Page:Speech of Sir Hussey Vivian, Bart. M.P. on the Corn Laws, Thursday March 14, 1839.djvu/26

22 value of goods manufactured in England in one year, 49,000,000l. worth only were exported. Now there can be no doubt that if we were in a natural state—if we were confined within our island, and no external commerce whatever, the argument as to the home consumer being the best customer might be a very good one, for in that case he would in fact be the only one. The agriculturist would grow corn for the manufacturer, whilst the manufacturer would produce hats, gloves, shoes, &c. for the grower of corn, it would be a matter of barter between the parties. But we are in an artificial state; and although two-thirds of our manufacturers may be working for the home market, one-third, it is admitted, are working for the foreign;—the two-thirds working for the home are, I apprehend, fully sufficient to its supply; are you then prepared to throw out of employ the remaining one-third, the hundreds of thousands engaged in manufacturing for the foreign markets? Are you prepared to refuse to them the means of exchanging the produce of their industry for the produce of other countries, and reduce them to dependence for their subsistence on the labour of those other two-thirds, or on the agriculturists who have, under a mistaken view of their own interests,