GRAIN MARKETS OUT OF LONDON. 327 



necessary amount of trickery and prevarication, about that which 

 might be much better determined in fifteen minutes ! 



2. ADVANTAGES AND CONVENIENCE OF SUCH MARKETS IN THE 

 UNITED STATES. The convenience of these markets, scattered 

 all over the country, is very great. They would be very useful 

 with us, and I think cannot be too soon established, especially 

 in our grain-growing districts, such, for example, as Western New 

 York. The farmers in this part of the country would certainly 

 derive great advantages from regular and quick sales, and from 

 the extended competition to which such established markets 

 would certainly lead. Once a week, however, in the same 

 district, would be too often, as they would be likely to take the 

 farmers too much from home ; and at the breaking up of the 

 winter, when the state of the roads renders travelling difficult, 

 or during the busiest season of summer, it might be advisable to 

 suspend them. In any event, the hour of opening and of closing 

 them should be fixed and absolute. Mutual agreement might 

 determine this ; and the custom, once established, would be as 

 imperative as any laws on the subject. If it should be asked 

 how these markets might be established, I think the agricultural 

 societies in the different counties could easily arrange the matter ; 

 and that it would be a very useful object of their attention. I 

 would advise, further, that a grain market, and a cattle market, 

 should be always a cash market ; and that all giving or taking 

 credit in such cases should be considered disgraceful both to 

 buyer and seller, and entirely out of the question. If bread 

 should not be paid for in cash, what should be ? I am afraid 

 my advice may be deemed a work of supererogation, but it is 

 well intended; and whoever contributes in any way to limit (I 

 am sensible the abolition is hopeless) that system of private 

 credit and long accounts, which prevails to so great an extent all 

 over the country, does a public benefaction. With honest men 

 who mean to pay their debts, nothing, in the end, is ever gained 

 by it ; and the frequency with which a man s own integrity is 

 undermined by it is not the least of its evils. I am strongly of 

 the opinion that it would be better for the community if there 

 were no laws for the recovery of debts, excepting cases involving 

 fraud either in the act or the representation ; and all such in 

 stances should be punished as other crimes. The value of 



