The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1820-05-23 00:00:00

CORN LAWS.

TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE F.. 1. ROBINSON,
PRESIDENT OF THE !WARD OF TRADE.

Silt—There is no subject of deeper interest to the calm-
ankaity ikon that en which 1 presume to address you, suit
as it will very soon trecitity the attention of bath Houses of
Parliament, 1 shall endeavour to lay before you, with as
much brevity as possible, the names why I Hawk the pee.
vest Cone Law better adapted to the interval of the farmer
than say other which shall have for its basis a system of
protecting
By the present law the farmer hos a utooopoly of the
home-market till the price of wheat shall have maintained
Mts. ea the average of the air weeks preceding any of the
four periods of the year which govera the impure. Expo.
rienee has gismo, that whenever the price exceeds the im-
port murk, he that 03s. or 1113 s. it proceeds from a deficiewcy
of One home soppily, sod importation immediately totes
plate. It is of this the farmers complain; their monopoly
is then broker through, and 'hey cantos submit pitifully
to competiiion with the merchant. D.. exasainattan, hew.
ever, it will be found, Shot is point of fact they have so
substantial ground of complaint, fur instead of the import
lowerisig the market, the very reverse has really occorred.—
For information on this point let sneerer to November 1816:
The Ports opened on the Ifeth of that mouth, the average
being Mts. 9d.
Oa the 15th February following, it was loos. 10d.
And on the 15th May
Avid it is very remarkable. that though the importation
was free from November 1816 to February 1819 (wish the
"sceptic's of the November quarter in 1817), and 'bat der.
is; that period the value of fureigo corn received exceeded
17 millions sterling; the average of the average pieces which
governed ibis impost was 918.0 d. Here then is clear proof
that an import does not lake place but from necessity, and
that then it has very little influence on the price, except so
far as it prevents an extraordinary and insufferable advance.
In ibe above-named periods the tawdry was visited with bad
crops, and bus for this supply no inconsiderable portion of
iii inhabitants mast have perished by famine. The adv..-
vales of protectiag duties say, we admit the deficiency and
the necessity for a supply, but this is the very reason why
• duly should have been levied ; it would have been wily
en mach taken oat of the pockets of the foreign
farmer, awl pet into one own Exchequer; this, however, I
apprehend is • complete fallacy, as the quantity which the
foreigner seeds depends upon the price he receives. A tee.
bin price will drain the coasts of Europe and America;
hot if we require more, we tonal have it brought down from
the interior, sod then the cost is iseremed; it must he
brought further and further, every anemia of the thiamine
increasing the price. Wheat, within the period named, was
bootlicks 500 miles down the rivers to Danzig and Peters.
burgh, and flour 1,500 to 2.000 souks to the shipplug ports
of America. What brought this supply but the wants of
this country, and tie high priers we were willing to pay fur
it ? Surely it will not be asserted that if by any duty we bad
abridged the price received by the foreigner, the supply
would have been as great, and as we undoubtedly wanted al:
we obtained, it is quite evident that if a duty had been imp-
lored, the consumer must have paid it. An import of 17
millions sterling required an average of 91s 4d. and is will
hardly be coutended that an average of 80s. would ham
brought as much, or that if we hail wanted 25 millions we
most not have paid 95f. to 100 s. It is the price which de.
terminal the quantity imported, and the price is ululated
by IM quantity required, and the expense of obtaining it.
If thee, Sir, I should have succeeded in proving to you,
that the duty imposed moat eveatitally he paid by the coo-
kware whenever the wants of the country are very large. 1
will in the mkt place draw your •Iteution to the con..
mammes of protecsing duties, when the crop of our. own
rouatry is adequate to its consumptiou. It usually happen.
that whoa the crop of England is vod, that of Europe is
good also; a good crop in Borland, it will not be de.
Med, is equal to the consumption. Now if with such a
crop we should be rxposrd so importation, from any scale
of duties to wh,cb the country is 11kely to submit, the price
tarsi be depressed wretchedly low, awl a succession abeam.
lout harvests would annihilate the agriculture of the king-
dom.
Even with dfrrtive crops in Europe, we have veto
what immense quantities can be spared. and with productive ;
ones it is hard to say how low the growers would he willing
to sell, sooner than bold a reilmulant produce which could
scarcely he mid to posers. any exchangeable value.
The pretest price of the belt wheat', its some of the lower I
ports of 'the Bailie, is abaft 32a. per snarler, and I sa.
tisfiril it would still be lower, hat Igor,. ;he roisidetirro
which reels on the minds of the fanners, that if they only
persevere its holding their stocks, they will certainly obtain i
pretty near our import price, for it siwruld be ',membered ;
that upon the whole this must be considered an insportior
country. If, however, the present Curs low should be re- I,
peated, and • sesta of duties substituted, the first eptcation I
ate the part of the foreigner will he " what duty shalt we
have to pay ?" sisal from that moment the price will adapt
itself. and importation will immediately take plate. This I
too will nammeuro at a period when the price of our home I
predate to cookssisdl, too low, but it mold never Moppets
wader the Mama law. It is tree that importitious is hood