possible to conceive ourselves at war with the whole world, it is equally impossible to conceive a universal dearth, a universal failure of crops.

There is one other argument which has been alleged in favour of protection. It is stated that the landowner in this country is subject to peculiar burdens, and that he should be compensated by such legislative arrangements as will raise the price of his produce. In the language of logicians, the antecedent and consequent of this argument are both false. It is not true that he is liable to peculiar burdens. It does not follow, even if he were made subject to special imposts, that he would be compensated by artificially raising the price of his produce. As a matter of fact the price of the produce in which he is interested has greatly risen in consequence of the abandonment of protective laws.

The position of a landowner in Great Britain may be favourably contrasted with that of the owner of any other kind of property. In the first place, his land, by the operation of natural causes, has risen and still rises in annual value. His direct liabilities are a small rent charge originally imposed on a valuation made one hundred and seventy years ago, and which, even if it were to be looked on as an annual tax, which it is not, is far more than compensated by the shilling duty on imported corn. He pays, it is true, certain local rates. Some of these rates, however, are the outlay of capital on the permanent improvement of the soil, in the construction and repair of roads. Some, again, are rates in aid of labour, the abolition of which would inevitably be followed by a rise in the rate of wages. In both these cases, however, those persons who derive no benefit from the repair of the

road, and who get no profit from hired labour, contribute towards the convenience of the former and the necessities of the latter, since these imposts are generally levied on the occupier. Rent, as we have seen, is all that remains over and above the cost of production from the soil. Anything which diminishes the cost of production, then, enhances rent. The farmer is relieved from insurance duty on his stock. He pays, unlike other men engaged in business and needing animal labour, no assessed tax on his horses. The landowner, unlike any other capitalist, can borrow money of the State at low and fixed rates, in order to make permanent improvements which return an interest far in excess of the outlay. He is liable to no probate duty, and only to a moderate succession duty. Nay, so tender is the legislature of his interest, that, only recently, when a murrain of uncommon severity and great deadliness raged among cattle, and it became necessary to check it by destroying infected herds, the compensation which, according to common justice, should have been paid by those whose cattle were saved by this expedient, was levied on the general body of ratepayers; who thus had to pay the tax twice over, once in the rise in the price of meat and dairy produce, next in providing the funds for insuring the losses of their neighbours. So far is land from suffering under peculiar burdens that it is really exceptionally favoured. Conveyance by sale or settlement involves, indeed, considerable cost, but these charges are, with the exception of the stamp duties, the necessary consequence of those large powers over the disposition of landed estates which their owners have acquired and defend.

Again, it does not follow that, were the landowner ever

I

so burdened, the true compensation is to be found in an artificial enhancement of that which he produces. His real interest lies in exactly the reverse policy. A farm supplies not only corn, but meat and dairy produce. If the price of corn be raised, the price of other produce falls. Dear wheat means cheap meat. If the power of purchasing the first necessaries of life be crippled or limited, the power of purchasing the second necessaries, the familiar comforts of life, is much more crippled. have adverted to this rule before, but its importance justifies a repetition, for the study of the laws which govern prices is every producer's business; a knowledge of these laws might become the most effectual check to over production and rash speculation. The general demand for different objects varies in intensity with the nature of the object, and its relevancy to the subsistence or the necessities of the public. The demand of a few consumers on a large scale does not raise prices so much as that of many consumers on a small scale does; just as the bulk of the public revenue is derived from the small contributions of the general public, the amount of this revenue being seriously affected by a decline in commercial or industrial activity. Farmers are beginning to understand these facts, and to look on a deficient, or merely average harvest, as a loss. Before long they will also see that any interruption in the supply of foreign corn, though it may appear as a transient advantage to them, is certain to be followed by a decline in the purchasing power of the general community, and by a fall in the value of that on which they depend for the net profits of agriculture.

CHAPTER XVIII.

Foreign Trade.

THE various regions of the earth are variously favourable to the growth of vegetable and animal products. Different countries, too, have different geological characteristics. Thus, rice and cotton will grow in tropical or semi-tropical climates. Wool of good quality, on the other hand, is produced only in temperate regions. So, again, coal is found only in certain geological formations. It is remarkable that nearly all, if not quite all, the coal deposits which exist near the sea or great navigable rivers, are found in Great Britain or the British colonies. Gold is found only in primitive rocks, or in the detritus of such rocks. The produce of silver is characterized by similar limitations. These instances might be indefinitely multiplied, and might prove incontestably that the civilization of a people depends on reciprocity of trade. To buy these foreign commodities or utilities it is necessary to sell others; in order to be able to sell, a nation must labour; in order to labour, it must have the materials wherewith to work.

Particular commodities, however, though produced in particular districts or climates, are very seldom produced in so narrow a district as to be under the control of one government only. Again, there is no object which is in general demand but of restricted supply for which no substitute can be found. For example, at the outbreak of the Continental war the supply of saltpetre from

India, at that time the great source of this article, so essential for war purposes, was practically in the hands of the English. But the French contrived to obtain the salt from other and new sources. Again, the supply of colonial produce, especially sugar, was by reason of the naval supremacy of Great Britian during the same period practically denied to the French consumer. The result of this exclusion from the supply of cane sugar, led to the manufacture of sugar from beet-root. It does not follow, therefore, that an export duty will be really paid by the purchaser of the exported article. It may be transferred to the seller by lowering the price, or by checking the production of the article in question.

As geological differences and differences of climate control the production of commodities or limit products to particular localities, so differences of race and habit may exercise a powerful influence on local or national industries. It is excessively difficult to determine the share which race has in modifying the economical position of a nation. The science of ethnology is in its infancy, and the inductions of those who study it are apparently often rash and unsatisfactory. In any case they are far too uncertain for practice or action, or even for the explanation of economical phænomena. Positive evidence appears to point to an identity in the early features of social life among races which are physiologically very different; developments in the social system of particular countries being, it appears, due far more to the progress of social and political science, and to certain accidents of government and tradition, than to any peculiarities in the stock from which the nation is, or is presumed to be, descended. For example, the