supply its own wants. But a law passed with this view might be so
framed as to effect its object rather by a diminution of the people
than an increase of the corn: and even if constructed in the most
judicious manner, it can never be made entirely free from objections
of this kind.

The evils which must always belong to restrictions upon the
importation of foreign corn, are the following:

1. A certain waste of the national resources, by the employment of a
greater quantity of capital than is necessary for procuring the
quantity of corn required.

2. A relative disadvantage in all foreign commercial transactions,
occasioned by the high comparative prices of corn and labour, and
the low value of silver, as far as they affect exportable
commodities.

3. Some check to population, occasioned by a check to that abundance
of corn, and demand for manufacturing labours, which would be the
result of a perfect freedom of importation.

4. The necessity of constant revision and interference, which
belongs to almost every artificial system.

It is true, that during the last twenty years we have witnessed a
very great increase of population and of our exported commodities,
under a high price of corn and labour; but this must have happened
in spite of these high prices, not in consequence of them; and is to
be attributed chiefly to the unusual success of our inventions for