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Show ON 'fHE I!vlMEDIAT E CAUSES [Cll . VII. of trade, which had before been very prosperous, and absorbed a great quantity of stock; or even if capital \Vere suddenly destroyed, and fron1 peculiar circun1stances a period were to succeed of diminished consumption and slack den1and, the state of things, 'vith the exception of the distresses of the poqr, 'vould be aln1ost exactly reversed. The ren1aining capitalists \Vould be in no respect benefited by events which had diminished den1and in a still greater proportion than they had ditninished capital. Comn1odities 'vould be every \Vhere cheap. Capital \Vou1d be seeking en1ployn1ent, but v;ould 11ot easily find it? and the profits of stock \vould be lo\v. There would be no pressing and itnmediate den1and for capital, because there vvould be no pressing and i1n1nediate clen1and for con1n1odities; and, under these circun1stances, the saving from revenue to add to capital, instead of affording t~e remedy required, would only aggravate the distresses of the capitalists, and fill the stream qf capital \Vhich was flowing out of the country. The distresses of the capitalists would be aggravated, just upon the satne principle as the distresses of the labourino· classes would be ao·o-ravated, "f b bb I they were encouraged to n1arry and increase, after a considerable destruction of people, although accon1 panied by a still o·reater destruction of capital which had kept the ~ages of labour very low. There n1ight certainly be a oTeat deficiency of 1 . b popu ation, con1pared with the territory and powers of the country, and it mi()'ht be very desirable that • b It should be greater; but if the wages of labour SEC. x.J OF THE PROGRESS Ol? "\VEA LTII. 493 were still low, notw .. ithstanding the diminution of people, to encourage the birth of n1ore children ,vould be to encourage misery and mortality rather than population. Now I would ask, to which of these two suppositions does the present .. state of this country bear the nearest resemblance? Surely to the latter. . That a great loss of capital has lately been sustained, is unquestionable. During nearly the whole of the \\rar, o\ving to the union of great powers of production \vith. great consumption and demand, the prodigious destruction of capital by the government was much tnore than recovered. To doubt this 'voulcl be to shut our eyes to the cotnparative state of the country in 1792 and 1813. The two last years of the war wei·e, ho\vever, years of extraordinary expense, and being followed immediately by a period marked by a very unusual stagnation of demand, the destruction of capital which took place in those years 'vas not probably recovered. But this stagnation itself was much more disastrous in its effects upon the national capital, and still more upon the national revenue, than any previous destruction of stock. It commenced certainly with the extraordinary fall in the value of the ra'v produce of the land, to the amount, it is supposed, of nearly one third. When this fall had diminished the capitals of the far1ners, and still more the revenues both of landlords and farmers, and of all those · who were otherwise connected with the land, their power of purchasing manufactures and foreio·n products was of necessity greatly diminished. The |
