an exorbitant profit to himself. They endea-1 shop, unless he got the same price at which a voured, therefore, to annihilate his trade alto-shopkeeper would have sold them, he lost gether. They even endeavoured to hinder, as part of the profit of his shopkeeping capital. much as possible, any middle man of any Though he might appear, therefore, to make kind from coming in between the grower and a double profit upon the same piece of goods, the consumer; and this was the meaning of yet, as these goods made successively a part the many restraints which they imposed upon of two distinct capitals, he made but a single the trade of those whom they called kidders, profit upon the whole capital employed about or carriers of corn; a trade which nobody was them; and if he made less than his profit, he allowed to exercise without a licence, ascertain-was a loser, and did not employ his whole caing his qualifications as a man of probity and pital with the same advantage as the greater fair dealing. The authority of three justices of part of his neighbours. the peace was, by the statute of Edward VI. necessary in order to grant this licence. But even this restraint was afterwards thought insufficient, and, by a statute of Elizabeth, the privilege of granting it was confined to the quarter-sessions. What the manufacturer was prohibited to do, the farmer was in some measure enjoined to do; to divide his capital between two different employments; to keep one part of it in his granaries and stack-yard, for supplying the occasional demands of the market, and to The ancient policy of Europe endeavoured, employ the other in the cultivation of his in this manner, to regulate agriculture, the land. But as he could not afford to employ great trade of the country, by maxims quite the latter for less than the ordinary profits of different from those which it established with farming stock, so he could as little afford to regard to manufactures, the great trade of the employ the former for less than the ordinary towns. By leaving a farmer no other custom-profits of mercantile stock. Whether the stock ers but either the consumers or their imme- which really carried on the business of a corn diate factors, the kidders and carriers of corn, merchant belonged to the person who was it endeavoured to force him to exercise the called a farmer, or to the person who was calltrade, not only of a farmer, but of a corn mer-ed a corn merchant, an equal profit was in chant, or corn retailer. On the contrary, it, both cases requisite, in order to indemnify its in many cases, prohibited the manufacturer owner for employing it in this manner, in from exercising the trade of a shopkeeper, or order to put his business on a level with other from selling his own goods by retail. It trades, and in order to hinder him from hav meant, by the one law, to promote the general interest of the country, or to render corn cheap, without, perhaps, its being well understood how this was to be done. By the other, it meant to promote that of a particular order of men, the shopkeepers, who would be so much undersold by the manufacturer, it was supposed, that their trade would be ruined, if he was allowed to retail at all, ing an interest to change it as soon as possible for some other. The farmer, therefore, who was thus forced to exercise the trade of a corn merchant, could not afford to sell his corn cheaper than any other corn merchant would have been obliged to do in the case of a free competition. The dealer who can employ his whole stock in one single branch of business, has an adThe manufacturer, however, though he had vantage of the same kind with the workman been allowed to keep a shop, and to sell his who can employ his whole labour in one single own goods by retail, could not have undersold operation. As the latter acquires a dexterity the common shopkeeper. Whatever part of which enables him, with the same two hands, his capital he might have placed in his shop, to perform a much greater quantity of work, ne must have withdrawn it from his manufac- so the former acquires so easy and ready a ture. In order to carry on his business on a method of transacting his business, of buying level with that of other people, as he must and disposing of his goods, that with the same have had the profit of a manufacturer on the capital he can transact a much greater quanone part, so he must have had that of a shop-tity of business, As the one can commonly keeper upon the other. Let us suppose, for afford his work a good deal cheaper, so the example, that in the particular town where he other can commonly afford his goods someuved, ten per cent. was the ordinary profit what cheaper, than if his stock and attention both of manufacturing and shopkeeping stock; were both employed about a greater variety of he must in this case have charged upon every objects. The greater part of manufacturers piece of his own goods, which he sold in his could not afford to retail their own goods so shop, a profit of twenty per cent. When he cheap as a vigilant and active shopkeeper, carried them from his workhouse to his shop, whose sole business it was to buy them by he must have valued them at the price for wholesale and to retail them again. The which he could have sold them to a dealer or greater part of farmers could still less afford shopkeeper, who would have bought them by to retail their own corn, to supply the inhawholesale. If he valued them lower, he lost bitants of a town, at perhaps four or five miles a part of the profit of his manufacturing ca- distance from the