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and it will perhaps be somewhat difficult to persuade the greater

part of them that this is not rendering them a very considerable

service。 But if this money sinks in its value; in the quantity of

labour; provisions; and homemade commodities of all different

kinds which it is capable of purchasing as much as it rises in

its quantity; the service will be little more than nominal and

imaginary。

     There is; perhaps; but one set of men in the whole

commonwealth to whom the bounty either was or could be

essentially serviceable。 These were the corn merchants; the

exporters and importers of corn。 In years of plenty the bounty

necessarily occasioned a greater exportation than would otherwise

have taken place; and by hindering the plenty of one year from

relieving the scarcity of another; it occasioned in years of

scarcity a greater importation than would otherwise have been

necessary。 It increased the business of the corn merchant in

both; and in years of scarcity; it not only enabled him to import

a greater quantity; but to sell it for a better price; and

consequently with a greater profit than he could otherwise have

made; if the plenty of one year had not been more or less

hindered from relieving the scarcity of another。 It is in this

set of men; accordingly; that I have observed the greatest zeal

for the continuance or renewal of the bounty。

     Our country gentlemen; when they imposed the high duties

upon the importation of foreign corn; which in times of moderate

plenty amount to a prohibition; and when they established the

bounty; seem to have imitated the conduct of our manufacturers。

By the one institution; they secured to themselves the monopoly

of the home market; and by the other they endeavoured to prevent

that market from ever being overstocked with their commodity。 By

both they endeavoured to raise its real value; in the same manner

as our manufacturers had; by the like institutions; raised the

real value of many different sorts of manufactured goods。 They

did not perhaps attend to the great and essential difference

which nature has established between corn and almost every other

sort of goods。 When; either by the monopoly of the home market;

or by a bounty upon exportation; you enable our woollen or linen

manufacturers to sell their goods for somewhat a better price

than they otherwise could get for them; you raise; not only the

nominal; but the real price of those goods。 You render them

equivalent to a greater quantity of labour and subsistence; you

increase not only the nominal; but the real profit; the real

wealth and revenue of those manufacturers; and you enable them

either to live better themselves; or to employ a greater quantity

of labour in those particular manufactures。 You really encourage

those manufactures; and direct towards them a greater quantity of

the industry of the country than what would probably go to them

of its own accord。 But when by the like institutions you raise

the nominal or money…price of corn; you do not raise its real

value。 You do not increase the real wealth; the real revenue

either of our farmers or country gentlemen。 You do not encourage

the growth of corn because you do not enable them to maintain and

employ more labourers in raising it。 The nature of things has

stamped upon corn a real value which cannot be altered by merely

altering its money price。 No bounty upon exportation; no monopoly

of the home market; can raise that value。 The freest competition

cannot lower it。 Through the world in general that value is equal

to the quantity of labour which it can maintain; and in every

particular place it is equal to the quantity of labour which it

can maintain in the way; whether liberal; moderate; or scanty; in

which labour is commonly maintained in that place。 Woollen or

linen cloth are not the regulating commodities by which the real

value of all other commodities must be finally measured and

determined; corn is。 The real value of every other commodity is

finally measured and determined by the proportion which its

average money price bears to the average money price of corn。 The

real value of corn does not vary with those variations in its

average money price; which sometimes occur from one century to

another。 It is the real value of silver which varies with them。

     Bounties upon the exportation of any homemade commodity are

liable; first to that general objection which may be made to all

the different expedients of the mercantile system; the objection

of forcing some part of the industry of the country into a

channel less advantageous than that in which it would run of its

own accord: and; secondly; to the particular objection of forcing

it; not only into a channel that is less advantageous; but into

one that is actually disadvantageous; the trade which cannot be

carried on but by means of a bounty being necessarily a losing

trade。 The bounty upon the exportation of corn is liable to this

further objection; that it can in no respect promote the raising

of that particular commodity of which it was meant to encourage

the production。 When our country gentlemen; therefore; demanded

the establishment of the bounty; though they acted in imitation

of our merchants and manufacturers; they did not act with that

complete comprehension of their own interest which commonly

directs the conduct of those two other orders of people。 They

loaded the public revenue with a very considerable expense; they

imposed a very heavy tax upon the whole body of the people; but

they did not; in any sensible degree; increase the real value of

their own commodity; and by lowering somewhat the real value of

silver; they discouraged in some degree; the general industry of

the country; and; instead of advancing; retarded more or less the

improvement of their own lands; which necessarily depends upon

the general industry of the country。

     To encourage the production of any commodity; a bounty upon

production; one should imagine; would have a more direct

operation than one upon exportation。 It would; besides; impose

only one tax upon the people; that which they must contribute in

order to pay the bounty。 Instead of raising; it would tend to

lower the price of the commodity in the home market; and thereby;

instead of imposing a second tax upon the people; it might; at

least; in part; repay them for what they had contributed to the

first。 Bounties upon production; however; have been very rarely

granted。 The prejudices established by the commercial system have

taught us to believe that national wealth arises more immediately

from exportation than from production。 It has been more favoured

accordingly; as the more immediate means of bringing money into

the country。 Bounties upon production; it has been said too; have

been found by experience more liable to frauds than those upon

exportation。 How far this is true; I know not。 That bounties upon

exportation have been abused to many fraudulent purposes is very

well known。 But it is not the interest of merchants and

manufacturers; the great inventors of all these expedients; that

the home market should be overstocked with their goods; an event

which a bounty upon production might sometimes occasion。 A bounty

upon exportation; by enabling them to send abroad the surplus

part; and to keep up the price of what remains in the home

market; effectually prevents this。 Of all the expedients of the

mercantile system; accordingly; it is the one of which they are

the fondest。 I have known the different undertakers of some

particular works agree privately among themselves to give a

bounty out of their own pockets upon the exportation of a certain

proportion of the goods which they dealt in。 This expedient

succeeded so well that it more than doubled the price of their

goods in the home market; notwithstanding a very considerable

increase in the produce。 The operation of the bounty upon corn

must have been wonderfully different if it has lowered the money

price of that commodity。

     Something like a bounty upon production; however; has been

granted upon some particular occasions。 The tonnage bounties

given to the white…herring and whale fisheries may; perhaps; be

considered as somewhat of this nature。 They tend directly; it may

be supposed; to render the goods cheaper in the home market than

they otherwise would be。 In other respects their effects; it must

be acknowledged; are the same as those of bounties upon

exportation。 By means of them a part of the capital of the

country is employed in bringing goods to market; of which the

price does not repay the cost together with the ordinary profits

of stock。

     But though the tonnage bounties of those fisheries do not

contribute to the opulence of the nation; it may perhaps be

thought that they contribute to its defence by augmenting the

number of its sailors and shipping。 This; it may be alleged; may

sometimes be done by means of such bounties at a much smaller

expense than by keeping up a great standing navy; if I may use

such an expression; in the same way

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