 
 and what will have been gained by that? Or, in other words, 
 prices will rise, and the same quantity of things that used to be 
 bought with four bits of dirty paper, will now be only to be bought 
 with five. Any simpletons can make bits of paper legal tender, 
 and declare that they are equal in public estimation to some- 
 thing else, though they are passing for three-fourths of the value 
 under their noses. But all the conjurors on earth cannot pre- 
 vent the rise of prices which will make the increased number of 
 bits of paper buy only the same quantity in the market as the 
 old. Some have tried a maximum^ which means every body 
 taking what they like ; but nobody liked it in the end except 
 the thieves. If it is urged that the billets could not be depre- 
 ciated, because, on the first hint of depreciation, holders might 
 have the commodities out of the national warehouse on demand, 
 — the question arises, whether they are to have the commodities 
 at the old market prices or to-day's. If at the old, the plan will 
 not go on a week without all the commodities in pledge being 
 taken out, wl>ereby the plan will be put into the category of 
 things non-existent. If at to-day's, nobody will take the trouble 
 of asking for the commodities, and so the depreciation will go 
 on as stated. It is to be feared the plan is thus in the figure 
 the ancients called a crocodile. If the representation was limited 
 to saying that by substituting this paper- money to a certain 
 amount, there might be a saving to somebody of all the gold 
 that would be dispensed with as an instrument of circulation, 
 this is nothing but what it has long been earnestly endeavoured 
 to press upon the public. But it is not ; the representation is, 
 that it would give us Fortunatus's wishing-cap. The subject of 
 depreciation is a complicated one, and cannot be gone farther 
 into here, except by reference to the Article in the First Num- 
 ber of this Review, where it has been treated of at large. 
 
 " There are probably few schoolboys who have not at some 
 time meditated on the prodigious convenience it would be, if the 
 gingerbread-merchant would only take pebbles instead of half- 
 pence, and if other shopkeepers would only agree to support him 
 by taking them from one another in like manner. And it is 
 likely there may have been considerable racking of youthful 
 brains, to know why so promising a plan should not be imme- 
 diately reduced to act. The reason is simply here, — deprecia- 
 
THE LAPIDARY. I75 
 
 tion. If the shopkeepers were to start with ever so virtuous a 
 resolution to take each pebble for a halfpenny, they would find, 
 that though they might persist in this, the art of man could not 
 prevent ounce rolls from rising in price, first to two pebbles, 
 then to four, then to eight, and finally to as tremendous a multi- 
 tude as the farthings that were given for the horse that had 
 eight nails in each shoe. Prices would rise, in fact, till all men 
 became pebble-merchants ; till cart-loads of gravel, and wheel- 
 barrowfuls for small change, circulated in the community at 
 something about the present market price of that commodity. 
 The proposed bank-notes (if not allowed to be returned at the 
 old prices) would go on in the same manner, till they settled at 
 the value per waggon-load, which they might possess as old and 
 by no means cleanly paper. 
 
 " Another of the same author's mistakes is so odd, that it is 
 impossible to avoid noticing it. 
 
 * The whole science of political economy, or " how to make 
 wealth," may be reduced to a simple receipt, — to one as plain 
 as any in The Cook's Oracle. Thus, — Take due portions of 
 land, labour, and capital, pound them well up together in a 
 mortar, and the wealth is made. Note — Capital is made of 
 land and labour, so that your wealth never need be of insuffi- 
 cient quantity, until you have exhausted your stock of one of 
 these two ingredients, provided your mortar be not too small. 
 
 < The mortar is all that is wanted : at present, we have no 
 mortar. See to it, ye politicians and,' &c. 
 
 " In this there is only the omission, that what comes out of the 
 mortar must be as good as what was put in, and a little more to 
 keep the pounder, — or else what is compounded is not wealth 
 but poverty. The simple existence of this necessity is what 
 brings all this race of apothecaries to a stand-still." 
 
 Disregarding the apothecary, which, by the way, 
 would rhyme well enough with lapidary, let us see 
 what sort of an impression has been made upon the 
 Social System by the pebbles. 
 
 And first, we are told, "That the opinions of the 
 
176 AN EFFICIENT REMEDY. 
 
 St Simonians are reproduced on this side the channel, 
 in an octavo volume by John Gray." To which I 
 reply, that if they are reproduced, they have cer- 
 tainly not been copied, seeing that I never read one 
 word of St Simon's writings in my life, until I met 
 with them in that said awkward squad of the 
 reviewer, already quoted ; neither have I read one 
 word of them since. But, upon the supposition — 
 which, however, is a most unlikely one — that the 
 reviewer has fairly represented the doctrine of St 
 Simon, that doctrine bears about as much resemblance 
 to the theory of the Social System, as the West- 
 minster reviewer thereof bears to any public writer 
 who has any, even the slightest, knowledge of the 
 subject upon which he presumes to dictate. 
 
 Secondly/, — " The principle of exchange resolves 
 itself into a proposal that government should issue a 
 kind of billets or bank notes to every person who 
 chooses to lodge property in certain warehouses, and 
 the billets are to be circulated as money." 
 
 So saith the critic. There is no such proposition 
 in the hook^ nor any other hearing the slightest resem- 
 blance to it. And, had there been any such, it could 
 hardly have been a principle of exchange of any 
 sort, good, bad, or indifferent. The principle of ex- 
 change developed in the Social System is, without 
 the shadow of variation, the same as that which is 
 presented here : it is to make labour instead of gold 
 the standard of value ; by the operation of which 
 principle, production may be allowed to become 
 practically that which it is, has ever been, and must 
 ever be naturally, the cause of demand instead of 
 
"TV B « A ft >^ 
 ^ or THE 
 
 UNIVERSITY ) 
 
 THE LAPIDARY, I77 
 
 the effect of it : whilst " certain warehouses^'' . in 
 which " every person who chooses to lodge pro- 
 perty," is not allowed to do so, certainly form a part 
 of the plan of - operations. A pari of a machine, 
 however, is not necessarily the principle on which 
 the entire mechanism thereof is constructed : neither 
 is it precisely one and the same, to be allowed to 
 do a certain thing, and not allowed to do it. By 
 reading the Westminster account of the Social 
 System, any one might be led to conclude, that I 
 had proposed to remedy all the evils of the country 
 by the establishment of a great overgrown pawn- 
 broker's shop: whilst the currency was in time 
 coming to consist of a vast accumulation of pawn 
 tickets. And I readily allow, that any one dis- 
 posed to substitute misrepresenta,tion and ridicule 
 for fair statement and argument, could easily draw 
 some kind of parallel between the two cases. 
 
 Thirdly. — "Produce v/ithout limit"^ — quotes the 
 reviewer from the Social System — " call in the aid 
 of magic, if you please, to increase the respective 
 products of labour ; and still the market can never 
 be overstocked, nor can any difficulty be experienced 
 in selling for a fair price that which you produce." 
 — And then he adds, "The mistake is simply in 
 believing that such billets, when they came to be 
 multiplied, would go on purchasing the same amount 
 of commodities they were first given for." 
 
 There is no such mistake ; and I defy the reviewer, 
 aided by all the reviewers in Christendom, to shew 
 that there is any such. The species of money 
 recommended for the use of society in the book 
 
 M 
 
178 AN EFFICIENT REMEDY. 
 
 entitled the Social System — which species of 
 money, be it observed, is not merely described in 
 general terms, as a man would say, Let there be 
 more bank notes, or more gold coin ; it is defined as 
 minutely, both as respects kind and quantity, as 
 distance can be defined by feet and inches — mai/hQ 
 multiplied a thousand or a million fold, and still 
 every pound of it will continue to purchase the same 
 amount of commodities that were first given for it ; 
 less only by the per centage, invariably allowed for in 
 the book itself. 
 
 Fourthly. — The "fallacies" of Pitt and Sinclair I 
 leave the reviewer to discuss with whomsoever he 
 may find willing to contend thereon. By the latter 
 — the late Sir John Sinclair I presume he means — 
 shortly after the publication of the Social System, I 
 was favoured with a few lines, accompanied by a 
 copy of his " Analysis of the Statistical Account of 
 Scotland ;" on the title page of which was written, 
 " To John Gray, author of the Social System, from 
 the author, John Sinclair, as a mark of his esteem." 
 I considered this little present, however erroneously, 
 a much greater honour, than I felt it to be either 
 disgrace or danger when I found myself to be 
 within pelt range of the pebbles. 
 
 Fifthly. — " There is such a thing as depreciation," 
 continues the lapidary, " which, the moment the 
 medium, of whatever kind, exceeds a certain amount, 
 causes the value of all additions to its numerical 
 volume to be swallowed up, by reducing the value 
 of the whole circulating medium in the pockets of 
 the holders to the same value as before the increase." 
 
THE LAPIDARY. I79 
 
 There is no such thing as depreciation, which, in 
 the Social System, has not been taken into account 
 in all its ramifications. There is no such thing as 
 depreciation which ajffects in any way, to the value 
 of an atom, the truth of the assertion : — Adopt my 
 system of exchange, and then Produce ad infinitum^ 
 and I will find you a Market ad infinitum. Here the 
 pivot on which the argument turns is the words 
 certain amount: — the lapidary defines the certain 
 amount that is to produce these doleful effects ; I 
 may as well define it also, and thus it is : — 
 
 Whenever the aggregate of money is increased 
 and circulated faster than the aggregate of inarhetahle 
 ^produce is increased^ the price of the latter rises ; and, 
 consequently, the "additions to the numerical volume" 
 of bank notes are swallowed up by the value of the 
 whole becoming the same as before the increase. 
 
 But how is this to happen, under the control of a 
 system, the very soul of which is — that money shall 
 never increase at all, concept in consequence of the 
 increased production of commodities f My argument 
 is this, and no argument in this world was ever 
 stated in plainer terms : — Produce ad infinitum^ and 
 I will find you a Market ad infinitum : the condi- 
 tions being, that goods shall be produced in due 
 proportion to each other, and that money shall be in- 
 creased as fast as goods are increased, but no faster. 
 
