still lower, being 54s. 5d., and the foreign supplies in the same port were under 500,000 quarters for the year. In January, February, and March, 1822, the average price was lower still, being 47s. 9d., and the ports were closed. Mr. Huskisson's second resolution was to the effect that, "during the whole of this period of three years, the supply in all the principal markets of the United Kingdom appears uniformly to have exceeded the demand, notwithstanding the wants of an increasing population, and other circumstances which have probably produced an increased consumption." The third resolution showed-" That the excess of the supply above the demand must have arisen either from an extent of corn-tillage more than commensurate to the average consumption of the country, or from a succession of abundant harvests upon the same extent of tillage, or from the coincident effect of both these causes." To prevent the alternate evils of scarcity and redundance, Mr. Huskisson proposed that the trade should be permanently free at a duty of 15s. per quarter, when the averages were under 80s.; and when above 80s. the duty to be 58.; and above 85s. a nominal duty of 18. only to be imposed.

The Select Committee of the House of Commons had a still greater variety of projects offered for its consideration. One plan proposed to the Committee of 1821 was to withdraw the permission to warehouse foreign wheat or any other foreign grain in England; and the Committee felt itself under the necessity of arguing this point in their report, by showing the pernicious effect of such a regulation on the shipping interest, and on the country generally. The Committee of 1822 had under its serious consideration two plans for the alleviation of agricultural distress:-1. The application of 1,000,000%. in Exchequer bills, to be employed through the agency of Government in buying up a certain quantity of British wheat to be placed in store. 2. Advances to be made to individuals on produce deposited in warehouses, to prevent them coming into the market simultaneously. The first plan was rejected by the Committee, but they considered the second was feasible, and were of opinion that "The sum of 1,000,000%. so employed (in loans on stock) would probably be fully adequate to give a temporary check to the excess which is continually poured into the overstocked market." Having reaped the full advantage of high prices, it could only be as a matter of expedience rather than of equity that the agriculturists should be exempt from the effects of a return of peace and plenty. "In the House of Lords, the Marquis of Londonderry, on the 29th of April, moved that 1,000,0007. be. advanced in Exchequer bills, when the average price of wheat was under 60s.

There was one class to whom the low prices of 1820-1-2 were advantageous. It is admitted beyond a doubt that the labourer and artisan were in a much more contented and prosperous state in these years than they had probably been for thirty years before. Wages had risen, and they did not fall in the same proportion (if in some cases they fell at all) with the low prices of agricultural produce. In the dear years of 1812-17-19, the country was in a disturbed state; but in 1820-1-2 the labouring classes were peaceful and contented. After the peace, the Continent being opened to our manufactures, the population engaged in this branch of national industry, which had experienced the severest distress during the war, was now placed in a position of greater comfort from the stimulus given to the pursuits in which they were engaged.

The fall of prices in 1820-1-2 had fully demonstrated the futility of the corn-law of 1815, and it was therefore proposed to modify it.

Seventh Period.-From 1822 to 1828.

The framers of the corn-law of 1815 did not take into account the effect of the years of scarcity which occurred so frequently after 1804, nor the obstruction of foreign supplies caused by the war. It was founded on the supposition that, high as were the average prices of those years, they were only such as resulted from the cost of production, with the addition

of the farmer's profits and the landlord's rent (both calculated on too high a scale). In the interval between 1804 and 1815, whenever a foreign supply of corn was required, the home mar. ket rose to an elevation sufficient to command a supply subject to enormous charges, amounting to from 30s. to 50s. the quarter. Freight, insurance, and other charges, which had amounted to 50s. the quarter from the Baltic, have been as low as 4s. 6d. within the last few years, but the difference between a free and obstructed intercourse was taken as little into account as the influence of a series of defective crops. Prices having sunk so much below the amount which had been assumed to be necessary to remunerate the British corn-growers, the law of 1815 was suspended by a new act passed in July, 1822. It enacted that," as soon as foreign wheat shall have been admitted for home consumption under the provisions of the Act of 55 Geo. III. c. 26 [the corn-law of 1815], the scale of prices at which the home consumption of foreign corn, meal, or flour is permitted by the said Act shall cease and determine." The new scale was as follows:-Wheat at or above 70s., duty 12s.; and for the first three months of the ports being open an additional duty of 5s. per quarter, being a duty of 17s. Above 70s. and under 80s., the "first low duty" of 5s. with the addition of 5s. for the first three months; above 80s. and under 85s., the "second low duty" of Is. was alone to be charged.

