of intercourse raised the price somewhat higher than it 

 would, at times, have been ; but it was not war which 

 mainly or principally raised the price, for never, under 

 any circumstances of war or peace, had corn for an 

 average of five years been more than 50s. a quarter in 

 this country. But we ask any one who says that the war 

 raised the price of corn, this simple question where did 

 the money come from to pay that price ? Here was corn 

 nearly doubled in price how could the country afford to 

 carry on an expensive war, to pay heavy taxes, to suffer 

 all the evils of suspended commerce, to raise large loans 

 for the government, and to pay nearly double the price 

 for its food ? It was the Paper Currency which enabled 

 the country to do all this, and to pay the high price which 

 it did for corn, and all other commodities. The people 

 cannot give a high price if they have not got the money. 

 The people must have done without bread corn must 

 have lived upon inferior food, as they did during former 

 wars had there not been a supply of paper money, 

 which enabled them, when all their gold and silver was 

 sent abroad, to carry on their home trade, to increase 

 their capital, to labour and enjoy the fruits of their labour, 

 by means of this new and most important instrument of 

 exchange 'Paper Money. Labour creates wealth. There 

 was plenty of real wealth in the country during the war, 

 because there were plenty of hard-working men toiling 

 daily to increase the nation's resources. The forge, the 

 loom, the plough, daily added to the wealth of the people. 

 That small portion of the national prosperity which lay in 

 gold and silver was drained away, and when brought back 

 from abroad was soon sent out again ; but the great mass 

 of the nation's wealth remained, and the great use of the 

 circulating paper medium which we had adopted was to 

 facilitate the distribution of this wealth amongst ourselves, 

 to be of use in the collection of the taxes, to discharge, 

 in a word, as it most efficiently and beneficially did, 

 the functions of Money. 



But what was the course pursued by this country after 

 the Peace of 1815 ? We returned to cash payments ; we 

 attempted to do away with that system of paper currency 

 in which our enormous debt was contracted, and we 



