TRANSACTIONS OP SECTION P. 789; 



tbe English corn laws as tliey had existed since 1688. The change from pasturage 

 to tillage came at a time when it proved peculiarly suitable to the requirements of 

 England, where the industi-ial revolution was making rapid strides. Consequently 

 the demand across the Channel for corn enormously increased, and the supply 

 came largely from Ireland. With the rise in the price of corn came the inevitable 

 influence in the marriage rate. In 1811 the population was 5,956,466; in 182 L 

 it was 6,801,827 ; in 1831 it was 7,767,401 : in 1841 it was 8,199,853; and in 

 1845 it was 8,295,061. 



With the fall of prices consequent upon the conclusion of the Napoleonic 

 wars the hard years began to come. The tide of emigration flowed in 1826 and 

 1827, for the landlord attempted to consolidate the small holdings. The develop- 

 ment of transport coincided with the opening of the Mississippi valley, and these 

 changes promoted the growth of free trade in England. What gravely affected 

 Ireland since 1846 was not the potato famine, but the abolition of the corn laws. 

 A student of eighteenth -century Irish history at once perceives that Ireland 

 passed through many famines. The emigration statistics tell the tale of some of 

 the results of the change in English commercial policy. 



This country flourished before 1846, but its state was entirely artificial. No 

 real dependence could therefore be placed on what had happened. With the 

 abolition of the corn laws the fictitious industrial life of the country was at once 

 evident. When free trade began, for a time this land did not prosper, but at last 

 some measure of success has been vouchsafed. To-day an Irishman feels at least 

 that his hardly-won industrial triumphs are all his own, that they are largely 

 independent of State control and State support. 



4. The Economic Ideal and its Ajyplication to Countries or Nations. 

 By Professor Edwin Cannan, M.A., LL.D. 



The general economic ideal is maximum material welfare, not of course lumped 

 in an unintelligible aggregate, but reckoned in the ordinary way, i^er capita. If 

 this be straightway applied to countries, it will often conflict with the national or 

 political ideal of a population large enough for ' security,' and for certain other 

 purposes such as the maintenance of the national language and literatui-e (if any), 

 but this objection may be set aside as non-economic. Even on purely economic 

 grounds, however, the application of this ideal to countries cannot be justified. 

 Countries are no longer ' worlds in themselves.' The greater sale of goods in 

 international markets, coupled with easier migration and regulation of population, 

 is tending to wipe out international differences of earnings. Consequently 

 differences in material welfare as between countries is coming to depend more and 

 more upon the same cause as the' differences between different parts of the same 

 country — that is, on the distribution over the globe of persons owning property and 

 performing the different cl.asses of labour. Those countries are richest which 

 either contain the largest proportions of the persons who own considerable 

 portions of the property of the world, or contain the largest proportions of the 

 people who do the best paid classes of work. So if the ideal of the maximum 

 material welfare of its inhabitants be set up for each country, the most urban 

 countries will always appear nearest the ideal, which is absurd. A country 

 approaches the economic ideal just in so far as it is best utilised for the benefit ot 

 the world community. 



MOyLAT, SEPTEMB:ER 7. 

 The following Repoi't and Papers were read !-^ 



1. Interim Report on the Amount of Gold Coinage in Circulation in the 



United Kingdom. 