 The continuation of the reviewer's argument im- 
 mediately following that above quoted, namely, 
 from the words, " suppose the proposed billets," 
 down to Fortunatus and his wishing cap, is sheer 
 nonsense — a tissue of absurd, vulgar, conceited. 
 
180 AN EFFICIENT REMEDY. 
 
 disingenuous, and unmeaning trash ; disingenuous 
 and unmeaning, because it has been written with 
 the view of demohshing a hypothesis which has 
 never been advanced. In fact, the critic has not 
 bestowed one word upon the theory of the Social 
 System ; but in the absence thereof, he has imagined 
 a theory to suit the present moment — a very absurd 
 one truly, but that appears to be quite in his way — 
 then he ridicules his own folly, and calls the act of 
 doing so — criticism. Faugh ! 
 
 Siwtlily. — We are told, that " the [subject of de- 
 preciation is a complicated one, and cannot be gone 
 farther into here, except by reference to the article 
 in the first number of this Review, where it has 
 been treated of at large." So now we must march 
 to other quarters, namely, to the first number of the 
 Review. Well, the article in question is before me, 
 reprinted as a pamphlet from the original publica- 
 tion: and a more successful effort, in the art of 
 mystification, I have seldom met with. It is full of 
 error : besides which, a well written article on the 
 subject of alchymy, witchcraft, or astrology, would 
 be more amusing, and quite as valuable. For, the 
 author sets out with a fallacy ; and, consequently, 
 every part of his argument which is founded thereon 
 is fallacious. A marginal note on the third page of 
 this important document, referring to the instrument 
 of exchange, says — " any thing which is valuable is 
 capable of being used for it." For any thing read 
 Twthing, By way of introduction, too, we are fur- 
 nished with the very important and interesting 
 piece of intelligence — " that the following essay 
 
THE LAPIDARY. tgl 
 
 had its origin by fire light ;" which might go far to 
 account for its obscurity, were it not for the addi- 
 tional assurance, that no less than " twehe years''' 
 of the author's valuable time were afterwards de- 
 voted to the study of the subject. 
 
 As this article, however, has not been let loose 
 upon the Social System, I might fairly decline going 
 into its merits here, farther than to remark, that the 
 writer thereof does not appear to understand the 
 subject of depreciation. The entire period of twelve 
 years seems, indeed, to have been exclusively 
 devoted to the examination of one side of it only ; 
 for, whilst the writer has perceived and exhibited 
 the ill effects of an undue multiplication of the 
 circulating medium, he has entirely disregarded the 
 incomparably greater evils which have arisen from its 
 not having been sufficiently increased to prevent the 
 desolating consequences of a falling market : whilst, 
 as to any definite principle of increase or diminutionj 
 he has not apparently an idea on the subject. 
 
 Seventhly, — " There are probably few schoolboys," says the 
 reviewer, " who have not at some time meditated on the pro- 
 digious convenience it would be, if the gingerbread-merchant 
 would only take pebbles instead of halfpence, and if other 
 shopkeepers would only agree to support him by taking them 
 from one another in like manner. And it is likely there may 
 have been considerable racking of youthful brains, to know 
 why so promising a plan should not be immediately reduced to 
 act. The reason is simply here, -—depreciation. If the shop- 
 keepers were to start with ever so virtuous a resolution to take 
 each pebble for a halfpenny, they would find, that though they 
 might persist in this, the art of man could not prevent ounce 
 rolls from rising in price, first to two pebbles, then to four, 
 
 then to eighty and finally to as tremendous a multitude as the 
 
 I 
 
182 AN EFFICIENT REMEDY. 
 
 farthings that were given for the horse that had eight nails in 
 each shoe. Prices would rise, in fact, till all men became 
 pebble-merchants ; till cart-loads of gravel, and wheel-barrow- 
 fuls for small change, circulated in the community at something 
 about the present market price of that commodity. The pro- 
 posed bank-notes (if not allowed to be returned at the old 
 prices) would go on in the same manner, till they settled at the 
 value per waggon-load, which they might possess as old and by 
 no means cleanly paper." 
 
 This extract is quoted from a publication calling 
 itself respectable, and professing to give, as part of 
 its general contents, d^fair account of such books as 
 it may condescend to notice. Will the reader be- 
 lieve me, v^hen I tell him — that in every sentence 
 of the Social System, in v^hich the subject of the 
 proper quantity of money is alluded to at all, the 
 necessity of a corresponding increase and decrease of 
 goods and money is strongly and habitually insisted 
 on ? This is one fact : another is, that a grosser 
 misrepresentation of a theory pretended to be re- 
 viewed, than that v^hich is implied in the foregoing 
 extract from the Westminster, never yet existed in 
 a form of types. 
 
 The reviewer, albeit liberal enough in the act of 
 quotation whenever it suits his own especial pur- 
 pose to be so, has not quoted, for the very good 
 reason that he could not quote, one word from the 
 Social System, either expressing or implying a desire 
 to adventure upon an indiscriminate increase of 
 money. But to place him within the ranks of as 
 unscrupulous a libeller of a theory as ever dipped 
 pen into an inkstand, it will only be necessary to 
 do that here, which he would have done in his 
 
THE LAPIDARY. 183 
 
 review, had it suited his purpose, namely, to give a 
 few quotations from the book itself. 
 
 " The want of money — a story in every body's mouth — is a 
 great evil ; and I propose to remedy it by causing the produc- 
 tion and destruction of goods and money to proceed together." 
 — Social Systeniy p. 24. 
 
 " The legitimate use of money is precisely the same as that 
 of scales and weights and measures : it is to measure out and 
 apportion exchanges, to facilitate the giving and obtaining of 
 equivalents: money, therefore, as a necessary of life of the 
 most ordinary and every day description, ought to be as cheap, 
 as common, and as attainable, by those who have any thing that 
 they wish to exchange, as a pair of scales, or a pound weight'' — 
 P. 58. 
 
 " Great care must always be taken that goods be not made 
 so freely, as to lower themselves in money price, because the 
 undertaker would, in that case, lose by his adventure, his 
 object being to gain by it. The man who manufactures goods, 
 does not coin guineas at the same moment : there is no rela- 
 tive increase between the newly created wealth and its repre- 
 sentative money; and thus a pound note, like a member of 
 parliament, whose constituents are increased in number, be- 
 comes of greater relative importance. The value of an indivi- 
 dual vote is lessened in the one case, and the value of an 
 individual piece of goods in the other. Again, as there is no 
 tendency in money, habitually and systematically to increase 
 as other produce increases, so also is there no habitual tendency 
 in it to decrease as other produce is consumed. The shilling 
 which buys a loaf of bread, exists in circulation alike before the 
 bread is made, and after it is eaten. Thus, the value of money 
 is continually liable to change, and if weights and measures 
 were subject to the same kind of variation, greater confusion 
 and mischief would not be the result." — P. 61. 
 
 " Upon this plan it will be evident, that, as the nominal or 
 money price of all the property in stock would be entirely 
 made up of the money issued by the bank to the respective 
 members of the social community, the quantity of money in 
 
184 AN EFFICIENT REMEDY. 
 
 circulation would at all times be exactly equivalent to the 
 nominal or money value of the property in store. Money, 
 therefore, would increase as produce should be increased; 
 money would decrease as produce should be redemanded or con- 
 sumedf and demand would ever keep pace with production " — 
 P. 66. 
 
 " Money, intrinsically valuable, never can become an immut- 
 able standard of value. Money of no intrinsic value, can ; and 
 it is only by the adoption of an immutable standard of value 
 that goods, continuing to cost the same labour in their productio)?, 
 can continue to maintain the same price in the market.^' — P. 85. 
 
 " Thus, upon the system of exchange proposed, the various 
 Items that have been enumerated under the respective heads of 
 wages, salaries, national charges, and taxes, would form the 
 aggregate o? price ; and, as has been shewn in the last chapter, 
 the money issued, and the property in the national stores, would 
 always be of exactly the same xalue; and therefore demand 
 would ever keep pace with production." — P. 121. 
 
 " Thus, try the proposed new principle of exchange in what- 
 ever way you will, it answers with mathematical precision to 
 the character that has been given it ; • Production the cause of 
 demand.' Transferring property does not increase property. 
 The annual issues of the bank, therefore, would not represent 
 all the business transactions of the country, but only its produc- 
 tions and importations" — P. 153. 
 
 " Under the Social System, the money in circulation and 
 the goods in the national stores would always be exactly 
 equivalent, increasing and decreasing together. The money 
 would be the demand, the property would be the supply, and 
 the one would ever be equal to the other." — P. 251. 
 
 " Then, it may be said, suppose the bankers were not liable 
 to pay their notes in specie, what would happen ? Why, then, bank 
 notes would be as plentiful as potatoes — there would be no end to 
 them ; a pound note would soon have to be given for a pound of 
 mutton chops, and the most unutterable confusion would arise 
 from the oth^r extreme. Twist and turn this subject, then, in 
 whatever way you please, you will find that the only species of 
 money that can ever allow production to go on unchecked, must 
 
THE LAPIDARY. , 185 
 
 be a symboli not a commodity^ increasing as the produce of labour 
 increases, and decreasing as the produce of labour is privately 
 appropriated or consumed." — P. 274. 
 
 Here, then, are no less than nine quotations taken 
 respectively from the 24th, 58th, 61st, 66th, 85th, 
 121st, 153d, 251st, and 274th pages of the Social 
 System, in other words, from the beginning of the 
 work to nearly the end of it ; in each, and all of 
 which, a certain rule is laid down with respect 
 to currency. And as there certainly is not one 
 word in the book which seems to tolerate, much less 
 to advise, a different course of acting, it is utterly 
 inconceivable how any man could have discovered 
 in that volume, a desire on the part of its author to 
 encourage an undue increase of money ; seeing that, 
 in every passage wherein the subject of money is 
 mentioned at all, the necessity of keeping down the 
 amount of the circulating medium to its proper level 
 is as strenuously insisted on, as the necessity of 
 keeping it up to the same point ; the desideratum, 
 too, in this respect, being defined as plainly as words 
 can define any thing. 
 
