Star.
London, England, 1821-06-23 00:00:00

Petitions referred to them complain of the inadequate
and injurious operation of the prevent Corn Law, and
pray generally for protection, not for gram only, but
for all the productions of our Agriculture, equal to
the protection given to the manufactures of this coun-
try. Within this principle the Petitioners appear to
be friendly to an open trade; but, in the application
of it, as expounded in some of the Petitions, and il-
lustrated in the examination of some of the witnesses,
your Committee cannot but apprehend that the
duties which they contemplate, would be altogether
prohibitory. It cannot be necessary to enter into any
statements to shew that, practically, this would be the
result in all but seasons of scarcity, of a fixed duty
of 40s. a quarter upon wheat. Your Committee will
merely repeat what they have already stated, that
when the trade in corn with the Continent was open,
subject to the scale of duties imposed by the Acts of
1773, 1791, and 1804, and in force till 1813, there
never was an importation of foreign corn to any
amount during the short intervals when the high
duties were demandable ; and yet those duties at no
part o( the time exceeded 245. 3d. per quarter. To
this fact they will only add, that what is proposed,
in addition to the amount of the duty, namely, that
it should be permanent, whatever may be the price,'
is a proposition which your Committee are confident
the Legislature could never entertain, nor any consi-
derable portion of the community ever countenance.
" The suggestions with respect to duties equally
prohibitory on every other article, the production of
the srltl of this country,. all come under the same
principle, and are open to the same objei.tion. The
principle would, in fact, go far to annihilate com-
mercial intercourse altogether ; and is moreover
fbunded, as it appears to your Committee, upon a
mistaken statement, as well as an erroneous view of
what is deemed protection to our manufactures.
"In the first place, they feel the more warranted
in affirming that the argument of the Petitioners
rests in part upon a misconception of facts ; as they
observe, that one of the witnesses, in order to illus-
trate his ideas and the wishes of the Petitioners, has
furnished a table of the duties payable. on foreign
manufactured articles, of which several are subject
to direct heavy duties of Excise in this country; and
upon which the importation duty, as, for instance,
upon the article of glass, is imposed in a great mea-
sure to countervail the duty upon that article manu-
factured in this kingdom.
" But the main grounds upon which your Com-
mittee are disposed to think that the House will look
with some mistrust to the soundness of this principle,
is—first, that it may be well doubted whether (with
i the exception of silk) any of our considerable manu-
factures derive benefit from this assumed protection
in the rpatkets of this country; for how could the
foreign manufactures of cotton, of woollens, of hard-
ware, compete with our own in this country, when it
is notorious that we can afford to undersell them in

the products of those great branches of our manu
factoring industry, even in their own markets, not
withstanding that cotton and wool are subject to a
direct 'duty on importation, not drawn back upon
their export in a manufactured state, as well as to all
the indirect taxation, which affects capital in these
branches, in common with that capital which is em-
ployed in raising the productions of the soil? Se-
condly, that there exists this most essential difference
between the effect of protection given to the manu-
facturer (even if he did not enjoy from natural
causes a preference in the home market), and the at-
tempt at a similar protection and monopoly to the
produce of the soil—that in all employment of capi-
tal, either in trade or manufactures, profits are li-
mited by competition. If; for any length of time, or
from any circumstances, profits are increased, in any
particular branch, above the accustomed average,
additional capital seeks employment in that branch,
and profits are again speedily reduced to their for-
mer level. This would equally be the case if the de-
mand for that particular article were doubled ; and
it may further frequently happen, as we have wit-
nessed of late years (in all goods, for instance, wrought
of iron and cotton), that, owing to discoveries in me-
chanical and chemical science, and improvements in
the manufacture, an immense increase of consump-
tion may be concomitant with, and probably, in a
great degree, the result of, a great fall in price.
" The same principle, it is true, applies to the capi-
tal and business of the farmer; but with this impor-
tant distinction, that the price of corn, taken for any
series of years, is necessarily regulated by the expense
of production upon the lands which, at that price,
make no return beyond the charge of raising it, to-
gether with the ordinary profit of the capital em-
ployed upon those lands. The cultivator of such
lands, for the time, is upon a footing with the mer-
chant and the manufacturer ; but if the demand for
corn were doubled it would force into cultivation
poorer lands, requiring a larger capital to raise the
same quantity of produce ; the price of that produce
would determine the price of the whole, or those
poorer lands could not Le maintained in cultivation ;
for there cannot permanently be two rates of profit in
the same occupation. It is sufficient for your Com-
' mittee to point this ground of difference, and to leave
it to the judgment of the [louse, in connection with
the observations which they have already submitted
in a former part of this Report.
" Another wish expressed by some of the Peti-
tioners, and some of the witnesses, is for the repeal
cl that clause in the last Act, which allows the ware-
housing in the United Kingdom of foreign corn,
when it cannot be taken out for home consumption.
"The grounds upon which this alteration of the
law is suggested, for the relief of the British grower,
are two-fold. Ist. That the foreign corn absorbs the
capitals of the dealers, which would otherwise be em-
ployed in speculating in corn of British growth ; and,
secondly, that it enables them to hold, in the ware-
houses of this country, a large stock of foreign wheat,
the notoriety of which depresses the markets, from
the dread of its being poured in so soon as it is set
free by the prices rising above 80s.
" The lust objection proceeds upon two assumptions,
both of which appear to your Committee doubtful ;
first, that the capitals of the dealers are absorbed in
this foreign speculation; and, secondly, that if not
so employed, they would speculate with them in
British coin. Your Committee conceive that there
is no fixed amount of capital assigned to this trade,
and that it is governed by the same principles
which stimulate the application of capital in all
other branches of foreign or domestic commerce.—
The value of all the foreign corn now in. this coOn