The Sun.
London, England, 1821-06-23 00:00:00

AGIUCuLTURAL COMMITTEE.

REPORT • from the SELECT COMMITTEE to whom the
several PETIT lONS complaining of the DE PR ESS E D
STATE of- the AGRICULTURE of The UNITED
KINGDOM were referred.
The SELECT COMMITTEE to whom the several Petitions
which have been prigerited to the House in this Session of
Parliament complaining of the DEPRESSED STATE of
the AGRICULTURE- of the UNITED KINGDOM,
were referred, to inquire into the Allegations thereof, and to •
report their Observations thereupon ;11ave, pOsuant to
the Order. nf the Nouse, considered the matters totheen
re-
ferred,'and have agreed to the following REPORT t-';•-•
Your. Committee do not think it necessary to ptefbee the ob-
servations which they have to . make, upon thnintportant mat-
ters referred to them by the-House, by ii recapitulation of the
numerous laws which have been passed, at different periods, for
regulating the trade in Corn. The most material of those laws
have beeq brought under the consideration of the House by the.
Deports -444p' er-Cuipittees Ott- this .seiaet,e, It is, therefore,
sufficient to remark, teat by the salutary law of 1806, n fvee
fereliange in grain of every description, was esta'olishone--
tweet) Great Britain and Ireland; and that the trade in fo-,
reign corn is altogether goterned by the provisions of the Acts
of 51 and 55- Geo. 111., by which •were, for the' first time,
enacted ;—firit, a„.; constantly free exportation from the
United Kingdom, without reference to :price, or without such
exportation being either encouraged by any bounty, or restrain-
ed,by any duty whatsoever ;—secondly, au. absolute prohibi-
tion against the introduction .of every description .of fbreign
grain, meal, or flour, into the consumption of the United King-
dom, when the average prices, ascertained according to the
mode es ablished by former Acts, are beloW certain-specified
rates ;—thirdly, an unlimited freedom of importation, from all
parts of the world, without any duty whatever, when the prices
are above those.specificd rates.
Such being the-state of the Law which affects, so far as le-
gislative interference can affect, the important interests brought
under the consideration of the House by the numerous peti-
tions presented in this Session, your Committee proceeded, in
the first instance, to inquire into the allegations-of those peti-
tions. It is with deep regret that they 'have to commence their
Report by stating, that, in their judgment, the complaints of
the petitioners are founded in fact, in so far as they represent
that, at the present price of corn, the returns to the occupier of
an arable farm, after allowing for the interest of his investment,
are by no means adequate to the charges and- outgoings ; of
which a considerable! proportion can be paid only out of the capi-
tals, and not from the profits of the tenantry.
This pressure upon the farmer,• is stated by some of the wit-
nesses to have materially affected the retail business of shop-
-keepers in country towns connected with the Agricultural districts.
But notwithstanding this diminution of demand in particular
parts of the country, it appears, by official returns, that the total
consumption of the principal articles subject to duties of excise
.and customs have increased in .the last year, compared with
the average of the' three preceding years ; and also, that the
quantity of cotton wool used for home consumption, and of •
cloth manufactured in Yorkshire, was greater last year than in.
the year preceding, although the export of woollens in 1820 ap-
pears to have diminished. Your Committee have.not the same
authentic means of ascertaining the consumption of iron, but
there appears every reason to believe that it has also in- •
creased.
The opinion of your Committee, -in respect to the present
pressure upon -the tenantry, is formed upon the best documen-
tary evidence which the nature of the case admits of, confirmed '
by the testimony of many respectable witnesses, as well occu-
piers of. land. as surveyors and land agents : and it is further
strengthened by a comparison of the difference between the exist-
ing price and the average price of the last ten years, the period
within which most of , the present engagements, affecdng the
tenant of the soil, may be supposed to have been contracted.
-If the present price could, under all the present circumstances,:
be remunerative, .the average price of that period must have
afforded an excessive profit; which does not appear probable,
nor warranted by any facts. The only fair inference, perhaps,
to be drawn from such a comparison, and from the state of our
Agriculture during the last war, is, that for a considerable part,
of that period, the returns .of farming capital somewhat ex-
ceeded the ordinary rate of profit, and that, at this time they are
considerably below it:
However much this revulsion is to be lamented, both as it
affects the public interest, and the interests and humedian pro-
spects of a most nieritonous class of the community, it is a re- •
yulsion of the same nature (whatever may he its degree) as.-
many which have occurred in different periods of our history;
and it is no more than an act of justice to the tenantry of-Great-
Britain to state, that, so far as your Committee have been:
able to ascertain, the rents, with some exceptions in particular'
districts, have hitherto been collected, without more arrest than:
has occurred on several former Occasiong: This punctuality,
whilst it is highly honourable to the character of the tenantry,
aflbrds (your Committee trust) a grouno of hope, that the great
body of the occupiers of the soil; either from the savings of
more prosperous times, or from that credit which punctuality-
willgenerally command in this country,possesses resources wl lien
will enable them to surmount the difficulties Under which they
now labour. The pressure of these difficulties has led, in many
instances, to a diminution of tents, varying in degree according
to the proportion in which- such rents had been increased be-
tween the years 1793 and 1814, which diminution is stated by
several of the ..witnesses to have been made as well upon sub-
sisting leases, as in cases where farms have been recently
nice.