This act did not come into operation at all, as prices never reached 80s. It is justly described as being merely a pretended relaxation of the former act; for, though the limit of total prohibition was lowered from 80s. to 70s., yet, if the Act had come into operation, the duty would have rendered it more severe than the measure for which it was substituted as an improvement. With the exception of some barley, no corn was ever brought from abroad under the provisions of this act. But in 1826, in consequence of the unfavourable harvest, a temporary act was passed, admitting a quantity of foreign grain for home consumption. Next year the Government was driven to a still more decisive step. In the spring of the year ministers had stated that it was not their intention to liberate the corn then in bond, upon which prices immediately rose. This was followed by some disturbances in the manufacturing districts, to allay which the Government, on the 1st of May, proposed to Parliament to release the bonded corn, and, as a measure of precaution, required to be invested with powers to admit during the recess of Parliament an additional quantity, not exceeding 500,000 quarters, in case the harvest proved deficient. These powers were acted upon, and on September 1 an Order in Council was issued, admitting certain descriptions of grain for home consumption, until forty days after the next meeting of Parliament, at an almost nominal rate of duty, on the ground that, "if the importation for home consumption of oats and oatmeal, and of rye, peas, and beans, be not immediately permitted, there is great cause to fear that much distress may ensue to all classes of his Majesty's subjects." In the ensuing session of Parliament ministers obtained an act of indemnity for this order.

In 1827, after these indications of imperfection had given strength to the opinion that some other system must be devised, Mr. Canning introduced certain resolutions in the House of Commons, the leading principle of which was to permit importation at all times by substituting a graduated scale of duties in place of absolute prohibition under 80s. A bill was brought in, founded on these resolutions, fixing a duty of 18. on foreign wheat when the average price was 70s. per quarter; a duty of 28. being imposed for the reduction of each shilling in the averages. In respect to colonial wheat, the duty was fixed at 6d. when the averages were 65s. per quarter, and when under that sum at 58. per quarter. The bill was not carried through the House of Lords, the Duke of Wellington having moved and carried a clause the effect of which was to destroy the principal feature of the measure, by keeping the ports entirely shut so long as the price of wheat was under 66s. the quarter. An act was, however, passed during this session to permit corn, meal, &c., warehoused on the 1st of July, 1827,

to be entered for home consumption upon payment of duties according to a fluctuating scale. About 572,000 quarters of wheat and flour were entered for consumption under this act, at a duty averaging above 20s. per quarter. The harvest had not been defective, and this was the very reason why the corn in bond was released notwithstanding the high duty, as there was no prospect of prices advancing. The additional supply under such circumstances caused a considerable depression in the home market.

In 1821 a new act was passed relative to the averages. Instead of "the maritime districts," 148 towns were named, for which the magistrates were to appoint inspectors to make a return of the weekly purchases.

In 1825 the trade in corn and grain to the British colonies in North America was placed on a more favourable footing. The regulations under which the timber-trade is carried on, and which favour these colonies, have to a considerable extent directed their industry into other channels than those of agriculture. During one or two seasons, recently, the United States, also, instead of having a surplus supply of wheat, have been under the necessity of importing that grain, the industry of the country having been diverted from agriculture to manufactures.

The six weeks' averages still regulated the amount of duty on importation, but they were greatly improved by being every week subject to an alteration. Each week the receiver of corn returns struck out one week's averages, admitting those last received, and thereby affecting the aggregate average, as prices rose or fell from week to week. The introduction of a fluctuating scale of duty was an important step, and its effect will be considered in the next period.

It was impossible to continue any longer a system which, for three successive years, 1825-6-7, had been compelled to bend to the force of temporary circumstances; and like previous measures it was abandoned by its supporters either as inefficient or injurious. Such a state of things brings us to another period in the history of the corn-law legislation.

Eighth Period. From 1828 to the present time.

