19i 



THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



tliis should not be. Hear what Adam Smitli says in his 

 " Wealth of Nations" (page 167) : — 



How the Commerce of Towns Conirihutcd to the Improve- 

 ment of the Country.—" The increase and riches of commer- 

 cial and manufacturing towns contributed to the improve- 

 ment and cultivation of countries to which they belouged, 

 in three different ways. First, by affording a great and 

 ready market for the rude produce of the country, they gave 

 encouragement to its cultivation and further improvement. 

 This benefit was not even confined to the countries in which 

 they were situated, but extended more or less to all those 

 with which they had any dealings. To all of them they 

 afforded a market for some part either of their rude or 

 manufactured produce, and, consequently, gave some en- 

 couragement to the industry and improvement of all. Their 

 own country, however, on account of its neighbourhood, 

 necessarily derived the greatest benefit from it : its rude 

 produce being charged with less carriage, the traders could 

 pay the growers a better price for it, and yet afford it as 

 cheap to the consumers as that of more distant countries. 

 Secondly, the wealth acquired by the inhabitants of cities 

 was frequently employed in purchasing such lands as were 

 to be sold, of which a great part would frequently be uncul- 

 tivated. Merchants are commonly ambitious of becoming 

 country gentlemen, and when they do, they are generally the 

 best of all improvers. A merchant is accustomed to employ 

 his money chiefly in profitable projects; whereas, a mere 

 country gentleman is accustomed to employ it chiefly in 

 expense. The one often sees his money go from him, and 

 return to him again with a profit; the other, v\hen once 

 he parts with it, very seldom expects to see any more of it. 

 Those different habits naturally affect their temper and dis- 

 position in every sort of business. The merchant is com- 

 monly a bold, a country gentlemen a timid undertaker_ 

 The one is not afraid to lay out at once a large capital upon 

 the improvement of his land, when he has a probable pros- 

 pect of raising the value of it in proportion to the expense; 

 the other, if he has any capital, which is not always the case, 

 seldom ventures to employ it in this manner. If he im- 

 proves at all, it is commonly not with a capital, but with 

 what he can save out of his annual revenue. Whoever has 

 had the fortune to live in a mercantile town, situated in an 

 unimproved country, must have frequently observed how 

 much more spirited the operations of merchants were in 

 this way, than those of mere country gentlemen. The 

 habits, besides, of order, economy, and attention, to which 

 mercantile business naturally forms a merchant, render him 

 much fitter to execute, with profit and success, any pro- 

 ject of improvement. Thirdly, and lastly, commerce 

 and manufactures gradually introduced order and good 

 government, and with them the liberty and security of in- 

 dividuals, among the inhabitants of the country, who had 

 before lived almost in a continual state of war with their 

 neighbours, and of servile dependency upon their superiors. 

 This, though it has been the least observed, is by far the 

 most important of all their effects, Mr. Hume is the only 

 writer who, so far as I know, has hitherto taken notice of it." 



The Effect of a New and Extensive Gold Finding affects the 

 "price" of agricultural produce, if not its "value," as 

 shown by the following extract from Doubleday's " Finan- 

 cial History of England," and, no doubt, is doing so now : 

 — " The grand alteration in the value of the precious metals, 

 and, of course, of money along wUli them, to which I would 



refer the reader, is that which took place in about thirty 

 years after the discovery of America, by Columbus, in a.d. 

 1492. The reign of Henry VIII. commenced in a.d. 1509, 

 Before he had reigned twenty years, the conquest of Mexico 

 and Peru had been completed by the Spaniards ; and the 

 Portuguese were busy in the Brazils, which they ultimately 

 overran and subdued. From that time — that is to say, from 

 the early part of the reign of Henry VIII. — gold and silver 

 continued to be poured into Europe, in unprecedented 

 plenty throughout the period comprised in the sixteenth 

 and seventeenth centuries, causing a continually growing 

 circulation of money, and a rise of prices in all commodities 

 over all Europe, for which men were puzzled how to account, 

 and which began to be sensibly felt in England about the 

 middle of Henry's reign. This was the first time that men 

 had witnessed the phenomena of a huge accession, all within 

 a few years, io the precious metals then circulating ; and to 

 those living at the time the whole was a puzzle and a mys- 

 tery. The enhanced prices were in England wholly attri- 

 buted to monopoly, to hoarding, to forestalling, to large 

 farms — to any cause but the true cause, which true cause 

 was the lowering of the value of gold and silver, by the dis 

 covery of the rich mines of Mexico, Peru, and ultimately 

 of the Brazils. To prove, then, the real effect of this vast 

 and rapid addition to the circulating medium, we have only 

 to take a bird's-eye view of the prices before and after the 

 event. Let us begin with wheat. The following is ex- 

 tracted from Adam Smith's " Wealth of Nations:" — " Prices 

 of wheat before and after the opening of the American 

 mines: Average, a.d. ] 4-^3 to 1451,1,103. 7d, per quarter; 

 1453 to 1497, 8s. 5d.; 1459 to 1560, 9s. 2d. ; 1561 to 1601, 

 47s. 5d.; 1595 to 1636, 50s. ; 1637 to 1700, 51s. 3d." Here 

 we see that during the period between 1560 and 1601, a 

 space of forty years, the average price of wheat has grown 

 five-fold. Not that grain was scarce during those forty 

 years, but because, throughout the whole of them, the 

 precious metals kept pouring into Europe from Peru and 

 Mexico, with a rapidity almost iuconceivable. To show 

 that the same effects were produced upon the prices of all 

 sorts of merchandize and commodities, I subjoin a curious 

 document, extracted from Drake's " Eboracum :" — 

 Table of Prices. 



Prices proclaimed at York, 1393. 



^ s. 



Strong Beer, per gal. 



A milder sort „ 



Finest Claret Wine , . 

 All Coraraoti VVhite 



Wines, per gal 



Carcass of finest Beef 1 



Next Best U 



Scotch Kyloe Ox car. \2 



Dilto Cow 10 



Carcass of Mutton, 



best 1 



Dtto, worse fed .... 1 



Carcass of fine Venl.. 2 



Another sort, ditto.. 1 



A Lamb 



A fat Pork Hog .... 3 



A smaller Pig 3 



A Capon 



A Hen 



A fat Goose 



A Doz. of Pigeons . . 



A Woodcock 



ATeal o 



Prices at York in 1733. 



£ s. d. 



Strong Beer, per gal. 2 



Mild Ale 1 



Best Claret 17 



White Port .... 8 



Bed Port 6 8 



Choice carcass of Beef 9 10 



Next Best 8 



Scotch Kyloe 4 4 



Cow, ditto 3 



Carctss of Mutton, 



best , 1 10 



Diito, worse fed 10 



Carcass of fine Veal.. 16 



Another sort, ditto.. 15 



A Lamb 12 



A fat Pork Hog 2 10 



A smaller Pig 2 



A Capon 19 



A Hen 9 



A fat Goose 2 



A Dozen Pigeons,... 13 



A Woodcock 9 



A Teal 



The present and past Condition of Agriculture in its rela' 

 lion to Manufactures. — Agriculture enjoys great privileges 

 and advantages now, in comparison with former times. The 

 skill, capital, apd enterprise of our manufacturers, aided by 



