Page:History of the Anti corn law league - Volume 2.pdf/218

 revenue rose as the price of corn fell. "It is," said he, "a very remarkable fact that the price of corn is just a barometer of the state of your taxation; that your revenue declines just as your corn rises in price; and the revenue flows over just as the value of corn falls: so much so, that it is a perfect barometer as to the state of the revenue. Now, I will take the first four years, from 1815 to 1820, during which period the average price of wheat was 81s. 4d., and the farmers and landlords were glorying in scarcity and high prices. What was the effect upon the revenue at that time? Why, there was an annual taxation of £2,400,000 additional, imposed upon the country for the necessities of the state. The next four years the average price of wheat was 54s. 6d., being more than 25s. a quarter less than in the previous period; then came 'unparalleled agricultural and yet you had taxes repealed during those distress;' four years to the amount of £8,100,000. I come to the next period of an exceedingly low price of corn, and that was in 1833, 1834, 1835, and 1836, when the average price for those years was 46s. 9d.; lower than it had been for forty years. Taxes were repealed during those four years to the amount of 4,500,000 per annum. I now come to the late period of dear years, from 1838 to 1842, during which five years the average price of wheat was 64s. 7d. a quarter, being higher than it had been for twenty years previous. During that five years you had, first of all, 5 per cent, additional imposed on your general taxes, and 10 per cent, on your assessed taxes that fell short; and then you had an income-tax, a tax on coal, and other taxes and the whole amount of additional taxation then laid upon the shoulders of the people of this country during the above five years was £8,000,000 sterling per annum. Thus the revenue of this country—at a time when the rent was rising, when the landowners were laying on extra rents, and when, if we may believe you, farmers were in a state of prosperity—was in a state of depression. Now, during