ABSENTEEISM-ITS EFFECTS.

393

from a petition presented on the 10th July last, from the prudhommes of Lyons to the Minister of Commerce; in which the government of France is urged to abolish all impediments to the importation of raw materials, and of those articles which France is unable advantageously to create, and, by enfranchising that country from the trammels of legislative monopoly, to consolidate the peace of the civilized world.'

• Commercial freedom is equally demanded by those who produce and by those who consume;a freedom gradual in its introduction,-gradual in order that no branch of industry may be suddenly compromised, that those especially which are most menaced by a change of legislation may have time to conform themselves, by prudential preparations, for a state of liberal intercourse, which is felt to be alike the want and the interest of nations*,'

When the governments of Britain and of France have adopted the maxims of a liberal commercial policy, it cannot be long before the benefits that must flow from the change will lead other states to follow their example,

The disputed question of the effects of Absenteeism is connected with that on commercial restraints, and, therefore, comes properly into discussion in this place. The moral benefit which the residence of landlords upon their estates tends to confer on society has been conceded by those who at first denied that residence was any ad

* Globe Newspaper, 20th July, 1833.

vantage whatever, and consequently that absenteeism could be any injury. The economical consequences of absenteeism,-so far as relates to England-consist, it appears to us, simply in such as may flow from the landlord's income being expended in the employment of one branch of industry rather than another, or of the inhabitants of a town rather than of a country district. If an English landlord reside in London, and expend there his rental drawn from Yorkshire, the tradesmen, &c., of London gain all that the tradesmen, &c., of Yorkshire lose. If he reside abroad, his rental must be remitted indirectly in British manufactured commodities, and its expenditure, therefore, gives the same aggregate employment to British labour and capital, as if he resided in the country and spent it on British goods of a different kind. To put an extreme case, were even the whole rental of the kingdom spent abroad, there would still be as much employment afforded to British industry as before. Ruin would no doubt fall upon the tradesmen of London, of our watering-places, and of many country towns and villages; but Manchester and Sheffield, Leeds and Liverpool, would gain in exact proportion to the loss sustained by the other places. The rental could not be remitted except in the form of British manufactures fabricated at some of these places. It is not meant to deny that great injury would result from the absenteeism of all our landed proprietors, but the injury would be of a moral and social rather than an economical nature.

The case of Ireland, however, differs from that of Britain in this remarkable point, that, while the

IRISH ABSENTEEISM.

395

latter exports solely manufactures, the exports of Ireland consist almost solely of food-corn, butter, pork, beef, &c. In her case, therefore, that portion of the raw produce of the soil which accrues to the landlord as rent, will, if he is an absentee, be directly exported, as the only means of remitting his rent, instead of being consumed by manufacturers at home while working up goods for exportation, as in England. The English absentee landlord may be considered as feeding and employing, with the surplus produce of his estate, that portion of our manufacturing population which is engaged in fabricating the goods that are sent abroad to pay his rent. The Irish absentee, on the contrary, can only have his rent remitted in the shape of food: there is no secondary intervening process whatever; and the more food is in this way sent out of the country, the less, of course, remains behind to support and give employment to its inhabitants. If these were all fully fed and employed, no harm would result from the exportation of food: as is the case, for example, with some parts of North America. But so long as the people of any country are, as in Ireland, but half employed and half fed, so long, to export food from thence will be to take away the means existing in the country for setting them to work and improving their condition. Should the Irish absentee landlord return to reside at home, a considerable portion of the food now exported to pay his rents would be transferred by him to Irish tradesmen, artisans, and labourers, whom he could not avoid employing to satisfy a variety of wants. Ireland would

profit pro tanto by the additional employment and subsistence afforded to her inhabitants. As it is, she loses, by the absence of her landlords, exactly what she would gain by their return. The remedy is, not an absentee tax, which would fall heavily on some whose estates are the best managed, and the population upon them the best conditioned in the island, while it spared those resident gentry who neglect the poor upon their property as much as if they resided at the antipodes:-the real remedy is a poor-law-which (like the law of England) should compel every landlord, resident or absent, to provide subsistence and employment for the poor settled on his estate, before he touches any rent whatever.

The English absentee may be charged with unfairly escaping his just share of the general taxation. The only way to remedy this inequality is by the substitution of a direct tax on income for a portion of the taxes which, in this country, are so largely levied upon expenditure. Of this more hereafter.

CHAPTER XVI.

RESTRAINTS ON THE INSTRUMENT OF
EXCHANGE.

Injury of restrictions on the Instrument of Exchange.-Credit always employed as a medium for circulating values to a far greater extent than Coin-Credit should be free to take what form convenience may dictate.—Just limitations of Currency. The object, convenience, security, and stability of Value-To be obtained either, 1. By complete freedom of note issue-2. By a National Bank.-Vices of the English System.-Bank of England Monopoly.-Variations in Value of the Standard.—Proposed measure of Variations.-Their injustice and enormous extent of late years.-Suggestions for improvement of Monetary System.-Weights and Measures. Usury Laws.

. MONEY is the instrument by which all exchanges of goods are effected. Any saving in its cost is as advantageous to the productive classes among whom these exchanges take place, as an equivalent saving in the cost of their instruments of production, and goes equally to augment the net returns of industry; and any restriction on such improvements is to the full as injurious as a restriction on improved machinery or on free exchange.

În an early chapter we spoke of the great probability that from the very first commencement of