The Sun.
London, England, 1821-06-08 00:00:00

FOR THE SUN.

ON THE PAST AND PRESENT CIRCIMISTANCES
OF THIS COUNTRY,
WITH A -VIEW TO THE RELIEF OF AGRICULTURIfj
MANUFACTURES, AND COMMERCE.

(Continued from our Paper of Yesterday.)
It does not appear to have been sutrtciently
considered, that when the rate of exchange-, in
othei words,• when the market-price abroad of
the pound sterling falls, and the foreign purchaser
:of British manufactures can, therefore, purchase
at a lower price, a Bill of Exchange; payable in
'London, for the purpose Of sending the same to
.•England to pay for British manufactures, these
goods become cheaper to him, to the extent in the
fart per pound sterling in the rate of exchange:
the lower the exchange; the cheaper to him the
goods; consecnientiy, the greater the encourage-
ment to their consumption, and the better will
:they enter into competition with foreign manu-
factures. In 1813, for example; when on account of
•the payments of England to the Continent being
iTreater than her receipts, the exchange with Ham-
tour;ti fluctuated bet..Veen twenty-six and thirty
shillings per pound English. It cost the
foreigner so many Flemish sliiilings to buy a Bill
of F.:xithange for one pound sterling to remit to
• England to pay for English goods. But had the
exchange-been at par, it would haYe cost him ra-
ttier more ;than thirty-four Flemish shillings to
purchase the Bill in England constituting. a dif-
ference of between 13 -and
.23 per cent. deducted
from the cost in England of the manufactures ptir-
Chased. . Had, however, ample quantities of gold
• -coin been hi circulation at the time in England,
the payments of England to the Continent had
been balanied by exporting the gold coin ; and
the exchange would not have fallen to become
any, material deduction from the cost of British
raanu fac tures.
'This, we humbly conceive, is an important con-
slderation, on account of the essential difference
in the circumstances of this country regarding the
extension of manufactures : they have, beside,
lost the internal war derriand. In former times,
when the exchanges were low, they were against
England, because we were; principally an agri-
cultural country.. To posSess the precious me-
tals ;. to buy foreign productions the cheaper by
means of them ; were objects of greater import-
ance than selling our goods to foreign countries.
While France manufactured from 15 to 20,per
Cent. cheaper than England, she commanded the
foreign-markets.
The sacrifices which were made by the Me-
thuen Treaty were considered as nothing corn-
pared with its chief object, the procuring gold
and silver. The term " against England" meant

