France does not produce more than half the alimentary produce which she is capable of producing. Suppose he is right in this; suppose even that with a more perfect agricultural system, France were to obtain double her present quantity of rural produce, without employing more agricultural labourers*, she would then possess 45 millions of inhabitants at liberty to devote themselves to all other occupations exclusive of agriculture. Her manufactures would find better markets in the country than at present, because the country would be more productive, and the surplus would be sold among the manufacturing population itself. People would not be worse fed than at present, but they would in general be better provided with articles of manufacture; with better dwellings, superior household goods, finer clothing, and with objects of utility, instruction, and entertainment, which are now reserved for a very small number of people. The rest of the population is still rude and barbarous.

But in proportion as the manufacturing class increased, alimentary produce would become more in demand and dearer with relation to manufactures. The latter would produce diminished profits and wages, which would discourage those engaged in such branches of industry; hence it is easy to conceive how the restrictions which nature imposes on agricultural production, limit the produce of manufacture. But, this effect, like all which happens naturally and results from the nature of things, would be very gradual, long foreseen, and attended with fewer inconveniences than any other possible combi

nation.

which preys upon them? There are probably several, which will successively shew themselves; but I already per ceive one-immense fatal and deserving the most serious attention,

Suppose some individual, a collector, of public revenue for instance, were to take up his residence in the neighbour hood of each commercial, manufactur ing, or agricultural establishment, and without increasing the goodness of the produce, its utility, or the quality by which it becomes an object of desire and demand, were nevertheless to increase the costs of its production: what, I ask, would be the consequence? The value which is set on a commodity, even where the means of obtaining it exist †, depends on the enjoyment and, utility which it is expected to afford.. In proportion as its price rises, many persons cease to think it worth the expense which it occasions, and thus the number of buyers is diminished.

Besides, since taxes do not augment the profits of the producer, yet increase the price of all produce, the incomes of producers become insufficient to purchase the produce, the moment its price. is raised by an accident such as that. which I am about to describe,

Let us represent this effect by num bers, in order to pursue it to its remotest consequences. It will be well worth the trouble of examination, if it enable us to discern one of the principal causes of the evil which menaces every indus trious nation of the earth. Already the troubles of England forewarn other countries of the miseries reserved for them. They will be more painful wherever a more robust temperament excites to a greater developement of industry; which if unrepressed may even tually produce the happiest results; but will otherwise end in the most terrible convulsions,

If the manufacturer who produces a piece of stuff, after distributing amongst his assistants and himself a sum of 60.. francs for the productive services which

A man's means of acquisition are the profits which he derives from his industry, his capital, and his lands. Consumers who have neither industry, capital, nor land, spend only what they levy from the profits of the former. In all cases every one has a limited revenue; and though the possessors of very large incomes can sacrifice a great quantity of money for very trivial enjoy! ments, it must be allowed that the dearer any gratification is, the less it is considered indispensable.

have been employed in the fabrication of the piece, is moreover compelled to pay six francs to the receiver of taxes, either he must cease to make stuffs, or he must sell them for 36 francs the piece. But when this piece of stuff comes thus to be valued at 36 francs, those who produced it and have only received, all together, 30 francs, will only be able to buy five-sixths of the same article of which they could previously purchase the whole; he who before could purchase a yard, must now be restricted to five-sixths of a yard, and

so on.

The producer of corn who pays to another receiver a duty of six francs, on a sack of corn, of which the productive services have cost 30 francs, must now obtain 36 francs for his sack instead of 30. It follows that the producers of corn and stuffs, when purchasing either of those articles, can only acquire by their gains five-sixths of their produce.

As this effect is seen in these two commodities reciprocally, it may also take place in other articles. Without changing the state of the question, it is easy to suppose that producers, in whatever species of produce they may be occupied, have occasion for liquors, colonial produce, lodgings, amusements, objects of convenience and luxury. These commodities they will find dearer, and be unable to pay for them with their revenues, such as they are, according to the rank which they occupy among the producers. Upon the hypothesis which we have taken for our example, there will always remain a sixth part of the produce unsold.

