time, government were to send out and destroy half the 

 standing corn, that would surely enhance the price of the 

 remainder. But suppose government withdraws one-half 

 of the money which the country has to pay for it, surely 

 that will greatly lower the price of the crop. And thus 

 all the skill and labour of the farmer may, as far as his 

 own interest is concerned, be thrown away. His rent, 

 tithe, taxes, and rates remaining the same, a withdrawal 

 of the circulating medium may so lower prices as to 

 sweep away the whole of his profits or even to cause 

 him to cultivate the soil at a loss. Upon abstract prin- 

 ciples, then, we see the importance of the monetary 

 question to the farmer. 



Now let us consider the practical bearing of this ques- 

 tion upon the English Farmer in the year 1851, and to 

 do this we must look back a little. To the English 

 Farmer, every thing affecting the circulating medium is 

 extremely important, because his fixed money payments 

 are on so high a scale. The war left us in 1815 with a 

 National Debt entirely unprecedented in the history of 

 the world. The funded and unfunded debt on the 5th 

 of January, 1816, was stated by the Committee of the 

 House of Commons, to be 885,186,324. This might 

 well be called enormous. Sir Robert Walpole had said, 

 "When the debt reaches 100 millions, the nation will 

 be bankrupt/' At the breaking out of the French Revo- 



^ lution the debt was 260 millions ; so that 625 millions 

 were added from 1793 to 1816. During this time, what 

 had been the state of the English farmer? His fixed 



-rmoney payments had constantly been increasing his 

 taxes rose enormously his rents and rates also. But 



^he monied price of his commodities also rose. From 

 ^689 to 1764 (76 years), the average price of Wheat was 

 #7s. 9d. a quarter. From 1765 to 1793, it was 49s. 5d. 

 a quarter. But after the Bank Restriction Act of 1797, 

 whedPthe quantity of money began to be greatly increased, 

 the ofece of corn rose rapidly. Taking the average of 

 wheat from 1/94 to 1820, it was 87s. lOd. a quarter. 

 From* 1809 to 1820, it was 98s. 9d. a quarter. Nothing 

 is more frequently said than that the war was the cause of 

 this enormous rise of price. No doubt the obstruction 



