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

fom its comparatively limited territory, is liable to greater
fluctuations in the produce and quality of its harvests The risk
of these fluctuations must increase in proportion as the produce
of Ireland (the- part of the .United Kingdom of which the
climate is most fickl4 may become a more extended-part of our
general supply. It must,. therefore, be manifest, that the evil
of a failing crop Would be aggravated as our dependence upon
Irelantl increased. It may, also, be a question, whether the
produce of the poorer soil; in England is not more likely to be
affected by ungenial seasons ; and it is certain, that the great
magnitude of our consumption, as compared with former
periods, must render the pressure of any deficiency created by
those circumstances more severe, and the means ,of providing
against it more difficult and more costly. A harvest which
should he one-third below an average in wheat, would bring
upon this country a very different degree of suffering, and
would require a very different degree of exertion and sacrifice to
supply the deficiency, from what would have been required un-
der a similar failure fifty years ago.

If, on the one hand, the risk of a defective harvest is increas-
ed by these circumstances, so on the other, will the occasional
pressure of very inadequate prices be more severely felt by the
grower, whenever an abundant harvest, or, possibly, more than
one in succession, shall lead to a glut of produce, without the
relief of a vent from e,portation.
Taking, therefore, as the basis of all wise regulations on the
subject of the Corn Laws, the undeniable positions, that theland-
lord, the tenant, and the consumer, have one great and common
interest in maintaining a permanent and adequate supply of corn,
st prices as steady as possible, and that steadiness of price must
depend on guarding, as much as legislative interference can
guard against the effects of fluctuation of seasons;—your Com-
mittee have examined the practical operation o the present
system of our foreign trade in corn, with a reference to these
two points.
_ _

TO prohibit the foreign supply altogether, so long as from the
casualty of seasons, we are subject to years of deficient or da-
maged produce, has at all times been felt to be impossible. But,
since the year 1815, we have had recourse to an absolute prohi-
bition up to a certain price, and an unlimited compaition be-
yond tb-t price.
_ _ _