 It has been already said, that the critic has not 
 quoted any specimen of the notions which led 
 him to conclude, that the adoption of the Social 
 System would give us bank notes upon bank notes, 
 until they should " settle at the value per waggon 
 load, which they might possess as old and by no 
 means cleanly paper." But upon consideration, it 
 may probably have been the last paragraph above 
 quoted — that from the 274th page — which satisfied 
 his mind that the author of the Social System was 
 
186 AN EFFICIENT REMEDY. 
 
 not aware of the fact — "that there was such a thing 
 as depreciation.'' Many thanks to him for his kind 
 consideration of my ignorance upon the subject. 
 
 Eighifily. — " Another of the same author's mistakes," con- 
 tinues the reviewer, '* is so odd, that it is impossible to avoid 
 noticing it. 
 
 * The whole science of political economy, or " how to make 
 wealth," may be reduced to a simple receipt, — to one as plain 
 as any in The Cook's Oracle. Thus, — take due portions of 
 land, labour, and capital, pound them well up together in a 
 mortar, and the wealth is made. Note — Capital is made of 
 land and labour, so that your wealth never need be of insuffi- 
 cient quantity, until you have exhausted your stock of one of 
 these two ingredients, provided your mortar be not too small. 
 
 * The mortar is all that is wanted : at present, we have no 
 mortar. See to it, ye politicians and,' &c. 
 
 " In this there is only the omission, that what comes out of 
 the mortar must be as good as what was put in, and a little more 
 to keep the pounder, — or else what is compounded is not wealth 
 but poverty. The simple existence of this necessity is what 
 brings all this race of apothecaries to a stand-still." 
 
 There is no omission : that which " comes out of 
 the mortar" must ever be '^precisely a^ good'' as 
 what is put into it, barring the keeping of the 
 mortar ; the expense of which is invariably taken 
 into the account. 
 
 But there is something " odd" in all this after all. 
 It is odd, very odd indeed, that in the nineteenth cen- 
 tury, a professed critic, when engaged, upon his own 
 especial subject, should be found sufficiently ignorant 
 of the first principles of it, to write and publish such 
 nonsense as that with which I am now amusing my- 
 self. The lapidary reminds me of nothing so forcibly 
 
THE LAPIDARY. 187 
 
 as the conjuror and his cups and balls. You see, 
 says Mr Nimble-finger, here are the cups, and here 
 are the balls, and that I certainly do put a ball 
 under each cup : and now, presto, it is gone away. 
 Such is his conjuration : that of the lapidary beats 
 him outright. Here, says he, is a piece of broad- 
 cloth, fifty yards long, quality fine, colour blue : 
 put it into the grand depot, where let it remain 
 three days ; when lo ! the yards shall be twenty- 
 five, the quality very coarse, and the colour — fled ! 
 You put a thing into a place of security, and when 
 you want it back again you really expect to find it ? 
 Monstrous ! quoth the lapidary, how very odd ! 
 Gentle reader, which is the better conjuror of the 
 two ? I say the lapidary, who is so great an 
 enthusiast in his profession, that it is not the absence 
 of the balls, but the presence of them, that surprises 
 him. These are his words — "There is only the 
 omission, that what comes out of the mortar must 
 be as good as what was put into it." 
 
 As good ! To be sure it will ! the cloth will be 
 as long, as broad, and as fine as ever ; and if the 
 colour be a fast one, neither will it even make its 
 escape. 
 
 Possibly, however, the critic may mean to say, 
 that if we go on and on to increase productions in 
 the manner that has been described, they will fall in 
 their comparative value with gold ! Why this is the 
 very point insisted on. This is the great, the over- 
 whelming blunder of the time. This is the law of 
 wrong that keeps us for ever from getting right : 
 the stumbling-block of every class of political 
 
188 AN EFFICIENT REMEDY. 
 
 reformers, Whig, Tory, Radical, and Chartist, here, 
 and Republican over the water. This is the com- 
 mercial curse which political economists ought to 
 have discovered and pointed out centuries ago : the 
 very thing that has kept them at a " stand-still " ever 
 since the days of Adam Smith : for if they have 
 made any progress since that period, it has consisted 
 in a very curious and beautiful imitation of the 
 snail's. Lastly, it is the starting 'point from which 
 the author of the Social System sets out ; the motive 
 for a change of plan to which he constantly refers ; 
 and the one and only reason why his book was ever 
 written. 
 
 But there is yet another odd to dispose of, and 
 that the oddest of all. The lapidary seems perfectly 
 aware of the fad^ that if goods increase faster than 
 money they must fall in money price. Yet is he 
 evidently blind to the consequences of that fact. 
 The mind which has selected for the theme of its 
 discourse a subject very like a ravelled ball of twine, 
 and attempted with partial success to account for 
 every twist, still, by some strange perversity, takes 
 no cognizance of the circumstance, that the en- 
 tanglement upon which he bestows so much time 
 and labour is altogether unworthy of them. 
 
 If all sorts of production are stopped at present by 
 a certain condition which pervades society ; whether 
 is it better to obey the condition or to abolish it ? I 
 respectfully submit to the reviewer's consideration, 
 that the latter would be the wiser course, — in other 
 words, that it is more desirable that the existing 
 quantity of one thing should cease to regulate the 
 
 ■1 
 
THE LAPIDARY. 189 
 
 existing quantity of every thing else, than that the 
 existing quantity of every thing, but one, should con- 
 tinue to be regulated, as it is at present, by that one. 
 
 There is no law of nature, neither is there an 
 eleventh commandment, which says — * And price 
 shall be the value of a thing in gold.' This condi- 
 tion is a mere artificial contrivance, being also one of 
 the most especial errors that the erring race of man 
 has ever yet had the ingenuity to fall into. 
 
 In making the admission I refer to, the critic is, 
 however — although quite right — altogether at vari- 
 ance with his co-professors, Mr M'Culloch, and the 
 late Mr Mill, author of the History of British India ; 
 both of v/hom reason as if a universal system of barter 
 pervaded society. In the article gluts. Social System, 
 pages ^Q9 to 284, I have shewn how both these 
 gentlemen have, as it were, stumbled over the truth, 
 and yet without perceiving it ; in which particular 
 the Westminster Review has copied them to a 
 nicety. The errors of these gentlemen upon that 
 point, and some others, I have refuted in the chapter 
 entitled Political Economy, (Social System, pages 
 226 to 299.) The reviewer does not meddle with 
 that chapter ; I venture to recommend the argument 
 therein on gluts to his especial consideration. 
 
 But the article on the instrument of exchange — 
 the text book of the critic to which he refers us for 
 farther information upon the subject of depreciation. 
 Here is the first paragraph of the preface to the re- 
 published article, unadulterated and entire : — 
 
 " The following essay had its origin in a conversation by fire- 
 light among three brothers, all menibers of the same college in 
 
190 AN EFFICIENT REMEDY. 
 
 the University of Cambridge, in the year 1811, when the de- 
 preciation of the currency was an object of general attention ; 
 in which the question started was, * Whether we should ever 
 have to give a five-pound note to a waiter for bringing a cup of 
 coffee ; and if not, why not ?' Preferring the pleasure of in- 
 vestigation to the labour of reading, the author employed a 
 considerable portion of his leisure for the next twelve years, in 
 endeavouring to make his own discovery of the principles on 
 which the solution must be founded ; in which period there was 
 no portion of the argument that was not modelled and re- 
 modelled a number of times, for the purpose of securing its 
 congruity with facts. That the ultimate result should accord 
 with the opinions of one party of the previous disputants, is 
 much less extraordinary than would have been the contrary 
 event. But however this may reduce the expectation of 
 novelty, an original investigation will always present some points 
 of interest to those who are concerned in the conclusion." 
 
 One fantastical notion may perhaps be as good as 
 another. 
 
 Whether we shall ever Whether we shall ever 
 
 have to give a five-pound have to give the whole annual 
 note to a waiter for bringing produce of the labour of this 
 a cup of coffee ; and if not, country to the national credi- 
 why not ? — Critic, tor, in payment of the interest 
 
 of the public debt ; and if not, 
 why not ? — Author. 
 
 Take then your golden project: let it, for the 
 sake of the argument, be granted ad eMremum. Be 
 gold at once the standard of value, and the instru- 
 ment of exchange. No bank-notes. No bills of 
 exchange. No book debts. No credit in any 
 shape. Some silver and copper for small change, 
 of course ; the rest gold — gold — gold. Put all 
 Europe, at least, and America into the bargain, 
 
THE LAPIDARY. 191 
 
 upon the same footing. This is but fair : nothing 
 like a trial upon a large scale. 
 
 Under these circumstances, would the annual pro- 
 duce of the labour of the country pay the interest 
 claims of the national creditor ? — I doubt it, and so, 
 I suspect, will most other people, who shall bestow 
 a thought upon the subject. People do not, in 
 general, demand gold now, because they really, on 
 many accounts, prefer paper : but were it to be- 
 come law that gold only should be used, where 
 bank-notes and bills of exchange are used, at the 
 present time, an enormous advance would forthwith 
 take place in the price of gold. Oh, dear no ! I had 
 forgotten ! Gold is the standard of value, immutably 
 it is L.3, 17s. lO^d. per ounce, it altereth not. I 
 should have said, an enormous fall would forthwith 
 take place in the price of marketable commodities in 
 general. 
 
 Apply the same test, an extreme case, to my 
 monetary system. You cannot : it does not admit of 
 any such. Ounces of gold and silver ; standard and 
 other bank-notes; and silver and copper coins for small 
 change ; all as defined ; are equal to every purpose of 
 a nation, without the aid of a single bill of exchange, 
 book debt, or other money substitute. Yet could 
 no increase or diminution of the circulating medium 
 affect the price of commodities, or the right working 
 of the system, even for a moment. The supply of 
 money would proceed upon a principle as invariable 
 in its operation as that of gravitation ; and, though 
 simple in character as a child's toy, this kind of 
 money would, at the same time, if adopted, be 
 
192 AN EFFICIENT REMEDY. 
 
 sufficient for all the commercial purposes of every 
 civilized nation upon the earth. 
 
