of one year had not been more or less hinder-age money price bears to the average money ed from relieving the scarcity of another. It price of corn. The real value of corn does is in this set of men, accordingly, that I have not vary with those variations in its average observed the greatest zeal for the continuance money price, which sometimes occur from one or renewal of the bounty. century to another; it is the real value of silver wich varies with them.

Our country gentlemen, when they imposed the high duties upon the exportation of foreign Bounties upon the exportation of any homecorn, which in times of moderate plenty a-made commodity are liable, first, to that gemount to a prohibition, and when they estab-neral objection which may be made to all the lished the bounty, seem to have imitated the different expedients of the mercantile system; conduct of our manufacturers. By the one the objection of forcing some part of the ininstitution, they secured to themselves the mo- dustry of the country into a channel less adnopoly of the home market, and by the other vantageous than that in which it would run they endeavoured to prevent that market from of its own accord; and, secondly, to the parever being overstocked with their commodity. ticular objection of forcing it not only into a By both they endeavoured to raise its real value, channel that is less advantageous, but into in the same manner as our manufacturers had, one that is actually disadvantageous; the trade by the like institutions, raised the real value which cannot be carried on but by means of a of many different sorts of manufactured goods. bounty being necessarily a losing trade. The They did not, perhaps, attend to the great and bounty upon the exportation of corn is liable essential difference which nature has establish- to this further objection, that it can in no reed between corn and almost every other sort spect promote the raising of that particular of goods. When, either by the monopoly of commodity of which it was meant to encourthe home market, or by a bounty upon expor- age the production. When our country gentation, you enable our woollen or linen manu- tlemen, therefore, demanded the establishment facturers to sell their goods for somewhat a of the bounty, though they acted in imitation better price than they otherwise could get for of our merchants and manufacturers, they did them, you raise, not only the nominal, but the not act with that complete comprehension of real price of those goods; you render them their own interest, which commonly directs equivalent to a greater quantity of labour and the conduct of those two other orders of peosubsistence; you increase not only the nomi- ple. They loaded the public revenue with a nal, but the real profit, the real wealth and very considerable expense: they imposed a revenue of those manufacturers; and you en- very heavy tax upon the whole body of the able them, either to live better themselves, or people; but they did not, in any sensible deto employ a greater quantity of labour in those gree, increase the real value of their own comparticular manufactures. You really encour-modity; and by lowering somewhat the real age those manufactures, and direct towards them a greater quantity of the industry of the country than what would properly go to them of its own accord. But when, by the like institutions, you raise the nominal or money price of corn, you do not raise its real value; of the country. you do not increase the real wealth, the real To encourage the production of any comrevenue, either of our farmers or country gen-modity, a bounty upon production, one should tlemen; you do not encourage the growth of imagine, would have a more direct operation corn, because you do not enable them to main-than one upon exportation. It would, betain and employ more labourers in raising it. sides, impose only one tax upon the people, The nature of things has stamped upon corn that which they must contribute in order to a real value, which cannot be altered by pay the bounty. Instead of raising, it would merely altering its money price. No bounty tend to lower the price of the commodity in upon exportation, no monopoly of the home the home market; and thereby, instead of immarket, can raise that value. The freest com- posing a second tax upon the people, it might, petition cannot lower it. Through the world at least in part, repay them for what they had in general, that value is equal to the quantity contributed to the first. Bounties upon proof labour which it can maintain, and in every duction, however, have been very rarely grantparticular place it is equal to the quantity of ed. The prejudices established by the comlabour which it can maintain in the way, mercial system have taught us to believe, that whether liberal, moderate, or scanty, in which national wealth arises more immediately from labour is commonly maintained in that place. exportation than from production. It has Woollen or linen cloth are not the regulating been more favoured, accordingly, as the more commodities by which the real value of all immediate means of bringing money into the other commodities must be finally measured country. Bounties upon production, it has and determined; corn is. The real value of been said too, have been found by experience every other commodity is finally measured and more liable to frauds than those upon expordetermined by the proportion which its aver-tation. How far this is true, I know not

value of silver, they discouraged, in some degree, the general industry of the country, and, instead of advancing, retarded more or less the improvement of their own lands, which necessarily depend upon the general industry

