UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS Library to ibbana^cnampAISN The person charging this material is re- sponsible for its return to the library from which it was withdrawn on or before the Latest Date stamped below. Theft, mutilation, and underlining of books are reasons for disciplinary action and may result in dismissal from the University. To renew call Telephone Center, 333-8400 Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2016 https://archive.org/details/attempttoestimatOOmort AN ATTEMPT TO ESTIMATE THE effects of protecting duties ON THE PROFITS OF AGRICULTURE. BY JOHN MORTON, RG.S. AUTHOR OF TI1E NATURE AND PROPERTY OF SOILS, AND JOSHUA TRIMMER, F.G.S. AUTHOR OF PRACTICAL GEOLOGY AND MINERALOGY, AND PRACTICAL CHEMISTRY FOR FARMERS AND LANDOWNERS. Diique Deseque omnes, studium quibus arva tueri, # * * * Et vos, agrestum, presentia numina, Fauni, * * # * Munera vestra cano. Aid us, Protectionists and Farmers’ friends, We shew the good to which Protection tends. 4- THIRD EDITION. LONDON: JAMES RIDGWAY, PICCADILLY. 1845. 337 . 5 \ v | < S4q PREFAC E. The writers of the following pages happened to be in com- munication soon after Mr. Cobden’s announcement of the new view which he had taken of the system of agricultural protection, namely, that it is a system of mutual plunder, under which the growers of the different descriptions of agricultural produce rob one another ; and it was agreed to test a proposition so novel and plausible , by working out the question in detail, each for that kind of farming with which he was most familiar. The unexpected results obtained, encouraged them to ex- tend the inquiry to the other systems of husbandry pre- valent in the best farmed districts of Britain ; and to lay the results of their joint labours, in their joint names, before the public, in the hope that they might have the effect of diminishing that alarm with which so many of their agri- cultural friends contemplate the prospect of those changes which are inevitable, and of inspiring the landed, as well as the monied interests, with confidence in the application of capital to the improvement of the productive powers of the soil. This want of confidence, and the persuasion that the prosperity of agriculture depends upon artificial prices, are the chief causes which drive the surplus capital of this country into any channel of speculation, however un- certain and hazardous, in preference to the safe and profitable investment which the improvement of our own soil affords. UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS LIBRARY AT URBANA-CHAMPAIGN EFFECT OF PROTECTING DUTIES ON THE PROFITS OF AGRICULTURE. 1. On a question which has been so repeatedly dis- cussed as that of the Corn-laws we have long ceased to expect anything new. The monotony of the Agricultural Debates of the past session, has however been agreeably relieved by several striking novelties. Among these may be enumerated the indications given by Sir Robert Peel and Sir James Graham of the tendency of their future policy to the gradual abolition of the protective system; the declara- tion of Lord John Russell that protection is the bane of agriculture ; the argument of Mr. Cobden that the effect of protecting duties is merely to defend the cultivators of one British county against those of another ; and lastly the notice given by Mr. Escott that he shall move early in the next session of Parliament for the free admission of maize or Indian corn. To these significant hints that the days of the Corn-laws are drawing rapidly to a close, we may add the suggestion thrown out by Mr. Sotheron, at an agricultural meeting, that the system of agricultural protection, may possibly not last more than two years. 2. If such be the prospects of the farmers, it behoves them to consider well the value of the protective system ; in order that if they cannot carry on their business without that of which there appears every prospect of their being speedily deprived, they may rally all their forces, and make a desperate effort to maintain it ; and that on the other hand, if it be of B 2 no value, or if it be, as some contend, a serious loss to them, they, the tenant farmers of England, may throw their weight into the scale, to accelerate that change which seems inevit- able, and, by so doing, relieve themselves, at once, of a burthen which oppresses them. 3. Mr. Cobden has declared the system of protecting duties to be a system of mutual plunder, between the growers of the different descriptions of agricultural produce. 4. If his views of the protective system be correct, it will go far towards establishing the truth of Lord John Russell’s assertion, that protection is the bane of agriculture. 5. We propose, therefore, in the ensuing pages, in order to test the validity of Mr. Cobden’s assertion, to consider in detail, the effects of protecting duties, on the interests of some of our chief agricultural districts ; and to inquire whether there are any which gain by those duties, at the expense of others. We shall endeavour also, to estimate the amount of loss to those districts which lose by protection, if such there be. 6. The first point to be ascertained is the amount of the protecting duties on the different descriptions of agricultural produce. 7. This will be easy enough with respect to every kind of produce except corn. Over corn, however, the sliding scale has thrown such a cloud of mystification, that it is impossible to bring any two persons to agree as to the amount of protection afforded under the late or present Corn-law. 8. Fortunately, however, it is not essential to the value of our reasoning, that we should arrive at an exact conclusion upon this point. It will be sufficient if we agree upon a given amount of protection ; and apply it equally to both sides of our argument . 9. Ey a Parliamentary return of the foreign wheat and other grain entered for home consumption between 1828 and 1841, the duration of the late Corn-law, we are fur- 3 nished with the average rates of duty actually paid upon each description of grain imported. 10. The following is the aggregate of the importations from 1828 to 1841, with the average amount of duty paid : — Qrs. Amount of Duty Received Average rates of duty per qr. Wheat . . 13,555,471 . . . ^3,779,417 • 55. 7d. Barley . 2,826,397 . . . . 659,559 . 4 8 Oats . . , 3,534,627 . . . . 1,137,940 . 6 5 Peas . . 919,227 . . . . 266,374 . 5 10 Beans . . . 1,071,369 . . . . 371,698 . 6 11 11. The rates of duty which we shall use in the following calculations will be for wheat 5s. Qd ., oats 6s. 6d., barley 4s. 8d ., peas 5s. 10c?., beans 6s. 11c?., being a close approxi- mation to the protection indicated by the preceding returns. 12. Our estimate of the duty on wheat may perhaps be objected to as too low, by those who remember that the late sliding scale afforded an apparent protection for several years in succession of from 20s. to 40s. a quarter. 13. The real test, however, of the extent to which the sliding scale has succeeded in its avowed object of keeping up artificial prices, is a comparison of the prices of wheat in this country and abroad during a period of several years. 14. There is probably no better test of what the price of wheat would have been in this country, in the absence of all restrictions on importation, than is afforded by the Channel Islands, where the trade is perfectly free ; those islands sending the corn of their own growth free to this country, whenever the importation is profitable, and receiv- ing foreign com duty free for their own consumption. 