 Want you a specimen of your golden projects ? 
 Here is one : — a paragraph recently went the round 
 of the papers, copied from the Ohio Republican, 
 mentioning that, — " Within a few days past, some 
 property had been sold by the Sheriff of Muskingum 
 county, for which specie was required, that shews a 
 pressure scarcely credible. A four horse waggon 
 was sold for 5 dollars 50 cents ; hogs for Q^ cents 
 each ; horses, 3 dollars each ; colts, 2 to 3 dollars ; 
 cows, 1 dollar 50 cents, to 2 dollars each. Besides 
 these there was a store of goods said to have cost 
 several hundred dollars, sold for less than twenty. 
 The sales were made on three different days, and in 
 two or three different townships ; the result in each 
 being nearly the same. The horses were such as 
 have heretofore sold for 50 to 75 dollars each." 
 
 So much for the lapidary and his pebbles. When 
 he has more to dispose of, I advise him to cast 
 them with a more correct aim : whilst " the cart- 
 loads of graver can hardly be better used than in 
 the mending of his own ways. 
 
 It may be superfluous to observe, that I should 
 not thus venture to defy a Westminster reviewer, if 
 there were any chance of our fighting with equal 
 weapons. He is an adept in his art ; the practised 
 advocate, who can write upon any side of a question 
 and come off respectably. For what man has ever 
 visited a court of justice without observing, with 
 surprise, the power of talent, even when exerted in 
 
 m\ 
 
CONCLUSION. 193 
 
 a bad cause. I have written this and one other 
 small volume : add to these a trifling pamphlet or 
 two, and a few newspaper scraps, and the extent of 
 my literary efforts is defined. 
 
 But my trust is in the power of truth. I know, 
 that in the main statement so often insisted on, I 
 am right : nature, observation, my reasoning faculties, 
 combine to assure me, ihsil /ake is the foundation 
 of the commercial fabric as it at present stands ; and 
 where the error lies, it has been my anxious endea- 
 vour to make out. In the pursuit of this inquir^^ it 
 is freely confessed, that I have trusted far more to 
 observation, and to the native energies of my own 
 mind, than to the examination of books ; but I have 
 not failed sufficiently to examine books for the pur- 
 pose of discovering wherein I might be in error. 
 The examination has been made in vain : I am not 
 in error. Here, within these few pages, is an ex- 
 position of the great cause of human suffering in all 
 civilized countries ; and sooner or later the world 
 will admit the truth of this assertion. For myself 
 individually, I have no reason to desire any change 
 whatever. Far from it. I began the world with 
 less than sixpence, and am not entitled to complain 
 of my own want of success ; whilst the establish- 
 ment of what is here denominated the standard 
 system of commerce, would not necessarily affect my 
 situation or prospects in life at all. But in placing 
 these opinions and arguments before the public eye, 
 I conceive that a duty is performed, about which 
 no man, with similar convictions on his mind, could, 
 or ought, to hesitate. If the public shall see fit to 
 
 N 
 
Ifl* AN EFFICIENT REMEDY. 
 
 disregard these opinions, I shall be sorry for it, but 
 cannot help it ; and if the perhaps too bold manner 
 of expressing myself, with respect to the opinions of 
 others, in which I have indulged, should tend to 
 excite the wrath of any commentators, I cannot 
 help that either : and though not less sensitive, per- 
 haps, to praise or blame than other people, I shall 
 continue to value all such strictures at a straw, 
 when I consider that they are but the natural 
 accompaniments of that free and fearless discussion, 
 by means of which truth is ever best elicited and 
 disseminated amongst mankind. 
 
POSTSCRIPT. 195 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 POSTSCRIPT — THE ATLAS PRIZE ESSAY, AND THE ATLAS AND SIR ROBERT PEEL 
 — AN ESSAY UPON A SMALL SCALK 
 
 The foregoing pages were written, and nearly 
 ready for the printing office, when, by a private 
 letter from a friend, then in Dumfries, dated Sep- 
 tember 27, 1842, 1 was informed that the proprietors 
 of the Atlas newspaper had offered a premium of a 
 hundred pounds for the best essay that might be 
 placed in their hands on or before January 5, 184a, 
 upon the causes pf, and remedy for, the existing dis- 
 tresses of the country ; referring for particulars to 
 said paper of August 27th, and September 10th. 
 These papers I immediately procured ; and it was 
 not a little gratifying to find, that the subject on 
 which I had been occupied for many previous 
 weeks, was thus about to become one of especial 
 public interest. 
 
 Whether to convert my manuscript into a com- 
 petition essay, or to publish it as originally intended, 
 was then the question ; or would a copy of the hooh 
 itself he received by the judges ? No, it would not ; 
 for it is distinctly stated in the Atlas conditions — 
 " That no, paper previously published can be re- 
 
196 AN EFFICIENT REMEDY. 
 
 ceived as a competition essay." Besides which, the 
 Atlas papers are all to be anonymous, and as such, 
 they must not contain reference to any previously 
 printed work of their respective authors : that is to 
 say, such work must not be spoken of as their own 
 composition. In its original form, therefore, or in 
 any other at all resembling it, the m^anuscript of this 
 book could not have been received by the Atlas ; 
 and for the very small chance of success which any 
 one person must have amongst so many competitors, 
 I did not feel inclined to cancel the foregoing pages, 
 and to rewrite the whole argument under a new 
 and totally different arrangement. 
 
 On hearing of the Atlas premium, I immediately 
 wrote the following notice thereof, for one of the 
 Edinburgh newspapers ; see Supplement to the 
 North British Advertiser of October 8, 1842. 
 
 " The Atlas Prize Essay. — As a sign of the times, one of 
 the most remarkable circumstances that we have heard of for 
 many a day past, is the offer of one hundred pounds by the 
 proprietors of the Atlas newspaper for the best essay — [sub- 
 sequently increased to £173 for the three best Essays : £100 
 for the best, £50 for the second best, and £25 for the third 
 best essay] — < on the causes of, and remedies for, the existing 
 distresses of the country,' that may be delivered to their office 
 on or before the 5th January, 1843. The particulars respect- 
 ing the form of application, and so on, are given in their papers 
 of 27th August and 10th September. 
 
 « This liberal offer is in the highest degree creditable to the 
 proprietors of the Atlas. They have set an example which the 
 Government might have honour in copying; and we observe 
 that not a few well-merited encomiums have been passed upon 
 them by the public press throughout the kingdom. 
 
 " But oh, what a libel is this offer upon the science of political 
 economy I Here is public ignorance declared, upon a point of 
 
POSTSCRIPT. 197 
 
 the very first importance — the causes of, and' remedy for, 
 national distress — and information sought for, like lost pro- 
 perty, by public advertisement and a reward! What a shoal of 
 contradictory opinions will this offer bring into the office of the 
 Atlas ! Will the mystery be solved — why a nation, the richest 
 in power, in wealth, and resources, is yet poor, distressed, mise- 
 rable ? Verily we incline to the opinion, that the Atlas will 
 have the merit of starting a fox, which, however swift and 
 cunning he may prove, will yet have a hard run for his life ; 
 and we even question whether he will survive the chase. It is 
 not to the pecuniary inducement that we look, so much as to 
 the tendency of the competition to fix the public mind for a 
 time to the great question at issue. Hence much public dis- 
 cussion will probably result. 
 
 " But it may be asked — will the really best essay obtain the 
 premium ? We doubt this much. Can the editor of the Atlas 
 favour us with the name of a single one great and important 
 discovery, that was not for a century or so mere quackery in 
 the estimation of half mankind, including always the learned 
 part of them ? Who are to be the judges ? The Atlas assures 
 us that they will be '• highly competent and distinguished." But 
 where, it may be asked, are we to find a " distinguished " man 
 who has not his ready prepared square and rule by which to 
 test the soundness or fallacy of whatever doctrine may be 
 placed before him I 
 
 " Many of the disciples of Mr Malthus are distinguished 
 men. Is the proposed remedy a law to make it hanging without 
 benefit of clergy for poor people to marry? No: then put that 
 essay aside. Mr M'CuUoch is a distinguished man. The 
 editors of the Edinburgh and Westminster Reviews are distin- 
 guished men. But what chance has the essayist before such 
 judges as these, if it happen that he point blank oppose their 
 own doctrines! We fear that the square and rule will be 
 applied in every case, and that the essayists will come off ill, 
 very much in proportion as they may chance to differ in opinion 
 from the great men of the day : all of whom are tvrong ; and for 
 this one, but very sufficient reason, that were any of them right, 
 they are in possession of so much real talent, that they would 
 ere now have made the right so apparent, that truth would 
 
198 AN EFFICIENT REMEDY. 
 
 not have hadto be sought for by public advertisement at thi& 
 time of day. 
 
 " Then if wise men are unfit to award the premium, for the 
 reason that, in such capacity, they would be placed in the 
 awkward situation of being both accused and judge, to whom 
 can the essays with any propriety be submitted ? The answer 
 is difficult ; but we are quite satisfied that the proprietors of 
 the Atlas will do their utmost to obviate this and every other 
 difficulty. And we observe that in an early number of their 
 paper the names of the judges are to be given. 
 
 " The Prize Essay is to be published in the Atlas, in one or 
 more numbers according to its length: and the second and 
 third best essays are also to have the same advantage, provided 
 their authors shall desire it." 
 
 The names of the adjudicators, four of which ap- 
 peared shortly after the foregoing paragraph was 
 printed, are not such as to alter, but to confirm, the 
 opinions here stated : three out of the four are now, 
 or have been, professors of poUtical economy ; whilst 
 the name of the fifth — the last — has not been pub- 
 fished when this sheet is sent to press. With the 
 most profound respect for these gentlemen, I never- 
 theless afiirm, that their science is at present the 
 especial science of contradiction and error ; that it is 
 not in a whit better state at this hour, than was the 
 science of medicine to very long time since, when 
 hot rooms, close shut doors and windows, bed-cur- 
 tains closely drawn, and long-time used linen, were 
 the orthodox remedies for typhus-fever and the 
 small-pox. The man who shall ever benefit his 
 country, must do so in spite of many of the existing 
 doctrines of the economists ; and it is hard to ask 
 the professors to pass sentence of condemnation upon 
 their own errors. 
 