Your CoinMittee cannot allude to the state of rents in this
country,. without observing, that a large portion of the
.increase
of the rent which has taken place within the last twenty years,
is owing to the capitals which have been permanently vestal in
improvements, partly by the owners and, in part by the tenants
of the soil ; by the judicious application of which capitals, in
many Ina:imam p-reat tracts of land, theretofore waste, or com-
paratively of little value, belie been brought intp,productive
cidtivation.
A further proportion of the increase of rent' is, unques-
tionably, to be ascribed to • the diminjahed value of our
currency, during a great part of the period when this, rise
took place. It may be difficult, upon an average of the whole
• kingdom, and still more difficult in specific .cases, to deter-
mine what part of the increase of rents any have htisn from
this cause; but it, is certainly not inconsiderable, tind Wasatint-
ing the war, saili.eient probably to 'compensate to the landlord
the effects of the derangement of the currency. The re' teza-
tion of that currency will necessarily lead, as existing eiagag,e-
men:a lapse, to new arrangements between landlord and tenant;
in the adjustnient of which the permanent effect 'of that'resto-
ration, however tililicnlt t,aaally to asaa-ttain, will have its prae
tical effect.
But your Committee cannot omit to state their opinion, that
any attempt. to determine that.offect at. glis. moment, would
give an erroneous, and Having
an exaggerated Die:sure of its
prospective.infiuence. Having been ,long.below, the currency
appears now to be forced above, its standard. In making this
• remark, it is by no ineana designed to ()ilia- an opinion. uPon the
precautions which-have been taken, and tate'paeparations which
have been matle.4 the Bank, for the resumption of • cash pay-
ments. But it must be obvious, that if the effect of thoaeprii-i
parationa.has been to contract, its . any ennsiderable degree, the:
amount of coin previouslYcitculatine, in'...Europe, by withdraw-:
big it from that, circulation into the colliers of the Bank, the
value of money must havehean raised geneially on the man-
ncnt ; and if, coincident with that operation, , the separate cur-
rency of this country haS also -been.contracted, not only, in the.
.dpgree necessary,—first, to.restore it to its relative par. - value
wit.] the metallic currency of other., Gauntries, but fUrther, to
place it at a perma.neut premium above that metallic currency
(itself enhanced in value in proportion, to the .amount with-
drawn by the purchases of the Bank,) it would seem to follow,
that the proportion of our cireidation is now somewhat below,
and the vique of the currency so:newhat above, whet would '
be requisite to niaintain that currency upon a 'level with
the diminished circulation, and consequently, with the in-
creased value of money in the . other Counti;es of the
world. The pusent price of standartl.silyerin bank paper, the
very high course of toe foreign exchanges, and. tha:iininense
new higher with ail countries than at any
influx of ballasts for the last nine months, without any decline
in theseexcliangcs,
format pea-fed, 411 clact;r strongly to warrant this coneluaion.
It-would be for::iati to the iromediateobject of this• Report to
pursue this subject further ; your Committee, however, can-
not but ascribe a‘proporb-on Of tile depression of prices; which
(as they will hereaftr have occcsion to Observe) now generally
prevails in other cunt tries, as well as in this, to the measures
the restoration of oar currency had rendered necessary ;the •
genctal effect of which fats been, in some degree, to derange
the mar/ sets of every. part :of the eiv.ilized world; an effect wbic.h
,has keen aiagravate4.gels? iamakats, as well.a,s in our.man,

by the endeavours of other comities to revart to a maitallie cur.
rencyp simultaneously with OtIYBaIVCS..
- Whatever. therefore may be the ultimate operation of the re:.
storatien of. the currency upon, the nominal rental of the king).
dome your Committee incline to believe that it wili is
short ef some of the exa ge.rated predictions to 'which the pre-
sent alarz‘s have given iese ; and they see no ree.son to appre-
hend that the dinnnution can ultimately exceed thatepeoinntioa
or the increase which, 01.11:::12; the ware grew cut a the. depre-
crated value of the currency. .
