Page:Vindication of a fixed duty on corn.djvu/20

14 First, then, as to the protection.

The amount of a protecting duty, I apprehend, should be such -as would raise the cost of foreign corn in our markets to a level with that of British corn sold at a remunerating price.

This definition, I am aware, embraces two questions which have been much debated, and will continue to be so; for we shall never see an agreement upon either; "the remunerative price, of British corn," or "the cost of raising corn in foreign countries." In the absence, however, of such agreement, we must legislate upon the experience of the past; and I take the average of the prices of the last ten years, (1831 to 1840,) embracing seasons of various kinds, as presenting a fair criterion of the cost of raising corn, both here and on the continent. I do not believe that farming has, during the last ten years, been a losing trade, and I am justified in assuming the average price of that period to be a remunerative one to the British grower: it is, at all events, the price which he has obtained under the shelter of the sliding scale, and therefore applicable to the trial of the alterative [sic] proposed. By reference to the accompanying Statement it will be seen that, for the ten years ending with 1840, the average price of British wheat was 56s. 11d., and that the average prices at the ports of Danzig, St. Petersburg, and Odessa, were such that, after adding the expenses of importation and a profit sufficient to repay the mer-