POSTSCRIPT. 199 
 
 We need not go far, indeed, for confirmation strong 
 of the correctness of the opinion stated as to the 
 difficulty of obtaining proper judges ; for the parti- 
 culars of the Prize Essay are given, as has been 
 already said, in the Atlas of August 27th, and Sep- 
 tember roth ; and in the former of these papers, it is 
 virtually declared, that the premier of these realms, 
 Sir Robert Peel, is one unfit person to sit in judg- 
 ment upon the eesays. 
 
 As partial quotation is often little better than 
 wilful lying, I here insert the whole of the article to 
 which I refer — 
 
 « In reference to the statement of Sir Robert Peel, that he 
 possessed the ability to create a temporary prosperity by the 
 issue of one pound notes, and by encouraging|the bank to make 
 large issues of paper, it can scarcely be imagined by any reflecting 
 person, that this statement could be made with that deliberation 
 and calm judgment which usually characterize the observations 
 of the premier. He must have overlooked the fact, that there 
 was no scarcity of money in the country. He must have in some 
 unaccountable manner allowed himself to forget that the Bank 
 of England had nearly £19j000,000 of notes in circulation, and 
 nearly £9,000,000 of gold in its coffers. He must also have forgot 
 that numbers such as these have characterized the state of the 
 bank in the most prosperous periods of our trade and commerce. 
 He must have been unconscious that the present may be safely 
 designated * a period of full currency.' In allowing his imagi- 
 nation to be clouded by the gloomy pictures of distress and 
 suffering among the working-classes — drawn and painted in the 
 blackest colours by the opposition — he has not recognized the 
 bright cloud in the horizon, nor permitted his mind to dwell 
 upon the glowing lines of light that indicated the approach of 
 returning day. Reflecting upon the sufferings of the working- 
 classes, and remembering that the favourite prescription of a 
 certain class of popular doctors was, that the currency should 
 
200 AN EFFICIENT REMEDY. 
 
 be increased, and an issue of one pound notes authorized ; and 
 also remembering, tiiat the present was the period when an 
 effective declaration of his power and his wisdom might, in this 
 particular, be advantageously announced — 'I might create,' he 
 said, * a temporary prosperity by the issue of one pound notes.' 
 In this declaration he must have been entirely carried away by 
 his imagination, as those who advocate the increase of the cur- 
 rency by an issue of one pound notes do so only at the periods 
 of a deficient currency, or a high price in the value of money. 
 According to the doctrine held by the Directors of the Bank of 
 England, and the statements delivered by them before committees 
 of the House of Commons, there is such a thing as ' an undue 
 increase of the issues of paper ;' and this is explained by them to 
 mean ' more paper issued than private individuals may employ 
 with just profit to themselves : if so large a sum of paper is issued 
 as to induce men to speculate improperly, that would be an 
 undue issue.' The criteiion of this superabundant issue is 
 declared to be < when money will not produce a sufficient interest — 
 when^ in fact,, there is no demand for money — it will very soon 
 discover itself in the money market whether there is a super- 
 abundance or not.' The manner of this discovery will be, that 
 money will be ' hawked about at a lower rate of interest than is 
 usual.' Now, if we contrast these statements with the present 
 condition of the money market, we should be inclined to say, 
 that, according to the definitions here given, the present is exactly 
 the period of an undue issue, because money loill not produce a 
 sufficient interest, and because ' it is being haivked about at a lower 
 rate of interest than is usuaV Sir Robert Peel had evidently 
 not consulted the Directors of the Bank of England previous to 
 stating in the House of Commons that he could create pro- 
 sperity by issuing one pound notes. Had he done so, those 
 gentlemen must unquestionably have told him, that whatever 
 persona] importance he expected to derive from such a state- 
 ment, or however much he might consider it was calculated to 
 impose upon the credulity of the public, that as a practical 
 measure it was impossible it could be of any utility, because, in 
 point of fact, there was not the slightest call for it, as money 
 was already almost at the lowest possible value in the market. 
 They must have told him also, that such a doctrine would be at 
 
POSTSCRIPT. 201 
 
 variance witli the opinions which they had already declared 
 before the committee of the House of Commons, and by calling 
 his attention to the fact, they must have satisfied him, that there 
 may exist, at the same moment, an abundance of money — indeed, an 
 undue increase in the issues of paper, and an utter prostration — a 
 complete stagnation of trade. In his self-sufficiency, however, the 
 Prime Minister has not condescended to ask the opinions of 
 practical men, but, inflated with the consciousness or belief of 
 the correctness of his own ideas, and the influence of his station, 
 he has promulgated a doctrine which, however it may impose 
 upon the credulity of the multitude, and impress them with respect 
 for the fancied knowledge and capabilities of its promulgator, is 
 untenable in relation to present circumstances, and incapable of 
 being carried into effect. The introduction of one pound notes, 
 at the present moment, we feel justified in declaring, would not 
 create any prosperity, not even temporary prosperity, in trade 
 or commerce, as has been asserted by Sir Robert Peel. The 
 greatest advocates of one pound notes have never, to our know- 
 ledge, spoke of their introduction at a period of full currency, 
 such as the present, as a measure that could be desirable and 
 calculated to benefit trade. They have never recommended 
 their being issued at a moment when there is more money in 
 the country than is required by the wants of trade. They have 
 never said, at a time when money was superabundant, and could 
 not find employment, * throw out still more money, and pros- 
 perity must ensue.' The abettors of a large issue of paper, and 
 particularly of an issue of one pound notes, rest their arguments 
 upon the presumption, that there is an insufficient supply of 
 money, as indicated by its high value in the market. The 
 general cause of a depression of trade, they assert, is, that the 
 value of money is too high, in consequence of which, no ade- 
 quate remuneration is obtained for productions that bring labour 
 into employment. But this doctrine may happen not to be of 
 universal application, as in the present circumstances of the country, 
 where we have a great fall in the value of commodities co-existent 
 with a great increase in the amount and a consequent fall in tJte 
 value of money. Thus, it appears, that the value of money does 
 not necessarily bear any relation to the state of trade ; and a 
 large issue of paper can never be recommended, because not 
 
20-2 AN EFFICIENT REMEDY. 
 
 required, at a time when money is being * hawked about at a 
 lower rate of interest than usual.' The only ground upon which 
 the advocates for improving the trade and condition of the 
 working-classes insist, at any time, upon the necessity of enlarg- 
 ing the currency, is, that the value of money is too high. When 
 this is the case, they presume, as a natural consequence, that 
 more money is required, and that, if more is brought into the 
 market, it will have the usual effect that arises from the addi- 
 tional supply of any other commodity, of reducing the value. 
 In this way, when there is a scarcity of gold, they clamour for 
 an issue of one pound notes as a substitute. The views of the 
 premier are, however, somewhat different from these — they are, 
 indeed, of an entirely novel character. At a period of a full 
 currency, and when money is so abundant as actually to be 
 * hawked about,' when there is no adequate employ me?it for it, and 
 when trade is in a state of great depression, arising from entirely 
 different causes, he throws out the statement, that he possesses 
 the power to create prosperity by making money still more 
 abundant. It is gratifying to observe, that there are other more 
 certain indications of returning prosperity, arising from causes 
 of a more unequivocal and enduring character than any that 
 could be capable of being produced by the system adverted to 
 by Sir Robert Peel." 
 
 The Italics in the foregoing quotation from the 
 Atlas are so marked by myself. Here then is the 
 " Banking and Monetary Atlas" verdict, by antici- 
 pation, upon " ^n Efficient Remedy for the Distress 
 of Nations ;" and a very respectable set down for 
 Sir Robert Peel into the bargain. Be it so ; no part 
 of the hundred and seventy-five pounds will come 
 my way ; I shall not enter into the competition ; 
 therefore it will not prejudice my own case, even 
 though the editor of the banking and monetary 
 Atlas were himself sole adjudicator, to declare the 
 foregoing observations, quoted from his department 
 of said paper, to be literally full of error. 
 
POSTSCRIPT. 203 
 
 It is rather amusing, by the way, that the writer 
 who talks so complacently of the self-sufficiency and 
 inflation of the premier, should himself write so 
 precisely in the style of a dictator, that I could 
 almost fancy I had again fallen in with my old friend 
 of the Westminster. How does the self-sufficieney 
 of the banking and monetary editor of the Atlas, as 
 exhibited in the foregoing article, square with an 
 advertisement in his own paper, of ignorance declared, 
 and information wanted , upon the subject respecting 
 which he writes so confidently ! for the subject of 
 money surely constitutes, at least, a part of the grand 
 inquiry. The writer talks of nineteen millions, and 
 nine millions, as if, in Dominie Sampson phrase, they 
 were " prodigious /" What will he say to precisely 
 as many millions of notes in value as there are exist- 
 ing millions of marketable wealth to represent them ! 
 Most sincerely do I wish, that with the next return 
 of this kind the Atlas would favour us with two 
 sides of the picture instead of one ; in other words, 
 with the amount of money in circulation on the one 
 hand, and with the estimated amount of demand for 
 it on the other ; which demand consists of every acre 
 of land ; every house, factory, or other building ; 
 every ship, boat, or barge, in dock or on the water ; 
 and every inch of merchandise in the three king- 
 doms ; seeking to he ewchanged for money. 
 
 It does not form any part of the plan of this book 
 to fight piecemeal with every error and sophism its 
 author may chance to meet with. The present 
 scheme of affairs, so far as the principle of exchange is 
 concerned, is here declared to be wrong, and it is 
 
204 AN EFFICIENT REMEDY. 
 
 proved to be so by the best of all possible tests ; it 
 works badly. Another scheme has been laid down, 
 which is affirmed to be a good one : how it would 
 work has been declared, falsely or truly, and it is 
 rather for the critic to shew that I am wrong in 
 affirming that it would work well, than for me to 
 contend with every statement that may seem to 
 contradict my own opinions. But even at the risk 
 of being placed in the ranks of the " certain class of 
 popular doctors'' aforesaid — a grade higher, by the 
 way, than I stand in the books of the Westminster, 
 being there only an apothecary — I shall take leave 
 to contend, that the premier critic just quoted is no 
 doctor himself. 
 