This systein is certainly liable to sudden alterations, of which
the effect may be at one time to reduce prices, already low,
lower than they would probably have been under a state of free
trade; and at another, unnecessarily to enhance prices already
high ;—to aggravate the evils of scarcity, . and to render more
severe the depression of plias from abundance. On the one
band; it deceives the grower with the false hope of a monoply,
and, by its.occasional interrupaon, may lead to consequences
which deprive him of the benefits of that monopoly, when most
wanted;-on the other hand", it holds out to the country the
prospect of an occasional free trade, but so regulated and desul,
tory, as to baffle the calculations and unsettle the transactions,
bah of the grower and the dealer at home ; to deprive the con-
sumer of,most of the benefits of such a trade, and to involve the
merchant in more than the ordinary risks of mercantile
speculation. It exposes the markets of the country,
either to be occasionally overwhelmed with an inundation of
foreign corn, altogether disproportionate to its wants ; or, in the
event of any considerable deficiency in our own harvest, it creates
a sudden competition on the Continent, by the effect of which,
the prices there are rapidly and unnecessarily raised against our--
selves. But the inconvenient operation of , the present Corn
Law, which appears to be less the consequence of the quantity
of forci"n grain brought into this country, upon an average of
years, than of the manner in which that grain is introduced, is
not confined to great fluctuations in price, and consequent em-
barrassment, both to the grower and the consumer; for the oc-
casional prohibition of import, has also a direct tendency to
contract the extent of our commercial dealings with other States,
and to excite in the rulers of those States, a spirit of permanent
exclusion against the productions or manufactures of this coun-
try and its colonies. In this conflict of retaliatory exclusion,
injurious to both, the two parties, however, are not upon an
equal footing ;—on our part, prohibition must yield to the
wants of the people ; on the other side, there is no such over- •
ruling necessity. And inasmuch as reciprocity of demand is
the foundation of all means of payment, a large and sudden
influx of corn might, under these circumstances, create a tem-
porary derangement of the course of exchange, the effects of
which (after the resumption of cash payments) might lead to a
drain of specie from the Bank, the consequent contraction of its
circulation a panic emoting the country banks,—all aggravat-
ing the distress of a public dearth, as has been experienced
at former periods of scarcity. -
That the present system •of our Corn Law has a tendency,
according to the circumstances, at one time to reduce prices
lower than they would probably have been under a state of free
trade ; and at another time, to enhance those prices, when al-
ready perhaps too high, will not appear paradoxical to the
House, if it be considered that the practical operation of this
system, in its sudden and desultory transitions, may be, not
only slightly at variance with, but in direct opposition to, the
principle on which it is founded ;—that principle being to
shut out foreign corn from home consumption, in seasons of suf—
fithent-or abundant crops, and to gi, ve every facility to its intro-
duction, in years of scarcity. For example, let it be supposed that
on the 15th August next, the average price of wheat, ascertained in
the usual mode,should be Its. 11d. per qr., whatever may be the
possible scantiness of the forth-coming harvest, (a fact not then
capable of being ascertained,) the ports will remain shut till
Nov. 15th; but if that average should be 80s. Id. whatever may
be the abundance of the forth-corning harvest, the ports and the
warehouses of foreign corn will be opened at least for six weeks ;
and, in reference to the principal exporting countries, for three
months. Pursuing the supposition a little further,--if the first
cese should occur when there was no accumulation of foreign
corn in the warehouses of this country, and very little at the
shipping ports of the Continent (a state of things by no means
rare) the prices at home, after a failingharvest, would rise very
rapidly, and become very high, before any material supply could
be, drawn from the north of Europe ; as both the passage down
the rivers, and the navigation of the Baltic would be interrupted
during the winter.- •In the meantime, the prices on the Conti-
nent would be regulated by those of this country, rising as our
prices rose. In the spring, there would be a great demand for
shipping to bring over the supplies purchased during the winter,
by which the charge of bringing the corn to our market would
be. still, further increased; and thus, in various ways, prices
Would unnecessarily be enhanced in this country; first, during
the most distressing period of the year, from the want of a timely
and regular supply from abroad; secondly, from the eager and
general cOmpetition to procure that supply upon the sudden
opening of:our ports, a competition which will immediately raise
the price on the Continent against ourselves, until, together with
the charges of conveyance, and the probable loss upon the fall
of exchange, it becomes upon a level with the scarcity price of
.thiscountry ; and thirdly, by. the direct tax which may be laid
upon the export from countries to which we resort for our sup-
, plies. This tax, in the Prussian dominions,- was about 10 8. a
,quarter :during the extreme- scarcity which prevailed in thig
country, in the years- IiOO and 1801 ; and it was expressly de-
claret4 that the continuance:9e removal of this tax would depend
altogether upon the continuance or cessation of the wants of this
kingdom. • • , • • •
But if the second supposed case (that of our ports being
opened at a fraction above 80s.) should When there was a
great stock of foreign corn in the warehouses of this country,
and at the shipping ports of the Continent (which is the pFSent
state of_things) in proportion to the low and ruinous price to
which that corn, from long accumulation, and want of vent,
would be reduced, would be the tenaptation, and consequent
.eager competition, and simultaneous eflOrt, to pour it, upon
-this country ; where, rig the case supposed of an abundant
harreat, no part of it mould be wanted, and its rapid influx
-would not fail- to lower the prices to a pitch. which they never
-would have reached, had die-trade not been liable to such still--
don Alternations.

„The case here aSsumed, is precisely what.occurred in the
month of August last, so far as relates to oats.- Your Commit-
tee think they cannot better illustrate the possible operation of
the present law, than by inserting a short extract of a dispatch,
which will be found in the Appendix, from his Majesty's Con-
sul at Hamburgh, to the Marquess of Londonderry, on this oc-
currence ;.=-.” Jlgricultural produce has progressively declined
" during two years, the demand for export unusually small,
and there has been no stimulus to animate the agriculturist.
" The only great change which took place during thatperiod was
" in the article of (Ara, On .the opening of the'Euglish ports
" in Augusflast for this grain, an immediate rise of from i 0 to
" 50 per cent. occurred ; the shortness of the time allowed
":for importation, occasioned shipments to -a much greater
"'extent than would . have been the case-- had the ports re-
" inained open. There was no anticipation here of the sud-
'" den fall of-this grain in England, and from the rapidity with
":Which shipments were made to arrive-in time, many persons
"were: induced to send their- grain 'to England, who would
"not:have done so, had theyhad time to ascertain the quantity
"'shipped from various quarters, and the ruinous effects to be
"'expected. from so vast and so sudden an importation. Had
"the English ports been open fora year' it is.probable that the
"-importation would not have been inuch greater; but it would
"'have been more gradual, and consequently not so ruinous ;
" moderate advance on the continent, and a niiiderate reduction
"in England, .would have taken.place. The consumer in Eng-
" land 'has alone profited-;'•the importers from the Continent
." hatinglm, the whitelbst Much inoney by the speculation.-_
'" The-net' price:produced from England, lias been fOund in-
",suflicieg to pay the moderate .ptice of the continental
"'farmer," .

