them. If coin vary in value it can not be a measure of value; it cannot accurately define variations in the value of commodities.

The whole of history proves, that money, or coin, does not necessarily rise in price with commodities. It is matter of fact that gold is produced and coined in such a manner that the cost can scarcely be affected by variations in the prices of general labour and goods. This country buys it abroad with articles which are principally produced by capital, and governed in price by foreign markets; these articles are but little affected by a rise of corn, labour, and general commodities, therefore such a rise can affect but little the producers of the gold. It is thus evident, that an advance in corn, labour, and general commodities, does not of necessity cause an equal one in gold. It has been fully proved, by experience, that in this country they can be regularly high, without causing an equal advance in money-that high money prices can be generally maintained.

In this country where the consumption of agricultural produce depends in so large a degree on the working classes, the land is all appropriated; and the consumption of manufactures and merchandise depends so greatly on the agriculturists, that the interests of the latter and the labouring orders are the same. If wages be bad, agricultural produce must be ruinously cheap; if such produce be thus cheap, wages must be starvation ones. The destruction of wages must be by the creation of glut in the corn and cattle market, the destruction of the landlord's rent and the farmer's profit; and the destruction of such rent and profit must, by the production of a glut of goods and the annihilation of employment, be the destruction of wages. Cheap labour must be a scourge to the landlord and farmer; and cheap corn must be an equal scourge to the labourer.

The landowners, farmers, and working classes, husbandry, manufacturing and trading, must thus prosper and suffer together; their interests cannot be separated. Upon them the small manufacturers and traders depend almost wholly. The trade of the latter lies chiefly amidst the working classes. In proportion as

wages are high or low, the number of small shoemakers, tailors, grocers, butchers, &c. &c., and also their trade and profits, will be greater or smaller.

Upon all these the more opulent manufacturers and traders mainly depend. The middle classes exist principally through good prices of agricultural produce and good wages. Without such prices there can be no farmers worthy of the name; and of course the gigantic part of the middle classes, which the latter form, must be destroyed: without such prices and wages, an immense portion of manufacturers and traders of all degrees would have no business, and would sink into the hands of the labourers.

Every thing, therefore, which sinks agricultural produce and wages, must injure, in every way, the community generally. Those who may escape, or who may be benefited by it, must be mere individual exceptions unworthy of being called a minority.

The labourer cannot sell more than a certain quantity of labour, no matter how great the demand may be. His wages are in effect his profits; every reduction in them, or rise of commodities, is a proportionate reduction of his profits and means of consumption.

The agriculturist, including in the name both owner and occupier, is circumstanced like the labourer. He has à certain quantity of land, and, no matter how great the demand may be, he cannot extract more from it than a certain quantity of produce. A reduction of his prices, or rise of commodities, falls principally on his profits and means of consumption.

The manufacturer and trader are in circumstances wholly different. Speaking generally, they obtain about the same rate of profit on their goods whether the prices be high or low; they are situated as the labourer and agriculturist would be, should the wages and prices of the latter never permanently vary to any material extent. They can by means of credit, loans, &c., increase their business and profits as demand increases: in this respect, they are circumstanced as the labourer and agriculturist would be, should the one beable to sell as much labour, and the other as much produce, as demand would

take, without any other limit. A rise of wages and agricultural produce must of necessity increase the consumption of manufactures and merchandise, and it cannot do this without increasing their trade, and raising their profits in both rate and amount. It must, of course, raise their means of consumption; the advance in their expenses of living will be more than covered by that in their profits.

The higher wages and the prices of agricultural produce are, the greater will the profits and consumption of the labourers and agriculturists be; and in consequence, the greater will be the profits and consumption of the manufacturers and traders. And the profits and consumption of the latter must fall with those of the labourers and agriculturists. This is demonstrable in the nature of things, and its truth has been established by all experience.

