18 



The cultivation of the British Isles issfci/fu! ; the 

 capital determinable to that object abundant ; most 

 of the costs of production and transit depending 

 upon individual enterprise, and upon the ingenuity 

 and skill of the artificer a??d manufacturer, are low ; 

 and the consumption or demand for corn (what- 

 ever may be the present effect of the productive 

 harvest of the year 1820) through a considera- 

 ble length of time, has e.vceeded the native growth 

 or supply.^ But although the market for corn 

 might, upon these considerations, be expected to 

 have been singularly beneficial, the high costs ami 

 charges oi production occasioned, chiefly, by the pre- 

 sent system of duties, ta.ves ami rates, derange the 

 economy of this great market of the country; and 

 deprive all, either directly or indirectly dependent 

 upon it, of the ease, satisfaction, and poicer to 

 stimulate a spirit of enterprize, which they would 

 otherwise enjoy and command, and in general 

 would exert. 



The average prices of the British market for 

 corn, very far exceed the prices of corn in the 

 markets of the world generally ; and a high average 

 price is in some measure assured, by checking the 



' The average quantity of wheat and flour added to the 

 consumption of the country from the iniporlation of Foreign 

 wheat and flour for the years 1815, 18l6, 1817, 1818, and 

 1819, being five years of peace, was 477,738 quarters. See 

 Appendix, C. 