In 1828 Mr. Charles Grant (now Lord Glenelg) introduced a series of resolutions slightly differing from those which had been moved by Mr. Canning, and they were eventually embodied in a bill which was carried through both Houses, and received the Royal assent on the 15th of July. This measure, by which the corn-trade is at present regulated, is entitled "An Act to amend the Laws relating to the Importation of Corn," and repeals 55 Geo. III. c. 26 (1815); 3 Geo. IV. c. 60 (1822); and 7 and 8 Geo. IV., c. 58 (1827). The provisions for settling the averages under this act are as follows:-In one hundred and fifty towns in England and Wales, mentioned in the act, corn-dealers are required to make a declaration that they will return an accurate account of their purchases. [In London, the sellers make the return.] Inspectors are appointed in each of these one hundred and fifty towns, who transmit returns to the Receiver in the Corn Department of the Board of Trade, whose duty it is to compute the average weekly price of each description of grain, and the aggregate average price for the previous six weeks, and to transmit a certified copy to the collectors of customs at the different outports. The return on which the average prices are based is published every Friday in The London Gazette.' The aggregate average for six weeks regulates the duty on importation. In 1837 the quantity of British wheat sold in these towns was 3,888,957 quar ters; in 1838 there were 4,061,305 quarters returned as sold; and 3,174,680 quarters in 1839.

Wheat at 50s. pays a duty of 36s. 8d.; barley at 328. a duty of 13s. 10d.; oats at 24s. a duty of 10s. 9d.; rye, peas, and beans, at 35s., a duty of 16s. 9d. In the case of wheat, when the price is 66s., for every shilling that the price falls the duty increases by 1s., and decreases by the same sum for every shilling that the price rises (see the third column of the following scale); for all other grain the duty increases

by 1s. 6d. for every shilling that the price rises. Colonial wheat is admitted at a duty of 6d. when the average of the six weeks is at or above 67s.; and when below 678. the duty is 5s. the quarter, and for other grain in proportion. Importation is free on payment of 1s. on the quarter when wheat in the home market is 738.; barley 41s.; oats 31s.; and rye, peas, and beans 46s. the quarter.

In the following Table the scale of duties proposed by Mr. Canning, and that adopted by the legislature in 1828, and acted upon up to the present time, are placed in juxtaposition :

The present law has not succeeded in maintaining steadiness of price, the extremes of fluctuation being 35s. 4d. in December, 1835, and 81s. in January, 1859, or a difference of 129 per cent. To this derangement of prices is to be attributed much of the depression which the agriculturists experienced in 1833 and 1836. In each of these years their distressed condition was noticed in the speech from the throne on the opening of Parliament, and select committees were appointed in both years to inquire into their state. Since the commencement of 1836 nothing has been heard of agricultural distress, prices having risen from 39s. 4d. per quarter for wheat in 1835 to 70s. 8d. in 1839; but the commercial and manufacturing interests have been visited with a season of adversity.

When the harvests have been abundant, the labourer and artisan contented, and trade and manufactures flourishing, the agriculturist has suffered from the depreciation of prices. If abundant crops thus plunge him into distress, there can be no other reason for it than the engagements which he has contracted with his landlord being adapted only for years of scarcity and high prices, such as occurred during the war, when the effect of unfavourable seasons was aggravated by the obstructions to commercial intercourse. The tenant now seems to be dependent upon years of deficiency in order to realise the average rate of profit on his capital; and so long as the price of grain is subject to such great fluctuations as have been already stated, there is no permanent basis on which he can contract with his landlord. His rent must be determined by the rate of prices when he takes his lease, which may turn out in the long run to be favourable either to himself or his landlord.

