the establishment of the bounty may, perhaps
with reason, be ascribed in some measure
to the operation of this statute of Charles II.
which had been enacted about five-and-twenty
years before, and which had, therefore, full
time to produce its effect.
A very few words will sufficiently explain
all that I have to say concerning the other
three branches of the corn trade.
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 country
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.
By the 22nd of Charles II. c. 13, the importation
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 had 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.[40] 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.
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 regulation.
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
might have been exported again, with the benefit
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