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country. "Something of the same process," he observes, "is going on in the wool trade the Belgian manufacturers are now competing on more than equal terms with the Leeds clothiers," the result of which is seen in a greatly increased exportation of wool from England, to be spun and woven in Germany. Upon this point there is abundant evidence. Thirty years ago the States of the ZollVerein exported wool and imported cloth. Since 1816, as appears by the Prussian census of 1849, the production of wool in that country alone has doubled, while the population has increased but 58 per cent.; yet it now imports wool and exports cloth. Within the last year the French Government has reduced the duties upon wool brought from Australia and South America, on the express ground, that it had become necessary in consequence of the supply from Germany and Spain having ceased, owing to the increase of their manufactures.

The point, however, to which the testimony of the North British Review has been adduced, is simply that the power to manufacture at as cheap a money-price as Great Britain, has been attained, in the countries that have sought it, through efficient protection. In every such instance, the duties imposed for protection have obviously ceased to be a pecuniary tax, and the advantages which are not indicated in the price of manufactures, are a great and permanent acquisition. Russia, France, the States of the Zoll-Verein, and the other countries who adhered to the policy which promotes domestic production, and secures what alone can justly be called free trade—that which accords with human nature and human inclinations are rapidly advancing in wealth and power. Turkey and Portugal, the nations which, possessing nominal independence, have been most submissive to the British policy, and Ireland, which has been coerced, are the most backward nations of Europe, and have now less power to resist than they had a generation ago. As against these, what are called the natural advantages of England are constantly increasing, while in respect to those who saw that the advantages were artificial, they have constantly diminished and are diminishing. The invention of Mr. Ericsson promises greatly to detract from one advantage which the British Islands have heretofore possessed over several of the Continental nations, in the possession of cheap and abundant

coal to propel her machinery. If five-sixths of the quantity which has heretofore been necessary to procure a given motive force, can henceforth be dispensed with, the advantage of cheap coal must diminish in the same proportion, and those who are now most hampered by the dearness of fuel, will derive the largest benefit. As they succeed in the effort to combine their materials and food in manufactured fabrics, England will cease to find employment in supplementing them, will be forced to buy materials at a dearer, and sell fabrics at a cheaper price, and at the same time to seek more distant markets for them. The final result must be, to compel her to raise her own food, which she can do more cheaply than it can be procured elsewhere, whenever her rulers become willing to let the labourer have his fair share of it, and to allow him to become that most efficient of all food-growers, the tiller of his own fee-simple land. Retiring from the business of keeping "the great workshop of the world," dismissing the colonies, kept as customers, and the fleets and armies necessary to guard them, she can make a market at home worth more than all that are relinquished, and whose magnitude will measure what those do not, the wealth, prosperity, and happiness of her children. In proportion to the intensity of her struggle against this consummation, will be the misery through which it must be reached.

CHAPTER VIII.

MONEY AND PRICE.

WE have thus far treated of Exchange, so far as it was possible to do so, as if it were conducted by simple barter. There are, however, many inconveniences in such a method. The man who has a quarter of beef to dispose of, may desire to procure bread, knives, calico, and shirtings, tea, books, and a variety of other articles. It would occasion him a great deal of trouble to go round to the various persons who possess the commodities he desires, and to apportion to each the share that, upon discussion, should be fixed as the equivalent of his merchandise. The man who owned calico, which he was ready to barter, might happen to be already supplied with a stock of beef. From the earliest period at which men established any considerable association with each other, they have endeavoured to obviate the inconveniences of direct barter by the adoption of some general medium, in which the values of other commodities are expressed, and which is generally accepted in exchange for products and services, in the first instance, with a view to its being subsequently bartered for other products or services. There are several properties belonging to the precious metals, gold and silver, which render them peculiarly fit for this purpose, and indicate that their general adoption is by no means accidental or arbitrary. One of these is their absolute uniformity in quality. Being simple substances they are everywhere alike; the gold of California and that of Australia are identical; the silver of Mexico and that of Russia are precisely the same substance. Another is, their capacity of minute division, and of being converted back into large masses by fusion. They are extremely durable, sustaining little injury from the action of fire, and none from rust, and enduring a great deal of handling without sensible loss from abrasion. They are very ductile, not liable to break, mix readily with the alloys of other metals, by which their hardness can be increased, and from which they can be separated again with very little loss, and they receive and retain an impression, which denotes the weight and purity of metal. The