.Under cireumstances ineoura:-.10 to the proaparity- ne tiie
' country, which thny trust may feirly I. enticip.ated
aottinuanee Of peace, they are disposed to hope that this, di-
minution may not be carlied even to that extern.; altholigh;
as a general principle, your Committee cannot doubt, tut,
so- far as the alteteition of our currency has contribitteel to Io vet
the price Of commodities, the prochietions .Agrieulnare
ays
been, and must hereeifter, in common with all other artieiLa, oe
affected by the. improved value of our money.
But your Contreittea;.zra also satisfied, ley dare result of tit&
inquiries, that, in resent year, the
.price of cern has beeal
feether depreas:xl alreirdzinee and goed quelity cef
the last harvest, in tilrirhicies of grain and pulse ; more parti-
cularly in Ireland, in which pant of tile f Innen tenan.naa, skn
llaeaae
Several of the ilotneeses, enannineelh:trar etafeal. their h that -
the prices of grain have farther been depressed, in the present
year, by the very large importatiOns of foreign core, veluen took
place before' the ports were closed in the month of febrnat/
1819.; but looking to the very high prices, and to the constant
and brisk demand which prevailed in our Illarketseso' long as
the ports continued operi in 1817 and 1818, it. may be inferze.o.
that the greatest part of those importations wees necessary, and
was disposed of during those years, to supply the daily w.emts of
our consumption, and that it is therefore only in a-lemote deeenee
that the present prices can be influenced by the occurrences ol
that period.
It can scarcely be necessary for your Committee to rernaek,
that the growth of 'wheat leas been grently extended and' im-
proved of late years, inall parts of' tare' liiited Kingdom,- hitt
principally in Ireland, since the year 1807. .
Your Committee feel it an important part of -their duty to re-
call to the recollection of the House, and the Country, that, in
the years 188=3• and 1814, • a depression of priccs,--principally
caused by abundant _harvests, and a great tater:Sion of tilloge,
excited by the extraordinary high prices of antecedent years,_;_
appears to
.have produced a teniporary .pressure and uneasiness
among the owners and occupiers. of land, • and a corresponding
difficulty in the payment of rents and the letting of farms, in
some degree similar to the apprehensions null ernharressments
which now prevail ; anti, also, that in many earlier period a,
similar complaints may be traced in the history of
Agriculture.
Among numerous instances of these complaints, 'which my
be found in other publications, between the rniddle.of the 17L1
century and the beginning of the late reign, two have been point-
ed out by one of the witnesses, in wilich the thinSenvill not
fail to remark the great similarity between the arguilfents and •
alarms which were then current, with these Which prevail jai-,
Many quarters at this period.
' That in these earlier and more remote stones -of our Agri-
culture these alarms were only temporary, trail that the fears of
those who reasoned upon their continuance and increase, were
ere long dissipated by the natural comec of seasons:and events,
is now matter of -history. • ',And it in impossible to lock baelt
to the discussions of the years 1844 anti 1814; and more espe-
cially to the evidence taken befctre. the (.'onnuittee appointed
by the House on the latter • oecasion, without being torcibly
struck with the conformity of the statements
.and. opinion's, thnli
produced, respecting the ruinous operation and enpected con-
tinuance of low prices, with those which will be found in toreevidence now collected. Indeed these statements, in some in-
stances, come from the mouths of the same witnesses.
Your Committee will not lengthen their Report, by inserting
any extracts from the Report of 1814, but they feel tnat, upen
this point, they may confidently refer, on the onn hand, to the
general tenor of the examinations of the ze.veral•suer eyors and
intelligent oeCupierS of land, whose evidence will be found at-
nexed to that Report; and, on the other,- to the-.lllinutes
are now submitted to the -
Your Committee-trust that this reference to past experience
will not be altogether useless and unavailing to allay the alarm,
and to dispel some of the desponding 'predictiOns fanich, by üb-
necessarily increasing anxiety fon the future, tend to aneTravate
the severe pressure of our present difficulties ;—that
tie reL'e,-
tions which such a'retrospect•is -calculated- to excite, may lead
the occupiers of the tail, as ithas led-yonr Cominittee, to mine:,
that in Agriculture, as in nil other -•purauhs, in which capital
and indUstiY• can-be embarked, there have been and will-ba,
_periods of reaction ; that such reantion is the more; to be expiat
ed, in proportion to tae lope e cortiriped prosper4y of the pp.,
suit, and to the degree of in :carious exein-ment and exernon
which that prosperity had called forth, They .must add
'further inference 'fawn'. the experience of ,fonner period's, to
'whiCh the present crisis bears no distant res-enahlatte, that there
is a 'natural tender.ey in the' dist:rilaution of "apit l and labor
to remedy the disorders which may casually arisein na feo
such temporary derangements, tind (without dt•4l meaning op
dolly that it is the duty of the Legislature to do -r.re-ry I.lliag
its power- to shorten the duration, gild to pal4iate: the evils_ of
the 'crisis) that it often happens- that these‘otadidera arepae-
longed, if not aggrayaLd, by tOo Innen interference and ree-tila-
don. - •

. , • It is by no means with the expectation that- the sufforiogoof
• our own community can be alleiated by the cofiteMpLuton of
• a corresponding pressiire its,' n other natioos, that your
mittee find 'themselves callcd,upon to state, that many Coll,l:UQ-
ditigs of geitiqral arid extensive deniand, the staple:productions
Of other countries 'Stich asAcornocooon, rice and tobacco in the
United Sfaits of AMerica ; sugar :.rd ruin in the Wkst
flax; hemp, timber, iron, wool, and corn, on the conti-
nent of I.,:uropeoappear to have lollop in price, in Soine imstances
mono and scarcely tit any- less, in proportion 'to the pricea: of
those articles prior to l t'l6,,than the, fall in the price of gratako
this 'country o-,With n.g-ard-toseveral of which artieles,, and-tire
countries pro:hieing theni, some of the etiosca which have prin.