To keep up general profits, it is thus essential to keep up wages; a rise or fall in them must increase or reduce the labourer's consumption much more than its amounts. A portion of them must be expended in rent and the most common necessaries; and this portion does not rise and fall in the same degree with them: it admits of but little fluctuation, when wages are at the lowest, the labourer expends very little in animal food, wheaten bread, malt liquor, butter, merchandise and manufactures; when they rise, the increase is nearly all expended in these articles. In consequence the expenditure of the working classes amidst the agriculturists, manufacturers, and traders, is perhaps raised or reduced one-half by a rise or fall of one-fourth in wages.

The rate of wages affects very greatly the quantity of employment. The latter must vary with it, and a rise or fall in the rate must cause a much greater rise or fall in the quantity. A thousand labourers will with 168. per week, each, employ almost twice the number of other labourers to work for them, which they will do with 12s.

A rise of wages thus operates in this manner. In the first place it raises the consumption of the labour already employed, and thereby gives employment to much other labour

in the second place it raises the prices and increases the consumption of agricultural produce, and thereby gives employment to much other las bour in the third place, it increases the consumption of merchandise and manufactures, amidst the whole of the agriculturists and working classes, and thereby enlarges prodigiously the trade and profits of the manufac turers and traders, and provides a vast quantity of employment for other labour. Of course a fall operates in a contrary manner. Every rise or fall must cause an infinitely greater rise or fall in proportion, in the extent of general business; profits, and employment for labour.

The profits of the community must be so governed by wages, in rate, as well as aggregate amount. In agriculture the rate as well as the aggre gate amount, must, with the same commercial law, fluctuate with wages, and rise to the highest point admitted of by such law, when they do. In trade and manufactures, the rate of profits as well as the aggregate amount fluctuates with the extent and activity of trade; it is the highest when trade is the most extensive and brisk; and trade is so when the profits of the agriculturists and the wages of the working classes are the highest.

To keep wages at the proper height, it is essential to keep the aggregate quantity of employment as great as possible-to prevent excess of population-and to restrict by law all importation of foreign commodities from injuring them. Free trade has the same effect on wages, as excess of population. By importation, it binds them to the famine point, no matter what the demand for labour, or the price of food may be. To keep the quantity of employment as great as possible, and prevent excess of population, it is essential to keep the money prices of agricultural produce sufficiently high. Agriculture employs half the labouring population, and the higher its regular prices are, the more labour it employs, and the higher wages it gives. In it, wages are probably one third less in rate, and employment is one fourth less in quantity, when its prices are low, than when they are reasonably high. Its profits are like wages, principally expended in consumption.

In all probability, it employs a million of souls more when prices are high, than when they are low; and the landlords, farmers, and labourers, comprehending half the population, expend almost fifty per cent more in manufactures and merchandise. High prices of agricultural produce thus by admitting of good wages employing such a great additional number of souls, and causing such a vast additional consumption of goods, produce bigh wages and combined with the latter they keep the quantity of employment and wages at the highest point. Wages will rise in a greater proportion after such produce rises, putting out of sight free trade laws, not, as the Economists assert, because food is dearer, but because the demand for labour and the means of paying high wages are greater.

High prices of agricultural produce and general high wages cannot injure the master manufacturers and traders except by adding a little to their expenses of living. The great charge of the Economists against dear corn is, that it produces dear labour, the dearness of corn therefore cannot be injurious, if that of labour be not. No matter what the price of food may be, it is impossible for wages to be higher than the manufacturers can afford; and the latter will never raise them, unless they can raise their prices so as to obtain the same rate of profits. The great body of the manufacturers depend solely on the home market, and putting free trade laws out of sight, they can always raise their prices sufficiently if wages rise. Whatever rise may take place in food and general wages, the exporting manufacturers will never raise their wages if they cannot raise their prices, and they can always obtain a sufficiency of labour on their

own terms.

The Economists assert that wages cannot be permanently higher in one calling than in another. This is so notoriously at variance with experience that refutation ought to be needless. Scarcely any two callings pay the same wages, and, in some, wages are always one half or one third less than they are in others. I must, however, shew why it cannot be true.

