II.The trade of the merchant importer of foreign corn for home consumption evidently contributes to the immediate supply of the home market, and must so far be immediately beneficial to the great body of the people.It tends, indeed, to lower somewhat the average money price of corn, but not to diminish its real value, or the quantity of labour which it is capable of maintaining.If importation was at all times free, our farmers and country gentlemen would, probably, one year with another, get less money for their corn than they do at present, when importation is at most times in effect prohibited; but the money which they got would be of more value, would buy more goods of all other kinds, and would employ more labour.Their real wealth, their real revenue, therefore, would be the same as at present, though it might be expressed by a smaller quantity of silver; and they would neither be disabled nor discouraged from cultivating corn as much as they do at present.On the contrary, as the rise in the real value of silver, in consequence of lowering the money price of corn, lowers somewhat the money price of all other commodities, it gives the industry of the country, where it takes place, some advantage in all foreign markets, and thereby tends to encourage and increase that industry.But the extent of the home market for corn must be in proportion to the general industry of the country where it grows, or to the number of those who produce something else, and therefore have something else, or what comes to the same thing, the price of something else, to give in exchange for corn.But in every country the home market, as it is the nearest and most convenient, so is it likewise the greatest and most important market for corn.That rise in the real value of silver, therefore, which is the effect of lowering the average money price of corn, tends to enlarge the greatest and most important market for corn, and thereby to encourage, instead of discouraging, its growth.
By the 22nd of Charles II, c.13, the importation of wheat, whenever the price in the home market did not exceed fifty-three shillings and fourpence the quarter, was subjected to a duty of sixteen shillings the quarter, and to a duty of eight shillings whenever the price did not exceed four pounds.The former of these two prices has, for more than a century past, taken place only in times of very great scarcity; and the latter has, so far as I know, not taken place at all.Yet, till wheat had risen above this latter price, it was by this statute subjected to a very high duty; and, tin it had risen above the former, to a duty which amounted to a prohibition.The importation of other sorts of grain was restrained at rates, and by duties, in proportion to the value of the grain, almost equally high.* Subsequent laws still further increased those duties.
* Before the 13th of the present king, the following were the duties payable upon the importation of the different sorts of grain:-GrainDuties DutiesDuties Beans to 28s.per qr.19s.10d.after till 40s.16s.8d.then 12d.
Barley to 28s.19s.10d.32s.16s.12d.
Malt is prohibited by the annual Malt-tax Bill.
Oats to 16s.5s.10d.after 9 1/2d.
Pease to 40s.16s.10d.after 9 3/4d.
Rye to 36s.19s.10d.till 40s.16s.8d.then 12d.
Wheat to 44s.21s.10d.till 53s.4d.17s.then 8s.
till 4 l.and after that about 1s.4d.
Buckwheat to 32s.per qr.to pay 16s.
These different duties were imposed, partly by the 92nd of Charles II, in place of the Old Subsidy, partly by the New Subsidy, by the One-third and Two-thirds Subsidy, and by the Subsidy, 1747.
The distress which, in years of scarcity, the strict execution of those laws might have brought upon the people, would probably have been very great.But, upon such occasions, its execution was generally suspended by temporary statutes, which permitted, for a limited time, the importation of foreign corn.
The necessity of these temporary statutes sufficiently demonstrates the impropriety of this general one.
These restraints upon importation, though prior to the establishment of the bounty, were dictated by the same spirit, by the same principles, which afterwards enacted that regulation.
How hurtful soever in themselves, these or some other restraints upon importation became necessary in consequence of that regulation.If, when wheat was either below forty-eight shillings the quarter, or not much above it, foreign corn could have been imported either duty free, or upon paying only a small duty, it might have been exported again, with the benefit of the bounty, to the great loss of the public revenue, and to the entire perversion of the institution, of which the object was to extend the market for the home growth, not that for the growth of foreign countries.
III.The trade of the merchant exporter of corn for foreign consumption certainly does not contribute directly to the plentiful supply of the home market.It does so, however, indirectly.From whatever source this supply may be usually drawn, whether from home growth or from foreign importation, unless more corn is either usually grown, or usually imported into the country, than what is usually consumed in it, the supply of the home market can never be very plentiful.But unless the surplus can in all ordinary cases be exported, the growers will be careful never to grow more, and the importers never to import more, than what the bare consumption of the home market requires.
That market will very seldom be overstocked; but it will generally be understocked, the people whose business it is to supply it being generally afraid lest their goods should be left upon their hands.The prohibition of exportation limits the improvement and cultivation of the country to what the supply of its own inhabitants requires.The ******* of exportation enables it to extend cultivation for the supply of foreign nations.