15. By a Parliamentary return, it appears that the price of wheat in Jersey, during the ten years from 1832 to 1841, averaged 48s. 4 d. the quarter. The average price b 2 4 in England, for the same ten years was 5 6s. 8d. being a difference of 8s. 4 d. the quarter. But it will at once be conceded, by all who are acquainted with the subject, that a constant demand from England, under a free trade, would have raised the level of foreign grain, at the very least, 2s. to 3s. the quarter, and this brings the price up to within 5s. or 6s , of our own average ; w T hich corroborates our estimate of the protection at 5s. 6d. the quarter. 16. Having thus sufficiently determined the amount of protection enjoyed under the last Corn-law, and assuming that it has not been increased by the present sliding scale, we proceed to estimate the value of protection to our dif- ferent agricultural districts. 17. The first case which we shall investigate will be that of 400 acres of light land in Norfolk, in the eastern district of that county, where the cultivation is not in gene- ral so high as in West Norfolk. 18. Jn commencing this inquiry we must remember that the farmer cannot possibly derive any benefit from the fictitious value given by protecting duties to any part of his produce, except the surplus which he has for sale, after providing for the maintenance of the men and animals employed in cultivation. It matters not to him, pro- vided the quality be the same, whether the hay con- sumed by his horses be worth £3. or £6. the ton; whether the oats with which he feeds them would sell for 20 s. or 40s.; or whether his seed wheat be valued at 40s. or 80s. the quarter. The prices of these portions of the produce, are only of consequence, as indicating the price of that portion of the same kinds of produce which he sells. 19. As little does it matter what may be the price of the wheat and bacon with which he feeds the ploughmen whom he boards in the house. Neither, if, after the custom of Northumberland, and some other northern counties, he employs hired householders, resident upon the farm, and paid their wages in kind, will he gain anything by the enhanced price of that portion of the produce consumed by them. 20. The only advantage which the farmer can derive from the artificial enhancement of the price of the food of agricultural labourers, is when competition for employment enables him to pay them money wages, insufficient to pur- chase their fair share of the produce. 21. Either the farmer repays his servants, in the form of increased wages, the amount of protecting duty paid by them on the agricultural produce which they consume, or the system robs them to that amount. 22. This robbery, moreover, is not committed for the farmer’s benefit, but for that of his landlord; because since rent consists of the surplus produce, after deducting the cost of cultivation, and a fair remuneration to the tenant for his time, skill, and capital, whatever depresses the value of wages relatively to the price of agricultural produce, operates to increase rents. 23. Such advanced rents, however, are not all clear gain to the landlord, they are subject to many serious de- ductions in the form of increased poors’ rates, increased county-rates, for gaols and criminal prosecutions, the cost of maintaining a rural police, and losses by incendiary fires. They are subject, also, to many enormous deductions in the form of electioneering expenses, for the maintenance of the protective system, and to deductions for the pro- tecting duties on every description of agricultural produce consumed in their families, and in the famlies of all the tradesmen with whom they deal, which of course are added to their bills. 24. In the calculations which follow we shall assume, that whatever the agricultural labourer pays, in the shape of protecting duty, on the bread which he consumes, and on his cheese — when he is fortunate enough to be a con- 6 sumer of cheese — he receives back again, in the shape of higher wages than he would be paid were the price of his food not artificially raised. 25. We have made this assumption the basis of our calculations, respecting the effects of the protective system on labour, because it is the most favourable view which can be taken of that system ; but we believe the fact to be quite the reverse. If the protectionists demur to this assumption, they place themselves on the opposite horn of the dilemma, that the effect of agricultural pro- tection IS TO ROB THE AGRICULTURAL LABOURER. 26. Hitherto we have supposed a case in which the far- mer raises the whole of the protected agricultural produce which he employs in cultivation, as seed, or food for his servants and cattle ; but if, from the nature of his soil and climate, he is obliged to purchase from other districts, a greater amount of protected articles than he sells, it is clear that he must be a loser by the difference. 27. Now this is precisely the case with the farmers of the light lands of Norfolk ; they sell no protected articles, produced by themselves, except wheat and barley. 28. They buy from the pasture districts most of the bullocks which they fatten, and it is only some parts of the county which breed their own sheep. 29. They purchase the oats consumed by their horses ; and they purchase large quantities of artificial manures and of food for purchased cattle, in order to increase the quantity and quality of the manure. 30. If therefore, the returns of the farmer be increased, by the protective system, his expenses are likewise increased, by the amount to which those duties enhance the price of his seed-corn.* 31. His expenses are increased, for the benefit of the oat growers of the Lincolnshire Fens, and of Scotland and * See par. 63, 7 Ireland, by the amount of the protecting duty on every bushel of oats which his horses eat. 32. He pays tribute to Cheshire, Derbyshire, Gloucester- shire, Wilts, and Somerset, to the amount of ten shillings the hundred weight, upon all the cheese consumed by him- self and his labourers. 33. For the benefit, or supposed benefit of Kent, Essex, and a few other southern counties, the price of all the clover- seed he sows is enhanced, by a protecting duty of ten shil- lings the cwt. 34. For the benefit of a few thousand acres in Kent, and in less than six other counties, he pays a protecting duty on the hops consumed by himself and his labourers. The protecting duty on hops is the difference between the import duty of £4. 10 s. on foreign hops, and the excise duty of 18«. 8 d, on hops of English growth ; that is £3. 1 Is. 4 d. the cwt. 35. As the arable farmer of East Norfolk is a buyer of lean cattle and sheep, as well as a seller of fat beef and mutton, the most favourable view which can be taken of the protecting duties on foreign cattle and meat, is either that they have no effect at all, upon the market, from the inability of foreign countries to supply us, or that the duties on fat and lean stock neutralize one another. 36. The least favourable view is, that while a fat and a lean ox are admitted at the same duty, and corn is ex- cluded, the system operates as an inducement to the foreign breeders to send their cattle over fat instead of lean, thus depriving the British Farmer of the benefit of the manure produced while they are fattening. 37. The cultivator of 400 acres of light land in Norfolk purchases annually, at least 40 tons of oil cake, with which to feed his bullocks and sheep, for the sake of improving their manure. The bullocks are chiefly Highland and Galloway, Scots and Short-horns bred in the North; the 8 remainder are Devons and Irish, together with some Home- breds from the pasture districts of Norfolk. 