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any grist to their mills, but who would have none of it so soon as it began to interfere with their own emoluments. Mr Jackson has yet to study the meaning of that excellent English proverb, Live and let live." Mr Cobden has already informed him, doubtless to his excessive surprise, that the milling interest, however important it may appear to an individual who, with more than Herculean energy, works eighty pairs of stones night and day, cannot with any degree of propriety, or any show of justice, be exempted from the general doom. There is an old saying, which Mr Jackson possibly may have heard from the lips of some rustic philosopher, that what is sauce for the goose is equally sauce for the gander; and if he still adheres to his intention of recording his vote for Mr Cobden at the next general election, he is either one of the most self-sacrificing or one of the most obtuse of the human race.

But setting aside his arguments altogether, there can be no doubt that the facts stated by this Mr Jackson are correct. The milling trade cannot go on under present circumstances, and those engaged in it are directly menaced with the sacrifice of their whole capital.

Let us now turn to the state of those manufacturers for whom the experiment was principally made. Our readers will find in another article a very full and elaborate account of the depression which now prevails-a depression, we may remark, which has weighed heavily upon the energies of the manufacturers for the long period of more than eighteen months, and which, in December 1849, was expressly attributed by a writer in the Economist to the diminished "power of purchase within the country. Mr M'Gregor's promised increment of two additional millions per week has not yet, we fancy, made its appearance, else we cannot account for that extraordinary stagnation which has thrown such a gloom over the precincts of Manchester and Staley bridge.

Those who are in the habit of perusing the Trade Circulars must have been struck by the painful anxiety which the writers manifest to disguise, not the fact of the depression,

for that is beyond their power, but the cause to which it is really attributable. In truth, they are driven to their wits' end to devise anything like a plausible explanation; and in default of plausibility they have taken to writing sheer nonsense. Here is a specimen of this kind of composition, extracted from a Manchester report, dated April 24; and we shall be really glad to learn that any of our correspondents who are accustomed to mercantile verbiage have been able to extract a meaning from it. We are not altogether unfamiliar with this department of literature, having been compelled periodically, for a long time past, to make ourselves acquainted with the lamentations of the discomfited cotton-spinners; and we can safely say that, after applying what power of intellect we possess to the expiscation of the following paragraphs, we have received about as much addition to our stock of ideas as if we had been poring over the stamped surface of a brick extracted from the ruins of Nineveh. After a miserable account of the decline of prices, and a howl over the hapless prospects of Madapollams, T cloths, shirtings, and twist, both mule and water, the manufacturing Pundit thus proceeds:—

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"The following observations from the monthly circular of a large house in the export trade, just published, it will be seen, corroborate some of the views given above, and present some remarks which are well worthy of consideration: fall in the prices of our staples has, no doubt, to a certain extent, been met by a decline in the value of the raw material, but by no means to an equal extent. Under the general impression, however, among the trade, that a far more serious decline in the raw material is not far distant, (as everything seems to tend against cotton, whether we look to the prices the trade can afford to pay, to the gradual and progressing reduction in the quantity used, to the continually increasing receipts of cotton at the ports in the United States, or to the favourable nature of the season, so far, for the next growing crop,) the resort to short time' has hitherto been less extensively adopted than the unsatisfactory state of prices would have led us to anticipate; still there is a considerable lessening in the production by one means or another. In some instances, persons who were in the

