MELANCHOLY MUSINGS ON THE STATE OF THE COUNTRY- CURRENCY—EQUITABLE ADJUSTMENT.
"If the Legislature should not deem it expedient to establish such a just and equitable currency as may lift up the means of the country to a level with its burdens, it would in that case be indispensably necessary that tIte burdens of the country should be cut down to a level with its means. If the national debt should not be reduced, it would in that case at least be necessary that the burden of such debt should be borne by the wealth of the nation, and not by its poverty."—Birminglunn Resolutions.
WE have laughed at what we deemed false alarms ; and shall continue to expose them by similar means, whenever our over-sensitive contem- poraries shall conjure them up. They neither require nor merit any other notice. But our contempt of visionary clangers does not Uncials to the approach of real evils. Whatever may be the issue of that pro- cess which is now going forward in the united kingdom, it would ba vain to deny that it is formidable enough to demand most serious con- sideration. The Birmingham Resolutions, an extract from which we have placed at the head of this article, form a most important docu- meet, and well repay a close and attentive perusal;—we regret that our crowded pages forbid their insertion entire. It is no easy problem to determine the precise amount of the contraction of our currency that must ensue from the Small Note Suppression Bill. Previous to that measure, the currency of the country 'consisted of private bills, bank notes, specie : the destruction of the second constituent will cer- tainly increase the other two—it will add to the quantity of coin in circulation, and lead gradually to a more extended use of mercantile bins. But making every allowance, there will be an absolute contrac- tion to no small amount. It has not yet reached its maximum, for one- pound notes still circulate ; but it is approaching to it. Let us ex- omine its operation. • The first symptom has been a marked diminution of our home trade, and a still more'obvious diminution of our foreign trade. Every nook and corner in the land exhibits lamentable proof of the former ; and the state of the bill market is a sufficient evidence of the latter. The second symptom of a contracted and contracting currency has been a heavy fall in the price of labour, and of allthe productions of labour. That what is called the free trade system has any share in the fall of prices, we cannot for a moment admit, for it extends not only to silk and gloves, and to the few other articles of manufacture which have been more directly exposed to the influence of free trade, but to every article of domestic industry. Neither can we explain our difficulties by over- trading. It is obvious that a fall in the price of labour not only affects such goods as are yet in progress, but such as are completed. It may be easily supposed, however, that if nothing short of absolute neces- sity will compel the workman to accept of eightpence where he formerly received tenpence—that if, with his small means, he can stand out for weeks or for months against reduction—the owner of the ah•eadv com- pleted goods will not be less disinclined, by lowering his prices, to make sacrifice of his capital. This is the great secret of full warehouses and falling- prices : not that more has been produced previous to the fall than was fairly required, but because the holders are desirous to wait until the market turn.
The natural difficulties of a contracted currency are in our case pro- di,siously aggravated. With the contraction wages fall, prices fall, all things fall but ta.ration—that alone is a fixed element of expenditure. Either previous to, or simultaneous with the adoption '?t measures leading, of necessity to a diminution of capital and a fall in wages and in the price of produce, a diminution of tares in on equal ratio ought to have taken: place. So say the Birmingham Resolutions, and so says common sense. The diminution consequent on the Suppres- sion Bill is not easily calculated. In 1819, by an illogical deduction from unsound premises, it was estimated at four per cent : the Resolu- tions make it amount to fifty ,per cent. Looking to the measure as it is—not complete, but inchoate—we hesitate at this moment to go quite so far : but that it will produce such a diminution, we see little reason to doubt. Let us suppose that it amounts to twenty-five per cent only : how can the entire taxes of the country be paid out of an income equal to seventy-five, which were with difficulty enough paid out of a hun- dred?
It is said that all the savings which can possibly be made are mere cheeseparings. Suppose this to be true, what follows ? Rents have fallen, wages have fallen, everything that has a value has fallen : Stocks remain as they were—should they be excepted from the general rule ? One of two things we take to be essential—we must increase our profits, or we must reduce our burdens. The state maehine is in a slough : we must either yoke to it again the horse that we have, not unwisely, but prematurely taken away, or we must. take off a part of the lading, if we wish it to get out. " Equitable adjustment" is a phrase of maaraise odeur ; and we fear that the measure is one which will not smell sweet call it by what name we will. We do not advert to it as a pleasant remedy ; yet we deem the old pi overb,lessoi, mien ay.roc, to be here strictly applicable. As well might the members seek to live without the stomach, as the landholders to preserve their capital while the capital of the country is sinking. A timely relinquishnneat of part might save both themselves amt others : a tenacious retention of the whole would only enable them to die last.
able to those who must tread it, we (10 not deny: is there any other?
That this road out of our difficulties is rugged, narrow, and disagree- able
property-tax has been mentioned. That tax must descend to the smallest income, and be in consequence, searching, grinding, burden- some ; or it will produce nothing to counterbalance its evils. We question, even if it so descended, whether it would answer the purpose. We cannot both keep our loaf and eat it. If we pay all we can fairly afford in indirect taxes, the imposition of a direct tax may lessen our comforts, but will not increase the public revenue. Besides, a property- tax involves a diminution of the dividends, or what is equivalent ; so that the two cures are identical.
May we not go back to a paper currency ? Even in that case, taxation must be reduced. The nation might float without it, but it would not swim: it might rise from the bottom where it is now sunk, but it would not make progress. And let it be remembered that much of the evil in all such cases arises out of the transition : to go over would now be less difficult than to go back.
There is another point, to which we can merely advert. All things have fallen, or must fall : the pride and pomp of men must subside to the level of the different circumstanees in which the general fall neces- sarily places them. Claret must give place to port, port to punch ; four wheels must be abandoned for two ; and a high-nettled steed, for those " sturdy bearers" the use of which, had the tide of prosperity continued to flow on, \\*01/1:1 soon have been numbered among the firings that were. All this is disagreeable. " The spirit of a man goeth upward," and descent is adverse to it: but come down, or be pulled down, we must.
Previous page