38. The complaint of the arable farmers of Norfolk is, that they are obliged to pay so high a price for their lean stock that they rarely make any profit by fattening them ; and that they are to them mere manufacturers of manure. 39. A great benefit, would therefore be conferred on the arable farmers of Norfolk, by such an influx of cattle from Belgium, Holland, Germany, and Spain, as would, keep down the price of lean stock to such a point as would in conjunction with cheap cattle food, leave them a profit on fattening their manufacturers of manure; provided those cattle were equal in quality to the Scots and Short-horns they now receive from the North. 40. r ihe prospect of this, however, is, we fear, but dis- tant: there are two impediments to it; the augmented demand of a rapidly increasing population, which enhances the price of meat, and by consequence, of lean stock, and the tardiness with which the diffusion of improved breeds of sheep and cattle spread among the bulk of the farmers of any country. We may take the case of cattleimported from Ireland, as an example of the manner in which the demands of our increasing numbers keep a-head of the supply. Twenty years ago the total importation of live cattle from that country amounted to 17,000 head. We can re- member when the low prices of 1822 and 1823 were attributed by butchers, graziers, and statesmen, to the seventeen thousand horned invaders of that period. In the reign of Charles the Second, when the importation was much smaller, the English Parliament voted them a nuisance; in 1841 the numbers annually imported into Liverpool alone had increased to 100,000 head; and yet, with our increased population — when the manufacturers are in full employment and at good wages, — notwithstanding a diminished Government demand for the army and navy, 9 notwithstanding the prohibition removed against importa- tion of live cattle and fresh meat from the Continent, and with duty reduced on American provisions — measures which excited such a panic among the agricultural interest — this increased importation from Ireland has been insufficient to keep down the price of meat — witness the present state of Smithfield market — to such a point as the interests of the consumer require, or to keep down the price of lean stock to such a point as would enable the tenants of those light lands which cannot be cultivated advantageously without the manure of a large quantity of live stock, to purchase that stock at such a price as would give them a profit on feeding it.* * The following calculations, extracted from two articles in the North British Review for May and August, 1845, on the improve- ment of land, as an employment for capital, are well worthy the consideration of those who still feel alarm at the effects of the importation of foreign food on the interests of British agricul- ture, and have not considered the power of increasing popula- tion fully employed at good wages, to cause a continually augmenting demand with which the supply will with difficulty keep pace : “ Two pounds of meat,” says the writer, “ consumed weekly by each of the two hundred thousand mouths, added annually to our population, would occasion an augmented de- mand increasing annually at the rate of 34,000 oxen of six hundred weight each, whilst increased wages affording to five millions of our underfed existing population the means of purchasing only one pound of meat, each weekly, would cause a further annual demand of 386,000 oxen of the same weight, or an equivalent quantity of mutton and pork. Again, as to the surplus produce of Ireland, it would soon be reduced to a nega- tive quantity, if the cultivators of her soil were consumers of bread and meat ; five ounces only of beef consumed weekly by each of the eight millions of her people, would cut off her ex- port of live cattle, supposing it to be double that which now 10 4h The Irish cattle afford an example of the tardiness with which improved breeds are diffused. Though conside- rably improved, during the last twenty years, they are still so far inferior to our best breeds, as to cause the farmers of Norfolk to buy them, not from choice but from necessity, in consequence of the higher relative price of Devons, Scots, and Short-horns. It is therefore obviously their interest, that our Continental neighbours should improve their breeds of sheep and cattle, in order to render them suitable to our markets ; and that they should resort with them in a lean state, like the drovers of Scotland and Ireland, to the weekly market on the Castle Hill, at Norwich, or the annual fair at St. Faiths. 42. The improvement of the Continental breeds and the rearing of cattle for the English market will, however, be a slow process; and most of the present generation will be laid in their graves, before the imported foreign cattle will, either in numbers or quality, equal the importation from Ireland. In the mean time the rapid increase of population will occasion a demand for meat which will far exceed the supply, and which will be of no benefit to the arable farmer of Norfolk, because the price of the lean stock which he is obliged to buy will advances at an equal rate. 43. It w T ould be more in accordance with the present state of continental agriculture to send us lean cattle and corn, than to employ the corn in fattening them, and to send them over fat. While, therefore, the entire removal of restrictions on the importation of corn and cattle, would enters England by way of Liverpool, and supposing that instead of being lean kine,they were fat oxen of six cwt. each ; again the 318,700 quarters of wheat, and wheat flour, and the 2,327,782 quarters of oats imported from Ireland in 1841 would give scarcely \\ pecks of wheat and little more than 2^ bushels of oats for the annual consumption of each of her 106 0 0 7 1 4* 8 10 32 19 7 2 7 1 2 8 beer 2 8 10 * 11 6 * These sums represent the amount of protecting duties on the food not of an individual but a family of five. f Pars. 92, 94, 95. 65 Protecting duties Per on their food. Per man. acre. East Lothian, 420 acres — £. s . d. £, s. d. s. d. 12 hired householders 39 1 0 3 5 1 1 6 243. From the above and the preceding table, it appears that the arable farm on which we find the protective system increasing returns the most, and the cost of cultivation the least, is that of East Lothian there also the protective tax on the labourer’s food is lower per man than on any other arable farm, except that of Norfolk, and lower per acre than on any of them. This arises from two causes : first from the inferior kinds of grain constituting the accustomed food of the peasantry, and secondly, from those economical arrange- ments which enable a large produce to be raised with the employment of a small amount of manual labour, 244. The last has the most influence, since the cost to the Northern farmer of a labourer eating to his fill of oatmeal porridge and milk, is greater than the cost to the Norfolk farmer of a half starved labourer fed with wheaten bread. 245. This will appear from the following estimate of the money value at present prices of the wages of a hind in East Lothian and Northumberland, where the wages are paid alike in kind, and amount to nearly the same sum, though the descriptions of grain which they receive are somewhat different. East Lothian. Oats 7^qrs. at 20 s. 7 10 0 Barley 2\ „ 2 5s. 2 16. 3 Peas 2 ,, 3s. 3 12 0 £13 18 3 Northumberland. Oats 4Lqrs. at 20s. 4 10 0 Barley 3 ,, 255. 3 5 0 Peas 1L „ 365. 