That bounties upon exportation have been The herrings caught and cured at sea are abused, to many fraudulent purposes, is very called sea-sticks. In order to render them well known. But it is not the interest of what are called merchantable herrings, it is merchants and manufacturers, the great in-necessary to repack them with an additional ventors of all these expedients, that the home quantity of salt; and in this case, it is reckmarket should be overstocked with their goods; oned, that three barrels of sea-sticks are usuan event which a bounty upon production ally repacked into two barrels of merchantable might sometimes occasion. A bounty upon herrings. The number of barrels of merexportation, by enabling them to send abroad chantable herrings, therefore, caught during their surplus part, and to keep up the price of these eleven years, will amount only, according what remains in the home market, effectually to this account, to 252,2314. During these eleprevents this. Of all the expedients of the ven years, the tonnage bounties paid amounted mercantile system, accordingly, it is the one to L. 155,463 11s. or 8s. 2 d. upon every of which they are the fondest. I have known barrel of sea-sticks, and to 12s. 3 d. upon the different undertakers of some particular every barrel of merchantable herrings. works, agree privately among themselves to The salt with which these herrings are cured give a bounty out of their own pockets upon is sometimes Scotch, and sometimes foreign the exportation of a certain proportion of the salt; both which are delivered, free of all exgoods which they dealt in. This expedient cise duty, to the fish-curers. The excise duty succeeded so well, that it more than doubled upon Scotch salt is at present 1s. 6d., that the price of their goods in the home market, upon foreign salt 10s. the bushel. notwithstanding a very considerable increase of herrings is supposed to require about one in the produce. The operation of the bounty bushel and one-fourth of a bushel foreign upon corn must have been wonderfully different, if it has lowered the money price of that commodity.

Something like a bounty upon production, however, has been granted upon some particular occasions. The tonnage bounties given to the white herring and whale fisheries may, perhaps, be considered as somewhat of this nature. They tend directly, it may be supposed, to render the goods cheaper in the home market than they otherwise would be. In other respects, their effects, it must be acknowledged, are the same as those of bounties upon exportation. By means of them, a part of the capital of the country is employed in bringing goods to market, of which the price does not repay the cost, together with the ordinary profits of stock.

A barrel

salt. Two bushels are the supposed average of Scotch salt. If the herrings are entered for exportation, no part of this duty is paid up; if entered for home consumption, whether the herrings were cured with foreign or with Scotch salt, only one shilling the barrel is paid up. It was the old Scotch duty upon a bushel of salt, the quantity which, at a low estimation, had been supposed necessary for curing a barrel of herrings. In Scotland, foreign salt is very little used for any other purpose but the curing of fish. But from the 5th April 1771 to the 5th April 1782, the quantity of foreign salt imported amounted to 936,974 bushels, at eighty-four pounds the bushel; the quantity of Scotch salt delivered from the works to the fish-curers, to no more than 168,226, at fifty-six pounds the bushel But though the tonnage bounties to those only. It would appear, therefore, that it is fisheries do not contribute to the opulence of principally foreign salt that is used in the fishthe nation, it may, perhaps, be thought that eries. Upon every barrel of herrings exported, they contribute to its defence, by augmenting there is, besides, a bounty of 2s. 8d. and more the number of its sailors and shipping. This, than two-thirds of the buss-caught herrings it may be alleged, may sometimes be done are exported. Put all these things together, by means of such bounties, at a much smaller and you will find that, during these eleven expense than by keeping up a great standing years, every barrel of buss-caught herrings, navy, if I may use such an expression, in the same way as a standing army.

Notwithstanding these favourable allegations, however, the following considerations dispose me to believe, that in granting at least one of these bounties, the legislature has been very grossly imposed upon :

cured with Scotch salt, when exported, has cost government 17s. 113d.; and, when entered for home consumption, 14s. 33d.; and that every barrel cured with foreign salt, when exported, has cost government L.1: 7:53d.; and, when entered for home consumption, L.1: 3 9 d. The price of a barrel of good

First, The herring-buss bounty seems too merchantable herrings runs from seventeen large.

and eighteen to four and five-and-twenty shilFrom the commencement of the winter fish-lings; about a guinea at an average.✶ ing 1771, to the end of the winter fishing Secondly, The bounty to the white-herring 1781, the tonnage bounty upon the herring- fishery is a tonnage bounty, and is proporbuss fishery has been at thirty shillings the tioned to the burden of the ship, not to her diliton. During these eleven years, the whole gence or success in the fishery; and it has, I number of barrels caught by the herring-buss

fishery of Scotland amounted to 378,347.

