Representative British Orations Volume 3 (of 4): With Introductions and Explanatory Notes
History
Representative British Orations Volume 3 (of 4): With Introductions and Explanatory Notes
Speeches, addresses, etc., English
On the last occasion when I addressed the House on this subject, I
recollect stating some facts to show that you had no reasonable ground
to fear foreign competition; those facts I do not intend to reiterate,
because they have never been contradicted. But there are still attempts
made to frighten people by telling them: “If you open the ports to
foreign corn, you will have corn let in here for nothing.” One of
the favorite fallacies which are now put forth is this: “Look at the
price of corn in England, and see what it is abroad; you have prices
low here, and yet you have corn coming in from abroad and paying the
maximum duty. Now, if you had not 20_s._ duty to pay, what a quantity
of corn you would have brought in, and how low the price would be!”
This statement arises from a fallacy—I hope not dishonestly put
forth—in not understanding the difference between the real and the
nominal price of corn. The price of corn at Dantzic now, when there is
no regular sale, is nominal; the price of corn when it is coming in
regularly is the real price. Now, go back to 1838. In January of that
year the price of wheat at Dantzic was nominal; there was no demand
for England; there were no purchasers except for speculation, with the
chance, probably, of having to throw the wheat into the sea; but in
the months of July and August of that year, when apprehensions arose
of a failure of our harvest, then the price of corn in Dantzic rose
instantly, sympathizing with the markets of England; and at the end of
the year, in December, the price of wheat at Dantzic had doubled the
amount at which it had been in January; and during the three following
years, when you had a regular importation of corn,—during all that
time, by the averages laid upon the table of this House, wheat at
Dantzic averaged 40_s._ Wheat at Dantzic was at that price during the
three years 1839, 1840, and 1841. Now, I mention this just to show the
fact to honorable gentlemen, and to entreat them that they will not
go and alarm their tenantry by this outcry of the danger of foreign
competition. You ought to be pursuing a directly opposite course—you
ought to be trying to stimulate them in every possible way, by showing
that they can compete with foreigners; that what others can do in
Poland, they can do in England.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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