• not only-against the importation- of the precious
• metals, but against the interests of England. We
have now itotenly departed from being essential-
Ay agricultural, ..but . have become, so essentially
commercial, that not only t 4 number of banks
and' bankers render gold coins less-necessary, but
the cheapness and perfection of' our manufactures,
and the intelligence, extension,-and increased ca 7
pital of our merchants and manufacturers can
prOOtre:thepreciouslmetals from all countrieseby
the exportation of our goods : and as we annually
sell to foreiou countries a Considerable amount of
goods more than We consume of their productions,
in our conception the term " against" has been
converted actually into in'favour of 'some of the
best interests of. England, ill proportion as the
rower rates of Foreign Exchange encourage the
:exportation and foreign consumption of Brhish
,m;anufactures. And whatever evils .may have
• been assumed to attend the absence.of gold coins
in the last twenty years, the -low rates of ex-
change, made lower by.their absence, more than
eoy other circumstance, encburaged the consump-
tion of British manufacture and Colonial produce
frOrn time to time in foreign countries. After the
gold coins Were exported,, the whole expellees' of
. England on the continent were in this manner
the export of Manufacture "and produce,
the-Only remaining Means by which they could
be ,paid., In labouring to detect the imperfec-
tions of Bank-notes, instead of admitting their
L'*Fly advantages, this circumstance has been
undervalued, if, not unobserved by many persons.
Secondly. is a succession of bad harvests im-
possible ? Suppose this country be visited, liy
,several short crops of corn ; suppose the market
:price .riFe.s and 'remains long above the importa--
tipa price ; suppose the quantity of foreign corn
„imported he greater, than ever ; does not all
ex-
perience ,preve that, the. gold coin would be the
immediate means of. paying for the corn ? In
such case the Bank of; I:ogland is. expected to
withdraw an amount of Bank7nates from circula-
iiKi, 44 order, as it is assuened,-to keep down the
rqiiiet; price of gold.: :But, in such case, the
ot,;l,
posecnot,of money in, ciroulationwill sod-
- tlenly ire diminished, both to the amount of the
gold -con, exported and. -to the. amount of the.
.Itienk-noes SO wititd:awn. Can the trade and
ingeeetTy of the c_ouetry,..hee expected to ,sustain
• szich a. sh9c.,l-; Flven without had harvests 'the
exenange m fall to- produCe' inconvenience to a
certain 'degree by actitlg on Such. priaciples.
Anatil;!r alteration ie-our erceeetances.wili bp
thise. If ths substitution of god fore paper. be
carried to the extrioneeitisObvions'that the profits
of the piopri-etors of more than
_Pipe-hundred and
fifty chartered;andconntry 'hanks, their clerks and
dependants, will, be considefabl3' 'diminished ;
and 41)W tv to conSunie- domestic. corn-
modities, -support industry, and) pay taxes.
,If
they, for twenty- years, have gained • the 'profits
upon- circulating twenty or the jr millions, or ail);
.amount of ,notes.in iieu of gold coins, it has heen
a' national 'advantage, The ,-s'nbtraction of the
profit will forth another diminutina Of national
• come- and of :internal trade. The profits too
were•not.like the gains. of ordinary.trade,:. which
come ont.of_ the pockets-of the Consume' rs ; the
persons paysinfiinterest for loans. of money coma
,*posed..oryiNeepaid no more than 'thney -wovlci
ha-ye naile,for Money composed of gold coin;
. After coils be substituted for notes they *will
. pay at least as.much' interest as before; but as
• loan's or money may be then less practicalale, they
can lie no gainers by the change, • We must not
therefore he.disappointed should it appear,.mere=
Jy asap. WofiCind- loss, whatever other advan-

tages may be accomplished by the change, that
it will not add to the.prOspeiity of the country.
The thirty millions of capital which were dis-
engaged from the unproductive function of sup-
porting the Gold Currency, to be devoted eves
Since to all the -activity and reiterated produc-
tiveness of capital for the support of trade and
►ndustry, may again be consigned to inactiveun-
profitableness, should public opinion require a
similar, if not greater amount of coin in circula-
tion. While England made an inestimable dis-
coVcry in political science, that the distribution
Of the produce of the land, and the industry of
one of the wealthiest and most powerful nations,
together with its immense financial transactions,
could, amid surrounding difficulties, be success-
fully and uninterruptedly carried on without
the intervention of Gold Coin, merely on public
and private credit, on account of her insular si-
tuation; the-perfection of her public institutions;
and the commercial habits of the people ; France
had to sustain the dead weight of a circulation
of coin, absorbing a capital in utter linprOclu6-
tiveness, equal, as is supposed, to more than one
hundred millions sterling : while her political
economists, looking on with astonishment, said,
" If France could support in credit the paper
" circulation which. England enjoyed, France
" would become the most powerful nation upon
4 4 earth."

It is tree, almost every good has some atten-
dant evil. We might well avoid over-rating the
possible evils ; but can we adequately appreciate
the importance, at the time, of the bold contri-
vance of the. great mind which conceived it, or
the matchless energy and the undaunted courage,
which, as it were, in an instant threw a safe and
ample pas Sage over an unexpected and unfathom-
able abyss That suddenly appeared to arrest the
course of national defence, even of preservation,
and in which all Religion, Laws, and' Liberty
had probably been precipitated and utterly lost,
but for the incomparable powers of that highly
gifted mind ?
[To be continuedi