discouragement, that any commodity, where the competition is free,
can be subjected. We may increase the capital employed either upon
the land or in the cotton manufacture, but it is impossible
permanently to raise the profits of farmers or particular
manufacturers above the level of other profits; and, after the
influx of a certain quantity of capital, they will necessarily be
equalized. Corn, in this respect, is subjected to the same laws as
other commodities, and the difference between them is by no means so
great as stated by Dr Smith.

In discussing therefore the present question, we must lay aside the
peculiar argument relating to the nature of corn; and allowing that
it is possible to encourage cultivation by corn laws, we must direct
our chief attention to the question of the policy or impolicy of
such a system.

While our great commercial prosperity continues, it is scarcely
possible that we should become again an exporting nation with regard
to corn. The bounty has long been a dead letter; and will probably
remain so. We may at present then confine our inquiry to the
restrictions upon the importation of foreign corn with a view to an
independent supply.

The determination of the question, respecting the policy or impolicy
of continuing the corn laws, seems to depend upon the three
following points:--

First, Whether, upon the supposition of the most perfect freedom of
importation and exportation, it is probable that Great Britain and
Ireland would grow an independent supply of corn.