• " The result, therefore, of this transaction, has beery a ruin-
" ous depression In the Markets here, -ana a very.hea.vr loss to
" all engaged In 'thilmliortation.r
Your Committee cannot but remark that this importation,
large as it was, amounted to no more than 726,873 quarters;
and that our annual consumption of oats has been estimated,
for Gnat Britain only, at near 30 millions of quarters ; thus

. .
forcibly illustrating the effect of a comparatiVely trifling excess
in a market of grain already abundantly supplied.
If such be the consequences of the present system, they suf-
ficiently point out the nature of those inconveniences to which
it may expose the grower,
,the dealer at home, and the foreign
importer in his speculations abroad. When your Committee
find, for instance, in the seventeen months which passed be-
tween January 1316 and .June 1317, the price of wheat varying.
from 535. 10. to 112 s. 70. ; and main-,ln the three month
which ensued from June to S::ptember 1817, from 112 s. 7d. to'
745. they cannot but ask, whether fluet-aatians so rapid and-extensive have existed in any other commodity of universal sup,
ply and demand, or in any other country ? and Whether these
fluctuations may not have been aggravated by some of the effects
of the present law ?.
With respect to the effects which may be produced in. this
country, all the internal and commercial transactions of which
so mainly depend on circulating credit, by a sudden revulsion
in the foreign exchanges, the experience of the last thirty years
is a sufficient warning. Your Committee therefore feel a con-
fident assurance, that when the attention of the House is called
to the subject, it wines:Ai-nine, with a jealous care for the public
interest, how far the present system of the corn trade has a
tendency to bring upon the country the renewal of this calamity.
They are the more anxioustopr'ess upon the attend v 3 consider-
ation of the Ilouse, the possible tendency of this system of alter-
nation between absolute prohibition and unlimited competition,
from feeling that it is not founded upon a principle which has
the sanction of long usage in its favour. Both the alternatives
of the present system, in their present full extent, may be
said to have been introduced,_ for the first time, by
the Act of 1815. Until that period positive prohibi-
tion was unknown to our corn laws, and importation was
never pennitted Without the payment of some duty. The
amount of that duty, it is true, when grain was above certain
prices, which were reckoned the incipient indications of an in-
adequate supply from our own-growth, was very little more than
nominal • at prices somewhat lower, it was very moderate ; and
it was only when the prices had fallen,,and remained for sonic
time beioW that second stage in the scale, that any duty suffici-
ently high lo cheek the importation attached, but subject to that
duty the trade still contiraved to be free. The scale, for instance,
by which importation was' regulated in the article of wheat, up
to the yearitilii, was as follows :—Where the average price was
at or above 685.. duty on importation 6d. a quarter ; between
665. and 635. duty on importation 2s.tid. • below 635. duty
245.311. - The latteraiutyeyour Committee think it fit to observe,
operated generally as a prohibition during the short periods that
it was payable. •
This was the principle-of our Corn Law, as far as relates to
importation,-ever-since the year 1773, although the scale at
which the different rates of duty commenced had more than
onc.eheen raised. Its practical operation appears to have been as
follows :—That from the year 1773 to the year 1814, during
which period the total imports of corn have greatly ex-
ceeded the total exports, the former amounting to 30,430,189
quarters, and the latter to 5,801,440 quarters, the ports have
been constantly open, and the trade free, upon the pay-
ment of . a duty merely nominal, with the exception of a
few short intervals when the high duty was demandable.:
—that from the year 1773 to the year 1792, (with the
exception of the years of the American war, in which freights
and insurance might be somewhat increased) the only
advantage of protection which the British grower had over the
foreigner, was in the amount of this nominal duty, together viith
the ordinary. expense of peace freight, and other charges of
conveyance in bringing the foreign grain to•market ;--and-that
from the year 1792 to 1811, that protection continued the same
sa-far as related to the duty, but was, in fact, considerably en-
hanced by the highs rates of charge incident to the late war, and
particularly by the peculiar circumstances of the continent, dur-
ing the last ten years of that war. It is also, to be remarked,
that, up to the year 1806, the trade in corn with Ireland was
under restriction; and that, since.the Operat7":an of the wise law
passed in that year, the importation of grain from that part of
the United Kingdom, free from any charge or duty, has amount-
ed, up to the sth of January last, to 12,304,730 quarters,
whereas the Whole import from Ireland in thirty-two years, be-
tween 1773 and 1806, was only 7,534,202 quarters.
The necessary consequence of the trade in corn having been
virtually open with the Continent, and the importation allowed
at duties merely nominal, during this. period of forty years, has
been, that the general price, at the shipping ports on the Con-
tinent, has not, upon an average, been materially lower than
the price in England, except to the amount of the charges to be
incurred in bringing the foreign corn to the markets of this
country. The' price, at a distance from those shipping ports,
and in the districts hich have not the benefit of good roads or
internal navigation, it is true, has been much lower, but this
difference was absorbed in the expence aril risk of transporting
it from those districts. The quantity that can be supplied,
without incurring that expence, is limited ; and in proportion
as the prices in England have been high, has the interior circle
on the Cominent, from which the supplies have been drawn, ,
been extended.-

