No. 11. 



Agriculture and the Corn-Law. 



331 



a larger qiianlily of foreign corn than is 

 actually wanted, or would otherwise co7ne 

 in. When it becomes evident that our har- 

 vests are likely to be deficient, orders are 

 sent abroad for large quantities of wheat, 

 which continue to come in long after the 

 deficiency is supplied, and when prices are 

 receding to a moderate level. Under ordi- 

 nary circumstances, this extra quantity: 

 would not be called for till it was actually 

 wanted. But as, under the sliding-scale,' 

 the duty is rapidly rising, and will soon be- 

 come prohibitory, the importer is obliged t0| 

 enter it at once, and bring it upon a market! 

 where it is not required, and which, conse- 

 quently, it must tend unduly to depress. 



Moreover, this happy invention, the slid- 

 ing-scale, not only exposes the farmer to the 

 risk of more foreign wheat coming in than 

 is required, but of much coming in when 

 none at all is required. Tiie corn merchant 

 is obliged to act beforehand in an estimate 

 of probabilities. If he conceives that the 

 harves^ts are likely to be deficient, he does 

 not wait, as under a free trade he would be 

 able to do, till the deficiency is ascertained, 

 — but he sends out his orders for foreign 

 corn to come in at the period when the duty 

 is usually the lowest, and the price the high- 

 est, viz., just before the harvest. But it 

 sometimes chances, that he is mistakeii in 

 his anticipations, — that the crop turns out a 

 fair average, and that importations are not 

 needed. But his orders are executed, and 

 the foreign corn comes pouring in. He 

 dares not wait for the chance of the duty 

 rising to a point which shall make his specu- 

 lation overwhelmingly ruinous: he must lib- 

 erate his corn on the best terms he can, and 

 bring it to market as early as he can, whe- 

 ther wanted or not, before the full effect of 

 the harvest in depressing prices has had 

 time to operate. 



This, then, is the fourth count of the 

 farmer's indictment against the corn-laws: 



I — that they introduce foreign corn at the 

 worst possible moment; — that they inlro- 

 \diice more than is loanted; — and that they 

 introduce it lohen not wanted at all. 



VI. Thus far we have considefed the 

 effect of the corn-laws on the interests of 

 the farmer, considered merely in his capa- 

 city of a producer;* and as a producer, we 

 have shown them to be in every way inju- 

 rious to him. Either they raise the average 

 price of corn, or they do not. If they do 

 not, it is clear that neither he nor his land- 

 lord has any interest in maintaining them. 

 If they do, we have seen that his landlord 

 reaps the benefit, because he calculates his 

 rent accordingly. But the farmer is a con- 

 sumer as well as a producer, — an eater of 

 corn as well as a grower of it; and, in this 

 capacity, low prices, and not high prices, 

 are desirable for him. Nay, more; he is a 

 consumer to a greater extent than any other 

 individual in the community; for to his own 

 consumption must be added the far larger 

 quantity required for seed-corn, and for feed- 

 ing his cattle. High prices, therefore, not 

 only add materially to his household ex- 

 penses; they increase his cost of production, 

 and thereby diminish the profits of his occu- 

 pation. This point is too clear to need any 

 further elucidation. As consumers, we re- 

 peat, farmers are more interested in low 

 prices than any other class of men in the 

 country. 



But farmers are consumers in another 

 point of view. They have to feed the poor. 

 In the agricultural districts they are the 

 chief rate-payers. Now, the corn-laws aug- 

 ment the poor-rates by a double operation. 

 They increase the number of paupers, by 

 depressing trade and manufactures; — and 

 they add to the cost of their maintenance, 

 by raising the price of corn. The latter 

 effect may be judged of from the annexed 

 table,t from which it appears, that, in five 

 agricultural counties alone, the difference of 



* It should be borne in mind, that the farmer is a producer of other articles besides corn ; he is a producer 

 of meat, of milk, of cheese, of butter; and in proportion as the price of corn rises, must the people's consump- 

 tion of the oilier articles be reduced. But our limits prevent us from dwelling upon this point at present. 



t SUMS E.XPENDED FOR THE RELIEF OF THE POOR. 