2 14 0 Wheat 3 bshls. 0 18 9 Rye 3 ,, 0 12 0 £11 19 9 * The hinds of East Lothian and Northumberland are con- sumers of bacon, the produce of hogs fed with a portion of the corn and potatoes which they receive as wages, on this we have not charged protecting duty. v GG Brought forward 13 18 3 Potato & flax ground 2 0 0 Carriage of coals 0 16 0 Cottage and garden 3 0 0 Keep of Cow .800 Cash . .400 £31 14 3 Brought foward 1119 9 Potatoes 36 bshls. 116 0 Carriage of coals 0 16 0 Cottage & garden* 3 0 0 Keep of Cow 8 0 0 Cash 4 0 0 £29 1 1 9 Deduct cottage, as the wife’s labour in har- vest is given for it 3 0 0 £28 14 3 246. These wages cost the farmer a trifle over 11s. and 1 Is. Ad. a week,, but they give the labourer a much greater command over the necessaries of life than he would derive from wages to the same amount, paid in money, to be expended at the village shop ; they possess, moreover, this advantage over the higher money wages of Lincoln- shire, that they suffer no interruption from sickness and bad weather. 247. This, at first sight, may seem a loss to fhe farmer: if a loss to anybody it is to the landlord, since a high scale of wages causes a diminution of rent, unless an increased produce be raised to compensate for it. But against this loss, from sufficient wages thus paid, there is the set off of lower poor rates. Mr. Grey, of Dilston, in his paper on the agriculture of Northumberland (Journ. R. Ag. Soc. vol, II. pt. 2) has insisted strongly, not only on the pecu- niary advantage of this mode of payment to both master and servant, but on the moral advantages which result from it, in conjunction with the possession of a cow, from the * The Northumbrian hind is bound to have a woman always at hand, to work on the farm when required, who receives la. a day in harvest and l(k/. at other times. 67 habits of economy and prudence which it engenders, and the removal of temptation to dissipate earnings at the ale house ; he insists also, and he speaks from experience, on the good feeling which it engenders between master and servant, and its effects in superseding the necessity for parochial relief ; declaring that he never knew an instance of a regularly hired hind applying to the parish, however numerous his family, unless disabled by permanent ill health or accident, and that the expenses of the purely agricultural poor in the districts where this practice pre- vails, do not amount to sixpence in the pound. 248. It is only in the North, where wages are thus paid in kind, that the labourer can ever derive benefit from an advance in the price of food ; because being entitled to as much grain, besides the keep of a cow, and other advantages, as is more than sufficient for the consumption of a family, unless it exceed the average number, he has often a surplus due to him at the end of the year, for which he is paid by his master the average price ; and, however high the price of the provisions, he is secure of an ample supply of them. 249. The Scottish and Northumbrian peasant con- sume, it is true, but little wheaten bread, but they have what Cobbet, in his popular phrase, called the bellyful — of wholesome food, porridge, eaten hot under their own roof, with the milk of their own cow, varied with oaten cakes, or bread made of a mixture of pea and barley meal, re- lished with home made cheese, and butter, and bacon of their own feeding. They are not obliged when they have fattened the hog to sell him ; and, without going the full length of the writer in a recent article in Blackwood’s Magazine, who considers wheat the inferior grain, and wheat eaters an inferior race, we very much question whether the hind of Northumberland and East Lothian would be disposed to change his fare, for the dry bread diet, and f 2 68 it is little better, of Norfolk, or the cold potatoes of Sussex eaten under a hedge. 250. We are not, however, recommending an oaten diet to the labourers of the South, nor even a return to the rye bread which constituted the food of a large portion of the peasantry of Norfolk before the commencement of Lord Leicester’s improvements. The landowner and the farmer, have raised their style of living, our horses, sheep, and cattle are better lodged and fed than they were a century ago, and why should not the agricultural labourer partici- pate in the benefits derived from improvements in agricul- ture ? Whatever the grain which is established as his customary food, of that he ought to have a sufficiency for the support of a family under all fluctuations of price ; and nothing secures that so effectually as wages paid in kind. 251. The following would be a scale of wages in kind, adapted to the habits of the South, in which wheat would be substituted for the oats which constitute the principal diet of Scotland, and enter largely into the consumption of the labouring classes in most of the English counties north of Trent. Wheat, 5 qrs. 50s.* , 12 10 0 Barley, 3 ” 2 5s. . 3 15 0 Potatoes, 40 bushels . . 2 0 0 Keep of Cow . . 8 0 0 Cottage and garden . . 3 0 0 Coals, 2 tons, or an equivalent quantity of wood . . . 2 10 0 Cash . . .400 £35 15 0 252. These items, at present prices, would cost the * By the custom of Northumberland, the hind is entitled to the best corn grown upon the farm, after that used for seed. 69 farmer about 13 s. 8 d. a week, that is, they would be equal to the present money wages of Lincolnshire and Whitfield ; two shillings a week mere than the oaten diet of the North, and one-half higher than the 9s. a week, the present wages of Norfolk. But they would be of more value to the labourer than their cost to the farmer ; the wheat would be sufficient for the consumption of an ordinary family, the cow would supply them with cheese or butte r, beside their consumption of milk ; and the potatoes, with the refuse of the gai’den and the barley, would furnish them with bacon. 253. Whenever this mode of payment shall be esta- blished in the South, the labourer may be interested in an increase in the price of corn, as he will, under ordinary circumstances, have an excess to dispose of; then we may hope to see him independent of the parish, and laying by something for a wet day. Till then it is cruel mockery to talk to him about making provision for sickness and old age out of 9s. a week. 254. Had such a scale of wages, and such a mode of payment been established in Norfolk, at the close of the last century, securing to the labourer a sufficiency of food during the period of agricultural prosperity, and obviating the necessity of altercations about a reduction in the money value of wages, when the revulsion came, the agri- cultural population of Norfolk would not have been in the state described in the following extract from Mr. Bacon’s work on the agriculture of that county.* 255. “ Unhappily, while other classes were gradually progressing, the moral and physical condition of the labourer was as gradually retrograding, until at one period * The Report on the Agriculture of Norfolk, to which the prize was awarded by the Royal Agricultural Society of England. 