foreign corn would greatly diminish our aggregate purchases of other nations, and of course it would greatly diminish the foreign sales of the merchants and manufacturers. Our own ships at present fetch the chief part of the foreign produce that the Agriculturists would cease to consume, and carry the goods in payment; foreign ships would bring nearly the whole of the foreign corn, and take back the goods in payment. Here would be another heavy loss to the merchants and manufacturers. If agricultural produce were reduced in price fully one-fourth, the costs of transit and profits of the factor, miller, baker, jobber, butcher, &c. would remain the same, and therefore the reduction to the town consumer would scarcely be equal to one-sixth. If we assume that the workman who has eighteen shillings per week, expends nine in bread and animal food, his wages could only be reduced eighteenpence per week, and the wages of many of the weavers, &c. could not be reduced at all. leading manufactures that we export, are all more or less fabricated by machinery. In some of them one man by machinery does the work of one hundred, and in all he does the work of many. If we suppose that on the average one man does the work of five throughout, and take into calculation the cost of the raw article, freight, &c. we may be assured that the reduction would not cnable the manufacturer to reduce the price of his goods a farthing in the shilling. He of course could not extend his sales abroad by reducing his prices.

The

It seems to be pretty certain that in the present year our expenditure will exceed our income. If the purchases of the Agriculturists be annually reduced by the amount of fifty millions, and chiefly in such articles as pay the most heavy duties, the revenue, notwithstanding the duty that may be paid by the foreign corn, must be decreased by the amount of several millions annually. The new taxes, to meet the deficiency, must be paid solely by the merchants and manufacturers.

This then would be the situation of the merchants and manufacturers. The price of the foreign raw articles would remain to them the same-the expenses of the carriage of their goods would be very little altered-their taxes would soon be greatly increased -they would annually sell fifty mil

lions' worth less of goods to the agriculturists, and lose half the profits and employment for labour which they now draw from the latter-their foreign trade would be greatly reduced -a vast portion of the mechanics, seamen, weavers, &c. would be thrown out of employment-and they would be able to buy corn, animal food, and labour, an insignificant trifle cheaper. This we say would be the situation of the merchants and manufacturers; it is capable of decisive arithmetical proof.

We will here ask-not the theorists, not the parliamentary scheme-makers, not those who are plunging the nation into ruin-but the sober, reflecting, calculating merchants and manufacturers, what would follow? Would their wealth, trade, and means of consumption, increase in proportion as they should lose customers and profits? They are not so simple as to expect it. Their ability to buy of, and sell to, each other, and other nations, would be prodigiously reduced; and of course an immense number more of them would be thrown out of employment, and their foreign trade would be still farther very greatly diminished. There would be a ruinous glut of labour in every calling, and of goods in every business, which would at the best bind them down to the lowest farthing that would keep the workman from starvation, and the master from bankruptcy. Vast numbers of them would be brought to beggary, and would have to emigrate or to be supported constantly by the poor-rates.

So much for the fruits which a free trade in corn must yield to the merchants and manufacturers. We will now look at the question as it affects the nation generally.

It is declared by the Government that "the new and liberal system of free trade" is intended to produce the greatest possible degree of general cheapness; and it is maintained that this cheapness will be amazingly beneficial, and will, among other things, carry consumption to the highest point possible. Now what will it render cheap? If it operate equally on everything, it will leave consumption exactly as it finds it; if it cheapen what we sell, and not what we buy, it will diminish consumption; and to increase consumption, it must only render cheaper what we purchase. The articles that, as a nation, we want to buy,

are evidently those which we can either consume or sell again, raw or manufactured, to other nations at a profit, and which we either do not produce at all, or do not produce in sufficient quantities.

Will, then, this system render cheaper on the other side of the ocean the raw cotton, timber, wool, hemp, tea, sugar, wine, indigo, &c. &c. that as a nation we want to purchase? No! These ar ticles are beyond its reach. Almost all the commodities that we really want to buy of other nations can be produced in almost any quantity. They are governed by the general market of the world, they are commonly more or less superabundant, and therefore they are only occasionally above the lowest price which the countries that have them to sell can afford to take. What we sell to other nations is too trifling to have any material effect on the expense of producing what they sell to us, and therefore our prices cannot regulate theirs. We may reduce wages and profits here, but this will not reduce them in other countries. We may lower our cottons and woollens, but we must still pay the same for raw cotton and foreign wool. We may strike 50 per cent off the price of our corn and cattle, but this will not alter the agricultural markets abroad. We grant that the depression of our prices may compel our merchants to charge somewhat less for the foreign articles, but this will make no difference to the foreign producers. As the price of almost everything that we buy abroad consists more or less of duty, will the new system lower this duty? No; it must almost immediately increase it, either directly or indirectly. This system will not make what we want to buy cheaper, but, in all probability, it will, by increasing taxation, or enriching other nations, make it dearer.