greater part of them, so pital When, again, he sold them from his cheap as a vigilant and active corn merchant, whose sole business it was to purchase corn by | before he has made them, enables him to keep wholesale, to collect it into a great magazine, his whole capital, and sometimes even more and to retail it again. than his whole capital, constantly employed in The law which prohibited the manufacturer manufacturing, and consequently to manufacfrom exercising the trade of a shopkeeper, en-ture a much greater quantity of goods than deavoured to force this division in the employ- if he was obliged to dispose of them himself ment of stock to go on faster than it might to the immediate consumers, or even to the otherwise have done. The law which obliged retailers. As the capital of the wholesale the farmer to exercise the trade of a corn merchant, too, is generally sufficient to replace merchant, endeavoured to hinder it from go- that of many manufacturers, this intercourse ing on so fast. Both laws were evident vio- between him and them interests the owner of lations of natural liberty, and therefore un- a large capital to support the owners of a great just; and they were both, too, as impolitic as number of small ones, and to assist them in they were unjust. It is the interest of every those losses and misfortunes which might osociety, that things of this kind should never therwise prove ruinous to them. either be forced or obstructed. The man who An intercourse of the same kind univermploys either his labour or his stock in a sally established between the farmers and the greater variety of ways than his situation ren- corn merchants, would be attended with effects ders necessary, can never hurt his neighbour equally beneficial to the farmers. They would by underselling him. He may hurt himself, be enabled to keep their whole capitals, and and he generally does so. Jack-of-all-trades even more than their whole capitals constantly will never be rich, says the proverb. But the employed in cultivation. In case of any of law ought always to trust people with the care those accidents to which no trade is more liof their own interest, as in their local situa-able than theirs, they would find in their ortions they must generally be able to judge bet-dinary customer, the wealthy corn merchant, ter of it than the legislature can do. The law, however, which obliged the farmer to exercise the trade of a corn merchant was by far the most pernicious of the two. a person who had both an interest to support them, and the ability to do it; and they would not, as at present, be entirely dependent upor the forbearance of their landlord, or the mercy It obstructed not only that division in the of his steward. Were it possible, as perhaps employment of stock which is so advantageous it is not, to establish this intercourse univer to every society, but it obstructed likewise the sally, and all at once; were it possible to turn improvement and cultivation of the land. By all at once the whole farming stock of the obliging the farmer to carry on two trades in- kingdom to its proper business, the cultivation stead of one, it forced him to divide his capi- of land, withdrawing it from every other emtal into two parts, of which one only could be ployment into which any part of it may be at employed in cultivation. But if he had been present diverted; and were it possible, in or. at liberty to sell his whole crop to a corn mer-der to support and assist, upon occasion, the chant as fast as he could thresh it out, his operations of this great stock, to provide all whole capital might have returned immedi- at once another stock almost equally great; it ately to the land, and have been employed in is not, perhaps, very easy to imagine how great, buying more cattle, and hiring more servants, how extensive, and how sudden, would be the in order to improve and cultivate it better. improvement which this change of circumBut by being obliged to sell his corn by re-stances would alone produce upon the whole tail, he was obliged to keep a great part of face of the country. his capital in his granaries and stack-yard The statute of Edward VI. therefore, by through the year, and could not therefore cul- prohibiting as much as possible any middle tivate so well as with the same capital he might man from coming in between the grower and otherwise have done. This law, therefore, the consumer, endeavoured to annihilate a necessarily obstructed the improvement of the land, and, instead of tending to render corn cheaper, must have tended to render it scarcer, and therefore dearer, than it would otherwise have been. trade, of which the free exercise is not only the best palliative of the inconveniencies of a dearth, but the best preventive of that cala. mity; after the trade of the farmer, no trade contributing so much to the growing of corn as that of the corn merchant. After the business of the farmer, that of the corn merchant is in reality the trade which, if The rigour of this law was afterwards sofproperly protected and encouraged, would tened by several subsequent statutes, which contribute the most to the raising of corn. It successively permitted the engrossing of corn would support the trade of the farmer, in the when the price of wheat should not exceed same manner as the trade of the wholesale 20s. and 24s. 32s. and 40s. the quarter. At dealer supports that of the manufacturer. last, by the 15th of Charles II. c. 7, the enThe wholesale dealer, by affording a ready grossing or buying of corn, in order to sell it market to the