Art. 21. An Inquiry into those Principles respecting theNature of Demand and the Necessity of Consumption, lately advocated by Mr.Malthus, from which it is concluded that Taxation and the Maintenance ofUnproductive Consumers can be conducive to the Progress of Wealth. 8vo. pp.128.
4s. Hunter. 1821,
"Up to this time, things passed off without any noise;
and, thank Heaven! nobody kicked against my prescriptions: — but, however
excellent is the practice of a physician, somebody or other is always sure to
find fault with it." This was the sage remark of that very learned
professor of medicine, Gil Blas, after his quarrel with the fiery little doctor
Cuchillo. They had both been called to visit a grocer's son in the last stage
of dropsy; Gil Blas, on the authority of his great master, the illustrious Sangrado,
prescribed copious bleedings, and immeasurable draughts of hot water; while
Cuchillo quoted Celsus in favour of abstinence from liquids under this
disorder, and called Sangrado a fool. Gil Blas returned the civility with
interest; and the two doctors, forgetful of their dying patient, soon came to
fisty-cuffs by his bed-side, so that it was not an easy matter for the grocer,
with the assistance of his shopman, to separate them.
To see the country sinking under a chronic disorder which is
daily exhibiting more aggravated and alarming symptoms, while the attendant
physicians, both in and out of parliament, are quarrelling about the nature of
it, and about the efficacy of their respective prescriptions, may well remind
us of the disputes between Gil Blas and Cuchillo. One set of doctors attributes
the present disease of the country to deficient consumption; a second, to
excessive production; while a third calls them both fools, and contends that
there can be no such thing as excess of production or deficiency of
consumption, because the one is of necessity a measure of the other, since
production, M. Say asserts, always opens a market for production. When there is
a glut of commodities, the way to cure it is to produce more; when you are
dropsical, drink, drink: "chaque
produit cree est un debouche ouvert, et chaque produit detruit ou consomme est
un debouche ferme." — "Tout
ce qui petit se produire peut trouver des consommateurs!"
The question, which is the more immediate subject of
investigation in the pamphlet before us, has already been introduced in our
notice of Mr. Malthus's work on political economy in a preceding portion of
this Number; where we stated, briefly, but we trust with tolerable correctness,
his views of the nature of demand and supply, and the opposite ideas of M. Say.
We cannot spare room to renew the discussion; and indeed the market is so
glutted with publications on political economy, that, notwithstanding M. Say's
notion that consumption always keeps pace with production, we should anticipate
the nausea of a surfeit in devoting a larger portion of our pages to these
interminable disputes. Any person, however, who is disposed to fathom the
question, will do well to read the present Inquiry, which is written with
considerable ability and acuteness; and we must say that the inference which
Mr. Malthus has chosen to draw from his view of it, so convenient and
acceptable to the "powers that be," (namely, that taxation and the
maintenance of unproductive consumers are conducive to the progress of wealth,)
is here refuted with great precision and force of argument.
With respect to the general distress which prevails in this
kingdom, if a rapid depreciation of the products of the earth may be fairly
considered as one of the proximate causes of it, we must look to other and more
remote sources for its origin. All climates and countries have their own
peculiar productions, and the industry of every people shoots out in its own
favourite and peculiar directions. The consequence is that all possess a
superabundance of certain articles of product and manufacture, which they are
glad to exchange for other articles that they want. All Europe, and indeed the
whole civilized world, is thus supplied: the deficiencies of some countries
being remedied by the superfluities of others; and the wants and the
consumption of each encouraging the productions of all others, as well as of
its own. Any long-continued obstruction, therefore, must derange this salutary
circulation, this beneficial system of interchange and reciprocal
accommodation. During the last unhappy war, not only was every link in the
commercial chain which had previously connected together the various nations of
Europe, even during their hostilities, snapped asunder, but the intercourse
also of Europe with America was violently interrupted. The ball which we fired
at the enemy rebounded,
"And, like a devilish engine, back recoiled
Upon ourselves."
Before that time, neutral bottoms always made neutral goods:
but, in our impolitic zeal to destroy the entire commerce of France by means of
our maritime superiority, we assumed the right of search; and, after having
annihilated the fleets of our enemy, we refused to allow any European neutral
nation to hold commerce with France, or even to suffer America to carry on the
commerce between that country and her own West-Indian colonies. If, however, we
were omnipotent at sea, France was equally powerful on land; and Bonaparte,
turning our own weapons against us, endeavoured hermetically to close every market
on the Continent against British manufactures. Even this was not all: our
measures drove America to war with us, and the consequence was that we lost one
of the largest outlets for our commodities.
Peace came at last: but hitherto it has afforded us only
"a death-like silence and a dread repose;" a melancholy leisure for
contemplating, in all its extent and horror, the devastation of war. While the
hurricane rages, the mind is absorbed in a state of tumult and agitation
between hope and fear; — it is in the calm of evening, and when the contending
elements are hushed, that we walk abroad and mourn over the desolation around
us, the shattered forest, the uprooted canes, the ripened ears of corn, cut
from their brittle stems, and lying on the earth,
"Thick as autumnal leaves, that strew the brooks
in
Valambrosa."
It must be evident, observed the Marquess of Lansdown in his
motion for the appointment of a committee on foreign-trade, that when, for a
number of years, twenty or thirty millions (or whatever the amount might be,
but always a large sum) had been taken from the capital of the country to be
used in the expenditure of the government, a great additional demand must
necessarily be created. The natural consequence of that demand was to cause an
increased supply, which would be still farther augmented by the consumption of
those individuals who would derive a great part of their support, indirectly,
from that increased expenditure. When this enlarged expenditure ceased, it was
followed of course by a great decrease of demand, and a proportionate
diminution of consumption; while, by bringing back the standard to its original
value, the amount of taxation pressed more heavily on the diminished means of
the community. The only remedy, therefore, for the distress thus occasioned, is
to be found in economy, and retrenchment of the public expenditure. Economy,
however, is a foe to patronage; and patronage, being a first favourite at
court, keeps its enemy at a distance.
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