70 a complete disorganization of the rural districts of Norfolk was threatened. In order to trace this retrogression, its effect upon agriculture, and its action upon a naturally honest and industrious class, we must go back forty or fifty years, when occupations were not so extensive, when the demand for labour was above the supply, and production more adequate to consumption. At that period, most of the farm servants were lodged in the houses, the occupa- tions were comparatively small, the master and servant often worked together, and hence arose mutual respect and attachment, which mutual dependence and mutual aid almost invariably create. The system of weekly wages was the first blow towards weakening the ties which had hitherto bound the farm servant, under all circumstances, to his employer. Expelled from the long cherished 66 home of the estate,” and thus cut off both from those social communications which ensure confidence, and that super- vision which imposes a wholesome restraint, the labourer sought a new dwelling, too often an improvident marriage, and his interest centered in his own hearth. Asa natural consequence, population increased, not at first perhaps in proportion to the demand for labour, augmented by en- closures, but certainly beyond the rate of wages, which underwent no addition corresponding to the rise of price in the necessaries of life. It ought, however, in justice, to be stated, that in almost all the inquiries which have been made upon this point, we have invariably found the rate of wages higher in proportion, when the price of corn was low, than when high prices have been obtained. The following table of wages paid on a farm for the last forty years, may be received as representing the customary rate of weekly payment during that period.” 71 256. The Average price op Wheat per quarter RECEIVED, AND LABOURER^ WEEKLY WAGES PAID FROM 1804 TO 1844, ON A LIGHT LAND FARM. Date. Average price of Wheat, per quarter. Labourer’s W ages, per week. Date. Average price of Wheat, per quarter. Labourer's Wages, per week. Date. Average price of Wheat, per quarter. Labourer’s Wages, per week. 1804 44 10 8 0 1818 82 11 10 6 1831 66 0 10 6 5 92 8 10 0 19 71 8 10 6 32 60 0 10 6 6 60 10 9 0 20 65 6 10 0 33 57 0 10 0 8 71 0 9 0 21 56 3 9 0 34 46 8 9 0 7 65 0 9 0 22 39 10 8 0 35 40 0 9 0 9 87 0 10 6 23 49 0 9 0 36 52 0 9 0 10 100 0 12 0 24 58 8 9 0 37 52 0 10 0 11 83 1 10 0 25 64 8 9 0 38 69 0 11 0 12 120 1 15 0 26 58 0 10 0 39 64 8 10 6 13 110 8 13 6 27 56 0 10 0 40 63 0 10 6 14 64 1 10 0 28 60 0 10 0 41 60 0 10 6 15 63 0 10 0 29 65 0 10 0 42 52 0 10 0 16 66 2 10 0 30 62 0 10 0 43 48 0 9 0 17 106 5 12 6 257. “ The labourer then gradually compelled to confine his exertions to the bare support of existence, grew careless of higher considerations ; first in the respect of his superiors, who had, in his way of thinking, thrown him off, and then of his own. Thus were the first stones loosened in the “ agricultural homestead” of England, which has since been so fatally shaken from base to roof. Labour competition was still further increased by the discharge of soldiers and seamen, after the peace, as well as by that of artizans whose employment had been created and continued by the manufacturing impulse and monopoly enjoyed during the war ; and the consequence was that wages were reduced to the lowest possible rate. In addition to the surplus labour, came low prices, with a period of agricultural ruin, and, in the struggle, the labourer, under the law of settle- ment bound to one spot, was reduced to the minimum of subsistence. What followed ? Broken in spirit, sunk to the depth of degradation and distress, he was compelled 72 to have recourse to parish allowance, granted with a sparing hand, both on account of the number of appli- cants and the distressed state of the tenantry themselves. Then came the further infliction of working on the roads, or in the gravel-pit, the almost only passport to a scanty allowance. These causes fully account for that moral and physical depravation, and that exasperation which has since inflicted such evils on the proprietor and the tenant, and such misery upon the labourer. A fourth party, the overseer, placed as he was between the rate-payer and the pauper, had a hard duty to perform, and was too frequently the unwilling medium of inflicting injustice as well as suffering ; for it was out of these circumstances that wages came to be eked out by the substitution of payment from the poor rates. 258. “ Perpetual disputes between the tenantry and the labourers, and parishes, ended in an appeal to magisterial power, and litigation only added to the pressure under which the county laboured; while the vice and the crime engen- dered by these many causes, and fostered by recklessness, was fast hastening the population to that disorganised state, which, in 1830, exhibited itself in the destruction of ma- chinery, and similar acts of violence. The strong arm of the law was, of necessity, called in, and the insurrection was ostensibly controlled ; but, almost nightly fires, throughout the county, shewed the spirit to which it had given birth, and succeeded in the object at which it aimed — to excite the fears of the wealthy. “ Such is the brief history of the labourer in husbandry, during the interval since 1805. 259. “ While the wealth of the landlord, and the profits of the tenant had been rapidly augmented by the influence of increased practical knowledge and skill in culture ; and, while general education had elevated the intellectual posi- tion, and refined the habits of the higher and middle classes, 73 the labourer had been subject to a neglect which had as rapidly sunk him in the scale of society — a neglect which recoiled on his superiors with double force at a later period, when it was beyond the power of the occupier to remedy the evils engendered by depression ; he, himself, being involved in almost irretrievable ruin. 260. “No more powerful instance can be given of the state of the agricultural poor, than that in 1831, in 473 parishes, 2714 men, exclusive of women and children, were out of employment; that is to say, about one-eighth of the whole population of those parishes. “ From the following table of commitments to the several county prisons, from 1800 to 1843, an estimate may be formed of the state of crime ; due allowance being made for the increase of population.” 261. The results of these tables may be thus briefly enumerated : — 1800 to 1808, 2336 committals 1809 to 1817, 3323 ditto. 1818 to 1826, 8535 ditto. 1827 to 1835, 12654 ditto. 1836 to 1843, 11038 ditto. 262. That this increase of crime entailed a great burthen to the owners and occupiers of land, is evident from the Criminal and Civil Departments of the County expenditure. These have risen from £6,496. in 1800, to £19,378 in 1842, and had reached in 1841 to the sum of £27,110. 26. After stating that the alteration in the Poor Law, caused a just and important change in the position of the farmer and the labourer, that both have discovered their errors, and have become aware of their mutual dependence ; that the condition of the labourer has become improved; and being now convinced that he will receive the full benefit of his industry, he has grown more steady, diligent, and obliging ; and that in all the returns received from fanners 74 in different parts of the county, a unanimous opinion is expressed that a great and beneficial change has been pro- duced in the morals, habits, and feelings of the labourers ; the author thus describes the system at present pursued in regard to hoarding(?) and lodging farm servants. 