9* 



to curtail their expenditure in those things which are less 

 essential, such as articles of dress, and other comforts, which 

 they would otherwise purchase. This, while it has a 

 demoralizing effect, at the same time it throws out of 

 occupation that portion of the population whose employment 

 is dependent upon the demand for such things ; and this 

 portion includes every labouring individual in the country, 

 excepting such as are exclusively agricultural. 



The derangement causes at the same time a stagnation 

 in the importation and sale of the raw materials used in 

 the various manufactures, &c. All these things curtail the 

 expenditure of the merchant as well as the master manufac- 

 turer, both as respects their luxuries, and their employment 

 of the lower classes ; by reducing the sources of enterprise 

 and profit. Thus we have another diminution of labour. 

 There is, in fact, a diminished demand for everything 

 beyond the mere necessaries of life, and its effects, more or 

 less, reach every one. 



One of the usual effects of a large and unexpected 

 demand for food, (and as it is most universal and disastrous 

 in its operation, I propose to treat of it at length,) is a 

 monetary panic in the country, and it is one which is easily 

 traced, by those who are acquainted with business trans- 

 actions, to that cause. When the nation is starving, or when 

 there is a prospect of immediate scarcity, we are obliged to 

 import an extraordinary quantity of food, and that in a 

 limited period. There is no time for the usual deliberate 

 movements of trade ; food must be had, and nations, like 

 individuals, when it is wanted in a hurry, must get it 

 wherever it is to be found, in the greatest and most 

 available quantities ; and they must pay a price in pro- 

 portion to the urgency of the requirement. 



What is the effect of all this ? Why, trade loses for 

 the time every characteristic of reciprocity which it might 

 otherwise have borne. The Foreign Exchanges, owing 



