1822.] 
tion and disproportionate price of agri- 
cultural produce, or, in other words, 
of the scarcity or dearness of money 
throughout the country ? 
To determine this question we must 
consider the actual circumstances of the 
population of the British empire. 
There are about forty-eight millions 
of acres of land in productive cultiva- 
tion in the three kingdoms. The in- 
terest of the public debt is also nearly 
forty-eight millions, or nearly a pound 
per acre, and the rentals may, for the 
sake of round number, be taken at the 
like sum. The interest of the debt is 
not levied entirely upon the land, but 
nevertheless it falls chiefly and ulti- 
mately upon the land, as the basis or 
radix of society. But making every 
allowance, it may be taken at 24 mil- 
lions on the land and its occupiers. 
These are the circumstances—what 
then, is their operation ? 
Suppose a parish, containing ten thou- 
sand acres of land, paid to mortgagees 
and landlords, resident within the 
parish, twenty-thousand pounds per 
annum: then, as those who receive 
the said twenty thousand pounds reside 
within the district, and expend it in 
produce and labour, it is evident that 
the constant circulation between the 
payers and the payees, must maintain 
an equality of resources, and that the 
only phenomena would be the propor- 
tions between the number of idlers or 
receivers, and labourers or payers. But 
if the receivers resided in a distant 
parish—if the mortgagees or the land- 
lords expended little or none of the 
money in the district whence they re- 
ceive their revenues, then such parish, 
subject to a perpetual drain, would 
necessarily become impoverished in 
that circulating medium, in which it 
paid landlords and mortgagees; and 
prices would be governed not by the 
amount of the general circulation, but 
by the amount remaining in circulation 
at the place of sale. 
It must at the same time not be for- 
gotten, that a rich man eats no more 
than a poor one, and, therefore, the 
consumption in the favoured parish 
would hear no proportion to its drain of 
currency from the other. The market 
prices would be regulated by the number 
of markets within thedistrict,and would 
not be governed by the prices which 
could be paid by the mortgagees and 
landlords, but these would be supplied 
at the average price of the whele district. 
The inconveniences resulting from such 
a state are evidently to be traced to the 
Causes of the Agricultural Distresses Investigated, 
99 
circumstance of the mortgagees and 
landlords not residing in contact with 
the payers or cultivators ; and, where- 
ever such happens to be the condition 
of any society, great or small, the prices 
of produce will be governed by these 
circumstances. 
In regard to the actual condition of 
the people of England, rents tend par- 
tially to produce this inconvenience, 
but mortgagees, or public annuitants, 
from inherent circumstances, produce 
it in the highest degree. It is notori- 
ous, that, during the scarcity of money 
in the country, and the low price of 
agricultural produce, money was never 
more plentiful than it has been in 
the money market in London. At the 
same time, in and near London reside 
four-fifths of the mortgagees or annui- 
tants, who draw thirty-six millions per 
annum from the occupiers of land and 
the inhabitants of the country, con- 
suming not more than an equal popula- 
tion of other men, and purchasing in 
the London markets at prices governed 
by those of the wholenation. Monstrous 
and inconceivable fact! Thirty-six 
millions drawn every year from indus- 
try, and in chief part centering in Lon- 
don, where it is divided among a few 
hundreds or thousands, who consume no 
more than the same number elsewhere, 
and, therefore, do not counteract their 
drains from the community at large, by 
any increase of consumption and price ! 
Yet such is the necessary effect of a 
congregation of mortgagees, or national 
creditors, in one place. But if many 
of them reside in foreign countries, 
these aggravate the evil by becoming 
non-consumers. Such is the gene- 
ral and inevitable etfect of an enormous 
publicdebt! The creditors are neces- 
sarily drawn to the focus of their proper- 
ty. Hence, in great measure, arises the 
increase of splendid streets, and superb 
villas in and around the metropolis, 
inhabited by persons who drain the 
country of thirty-six millions per an- 
num, and who contribute to the public 
burdeas only in the ratio of their per- 
sonal expenditure. 
This, then, is the true solution of 
the enigma which has puzzled all our 
statesmen and political economists. We 
have a public currency of undisturbed 
amount—we have an increased popula- 
tion—we have an improving foreign 
trade—we have beneficial communi- 
cations by canals and roads to promote 
our domestic industry, yet the produce 
of our soil is not sufficient to reward 
the husbandman, and maintain the 
proprietor 