 It being admitted, then, and not merely admitted, 
 but affirmed, that no increase whatever in the quantity 
 of money, so long as it shall continue to be issued 
 in accordance with the existing commercial plan, 
 will ever do any permanent good, I nevertheless 
 assert : — 
 
 That so far from a low rate of interest — the burden 
 of the foregoing song — being any criterion of an abun- 
 dant supply of money, it is quite possible for an extreme 
 scarcity of money to cause the rate of interest thereof 
 to fall down to almost nothing. 
 
 In investigating this subject, it must be specially 
 kept in mind, that money is used for two distinct 
 and totally dissimilar purposes. It is used as capital^ 
 by means of which manufacturing operations and 
 commercial speculations are carried on ; and it is also 
 used as income, to be expended in the purchase of 
 commodities for private use and consumption. 
 
POSTSCRIPT. 205 
 
 Now, it is not the rule of mankind to expend 
 capital, but only to employ or to invest it. Hence, 
 whenever the capital of a nation comes to have 
 accumulated to an enormous amount, the power of 
 production becomes so great that marketable produce 
 is capable- of being increased, beyond all comparison, 
 faster than either gold or notes payable in fixed 
 quantities thereof. Hence, at one and the same 
 time, the money capital (production) may be profuse, 
 and the money income (demand) so scarce, that not 
 a sixpence of interest can be got for capital, because 
 not a sixpence of profit can be obtained by the em- 
 ployment of it ; and thus may a scarcity of money 
 have the effect of reducing the rate of interest to 
 nothing. 
 
 The true criterion of a scarcity of money is, that 
 it fails to increase as fast as the aggregate power of 
 production, by means of which goods are made to 
 fall in price, without any other cause for their doing 
 so ; loss instead of profit being then the reward of 
 their manufacturers. Will any man affirm, that 
 money — gold and bank notes as at present consti- 
 tuted — can, by any human contrivance, be made to 
 increase as fast as mankind could increase the aggre- 
 gate products of their industry ? I think not : then I 
 affirm, that until the adopted money of society, be it 
 whatever it may, shall be capable of such increase, 
 money will be scarce, even though the coffers of all 
 the banks in Europe be crammed with bullion, seek- 
 ing to be employed at any rate of interest however 
 humble. 
 
 And hence the explanation of the fact stated 
 
206 AN EFFICIENT REMEDY. 
 
 by the Atlas — " That there may be, at the same 
 moment, an \apparent'] abundance of money, and 
 an utter prostration — a complete stagnation — of 
 trade." 
 
 Then, as to Sir Robert Peel's notion of an exten- 
 sive issue of one pound notes, I really do not see 
 what is to be done with them. There is plenty of 
 money already, as the Atlas says, such as it is ; and 
 Sir Robert must, I suspect, change it in kind first, 
 and increase it in quantity afterwards, before he can 
 do any good. Periods of great prosperity have co- 
 existed with prodigious issues of paper money ; but 
 then, much of the money was expended^ not sent 
 forth, as I presume it must be at present, to seek for 
 profitable investment. If we go back to the period 
 of the late war, when an enormous addition was 
 made to the public debt, what do we find but 
 prosperity, almost without example, during a con- 
 siderable part of the time at least. But the borrowed 
 money was ej^pended then, and a great and general 
 demand for goods was the consequence. 
 
 And the same thing might be done now. Another 
 hundred millions might be borrowed, added to the 
 debt, and expended in the purchase of commodities 
 to feed and clothe an army, or to throw into the sea, 
 it matters not which ; and general prosperity, for a 
 time, would be one result, and additional taxation 
 to the extent of three or four millions per annum, 
 another. But I have shewn, in this book, how the 
 very utmost powers of production, which this or any 
 other nation upon earth possesses, may be called 
 forth without the creation of any debt whatever ; 
 
POSTSCRIPT. 207 
 
 whilst, by precisely the same process, the annual 
 income of the country may be so greatly increased, 
 that the j>ubUc witch herself — as I have called the 
 debt, in the Social System — may be paid a good 
 round number of millions per annum, in money quite 
 as valuable as that, the borrowing of which brought 
 her into existence. For, if a rational system of 
 exchange were established, so that the productive 
 resources of the country could be called into active 
 operation, the taxes might be increased immensely — 
 hy one half at least — without inconvenience to a 
 human being. 
 
 For the reasons that have been given, I deny that 
 a low rate of interest is any criterion whatever of 
 the value of money, or of its abundance. The one 
 and only criterion of its abundance is a fully employed 
 population and a steady market, in other words, a 
 fair rate of profit. The criterion of its superabundance 
 is a rising market — the market being previously 
 good — in other words, a high rate of profit ; and the 
 criterion of its deficiency is an insufficiently employed 
 population, and a falling market ; or, in other words, 
 a low rate of profit, or else no profit at all. In short, 
 it is not the current rate of interest, but the current 
 rate of profit, that is the criterion of an abundant 
 supply of money ; and so far from there not being at 
 present any demand for money, as stated by the 
 Atlas, I repeat, that every marketable commodity in 
 the three kingdoms, which its owner desires to sell, 
 is just a demand for money. Where the money is to 
 come from to meet that demand, perhaps the Atlas 
 will be so kind as to tell us ; as also by what means 
 
208 AN EFFICIENT REMEDY. 
 
 the enormous masses of existing goods may be 
 exchanged for each other without loss to many of 
 their proprietors. I fear he may not be able to 
 do either. Of the whole amount of idle money 
 " hawked about," as described by the writer in 
 the Atlas, how much does he think is hawked 
 about in the pursuit of goods ? — Verily not one six- 
 pence : the whole article, indeed, which I have 
 quoted might have been written in these three 
 words, — ' Capital is superabundant.' 
 
 Having, for the reasons that have been given, 
 declined to enter into the Atlas field of competition, 
 I shall conclude this postscript with 
 
 AN ESSAY UPON A SMALL SCALE. 
 
 What are the causes of our national difficulties ? 
 what are the remedies which the case requires ? So 
 inquires the Atlas. 
 
 To which I reply — The evil complained of is the 
 existing want, by vast numbers of mankind, of good 
 and sufficient food, clothing, habitation, and furni- 
 ture ; together with the total absence, on their part, 
 of any certainty of being able, in time coming, to 
 secure a proper supply of these things, in exchange 
 for a reasonable amount of industry and general good 
 conduct. Now, the four principal desiderata are 
 compounded of the ingredients, land, capital, skill, 
 and industry. Nationally speaking, then— r our pos- 
 sessions abroad as well as at home being taken into 
 the account — we have a superabundance of land. 
 We have also a superfluity of capital ; witness the 
 
POSTSCRIPT. 209 
 
 Atlas's own specimen of millions of money hawked 
 about in search of employment. Farther, we have 
 a superabundance of skill, so people say ; and, besides 
 all these, we have a superabundance of industry, 
 labourers of all denominations seeking for employ- 
 ment. 
 
 If this be true — if it be true that the thing wanted 
 has been rightly defined, and that the thing wanted 
 is composed of the ingredients that have been men- 
 tioned ; and if it be true that all these ingredients 
 emst in superabundance, then it follows, that some- 
 where or other there must be an obstruction ; some- 
 where there must be a harri&r standing between 
 mankind and those good things which are naturally 
 within his reach. 
 
 Answer first. — That obstruction is a defective 
 method of exchanging one thing for another. 
 
 Answer second. — Demolish the obstruction^ and so 
 allow mankind to enjoy whatever he may be able and 
 willing to create. 
 
 How this may be done I have already shewn. 
 
 To which remedy add one other, a national system 
 of edtication upon a grand scale. To effect this, let 
 schools be established and supported at the public 
 expense, sufficient for the whole population, male 
 and female : let the routine of education be at least 
 equal to the best that now exists. To these schools 
 every parent and guardian should be compelled, by 
 law, to send their children, for a period of at least 
 seven years, or else to ^ve them a good education, 
 defining the same, in many particulars, elsewhere. 
 A man or woman, mentally and morally unculti- 
 
 o 
 
210 AN EFFICIENT REMEDY. 
 
 vated, has no more right to be allowed to go at large 
 in any civilized country, in which mental and moral 
 cultivation may be had for nothing, than has an un- 
 tamed bear or a she wolf. 
 
 If the adjudicators of the Atlas essays will take 
 the trouble to turn to Mr M'CulloclUs Principles of 
 Political Economy^ second edition, page 184, they 
 will find an attempt to prove that effective demand 
 depends upon production — that it does so now: 
 and if they will turn to the late Mr Mill's Elements 
 of Political Economy, second edition, preface, page iv. 
 they will find these words : — 
 
 '* 1 have endeavoured, by new illustrations, to render more 
 palpable what appears to me to be demonstration of that most 
 important doctrine, that the aggregate demand and supply of a 
 nation are always equals that production can never be too rapid 
 for the market; in other words, that there never can be a 
 general glut of commodities." 
 
 Oddly enough, the very book from which the 
 above passage is quoted, contains also, in its 16 2d 
 page, the following : — 
 
 " Whenever any addition takes place in the quantity of goods, 
 without any addition to the quantity of money, the price falls, 
 and, of necessity, in the exact proportion of the addition which 
 has been made. If this is not clear to every apprehension 
 already, it may be rendered palpable by adducing a simple case. 
 Suppose the market to be a very narrow one ; of bread solely 
 on the one side, and money on the other. Suppose that the 
 ordinary state of the market is 100 loaves on the one side, and 
 100 shillings on the other ; the price of bread accordingly a 
 shilling a loaf. Suppose, in these circumstances, that the 
 quantity of loaves is increased to 200, while the money remains 
 the same ; it is obvious that the price of the bread must fall one 
 half, or to sixpence per loaf." 
 