Gregory King, an economist of the seventeenth century, endeavoured to prove that a strict rule of proportion existed between a given defect of the harvest and the corresponding rise of prices. The principle of his theory is undoubtedly true. The average price of wheat for 1835 was under 40s. the quarter, and for 1839 it was 80 per cent. higher, or 70s. Ed.; yet no one will assert that the crops were nearly one-half below an average, or even one-fourth, as in the great scarcity of 1816. The deficiency of 1839 is not estimated as more than oneseventh, or at the utmost one-fifth; yet prices rose to nearly double their amount in 1835. Assuming the consumption of Great Britain to be 16,000,000 quarters of wheat, the sum paid for a year's consumption would be about 31,000,0007. in 1835, while the same quantity would cost 56,000,000/. in 1839. The difference, amounting to 25,000,000, does not go into the

pockets of the farmer, otherwise two or three abundant years and low prices would not occasion him embarrassment, but it is abstracted in the shape of rent, and neither the farmer nor the labourer has any advantage from it. So large a sum withdrawn from the usual channels of circulation creates stagnation in the different branches of non-agricultural industry; and thus in dear years those interests are always in a languishing and embarrassed state; though if high prices were good, they would be beneficial to both interests. In years of low prices the scale is turned; the manufacturers become prosperous, and the agriculturist is distressed. Steadiness in the price of so important an article as bread-corn is essential to the welfare of every class.

Although, after a deficient harvest, prices rise beyond the ratio of the deficiency, yet in abundant seasons they do not fall in the same ratio as produce is superabundant, as the wealthier corn-growers are enabled to keep back their supplies.

What is wanted is, at least, such an importation of foreign supplies as would check the excess of prices, and render them no more than equivalent to the proportion in which the crops are deficient. This is not effected under the present scale of duties, which, in a very able pamphlet, is shown to operate as a bounty to withhold sales until prices reach their maximum. "The gain of speculators is calculated not only on the advance in the price of corn, but also in the fall in the scale of duty; and as the duty falls in a greater ratio than the price of the corn rises, the duty operates as a bounty to withhold sales."* When, for example, the average price in the home market is 668., the duty is 208. 8d., and on the prices reaching 73s. the duty is only 1s.; and the difference of profit to the importer is thus 78. by the advance of prices, and 19s. Sd. by the fall of duty, making a total of 26s. Sd. The average duty paid on the 11,318,549 quarters of foreign wheat entered for home consumption since the present corn-law came into operation, to the 5th of January, 1841, was 5s. Sd. per quarter; but of the above quantity, 4,532,651 quarters were admitted in the fifteen months ending September, 1839, at a duty of 3s. 7d. only.

A fixed permanent duty has not hitherto been adopted under any of the numerous acts for regulating the importation of foreign corn. Prior to 1436 there do not appear to have been any restrictions of a fiscal nature on the import trade in corn. The prosperity of the country at that period depended chiefly on its agriculture, and the object of the legislature was to promote the exportation of agricultural produce. The act of 1773 admitted wheat at a duty of 6d. the quarter when the average price in the home market was something above the cost of production. This is the most reasonable corn-law which the country has yet had; and prices in England and the opposite parts of the continent were about the same level. In the act of 1815 little regard was paid to the average cost of production; supplies were excluded until the average price of wheat reached 80s. the quarter; and an artificial stimulus was given to agriculture, which, in the end, proved highly injurious to those whose interests it was designed to favour, and who abandoned the act with as much good will as they had called for its enactment. Since the act of 1773 great changes have taken place in the occupations of the people of this country. England is no longer dependent on agriculture and the home trade alone. The home market is not sufficiently extensive to give full ac

Mr. Salon ons Cn the Operation of the Present Scale of Duty on

Foreign Corn.'

tivity to the productive powers and industry of the country, and the markets of the world are necessary to insure our prosperity. Even if a portion of the population engaged in manufactures could, by any possibility, be annihilated and cut down to a proportion which would be fully employed in satisfying the domestic demand, the energies of that diminished portion would soon need a wider field for their unfettered exercise, and would require the removal of the artificial barriers which limited their powers and diminished their prosperity. But it is of course foolish to entertain the idea of cramping the industry of the country with the view of rendering it more prosperous. There the non-agricultural population is; and to its skill, aided by the wondrous power of machinery, are we indebted for the luxuries which nature has bestowed upon other countries but denied to this, giving it instead unlimited mineral wealth, a fortunate geographical position, and a population whose admirable qualities have never been surpassed.

