TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 107 



and secondly, by observing the changes in the rate of profits. As to the exports 

 and imports of capital between Ireland and England, it appeared that the pnblic 

 funds might be transferred from the Bank of England to tiie Bank of Ireland and 

 back without expense, and that such transfer? were very frequent. The portion of 

 the public debt on which interest was paid in the Bank of Ireland might be assumed 

 to belong to Irishmen. Now, Mr. Stanley, the Secretary to the Irish Poor Law 

 Commissioners, in his Prize Essays on Ireland, had shown that from 1824 till 1831 tiie 

 quantity of public funds transferred to Ireland was about 14,000,000/., and the quan- 

 tity in the same time transferred from Ireland to England was about 6,000,000/. j 

 leaving 8,000,000/. funds held by Irishmen in 1831 more than in 18.24, and imply- 

 ing an export of capital of about a million a year for these eight years. Dr. Long- 

 field, in his address to the Dublin Statistical Society in 1849, had shown that in eight 

 vears ending in 1848, about 11,000,000/. worth of public funds were transferred from 

 England to Ireland,and about 4,000,000/. from Ireland to England; leaving 7,000,000/. 

 more funded property held by Irishmen in 1848 than in 1841, and showing an export 

 of capital from Ireland to England of 7,000,000/. in those eight years, including three 

 years of the famine. In 1 849 the transfer of funds from England exceeded that from 

 Ireland by about 300,000/. In 1850, for the first time for many years, the export of 

 capital from Ireland was stopped. In that year the funded property transferred to 

 Ireland was 1,160,000/., and from Ireland to England 1,970,000/.; giving a diminu- 

 tion in Irish funded property of 810,000/., and showing an importation of capital into 

 Ireland of that amount. The result of the long-continued export of capital from 

 Ireland to purchase funded property, was shown by the quantity of that property 

 held by Irishmen, which was as follows -. — 



Irish Courts of Equity £3,900,000 



Irish absentees paying income tax .... 3,100,000 

 Residents in Ireland 31,000,000 



Total £38,000,000 



When it thus appeared that Irishmen had 38,000,000/. worth of funded property, 

 which could any moment be converted into money, it was preposterous to assert that 

 the supply of capital in Ireland was deficient in proportion to the demand for it. Ac- 

 cordingly, as soon as the parliamentary title of the Encumbered Estates Commissioners 

 afforded an opportunity for the safe investment of capital in Ireland, such capital was 

 invested to the extent of 1,000,000/., up to November 1850, in the purchase of 

 estates, besides what was invested in improvements. It appeared too that the pur- 

 chasers were chiefly Irishmen; for out of 587 purchasers, only 30 were from England 

 or Scotland. 



The second and more complete test of the supply of capital in any country in pro- 

 portion to the demand for it was, the changes in the rate of profit. It appeared that 

 the price of the funds had for many years been nearly the same in Ireland as in En- 

 gland; and consequently that the rate of profit, as distinct from insurance against 

 risk and wages of superintendence, was practically the same in England as in Ireland. 

 Hence the supply of capital in proportion to the demand for it was the same in En- 

 gland as in Ireland ; so that there had not been for many years any want of capital 

 in Ireland, as it was conceded that there was no such want in England. The con- 

 clusion thus arrived at wn'i of great importance, and led to results very suggestive of 

 future thought and investigation : — 



1st. It showed the utter futility of all plans like Mr. Montgomery Martin's all- 

 sufficient circulating medium for improving the condition of Ireland by tampering 

 with the standard of value. 



2nd. It showed that, however deficient capital might be amongst many of the pau- 

 per tenantry and encumbered landlords, the scanty application of capital to the cul- 

 tivation of land in Ireland did not arise from any deficiency of capital amongst 

 Irishmen. 



3rd. It showed the absurdity of supposing that estates could not be bought, land 

 cultivated, or good done in Ireland without the introduction of English capital and 

 English capitalists. 



4th. It showed the necessity of looking beyond the superficial theories of the past 



