Ch. xii. Restrictions upon Importation. 203 



aggravated by the state of the currency, has been 

 occasioned by natural, not artijicial causes. 



There is a tendency to an alternation in the rate 

 of the progress of agriculture and manufactures 

 in the same manner as there is a tendency to an 

 alternation in the rate of the progress of food and 

 population. In periods of peace and uninter- 

 rupted trade, these alternations, though not fa- 

 vourable to the happiness and quiet of society, 

 may take place without producing material evil ; 

 but the intervention of war is always liable to 

 give them a force and rapidity that must unavoid- 

 ably produce a convulsion in the state of property. 



The war that succeeded to the peace of Amiens 

 found us dependent upon foreign countries for a 

 very considerable portion of our supplies of corn; 

 and we now grow our own consumption, notwith- 

 standing an unusual increase of population in the 

 interval. This great and sudden change in the 

 state of our agriculture could only have been 

 effected by very high prices occasioned by an 

 inadequate home supply and the great expense 

 and difficulty of importing foreign corn. But the 

 rapidity with which this change has been effected 

 must necessarily create a glut in the market as 

 soon as the home growth of corn became fully 

 equal or a little in excess above the home con- 

 sumption ; and, aided only by a small foreign 

 importation, must inevitably occasion a very sud- 

 den fall of prices. If the ports had continued 

 open for the free importation of foreign corn, there 

 can be little doubt that the price of corn in 1815 



