The Sun.
London, England, 1829-09-30 00:00:00

COMMERCIAL POLICY of the COUNTRY.

[OUGHTS ON THE PRESENT STATE AND FUTURE COM•

MERCIAL POLICY OF THE COUNTRY; WITH VIE PLAN

OF A PERIODICAL WORK, TO BE CONFINED EXCLU-

SIVELY TO COMMERCIAL SUBJECTS.

BY CATAIN IWKONOCIIII, ROYAL NAVY.

The object of this Pamphlet is two-fold;
first, to express certain opinions of the author
respecting the causes of the present distress ; and
next, to propose what really appears to us a de-
sirable means towards promoting the removal of
that distress ; whether the previous theory of it
be correct or not, we shall quote a large part of
it verbatim.

It is usual, at present, to attribute the sufferings
of the country to over-production; but it is certain
that a reduced rate of production would not relieve

. . .
them ; on the contrary, this would perpetuate the
want of work and those low wages, which are as

yet only occasional,—and the evil may be more
properly termed therefore, under-consumption. On
the other hand, however, there can be no doubt
that the world is not yet clothed, or otherwise sup-

-
plied, up to its extreme limit. There are consumers
enough in it, to ask, as yet, our utmost powers of
production, if we could get at them, or they at us ;
and they have products in abundance, or could soon
procure them, to give for our manufactures, if only
the exchange were certain and habitual, and their
tastes and habits were modelled accordingly. The
radical mischief, then, is imperfect communication;
—and this theory, which agrees with all the facts
leads to a long series of interesting conclusions.
It is really remarkable how much more the arts
of production have been studied among us, than
those of distribution and consumption. Our po-
litical institutions, in so far as they bear on the point
at all, are almost without exception, hostile to that
free, cheap, and convenient communication between
man and man, nation and nation, which essentially
contributes to consumption ;—and many of them
are even framed as it were expressly, and with
evident loss, to obstruct it. Our roads are thronged,
with tolls, although they could be maintained at
much less expense by assessments. Our ferries are
left, each to its own resources, and are accordingly
all encumbered with debt, and maintained by very
heavy charges. We have taxes on carriages with
springs, from which those without are exempted;
—a higher rate of toll is, in like manner, exacted
from the former than from the latter, although the

injury done by them to the roads must be less ;—in
other words, we favour a rude, laborious, and slow
means of communication; and throw direct impedi-
ments in the way of its improvement. In our
towns every species of trade is a privilege, more or
less jealously guarded according to circumstances ;
but only to be obtained as a right by purchase,
service, or descent. In war, our first step is to con-
fiscate the mercantile property of our enemy's sub-
jects, as though they were not our own customers,
our tenants, who yield us a profit, while they secure
one also for themselves; or as though it could ever
thus be so much our national interest to cripple
their resources, as to retain their custom. And,
even in peace, though we live by trade, we waylay
it at every turn to plunder it. And, although its
very essence is the circulation of goods and capital
from hand to hand, yet at every transfer we have an
additional tax, as though the object were to impede
it. And at the same time that we thus increase the
expense of collecting a revenue, we add to the cost
of paying it, by the loss of time, and the trouble,
and direct expense, incurred in observing the forms
and regulations by which alone fraud can be pre-
vented in so complicated a system*.
And the same remarks are scarcely less applicable
to the direction which improvement has taken in the
mechanical arts. Our goods are now produced in a
thousand new and better ways ;—but with the ex-
ception of some i►nprovements in our domestic com-
munications (of which the purpose, too, was to faci-
litate supply, although their indirect effect has been
to favour consumption also),—and a few packets,
which are impelled here and there, but also chiefly
at home, and at great and disproportionate expense,
by the new power of steam—our merchandize is
distributed in just the same conveyances, and by
just the same methods, as a hundred years back. No
general principle has been seized, or consistently
acted upon, by which the communication between
the producer and the ultimate consumers of his
wares,might be materially facilitated, and the number
of these last proportionally increased. And abroad
especially, our manufactures are still poured into
certain great ports, and there left, without any stre-
nuous efforts being made, or contemplated as im-
portant, to speed them farther on their destination ;
although it is obvious that, as the largest pitcher,
when tight, will soon fill, the value of a port or
market depends almost exclusively on its means of
communication with the adjoining interior.
And the causes of all this neglect of the arts of
consumption are obvious; bat the fact itself, with
some others connected with it, has scarcely, we
think, been so distinctly contemplated as might be
wished ; and the inferences to be drawn from -the
whole are very important. Up to a recent period
of our history, we have been more tasked to pro-
duction than to find consumers, and our conduct has
been analogous ; but now our situation is completely

A very interesting inquiry, parliamentary or other-
wise, might be framed on the above hints. What is the
amount of the road-money collected annually in the
whole kingdom, and how much by tolls, and by district
assessments ? At what rate per cent. is each collected in
the several counties ? What is the operation of high
tolls and ferries on rents and improvements, as much as
possible contrasted with cheap, or no tolls or passages?
(This might be best answered by a st dement of the dis-
tances within which different great towns draw their sup-
plies, connected with a detail of the local circumstances
in which they are severally placed.) What is the differ-
ence in the price of labour where corporation, or other
exclusive:privileges, are jealously guarded, and where not?
What amount of injury to trade, even in time of peace,
can be directly traced to the uncertainty of our mercantile
communications in time of war ? At what expense per
cent. is a revenue collected by indirect assessment, com-
pared with what the same amount would cost if obtained
directly from person or property ? And how much over
and above the tax paid, is lost, en an average, by mer-
chants, from the time, trouble, and actual cost of attend-
ing to custom-house, excise, and stamp-office business ?
These are some of the questions which would be thus
put, and the following may be taken as a sample of the
information they would elicit :
From a pretty extensive inquiry made lately by the writer
of these remarks, it appears that in retired districts a great
majority of the tolls are let under 3001. a year,—many are
under 200/.,—and the average throughout the kingdom
does not probably exceed, if it even attains, 5001. ;—yet
each, including the wear and tear of house and gate, the
expenses of letting, tacksman's profit, &c. cannot cost
much under 1001., and the revenue is thus collected at a
ra•e varying from 20 to 50 per cent. The southern roads
out of Dublin are maintained by assessments; the northern
by tolls ; and along the first, upwards of two thousand
houses have been built within the last twenty years, and
rents, ten miles out of town, are 10/. an acre;—while along
the latter not above twenty houses have been built,
and at three miles distance rents are not above 61.
an acre. Various descr'ptions of work, executed by
corporation servants, (such as meterage, &c.) are
still charged at the rate of two and three guineas
a week, while in every thing else the severest day labour,
not requiring skill, is now under one. In the case of Gilds
and Macdonald versus Sir Paul Baghott, lately tried iu
Edinburgh, a manufacturer swore that he would give a
much higher price for yarns lioim-made, rather than be
forced to import them, because, in the latter case, he
might be altogether stopped in the event of a war ;—yet,
if he buys high, he must sell high, or wi.hout a fair pro-
fit. The chief business in an importing mercantile house
is to attend to entries, clearances, and permits, besides the
whole expense incurred by bonded cellar rent, moving and
removing, &c. And in certain home manufactures, as of
spirits for example, the expense thus altogether incurred
is a very large addition to the tix paid ; by a recent regu-
lation, distillers being even prohibited from mashing and
distilling at the same time; and thus one-half of their
whole investment in buildings for their manufacture being
necessarily always unemployed.