It may indeed occasionally happen that in an unfavourable season,
our exchanges with foreign countries may be affected by the
necessity of making unusually large purchases of corn; but this is
in itself an evil of the slightest consequence, which is soon
rectified, and in ordinary times is not more likely to happen, if
our average imports were two millions of quarters, than if, on an
average, we grew our own consumption.

The unusual demand is in this case the sole cause of the evil, and
not the average amount imported. The habit on the part of foreigners
of supplying this amount, would on the contrary rather facilitate
than impede further supplies; and as all trade is ultimately a trade
of barter, and the power of purchasing cannot be permanently
extended without an extension of the power of selling, the foreign
countries which supplied us with corn would evidently have their
power of purchasing our commodities increased, and would thus
contribute more effectually to our commercial and manufacturing
prosperity.

It has further been intimated by the friends of the corn laws, that
by growing our own consumption we shall keep the price of corn
within moderate bounds and to a certain degree steady. But this also
is an argument which is obviously not tenable; as in our actual
situation, it is only by keeping the price of corn up, very
considerably above the average of the rest of Europe, that we can
possibly be made to grow our own consumption.

A bounty upon exportation in one country, may be considered, in some
degree, as a bounty upon production in Europe; and if the growing
price of corn in the country where the bounty is granted be not