The proposed alteration in the import duties on corn and grain has been brought forward in connexion with plans of fiscal reform, which, if carried, will lead to a complete revision of our commercial policy, with a view of placing our relations with other countries on a more satisfactory foundation, and of enabling our manufacturers to preserve their footing in some of the principal markets of the world. The effect of the present competition is to reduce profits and wages to the same level, whether on the continent or in England, with this disadvantage to ourselves,—that the cost of food is artificially raised in this country. Had our commercial policy been placed on a proper basis at the peace, we should still have had customers where we have now rivals. But duties have been placed on British manufactures in retaliation of our attempt to exclude raw produce sent in payment for them. This is the argument with which our diplomatists are met at every foreign court, from Berlin to Cairo. Mr. M'Gregor, Secretary of the Board of Trade, related to the Committee on the Import Duties the appeals which were made to him as the commercial representative of this country at Berlin, and at the two congresses held at Munich and Dresden :"You compelled us" (they said) "to become manufacturers; we have not mines of gold and silver, and you will not take what we have to give you; but if you had taken what we have to give, we should have continued to produce it; but as you would not take it, our people were intelligent enough to turn their attention extensively to manufactures." Dr. Bowring's Report to Lord Palmerston on the Prussian Commercial Union' is to the same effect. "We have rejected" (says he) "the payments they have offered,-we have forced them to manufacture what they were unable to buy." "We should not have complained," says a distinguished German writer, "that all our markets were overflowing with English manufactures,— that Germany received, in British cotton goods alone, more than the hundred millions of British subjects in the East Indies, had not England, while she was inundating us with her productions, insisted on closing her markets to ours. The English Corn Law of 1815 had, in fact, excluded our corn from the ports of Great Britain: she told us we were to buy, but not to sell. We were not willing to adopt reprisals; we vainly hoped that a sense of her own interest would lead to reciprocity. But we were disappointed, and we were compelled to take care of ourselves." With reference to the United States of America, Mr. Addington, the British Minister at Washington, in a despatch to Mr. Canning, said :-" I have only to add, that had no restrictions on the importation of foreign corn existed in Great Britain, the tariff would never have passed through either House of Congress, since the agricultural states, and especially Pennsylvania, would have been opposed to its enactment."

The reconsideration of our commercial system (in which the corn trade forms so important a part) would, sooner or later, have been forced upon us by the change which has for some time been going on in our freign trade, and by the fact that

is employed, have been replaced by those of raw and partiallymanufactured materials, in which "little labour" is required. To Northern Europe we exported cotton manufactured goods to the value of 4,651,2997. in 1820, and, in 1838, our exports of the same goods only amounted to 1,607,9907.; but while the value of cotton twist (a half-manufactured article) exported to the same quarter, in 1820, was 1,961,554l., it amounted to 5,378,4557. in 1838. The same kind of change has taken place in the other great branches of manufacture. It is stated that "The quantity of cotton twist exported, if made into goods in this country, would give employment to nearly double the number of hand-loom and double the number of power-loom weavers at present engaged in making cotton goods for exportation."* But the necessity of the proposed revision was unequivocally demonstrated by the unsuccessful attempt in 1840 to increase the revenue by additional taxes. On the assessed taxes, which cannot be evaded, the increase was realized; but on articles of daily consumption scarcely any additional revenue was obtained. The energies of the country were already too much depressed, and they had lost that elasticity which had carried it through so many difficulties. To restore its resources to their former vigour is the object of the proposed change in the corn-laws.

The duty proposed to be laid on wheat exceeds by 2s. 4d. the duty (58. 8d.) actually paid under the existing law, and by 4s. 5d. the duty per quarter paid on the importation of 1 million quarters in 1838-9. At the first glance it would appear that the proposed plan was therefore less favourable to the consumer than the sliding scale under which wheat may be admitted at a duty of ls. only. But it is the operation of the two modes of charging the duty on price which is the real object for consideration. Under a fluctuating duty which has in one year (1838) changed thirty times from January to the end of November, and in other years since it was adopted has undergone alterations calculated to baffle the most clear-seeing speculator, there can be no steadiness of foreign imports. For example, in 1838 the duty in the second week of January was 34s. 8d., and it declined gradually until September the 13th, when it reached the lowest point. Of course, during this period, prices were rising in the home market; but instead of the foreign corn in bond being gradually admitted for consumption, there were only about 33,000 quarters entered from the beginning of the year up to the end of August, though the average price for that month was 74s. 8d. The speculators waited until the second week of September, when, by having withheld the supply, the duty became nominal, and in a single week 1,514,047 quarters of foreign wheat were thrown upon the markets. This sudden addition to the supply occasioned a decline of prices, and the duty again rose. The progress of the duty in the short space of six weeks was as follows:s. d.

