The Statesman.
London, England, 1822-11-01 00:00:00

AORICULTUOE-•--FINANCE.

(FROU NM DUBLIN 111111CANTILt ADVIRTISIR, OCT. 14.)
To one who has not watched the progress of our
liiical economy, the present aspect of the empire. with
regard to pricer, won dbe perfectly unaccountable. As
it is, it furnish,s a problem of extreme curiosity, and
of the most momentous importance.
We have been at some pains in referring to the via
lumes of the usual Register, and other doenmentsi
fur prices of the public funds at former periods, sad
the price, of agricultural produce, at the same tiny.
The contrast, we think, will prove very extraordinary
to such readers as have not Five' this vital subject
more than i cursory consideration. We shall take the
ge from the month of May.
11305 Price of Consols were 58 Price of Whoa p. qr. 74
1804 . •
1807 • . . 63 • • . . 41,
1808 66
19119 . . . 67 . .
1810 t . . 70 .
1811 . . . . 65
1816 . • . . 61

.
. . WI)
. . 102
. . 139

Isl 3 • • • .55 • . . 120
The first of these tables, that regarding the value of
the Consols, is taken from the New Anneal Register,
of the years specified. Our series of these volumes atop
at 1813; bat, indeed, farther specimens are unnecessary,
because from the period the Continent was opened, the
prices of Corn began regularly to decline, except in the
vears 1814 sad 17, and those of the Consols to advance.
The ;trice of. Cora is taken from the Appendix to the
Second. Agricultural Report of the House of Lords, in
the year 18k, artier the chairmanship of Lord Hard-
erkke,—page 315.21, octavo edition.
The average price of Consols for the nine
year., from 1905 to 1813, both !Delu-
sive, is . L 63 0 0
The average price of the quarter of
Wheat, for those nine years, is . . 417 0.
The price of Consols by the last viola-
tion, is . 82 10 0
The price of Wheat, upon an average
of the wbOla Empireos not more than 1 16 0
(Perheps, indeed. sot so much.)
But we shall place this contrast in even a stronger
point of view. In the appendix, No. 12, to the Lord's
Report of 1814, there Is sit account of the Windsor
prices of wheat at Eton College, from the year 1697.
• We shall select a few years:—lt will be remembered by
the reader, that this was the very period at which King
Will:am began the Funding System.
in 1722 Wheat was 4e. 6d. a Bushel, or 361. per Qr.
1723- 4 2
1731 4 0
1732 3 3
• 1741 4 6
• 1742 4 2
1751 4 1
1752 -- 3 3
1761 •-• 9 :
•
1762 „ 9
1771 . 0
1772 , VOL. • 0
1701 ; es. 6 9
1761 eje-• 7 0
• Tysi-• g 3
1791 5 9
1801 e.• 1 S 111
but find wie s frit of gnat scarcity and almost fa-
/Od
1813 17 0
The dliersmeyenes from 1697 to 1614 are gi;nl
etital
prices, twice is eseb year, vls. lady-day and
maw It will be seen that we have taken two *
eke diseases of every tee, as tee hinest way of
the average diletir this beg ?MA •-•
a note to this talik that the prices ate talker above thas
'mow tiso averiii•--the Owl Ihil=geeti 110
the beet that the Market of Wiadent eapiTy.
Bet there ie another observation,:which the reader
will not fail to maks on casting bid ties over the fore-
going table.
He will observe that the -prices of the beet corn, jest a
century UN is lout almost what the best corn now
fetches ht alark.lane, London. At that period, the tales
of England were not considerably above what the
poor retie are now. They were certainly under the re-
venue appropriated to the poor,and the " Dead Weight"
is 1822.
Ninety years ago, be will see that wheat was sold
in Engles.' for what it is selling in Ireland at this mo-
ment—that is to say, about 26 shillings English per
quarter of eight. Winchester bashels—or 28 shillings
Irish, our barrel at present, ranging forom 10 to 17 shil-
lings.
In 1742, the price of the bushel of wheat was 4s. 3d.,
sad io 1752, Ss. &L., the price obtained in London be-
fore the new harvest. in 1762, it was nearly the same,
• 4s. 9d. is 1772, when the American war was approach-
ing, it got up to 85., while at the close, or nearly at the
close of that war, in 1782, it was only is. 1n.1792, the
year before the French war, wheat was at sa. 9d. a
bushel, or 44,. 8.1. a quarter.
. There is a mistake, therefore, in saying, that corn is
as low now as it was in 1792. It is lower than it was
forty years ego—lower than it was fifty years ago—as
lots alit was sixty years ago—as low as it was 100 years
ago!
Bat one hundred years ago, our debt was scarcely
equal tat what we pay now in Dividends, and the
money expended, under the name of the Sinking
Fund, was sensibly for the purpose of reducing the debt,
but really with a view to keep up the public Securities.
Having gotten into this subject, we have consulted
et her authorities. By looking into Sinclair's l!istory
of the Revenue, vol. i. part 2, page 426, the reader will
Ire that the debt, on the 31st of December, 1701,
amounted to 16,394,702. The interest of the present
debt is more than double that sum. On the 31st of De-
r eßlitl.i;l ft the debt anweented to 34,146,3604 Mel
p. 439)—a sum less than tire taxes annually raised on
the country. Upon this debt there was an interest paid
0f3,351v=1. The debt was kept down, or what
amounted to the saute thing, the interest was reduced in
the reign of George I. For, by consulting Chalmer's
Estimate, we find, that only 2,217,551/. was paid on this
account, making a difference in favour of the public, of
1,133.807 f.
This, then, is the period at which our corn tables have
commenced. We find, that while the debt cost us only
about two millions two hundred thousand pounds a
year, wheat was as cheap as it is at this moment, wheel
the debt, its machinery, management, and sinking fund,
cost nearly forty ! It is fur the modern race of political
%-vonomios to explain the possibility of proceeding
tinder such disadvantages—we are, we confess, among
t holif who do not think it possible.
Hitherto we have spoken of the prices of wheat alone
—for, from the prices of this, those of other grain may
he inferred. The mode, we believe, is this—" Barley
should produce half the, price of wheat, and oats one-
*Writ less than that.' (See Sir, Wakefield's eri.
, rnce in the first report of the House of Lords, hi
the year 1813, page 45) We shall now revert to the
prices of cattle—or, which will romp to the sauna
thing, of butcher's meat, during this interval of one
hundred years. We do not find it laid down, however,
with suffscient attorney in the hooks to which we have
access at present. But if, as Adam Smith maintains,
wheat is the astessure of all other agricultural produce,
alive or dead, we should suppose, that about one hats-
Bred years ago, the price of the bullock was tutich the

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