Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 67, No. 411, January 1850Various
History
Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 67, No. 411, January 1850
Various
England -- Periodicals; Scotland -- Periodicals
Of the capability of the foreigner to supply us with any
given amount of grain, we think no reasonable man can doubt. There
is a breadth of soil open sufficient to supply more than twenty
times the most exorbitant demand. It is his power to undersell us,
and the extent of that power, which have been questioned; and on
the solution of that question depends the utility of high farming,
in this country, on a grand and comprehensive scale. We shall show
that, at present prices, high farming is so far from remunerative,
that those who practise it are actually incurring an immense loss;
and that, unless rents come down to zero, or at least to a point
which would utterly ruin the landlords, high farming cannot be
proceeded with. We have shown that, within the last five years, we
have been supplied, and that regularly, from abroad, when wheat
was at 46s. per quarter, and a duty of 20s. existed; and, at such
rates, it is quite evident that all attempt at competition would
be hopeless. Wheat could not be grown remuneratively at 26s. or
27s. in England before a single shilling of the national debt was
incurred; and no man is mad enough to insist upon its possibility
now. When, therefore, the Free-traders tell us that the present is a
mere temporary depreciation, we ask them--and we demand a distinct
reply--for an explanation of the imports in 1845. How was it that,
for a long period, foreign corn came in plentifully, paying the
duty of 20s., when our home averages were at 46s. and 47s.? Can
they assign any special reason for it? If not, the conclusion is
plain, that the foreign growers can and will undersell us down to
that point, if we possibly could compete with them so far, and all
the while add to their profit, while they also abstract from our
revenue.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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