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economists, of celebrated statesmen; the corn-laws restrict our commerce, depress our trade, deprive our people of employment, and derange our friendly relations with foreign powers.
The second great mischief, then, which the corn-laws inflict upon the farmer, is that they spoil his market, by impoverishing his customers.
IV. We presume, that no doubt can exist in the mind of any one, that the steadier prices can be made, the better for the producer, as well as for the consumer.[1] A trade in which the fluctuations are excessive, partakes of the nature of gambling; and a gambling trade is in the long run always a losing one, and generally a ruinous one. The uncertainty which pervades prices prevents any thing like safe estimates, or accurate calculations. The farmer, being wholly unable to foresee whether he shall obtain 40s. or 80s. for his wheat, knows neither what rent he can afford to pay, nor in what style he can afford to live. If the price of corn were fixed, he would know pretty exactly what he had to expect, would be able to lay out his expenses beforehand, and to calculate beforehand on a certain, though it might be a moderate, amount of profit. This degree of uniformity, we know, is not attainable; but, the nearer we can approach to it, the more desirable will become the condition of the farmer. Now nothing can be more certain than that our corn-laws have increased fluctuations of price—except that they were intended to prevent them. One of the chief pleas for the perpetual legislative peddling on this subject has been, the necessity of preventing excessive variations in the price of so important an article as food. The far-famed sliding-scale is the result of this alleged necessity; the offspring of previous variations; "the fruitful parent of a thousand more." It was a patent invention to produce uniformity of price. Yet the annexed table[2] will show
- ↑ "Fluctuations of price, whether they arise from alteration in the value of money, or from changes in the corn-laws, cannot fail to produce evils in every branch of rural economy, which, independently of these disturbing causes, must ever remain exposed to grievous vicissitudes from the uncertainty of seasons. These artificial fluctuations, however, only aggravate the natural evil: they render the income of the landlord precarious, the fixed rent of the farmer a hazardous speculation, and the wages of the labourer an uncertain remuneration. . . . . . . Steadiness of price, which is conducive to settled habits, and forms the basis of all fixed engagements, is the primary object never again to be overlooked."
Report of Committee of House of Commons, 1833.
- ↑
Year in which Lowest Price of the Corn Law was passed. Lowest Price of Wheat under this Law. Highest Price under this Law. Fluctuation under the Law. Per cent.