* See the accounts at the end of this Book.

am afraid, been too common for the vessels to buss bounty contributes to no such good pur fit out for the sole purpose of catching, not pose. It has ruined the boat fishery, which is the fish, but the bounty. In the year 1759, by far the best adapted for the supply of the when the bounty was at fifty shillings the ton, home market; and the additional bounty of the whole buss fishery of Scotland brought 2s. 8d. the barrel upon exportation, carries in only four barrels of sea-sticks. In that the greater part, more than two-thirds, of the year, each barrel of sea-sticks cost govern- produce of the buss-fishery abroad. Between ment, in bounties alone, L. 113: 15s.; each thirty and forty years ago, before the establishbarrel of merchantable herrings L. 159: 7: 6. ment of the buss-bounty, 16s. the barrel, I Thirdly, The mode of fishing, for which have been assured, was the common price of this tonnage bounty in the white herring fish-white herrings. Between ten and fifteen years ery has been given (by busses or decked ves- ago, before the boat-fishery was entirely ruinsels from twenty to eighty tons burden), seems ed, the price was said to have run from sevennot so well adapted to the situation of Scot-teen to twenty shillings the barrel. For these land, as to that of Holland, from the practice last five years, it has, at an average, been at of which country it appears to have been bor-twenty-five shillings the barrel. This high rowed. Holland lies at a great distance from price, however, may have been owing to the the seas to which herrings are known prin- real scarcity of the herrings upon the coast of cipally to resort, and can, therefore, carry on Scotland. I must observe, too, that the cask that fishery only in decked vessels, which can or barrel, which is usually sold with the hercarry water and provisions sufficient for a rings, and of which the price is included in voyage to a distant sea; but the Hebrides, or all the foregoing prices, has, since the comWestern Islands, the islands of Shetland, and mencement of the American war, risen to the northern and north-western coasts of Scot-about double its former price, or from about land, the countries in whose neighbourhood 3s. to about 6s. I must likewise observe, the herring fishery is principally carried on, that the accounts I have received of the prices are everywhere intersected by arms of the sea, of former times, have been by no means quite which run up a considerable way into the uniform and consistent, and an old man of land, and which, in the language of the coun- great accuracy and experience has assured me, try, are called sea-lochs. It is to these sea-that, more than fifty years ago, a guinea was lochs that the herrings principally resort dur- the usual price of a barrel of good merchanting the seasons in which they visit those seas; able herrings; and this, I imagine, may still for the visits of this, and, I am assured, of be looked upon as the average price. All acmany other sorts of fish, are not quite regular counts, however, I think, agree that the price and constant. A boa.-fishery, therefore, seems has not been lowered in the home market in to be the mode of fishing best adapted to the consequence of the buss-bounty. peculiar situation of Scotland, the fishers car- When the undertakers of fisheries, after rying the herrings on shore as fast as they are such liberal bounties have been bestowed upon taken, to be either cured or consumed fresh. them, continue to sell their commodity at the But the great encouragement which a bounty same, or even at a higher price than they were of 30s. the ton gives to the buss-fishery, is accustomed to do before, it might be expected necessarily a discouragement to the boat-fish- that their profits should be very great; and it ery, which, having no such bounty, cannot is not improbable that those of some indivibring its cured fish to market upon the same duals may have been so. In general, howterms as the buss-fishery. The boat-fishery, ever, I have every reason to believe they have accordingly, which, before the establishment been quite otherwise. The usual effect of of the buss-bounty, was very considerable, and such bounties is, to encourage rash underis said to have employed a number of seamen, takers to adventure in a business which they not inferior to what the buss-fishery employs do not understand; and what they lose by at present, is now gone almost entirely to their own negligence and ignorance, more decay. Of the former extent, however, of this than compensates all that they can gain by now ruined and abandoned fishery, I must the utmost liberality of government. In 1750, acknowledge that I cannot pretend to speak by the same act which first gave the bounty with much precision. As no bounty was paid of 30s. the ton for the encouragement of the upon the outfit of the boat-fishery, no account white herring fishery (the 23d Geo. II. chap. was taken of it by the officers of the customs 24), a joint stock company was erected, with or salt duties. a capital of L. 500,000, to which the subscribFourthly, In many parts of Scotland, dur-ers (over and above all other encouragements, ing certain seasons of the year, herrings make the tonnage bounty just now mentioned, the no inconsiderable part of the food of the com. exportation bounty of 2s. 8d. the barrel, the mon people. A bounty which tended to lower delivery of both British and foreign salt duty their price in the home market, might contri- free) were, during the space of fourteen years, bute a good deal to the relief of a great num- for every hundred pounds which they subber of our fellow-subjects, whose circumstances scribed and paid into the stock of the society, are by no means affluent. But the herring-entitled to three pounds a-year, to be paid by