264. “ A cottage, not very far from the farm, is occupied by the foreman or bailiff 4 , who receives the farm servants, is responsible for their conduct, and takes care that they are in the house at proper hours. His wife cooks for all, takes care of the beds, washes sheets and towels, all of which are provided by the master. For this the foreman and his wife live rent free, receive a shilling a head from each lodger, which is considered part of his wages. The team men and lads are thus paid — the men receive from six to seven shillings a week for board wages, and yearly wages varying from £6. to £7. The lads five shillings a week for board, and yearly wages from 205. to 505/” 265. This is something like the “ boothie’* system of those parts of Scotland, where the hind system does not prevail. It may be more economical for the farmer, but it wants all the moral advantages of the system of employ- ing hired householders resident upon the farm, a descrip- tion of servants which, from the testimony of all who have had any experience of them, are far superior in steadiness and industry to these young men. 266. The Norfolk plan is inferior, however, to the boothie system in this, that while under that, the young men are entitled to an allowance of meal, which is more than they consume, receiving the balance in money, at the average price of the year, under the improved Norfolk system, they are paid money wages with which to board them- selves. 267. Where the hind system prevails, a sufficiency of food for the support of a family becomes the standard of wages, and is paid to all, whether married or single. In 75 those cases where a c ‘ double hind” is engaged, that is the services of a father and a grown up son residing with him — a species of hiring considered equally advantageous to both master and man, — the young man receives the same allowance of grain as the father, and six pounds a-year in lieu of the keep of a second cow. 268. Where money -wages prevail, as in Norfolk, a sufficiency of food for a single man becomes the standard, and the labourer with a family lives on those wages how he can. The wages of the team men in the above case amount to from 8s. to 9,5. 8 d. a week, exclusive* we believe, of lodging, while the married labourer only receives 9s., to provide food, clothes, and lodging for the whole family. — Prior to 1835 he received from the parish an allowance proportioned to the number of his children. That allow- ance is now cut off, but he has not yet received an equiva- lent for it in wages, although, in glancing over the preceding table of wages and prices, it is evident that the former are now somewhat higher in proportion to the latter, than during the period of agricultural prosperity. 269. Rents may advance from improvements in agri- culture, and an increase of prices may increase profits to tenant holding on lease at low money rents, as they were increased between 1805 and 1815 : but agriculture will never be in a healthy state, till the agricultural labourer be secured a sufficiency of food for the support of a family under all fluctuations of prices ; and till that sufficiency become the standard of wages for all, whether married or single. Without this sufficiency neither cattle-shows nor cottage allotments, nor Cottagers’ Horticultural Societies, nor Associations for the Reward of Industry, nor Benefit Clubs, nor Savings Banks, nor even Schools for the educa- tion of children, will avail any thing. To the labourer MUST BE RESTORED THAT SHARE OF THE PRODUCE OF WHICH THE PERIOD OF HIGH PRICES DEPRIVED HIM. 76 270. To enable the labourer to command sufficient wages, it is necessary that the numbers seeking employ- ment should be diminished, or, which is the same thing, the demand for their labour increased. The concession to the tenant of security of tenure, and the confidence which na- tural prices will inspire, will, by extending agricultural im- provement, open a new field for agricultural labour ; but if space permitted, it would be easy to show that the utmost extension of the demand for such labour, which can be looked for from improved cultivation, will employ but a limited portion of our annual increase of numbers, and that from the extension of manufactures, or from emigration, the crowded state of the labour market can alone obtain material relief. 271. Nevertheless, the mode in which wages are paid, exercises an important influence on the moral and physical condition of the agricultural labourer. 272. While in one highly cultivated district, Norfolk, rents have advanced at the expense of the agricultural la- bourer, there is another highly cultivated district, where they have advanced at an equal rate, without injury to the labourer ; because his share of the produce was secured to him by the custom of paying wages in kind — that is Northumberland. 273. The following table from the paper of Mr. Grey of Dilston, in the Journal of the Royal Agricultural So- ciety, shows the rental of a portion of the Greenwich Hos- pital Estates in that county, exclusive of the mines and fishings, at intervals of twenty years, from 1772 to 1841. To this we have added the average price of wheat at those periods, from which it appears, that irrespectively of price, there has been a considerable advance arising from improved cultivation and not obtained, for reasons which we have already stated, at the expense of the agricultural labourer. There has been there no muzzling of the ox that treadeth out the corn. 77 1 1772-3. 1703-4. 1805. 1814-5. 1835-6. 1840-1. £• £. £• £. £• £. Newton . 450 750 . . 1400 1150 1200 Turviclaws Chillingham Barns, 340 550 •• 960 830 900 part of it clay East Lilbum, turnip 400 550 •• 900 800 loam . Wooperton, turnip 360 800 1600 1200 1050 loam Fenton Demesne, part 240 400 1200 800 800 wet and strong 350 5 0 . . 600 600 Fenton Townland 450 800 , , 1600 1050 1050 Doddington, South . 750 . . 1500 1200 Doddington, North . 1200 . . 2000 1500 Horton, turniploam . •• 650 2000 1800 1715 Average Price of s. d. s. d. s. d. s. d. s. d . s. d. Wheat . i 52 5 49 11 87 7 69 2 43 10 66 4 274. The following statements, from Mr. Bacon’s work, show that in Norfolk rents are as high now as during the period of agricultural prosperity. He has given the number of assessable acres in the county, the estimated rental and rateable value, returned by the parishes, and acted upon under the old assessment up to 1842 ; the new assessment decided on by the magistrate in 1843; and finally, the assessment under the old property tax of 1815, and the new property tax of 1842. They are as follow — Assessable Acres . 1,688,807 Gross estimated rental Rateable value , Assessment in 1843 Assessment under the old Property Tax Assessment under the Income Tax of 1842 £. 1,787,822 1,548,693 1,778,422 1,439,977 1,945,558 275. In speaking of East Lothian, we remarked that the bold and erect front shewn by the farmers of that district, during the low prices of 1 836, when all around them were bent to the dust, was due to their corn-labour and corn-rents. Corn-labour is beneficial both to farmer and labourer. 78 Under a system of money-rents and money-wages, the farmer finding himself uneasy during a period of depressed prices, naturally endeavours to diminish his expenses, and in so doing falls first upon the labourer, as most within his power, either reducing the pay, or diminishing the number of his workmen. Under a system of corn-wages the labourer still enjoys his share of the produce, and its money value is silently and insensibly adjusted to the altered value of the farmer’s returns. On the other hand, during a rise of prices, it prevents the increase of rents and profits at the labourer s expense. 276. In the same manner, rents dependent on the price of corn, cause the burthen of depressed prices to fall, where it ought to fall, on the landlord instead of upon the tenant and labourer ; and they enable landlords to grant that security of tenure which is essential to good cultivation, without running the risk of giving the tenant inordinate profits, and thereby injuring themselves, as many land- lords were injured during the war, by the increase in their rentals not keeping pace with the increased expense of living. 