X. 1821. CHAP. minority, as well as weight of the names of which it was composed, indicated the change of general opinion on the subject, and might have warned the supporters of the existing system of the necessity of consenting to a safe and prudent reform, if anything could convince men who v. 622, 623. are mainly actuated by the desire to retain, or the thirst to obtain, political power.1 1 Parl. Deb. 99. ment of a into agricul tural distress. March 7. The various branches of manufactures, during this year, Appoint- exhibited a marked and gratifying improvement; but in committee agriculture the prevailing distress was not only unabated, to inquire but had become greater than ever, and, in truth, had now risen to such a height that it could no longer be passed over in silence. On 7th March, Mr Gooch brought forward a motion for the appointment of a committee to inquire into agricultural distress; and in the course of the debate Mr Curwen observed, "In the flourishing days of the empire, the income of the nation was £400,000,000, and the taxation was £80,000,000 annually. At present the income is only £300,000,000, yet the taxation was nearly the same. In what situation was the farmer? The average of wheat, if properly taken, was not more than 62s. a quarter; the consequence of which was, that the farmer lost 3s. by every quarter of wheat which he grew. On the article of wheat alone, the agricultural interest had lost £15,000,000, and on barley and oats £15,000,000 more. In addition to this, the value of farming stock had been diminished by £10,000,000 ; so that in England alone there was a diminution of £40,000,000 a-year. The diminution on the value of agricultural produce in Scotland and Ireland cannot be less than £15,000,000; so that the total loss to the agriculturists of the two islands cannot be taken at less than £55,000,000. This is probably a quarter of the whole value of their productions; and as their taxation * Parl. Deb. remains the same, it has, practically speaking, been increased twenty-six per cent also."2 The truth of these statements, how startling soever, was so generally known, that iv. 1147, 1151. X. 1821. 100. Payment Government yielded; and a committee was appointed to in- CHAP. quire into the causes of agricultural distress, which made a most valuable report in the next session of Parliament. Great light was thrown upon the causes of this distress in a debate which took place, shortly after, on a bill of Bank Cash little importance, introduced by Government, authorising Bill. the Bank, if they chose, to resume cash payments on 1st May 1821, instead of May 1822, as had been provided by the bill of 1819. The reason assigned by the Chancellor of the Exchequer for giving the Bank this option was, that they had, at a very heavy expense to themselves, accumulated a very great treasure, and that the paper circulation of the country had been so much contracted that cash payments might be resumed with safety. He stated that, "in June 1819, the issues of the Bank amounted to £25,600,000; and they had been progressively diminished, till now they were only £24,000,000. The country bankers had drawn in their notes in a still greater proportion. Above four millions had been withdrawn from the circulation in less than two years-a state of things which amply justifies the present proposal Parl. Deb. to give the Bank the option of issuing gold coin, if they 1316. thought fit, a year sooner than by law provided."1 1 iv. 1315, speech on The effects of the contraction of the currency, thus 101. made the subject of boast by the Chancellor of the Ex- Mr Baring's chequer, were thus stated by Mr Baring in the same de- the subject. bate: "In looking at this question, it is very material to consider what is the state of the country in this the sixth year of peace. Petitions are coming in from all quarters, remonstrating against the state of suffering in which so many classes are unhappily involved, and none more than the agricultural class. When such is the state of the country in the sixth year of peace, and when all the idle stories about over-production and under-consumption, and suchlike trash, have been swept away, it is natural to inquire into the state of a country placed in a situation without a parallel in any other nation or time. No country X. .1821. CHAP. before ever presented the continuance of so extraordinary a spectacle as that of living under a progressive increase in the value of money, and decrease in the value of the productions of the people. It appears clear that, from the operations of the altered currency, we have loaded ourselves, not only with an immense public debt, but also with an increased debt between individual and individual, the weight of which continues to press upon the country, and to the continuance of which pressure no end can be seen. 102. "The real difficulty is to meet the increased amount of Continued. debts of every sort, public and private, produced by the late change in the currency. It is an observation than which nothing can be more true, that an alteration in the value of the currency