Ch. xii. Restrictions upon Importation. 207 



ways would not be essentially different, as it is 

 quite certain that the rise of price in years of 

 general scarcity would be less in those countries 

 which habitually grow their own supplies; it must 

 be allowed that the range of variation will be the 

 least under such a system of restrictions as, with- 

 out preventing importation when prices are high, 

 will secure in ordinary years a growth equal to 

 the consumption.* 



* [1825.] Tn the sixth number of the Westminster Review, in 

 which prodigious stress is laid upon the necessary effect of the corn 

 laws in occasioning great fluctuations in the prices of corn, a table, 

 said to be from the very highest mercantile authority, is given of the 

 average prices of wheat at Rotterdam for each of the ten years end- 

 ing with 1824. The purpose for which the table is produced, is to 

 shew the average price of wheat in Holland during these ten years ; 

 but it incidentally shews that, even in Holland, which in many 

 respects must be peculiarly favourable to steady prices, a free trade 

 in corn can by no means secure them. 



In the year 1817, the price per last of 86 Winchester bushels 

 was 574 guilders ; and in 1824, it was only 147 guilders ; a dif- 

 ference of nearly four times. During the same period of ten years 

 the greatest variation in the average price of each year in England, 

 was between 94s. 9(/. which was the price in 1 8 1 7, and 43*. 9fZ. which 

 was the price in 1822, (Appendix to Mr. Tooke's work on High 

 and Low Prices. Table xii. p. 31) — a diff"erence short of 2;^-! ! 



It is repeated over and over again, apparently without the slightest 

 reference to facts, that the freedom of the trade in corn would in- 

 fallibly secure us from the possibility of a scarcity. The writer of 

 the article Corn Lazes in the supplement to the Encyclopaedia Bri- 

 tannica, goes so far as to say, " it is constantly found that when 

 " the crops of one country fail, plenty reigns in some other quar- 

 " ter * * * * There is always abundance of food in the world. 

 " To enjoy a constant plenty, we have only to lay aside our prohi- 

 " bitions and restrictions, and cease to counteract the benevolent 

 " wisdom of Providence." The same kind of language is repeated 



