98 
they have originated through the writ- 
ings of economists, or the speeches of 
politicians and statesmen, have utterly 
failed in developing the true Cause; and 
yet it is evident, that without a due 
understanding of the cause, it is and 
will be utterly impossible to apply any 
efficient remedy. 
Some assert, with unbounded con- 
fidence, that the cause is to be traced to 
the diminished quantity of the circulat- 
ing medium, a cause, which, if it existed 
to any considerable extent, would un- 
questionably affect the nominal price of 
all commodities in relation to that me- 
dium—but, is this the fact? Has any 
such considerable reduction taken place 
in the quantity of the circulating me- 
dium, or have its fountains been closed 
or dried up? For, if the flood-gates 
of circulation have continued open, so 
that all who sought for a supply might 
have been supplied, then it must be 
evident that the different quantity of 
the circulating medium, which depends 
on the demand, can have had little 
connection with the present circum- 
stances of agricultural distress. But, 
in truth, there has been no such dimi- 
nution as that which is insisted upon. 
If Bank-notes have been diminished, 
from an average of thirty millions to an 
average of twenty millions, let it be 
remembered that specie has increased 
to a similar amount; and, therefore, 
the public currency is as great, or 
nearly as great, as it was during the 
war. At the same time, when the ex- 
penditure of government was double 
what it now is, and when the working 
of loans called for such large sums in 
the money market, an excess of a few 
millions might have been required by 
circumstances which do not now exist. 
Yet, in point of fact, the public cur- 
rency in notes and cash has not been 
sensibly diminished ; and, for several 
years, currency has not been in demand, 
either by the merchants or bankers. 
The Bank of England has as liberally 
discounted for seven years last past as 
at any period since its establishment ; 
yet few bills have been presented for 
discount. Indeed, instances have oc- 
curred within these few months of not 
more than a solitary bill being pre- 
sented for discount in a day; whereas, 
at certain periods during the war, it 
was sometimes necessary to have peace- 
officers in attendance, to prevent a dis- 
turbance among the clamorous and 
impatient discounters. It is evident, 
therefore, not only that there is no 
operative diminution in the quantity of 
Causes of the Agricultural Distresses Investigated. 
[March I, 
currency, but that if it had been want- 
ed, more might have been had; con- 
sequently, all the assertions about the 
change from a paper to a metallic cur- 
rency, or of the diminution of currency, 
as causes of the agricultural distress, 
are visionary and utterly groundless. 
Another hypothesis, which has occa- 
sioned much discussion, assumes, that 
farming produce requires to be protect- 
ed by high importation duties, but is 
refuted by the fact that ever since the 
last importation-prices were fixed, grain 
has never reached the maximum; and, 
therefore, importation has had no effect 
on the markets. 
One of our senatorial wiseacres, who 
enjoys a false reputation as an econo- 
mist, because he plays at shuttlecock 
with the cabalistie words “ supply 
and demand, bullion and specie,” has 
ascribed the depreciation to a late 
abundant harvest — but who besides 
himself has heard of any late harvest 
beyond an average, and what does he 
mean by a harvest of sheep and oxen 
—can he be iguorant that the deprecia- 
tion at Smithfield has been greater 
even than that at Mark Lane ?* 
An eloquent and learned member of 
Parliament has ascribed the deprecia- 
tion to the different values of bullion, 
forgetting that bullion does not mix 
with the question, and that prices have 
never been estimated in bullion, but in 
pounds sterling, which pound is the 
same thing whatever be the commodity 
which represents it. His reasonings 
can, however, make but few converts. 
High rents have been insisted upon as 
a cause, and, doubtless, they are so; 
but they are an effect as well as a cause. 
They were justified when they were 
levied, bya price of produce which oc- 
casioned speculative farmers to covet 
land on any terms ; but it needs no syl- 
logism to prove, that when produce has 
fallen, rents ought to fall in the same 
proportion, and that if high rents are 
collected on low-priced produce, the 
cultivator must be impoverished, ruin- 
ed, and driven into the workhouse. 
The entire subject resolves itself, 
however, into this question: What is 
the true cause of the peculiar deprecia- 
*The same profound senator conceives 
that the universal agricultural interest can 
indemnify itself against indirect taxation, 
just as a fraternity of tanners can indem- 
nify themselves against a direct tax on lea- 
ther! Yet such reasonings as these are 
said to have weight in the House of Com- 
mous! If it be so, God help the country 
whose wisdom isso misrepresented ! 
tion 