The severe scarcities which we have experienced, have fur-
nished us, therefore, with something like a measure of the degree
in which they-could be relieved from the surplus produce of the
Continent, within the prices which thoge scarcities respectively
occasioned : whilst the mode in which every rise in the price at
home adds to the power and inducement of increasing the fo-
reign importation, shows that any increase of the rates, at which
the import commences under the present system, would only
tend, whenever the ports should open, to. aggravate the fluctua-
tion, and the other inconveniences which appear to your Com-
mittee to appertain to the principle of alternate monopoly and
free importation.
Your Committee are the more anxious to impress upon the
attention of the House the real state of our trade ,in foreign
corn, between the years 1773 and 'lBl4, as it appears to
them, taken in .connection with the progress of general pros-
perity in the country, and more especially with the great im-
provements in agriculture, and its highly flourishing condition
during. that period, to suggest to Parliament, as a matter highly
deserving of their future -consideration, whether a trade in corn,
constantly open to all nations of the world, and subject only to
such a fixed duty as might compensate to the grower the loss of
that encouragement which he received during the late war from
the obstacles thrown in the way of free importation, and thereby
protect the capitals now vested in agriculture from an unequal
competition in the home market,—is not, as a permanent system,
preferableto that state of law by which the corn trade is now
regulated. It would be indispensable, for the just execution of
this principle, that such duty should be calculated fairly to
countervail the difference of expence, including the ordinary
rate of profit, at which corn, in the present state of this coun-
try, can be grown and brought to market within the United
Kingdom, compared with the expense, including also the ordi-
nary rate of profit, of producing it in any of those Countries
from whence our principal supplies of foreign corn have usually
been drawn, joined to the ordinary charges of conveying it from
thence to our markets.

• • In suggesting this changed system, for further consideration,
as a possible improvement of the Corn Laws• at some future
time, the Committee are fully aware of the unfitness of the pre-
sent moment for attempting such a change, when, owing to the
general abundance of the late harvest.k in -.2turOpe; and to the
-markets in this country having been: shut againat foreign corn
for near thirty months, a great accumulation has' taken ace in'
the shipping ports on the• Continent, and in the warehouse's of
foreign corn in tins country ;.and -when that accuinulation;ifroth
want of any vent, is held at:very low 'prices, and might tendstill
further to depress-the already overstocked markets of this coun-
try, if allowed to be introducectat this-period, -except at-such a,
high rate of duty as -it would: be. inexpedientto attempt, ..and
moreover very difficult to determine. The present -market
price of the corn • thns accumulated, is..not the measure of the
cost at which it has been produced; or of the rate at-which it can'
be affcirded by the foreign grower, but theresith•of a.general
glut of the article, of a long want of ttemand, and of extreme
distress and heavy loss -on the- part of those' by WlTorri it has
been raised, and-of those by whom it is now held, ,either in- the
warehouses of the Continent or of this Country. -
Assuming, therefore, that under the present circumstances of
the case,Tarhament would not now deem it expedient to aban-
don entirely the principle of the existing law, your Committee
have anxiously directed their attention to the possibility of, in •
some degree, modifying its operation, so as to remedy that in-
convenience to which they have more
!,particularly referred in
the earlier part of their Report; which consists in the sudden
and irregular manner in which in many cases foreign corn may
be introduced upon the opening of the ports, under circum-
stances 7 inconsistent with the spirit add- intention of the law.
They conceive that this object might be attained by the' impo-.
sition of. a fixed duty upon corn, whenever, upon the opening
of the ports, it shonld become admissible for hothe consumy-
don. It would, however, be nedessary, in case this suggestion
should be earned into effect, that the present import prioe
should be fixed at a loWer rate, because it is obvious that
the duty would otherwise not only check the sudden and
civerwhehning amount of import, but also enhance the price
beyond what it might reach under the present law ; an effect
which your Committee are so far from desirous of produeing,-
that they think it would probably be expedient additionally to
guard against it, by providing, that, after corn should have
reached some given high price, the duty should cease alto-
gether. • . .
If such., a , change in the. operation of the corn lawS shciuld
have the effect of checking extravagant speculation and exten-
sive import, it- would be equally beneficial to the grower and
the cozisunier.,lt would apply some remedy. to the evil of which
almost 41 the Petitions. referred fo-youi. Committee. so loudly
ebinplain;-:anci- it has no tendency, either hastily or prematurely,
affect the principle upon which is rested that protection
which the law now gives to the Agricultural interest of the
country.
It is not the province of your Committee to specify any pre-
cise permanent duty for the protection of the British grower ;