The Sun.
London, England, 1847-04-30 00:00:00

PETITION OF THOMAS BARBER WRIGHT

CURRENCY.

AND JOHN HARLOW.

The humble Petition of the undersigned Inhabitants of
the borough of Birmingham,
Shorreth,—That your petitioners regard with great
apprehension t&I operations of an Act passed in the
seventh and eighth years of the reign of her present
Majesty, intituled, " An Act to regulate the issue of
Bank-notes, and for giving to the Governor and Company
of the Bank of England certain privileges for a certain
period;" and your petitioners are therefore anxious to
call the serious attention of your Honourable House to
the injurious effects ss hich the carrying out of the Act
has already produced upon the monetary and mercantile
and trading interests of the nation, and to the still more
injurious effects which are likely to result- from the fur-
ther continuance of its operations.
Your petitioners would remind your Honourable
House, that the aforesaid Act has been stated to be a
" complement" of other measures, having for their ob-
fret the regulation of the currency of this country by
the Bank of England and the other banks of the country,
and was passed byyour Hon( is • dale House, under the plea
that it " wool I untigate or ter ninate those evils which
have at various times afflicted the country in consequence
of rapid fluctuations in the amount and value of the me-
dium of exchange," and " put a check on speculation,
and insure, so far as legislation can insure, the just re-,
ward of industry, and the legitimate profit of commercial
enterprise, conducted with integrity, and controlled by
provident calculation."
That the system of which the Bill of 1844 is said to
be the complement, professes :to regulate the eirculatifig
medium of ths country by the influx and efflux of bul-
!ion: when the Bank of England holds a large quantity
of tiullion it can issue an abundance of credit money;
but, in proportion as the bullion decreases, the Bank is
compelled to diminish the amount of its credit money.
The true uses of credit money are, in the opinions of
your petitioners, thus reversed; for when the country is
in a position to do without the aid of the Bank credit,
then the Bank can furnish it most abundantly; but when
credit money is really required, the Bank is compelled
to withhold its help. Your petitioners would refer to
the present position of the Bank as fully bearing out
these allegations. The country is now labouring under
a great calamity, in consequence of the deficient produce
of the harvests of 1845 and 1846; and this calamity, in
the opinion of your petitioners, is greatly aggravated by
the present inefficient system of currency, which, as
your Honourable House will perceive, contracts credit
when credit is most required, and thus adds calamity to
calamity, instead of mitigating the evil.
Your petitioners would humbly submit to your Ho-
nourable House, that, in consequence of the deficiency
in the harvests alluded to, the prices and value of food
have been considerably enhanced, and that the labourer
has consequently to give a larger amount of his labour
for the same amount of food. Your petitioners entreat
your Honourable House to observe the workings of the
system under this state of things. In consequence of the
deficiency in the produce of the harvests of this country,
food has to be imported from abroad, and this food, the
demand for it being sudden, has to be paid for in gold:
the result of this is, that the basis of the credit money of
the country is taken away—that is, the bullion upon
which the credit money is issued—and the paper money,
which constitutes the active currency of the country, is
consequently diminished. The operation of the system
is already rendered painfully evident in the money mar-
ket. The Three per Cent. Consols, which were above
par at the latter end of 1844 and beginning of 1845, and
which, even no further back than June, 1846, were at
971., are now (April 10, 1847) at 861. The unfunded
debt, railway shares, canal shares, and other property,
have been in like manner operated upon. The quantity
of labour finding active employment has already been
seriously lessened; the labourer will, therefore, have to
pay higher prices for food out of diminished wages. The
amount of his labour is lessened at the very time he
should, if possible, have fuller employment. The paying
of higher prices for food is an evil which, under the cir-
cumstances of a deficient harvest, cannot be avoided;
bat short employment under the same circumstances is
an evil which the present system of currency, by de-
stroying credit money when it is most required, aggra-
vates to an enormous extent. If the credit money were
not destroyed, the diminution of employment would be
small in amount; and, in many cases, would scarcely
be felt.
Your petitioners would entreat the attention of your
Honourable House to the fact, that the amount of legal-
tender money is very small in comparison with the large
business transactions of the nation, and that a slight
diminution of the legal-tender money destroys large
masses of credit. The active circulation of the Bank of
England, for the week ending August 29, 1846, when it
held 16,366,0681. of bullion, was 21,311,8101.; the active
circulation for the week ending the 3d day of April,
1847, with bullion amounting to only 10,246,410/., is
20,815,234/ , making a difference in the actual circula
t:on of 496,576 L This diminution, small as it is, acting
conjointly with the distrust which the rapid diminution
of the bullion hits created, operates upon more than one
hundred million s of credit in the shape of mercantile bill,
and upon credit in other shapes to an enormous amount.
It is thus evident that, as the trade and commerce of the
nation are carried on and sustained by credit, steadiness
of quantity in the legal-tender money of the country is
of vital importai c to the trading community. Under
the present system of currency, the fluctuations of the
exchanges acting upon the immense /31US CS Of credit
transactions, render "prudent calculation" impossib!e.
had the directors of the Bank of England acted strictly
in accordance with the principles of the late enactment,
the fluctuation of the present time would be much
greater than it now is ; for whilst there has been a flue
tuation of bunion amounting to 6,119,658/, there is only
a difference in the active circulation amounting to
496,5761., on comparison of the two returns before
alluded to.