Of course, the reduction of price will be confined exclusively to such things as we want to sell. Our corn and cattle, our cottons, woollens, linens, labour-all things that as a nation we have to sell-are to be ground down to the very lowest prices possible. This system is to admit into our overflowing market the manufactures, corn, &c. of other countries; and this must directly or indirectly cause a glut in everything, and keep the income of every man at the lowest point. The master must be almost wholly deprived of profit, and the workman must have VOL. XIX.

merely such wages as will procure him bread and water. This is not all. The foreign goods must make us have far less of manufactures to sell than we have at present. They must force much of our land out of cultivation, greatly diminish the produce of the remainder, and of course cause us to have far less of agricultural produce to sell than we have at present. They will disable us for selling almost half the labour that we at present sell, and therefore they will cause such a glut in labour as will reduce our working classes to starvation, or ruin the other classes by the poor-rates.

We are, therefore, at the very best, to buy at as dear a rate as ever,-we are to sell much cheaper, and to greatly diminish our sales, and this is to increase consumption-this is to enable us to buy far more of other nations! Never since the beginning of the world did idiotcy itself assert anything so

It is said that the cheaper any article is, the more of it will be consumed. This, said as it is merely with reference to the price of the article alone, is a preposterous falsehood. Labour is excessively cheap in Ireland, and, in consequence, far less of it is employed than would be if the price were doubled. The cheapness of wheat in some parts of the continent greatly decreases its consumption in these parts. Give the labourer elevenpence for the purchase of the four-pound loaf, and he will find this loaf cheap at tenpence; give him threepence, and he will find it dear at fourpence. If the reduction of one-fourth in the price of wheat throw nearly one-third of the working classes out of employment, bread will then be to these classes far dearer than it is at present, and much less of it will be consumed. To make bread or any other article cheaper to those who have it to buy, its price must be reduced, while their means for buying it must remain the same, or, at any rate, must not be reduced in proportion. If the Agriculturists be compelled to reduce their prices, it will, as we have already said, be impossible for those of whom they buy to make a corresponding reduction. The price of and duty upon foreign produce will remain unaltered; from the employment of machinery, a reduction of twenty-five per cent on wages will reduce in a very trifling degree the price of the yard of cloth, and, there2Q

fore, merchandise and manufactures cannot be reduced in proportion to the Agriculturists, without the utter ruin of the merchants and manufacturers. Everything, therefore, that the Agriculturists have to buy, will in reality be rendered much dearer to them, and, of course, their consumption will be proportionably diminished. Let it be remembered that about half the population will thus have to buy at much higher prices, and to decrease their consumption. The merchants and manufacturers must both obtain their present prices and wages, and retain the same extent of business and employment for labour,-consumption must increase with them in proportion to its decrease amidst the Agriculturists or the general consumption of the country cannot be kept up, putting increase out of the question. If they obtain their present prices and wages, still, if they lose a considerable portion of trade and employment for labour, agricultural produce will in reality be to them as a whole dearer, and their consumption will be diminished as well as that of the Agriculturists. That the reduced purchases of the Agriculturists, and the influx of foreign ma nufactures, will greatly reduce their trade, domestic and foreign, and throw great numbers of them out of employment, cannot be doubted; and that this will greatly reduce their profits and wages is alike unquestionable. Of course, things will in effect be rendered much dearer to them, as well as to the Agriculturists; in truth, it is declared, that corn is to be reduced in order that everything else may be reduced. The general cheapness will be in reality general dearness, and the consumption of the nation, as a whole, will be prodigiously diminished.

Amidst many of the capital blunders made by the new system on this point, are the following:-1. It makes no distinction between the causes which produce reduction of prices. It calls cotton goods cheap, and why? Because their price is much lower here at present than it was formerly, and than it still is in other countries. But what caused the reduction? Inventions that diminished the costs of production. The profits and wages of

those engaged in the cotton trade are as great now as they were when cotton goods were at the highest; these goods, in fact, are no cheaper than corn or any other articles. Now, this was a genuine cheapening. Cottons were made far cheaper to the buyer, while nothing was made any dearer to the sellers. These sellers, in truth, by their increase of trade, had their income greatly raised by the reduction ; and the income of the rest of the community remained undiminished. Well, the new system assumes, that to cheapen agricultural and other produce almost solely by reducing the profits and wages, throwing the capital and labour out of employment, and diminishing the means of consump tion of the producers-even though these producers comprehend ninetenths of the population-will be alike beneficial, and will in an equal degree promote consumption !!!

