If the exclusive privilege of the Bank of England shall be withheld from it, upon the renewal of its charter, whereby an over issue of paper could not take place, I should say that small notes should again be allowed to be issued; because the same sanction which keeps notes of a large denomination sound also keeps notes of a small denomination sound, namely, their convertibility into coin at the option of the holder. A banker's note, being in the nature of a receipt for so much gold, while gold is our standard, there is no reason which I have been able to discover why a receipt should not be granted for a small sum as well as a large sum, but the contrary.

37. 17s. 10 d. By 37. 17s. 10d., therefore, we mean an ounce of Mint gold; and whether we call this ounce 41. or 37. 178. 10d., it will still be an ounce of gold, and nothing else. Before we can, however, call an ounce of gold 4l., we must alter the whole of our Mint regulations; and we should alter them with no benefit whatever, but the contrary: we should depreciate the standard, and raise money-prices according to the depreciated standard : but an ounce of gold would still be an ounce of gold, and the exchangeable value of gold would be still the same.

Our ounce of gold at 37. 17s. 103d. now regulates the exchangeable value of our silver coinage, though at 5s. 6d. per ounce, of which 37. 2s., only are delivered from the Mint. Our silver coin is, in truth, now nothing but counters, and copper counters would do equally well, if it were not that we should be inundated with counterfeits.

Our currency will then attain that perfection which is described by Mr. Ricardo. The exchangeable value of our paper currency will always be equal to the exchangeable value of our gold coin. All the amount of gold now required to supply the want of small notes will return to the general purposes of commerce; and, with small notes, a silver currency will return to the country parts of England, where it is most wanted, for the purposes of industry.

52

PART III.

CORN LAWS' RESTRAINTS.

CHAP. I.

ERRORS OF THE AGRICULTURAL AND MANUFACTURING

།

INTERESTS WITH RESPECT TO THE CORN LAWS.

THE agricultural and manufacturing interests are both in error with respect to the operation of the Corn Laws. The home growers of corn believe these laws afford them a protection; whereas the laws passed in and since 1815 have deprived them of the protection they formerly enjoyed. The manufacturers again conceive, that the operation of these laws is to restrain the importation of foreign corn, and to prevent them from exchanging the products of their industry for foreign produce; whereas the effect of the Corn Laws since 1815 has been to increase the importation of foreign corn.

This will appear manifest from the annexed table, showing the imports into, and exports from, Great Britain of all sorts of grain, from 1773 to

1830, both inclusive, which are divided into periods of five years after the first three years, and again into periods of fifteen years; showing also the duties received and bounties paid, and the highest and lowest average price of wheat in Great Britain, and the highest and lowest price at Dantzic in each period of five years, with an abstract of the laws passed in and since 1773. The numbers of the population are also stated, with the poor-rates in 1815 and in 1830.

This table thus presents, at one view, all the facts from which any conclusion can be drawn. It thence appears that, from the year 1773 to the year 1815, the home growth of corn in Great Britain, indicated by the imports and exports, not only kept pace with the increase of the population, but outstript it, with the exception of the years of scarcity, which began in 1794-5, and continued, with little intermission, until 1801-2. But what followed the years of scarcity proves the beneficial operation of the laws which then prevailed, inasmuch as the importations of corn in the five years, ending in 1805, were upwards of 300,000 quarters less than they were in the five years ending in 1800; and in the five years ending in 1815, the importations were upwards of 1,700,000 quarters less than they were in the five years ending in 1800.

The average amount of the importations in the

five years ending in 1815 had come down to very nearly the average amount in the three years ending in 1775.* Deducting exports, the yearly average, in

If the operation of the laws which prevailed previous to 1815 had been suffered to continue, there can hardly be a doubt that the home growth of corn would have still further improved; but, in 1815, we passed a restraining law, which we have altered twice for the worse since; and the

* The Importations in the three years ending Quarters. in 1775 amounted to

Deduct Exports

Yearly Average

2,634,239

243,130

2,357,109

757,036