every reason to believe that in others, where our colonies, our
navigation, our long credits, our coals, and our mines come in
question, as well as our skill and capital, we shall retain our
trade in spite of high wages. Under these circumstances, it seems
peculiarly advisable to maintain unimpaired, if possible, the home
market, and not to lose the demand occasioned by so much of the
rents of land, and of the profits and capital of farmers, as must
necessarily be destroyed by the check to our home produce.

But in whatever way the country may be affected by the change, we
must suppose that those who are immediately engaged in foreign trade
will benefit by it. As those, however, form but a very small portion
of the class of persons living on the profits of stock, in point of
number, and not probably above a seventh or eighth in point of
property, their interests cannot be allowed to weigh against the
interests of so very large a majority.

With regard to this great majority, it is impossible that they
should not feel very widely and severely the diminution of their
nominal capital by the fall of prices. We know the magic effect upon
industry of a rise of prices. It has been noticed by Hume, and
witnessed by every person who has attended to subjects of this kind.
And the effects of a fall are proportionately depressing. Even the
foreign trade will not escape its influence, though here it may be
counterbalanced by a real increase of demand. But, in the internal
trade, not only will the full effect of this deadening weight be
experienced, but there is reason to fear that it may be accompanied
with an actual diminution of home demand. There may be the same or
even a greater quantity of corn consumed in the country, but a
smaller quantity of manufactures and colonial produce; and our