27 7< The advantages of rents regulated by the price of corn, are not now urged, by either of the writers of these pages, for the first time ; they were advocated by one of them in a work on Soils, published in 1838, and by the other in a letter published in 1823 in the Morning Chro- nicle , under the signature of a “ Tenant at Rack-rent.” 278. At that period he, or rather his father, held, for a term of twenty-one years, a leasehold farm of 300 acres, the rent of which was fixed, in 1816, from the average of the preceding twenty years, with the supposed guarantee by Parliament of 80s. as the future average price of wheat. In 1823 the futility of this guarantee was but too apparent ; and farmers were looking around, in all directions, for relief from the pressure of agricultural distress. The system of 79 eleemosynary returns at rent-day was commencing ; but \vas confined to the wealthier or more liberal landlords. 279. In the letter above mentioned, the writer denied that the distress arose from the defective corn laws, or could be removed by any alteration of them ; he attributed it to the change in the currency, and contended that high prices were no longer to be expected, and were not essential to the tenant’s prosperity, which was rather to be sought in a reduction of expenses to the scale of the reduced prices. He argued that some of these, such as seed and horse-keep, contained within themselves the principle of self-adjust- ment ; that others, such as labour and poors* rates, were more or less dependent on the price of produce ; and that the only outgoing which the farmer had it not in his power to reduce was rent. 280. He therefore demanded, since Parliament had led the tenantry to expect the price of 80s. for wheat; since the House of Commons had moreover denied the depreciation of the currency, which was then admitted, though differ- ences of opinion still existed as to its amount, that an act should be passed enabling leasehold tenants to tender their landlords the value, as declared in the London Gazette , of two bushels of wheat, for every pound sterling of rent re- served, in all leases of lands signed before 1820. 281. Among the writer’s friends the project was derided as visionary ; and it met with little more favour from the farmers, among whom it was advocated by him at market meetings, where agricultural distress and its remedies formed the constant theme of discussion. With them, the favourite remedy was, “ Keep out the foreigner,” and they were well disposed to regard the Scotch and Irish as fo» reigners ; for they complained bitterly of the admission of the corn and cattle of those countries, which paid no poors’ rates, to compete with theirs which bore “ all the burthen of the church and the poor.” They did not like corn-rents ; 80 they were too much like tithe ; and some of the knowing ones, who were looked up to as oracles, cited cases within their knowledge, of tenants who had been ruined by corn- rents, in years of deficient crops, which raised their rents when they had little produce to sell. The rents to which they appeared to give the preference were low money-rents, secured by lease, which enabled them to take their chance of an advantage over the landlord under an advance of prices. 282. V ery shortly after the publication of that letter — not it is believed in consequence of it —the late Lord Fitzwilliam converted his money-rents into corn-rents ; but the system made little progress in England, and was not much heard of till after the examination of the Scot- tish witnesses before the Distress Committee of 1836. Since then the subject has attracted considerable attention, and the advantages and disadvantages of corn-rents have been much discussed. 283. The advantages consist in securing to both tenant and landlord , during fluctuations of price arising from political causes, that share of the produce which each covenanted for; the disadvantages attending rents depen- dent on the price of corn, are that they aggravate, either to the tenant or landlord, the fluctuations of price arising from fluctuations of seasons, frequently raising the tenant’s rent, in the case of a deficient crop, when he has little produce with which to pay it, and in years of low prices, arising from abundant harvests, unnecessarily diminishing the landlord’s income. 284. To remedy these inconveniences various plans have been proposed ; such as reserving the rent in several kinds of grain ; making it dependent on the average of three or four years besides the past year ; reserving half the rent in corn and half in money ; making the rent of one half year dependent upon the averages of several preceding 81 years, and the rent of the second half year, dependent upon the average of the current year ; — and lastly, by fixing a maximum and minimum price between which the variations of rent should be limited, which is the plan now generally adopted in Scotland. 285. There can be no good farming without a lease ; and in the present uncertain state of agriculture, dependent as some believe for its very existence on the fiat of a minister, no prudent man will sign a lease of a farm at a rent which he considers will require a higher average price of wheat for its payment than 50s. the quarter. 286. So attractive, under these circumstances have the once despised corn-rents become, that they have tempted several Farmers’ Clubs to break their tether, for the purpose of grazing in the prohibited field of questions affecting the relations between landlord and tenant. In every club where corn-rents have been discussed, a verdict has been given in their favour, with some one or other of the above modifications ; and now that corn-rents are beginning to acquire popularity among the farmers of the South, we trust they will bestow a little attention on the question of corn-labour, and only take land on such terms as will enable the principle of live and let live to be carried into effect between master and servant, as well as between landlord and tenant. 287. On the other hand, when landlords are asked for abatements of rent, they will do well, if the claim be a just one, to give them, speedily and liberally ; so as to enable the labourer to enjoy sufficient wages, audit is their interest, as well as their duty, to see that he has it. They will do well also to give their abatements of rent in such a form as will secure an increase in the value of their property, by draining, marling, liming, &c. according to circumstances; and insist- ing on the abandonment of useless expenses in cultivation, G 82 which have nothing to plead in their defence but ancient custom. 288. In conclusion, we would exhort those in whom the approaching destruction of the protective system excites such terrors, to calculate for themselves, the extent to which protecting duties increase the cost of cultivation and the value of returns under that system of farming with which they are best acquainted. We have supplied some data; the rest they possess themselves. They cannot enter fairly on the calculation without being convinced that to the tenant, the system is on the whole, more injurious than beneficial ; that to the labourer it is decidedly detrimental ; that no one can gain by it but the landlord ; that he cannot be permanently benefited by that which injures the tenant and the labourer ; that he often loses on one description of land what he gains on another ; that his utmost gains are not to be compared with those which he would derive from the security conferred on agricultural pursuits by natural prices ; the increased confidence and energy that would attend them ; the increased capital that would flow into them ; and the increased produce, raised at diminished cost, which these would call forth. 