It practically stands on these assumptions-1. That infant labour can

always select its own calling. 2. That adult labour is equally skilful and has equal means of choice, in all callings. Both are erroneous. Wages are always much lower in agriculture, than in many trades. The husbandry labourer knows only his own calling, and he must therefore follow it; in general he has not the means of putting his children to any other, therefore he is compelled to rear them in it, and when they reach maturity, it is almost the only one they can follow. Thus the labourer is compelled to accept any wages which employers may offer; and however inadequate wages may be abundance of labourers are constantly reared for the calling.

Wages have long been much lower amidst the cotton weavers than in many occupations. The weaver is in a great measure confined to his own trade; he has not the means of putting his children to any other, and he can employ them in it with advantage to himself. Thus, however inadequate wages may be, he is compelled to follow his calling and rear his children in it. In many callings, the workman has the means of putting his children to his own, at a profit to himself as soon as they are able to earn any thing, and he has no means of putting them to any other. In consequence he rears a profusion of successors without any reference to wages. And in divers callings in which wages are high, the workman has the means of putting his own children into them, and excluding those of others.

Thus speaking generally with reference to the more important callings, the child is compelled to follow the calling of the parent, and the adult is compelled to follow that in which he has been reared, whether wages be good or bad. The husbandry servant can become a common labourer in a town and apply himself to a few other occupations, but they are at such a distance from him that no equality of wages is established between them and his own. The cotton weaver can to a certain extent betake himself to the weaving of silks, linens, and woollens, and this tends to produce equality in the wages of weaving; but he has so many disadvantages to encounter that no regular equality is established.

As much labour, in proportion, is therefore regularly reared in those callings in which wages are always the lowest, as in those in which they are the highest. If wages be one half less in the exporting trades, than in others, the masters will be able to procure as much labour as they may require.

Of course, high wages cannot reduce the rate of profit of the manufacturers and traders, because wages cannot rise permanently in any business, if prices do not.

High prices of agricultural produce, and high wages, in this country, do not affect, in any important degree, the raw materials used by the manufacturers. These materials are chiefly produced abroad, and their prices cannot permanently rise, if the manufacturers cannot either raise their prices, or reduce some of their expenses of production, in proportion.

The rate of profit, therefore, of the manufacturers and traders, cannot in the nature of things, be injured by high prices of agricultural produce and labour. It is always the highest when trade is the most extensive and active, therefore it will always be the highest, when such prices are.

To keep wages and agricultural produce at the proper height, it is essential to multiply manufactures and trades as much as possible. The buying of goods of a foreign country, will not alone enable that country to take an equal quantity of goods in payment; on the contrary, it will only enable it to take a comparatively small quantity. Such buying, though it be made at a cheap rate, will employ infinitely less labour, than dear production at home would do. If this country produce dear silks or other goods at home, instead of buying cheap ones abroad for money, it will have all the employment for labour yielded by such production, more than it would have, should it buy of foreign countries.

Every separate trade produces its own capital; if it take a small portion from other trades at its commencement, this is soon returned. Every separate trade is likewise to a certain extent, the constant parent of capital to all other trades. If the silk trade had never existed, the ca

pital employed in it would never have existed; and the capital of other trades would have been less than it is.

Speaking generally, the relative cheapness or dearness of manufactured goods, affects the expenses of living only, and not the general rate of profit. If home production cause relative dearness, it likewise causes the quantity of employment for labour, and the extent of general trade, to be greater, and in consequence, general wages and profits to be higher than they otherwise could be. It therefore adds more to wages and profits, than to the cost of the articles it sends to market, and is a source of real cheapness.