is what nobody, not even the wisest, generally perceive. They talk of alteration in the price of bread and provisions, never reflecting that the alteration is not in the value of these articles, but in that of the currency in which they are paid. To talk of the alteration of the value of money being three, five, or six per cent is mere trifling. What we now are witnessing is the exact converse of what occurred during the war, from the enlarged issue of paper, and over the whole world from the discovery of the mines of Mexico and Peru. The misfortune is, in reference to agriculture, that what is a remunerating price at one time becomes quite the reverse at another. Formerly it was thought that 56s. a quarter was a remunerating price, but that is not the case now. What is the reason of that? It is occasioned by the altered currency, and by the produce of this country coming into contact with the commodities from all parts of the world, at a time when the taxes, debts, and charges which the farmer has to meet have undergone no alteration. His products did not bring their former price, while his private debts remained at their original amount. Besides this, there is the great mortgage of the National Debt, which sweeps over the whole country, and renders it impossible for the farmer to live on prices which formerly X. 1821. were considered a fair remuneration. The difficulties of CHAP. the country, then, arise from this, that you have brought back your currency to its former value, so far as regards your income; but it remains at its former value, so far as regards your expenditure." Weighty, indeed, are these remarks, which subsequent events have so fully confirmed, and which came then from the first merchant in the world, Parl. Deb. iv. 1318, who afterwards conferred honour on, instead of receiving 1323. it from, the title of Ashburton.1 1 103. demand for of taxation. The increased weight of debts and taxes, coinciding with the diminished incomes arising from the contracted cur- Vehement rency, produced its natural and usual effect in inducing a reduction an additional pressure on Government for the reduction of taxation. Mr Hume brought this subject before the House of Commons, and the whole finances of the country underwent a more thorough investigation than they had ever previously done. His labours embraced chiefly the expenses of the offices connected with the army, navy, and ordnance departments;* and there can be no *The returns obtained by Mr Hume presented the following comparative statement of the British army, exclusive of the troops in India, in 1792 and 1821 respectively, viz. :— X. 1821. CHAP, doubt that he rendered good service by exposing many abuses that existed in these departments; and a committee was appointed to inquire into the subject. In consequence of the universal complaint of agricultural distress, Mr Western brought forward a bill to repeal the malt duties, which was carried, on the first reading, by a majority of 24, the numbers being 149 to 125. It was thrown out, however, on the second reading; and so productive is this tax, and so widely is its weight diffused over the community, that its repeal has never yet been carried. The majority on the leave to bring in the bill, however, was an ominous circumstance, characteristic of the depression of the agricultural interest; and members 1 Ann. Reg. were so impressed with it that they deemed it expedient to yield on a subordinate point, and the agricultural horsetax was accordingly repealed this session.1 1821, 81, 100. 104. ral commit and state of of articles of luxury. The committee on agricultural distress presented their Agricultu- report on 18th June. It was a most elaborate and valutee reports, able document, as it bore testimony to the fact estabthe con- lished before the committee, that "the complaints of the sumption petitioners were founded in fact, in so far as they represented that, at the present price of corn, the returns to the owners of occupied land, after allowing growers the interest of investments, were by no means adequate to the charges and outgoings; but that the committee, after a long and anxious inquiry, had not been able to discover any means calculated immediately to relieve the present distress." * It is by no means surprising that it was so ; for as their difficulties all arose from the contraction of the currency, it was impossible they could be removed *So far as the pressure arises from superabundant harvests, it is beyond the application of any legislative provision; so far as it is the result of the increased value of money, it is not one peculiar to the farmer, but extends to many other classes. That result, however, is the more severely felt by the tenant, in consequence of its coincidence with an overstocked market. The departure from our ancient standard, in proportion as it was prejudicial to all creditors of money, and persons dependent on a fixed income, was a benefit to the active capital of the country; and the same classes have been oppositely affected by a return to that standard. The restoration of it has also embar |