[136] See page 224, _ante_.
[137] The import of 1850 was 103,713 lbs., and that of 1852, 251,792 lbs.
[138] The reader who may desire to see this more fully exhibited is referred to the author"s work, "The Past, the Present, and the Future."
[139] See page 59, _ante_.
[140] "It may be doubted, considering the circ.u.mstances under which most Irish landlords acquired their estates, the difference between their religious tenets and those of their tenants, the peculiar tenures under which the latter hold their lands, and the political condition of the country, whether their residence would have been of any considerable advantage. * * * The question really at issue refers merely to the _spending_ of revenue, and has nothing to do with the improvement of estates; and notwithstanding all that has been said to the contrary, I am not yet convinced that absenteeism is, in this respect, at all injurious."--_Principles_, 157.
[141] Treatises and Essays on Subjects connected with Economical Policy.
[142] Chapman, Commerce of India.
[143] During all this time there was a large increase in the import of food from Ireland; and this, of course, const.i.tuted a portion of domestic produce exported in the shape of manufactures, the whole proceeds of which were to be retained at home. Since 1846, the change in that country has been so great that she is now a large importer of foreign grain. The official return for 1849 shows a diminution in the quant.i.ty raised, as compared with 1844, of no less than 9,304,607 quarters; and instead of sending to England, as she had been accustomed to do, more than three millions of quarters, she was an importer in that year and the following one of more than a million. This deficiency had to be made up from abroad, and thus was the United Kingdom transformed from the position of seller of four or five millions of quarters--say about 40 millions of our bushels--of which it retained the _whole proceeds_, to that of the mere shopkeeper, who retains only the _profit_ on the same quant.i.ty. A similar state of things might be shown in regard to many of the other articles of produce above enumerated.
[144] in 1834, Mr. McCulloch estimated the produce of the land of great Britain at 146 millions, but at that time wheat was calculated at 50s. A quarter, or almost one-half more than the average of the last two or three years. Other and larger calculations may readily be found; but it would be difficult to determine what becomes of the product if it be not found in rent, farmers" profits, or labourers" wages.
[145] By reference to the report of the a.s.sistant Commissioner, charged with the inquiry into the condition of women and children employed in agriculture, it will be seen that a change of clothes seems to be out of the question. The upper parts of the under-clothes of women at work, even their stays, quickly become wet with perspiration, while the lower parts cannot escape getting equally wet in nearly every kind of work in which they are employed, except in the driest weather. It not unfrequently happens that a woman, on returning from work, is obliged to go to bed for an hour or two to allow her clothes to be dried. It is also by no means uncommon for her, if she does not do this, to put them on again the next morning nearly as wet as when she took them off.
[146] _London Labour and London Poor_.
[147] The returns of imports into Great Britain are given according to an official value, established more than a century since, and thus the sum of the values is an exact measure of the quant.i.ties imported.
[148] The reader will remark that of all the machinery of England but a small portion is required for the _forced_ foreign trade that is thus produced.
[149] The whole appropriation for the education of ten millions of people in Western India is stated, in recent memorial from Bombay, to be only 12,500, or $60,000, being six cents for every ten persons.
[150] North British Review, Nov. 1852.
[151] Edinburgh Review, Oct. 1849. The italics are those of the reviewer.
[152] See page 160, _ante_.
[153] Lawson"s Merchants" Mag., Dec. 1852.
[154] Senior, Outlines of Political Economy, 152.
[155] At a recent discussion in the London Statistical Society, land in England was valued at thirty years" purchase, houses at fifteen, and land in Ireland at eighteen.
[156] This will appear a very small estimate when compared with those usually made, but it is equal to the total production of the land and labour of the country for a year and a half, if not for a longer period; and it would be difficult to prove that if the whole labour and capital of the country were applied to that purpose--food and clothing being supplied from abroad--it could not produce a quant.i.ty of commodities equal in value to those now acc.u.mulated in England. Even, however, were the amount placed at a thousand millions, the amount of wealth would still be small, under the circ.u.mstances of the case.
[157] See page 105 _ante_.
[158] The latest number of the Bankers" Magazine contains statements of two banks whose joint capitals and reserved funds are about 200,000, while their investments are about a million!--and this, would seem to be about the usual state of affairs with most of the English banks.
[159] Bankers" Magazine, Sept. 1852
[160] The amount of expenditure for English railroads is put down at from two to three hundreds of millions of pounds; and yet the real investment was only that of the labour employed in grading the roads, building the bridges, driving the tunnels, and making the iron; and if we take that at 8000 per mile, we obtain only 54 millions. All the balance was merely a transfer of property already existing from one owner to another, as in the case of the land, which in some cases cost ten or twelve thousands of pounds per mile.
[161] See page 240, _ante_.
[162] North British Review, Nov. 1852.
[163] This tendency is exhibited in most of the books that treat of the system. Thus, Mr. McCulloch insists on the beneficial effect of _the fear_ of taxation, as will be seen in the following pa.s.sage:--
"To the desire of rising in the world, implanted in the breast of every individual, an increase of taxation superadds the fear of being cast down to a lower station, of being deprived of conveniences and gratifications which habit has rendered all but indispensable--and the combined influence of the two principles produces results that could not be produced by the una.s.sisted agency of either."
This is only the lash of the slave-driver in another form.
[164] Barter, The Dorp and the Veld.
[165] Estimating the average cost of raising men and women at only $1000 each, the present forced export is equal to sending abroad a capital of four hundred millions of dollars, no return from which is to be looked for.
[166] The recent movement of this inst.i.tution in raising the rate of interest affords a striking example of its power, and of the absence of the judgment required for its exercise. For two years past the bank has aided in raising prices, but now it desires to reduce them, and at the cost, necessarily, of the weaker portions of the community, for the rich can always take care of themselves. The whole tendency of its operations is toward making the rich richer and the poor poorer. Sir Robert Peel undertook to regulate the great machine, but his scheme for that purpose failed, because he totally misconceived the cause of the evil, and of course applied the wrong remedy. It was one that could only aggravate the mischief, as he could scarcely have failed to see, had he studied the subject with the care its importance merited.
[167] Page 230, _ante_.
[168] Chap. VII. _ante_.
[169] Message of President Roberts, Dec. 1849
[170] Lecture on the Relations of Free and Slave Labour, by David Christy, p. 46.
[171] The Social Condition and Education of the People of England and Europe, i. 256.
[172] Handbuch der Allgemeinen Staatskunde, vol. ii. 5, quoted by Kay, vol. i., 120.
[173] Until recently, the increase of Great Britain has been slightly greater than that of Prussia, the former having grown at the rate of 1.95 per cent. per annum, and the latter at that of 1.84; but the rate of growth of the former has recently much diminished, and all growth has now probably ceased.
[174] Die Agrarfrage.
[175] Etudes sur l"Economie Politique.
[176] Page 51, _ante_.
[177] In no other country than England would the editor of a daily journal inflict upon his readers throughout the kingdom whole columns occupied with the names of persons present at a private entertainment, and with the dresses of the ladies. Where centralization has reached a height like this, we need scarcely be surprised to learn that there is but one _paying_ daily newspaper for a population of more than seventeen millions.
[178] Rural and Domestic Life in Germany, 27.
[179] Pictures from St. Petersburg, by E. Jerrmann, 22.
[180] Pictures from St. Petersburg, 23.
[181] The cargo of a ship that has recently sailed is stated to have consisted of more than a thousand females.
[182] Laing"s Denmark and the Duchies, London, 1852, 299.
[183] Quoted by Kay, Social and Political Condition of England and the Continent, vol. i. 91.