date

19 Dec.r 1801 Maximum Ulteriora
19 Dec.r 1801

Maximum

Ulteriora

Magazines necessity of

{4}

4

It is necessary /true/ to cast off prejudices /antipathies and panics/ of all

sorts, and look difficulties in the face. Subsistence must remain for ever

precarious, or magazines must be established. Wheat with the inferior grains

rather than […?]-rice {I should suppose} from Hindostan would stand clearest of

objection. The objections that have been urged against magazines are strong,

perhaps conclusive. But they all turn upon a state of things in which we have

ceased /out of which we have emerged/, and in which nothing but some unexampled

calamity can replace us. They turn upon a /an habitual/ sufficiency either

actual or possible, of the average stock of grain for the stock of /subsistence

of/ inhabitants. With us, barring calamity as above or emigration to an

unexampled and improbable amount, the very possibility of such a sufficiency is

gone for ever. Population has already outstripped culture. Population having no

limit, so long as food is to be had from abroad in exchange for wealth – that

culture should ever again keep pace with it /it should ever be overtaken by

culture/ seems altogether improbable, that it should long continue so to do is,

unless contiguous land were to arise out of the sea, impossible.
Similar Items
  • Title: [20 Dec.r 1801 Maximum Ulteriora]
    Description: 20 Dec.r 1801

    Maximum

    Ulteriora

    Bounty &c […?]

    Magazines

    2

    12

    produce, the expected fruit of the bounty, is what I will not pretend to give the

    most random guess at: any more than what it would be necessary the bounty should

    be in order to pay foreigners for coming for their corn to a country labouring

    under an habitual dearth and scarcity. Produce, I am aware, may be augmented in

    certain circumstances, otherwise than by augmenting the quantity of land in

    culture. The quantity of mineral manure and labour might be encreased at any

    time; the quantity of vegetable and animal manure might be encreased in time.

    But the addition from this source to the means of produce (without addition to

    land) would take place in regard to such lands as were understocked /the bounty

    should find understocked/ with capital at that time: besides that a part of it

    would even in that case be added by the farmer to his fund /provision/ of

    present stock of instruments of present enjoyment – to the unproductive part of

    his expenditure: whereas the bounty will /would/ be received as well for the

    produce of land unsusceptible of further improvement, as for the produce of the

    most improvable and scantily stocked lands.

    Insufficient against scarcity, these enhancements of the prices of corn will be

    still more palpably so against dearth, against enhancements of the aggregate of

    prices of all sorts of things taken together: for stopping the augmentation of

    the aggregate of prices – that is the depretiation /decrease/ of the value of

    money as applied to the purchase of vendible things of all sorts, there is but

    one course to take, which is to stop the augmentation in the quantity of it.
  • Title: [18 Decr 1801 Maximum Ulteriora]
    Description: 18 Decr 1801

    Maximum

    Ulteriora

    2

    The dearness has for its ulterior cause exuberance – habitual and indefensibly

    increasing exuberance – of money – of money of the primary sort, by the too

    rapid importation of the pretious metals its materials: the materials of which

    it is composed: of money of the secondary sort, by the unlimited creation of it.

    In regard to scarcity two remedies commonly relied on as sufficient are

    essentially inadequate: cultivation of waste, and importation, with or without

    bounties: in the ordinary course of trade that is /I mean/ by individuals on

    their own account, taking their chance in respect to sale and price: two others

    commonly shrunk from: but the only ones upon which any safe reliance can be

    placed: magazines, in public account, and facility afforded allowance

    /allowance/ declaredly and liberally given to exportation of capital and

    emigration.

    By inadequate in speaking of eaters[?] of waste I certainly do not mean

    undesirable: but where is the resource when all shall have been brought into

    culture? a state of things which many /some persons/ now living may perhaps live

    to see. The period arrival of the period /times/ is an event worth calculation,

    but is not a fit place. In the mean time encrease of mouths is going on, as fast

    perhaps as the encrease of land in a state to feed them.
  • Title: [19 Decr 1801 Maximum Ulteriora]
    Description: 19 Decr 1801

    Maximum

    Ulteriora

    2

    Thus stands the account, so long as the land suffices for its inhabitants in

    prospect as well as in existence – and so long as emigration /efflux/ whether of

    hands or capital is a loss. But when efflux in both ways is become a relief –

    efflux of hands and mouths by relieving /instigating/ scarcity – efflux of

    capital by mitigating the income-tax imposed by capitalists upon capitalists as

    capital accumulates and the rate of interest the income given /obtainable/ for

    the use of it is borne down – in this already impending, yet although impending

    scarcely yet so much as imagined state of things. – Colonies, though still a

    drain – are notwithstanding, and were because they are a drain – a relief.

    The retribution for the burthen /past expence/ is – a scene /prospect/

    improvement from Paradise lost – a prospect such as the Angel shewed to Adam –

    men propagated /spreading/ in distant climes, through distant ages from the best

    stock – the earth covered with British wealth and British population rich with

    British wealth – safe /tranquil/ with British security – the fount of British

    law.