ties. The dearness of commodities which is occasioned by the cheapness of money, is not a real dearness. It does not throw commodities more out of the reach of the population. On the contrary, it is proof that the population have a greater command over them. The population can obtain the greater sum of money, wherewith to pay the increased price, with greater facility than they could before obtain the smaller sum of money. Therefore, there is no injury in this kind of dearness; but there is a positive and general benefit to the productive classes who thus obtain "remunerating prices," which protect them in the just reward of their industry, at the same time that they enable them to defray their engagements and fixed charges, in a cheap money, of the same value as that in which those fired charges were imposed or agreed to. Thus, all classes are benefited by a nominal dearness of commodities of this nature, which is, in fact, a mere cheapness of money. The debtor is protected, and the creditor is secured; and the whole machinery of production and consumption is kept in free, ample, and effective operation.

Very different is the state of things when a real dearness of commodities exists; a dearness occasioned by defective harvests, and by a diminished supply of the commodities necessary to the wants of the population. The productive classes, and the unproductive, are all alike injured-the human hand is deprived, as it were, of its usual power, and consequently each individual receives a less individual

distribution of the respective productions which his respective wants require. This is the kind of dearness which corn laws seek to introduce. It is a species of artificial famine, by means of which it is attempted to force a greater proportion of the dear money of the country to circulate through the agricultural classes, than they have any right to expect. This kind of dearness of commodities is radically unjust, noxious, hateful, and injurious. But the nominal dearness of commodities which is occasioned by the cheapness of money, is one of the greatest blessings which a civilized nation can enjoy ; provided only, that it is not pushed further than is necessary to preserve that general range of prices under which all the existing obligations of society have been contracted.

In a country like ours, indeed, encumbered as it is with such prodigious masses of obligations, contracted in cheap money, such nominal dearness of commodities is, in fact, absolutely necessary for the support of the national existence.

It is sometimes asserted, that the continental level of prices is necessary in England, in order to enable us to compete with our continental neighbours in the foreign markets.

In answer to this, it may be observed, that there are two ways of enabling us to compete with foreigners; first, by reducing our general prices to the continental level; and secondly, by reducing the standard in which our general prices are measured. The first of these is ruinous and destructive, as we

have seen, inasmuch as it interferes with and obstructs the existing machinery of society, and reduces means without reducing burthens. The second is healthy and beneficial, inasmuch as it prevents the fall of prices below a remunerating level, and preserves the existing machinery of society; and while it enables us to compete with foreigners, by giving us a metallic cheapness of our manufactures, it reduces burthens correspondently with means, and distributes equal justice and security among all classes of the community. In attempting to compete with foreigners, by our present measures, we break up our home trade much faster than we increase our foreign trade, and we, in fact, injure our foreign trade itself, by depressing the prices at which British manufactures are sold, and by diminishing the amount and the price of the foreign importations, in which alone British manufactures can permanently be paid for.

All that we have to study is to make sure the reward of industry, by adopting such a paper currency, or such a metallic standard, as will preserve the general prices of commodities above the level of the fixed charges which have been contracted in what Lord Goderich calls "worthless rags." By adopting a currency of this kind, we reconcile and preserve all interests. We make agriculture, manufactures, and commerce flourish, all equally and permanently. We bring labour into full and permanent employment, and we ensure to it its full and permanent reward. We guarantee and make sure

the rents of the landowner, the dividends of the fundowner, the taxes of the Government, and the securities of the creditor of a hundred kinds; and at the same time we give to these important classes quite as valuable a kind of money as they have any just right to expect, and as it is possible for them to receive. If they are content with this kind of money they are yet safe; but if they are not, it is not difficult to foresee the fate which awaits them. They will make their yoke too heavy for the nation to bear, and it will most surely be shaken off.

A SCOTCH BANKER.

No. V.

THINGS AS THEY MIGHT HAVE BEEN.

April 10, 1828. HAVING brushed away the difficulties which entangled our subject, let us now turn to the contrast ; and let us examine what would have been our situation if justice and reason had guided our councils, instead of a blind eagerness to exact the payment of our credits in an unjust and unsuitable medium of exchange, more valuable than we have a right to expect.

If we had adopted a just and practicable currency on the return of peace, two modes of accomplishing this object presented themselves, without producing the slightest injury or injustice to any class of the community. We might either have continued the paper system, under proper regulations, obligating the Bank of England to some given amount of issues, and limiting it there; or we might have adopted a metallic standard of value, depreciated to a level with the practical currency of the country.