qualities which have been enumerated give them a high value for use in the arts, independent of the service that they render as coin; a very material circumstance, inasmuch as it puts and keeps them upon the same footing as other useful' products.

Another circumstance, specially adapting them for use as a medium of exchange, is that they include a large value in a small bulk. This has been due, in part, to the comparative rarity of the known deposits from which the precious metals could be extracted; in part, to the inferiority of machinery which has been employed, and of the workmen who have pursued the business of mining. The employment has always presented dazzling temptations, and has always been attended with great hazards and insecurity. It has almost universally been the occupation of barbarians, or barbarized those who yielded to its allurements. It has, consequently, been a costly and unprofitable trade. Two advantages result from this circumstance, in respect to the use of precious metals as the general intermediary of exchange. The one is, that a small quantity of them suffices to facilitate the transfer of a large quantity of other useful wares. The second is, that it has tended to maintain the uniformity of their value, by limiting the additions which, in any given time, have been made to the existing stock. Considering their great durability, and that the quantity in use suffers less diminution than almost any of the things which it aids in transferring from hand to hand, it is plain that a trifling annual addition to the stock of coin-though inferior to the yearly augmentation of the general mass of commodities-would rapidly reduce its purchasing power, and deprive it of that stability of value which is the chief recommendation of a circulating medium. The circumstance is important, also, in regard to the degree of uniformity of value existing between gold and silver at different places. Like everything else, their value is limited by the quantity of labour necessary to produce them at the market where it is estimated, and this necessarily includes the labour of transportation from the place of their origin. Silver was cheaper in Mexico, in the immediate vicinity of the mines, than in New York, to which it was carried; and cheaper there than in London, which is still more remote. Gold is cheaper at San Francisco than at New Orleans, by the cost of carriage. The difference, however, is less than it would be in

the case of silver, because the latter, in the same bulk, represents but about one-fourteenth as much labour, and the addition caused by the cost of transportation must constitute a larger proportion of its value. In regard to both of the metals, the expense of transportation is so light as to make but an insignificant variation in their value at places within any moderate distance from each other, as between the sea-board and the interior towns of an island like Great Britain.

It is very evident from the preceding considerations, that gold and silver are signally adapted to serve as the common measure of value in comparing commodities, and as convenient instruments for effecting their barter. It is equally clear, however, that at any given time and place, wheat is as much the measure of the value of gold, as gold is of wheat, or of any other desirable object. While gold may vary less at different places, and at different times, it nevertheless is subject to variation, not only in respect to a particular commodity like wheat, but in respect to silver and to all other commodities. A change of this kind has been going on since the discovery of the Californian and Australian diggings, which we may express at pleasure, by saying that gold has fallen and is falling in value; or, that the mass of commodities has risen in value when compared with that metal. This necessity results from the fact, that the quantity of gold now added annually to the stock in circulation in the world, is about four times as much as the annual increase previous to 1848. Gold being obtained with less labour directly devoted to that object, must be obtained with less of the labour which obtains it indirectly, by producing articles, which gold is only valuable as the means of purchasing.

The precious metals, when offered in the market as an article of merchandise, in the shape of dust, nuggets, or bullion, are readily perceived to conform to the general laws which regulate the traffic in other wares. It may be supposed, however, that when they have passed through the Mint, and are issued by government in the form of coins, bearing the denomination of dollars, francs, or sovereigns, they have assumed a new character, and become in some degree exempt from the incidents which attach to the ordinary products of industry. It is obvious, however, that coin differs from its material

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