No. 11. 



Agriculture and the Corn-Law. 



333 



Are they the rich, or are they the poor? 

 Are they the higher and middle classes, or 

 are they the labouring classes'? We know 

 that the former rarely alter at all, and never 

 alter materially, their rate of consumption ; — 

 we know, therefore, that the consumption of 

 the latter must fall off in a more than pro- 

 portionate degree. When the rich are com- 

 pelled to retrench, they retrench in luxuries, 

 not in food. When the pressure of scarcity 

 compels the poor man to retrench, he has no 

 luxuries to lay down, and his retrenchment 

 therefore falls almost immediately upon his 

 daily bread. 



It is no doubt the case in many parts of 

 England, perhaps in all, that the wages of 

 the farm labourer do vary to a certain ex- 

 tent in years of diversity ; that is to say, 

 that when the price of provisions is so high 

 as to make it impossible for the labourer to 

 maintain his family on his ordinary wages, 

 those wages are advanced, though in an in- 

 adequate degree; otherwise he would be 

 obliged to seek assistance from the parish ; — 

 and the farmer knows, that whether he pays 

 the advance in the form of wages or of poor- 

 rates, is a matter of comparatively little mo- 

 ment. In like manner, when the price of 

 provisions is unusually low, wages are com- 

 monly reduced, because the general redun- 

 dance of labour in the agricultural districts 

 enables the farmer, in the great majority of 

 instances, to procure hands at the lowest 

 rate of earnings that will afford a bare sub- 

 sistence. But is there a single agricultural 

 labourer in the country who will affirm that 

 his wages go so far when wheat is at 60s. 

 as when it stands at 40s.'! We believe 

 not. 



In 1835 and 1836, the prices of all kinds 

 of farming produce were unusually low; 

 and in the spring of the latter year, a com- 

 mittee of the House of Commons was, of 

 course, appointed to inquire into the causes 

 of the existing agricultural distress. Great 

 numbers of witnesses from all parts of the 

 country were examined, the chief portion of 

 whom were farmers. Of thirty-eight of 

 these, who were particularly questioned as 

 to the comparative condition of the labourer 

 at that time, in order to ascertain whether 

 or not he had benefited as he ought to have 

 done, by the low price of food, only eight 

 spoke doubtfully, or negatively; — the re- 

 maining thirty declared with one consent, 

 that, although wages were unquestionably 

 low, the labourers were in general fully em- 

 ployed, and had never within their memory, 

 been in so comfortable a condition or able 

 to procure so large a supply of the decencies 



and necessaries of life.* A similar com- 

 mittee, which had sat in 1833, at which 

 period also prices were moderate, and pro- 

 duce was abundant, reported to the same 

 effect in the following words: — 



"Amidst the numerous difficulties to 

 which agriculture in this country is ex- 

 posed, and amidst the distress which unhap- 

 pily exists, it is a consolation to find that 

 the general condition of the agricultural 

 labourer in full employment is belter now 

 than at any former period; his money 

 loages giving him a greater command over 

 the necessaries and conveniences of life." 



In 1836, when the committee made their 

 report, wheat was under 40s. a quarter. 

 Within three years of this period, the price 

 had reached 73s., or nearly double. Was 

 the labourer as comfortably oft' in 18391 as 

 he had been in 18261 Could he procure 

 any thing like the same amount of whole- 

 some and nutritious food? Could he expend 

 as much in clothing 1 Had his wages ad- 

 vanced in any thing like a corresponding 

 proportion? If they had, why was the 

 home trade so bad? Why were the poor- 

 rates so much heavier in the latter year? J 

 Why had the consumption of excisable arti- 

 cles so greatly fallen ofr?|| And why had 

 the duties on malt, tea, and sugar, been so 



* First, Second, and Third Reports of the Committee 

 of 1836, especially p. 353. 



f "The state of prices of provisions, and of the rate 

 of wages in the last two years, (1838, 1839,) strikingly 

 confirms the deductions from previous experience of 

 the little tendency which exists in wages to follow a 

 fall or rise in the prices of provisions, except at long 

 intervals, and then only in a degree far short of such 



fall or rise In a few instances the wages of 



agricultural labourers have been raised, but in a very 

 trifling proportion to the rise of necessaries; and in 

 cases where an advance has been granted, it has rather 

 been from motives of fear or humanity on the part of 

 the emplo/er, than as a legitimate consequence of an 

 improved demand relatively to the supply of labour." 

 — TooKE on Prices, III. p. 52. 



I In spite of increased economy brought about by 

 the progressive introduction of the amended law, the 

 total amount expended for the relief of the poor, had 

 risen from £3,800,000 in 1836, to X4,310,000 in 1839. 

 And the increase had taken place in every county in 

 England, except Lincoln, Shropshire, and Southamp- 

 ton. 



U The excise duties collected in 1836, were X16,587. 

 992; and in 1839, they had fallen off to £15,488,000 in- 

 stead of having risen to £17.088,000, which they would 

 have done had they kept pace with the population. 