the receiver-general of the customs in equal so altered by manufacture of any kind as to half-yearly payments. Besides this great com- come under a new denomination, they are pany, the residence of whose governor and called bounties. directors was to be in London, it was declared Premiums given by the public to artists lawful to erect different fishing chambers in and manufacturers, who excel in their partiall the different out-ports of the kingdom, cular occup tions, are not liable to the same provided a sum not less than L. 10,000 was objections as bounties. By encouraging exsubscribed into the capital of each, to be ma- traordinary dexterity and ingenuity, they serve naged at its own risk, and for its own profit to keep up the emulation of the workmen acand loss. The same annuity, and the same tually employed in those respective occupaencouragements of all kinds, were given to tions, and are not considerable enough to the trade of those inferior chambers as to that turn towards any one of them a greater share of the great company. The subscription of of the capital of the country than what would the great company was soon filled up, and se- go to it of its own accord. Their tendency veral different fishing chambers were erected is not to overturn the natural balance of emin the different out-ports of the kingdom. In ployments, but to render the work which is spite of all these encouragements, almost all done in each as perfect and complete as posthose different companies, both great and sible. The expense of premiums, besides, is small, lost either the whole or the greater very trifling, that of bounties very great. The part of their capitals; scarce a vestige now bounty upon corn alone has sometimes cost remains of any of them, and the white-herring the public, in one year, more than L.300,000. fishery is now entirely, or almost entirely, carried on by private adventurers.

Bounties are sometimes called premiums, as drawbacks are sometimes called bounties. But we must, in all cases, attend to the na ture of the thing, without paying any regard to the word.

If any particular manufacture was necessary, indeed, for the defence of the society, it might not always be prudent to depend upon our neighbours for the supply; and if such manufacture could not otherwise be supported at home, it might not be unreasonable that all Digression concerning the Corn Trade ana the other branches of industry should be taxed in order to support it. The bounties upon the exportation of British made sail-cloth, and British made gunpowder, may, perhaps, both be vindicated upon this principle.

Corn Laws.

I cannot conclude this chapter concerning bounties, without observing, that the praises which have been bestowed upon the law which But though it can very seldom be reason- establishes the bounty upon the exportation of able to tax the industry of the great body of corn, and upon that system of regulations the people, in order to support that of some which is connected with it, are altogether unparticular class of manufacturers; yet, in the merited. A particular examination of the nawantonness of great prosperity, when the pub-ture of the corn trade, and of the principal lic enjoys a greater revenue than it knows well what to do with, to give such bounties to favourite manufactures, may, perhaps, be as natural as to incur any other idle expense. In public, as well as in private expenses, great wealth, may, perhaps, frequently be admitted as an apology for great folly. But there must surely be something more than ordinary absurdity in continuing such profusion in times of general difficulty and distress.

British laws which relate to it, will sufficiently demonstrate the truth of this assertion. The great importance of this subject must justify the length of the digression.

The trade of the corn merchant is composed of four different branches, which, though they may sometimes be all carried on by the same person, are, in their own nature, four separate and distinct trades. These are, first, the trade of the inland dealer; secondly, that of What is called a bounty, is sometimes no the merchant-importer for home consumption; more than a drawback, and, consequently, is thirdly, that of the merchant-exporter of home not liable to the same objections as what is produce for foreign consumption; and, fourthproperly a bounty. The bounty, for example, ly, that of the merchant-carrier, or of the imupon refined sugar exported, may be consi-porter of corn, in order to export it again. dered as a drawback of the duties upon the I. The interest of the inland dealer, and brown and Muscovado sugars, from which it that of the great body of the people, how op. is made; the bounty upon wrought silk ex- posite soever they may at first appear, are, ported, a drawback of the duties upon raw and even in years of the greatest scarcity, exactly thrown silk imported; the bounty upon gun- the same. It is his interest to raise the price powder exported, a drawback of the duties of his corn as high as the real scarcity of the upon brimstone and saltpetre imported. In season requires, and it can never be his intethe language of the customs, those allowances rest to raise it higher. By raising the price, only are called drawbacks which are given he discourages the consumption, and puts upon good, exported in the same form in which every body more or less, but particularly the they are imported. When that form has been inferior ranks of people, upon thrift and good