short

habit of purchasing yarn for the surplus of looms beyond what they had spinning for, are stopping such looms in toto. Other manufacturers have stopped the greater portion or the whole of their 7-8ths looms; while, in other instances, looms are stopped by the failure of the smaller manufacturers, of which, we regret to say, there have been many during the last few weeks, but to only limited amounts, and among the weakest class of the trade. Thus the supply of goods and of yarns is being gradually curtailed, but a more extensive resort to time' must be looked for, should the present relation of the prices of cotton to those of our staples be of much longer continuance. For a time producers will go on with nearly their full production, in the hope of improvement being at hand; but there is a limit to this; and beyond a certain point the loss of working 'short time' becomes less than that of running the usual hours; besides which, such a course would probably materially expedite the fall in cotton, which, it is thought by most parties, must come before confidence can again be restored in our market. It is to the want of confidence that we feel inclined mainly to attribute the present unsatisfactory state of business here. True it is that some important foreign markets show signs of a glut, and common prudence would dictate to the merchants who export to such the necessity of limiting the shipments, notwithstanding the comparatively low prices which have been come to. But in other markets prospects are more cheering; and with the cheapness of food, and the yet generally full employment of the working classes at home, it can hardly be believed that our population is consuming a less quantity of manufactures, or even that it is not consuming on a greater scale, than usual. To account, then, for the extraordinary dulness in trade, and the very lessened amount of demand, we can but come to the conviction that the want of confidence is leading us through the process of the exhaustion of stocks in middle hands. Just as the spinner is acting in the purchase of cotton, by buying only from hand to mouth, and thus throwing the weight of stock on the importer or cotton dealer, so the buyers of manufactures appear to be acting in their purchases also, bringing down their stocks to the lowest ebb; they seem to buy only to meet their actual requirements, and thus the weight of the stocks of goods and of yarns is in their turn thrown on the hands of manufacturers and spinners. And probably this will go on until stocks

in middle hands are exhausted to the lowest workable point, or until confidence shall be by some means re-established, when, if our surmise be correct, we shall have, perhaps, a rapid revival of the demand on a large scale, as not only will the actual demand have to be met, but also the gap made in the process of exhausting middle stocks will have to be filled up.' It will be seen by the above remarks that it is the mutation of prices from a high and unnatural level that is operating to some extent so seriously with the market, more than any want of demand; to attribute it to Free Trade is about as reasonable as it was to ascribe the potato disease to that cause."

Space is valuable with us, but we do not grudge it to this ingenious gentleman. We trust he has an engagement with the Economist; indeed, unless we are strangely mistaken, we have seen traces of the same fine Roman hand in the columns of that

delectable, veracious, and lively jour

nal.

At all events, he would be a worthy coadjutor to those philosophers and patriots who dedicate their time and communicate their information to that repertory of reason and of science; and we throw out the hint in the hope that so clear a head, and so vigorous an intellect, may not be allowed to remain for ever in the narrow sphere of the provinces.

The tale of manufacturing depression may be read weekly in the Times, and in every other journal in the kingdom; and no one can possibly doubt the truth of it, since it proceeds from the manufacturers themselves. A very curious question then arises. If this really is the state of matters, what foundation have Ministers for averring, as they constantly do, that the country generally is in a prosperous condition? Why are we told that the agriculturists must expect to share in the rising fortunes of the other industrial branches, when these very branches declare that they are going rapidly to ruin? By what possible process can John, who is becoming insolvent, expect to be saved, Gazette? Are the manufacturers all because Dick is verging towards the combined in one enormous lying league; and are they in reality making fortunes at the moment when they tell us that they are compelled to

have recourse to short time? It is evidently of great importance that this matter should be cleared up. Who are thriving ?-we ask again and again, and we never receive a satisfactory answer. On the contrary, we are told that none are thriving. Every man repudiates the notion that he is making any profit at all; and yet, whenever the agriculturist complains, he is desired to look at the general prosperity of the country! There is fraud and imposture somewhere, and we trace it to very high quarters. No cause can be a good, a just, or a pure one, if it requires to be supported by such miserable means; and perhaps the most discreditable feature in the whole history of Free Trade consists in the repeated Ministerial assurances of a general prosperity, which is broadly and unequivocally disproved by the aggregate of individual instances.

Some trades which were represented as flourishing about a year ago, have since sustained remarkable reverses. One of these is the linen trade, which, if we can trust the accounts which we have received from Dundee, has been pushed to a point of speculation far beyond the legitimate limits of commercial enterprise. We are assured, upon excellent authority, that while, on the one hand, orders have fallen off, the imports of raw material have, on the other, been used as the means of credit; that some of the powerlooms have been stopped, and that the stoppage of others has been intimated. If this be the case, there can be no doubt that a crisis is at hand. Within this month, it has been stated in the local newspapers, and the statement remains uncontradicted, that in Paisley one-third of the weavers have been thrown out of employment in consequence of the dulness of trade, which is so serious as to resemble the stagnation that occurred about ten years ago. In Liverpool, both trade and credit are in an exceedingly precarious condition. One fact, however, is paraded by the Free-traders as an unanswerable proof of prosperity; and as it is their last and desperate resource in the way of argument, it is well worthy of consideration. They point imperiously to the tables of exports, which cer

