The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1839-08-06 00:00:00

corn laws would (it is alleged) remove that irregularity
by creating in the corn-growing countries of the con-
tinent a regular demand—not for gold—but for the
produce of our manufacturing industry.
We are by no means satisfied as to the soundness of
these deductions. It seems exceedingly questionable
whether any demand on the part of England for foreign
corn—however " regular" that demand might be—
would tempt foreign governments to sacrifice the ma-
nufacturing industry of their subjects, in order to ex-
tend to the widest conceivable limit the corn trade with
this country. But if the corn of foreign countries
could be procured in exchange for our manufactured
commodities, on a scale of barter as magnificent as
the most enthusiastic advocates of free trade could de-
iire—such an arrangement would, assuredly, in a very
brief period, consign to irretrievable ruin all the best
interests of England.
When the champions of free trade dilate on the dis-
advantages which are experienced, under the present '
system of a foreign demand for English bullion, these
gentlemen would seem to forget certain circumstances,
which yet, in reference to the problem to be solved.
happen to possess considerable importance. They
forget, in the first place, that unfavourable seasons
generally affect, to the same extent, all countries lying
in the same latitudes ; they forget, in short, that a
dearth of corn is apt to be felt all over Europe, for
instance, at the same time. A repeal of the corn-laws
would not, necessarily, improve the character of the
seasons, nor lesson the liability of countries lying in
the same latitudes to be -similarly acted on by the
" skiey influences." A dearth after the repeal of the
corn laws would, however, differ fearfully in the inten-
sity of its operations from a dearth under the present
system. If our supplies from the soil of England
prove, at times, under the present arrangements,
scanty, still we are compelled to look abroad only for
the means of making good a comparatively slight defi-
ciency. Let it be assumed, however, that our supplies
shall be furnished chiefly by foreign countries, and the
evil consequences of scanty crops in the North of
Europe can scarcely be exaggerated by any effort of
imagination. Nor let it be taken for granted, that the
"regularity" of the supposed demand would be met
only by a regular" increase in the supply; while the
risk of famine would remain no less imminent than
before. If, for instance, the annual demand by Eng-
land for continental corn might, after a repeal of the
corn-laws, be fairly stated at 20 millions of quarters,
20 millions of quarters in addition to the present
average quantity would, probably, be grown in the
north of Europe. A deficiency, through the influence
of bad seasons, in that desired quantity, would, how-
ever, after a repeal of the corn-laws, lead to the horrors
of famine in England; and the liability of difficiency
would, assuredly, be found in no way lessened by the
establishment of a free trade in corn.

But although the corn-laws are most beneficial in
their operation on all the forms of productive energy
in England, it may be doubted, whether the govern-
ment of this country has, for centuries past, used suf-
ficient care to avert the evils of dearth, or of famine.
The banking establishments of the country deem it
unsafe to carry on their operations without a certain
reserve of bullion, as dead stock, in their coffers. The
risk of famine ought, however, to be no less terrible in
the eyes of a government than the risk of insolvency
in the eyes of the directors of a bank. It may be
doubted, therefore, whether government ought not, at
all times, to be provided with an amount of wheat suf-
ficient for the national consumption during a year.
Wheat to the required extent might be bought, at a
low price, from English farmers, during years of abun-
dance—might be stored in public granaries—and sold
again, in years of scarcity, to corn growers, or to corn
consumers. The expense would be far less than the
expense involved in the mere wear and tear of our me-
tallic currency, and in the interest on the capital sunk
in it. Our metallic currency, it is calculated, costs the
country on the score of interest and of wear and tear
about three millions annually. Let, on the other hand,
twelve millions of quarters of wheat be assumed to
constitute the measure of the national consumption for
a year; and let the price of that wheat during cheap
seasons be estimated even as high as 50s. A whole
year's supply of wheat could always be kept on hand
at a cost of thirty millions of money—or, in the usual
state of the money market, at a cost of little more than
one million annually paid as interest on the necessary
loath At the cost, therefore, of one million a-year,
England might always be guarranteed against the
misery of scarcity or of famine—as well as against the
ruinous consequences of such a drain for bullion as the
recent importations of foreign corn have given rise to.