True it is, that the six francs taken by the collector go to some one; and that those whom the collector represents (public functionaries, military men, or public creditors) may employ this money in obtaining the remaining sixth part, either of the sack of corn, or the piece of stuff, or of any other produce. This indeed is just what actually happens. But let it be observed that this consumption is entirely at the expense of the producers; and that if the collector, or those by whom he is authorized, consume a sixth part of the produce, the producers are thereby compelled to live upon the remaining five-sixths.

This you will allow; but at the same time I shall be told that any one may

If he reduce the quality, it will be equivalent to an increase in the price.

live upon five-sixths of what he produces. I am willing to admit that; but permit me to ask whether you think the producer could live equally well if two-sixths, instead of one, were demanded from him?-No; but still he would live. Ah! you think so. Pray, then would he still live in case twothirds were wrested from him?-then three-fourths?-But you do not attempt to reply.

Now, Sir, I flatter myself that my answers to the most urgent objections offered by you and M. Sismondi will be easily comprehended. If by creating new productions, say you, we are enabled to consume them, or to exchange them for others of which there exists a superabundance, and thus to procure markets for both, why then are not such new productions created? Is capital wanting? Capital abounds :. every where undertakings are sought for in which it may be advantageously employed: it is evident that there are no longer any such you declare (p. 499) that all kinds of commerce are already overstocked with capital and labourers, who all offer their produce under prime cost, as M. Sismondi assures us.

I am not quite prepared to say, that to follow the useful arts is a fool's trade; but you will allow, gentlemen, that the effect which you lament would go near to make it so. To buy the superabundant produce, it would be requisite to create other produce but if the producers were placed in too disadvantageous a situation; if, after exerting the productive means sufficient for producing an ox, they were to obtain only a sheep, and for this sheep, in exchange for any other kind of produce, were only to gain the same quantity of utility which exists in a sheep, who would go on producing under such disadvantages? The persons engaged in such a business would have made a bad bargain; they would have expended a value which the utility of their produce would not suffice to reimburse; whoever should be silly enough to create another production sufficient to purchase the former, would have to contend with the same disadvantages, and would involve himself in the same difficulties. The benefit which he might derive from his production would not indemnify him for its expenses; and whatever he might buy with this pro-duce would still be of no greater value.

Nouveaux Principes, liv. iv. chap. 4.

Then, indeed, the workman would no longer be able to live by his labour, and would become burthensome to his parish; then the manufacturer, un able to live on his profits, would re nounce his business. He would buy stock, or go abroad in search of a better situation, either a more lucrative employment, or, what is exactly equivalent, the opportunity of continuing his productive industry at a more moderate expense. If he were there to meet with other inconveniences, he would again seek another theatre for his talents; and different nations would be seen throwing at each other their capitals and their labourers; that is to say, the only sources of social prosperity, from which the greatest advantages may be derived by those who understand their true interests and the means by which they may be promoted.

I shall not attempt to point out the parts of this picture which apply more particularly to your country, Sir, or to any other; but I leave it for your consideration, and that of all well-meaning men who exert themselves to promote the welfare of the interesting, laborious, and useful part of mankind.

Why do the savages of the new world, whose precarious existence depends upon the uncertain flight of an arrow, neglect to build villages, and to inclose and cultivate lands? Because this kind of life demands labour too assiduous and painful. They are in the wrong; they calculate ill, for the privations they endure are far less tolerable than the toils which social life, well organized, would impose upon them. But if this social life were a galley, in which, after rowing with all their strength for sixteen hours out of the twenty-four, they were able to obtain only a piece of bread insufficient to feed them, they might really be excused for disliking social life. Now whatever renders the

༥,『*

condition of the producer, the essential party in every society, more disagreeable or irksome, tends to destroy the vital principle of the social body to reduce a civilized people to a savage statep to in troduce a state of things in which less is produced and less consumed to destroy civilization, which always flourishes most where there, is most production and consumption. You observe, rin several places, that man is naturally in dolent, and that it betrays great ignor ance of his nature to suppose that the will always consume all he can produce (p. 503). You are right, indeed; but I have maintained the same doctrine in declaring, that the utility of produce is no longer worth the productive services which are required to pay for it.