tainly have increased, and maintain that these must be taken as the sole criterion of our condition. Now, our readers will observe that, if those gentlemen are right in their deductions from the export tables, the whole of the Trade Circulars must be cast aside as worse than useless. They are, in fact, false evidence. For we do not understand the Free-Traders to aver that exports, however large, can be advantageous if they are not profitable. They have too much sense to hazard such a doctrine, which would be tantamount to declaring that a trader who lays in a large stock, and then disposes of it at or below prime cost, must be considered a thriving man, because he effects more sales than his neighbours. Exports are of no use, but directly the reverse, if they are unprofitable; and that being the case, how comes it, we ask, that the complaints of depression are loudest from the seats of export manufacture? Undoubtedly we are exporting largely upon that fact all are agreed. Well, then, how comes it that the men who make these exports expressly tell us that they are realising no profits at all, and that their general business is falling of? Either they are stating what is a direct falsehood, or those exports, of which we hear so much, are as worthless to the country as they are unremunerative to the men who make them. There is no escaping from this dilemma; and we defy all the political economists in the world to extricate themselves from it. There is no reason whatever to believe that the tone of the trade circulars is exaggerated, or that they are calculated to convey a false impression. The majority, or at all events a large proportion of them, emanate from houses which were well known to favour the new commercial system; and it is exceedingly improbable that such men would pervert facts, in order to cast discredit upon their own principles. Indeed, considering the absolute certainty of immediate detection in the case of falsehood, it is obvious that such an idea is altogether out of the question. It remains, then, to reconcile unprofitable trade with increased exports: and this is precisely the problem which the Free-traders cannot solve.

Is it after all, however, so very difficult of solution? We do not think so; and we shall now attempt to render this matter clear. The exports of a country, in the usual and ordinary case, consist of the surplusage of its products after supplying the wants of its own inhabitants. The home market, being the nearest, is always the most profitable to the producer; and we believe this rule holds good in every branch of trade. Let us, then, consider what must be the necessary effect of any general or violent curtailment of consumption at home. Either the articles which are produced for consumption must be diminished in their quantity to suit the lessened demand, thereby contracting labour and narrowing the amount of employment, or another market must be found beyond the boundaries of the country. That secondary market never can be so profitable to the producer as the primary and natural one, and the amount of profit will depend upon two things— the requirements of the foreign customer, and the nature of the existing competition.

Now we are in possession of this fact, that the consumption of manufactures has greatly fallen off in Great Britain since the repeal of the Corn Laws, and the enactments permitting free importations of foreign provisions, came into operation. We know this in the cotton-trade, for example, by comparing the amount of the raw material imported, which shows a falling off, with the amount of goods exported, which shows a large increase. It is, therefore, clear to demonstration that a much smaller amount of goods is consumed within the country than formerly, which is of itself a sufficient proof that the power of purchase has declined. It cannot, indeed, be otherwise; for, as we have already repeatedly shown, the wealth of a country depends, not upon its nominal capital, but on its actual yearly production; and any enactment which forces down the value of that produce, whether it be by oppressive taxation, or by admitting the foreign grower to unlimited competition, must have the immediate effect of impoverishing the country, and of limiting the means of its producers. Two

thirds, at least, of the manufactures of Britain were annually consumed at home; the ability of the consumers to purchase depending entirely upon the price which they received for their produce. The effect of Free Trade in corn and provisions has been to reduce the profits on British agricultural produce to so low a point, that those who are directly and indirectly interested in that colossal branch of industry— and they do in effect constitute the great body of the nation-are forced to contract their expenditure, and to consume less manufactures than formerly. There is, undoubtedly, a certain amount of consumption which must always take place, because some articles of manufacture are strictly necessaries of life; but the point of that consumption is infinitely below the usual requirements of the nation when produce can command a profit; and were we to sink down to, and settle permanently at that point, our manufacturers and artisans would immediately discover, as we hope they are discovering now, that there is neither room, nor occupation, nor profit, within Great Britain for even one-half of their number.