manufacturer, by taking his goods again, as long as the price of wheat did not off his hand as fast as he can make them, and exceed 48s. the quarter, and that of other by sometimes even advancing their price to him grain in proportion, was declared lawful to all persons not being forestallers, that is, not sell- to do this as exactly as he can; and as no ing again in the same market within three other person can have either the same intemonths. All the freedom which the trade of rest, or the same knowledge, or the same abithe inland corn dealer has ever yet enjoyed lities, to do it so exactly as he, this most im. was bestowed upon it by this statute. The portant operation of commerce ought to be statute of the twelfth of the present king, trusted entirely to him; or, in other words, which repeals almost all the other ancient the corn trade, so far at least as concerns the laws against engrossers and forestallers, does supply of the home market, ought to be left not repeal the restrictions of this particular perfectly free. statute, which therefore still continue in force. The popular fear of engrossing and foreThis statute, however, authorises in some stalling may be compared to the popular termeasure two very absurd popular prejudices.rors and suspicions of witchcraft. The un, First, It supposes, that when the price of fortunate wretches accused of this latter crinie wheat has risen so high as 48s. the quarter, were not more innocent of the misfortunes and that of other grain in proportion, corn is imputed to them, than those who have been aclikely to be so engrossed as to hurt the people. cused of the former. The law which put an end But, from what has been already said, it seems to all prosecutions against witchcraft, which put evident enough, that corn can at no price be it out of any man's power to gratify his own so engrossed by the inland dealers as to hurt malice by accusing his neighbour of that imathe people; and 48s. the quarter, besides, ginary crime, seems effectually to have put though it may be considered as a very high an end to those fears and suspicions, by tak price, yet, in years of scarcity, it is a price ing away the great cause which encouraged which frequently takes place immediately af- and supported them. The law which would ter harvest, when scarce any part of the new restore entire freedom to the inland trade of crop can be sold off, and when it is impossible corn, would probably prove as effectual to put even for ignorance to suppose that any part of an end to the popular fears of engrossing and it can be so engrossed as to hurt the people. forestalling. The proportion of the average quantity of all sorts of grain imported into Great Britain to that of all sorts of grain consumed, it has been computed by the author of the Tracts upon the Corn Trade, does not exceed that of one to five hundred and seventy. For supplying the home market, therefore, the im portance of the inland trade must be to that of the importation trade as five hundred and seventy to one. Secondly, It supposes that there is a certain The 15th of Charles II. c. 7, however, with price at which corn is likely to be forestalled, all its imperfections, has, perhaps, contributed that is, bought up in order to be sold again more, both to the plentiful supply of the home soon after in the same market, so as to hurt market, and to the increase of tillage, than the people. But if a merchant ever buys up any other law in the statute book. It is from corn, either going to a particular market, or this law that the inland corn trade has de in a particular market, in order to sell it rived all the liberty and protection which it again soon after in the same market, it has ever yet enjoyed; and both the supply of must be because he judges that the market the home market and the interest of tillage cannot be so liberally supplied through the are much more effectually promoted by the whole season as upon that particular occa-inland, than either by the importation or ex sion, and that the price, therefore, must soon portation trade. rise. If he judges wrong in this, and if the price does not rise, he not only loses the whole profit of the stock which he employs in this manner, but a part of the stock itself, by the expense and loss which necessarily attend the storing and keeping of corn. He hurts himself, therefore, much more essentially than he can hurt even the particular people whom he may hinder from supplying themselves upon that particular market day, because they may afterwards supply themselves just as cheap up- The average quantity of all sorts of grain on any other market day. If he judges right, exported from Great Britain does not, accordinstead of hurting the great body of the peo- ing to the same author, exceed the one-andple, he renders them a most important ser- thirtieth part of the annual produce. For the vice. By making them feel the inconveni-encouragement of tillage, therefore, by proencies of a dearth somewhat earlier than they viding a market for the home produce, the otherwise might do, he prevents their feeling importance of the inland trade must be to that them afterwads so severely as they certainly of the exportation trade as thirty to one. would do, if the cheapness of price encour- I have no great faith in political arithmeaged them to consume faster than suited the real scarcity of the season. When the scarcity is real, the best thing that can be done for the people is, to divide the inconvenience of it as equally as possible, through all the different months and weeks and days of the