You appear convinced of this truth where you say, on another occasion (p. 342), A tax may put an end to the production of a commodity, if nobody in the society will consent to give for this commodity a price proportioned to the new difficulties of its production. Commerce transports to the extremities of the earth this inherent fault of mer chandize (of costing more in production than the worth of the article). Valued at its cost, it is every where too dear, because it must be purchased by productive services equivalent to those cmployed in its production.

Another consideration, by no means unimportant, is, that the costs of production are augmented not only by mul tiplied duties, by the dearness of articles of every sort, but by the habits which are produced by a vicious political system. If the progress of luxury and enormous emoluments if the facility of obtaining illegitimate profits through favour and influence in contracts, and financial operations, force the manufacturer, the merchant, the real producer, to exact profits disproportioned to the productive services which he ren

ders, in order to maintain this rank in society, then all these abuses tend to raise the costs of production, and consequently the price of produce above the value of their actual utility. The con sumption of commodities consequently becomes more limited, the productive services requisite for the creation of other exchangeable produce being too considerable the necessary expenses too heavy. Consider then, Sir, what extensive evils are produced by encouraging useless expenses and multiplying unproductive consumers.

The rapid sale of articles offered at a cheap rate by means of expeditious methods of production, proves how truly the cost of production is the real impediment to the sale of goods. If the price be reduced one fourth, it is found that a double quantity is sold. The reason is, that every one is then enabled to acquire it with less trouble, less costs of production. When under the Continental system it was necessary to pay five francs for a pound of sugar, whether the money were applied to the production of the sugar, or of any other commodity to be exchanged for it, France was able to purchase only fourteen millions of pounds." Now that sugar is cheap, we consume eighty millions of pounds per annum, being about three pounds for each person. At Cuba, where sugar is still cheaper, they consume above thirty pounds for every free person.+

Let us then agree upon a truth which on every side presses on our notice. To levy exaggerated duties, with or without the participation of a national representation, or by means of a burlesque representaion, no matter which, is to augment the costs of production without increasing the utility of the produce, without adding any thing to the satisfaction which the consumer may derive from it; it is imposing a fine on production--ON THAT PROCESS THROUGH WHICH SOCIETY EXISTS. And as among producers some are more advantageously situated than others for throwing upon their competitors all the burthen of unfortunate events, the latter are more grievously affected than the former. A

See the report on the situation of France made in 1813, by the then mi nister of the interior. He was interested inconcealing this diminution of com merce, maka se blume ji pada cɔant mit erg + Humbolt, Essai sur la Nouvelle Espagne, t. III. p. 183.

NEW MONTHLY MAG.-No. 82.

capitalist can often withdraw his capital from one employment to place it in another, or to send it abroad. The proprietor of a manufactory may often be fortunate enough to suspend his labours for a time. Besides, as long as the capitalist and the master-manufacturer can make their own terms with the workman, the latter is obliged to work constantly, and at any price, even when the employment does not procure him a subsistence. Thus do the excessive charges of production reduce many classes of certain nations to the necessity of confining their consumption to articles the most indispensable to their existence, and the lowest classes of all to die of want. Now, Sir, is not this, upon your own principle, the most fatal and barbarous of all the methods of reducing the numbers of mankind?..

We now come to the objection in which there is, perhaps, the greatest force, because it is supported by an im posing example. In the United States the charges of production are few, the taxes are light; and yet they are over stocked there, as in all other places, with merchandize for which there exists no demand. These difficulties, you say, cannot be attributed to the cultivation of bad lands, to the obstacles opposed to industry, to enormous taxes. There must, then, be something independent of the power of production necessary to the increase of wealth.

Well, Sir, you will scarcely believe that, according to me, it is the power of production, at least for the present, of which the Americans are in want, in

* Malthus on Population, book II. chap. 13. 5th ed.

