Consumption of Corn in Great Britain, &c. 277 



opinions : the late Joseph Wilkes, Esq. of Measham, Derbyshire, who was a deep 

 thinker of sound judgment, and well acquainted, both theoretically and practically, 

 during a long and active life, with the principles of agriculture, trade, manufactures' 

 and commerce ; and whose extensive and successful practice, in many branches of 

 commercial economy, must give weight to his opinions, maintained at the time of 

 the greatest importation (Michaelmas, 1801), that such importation was no grea' 

 evil, inasmuch as it was paid for by our manufactured goods ; that it was even less 

 an evil than a scarcity of the raw material of manufacture ; and he considered the 

 necessity of importing wool, hides, &c. as a greater evil than the importation of 

 corn ; and I have always understood, that the great importation of corn from 

 America, in 1801, was chiefly or wholly paid for by woollen cloths and other ma- 

 nufactured goods; and that it occasioned the greatest export of woollens ever 

 known; and that the Americans so completely drained themselves of corn for this 

 trafiRc, that bread became as dear, or dearer, at New York, than it was in England. 

 On the contrary, Mr. Malthus, in a note to his chapter on the exportation of 

 corn, p. 467, seems to consider the permanent and increasing necessity of an im- 

 portation of corn, to be a symptom of the decline, decay, and downfall of a state; 

 he says, " Poor countries have been continually rising on the ruins of their richer 

 neighbours; upon the commercial system, this kind of succession seems to be in 

 the natural and necessary course of things, independantly of the effects of war. If 

 from the increasing riches of the commercial part of any nation, and the consequent 

 increasing demands for the products of pasture, more lands were daily laid down 

 to grass, and more corn imported from other countries, the unavoidable conse- 

 quence seem to be, that the increasing prosperity of the poorer country, which 

 their exportation of corn would contribute to accelerate, must ultimately destroy 

 the population and power of the countries which had fostered them :" and farther, 

 " The most determined friend of commerce and manufactures must allow, that the 

 persons employed in them cannot exist without the food to support them ; and I 

 cannot persuade myself to believe, that they can be sufficiently secure of this food, 

 if they depend for it principally on other countries. There has never yet been an 

 instance in history, of a large nation continuing with undiminished vigour, to sup- 

 port four or five millions of its peop'e on imported corn ; nor do I believe there 

 will be such an instance in future ; England is, undoubtedly, from her insular 

 sitiiation and commanding navy, the must likely to form an exception to this rule. 