eipallv 'affected the vailue of grain in this couotry cannot be con-
sidered as Orerating. • •
.
Thefreots of this great revulsion- of prices, in other parts of
the iverb.l,'-.n,u4s be found, as to most of those articles, in the
.
Evidenee ctillectea by your Cortmlittce, and the remainderr itautheritic inforrontion -new before the house. The facts
Pram their Omar; matter of such ootoriety to .t4e
col iillercial KlasSz:s of the community, that they cannot odrni:
of it difht. this•state things ttmds to inVoive °diet
cOuntries' in cribarrOssnient, it must be matter not of sada:ac-
tion, biit of r, et.; and this natural feeling of 'very libcrtl
ooiY. I,:e confirmed by reflecting upon the intimate
connection must exist betwcep the advanaement of otltar
MOions loWa rds'Wealth' =p and roven:lent, and the growing ptg.-
sper4, of outown. Fintertaining this feeling, your Committee
that their motive for noticing the present state of -the:
markets Li Otlierpartsofthe world, willnot be niiicenceived. The
faCtis one which naturally camewi thin OIC scope of their in quirt',.
te-ndirig taafFoat the ro arketS of this country. and it Oppeared,oot
line.Seritial :divert to it, for the further objc.scteif Showing, th;):
the causes; whiclohave orodoeed, this great changearc-nntcontLieti
'to
.any'nnecou4trY... reovOtild leer-. that thc in fluenceOf thet get 4.
ral d;:tratiguitent Whiell the convulsionsnf the hest 451ea.rs. have
pr'oelitCed rOations of coMinerle, in the application ot•
the'deiirtizd' for labour, is not yet spent and
liatisted, tend ihzt neither
.124 e hqirits and dealings of inclividwllo,
ineinbers'orthe`iatite- coinniunity, nor the transactions and -..ip-
tcrcourse of dilrerent communities with-one another, have hitt',
• , I • caste
•Crt6' altogether add themselves to that more natural stote:of
thing's, which We.may nay/ hope LS, likely to become again die
More habitual fold ijerr.Llr.n,;_nt condition of society. .
It is impossible to have watched with any degtee of attetitioll,
the state and condition ,of Agriculture, Manufactures,.. and
Trade, under the infiuence of this depression in the pricerof
4nany arti-eles of general consumption,• without being-cenVit'ac.-
, rd thzt it has boen attended with sever glass to the several
by whose capitals those articles have been either raised,. or bell
fig sale`and distribution, to supply the wants of society,; hat as
far e.s deprcssioli of pi ice has ;been produced. by redundant. pre-,-
.ductiono'whieb,'at !his Mot-tient, appears to le one of the eatts;',‘
operating .to lower the price of cotwboth inthis and other cone-
tries, it admits of no aacquate remedy, except that which Mart
arise progrcroive adjustment of the supply to in the.a..,
md, either by the diminution of the oile, or the inercaseZOt
the other, or more probably, by the combitied operation N'bto4..
In the article of Corn, however, .there is one consitteration-fo
'be coostantly borne in mind, iniostinatcrial to enable the
and, the country to ‘tmi-ive at sound and safe concluSitros on this
importatit subject, nan04y.,...:-.that the price of cton floct4oto3
more.than,that of any ether muunodity of .ex4.ns.ive Onsurnp-
tion, in proportion to any excess or deficieney iii the. supply,
Tito twill. of this..proposition had rot rscaped.saverabwtitors
this subject, end hes been cooftrrned,•by -many of tht• v,itnsttse's
, who.)taVe. br.'En f..X.,l.ll2:llC.d.;..althaugh it • tnayle...lo ;44-