+ Mr. Malthus, convinced that certain

classes are serviceable to society on account of what they consume alone, without producing any thing, would look upon the payment of the whole, or a great part of the English national debt, as a misfortune. On the contrary, this operation would, in my opinion, be very desirable for England; for the consequence would be, that the public creditors, being paid off, would seek to derive an income from their capitals; that the payers of taxes would themselves spend the 40 millions sterling which they now pay to the public creditors; that the taxes being diminished by 40 millions sterling, all produce would be cheaper; that consumption would consequently be greatly extended, and would afford employment to the labouring classes results in which, I confess, I see nothing to alarm the friends of the públic weal.

order to dispose of their overflowing produce to advantage.

The favourable situation of this people, during a long war in which they have almost always enjoyed the advantage of neutrality, has been the means of turning their attention, their industry, and capitals, far too exclusively to external and maritime commerce. The Americans are enterprising; their voyages are cheaply performed; they have introduced into navigation long courses, and various expeditious manoeuvres, which shorten voyages, reduce their expenses, and correspond with those improvements in the arts which diminish the costs of production; in short, the Americans have drawn to themselves all the maritime commerce which the English have not been able to engross; they have, for many years, been the intermediate agents between all the Continental powers of Europe and the rest of the world. Their success has even exceeded that of the English wherever those nations have been competitors, as in China. What has been the result? An excessive abundance of those commodities which are obtained by commercial and maritime industry; and when the general peace at length opened the highway of the ocean to all nations, the French and Dutch ships crowded with a kind of madness into the midst of a career thus newly opened to them; and in their ignorance of the actual state of countries beyond seatheir agriculture, arts, population, and resources for buying and consuming these ships, escaped from a tedious detention, carried in abundance the produce of the Continent of Europe to all ports, presuming that the other nations of the globe would be eager to possess those commodities after their long separation from Europe.

But in order to purchase this extraordinary supply, it would have been requisite for these countries to create immediately extraordinary quantities of produce of their own; for the difficulty at New York, at Baltimore, the Havanna, Rio-Janeiro, or Buenos-Ayres, is not to consume, but to purchase European manufactures. But the Europeans required payment in cottons, tobaccos, sugars, and rice; and this demand even enhanced the prices: and as, notwithstanding the dearness of these merchandizes, and of money, which is also merchandize, it was necessary to take them or return without payment, these very articles, thus rendered, scarce in their

original country, became more abundant in Europe, and at length so completely overstocked the European mar kets, that a fair price could not be ob tained for them, although the consump tion of Europe has greatly increased since the peace: hence the disadvantageous returns which we have witnessed. But suppose for an instant that the agricultural and manufactured produce of both North and South America had suddenly become very considerable at the time of the peace, in that case the people of those countries, being more numerous, and producing more, would easily have purchased all the European cargoes, and furnished a variety of returns at a cheap rate.

This effect will, I doubt not, take place with respect to the United States, when they are enabled to add to the objects of exchange furnished by their maritime commerce, a greater quantity of their agricultural produce, and perhaps some articles of manufacture also, Their cultivation is extending, their manufactures multiply, and their popu lation, in the natural order of things, increases with astonishing rapidity. In a few years the combination of their varied industry will form a mass of produce amongst which will be found more articles calculated to furnish profitable returns, or at least profits of which the Americans will employ a part in the purchase of European merchandize.

Merchandize produced by Europeans at a less expense than it can be made for in America will be carried to the United States; and goods which the soil and industry of America produce cheaper than they can be had elsewhere, will be carried home in exchange. The nature of demands will determine the nature of productions; each nation will prefer engaging in that kind of production in which it succeeds best, and the result will be exchanges mutually and permanently advantageous. But these commercial ameliorations can only be brought about by time. The talents and experience requisite for the practice of the arts are not acquired in a few months; years are necessary for their attainment. The Americans will not discover in what manufactures they can succeed until after several attempts. When

* The manufactures which a new nation may execute to the greatest advantage, are, in general, those which consist in preparing raw materials of their own growth, or imported at a small expense. It is not pro