2. This system goes in direct opposition to the only rules by which trade can prosper. It assumes, that to buy goods which we can neither use nor sell again, is just as beneficial as to buy those of which we can make profit. It asserts, that to buy manufactures, which we do not want, with raw produce, is just as profitable as to buy produce which we do want with manufactures that we wish to sell. It maintains, that we ought to buy corn and manufactures, when our livelihood depends almost entirely on the sale of corn and manufactures, and when, by so buying, we should, as sellers, glut our market, make our prices ruinous ones, render a large portion of our own corn and manufactures unsaleable, and force a great part of our land, capital, and labour, out of employment.

3. This system assumes that the less we produce, and the lower prices we charge for our goods, labour, and everything that we have to sell, the more we shall be able to buy of other nations. It in effect asserts, that if we have not a shilling to go to market with, our ability for making purchases will then have no limit.

in a few articles, we in reality sell these articles dearer than they do. We pay the same for the raw produce, and we charge higher wages for manufacturing it. Cheapness, to benefit us as a nation, must be drawn from the reduction of taxes by means of surplus revenue-the reduction of prices abroad in such articles as we really want to buy of other nations-or inventions, that will enable us to lower our prices without lowering our wages and profits. A cheapness, drawn solely from the diminution of our own wages and profits, must bring with it all the plagues of scarcity and want. We are, however, now labouring to raise our selves to the highest point of riches and prosperity, by sinking to the lowest point our wages and profits! The philosopher acted as wisely, who laboured to extract sun-beams from cucumbers.

But then it is said, that if we do not buy of other nations, they cannot buy of us-that if we buy the corn and manufactures of other nations, they will buy so much the more of us --and that the cheaper we make our goods, the more we shall sell of them to other nations.

Now, in the first place, why do we not at this moment buy more timber, cotton, wine, &c. of other nations? we have exactly as much need for additional quantities of these, as we have for foreign corn and manufactures. Other nations could supply us with much more, our merchants have money enough for buying much more, and we have ships in abundance for bringing much more over the water. The reason is, we could not consume more, and our ability to buy must be governed by our ability to consume. We have just as much ability to consume more timber, &c., as to consume more corn, silks, &c. The ability of Britain to buy of France or America, depends on many things beside the ability of France or America to buy of Britain. It may be said that the more corn the grocer buys of, the more groceries he will sell to, the farmer; but then if he cannot make use of the corn, what does he gain by the sale of his groceries? He merely disables himself for both buying and selling.

If it be true that if we do not buy of other nations, we cannot sell to them; and that the more we buy of, the more we shall sell to, them; it

must be equally true, that it ought to be our study to keep our ability to buy-that is, our ability to consume

at the highest point possible. Everything tending to diminish this ability, ought evidently to be avoided to the utmost. Well, by buying foreign silks, we are wholly disabling half a million of our population for buying of other nations, without enabling the rest to increase their foreign purchases. By buying corn of other nations, we shall disable, to a very great extent, ten millions of our population for buying of other nations, and very greatly reduce the means of the rest for such buying. The buying of the foreign corn and manufactures will reduce, to an immense extent, our purchases of, and of course our sales to, other nations.

From some foreign nations our manufactures, be their prices what they may, are strictly excluded; in almost all that they are suffered to enter, they are subject to duties on admission, which would be, at the best, constantly raised as the prices of them should be reduced. If our exporting manufacturers should reduce their prices fifty per cent, the consumer, in general, would not be able to buy their goods a whit the cheaper.

In reality, our manufacturers, as a whole, depend, in the most contemptible degree, on their sales to foreign countries. We attach such mighty importance to the export of manufac tures, that we can scarcely look to any of our manufacturers, save those who export. Our exporting manufacturers are, to a great degree, divided from the rest of the community; they are congregated together on separate spots, and the amount of their exports comes regularly before the public. But our other manufacturers-the manufacturers of shoes, furniture, candles, leather, clothes, &c. &c. are scattered about through the nation, and the amount of their sales is unknown. Those manufacturers who export, sell a vast quantity of goods at home. Some of our exported manufactures are formed of expensive materials, and others of cheap ones; some are manufactured principally by machinery, and others principally by hand; some employ much labour, and others very little; but if we assume that, on the average, one individual can only manufacture four pounds' worth in the