226 The Present Monetary Troubles. 



banker discounts his bills at the usual rate of five per cent.: 

 but let us suppose that the banker withholds or contracts hisj dis- 

 count, and this will happen quite irrespectively of the character 

 of the bills, accordingly as the great financial barometer (the 

 Bank of England) indicates a favourable season or otherwise, 

 what consequences result therefrom to the holder of these bills'? 

 He is compelled to ask as a favour from other sources the ac- 

 commodation which his banker refuses, and in order to supply his 

 necessity is obliged to make a sacrifice of ten, twelve, nay, even 

 fifteen per cent.,* for the accommodation, and is thus deprived of a con- 

 siderable part of the fair profits on his business. There can be no 

 question that the trader is deeply injured by the financial evils that 

 thus cripple his resources, rob him of a part of his income, and 

 effectually prevent him from enlarging the sphere of his exertions; 

 and as we conceive that no class of men is so well entitled to relief 

 as that which has raised this country to its proud commercial 

 sovereignty in Europe, we would earnestly call on all members of 

 the community to aid the cause of commerce by petitioning Parlia- 

 ment to adopt some measure that shall have the effect of removing 

 an evil that has now existed nearly six months to the great injury 

 nay, ruin of many of the trading classes of this metropolis. 



The obvious cause of these difficulties is as we have before said 

 the scarcity of bullion ; and this scarcity may be traced to several 

 temporary causes, the principal of which are the exportation of 

 bullion to America, the late relief of Ireland by large supplies of 

 gold, the state of our exchanges with the Continent, and the absorption 

 of a large quantity of the metallic currency by the great railway 

 labours at present going on in different parts of the country. But 

 if the evils above alluded to were merely temporary and confined 

 to a few branches of trade, we should at once say ;hat the cure 

 should be left to nature, and that no quack nostrums should be used 

 to produce a temporary excitement that wears the semblance but has 

 not the reality of health. This, however, is not the case with our 

 present embarrassments. They will be found if traced to their true 

 source, to'Jbe general, and, besides, to have recurred at intervals ever 

 since the present currency-system has been in operation. The fact 

 is, that with our present system of commerce which sends to the 

 foreigner so much more in real vulue than we receive from him, we 

 are making exchanges that appear equitable, but in truth are un- 

 favourable to us in amount not less than thirty millions a-year. So 

 much for Mr. Poulett Thomson and the other zealotsof the manufac- 

 turing interest, who would measure the national prosperity by the 



* The tradesman, besides, is often obliged by his difficulties to make sacrifices 

 still more injurious, and even to procure his discounts by the purchase of goods 

 whenhe does not need them and at prices thathe can ill afford to pay. Thefollowing 

 is one among a thousand instances of the distresses here alluded to. A respecta- 

 ble tradesman bought goods at six months' credit to the amount of 45 /. The dis- 

 appointments of the following week obliged him to go to the seller of those goods 

 with whom he regularly transacted business and beg discount for a bill of 100/. at 

 two months. The favour, at first refused, was at length granted on the sole condi- 

 tion that the 45/. should be paid down out of the discounted bill, thus making it a 

 ready-money instead of a credit transaction. What business can bear such ruinous 

 sacrifices as these, of which we mention a solitary instance ? 