Your petitioners are aware that the directors of the
Bank of England have been much blamed for not acting
up more strictly to the intention of the Act of 1844.
But your petitioners consider that it must be evident to
your Honourable House, from the facts here detailed,
that the directors of the Bank of England have done the
utmost that a bad system would allow them to do, to
keep free from "alternations and vicissitudes in that
medium of exchange which regulates the value of every
article in the country." Your Honourable House must
at once perceive that if the directors of the Bank of Eng-
land had reduced their active circulation in the same
proportion as the bullion has been diminished, the de-
struction of credit that must have ensued would, before
this, have brought about a panic much more disastrous
than the panic of 1825. Such, however, is the restrictive
nature of the Act of 1844, that, in the opinion of your
petitioners, the Bank can no longer contend against its
operations. With a much larger amount of bullion in
its possession at the present time, compared with former
seasons of money pressures, the directors have less power
to help the trading community; and have been compelled
not only greatly to increase the rate of interest upon
loans, but have also found it necessary, for the safety of
the Bank, to absolutely refuse paper of a very high class,
such as a short time ago would have been freely dis-
counted.

Your petitioners would also submit, that the evil effects
of the fluctuations of the exchanges are greatly aggra-
vated by the immense fixed monetary engagements ofoll
nation, and that, these and the foregoing causes o
rating together, render the present system of currener
altogether unjust and impolitic, and call* for the imam-
dicta igterferenoe of your Honourable Uouse. The fore-
going• statements clearly show that the system of cur-
rency, which itt• was said the Act of 1844 would render
complete, has not and cannot "prevent alternations
and vicissitudes in that medium of exchange
which regulates the value of every article in
the country-;" on the contrary, your Honourable
House will perceive that it has very much aggra-
vated them, and has rendered them more disastrous to
the commercial tiad trading interests of the community,
and to the productive classes generally, than heretofore
has been the case.

Your petitioners are of opinion, that the best means
by which the evils resulting from the late deficient
harvests can be mitigated, will be by the issue of paper-
money sufficient to sustain the trade of the country
during the absence of the gold currency; and that a
system of paper-money, .established with proper checks,
would at all times be best adapted to the wants of the
country.

Your petitioners observe that, according to the last
returns of the Bank of England, the amount held by the
Bank to carry on its business transactions is only
4,391,4701. Your petitioners therefore pray your
llonourable House to take the state of the Bank and the
currency into immediate consideration, and, by the
timely exercise of the authority of your Honourable
House, protect the population of this country from those
evils with which they are now threatened, and which
cannot fail to visit them if the Act of 1844 is allowed to
continue in operation.
And your petitioners will over pray for the prosperity
of your Honourable House.
THOMAS BARBER WRIGHT,
Newspaper Proprietor, Union-street, Birmingham.
JOHN HARLOW, Printer,
Summer-lane, Birmingham.