year. The interest of the corn merchant makes him study tic, and I mean not to warrant the exactness of either of these computations. I mention them only in order to show of how much less consequence, in the opinion of the most judicious and experienced persons, the foreign trade of corn is than the home trade. The great cheapness of corn in the years immediately preced 2 ing the establishment of the bounty may, per- A very few words will sufficiently explain By the 22d of Charles II. c. 18, the inportation of wheat, whenever the price in the home market did not exceed 53s. 4d. the quarter, was subjected to a duty of 16s. the quarter; and to a duty of 8s. whenever the price did not exceed L. 4. The former of these two prices has, for more than a century past, taken place only in times of very great scarcity; and the latter has, so far as I know, not taken place at all. Yet, till wheat has risen above this latter price, it was, by this statute, subjected to a very high duty; and, till it had risen above the former, to a duty which amounted to a prohibition. The importation of other sorts of grain was restrained at rates and by duties, in proportion to the value of the grain, almost equally high.* Subsequent laws still further increased those duties. The distress which, in years of scarcity, the strict execution of those laws might have brought upon the people, would probably have been very great; but, upon such occasions, its execution was generally suspended by temporary statutes, which permitted, for a limited time, the importation of foreign corn. The necessity of these temporary statutes sufficiently demonstrates the impropriety of this general one. II. The trade of the merchant-importer of foreign corn for home consumption, evidently contributes to the immediate supply of the home market, and must so far be immediately beneficial to the great body of the people. It tends, indeed, to lower somewhat the average money price of corn, but not to diminish its real value, or the quantity of labour which it is capable of maintaining. If importation was at all times free, our farmers and country gentlemen would probably, one year with another, get less money for their corn than they do at present, when importation is at most times in effect prohibited; but the money which they got would be of more value, would buy more goods of all other kinds, and would employ more labour. Their real wealth, their real revenue, therefore, would be the same as at present, though it might be expressed by a smaller quantity of silver, and they would neither be disabled nor discouraged from cultivating corn as much as they do at present. On the contrary, as the rise in the real value of silver, in consequence of lowering the money price of corn, lowers somewhat the money price of all other commodities, it gives the industry of the country where it takes place some advantage in all foreign markets, and thereby tends to encourage and increase that industry. But the extent of the home market for corn must be in proportion to the general industry of the coun-might have been exported again, with the betry where it grows, or to the number of those who produce something else, and, therefore, have something else, or, what comes to the same thing, the price of something else, to give in exchange for corn. But in every country, the home market, as it is the nearest and most convenient, so is it likewise the greatest and most important market for corn. That rise in the real value of silver, therefore, which is the effect of lowering the average money price of corn, tends to enlarge the greatest and most important market for corn, and thereby to encourage, instead of discouraging its growth. These restraints upon importation, though prior to the establishment of the bounty, were dictated by the same spirit, by the same principles, which afterwards enacted that regulation. How hurtful soever in themselves, these, or some other restraints upon importation, became necessary in consequence of that regu. lation. If, when wheat was either below 48s. the quarter, or not much above it, foreign corn could have been imported, either duty free, or upon paying only a small duty, it nefit of the bounty, to the great loss of the public revenue, and to the entire perversion of the institution, of which the object was to extend the market for the home growth, not that for the growth of foreign countries. III. The trade of the merchant-exporter of corn for foreign consumption, certainly does not contribute directly to the plentiful supply of the home market. It does so, however, indirectly. From whatever source this supply may be usually drawn, whether from home growth, or from foreign importation, unless more corn is either usually grown, or usually imported into the country, than what is usually Before the 13th of the present king, the following were the duties payable upon the importation of the dif ferent sorts of grain: Grain. Beans to 28s. per qr. Duties Barley to 285. Malt is prohibited by the annual malt-tax bill. Oats to 16s. Duties. Duties. 