POSTSCRIPT. 211 
 
 No human being can reconcile these two para- 
 graphs except by supposing the eocistefnce of some 
 species of money which may be increased as fast as 
 the aggregate of every thing else. No such money 
 exists at present; and therefore, if the injunction 
 implied in the first paragraph were to be obeyed ; 
 if producers of every class were to take the late Mr 
 Mill's doctrine for their guide, and, in accordance 
 therewith, to increase for a time their goods as fast 
 as possible, the result would be, that every atom 
 thereof would fall in price ; ruin to themselves would 
 ensue, demand would speedily come to a stand-still, 
 production itself would be compelled to stop, and the 
 industrious classes would be consigned, as usual, to 
 starvation and wretchedness. 
 
 Alter the nature of the currency in the manner 
 that is here pointed out, and the assertion contained 
 in Mr Mill's first quoted paragraph will be perfectly 
 true ; whilst the argument in the latter quotation 
 will become elucidation and confirmation of that 
 truth. 
 
 With this astounding state of things staring them 
 in the face — the disease so obvious, the remedy so 
 plain ; a disease, the existence of which is proclaimed 
 by the state of every fair, market, manufactory, 
 warehouse, shop, depot, and newspaper, in the king- 
 dom ; a disease which affects the amount of produc- 
 tion in this kingdom, and its dependencies, to the 
 extent of hundreds of millions of pounds value, / 
 verily believe I may add the words per annum — it is 
 absolutely pitiable to see the rulers of this country 
 busying themselves, and monopolizing the attention 
 
212 AN EFFICIENT REMEDY. 
 
 of the entire political press, with a set of 'paltry ew- 
 pedients, in the shape of a small reduction of taxation 
 here, a little freedom of trade permitted there, and 
 some trifling boon granted in another place ; which 
 remedies, compared with the disease, are but as an 
 unit to infinity ; if indeed remedies they are at all. One 
 bold and comprehensive measure applied at once to 
 the root of the evil — in other words, to the currency 
 — would do more good than centuries of the drib- 
 bling legislation to which we are now accustomed. 
 
 Again, if the adjudicators will turn to Mr 
 M*Culloch's book already named, page 157, they 
 will find it in effect stated, that because production 
 and demand are one and the same thing, Irish 
 absenteeism is no evil. In the eleventh chapter of 
 the Social System I have demonstrated the error of 
 both these gentlemen — Mr M'CuUoch, and the late 
 Mr Mill — and if they were not in error, whence 
 the object of the Atlas essay ? If, as a nation, we 
 have already every thing that we are naturally able 
 to create, what on earth can we have more ? We 
 may desire more, truly, but to have more is impos- 
 sible, unless we may be able to increase the power 
 of production itself — of the deficiency of which we 
 are not at present in the habit of hearing — and the 
 proprietor of the Atlas might as well have adver- 
 tised for the philosopher's stone. The plan of divi- 
 sion might, indeed, be different, but even this is 
 comparatively unimportant. 
 
 But the truth is, that effectual demand does not 
 depend upon production. There is no tendency in 
 the former to keep pace with the latter ; it is always. 
 
 i 
 
POSTSCRIPT. 213 
 
 in the aggregate, more easy, at fair prices, to huy with 
 money than to sell for money ; whereas, if effectual 
 demand really depended on production, it would 
 always, in the aggregate, be precisely as easy to sell 
 as to buy. Effectual demand ought to depend upon 
 production, and moreover, it mmt do so, before, by 
 any conceivable possibility, any efficient and perma- 
 nent remedy can be found for the distresses of this 
 nation. It is a false system of exchange which 
 afflicts this country ; at least, this evil exists in the 
 proportion of five hundred to a fraction, as compared 
 with any other. It is a false system of exchange, 
 imperceived by Mr M'Culloch, which has caused his 
 book, already quoted, to be, from beginning to end, 
 a tolerably equal compound of truth and error. It 
 was a false system of exchange, unperceived by the 
 late Mr Malthus, which caused him to write his 
 elaborate, but most illogical and unphilosophical 
 Essay on Population ; and to the circumstance of 
 this false system of exchange not being taken into 
 account, are owing, at least, nineteen-twentieths of 
 the contradictory opinions which now pervade society 
 upon the subjects of population, emigration, impor- 
 tation, exportation, taxation, absenteeism, pauperism, 
 and many others. 
 
 Upon which mentioned subjects I remark, that 
 God Almighty has declared the universal propriety 
 of marriage, by the act of implanting in the species 
 the universality of the desire to marry. If, there- 
 fore, marriage, in any case, produces evil now, it 
 does so for precisely the same reason, that good and 
 wholesome food is sometimes injurious to an indi- 
 
214 AN EFFICIENT REMEDY. 
 
 vidual. In the latter case, the human body is 
 diseased, and poison, in moderate quantities, may 
 answer better than roast beef. So in the former 
 case, a diseased state of the body politic is the one 
 and only cause of even a question upon the subject. 
 The theory of Mr Malthus is not one atom more 
 rational, either in kind or in degree, than the 
 Chinese custom of contracting the feet of women. 
 The few arguments I have adduced against that 
 theory, in the Social System, are irrefutable ; whilst 
 the late Mr Michael Thomas Sadler, amongst others^ 
 has demonstrated its fallacy, in his little treatise, 
 entitled, " A Dissertation upon the Balance of Food 
 and Numbers of Animated Nature,^* wherein it is 
 incontestably proved, if any thing was ever proved 
 in the world, that the Creator has kept the regula- 
 tion of this matter entirely in his own hands. 
 
 With respect to Mr Sadler's own theory of Popu- 
 lation, {Law of Population, by Michael Thomas 
 Sadler, M.P,) I offer no opinion. I incline to the 
 belief, that after having written about thirteen 
 hundred pages in support of a certain position, 
 Mr Sadler has let fall the truth, as if by accident, 
 in the 586th page of his second volume. I think it 
 probable, that whenever nations shall be set free to 
 enjoy whatever they may be able to produce, the 
 whole human race will, by degrees, become more 
 and more intellectual, and less subjected to the endu- 
 rance of hard labour ; and that, with the increase of 
 intellectuality and ease, the average births to a 
 marriage will be diminished. 
 
 With respect to Emigration, I deny that it is yet 
 
POSTSCRIPT. 215 
 
 proved that there is one individual too many in these 
 realms. Great Britain and Ireland may be over- 
 populated even now ; but no human being will be 
 able to answer the question, whether they be so or 
 not, with any thing better than the merest conjec- 
 ture, until the way shall have been cleared to it by 
 the establishment of freedom of exchange. The 
 truth upon this point is at present hidden in the 
 centre of our commercial chaos. 
 
 Of Exportation and Importation I remark, that if 
 there were not some fatal error at the root of our 
 commercial institutions, no man in his senses would 
 ever have imposed a barrier to the free interchange 
 of commodities. If the importers had any law to 
 compel us to buy their articles, whether we want 
 them or not, there would be some wisdom m pro- 
 hibitions. What we prohibit is, in fact, the offer of 
 commodities, which no man ever consents to take, 
 unless he wants them ; and if wanted, why prohibit 
 their importation ? I speak, however, with refe- 
 rence to sound commercial principles ; I am far 
 from saying, that there are not two sides of this 
 question now. 
 
 The Taxes — In the present unnatural state of 
 things, whatever creates demand, does good. The 
 late Mr J. C. Colquhoun, in his Wealth and Re- 
 sources of the British Empire, contends, that taxes 
 and the national debt are the two greatest bless- 
 ings upon the face of the earth. I am disposed to 
 think, that a national capital, yielding a national 
 revenue, sufficient for all government purposes, with 
 no taxes at all, would answer quite as well or better, 
 
216 AN EFFICIENT REMEDY. 
 
 {Appendiw, No. XI.) but poison, it has already been 
 said, is capital food under certain circumstances. 
 Upon the subject of taxes, I shall adventure to pro- 
 phesy, that in just one hundred years from this 
 date, if any, there will be precisely one tax in this 
 country, namely, an equal per centage upon the 
 wholesale price of staple commodities of every 
 kind; and farther, that the said tax will be collected 
 at the expense of rather less than one shilling per 
 annum, by its amount being paid into the treasury 
 quarterly, in four equal sums, by a national bank to 
 be established before that day shall arrive, on prin- 
 ciples rather different from those on which the Bank 
 of England is at present founded. 
 
 Absenteeism would not be any evil, were pro- 
 duction the cause of demand: it is an evil now, 
 because, wherever income is expended, a corres- 
 ponding amount of demand is created: see Social 
 System, page ^o9^ With respect to pauperism, I 
 shall be glad to study the subject whenever I shall 
 have been able to discover any irremediable cause 
 for poverty, other than those of mental or physical 
 incapacity: for w^hich hospitals, supported by the 
 nation at large, are the proper resource. 
 
 For the reasons that have been given, I trust that 
 the Atlas Prize Essay will comprehend a thorough 
 exposition of the subject of supply and demand. If 
 it should not do this, however clever it may be in 
 other respects, it will be just a new edition of the 
 play of Hamlet, the part of Hamlet, Prince of Den- 
 mark, omitted : for whoever may be in quest of the 
 greatest error in our Social state can find it here alone. 
 
POSTSCRIPT. 217 
 
 There is not an evil which now afflicts society," 
 originating either in the actual poverty of the labour- 
 ing classes, or in the commercial embarrassment and 
 distress which affect the manufacturing, commercial, 
 and agricultural interests, which is not fully and 
 completely accounted for by the all pervading error 
 in our monetary system. There is no anomaly 
 before us : the terms, false principle of exchange, 
 superabundance and want, over-production and star- 
 vation, are as perfectly reconcileable with each other 
 as any cause and consequence in this world can be : 
 and as to a remedy for the existing difficulties of this 
 country, which shall not comprehend a radical change 
 — principle and plan — in our system of exchange, 
 it will be discovered on the self-same day when the 
 proprietor of the Atlas newspaper shall breakfast 
 with the Emperor of China, dine in the principal 
 city of the silver moon, and sup at his own residence 
 in London. The word impossible is superlative ; and 
 betwixt a number of impossibilities there is not the 
 value of a pin to choose. 
 