- PETITION OF THaMAS CLUTTON SALT.
The humble Petition of Thomas Clutton Salt, o

Birmingham.
Showeth,—Thet the fact is before your Honourable
House, that, whenever the exchanges become adverse,
gold is exported, and the Bank of England is compelled
to diminish her issue of paper money, thereby effecting
a double drain on the basis of our monetary means.
That a very trivial diminution of this basis has been
invariably accompanied by an abatement of the rapidity
of the circulation of the remainder, and a derangement
of the vast superstructure resting upon it. The dimi-
nished money is incapable of
.paying undiminished debt,
or of supplying the undiminished necessities of exist-
ence; and thus a prosperous, wealthy, and industrious
Ps
people, by this weakness of the monetary system, is
i
suddenly reduced to insolvency, ruin, and pauperism.
That the facts are also before your Honoukrabl, and the
aintained ine House,
that the general depression of foreforeignniamr eta
prosperity and comparatively high prices
the English markets, has stimulated importations,
correspondingly checked exportations.
i and
That the general reduction of mportduticsof goohasadls-
lowed the introduction of large quantities
hitlarto virtully prohibited.

That the partial failure of the crops has caused an un-
precedented importation of food.
That this combination of causes threatens a more
tshearTinohuaest.faadeny t i
erafsnogrmemerenpteroifodt.he exchanges of the currency
also before your Honourable House, that.
e
creation
hrtf
leeewa
nteinaocolontrnrheom:
the
shtoreEdaesi increase of monetary obligations conse-*
development
rentals
industry,
enlargedthe ac
cities,
ue
sl ttiho
arayndfaactitotiusand requir-
ingoutlhderremndoedresany
re-
duction
eosru2
your Honourable
occasions,
and
8 36
of our monetary meanseswo
disastrous
mfaoenttehi
monetary
nra3l,oson crisisabn before
ofrooerfincalculably more
i n tThehe
the House,
Bankthat
f
England still retained the discretionary powers of
regu-
lating her issues; and when many great establishments
r had closed, and when the remainder of these foundations
of our commercial system were about to give way; when
we were declarq by a Minister of the Crown to be
within forty-eight hours of barter; within that brief
period when the law of debtor and creditor would have
r virtually ceased; the payment of wages, and the exercise
of, industry would have been impossible, and the means
of existence of society would have failed; then the Bank
of England, by large and timely issues, stayed the ruin
and averted the impending anarchy.
But in the session of 1844 your Honourable !rouse
passed the complement Error Bill of the great Error
Bill of 1819, substituting an inelastic cord for the elastic
cord by which the Bill of
.1819 bound the Bank of
England;
Under the law of 1844 the Bank has no power to
save: Shia c.ut only add to her issifeirof notes by her
command over her gold, which she -eniiioly loses in the
hoUrv..l nee& .The ruin must thtrefore hold on its
des•ructive course. .
. Your_httnible petitioner would now call the 'attenlioß
of your Honourable House to some of the consequences
of dangers so evidently at hand. •--
The details of Irish destitution and misery which daily
appal your Honourable House, mainly or more immedi—
ately result from the loss of the potatoe crop, which is
the means of existence of -the Irish labourer, and that
misery is only mitigated ancrexistence 'preserved by the
power England possesses of.punriug. out her treasure
unsparingly to relieve. ,
.• .
how money, with 41.9ne- pays wages, is the only
me ins of existence of the English labourer ; should the
Government permit that to fail,—should your Honour-
able House, disregarding the signs of the times and the
warning of
.your humble petitioner, neglect Adopting
timely measures to prevent the occurrence of a monetary,
crisis, now impending,—a sudden and general suspen-
sion of the employment of labour and payment of wages
must occur ; this only means of the existence of a dense
population must cease, and the Government wilt hare to
deal at once with Irish and English destitution at the
very time that it loses all financial power to relieve.
One of the most profound thinkers on this subject
England has produced, gave the Government, a quarter
of a century ago, this emphatic warning If the Go-
vernment should delay rectifying the great errors of its
monetary system until a scarcity of food and a scarcity
of money should occur at the same time, then it will be
ruin to advance, ruin to retreat, ruin -to stand still."
Your humble petitioner has shown your Honourable
House, that this double and irremediable danger now
threatens the country; and he earnestly prays your
Honourable House, that it would, without delay, appoint
a Committee, to inquire into the means of averting it,
and that such Comtni, tee should be directed to examine
yourpc-titioner, and such other persons as they may deem -
competent; and he prays that your Honourable House
may, in its wisdom, escape the gui t and danger of
reducing, by its management, the most powerful,
wealthy, and industrious people in the world to a
condition of misery and anarchy passing all records or
belief.
And your petitioner will ever pray, &c.
THOMAS CLUTTON SALT.
Birmingham, Feb.