the means of information, of the persons making it. 

 In a conversation with Count Mostoski, the enlight- 

 ened minister of finance, whilst viewing his farm near 

 Warsaw, he stated, as the result of his calculations, 

 that the cost price in that neighbourhood was double 

 as much as it was selling for at that time, which was 

 indeed at considerably less than half of the average 

 price it had borne in past periods for a series of years ; 

 that during those periods, the benefit on its cultivation 

 had been somewhat less than the profit on the other 

 branches of industry ; or that, in the double capacity 

 of Landlord and Farmer, the annual gain to the 

 cultivator had not been equal to that derived from the 

 same amount of capital employed in any other way. 



On referring to the Prices of Warsaw (see Appendix, 

 Xo. 21 and 22.), it will be seen, that for a period of 

 twenty-four years, from June 1796 to June 1820, the 

 average of the period was 335. per quarter ; and that 

 in the ten years from 1815 to 1824, it was 31.9. The 

 price, at the time of my visit to this gentleman, was 

 14s. Qd. The tables will show that the fluctuations 

 in the price of Wheat, during the longest period, have 

 had much narrower limits than have been experienced 

 in the other markets nearer the sea shore. 



It is highly improbable, that if the cost piice of 

 Wheat had not been tolerably near to the selling 

 price, efforts would not have been strenuously directed 

 to augment the growth of it, and that the quantity 

 raised would not have been regularly increasing ; but 

 this is so far from having been the case, that only so 

 long as the price was 30*. or upwards, was the pro- 

 duction kept up to the regular standard ; and that 

 when it fell but a few shillings below that price, the 

 quantity sent to market diminished, and remarkably 

 so, since the declension has gone on increasing till it 

 has reached the present very ruinous limits. 



The view taken by Count IMostoski was confirmed 

 also by Prince Lubetski, another of the ministers, 