The decline of consumption at home forces the manufacturer either to decrease the amount of his production, or to seek a market elsewhere. The latter alternative is that which will always be adopted, in the first instance, in such a country as ours. The reason is obvious. To decrease production-in other words, toclose the mills, or to put them generally on short time-is fraught with fearful hazard. TheFree-Traders dare not resort to such a step on a large scale, even though they may be producing, as they say they are, at a loss; for that would at once open the eyes of the operative masses to the true nature of the system which has been palmed upon them, and might cause a convulsion very perilous to the men who were leading agents in the deception. But, apart from this consideration, which, we believe, has of late disturbed the slumbers of many a quaking manufacturer, we know very well that men will continue to pursue a business for a long time after it has become unprofitable, simply on account of the capital which is sunk in it, and which

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they cannot readily withdraw. same reason which induces the farmer to struggle on under his accumulating difficulties, and to exhaust former savings and credit rather than throw up his lease and dispose of his stock at an enormous loss, is influencing at this moment a large body of the manufacturers. They cannot afford to give up business. They must fight it out as they best can; and having experienced reverses before, though from very different causes than those which are at present in operation, they cannot, and will not, give in until they have exhausted their last resource. Failing the market here, they must find one elsewhere; and this accounts most satisfactorily for the large amount of exports which our political optimists are now referring to as proofs of the prosperity of the country. They prove no such thing. They simply prove that we are sending out of the country a much larger proportion of our manufactures than we did formerly; for this reason, that the same amount can no longer be consumed within the country. And what is the natural, nay, the inevitable inference from this? That the masses of the people, who are the great consumers of manufactures, are in a worse position than before.

But are the manufacturers making a profit by these increased exports? Here again we must have recourse to the Trade Circulars for information, and we find that they are not. "Some important foreign markets," says the Free-trade writer whom we have quoted above, "show signs of a glut; and common prudence would dictate to the merchants who export to such the necessity of limiting the shipments, notwithstanding the comparatively low prices which have been come to." The truth is, that wherever an open market exists, it is glutted. It cannot be otherwise with diminished consumption at home, if production is to be kept up to its former level; and we really are unable to see how, under such circumstances, the shipments can be limited. To accumulate stocks at home would be, we apprehend, beyond the power of any at all events it would be deemed an act of madness in any one to attempt it. The adoption of the protective principle, by

some of the most important foreign powers, for the laudable purpose of fostering and encouraging their own manufactures, and developing the industry of their people, has had the effect of greatly narrowing our choice of markets; and into those which are open and available, our whole surplusage, now prodigiously increased by the diminution of home consumption, is poured with an impetuosity which defeats the chance of profit. The supply is, at this moment, far greater than the demand. It must continue to be so until half our manufacturers are ruined, and the amount of production reduced within proper bounds-a state of matters which implies the cessation of half the operative labour in the country; or, until the home consumption rises to its former level, which can only take place under a system which shall afford due protection to every kind of British produce.

The following letter, which was read by Mr G. F. Young at the late Worcester meeting, is curiously corroborative of these opinions. The writer of it, the head of a large firm in Manchester, makes no secret of his previous bias in favour of Free Trade, and thus communicates his impression and experience of the system

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"Manchester, 24th April 1851.

My Dear Friend,-In acknowledging the receipt of your letter of the 21st inst., I am compelled to make the confession to you, that your present conjectures are as correct as your previous frequent prognostications have proved to be true; and you have a right to laugh at me, if so disposed, for my pertinacious. adherence, during three or four years, to that abortion, called or mis-called Free that system, or, as I would rather say, Trade. You are quite right. Charlatans do spring up in England about every ten years, who manage, by some means or other, to hood-wink John Bull, and empty his pockets. At one time it is Foreign Mines or Foreign Loans, at another time the mania is for Railways or Free Trade. And poor John, although he comes to his senses at last, and tears the bandage from. his eyes, seldom reaches that state until he has been well fleeced.

"One of the most foolish acts in my life was when, under the influence of the delusion of Free Trade, I put down a sum, which I am ashamed to mention, as the subscription of our house, to what

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