General high prices and wages cannot have any material effect in disabling the exporting manufacturers for competing abroad with foreigners. These manufacturers could not, save for a moment, raise their prices, if the rise would take from them their foreign markets. The loss of the latter, would cause a glut of their goods, the labour they employ, and the raw produce they use, which would bring down their prices, and enable them to procure labour and produce sufficiently cheap. Wages and produce could not be raised to them by any rise of general prices and wages, if it would materially reduce their export trade.

Thus, exported manufactures cannot be regulated in price by general prices and wages. They form the means with which the community buys foreign goods. As their prices can be but little raised, by any rise of general prices and wages, the higher the latter are, the greater must be the consumption of foreign goods, and the export of such manufactures in payment. The foreign trade, as well as the home one, must be the greatest, when general prices and wages are the highest.

To keep general wages and prices at the proper height, it is essential, not only to multiply manufactures and trades, but to continually extend each and all, as far as possible. Every one on the average, ought to be annually so far enlarged, as to supply employment for its increase of population and capital. If a stop be put to the extension of agriculture and various trades, when others can

only employ their own increase of capital and labour, this must produce a pernicious glut of the latter. If agriculture and some trades be contracted when others are not extended, it must produce such an excess of capital and labour, as will have ruinous effects on wages and prices.

Mr C. Grant and others maintain that a restrictive system may exist in a young country, but that it cannot, and ought not, to exist in an old and populous one. I maintain directly the contrary. In a young thinlypeopled country, capital and labour can find employment in one calling, if they cannot in another-they can find it on the land, if not in manufactures and trade. But in an old and populous one, this is impossible. In this country, the idle capital and population cannot find employment on the land, because it is occupied, and they cannot force themselves into manufactures and trade. In such a state of things, employment for the increase of population can only be provided by a prohibitory system.

What is the nature of Mr Grant's system? It is intended to drive a vast mass of population from agriculture and various trades-to destroy, to a large extent, the profits of far more than half the communityto reduce wages in the most grievous manner—and to transfer a gigantic portion of employment from this country, to foreign ones. It is intended to do this, merely that it may give a little extension to three or four manufactures. This, which strikes at the essentials of employment for population, is put forth as an infallible preventive to excess of population, as the only thing which can give employment to such excess!

When the population of a country becomes redundant, a prohibitory system becomes a matter of necessity if the redundancy cannot, directly and indirectly, gain employment from the land, it must continually enlarge itself, by diminishing the demand for labour; and nothing but such a system can give it such employment. A prohibitory system will enable a country to combine the greatest proportion of population, with the greatest proportion of wealth and prosperity; while an opposite

VOL. XXVII. NO. CLXI.

one will combine in it the lowest proportion of population with the greatest of poverty and misery. In this country, the former would support an infinitely greater population than the present one, in full employment and happiness; while a system of perfectly free trade would bind a far less population than the present one to constant excess, penury, and wretchedness.

From all this, I insist that the following measures are imperiously called for by the state of the empire.

Prohibit foreign agricultural produce, with the necessary exceptions, up to reasonably high prices. This will give good prices to the agriculturists, and thereby it will in a short space of time, and without causing any trouble or expense to the state, give employment in agriculture to from half a million to a million of idle souls, including women and children.

Remove all impediments, and give all possible encouragement to the culture of inferior and waste land. This will employ a vast number more of idle souls in agriculture.

By protection against foreigners, remission of duty, bounty, and other means, give good profits to the colonial agriculturists; good profits can alone enable them to consume British manufactures to the proper extent.

The effects of all this on the profits and wages of more than half the population of the empire, must of necessity give employment to a prodigious number of idle souls in manufactures and trade.

Prevent, by prohibition or restriction, all importation of foreign goods which can prevent, in manufactures and trade, prices, and of course wages, from duly rising.

Such a vast quantity of additional employment must necessarily cause real wages to be much higher than they now are; it will, notwithstanding the advance of prices, give the working classes generally a greater command over commodities than they have at present.

The exporting manufacturers would be mightily benefited. To a large extent they would be enabled to raise their prices and wages, without any loss of foreign trade. They

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