5s. 10d. after Rye to 36s. Wheat to 44s. 19s. 10d. till 40s. 16s. 8d. then 12d. till L 4, and after that about 1s. 4d. Buck-wheat to 32s. per qr. to pay 16s. These different duties were imposed, partly by the 22d of Charles II. in place of the old subsidy partly by the new subsidy, by the one-third and two-thirds subsidy, and by the subsidy 1747 consumed in it, the supply of the home market can never be very plentiful. But unless the surplus can, in all ordinary cases, be exported, the growers will be careful never to grow more, and the importers never to import more, than what the bare consumption of the home market requires. That market will very seldom be overstocked; but it will generally be understocked; the people, whose business it is to supply it, being generally afraid lest their goods should be left upon their hands. The prohibition of exportation limits the improvement and cultivation of the country to what the supply of its own inhabitants require. The freedom of exportation enables it to extend cultivation for the supply of foreign nations. was not, even in times of considerable scarcity allowed to enjoy the whole of that growth. The temporary laws, prohibiting, for a limited time, the exportation of corn, and taking off, for a limited time, the duties upon its importation, expedients to which Great Britain has been obliged so frequently to have recourse, sufficiently demonstrate the impropriety of her general system. Had that system been good, she would not so frequently have been reduced to the necessity of departing from it. Were all nations to follow the liberal system of free exportation and free importation, the different states into which a great continent was divided, would so far resemble the different provinces of a great empire. As among the different provinces of a great em both from reason and experience, not only the best palliative of a dearth, but the most effectual preventive of a famine; so would the By the 12th of Charles II. c. 4, the exporta-pire, the freedom of the inland trade appears, tion of corn was permitted whenever the price of wheat did not exceed 40s. the quarter, and that of other grain in proportion. By the 15th of the same prince, this liberty was ex-freedom of the exportation and importation tended till the price of wheat exceeded 48s. the quarter; and by the 22d, to all higher prices. A poundage, indeed, was to be paid to the king upon such exportation; but all grain was rated so low in the book of rates, that this poundage amounted only, upon wheat to 1s. upon oats to 4d. and upon all other grain to 6d. the quarter By the 1st of William and Mary, the act which established this bounty, this small duty was virtually taken off whenever the price of wheat did not exceed 48s. the quarter; and by the 11th and 12th of William III. c. 20, it was expressly taken off at all higher prices. trade be among the different states into which a great continent was divided. The larger the continent, the easier the communication through all the different parts of it, both by land and by water, the less would any one parti cular part of it ever be exposed to either of these calamities, the scarcity of any one country being more likely to be relieved by the plenty of some other. But very few countries have entirely adopted this liberal system. The freedom of the corn trade is almost every. where more or less restrained, and in many countries is confined by such absurd regula tions, as frequently aggravate the unavoidable The trade of the merchant-exporter was, in misfortune of a dearth into the dreadful ca this manner, not only encouraged by a boun- lamity of a famine. The demand of such ty, but rendered much more free than that of countries for corn may frequently become so the inland dealer. By the last of these sta- great and so urgent, that a small state in their tutes, corn could be engrossed at any price for neighbourhood, which happened at the same exportation; but it could not be engrossed for time to be labouring under some degree of inland sale, except when the price did not dearth, could not venture to supply them withexceed 48s. the quarter. The interest of the out exposing itself to the like dreadful calainland dealer, however, it has already been mity. The very bad policy of one country shown, can never be opposite to that of the may thus render it, in some measure, dangergreat body of the people. That of the mer ous and imprudent to establish what would chant-exporter may, and in fact sometimes is. otherwise be the best policy in another. The If, while his own country labours under a unlimited freedom of exportation, however, dearth, a neighbouring country should be af- would be much less dangerous in great states, flicted with a famine, it might be his interest in which the growth being much greater, the to carry corn to the latter country, in such supply could seldom be much affected by any quantities as might very much aggravate the quantity of corn that was likely to be exported. calamities of the dearth. The plentiful supply In a Swiss canton, or in some of the little states of the home market was not the direct object in Italy, it may, perhaps, sometimes be neof those statutes; but, under the pretence of cessary to restrain the exportation of corn. In encouraging agriculture, to raise the money such great countries as France or England, it price of corn as high as possible, and thereby scarce ever can. To hinder, besides, the farto occasion, as much as possible, a constant mer from sending his goods at all times to dearth in the home market. By the discou- the best market, is evidently to sacrifice the ragement of importation, the supply of that ordinary laws of justice to an idea of public market, even in times of great scarcity, was utility, to a sort of reasons of state; an act or confined to the home growth; and by the en- legislative authority which ought to be exercouragement of exportation, when the price cised only, which can be pardoned only, in was so high as 48s. the quarter, that market i cases of the most urgent necessity. The price |