The National Register.
London, England, 1816-01-14 00:00:00

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i • PUBLISHED AT. NO. 89, CHANCERY-LAND, LONDON.
4
No 4go .. , . SUNDAY, JANUARY 14, 1810. PRICE 9:1,a.
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POLITICAL DISQUISITION. ..
of the Rank at length diminished the circulation still more ; or ,
--asp—
what was of equal effect, prevented it from rising to the due
'CAUSE of the full of PRICES and ruin of FARMERS. Ertent of` level required, by the increase of the taxes, and luaus to
the NATIONAL DIFFICULTIES. PEACE ESTABLISHMENT. Government.
idNoRANCE or TIMIDITY of the EDINBURGH REVIEW. _ Credit is a slender fabric :it is often a phantom of caprice;
.., it is supported many times by the very means which should
, . .
_ OUR last Number concluded with recommending briefly, but excite suspicion ; when it once fails. it falls to ruin with the
with the confidence of long study, and the consciousness of rapidity of soundl; and the man who can command thousands
. imperious duty, the ohly alternatives which can now make do- to-day upon the Exchange, is spurned as a beggar to-morrow.
mottle tranquillity the attendant of Peace, and restore the coin- Paper money and circulating bills of exchange, and commer-
. mercial prosperity of the Country. •We are aware:that many cial credit, in England, differ little but. in name. To the ad-
.
achemes. will be proposed to meet. the growing exigencies of the vance or support of prices they are essential ; and without theca
gate, and give relief to.t4e Farmer and the Merchant; bill from -taxes cannot be paid to the amount which was found necessary
all_thalwe have yet. seen,. the true nature of the evil, and of or endurable while prices were High.
_
Oie remedy, is, alike saisunderstood....,4 it *thought to. consist .. The fall of prices injures all traders by degrees, till so maar
entirely. in ..the emount.ol our National Debt and Taxes ; but are deprived of their capital by repeated losses, that commercial •
thus, is and the failure of credit are universal. With a circulating
.s
bt not the immediate mischief which presses upon us with so medinniof entire metal, this would stop when the bills of ex-
much force. i change were gone and the bank Paper. withdrawn; because then
During the war# the burthen of taxes rapidly increased; yet these would he'a fixed cniantity by which to measure the valuer
Ar.4llPParent and the real wealth of tha-. people went band in of all co-Etnnethlies, and from this point commercial confidence
band with them. Pauperism, it is true, Increased,,also.; but would begin anew, and credits and- piices rebound' from their
though age and infirmity, and indolence and extravagance, de- previous fall. The same thing would happen if the paper ch.
clinedinto poverty, youth and activity; industry and ec
onew7, ciliation consisted of paper money Made by the Government,
bold adventure, and cautiouspndence..had an ample and en- and kept at a fixed quantity ; but Vlith a paper circulation of
larged field of:, exertion, and these -classes advanced themselves mere commercial credit, there is no ascertaining to what de.
rep4l:7 in society till ahout the year ItitOn ; shortly. after, the gees it may be diminished.- 'The amount. in England to-which
Continental system was put in full activity. Thensonly was circulation may fall, is, we conjecture,- about equal to what is
commercial distress felt; which being followed by the AHEM- necessary for payment of the interest of the national debt and
q44:4. embargo, the failure:of the, BUENOS Ay ags speculation,. the annual.sinking fund. The Bank -cannot lower its circula-
and ..the loss of the. shipping and goods in the BittAtc, pro-
duced the most extensive failures ever known. By these dis- ' tion further, without a convulsion, of which no one can foresee
the consequences ; or, rather, the effect of which is too plain to
tresses, the prices of merchandise andinanufactured goods were be overlooked. Where there is no property
suddenly lowered so rapidly, as to affect all dealers seriously, there is no go-
vernment; and where the circulation does not equal the amount
and very much to diminish the confidence of the bankers and of the taxes, the revenue of the people will be exceeded by the
dealers in bills, and to contract in general the effect of credit. demands of the government, and the taxes must fall.
The quantity of circulating medium was in consequence The necessary provision for the evil of our present distress
greatly diminished; not so much in the form of Bank of England is, to increase prices by restoring credit to its former level, and
• Notes, as in commercial bills, in country bank notes, and in instead of diminishing the circulation, as was recommended by
accommodation Lille. Of the extent of this diminution, some the Bullion Committee, to increase. it,
without which credit can-
judgment may be formed from a plain fact. We have seen not revive nor prices rise; or else to reduce the interest of the
£50,000. worth of bills accepted by a petty bricklayer, calling national debt to equal the fall in prices. All other remedies
himself a builder ; and £17,000. woi th by a haberdasher of are ineffectual ; and, like quack medicines, only increase the
small wares, both from the beginning insolvent ;--but who, while disease by delaying the cure.
they could sustain their credit, contributed to augment the The agricultural distress is a mere consequence of the cool-
quantity of circulated medium,-not merely by the amount ex- mercial, and both united have produced an alarm of which the
pressed in these bills ; but by the far greater amount of the total
sum of country bank notes which the repeated discount of the raemsuilsttackaen,nofot
rheitdebpeigcatenda.
ulri'nhgattiitleishoctotesnnteco
tfedthelitVhaPr,e"ce whileis
bills might create, in passing perhaps through three or foul
i bands in the first week of their circulation ; till at last, when Bonaparte was beating the Russians at Blatt.
and indeed somewhat earlier. :en and Wautzen,
i
backed by some persons of established credit, they were dis-
counted at the BILNK OF ENGLAND, the source from which all given their advice with a generality and caution which The great northern illuminati of the Edinburgh Bevil
ibandv
ie.
I' 4he current flows, or else dries up. More cautious • dings in
catty their ignorance of the subject, or their timidity
ap-
Vati. rlf. !WAX:CU.".
404,. . _ preaching it. We-shall lay before our readers their statement
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