From these general observations, Mr. J. returns to the di rect object of debate, and endeavours to prove the existence of depreciation in our paper-currency by conclusions drawn from returns at the Stamp-office. Regretting that the want of discrimination in the manner of keeping the books at that office precludes all investigation before the year 1804, he presents us with the following estimate for four years:

Bank of England- Country-banknotes in circulation.

Total paper

Years.

notes.

26,500,000

.24,500,000

29,500,000

33,000,000

currency. 44,000,000

42,000,000

49,500,000

56,000,000

He censures Mr. Rose for leaving country-bank-notes wholly out of his comparative estimates of the amount of our currency at different periods: but he has himself omitted to make any allowance for the blank caused by the almost total exportation of our gold coin. With these calculations, Mr. J. connects another of equal interest, viz. the progressive rise of the price of commodities, and lays before his readers a short abstract of Sir George Shuckburgh's tables. In these tables, the middle of the sixteenth century is assumed as a standard æra, because it was subsequently to that date that the influx of specie from the American mines materially affected our prices. Dr. Smith dwelt on the price of corn as the great index of the value of money but to this Sir George added the price of day-labour, of butcher's meat, and of twelve miscellaneous articles. Combining these various considerations, Sir G. S. estimated that the commodities which, in the year 1550, might have been bought for rool., would, in 1675, cost 210l.;-in 1700, 2381; -in 1740, 2871.;-in 1760, 3421.;-in 1770, 3841.; in 1780, 4271.;-in 1790, 496l.; —in 1795, 5311.;-in 1800, 562;-and in 1810, according to Mr. Johnstone's computation, 820l. Though partial objections may be made to the accuracy of these conclusions, they are in substance correct, and exhibit a striking picture of the progressive deterioration of the condition of annuitants, and of all whose property or income. depends on the value of money. The next part of Mr. J.'s pamphlet may serve in confirmation of what we have always maintained; that our trade was not, until autumn 1810, SO much excluded from the Continent as many among us imagined. Mr. Johnstone gives in a few lines the table of our continental exports and imports. The value is real, not official. *

*By official value, is meant the value affixed in the Custom-house books to merchandise, by the package, according to an old schedule of computation. Official value is, in general, sixty per cent. below real value.

In 1805,

Exports to the Continent. Imports from the Continent.

£21,700,000.

20,400,000

1806,

17,500,000

1807,

15,400,000

14,000,000

27,200,000

1808,
1809,

17,800,000

19,800,000

When treating this part of his subject, Mr. Johnstone comments with great severity on the fluctuating conduct of the Board of Trade, in granting licences at one moment and withholding them at another. The controul assumed by that Board had the serious disadvantage of favouring London merchants at the expence of those of the outports, who could not so soon become aware of the varying dispositions of Government; and who, on applying for licences, were often told that as many as were deemed sufficient to supply the market had already been granted; or, when they obtained' licences, and conveyed instructions to their correspondents abroad, they generally found themselves anticipated by the London merchants. Nay, it often happened, he says, on the occurrence of a large importation from the Baltic or elsewhere, that a mass of mercantile interest was applied to stop the issue of farther licences for such goods; with the view, on the part of the importers, of deriving a large profit at the expence of the home-consumers.

The subsequent estimate, though it has no direct reference to the matter in discussion, is important as shewing the rapid increase of a particular branch of manufacture; a great part of which went, we believe, to Spanish America.

Export of cotton manufactured goods to all parts of the world, in 1805, 8,700,000l.;-in 1806, 9,900,000l. ;—in 1807, 9,800,000l.;-in 1808, 12,800,000l.; in 1809, . 18,600,000l.;-in 1810, 18,000,000l.

Another calculation, displaying the value (real, not official,) of our total exports and imports for five years, is deserving of

insertion:

In 1805
1806

53,500,000

1808

45,700,000

1809

$9,800,000

If, for the sake of computing the distribution of our exports, we take a particular year, 1807 for example, and calculate by

After the Orders in Council.

the

the Custom-house returns, we shall find that we shipped to the continent of Europe, in value, about 21,000,000l.;-to our West India islands, 9,000,000l.; to America, chiefly the United States, 16,000,000l.;-to Africa, 1,300,000l. ; — to India, China, and other parts of Asia, 3,200,000l.

We conclude these extracts by a statement of our registered ships, and of the men and boys employed to navigate them:

Ships. Men and boys.

Year 1805.

England

14,700

117,668

Our colonies in North America

and the West Indies

rica}

3024

15,467

It is satisfactory to find, on a comparison of different years, that, notwithstanding all the evils of war, our mercantile navy has been rather on the increase. The number of men and boys employed in 1806 was 156,021;-in 1807, it was 157,875-in 1808, it was 157,105;-in 1809, it was 160,598;-and in 1810, it was 104,195. A considerable part of these must be allowed to have been foreign seamen: but, when to the native seamen in our merchant-ships we add the 140,000 seamen and marines serving in the royal navy, we cannot help thinking that we somewhat over-rated the danger of being outstripped in naval strength by Bonaparte and his allies.