289. To fortify their minds against the fears which now assail them, we would bid them look back at some of those hobgoblins which once terrified them so much ; but with which they have now become as familiar, as the birds who build their nests on the scare-crows set up to frighten them. 290. There is wool. Is its price, we would ask, better or worse now, when, after a long struggle, the trade in it is perfectly free, than when it was protected with a duty of sixpence the pound ? Where is the glut of Canadian wheat with which we were threatened ; or the American flour which was to be smuggled across the frontier? Were not the Canadian shippers watching our markets, till the late 83 rise, with no little anxiety, for a decision of the question whether their shipments would be free from loss? There is flax too — poor flax — unprotected either in the seed, or fibre ; are not protectionist landlords, whose leases have long prohibited its culture, now adding another chapter to the anomalies of agriculture, by advising their tenants to sow it, in order to remunerate them against the loss attending the growth of protected wheat? 291. When, we would ask again, did beef and mutton bear a better price, than since live cattle and fresh meat, long prohibited, have been admitted at a moderate duty, and the duty on salted beef and pork has been reduced one- half? Is it not notorious that nothing short of a price of Id . the pound could draw three thousand head of cattle from the whole continent of Europe, and that even that drain, trifling as it is, has raised the price there ? 292. But, the present high prices, we shall be told, are a re-action arising out of the panic, which caused farmers and graziers to reduce their stock, by hurrying sheep and cattle to market, lest Sir Robert Peel should render them unsale- able ; or, lest, like wheat at Lincoln market, on the me- morable 18th of March, recorded by thirty farmers of Lincoln Heath, they should be reduced to a nominal price. 293. And who, we would ask, caused the panic, and who were the farmer’s best friends ? Those who told them to be steady for they had nothing to fear ; or those who alarmed them with tales of Spanish oxen ; and pledged their reputa- tion as practical men, in opposition to free-trade theorists, for the mountains of pork, which, when they lived in the back-woods of Canada, they would gladly have sold at two cents the pound? Why does not some of it come ? Can it be kept back by the same cause, the cost of transport, which induced the same practical authority to burn as much birdVeye maple in clearing his land, as would in London have made him one of the richest commoners in England? 84 294. The din that was raised at the alteration of the tariff, and the panic which it caused, to their no small loss, among the landlords and farmers, can be compared to nothing but that described by Cowper in the “ Needless Alarm” — The passage is rather long, but it is so appro- priate that it appears to have been written for the occasion, and therefore we shall conclude by quoting it. The sheep recumbent and the sheep that grazed, All huddled into phalanx stood amazed, Admiring terrified the novel strain, Then coursed the field around, and coursed it round again. * * * * But recollecting, by a sudden thought, That flight in circles urged advanced them nought, They gathered close around the old pit’s brink, And thought again, but knew not what to think. Awhile they mused— surveying every face, Thou had’st supposed them of superior race, Their periwigs of wool and fear combined Stamped on each countenance such marks of mind. # * * Jjc At length a mutton statelier than the rest, A ram, the ewes and wethers sad addressed : Friends, we have lived too long, I never heard Strains such as these, so worthy to be feared. * * * Or heard we that tremendous bray alone, I could expound the melancholy tone, Should deem it by our old companion made. The ass, for he we know has lately strayed. And being lost perhaps and wandering wide Might be supposed to clamour for a guide; But oh those dreadful yells what soul can hear. That owns a carcase and not quake for fear. Demons produce them doubtless ; brazen-clawed. And fanged with brass, the demons are abroad. I hold it, therefore, wisest and most fit. That life to save, we rush into the pit. POSTSCRIPT. 1. In the foregoing pages we have treated exclusively of protection to agriculture. It must not, however, be for- gotten, that the protective system, embraces all articles of colonial produce ; for which the agricultural population, in common with the rest of the community, pay an enhanced price ; for the benefit, or supposed benefit of the inhabit- ants of the Colonies. 2. The protecting duty on sugar is IQs. a cwt., which with its effects in impeding trade may be considered equal to a tax of 1 \d. the pound upon all the sugar consumed in this country, over and above the revenue paid to the Exchequer. This is not only a serious addition to the farmers housekeeping expenses, and a cruel privation of what ought to be a daily ingredient at the peasant’s board, but it operates very injuriously to the market-gardeners and the fruit-growers of Kent, Hertfordshire, &c. by limiting the consumption of pies, puddings, and preserves, and thereby lessening the demand for their produce. 3. There is a heavy protecting duty on timber for the benefit of Canada ; on coffee, for the benefit of Jamaica and Ceylon ; on currants, for the benefit of the Ionian Islands : in short, every production imported from our Colo- nies is protected to the extent of from 50 to 100 per cent, as compared with the duty upon foreign produce. 4. These protecting duties are paid by the agriculturists as well as by other classes, and they materially add to the expense of carrying on their business and enhance the cost of their living. 86 5. If we have succeeded in proving that protection’* to agriculture is a burthen upon the shoulders of the agri- culturists, we need not go into an argument to shew that the same system has failed to secure prosperity to the colo- nists. The continued cry of distress from the West India Islands places this question out of the pale of controversy. 6. There are also protecting duties on silks and other manufactures. 7. It cannot be for a moment doubted that the removal of all protecting duties, whether colonial or manufacturing, will accompany the discontinuance of protection to agri- culture. 8. This the agriculturists have a right to expect. They cannot expect, however, that colonial and manufacturing protection should be abolished, and that protecting duties on agricultural produce should be maintained ; but hitherto our movements, in the direction of free trade, have con- sisted chiefly in admitting foreigners to compete with certain articles of home manufacture in which manual labour forms a large portion of the cost of production ; while protection is still maintained on the food of the manufacturing artizan, the protecting duties on corn, butter and cheese, being left untouched, and those on meat and bacon, being only partially reduced. THE END. NORMAN AND SKEEN, PRIMERS, MAIDEN LANE, COVENT GARDEN. SiraFGXtTAHT WORKS ON AGRICULTURE Published by James Ridyway , 169, Piccadilly. I. 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