THE WEALTH OF NATIONS.

499

But all grain was rated so low in the book of rates, that thispoundage amounted only upon wheat to a shilling, upon oatsto four-pence, and upon all other grain to sixpence the quar-ter. By the 1st of William and Mary , the act which esta-blished the bounty, this small duty was virtually taken offwhenever the price of wheat did not exceed forty-eight shil-lings the quarter; and by the 11th and 12th of William Ill.e. 20. it was expressly taken off at all higher prices.

The trade of the merchant exporter was, in this manner,not only encouraged by a bounty, but rendered much morefree than that of the inland dealer. By the last of these sta-tutes, corn could be engrossed at any price for exportation;but it could not be engrossed for inland sale, except whenthe price did not exceed forty-eight shillings the quarter.The interest of the inland dealer, however, it has alreadybeen shewn, can never be opposite to that of the great bodyof the people. That of the merchant exporter may, and infact sometimes is. If, while his own country labours undera dearth, a neighbouring country should be afflicted witha famine, it might be bis interest to carry corn to the lattercountry in such quantities as might very much aggravatethe calamities of the dearth. The plentiful supply of thehome market was not the direct object of those statutes; but,under the pretence of encouraging agriculture, to raise themoney price of corn as high as possible, and thereby to oc-casion, as much as possible, a constant dearth in the homemarket. By the discouragement of importation, the supplyof that market, even in times of great scarcity, was confinedto the home growth ; and by the encouragement of expor-tation, when the price was so high as forty-eight shillingsthe quarter, that market was not, even in times of considerablescarcity, allowed to enjoy the whole of that growth. Thetemporary laws, prohibiting for a limited time the exportationof corn, and taking off for a limited time the duties upon itsimportation, expedients to which Great Britain lias beenobliged so frequently to have recourse, sufficiently demon-strate the impropriety of her general system. Had that sys-tem been good, she would not. so frequently have been re-duced to the necessity of departing from it.

Were all nations to follow the liberal system of free ex-portation and free importation, the different states into which

^ great continent was divided would so far resemble the dif-ferent provinces of a great empire. As among the different