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Show 500 ON Til F. I~iMEDIA'rE CAUSES [en. vn. had been assessed at the san1e rate \.Yith those whose incon1es \Vere derived from realized property. 'rh1s sa:ing is quite natural and proper, and fonns no Just argument against the rcn1oval of the tax; but still it contributes to explain the cause of the din1inished demand for co1nn1odities ' compared with their supply since the war. If son1e of the principal govcrntnents concerned spent the taxes which they raised in a rnanner to create a greater and more certain demand for labour and connnoditie?, particularly the forn1cr, than the present owners of them, and if this difference of expenditure be of a nature to last for some tin1e, \Ve cannot be surprised at the duration of the effects arising frotn the transition fro1n \Var to peace. The din1inished· consurnption hovvever, which has ta~en place so generally, must have operated very differently upon the different countries of the con1n1ercial world, accordin<Yo to the different cir-c~ mstances in vvhich they -vvere placed; and it w1ll be found generally, as the principles which have been laid do\vn would lead us to expect, that those states which have suffered the n1ost by the war h~ve suffered the least by the peace. In the countnes -vvhere a great pressure has fallen upon tnod.erate or scanty powers of production, it is hardly possible to SUppose that their \Vealth should not have been stopped in its progress during the war, or per?aps rendered positively retrograde. , Such countnes must have found relief from that dimi .. nution of consun1ption, which now allows thcrn to SEC. X.] OF 'l'JlE PH.OGltESS OF \\7E.ALTH. .50] . accurnulate capital, \vithout ,vbich no . state can pcrn1anently increase in "'ealth. But in those countries, \V here tbe pressure of the war found great powers of production, and seemed to create n1uch greater; \V here accun1ulation, instead of beino~ checked, \Vas accelerated, and \V here the vast co~ stu~ption of.comtnodities \Vas followed by supplies 'vlnch occasioned a n1ore rapid increase of ,vealth than \Vas ever k~1own before, the effect of peace \Voulcl be very different. In such countries it is natural to suppose that a great di1ninution of consutnption and den1and \vould decidedly check the progress of wealth, and occasion very o·eneral and d . b severe I stress, both to capitalists and the labour-ing classes. England and Atnerica come the ~~arest to the countries of this latter description .. I hey suffered the least by the war, or rather \vere , enriched oy it, and they are now suffering the 1nost by the peace. . . I cannot but consider it as a very unfortunate c1rcu1nstance that any period should ever have oc~ urred in 'vhich peace should appear to have been, 111 so n1arked a Inanner, connected with distress· but i~ should always be recollected that it is owin<; to the very peculiar circumstances attendino· th~· b late war that the contrast has been so striking~ It was very different in the American and former wars ; and, if the same exertions had been attempted, \Vithout the san1e po\vt(rs of supportinothem, that is, without the command of the greate~ part of the cotntnerce of the \vorld, and a n1ore r~pid and successful progress in the use of nlachi- KK3 |
