An Essay on Political Economy; Shewing in What Way Fluctuations in the Price of Corn May Be Prevented. Shewing in What Way Fluctuations in the Price

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1828. Excerpt: ... paper money, excepting by increasing the value of the currency three hundred per cent. There is very little more than thirty millions of gold in the United Kingdom, while the amount of coin required by the population exceeds fifty millions; consequently we have not a sufficiency of gold to enable us to have an entire metallic currency: and if we had, and were to establish a gold currency, the value of money would be continually fluctuating. The inhabitants of France and Italy, and other countries that have almost an entire metallic currency, live chiefly on the productions of their own soil; and their wines, brandies, fruits, and other produce, are the commodities with which they purchase what foreign commodities they consume: hence very little gold is imported into or exported from these countries, its value, therefore, must be nearly always.the same. England consumes the produce of other nations to the annual value of upwards of 40,000,000/., much of which produce may now, by long custom and habit, be considered as necessaries of life to its inhabitants; and English families residing or travelling abroad draw from the United Kingdom an income of nearly 5,000,000/. a year. It must thereforebe self-evident that England could notpurchase this 40,000,000/. worth of foreign produce, nor the bills drawn on her by those English families, were she unable to sell her manufactured goods and colonial produce to that amount. Should, therefore, other countries, by reason of the comparative high price of provisions in England, be able so to undersell us in the foreign market, as to render it impossible for our manufacturers to gain a profit on their goods, the exchange must turn against England, and gold would be exported to pay for the foreign produce, and the bills...