 I can hardly, perhaps, conclude this essay better 
 than by earnestly requesting the adjudicators, and 
 every other inquirer into the nature and causes of 
 our present situation, to peruse, with attention, the 
 article entitled, " Consumption co-extensive with 
 Production," Mill's Elements of Political Economy, 
 second edition, page 222 ; taking along with them 
 the monetary system that is here defined. With 
 that system Mr Mill's clear and beautiful argument 
 forms an unanswerable demonstration : without it 
 the whole is a delusion, demolished in these few 
 
218 AN EFFICIENT REMEDY. 
 
 'words — " You have not taken the nature of money ^ 
 as it exists at present, into the accounts — The 
 argament to which I refer is concluded in these 
 words, — " It appears, therefore, by accumulated 
 proof, that production can never be too rapid for de- 
 mand. Production is the cause, and the sole cause^ 
 of demand. It never furnishes supply without fur- 
 nishing demand, both at the same time, and both to 
 an equal extent." — Elements aforesaid, p. 231. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 CONSISTING CHIEFLY OF QUOTATIONS FROM THE SOCIAL 
 SYSTEM, REFERRED TO IN THE PREVIOUS CHAPTERS. 
 
 Note I. — Not exactly every body. Page 4. 
 
 In the Social System, page 269, there is a quotation from Mr 
 M'Culloch's Principles of Political Economy, wherein he asserts, 
 that Gluts are merely the effect of miscalculation. And, farther 
 on, at page 281, there is another quotation to the same purpose, 
 from a work by the late Mr Mill. They speak, of course, with 
 reference to the existing system of exchange. I have combated 
 their opinions ; but, as the article in answer to them occupies 
 fourteen pages, I consider it too long for quotation here ; whilst 
 a mere extract from it would be useless. 
 
 Note II. So FAR AS NATURAL CAUSES ARE CONCERNED. 
 
 Page 4. 
 
 The natural limits to production are the exhaustion of our 
 industry, or of our productive powers and resources, or else, the 
 satisfaction of our wants. This subject occupies a distinct 
 chapter ; see the sixth. 
 
 Note III. — But by wholesale only. Page 8. 
 
 This implies a very important simplification of the plan 
 developed in the Social System ; where it was proposed to 
 extend the control of the trade commissioners much farther 
 
22Q AN EFFICIENT REMEDY. 
 
 than is here contemplated; and, as it now appears to me, 
 unnecessarily so. 
 
 Note IV. — Standard notes a legalized tender. 
 Pages 9 and 75. 
 
 " For example, a physician, a surgeon, or an artist, when em- 
 ployed by a private member of society, would obtain from his 
 customer, in the shape of money, his right and title to such a 
 portion of the national stock of wealth, as he should agree to 
 give in exchange for the professional benefit conferred upon 
 him ; the giving of the money by the one party, and the receiv- 
 ing of it by the other, being the evidence, or proof, that A, an 
 associated member, who had received money for contributing 
 to the national stock of wealth, had assigned his right to with- 
 draw his contribution out of the national stores to B, a profes- 
 sional man, as a remuneration for some service, or benefit, real 
 or supposed, conferred by the latter upon the former." — S. S., 
 p. 148. 
 
 Note V. — Value of standard notes. Page 19. 
 
 " The national debt having been in course of contraction for a 
 long period, during which, owing chiefly to variations in the 
 amount of paper issues, money was sometimes of one value, and 
 sometimes of another ; the national creditors, speaking of them 
 individually, never can be justly repaid, because it is impossible 
 to ascertain now what was the value of the different sums when 
 they were borrowed. The government, therefore, should insti- 
 tute an inquiry into this subject, and, having ascertained, as 
 nearly as may be practicable, the various values of a pound 
 sterling in wages during the time the debt was contracting, they 
 should strike a general average as equitably as they can, and 
 having declared their opinion that, on an average of the whole 
 period, a pound sterling, or whatever sum it prove to be, would 
 have purchased an average week's labour of a mechanic or 
 labourer, that sum, be it whatever it may, ought to be the price 
 now fixed as the average wages of labour, in paper money.*' — 
 S. S., page 97. 
 
APPENDIX. 221 
 
 Note VI. — Pounds, shillings, and pence. Page 24. 
 
 I AM well aware, that the mode of computation by tenths is 
 considered by many people to be far preferable to our own ; 
 and it is, doubtless, by much the easier way of keeping accounts. 
 But the worst possible time for introducing a change of this 
 kind would be in connection with a new monetary system ; be- 
 cause, whatever inconvenience or perplexity should be occa- 
 sioned by the change to tenths, would be forthwith put down to 
 the account of the standard plan of exchange : let every beast 
 bear its own burden. 
 
 Note VII. — Prevention of forgery. Page 33. 
 
 There is a chapter on this subject in the Social System ; a 
 mere quotation from which, however, would be scarcely intelli- 
 gible ; and, indeed, the whole chapter should, properly, have 
 been illustrated by an engraved specimen note ; and would have 
 been so but for the great expense of such a thing. 
 
 Note VIII. — Variations in the wages of labour. Page 40. 
 
 " But to the general rule of paying an average price for labour, 
 — that is, a fixed sum for a certain number of ordinary hours* 
 work weekly, — there would, of necessity, be some exceptions, 
 arising from the inequalities of the employment itself. In the 
 celebrated work of Dr Adam Smith, these inequalities are thus 
 described : — * The five following are the principal circumstances 
 which, as far as I have been able to observe, make up a small 
 pecuniary gain in some employments, and counterbalance a 
 great one in others. First, the agreeableness or disagreeable- 
 ness of the employments themselves ; second, the easiness and 
 cheapness, or the difficulty and expense, of learning them ; 
 third, the constancy or inconstancy of employment in them ; 
 fourth, the small or great trust which may be reposed in those 
 who exercise them ; and, fifth, the probability or improbability 
 of success in them.' " — S. S., p. 103. 
 
222 AN EFFICIENT REMEDY. 
 
 Note IX. — Fixed rate of wages. Page 67. 
 
 " * The property of a landlord,' says Mr M'Culloch, * is 
 violated, when he is compelled to adopt any system of cultiva- 
 tion, even though it were really preferable to that which he was 
 previously following ; the property of a capitalist is violated 
 when he is obliged to accept a particular rate of interest for 
 his stock ; and the property of a labourer is violated when he is 
 obliged to employ himself in any particular occupation, or for a 
 fixed rate of wages.' 
 
 " The property of no man can be violated by the formation of 
 such arrangements as shall have the effect of fixing the rate of 
 wages at the result of labour, subject to the smallest possible 
 deduction for the support of unproductive labour. Not only 
 would the property of the labourer not be violated by his wages 
 being thus fixed, but it must ever continue to be violated until 
 they are thus fixed. The existing system of commerce has 
 precisely the same effect as an act of parliament would have, 
 fixing the price of labour at the lowest sufficient quantity to 
 support life, and to continue the same miserable race of labour- 
 ers. Indeed, this is the definition given by the political econo- 
 mists to the natural rate of wages. In opposition to this, I hold 
 the natural rate of wages to be the whole that is produced by 
 labour, subject only to the above defined deduction." — S. S., 
 p. 248. 
 
 Note X. — Ability to produce. Page 106. 
 
 In works on political economy, the word produce, is some- 
 times synonymous whh procure or obtain ; whilst, at other times, 
 the latter terms have a very different signification. A man 
 cannot, strictly speaking, be said to produce fish or wild-fowl. 
 He merely procures or obtains them by his skill and industry. 
 Yet the result is the same as if he actually made them with his 
 hands ; seeing that he adds to the stock of marketable produce, 
 as clearly so indeed, as if he were an agricultural labourer, or 
 an artisan. In cases such as these, therefore, producing and 
 procuring or obtaining, are essentially the same. But in others, 
 
APPENDIX. 223 
 
 as for instance, in the case of a medical man receiving payment 
 for his advice, the meaning is quite different. He obtains re- 
 muneration without adding to the stock of marketable wealth 
 at all. He merely obtains property that pre-existed in the 
 hands of some one else ; he does not add to its actual quantity 
 in any way. The distinction is sometimes important. 
 
 Note XL — National capital yielding national 
 REVENUE. Page 216. 
 
 The present system q^ railway legislation is about as absurd 
 as any thing can be. The railroads themselves should belong 
 solely to the government ; in other words, to the nation at 
 large ; and each of them should be let on lease every fifteen or 
 twenty years, on proper terms and conditions, to railway con- 
 veyance companies. If government cannot now afford the capital 
 wherewith to make railways, what is to prevent it from opening 
 a railway fund, yielding so much, and no more, per cent inte- 
 rest ? Plenty of money would flow into it, and the result would 
 be, that government might obtain a handsome profit by the 
 difference between the interest of railway bonds, and the rent of 
 the railways; whilst individuals would still be railway proprietors, 
 but not proprietors of any particular railway. 
 
 Oh ! then, I may be told, you would fetter the right of 
 private enterprise and private speculation ; you would destroy 
 the liberty of the subject I I confess my inability to comprehend 
 the principle upon which the liberty of the subject is promoted 
 by the act of allowing one set of subjects to take forcible posses- 
 sion of the lands and other property of another set of subjects. 
 An act of Parliament is asked to allow a company of private pro- 
 prietors to make a railroad from A to B. Query, will the 
 liberty of the subject be most effectually promoted by the grant 
 or refusal of such act ? I can very well understand how the 
 government may have an undoubted right, for public purposes, 
 to compel the sale of private interests to the public, for a price to 
 be determined by a jury. But a joint stock railway, however 
 much it may benefit the public, is not undertaken for a public 
 
224 AN EFFICIENT REMEDY. 
 
 purpose at all, but for private advantage ; and — the liberty of 
 the subject being the text — probably a strong case might 
 be made out against the practice of seizing upon one private 
 right for the purpose of making room for another private right : 
 whilst the act of allowing the great public thoroughfares of the 
 kingdom to become any thing but public property, has certainly 
 more of novelty than of wisdom to recommend it. 
 
 THE END. 
 
 EDINBURGH : 
 
 PRINTED BY ANDREW SHORTEEDE, 
 
 OEOROE IV. BRIDGE. 
 
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