II. The pamphlet intitled A Review of the Controversy,' &c. gives a different representation of the subject from that of Mr. Johnstone's speech. It is a clear and well arranged publication, but our limits prevent us from doing more than making a very brief abstract of its several sections. One of the first topics of discussion is the state of our exchanges in 1800 and 1801. The drain of bullion at that time is here ascribed, as it was repeatedly by us, to the imports of foreign corn and the pressure of continental subsidies. The author of this pamphlet cites the early opinions of several bullionists, such as Mr. Horner and Mr. Henry Thornton, and is amused with the contrast which they form with the later doctrines of Mr. Huskisson or Mr. Giddy. In denying the coincidence between the rise of specie and the rise of the articles of life, the writer has our full concurrence: but we cannot help remarking that he is singularly unfortunate in the table by which (p. 30.) he undertakes to prove the truth of his argument. The articles selected by him are by no means necessaries of life, and, being chiefly

5

foreign

foreign products, they are liable to fluctuate in price from a variety of political causes. His next topic is the statement given, in the Bullion-report, of the comparative amount of our exports and imports; a branch of the subject in which, he truly remarks, the triumph is on the side of Mr. Bosanquet and the other practical men. He questions the accuracy or the comparison instituted in the Bullion-report between the case of the Bank of Ireland in 1804, and the present situation of the Bank of England; and he exposes the error of the committee, in reasoning on the condition of the Bank of England in 1696 as a parallel case. Had that precedent been fully stated, it would have tended, he says, by exhibiting a derangement of exchange from magnitude of foreign expenditure, to have confirmed the reasoning of the mercantile opponents of the committee.

Of the remainder of the pamphlet, the most striking feature. is a bold eulogium on the Bank-suspension-act, not merely as a temporary expedient, but as a measure of permanent policy. It has had the effect, says the author, of preventing us from being under the necessity of concluding peace as in former ages, on the pressure of financial difficulties. The fortunate issue of the war is likely to increase the number of the adhe rents to this opinion, and we will not attempt to interrupt the general cordiality by reflections on the magnitude of our past sacrifices. It will belong to the historian, after the lapse of years has calmed the agitation of parties, to form a deliberate estimate of the political effects of the Bank-restriction-act; and to examine whether the overthrow of Bonaparte has been produced by events in any way connected with that measure. With regard to the pamphlet under review, the chief faults are a too decided leaning to one side of the question, and a prolixity of style, which, in a dry discussion like the Bullionquestion, ought most especially to be avoided.

III.The Lack of Gold' is a more serious discussion of the subject than the quaintness of the title appears to imply. The author, like the writer whom we have just reviewed, embraces the side of the Bank, and defends it with much ability: but he confines his investigation to the time subsequent to the passing of Lord Stanhope's bill in July 1811, the effect of which was to give the last blow to the existence of gold in our currency. Under these circumstances, he labours hard to prove the position that paper is almost as good a circulating medium as coin. The value of both, he says, is conventional; though in gold the check on augmentation is greater, yet its value is by no means permanent; and, if we analyse our present situation, we shall find that it is not our paper but our REV. JUNE, 1814.

N

gold

gold that has undergone a change of value. Paper remains as before with regard to home-transactions: but, the balance of payments having become greatly unfavourable to us in late years, gold has acquired the premium attached in all such cases to bills of exchange. The author next combats the suspicion of the stability of our country-banks, and maintains that they possess the same claim to confidence now, when their reserve-funds are in Bank of England notes, as formerly when they were in specie. It follows from his reasoning that it would be altogether unadvisable to compel the resumption of cash-payments, or materially to limit our paper-issues, until the balance of payments shall cease to be considerably against us.

Decided, however, as the writer is on the side of the Bank, he by no means adopts the current prejudice in favour of the prohibition of exporting our coin, the traffic in which he would render as free as that of any thing else. He concludes his pamphlet by some observations on the general state of the country, which we should gladly have exchanged for a continuance of his remarks on the Bullion-question; since he has said enough on that topic to shew that his research had been much more effectual than that of many who have written on it. To his arguments, our chief objection is that he carries his conclusions too far; and to his language, that in the midst of well constructed periods it is somewhat deficient in perspicuity. Had a treatise from the pen of this author, of greater length and plainer style than the present, been published in the early part of the discussion, it could not have failed to attract considerable attention.

IV. Mr. Parnell's Speech. — Mr. Parnell became known to` the public several years ago as a writer on the state of the Bank of Ireland in 1804. (See Rev. Vol. xlviii., N. S., p. 399.) In the Bullion-question, he took a decided part in favour of the Report, and animadverted on the evidence of the mercantile witnesses as proceeding from a quarter which was wholly barren of general views. Moreover, he adds, the command of money is so paramount a consideration in the eye of the merchant, as to render him the zealous advocate of a papersystem, or of whatever promises to accomplish his object. — If we mark the fluctuations in the value of money at different epochs, we shall find, says Mr. P., that the fall which has occurred in our days is the only great fall for nearly a century and a half. From 1657 to 1700, the average price of wheat was 21. 11s. per quarter; and, during the whole of the last century, with the exception of the last seven years, it was on an average below that rate.: but since 1793 the price of wheat has risen remarkably, and the average of twenty years would

carry