With what confidence could the merchant purchase supplies in the foreign markets under such a system? A cargo arriv ing at the end of September, instead of the middle of the month, would have been subject to a duty of 10s. 8d. instead of ls. per quarter, and prices would have fallen lower than might have been calculated upon when the purchase was ef fected. It would then be bonded, and might remain in the warehouses until actually unfit for use. In a parliamentary paper (46, Session 1839) it is stated that 899 quarters of foreign wheat were abandoned and destroyed that year in the port of London. The circumstances under which this took * Report of the Manchester Chamber of Commerce.

landing and warehousing department in the Customs :-" This wheat had been in the custody of the Crown in the bonded warehouses of the port of London since its importation from Petersburg in 1831, and had become infested with weevil to such a degree as to be unfit for human food, and quite unsaleable. Under these circumstances, the owners, desirous of being relieved from further expense for granary rent, &c., upon an article which had become almost worthless, applied to the Board of Customs for permission to destroy it; and the Board, on the report of their officers confirming the representations of the owners as to its damaged condition, granted their permission accordingly, which was carried into effect on 25th November, 1837, by the grain being thrown into the River Thames."

Another defect of the fluctuating scale is to limit the radius of supply, which, instead of comprising the north and south-east of Europe, the Black Sea, Egypt, the United States, and other distant corn-growing countries, is confined chiefly to the markets of Hamburg, Dantzic, and the Baltic ports, to which buyers rush, and, by their competition within a narrow circle, raise the prices to an unnecessary height, relying upon the profits to be obtained under the fluctuating scale amply indemnifying them for the extra charges which the necessity of despatch and expedition occasions. Purchases are made with bills drawn on England; as the unsteadiness of the trade does not encourage that demand for our manufactures which would spring up to the advantage of both parties if it were less subject to impulsive starts. The derangement of monetary affairs is a necessary consequence of a trade conducted under these circumstances; and the value of merchandise of all kinds declines from sales being forced in order to meet engagements at a time when money has been rendered scarce by the drain of remittances for corn. Neither does the present sliding scale work beneficially for the farmer, since it renders prices unsteady. The farmer with large capital may derive advantage from it, as he can select his own time for the sale of his produce; he can act in tacit co-operation with the importer of foreign corn, and, taking advantage of the highest rise of prices, get it off his hands before the markets have been temporarily glutted with a foreign supply. In 1838 this influx of foreign grain took place just before the harvest, and the great majority of farmers had to dispose of their produce when the markets had been lowered from the large foreign supply admitted just when the produce of our own harvest was coming to market. Another disadvantage of the sliding scale is experienced in those years when the crops are of inferior quality. There is an excessive scarcity of good wheat, but the quantity sold of an inferior quality depresses the average prices, and raises the duty so as to exclude a supply of sound wheat from abroad. In this case the holders of English wheat which happens to have been favourably harvested enjoy an exclusive monopoly of the market; or, if it be disturbed, it is not until the price of the best wheat has risen so high as to enable the importer to pay a duty, probably exceeding 20s. per quarter, in addition to all other charges.

A very exaggerated notion prevails in this country respecting the prices of foreign corn in the principal markets from which we obtain a supply when our own crops are deficient. The average price of wheat in Dantzic during the ten years ending 1831 was 33s. 5d. per quarter, and during the twentytwo years ending with 1838 it was 34s. 4d. the quarter. It is to no purpose to refer to the prices in Volhynia or in Podolia, which are of course very low compared with prices in this country; but the competition is not between the growers of England and those of Poland. The question is at what price wheat from these districts can be introduced into the English market, for the competition of the English grower is with the foreigner after his produce has been charged with all the costs of conveyance to the ports of shipment and with the profits of intermediate dealers both foreign and English. Mr.