The Sun.
London, England, 1821-05-30 00:00:00

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most important, and the,most -durable ptirt,Oftlie;."
wealth of this" Nation.. The aMount of its annual.
produce is far greater than that of any other pro
ductive property. Upon the amount of the riches
'annually produced by _the land principally de-
'pen& the consumption and re-production of the
produce of. all other branches of national industry.
-As: agriculture flourishes or languishes; sro do ,
'-manufactures and the interaal trade, the greatest
trade of all.
• The growing price or natural price of wheat
' -Was .28s. per quarter, the middle of the last cen-.
burr, on account of moderate taxation. Down;
to the year 17 90 it probably did not 'exceed 40s.
per quarter. The Board of Agriculture found
..that the farmer's expences of labour, rates, wear
and tear, team; &c. &c., exclusive of-- rent, had
'doubled between 1790 and 1813. -Itt 1815 Par-
. •liarrient deemed the growing or natural price of
wheat to 'be at least 71S. if not 80s.. Not as
using the language of complaint,. but for.sug-
- gesting remedies, to what can these alterations,
be fairly attributed, without disguise,
:but. to
the incalculable effects of the accumulating ope-
ration of taxes ? •
With these facts before us, although labour,
rent, and profit were the utmost component parts
..of price in ADAM SMITH'S time, .we must now
,admit the existence of an additional component
part to be constituted by direct and indirect tax-
ation and their accumulating•effects ; and there-
fore may lay it down as a principle in our politi-
cal economy, that the price of every commodity
resolves itself into some one or other, or all of
four component parts, namely, labour, taxes,
reDt,and profit.
But the natural price of a commodity and the
'market price are distinguished from each other.
The market price is the actual price at which a
-commodity is sold. According to ADAM SMITH,
" it may either be above or below, or exactly the
'‘' same with its natural price. The market price
" of every particular commodity is regulated by
"'" the proportion, between the quantity which is
44 actually brought to market and the demand of
.44 those who'are willing to pay the natural price
" of the commodity, or the whole value of the
46 rent, labour, and profit which must be' paid in
".order to bring it thither."
Admitting the validity of the principle we
have attempted to establish, the profitable degree
in which the high market prices of corn anti com-
modities which existed so many years, will ac-
count for the great prosperity of those times.—
We know from every day's experience, that the
market price of corn, or any ,commodity, ought
to be such as to remunerate the producers at least
,the four component parts of the natural price, to
enable him to live by his industry, and to sup-
port re-production. So the labourer ought, in
his wages, fully to receive. the amount of the ne-
cessaries of life and expences of his subsistence,
which are made up of those four component parts,
ot the price of his labour will fall short of en-
abling him to live by his industry.
If therefore it be the fact, as we have every
reason to believe, that neither the market price
.of corn, or labour, or any thing now comprehends
yetributiou of that.part of price which consists of
taxes, we may perceive in this circumstance a
substantial cause of the decline of prosperity in
"all classes of produces and their labourers.:
And if we go a step further and find that the
taxes are paid, although the prices of things in
no adequate degree whatever comprise either
taxes, or profit, we may account for the consump-
tion of capital, the decay of industry, and the
extreme distress or many of the active classes.
The national debt now amounts to about 850
millions, and the annual charge to about 32
millions, excluding the sinking fund. The poor
rata amounted to 8 millions on the average of
1813 to 1815, and to six millions expended on
the'poor.-

. We must not deceive ourselves ; on account of
the great improvements in the science of agricul-
ture and the economy of fertilizing land, which
have rendered land more productive than in
former times, if the debt and 'taxes were no
- gteater, the expences of cultivating and placing
corn at market would be no greater,- probably
leo, now than they were, thirty, forty, sixty
years ago; and corn would be as cheap in our
times, but nevertheless as profitable. to the farmer
.at the price,.as‘ it was at any of those periods.—
Are; not increased capital, improved skill and
Arettter intelligence favourable to these 'results ?
.But on account of taxation, even if the price of
• wheat were as low as at either of those periods,
.the quartern. loaf would not. be afforded equally
,cheap as. then to yield living profits..
Sititit the middle of the last century.other in-
terests, have grown into importance. Our manu-
factures:and commerce have trebled both in im-
ports and exports since that period. They now
comprehend the employment of an immense po-
,pulation.,,as- well,. as capital.. Even our Cotton
~4anufastnres-alone, which down to the year 1782.
q,vere%surposed' to amount only to about twd,
-millions- per annum, have in • recent years beets.
',estimated to amount to nearly thirty millions per.
annum.; -and that mare than twelve millions per
••
.annum: were ,paid for labour alone. These inte-
rests require for their support moderate prices
for-the necessaries of life, to enable them to com-
pete with the fabricks of foreign nations, and to
promote Their universal consumption; -especially
-‘/*.s.foreign Status are more than ever encouraging
•-theiroWn manufactures.
.. But altliough.it. be admitted that the support
' and prosperity of manufactures depend consider-
.ably- on the abundance and cheapness_ of food,
and • the free-importation of-foreign corn might he
supposed to produce this abundance and cheap-
ness,, as taxation has raised the growing price (if
corn in Britain,-§ince the middle- or the 'last cen-
ttiry,, to double the growing price_ of corn in
Prance, and more :than treble that of Poland, the
free import of corn would. bring so immense a
quantity, that our agriculture would utterly sink
under the pressure of such competition; not only
- • to the ruin of agriculture and the-irreparable in-
jury of. far the most important portion of natural
wealth, but.to the-injury of all the; great inland
trade. and. the consumption even of our 'own ma-
nufactures ; -the best market • for 'which is the
home market, and both which area most
.prospe-
,
rogs while Agriculture flourishes. Beside, such'