management. If, by raising it too high, he Were it possible, indeed, for one great comdiscourages the consumption so much that the pany of merchants to possess themselves of supply of the season is likely to go beyond the the whole crop of an extensive country, it consumption of the season, and to last for some might perhaps be their interest to deal with time after the next crop begins to come in, he it, as the Dutch are said to do with the spiruns the hazard, not only of losing a consi- ceries of the Moluccas, to destroy or throw derable part of his corn by natural causes, but away a considerable part of it, in order to of being obliged to sell what remains of it keep up the price of the rest. But it is scarce for much less than what he might have had possible, even by the violence of law, to estafor it several months before. If, by not rais-blish such an extensive monopoly with regard 'ng the price high enough, he discourages to corn; and wherever the law leaves the trade the consumption so little, that the supply of free, it is of all commodities the least liable to the season is likely to fall short of the con- be engrossed or monopolized by the force of sumption of the season, he not only loses a a few large capitals, which buy up the greater part of the profit which he might otherwise part of it. Not only its value far exceeds what have made, but he exposes the people to suf- the capitals of a few private men are capable fer before the end of the season, instead of of purchasing; but, supposing they were cathe hardships of a dearth, the dreadful horrors pable of purchasing it, the manner in which of a famine. It is the interest of the people it is produced renders this purchase altogethat their daily, weekly, and monthly con- ther impracticable. As, in every civilized sumption should be proportioned as exactly country, it is the commodity of which the anas possible to the supply of the season. The nual consumption is the greatest; so a greater interest of the inland corn dealer is the same. quantity of industry is annually employed in By supplying them, as nearly as he can judge, producing corn than in producing any other in this proportion, he is likely to sell all his commodity. When it first comes from the corn for the highest price, and with the great-ground, too, it is necessarily divided among a est profit; and his knowledge of the state of greater number of owners than any other comthe crop, and of his daily, weekly, and monthly modity; and these owners can never be colales, enables him to judge, with more or less lected into one place, like a number of indeaccuracy, how far they really are supplied in pendent manufacturers, but are necessarily .his manner. Without intending the interest scattered through all the different corners of of the people, he is necessarily led, by a re- the country. These first owners either imgard to his own interest, to treat them, even mediately supply the consumers in their own in years of scarcity, pretty much in the same neighbourhood, or they supply other inland manner as the prudent master of a vessel is dealers, who supply those consumers. sometimes obliged to treat his crew. When inland dealers in corn, therefore, including he foresees that provisions are likely to run short, he puts them upon short allowance. Though from excess of caution he should sometimes do this without any real necessity, yet all the inconveniencies which his crew can thereby suffer are inconsiderable, in comparison of the danger, misery, and ruin, to which they might sometimes be exposed by a less provident conduct. Though, from excess of avarice, in the same manner, the inland corn merchant should sometimes raise the price of his corn somewhat higher than the scarcity of the season requires, yet all the inconveniencies which the people can suffer from this conduct, which effectually secures them from a famine in the end of the season, are inconsiderable, in comparison of what they might have been exposed to by a more liberal way of dealing in the beginning of it The corn merchant himself is likely to suffer the most by this excess of avarice; not only from the indignation which it generally excites against him, but, though he should escape the effects of this indignation, from the quantity of corn which it necessarily leaves upon his hands in the end of the season, and which, if the next season happens to prove favourable, he must always sell for a much lower price than he might otherwise have had.

The

both the farmer and the baker, are necessarily more numerous than the dealers in any other commodity; and their dispersed situation renders it altogether impossible for them to enter into any general combination. If, in a year of scarcity, therefore, any of them should find that he had a good deal more corn upon hand than, at the current price, he could hope to dispose of before the end of the season, he would never think of keeping up this price to his own loss, and to the sole benefit of his rivals and competitors, but would unmedi. ately lower it, in order to get rid of his corn before the new crop began to come in. The same motives, the same interests, which would thus regulate the conduct of any one dealer, would regulate that of every other, and ob lige them all in general to sell their corn at the price which, according to the best of their judgment, was most suitable to the scarcity or plenty of the season.

Whoever examines, with attention, the history of the dearths and famines which have afflicted any part of Europe during either the course of the present or that of the two preceding centuries, of several of which we have pretty exact accounts, will find, I believe, that a dearth never has arisen from any combina tion among the inland dealers in corn, no