per cent, being a lower rate of interest than had
been paid at the commencement of the war.
The exports, which in 1792 were £27,000,000,
had swelled in 1815 to nearly £58,000,000, offil
cial value ; the imports had advanced during the
same period from £19,000,000 to £32,000,000.
The shipping had advanced from 1,000,000 to
2,500,000 tons. The population of England
had risen from 9,400,000 in 1792, to 13,400,000
in 1815 ; that of Great Britain and Ireland from
14,000,000 in the former period, to 18,000,000
in the latter. Yet, notwithstanding this rapid
increase, and the absorption of nearly 500,000
pairs of robust arras in the army, militia, and
navy, the imports of grain had gone on con-
tinually diminishing, and had sunk in 1815 to
less than 500,000 quarters. And so far was
this prodigious expenditure and rapid increase
of numbers from having exhausted the resources
of the state, that above .£0,000,000 annually
was raised by the voluntary ellbrts of the inhab-
itants to mitigate the distresses and assuage the
sud'erings of the poor ; and a noble sinking fund
was in existence, and had been
kept sacred during all the vicissi- ij^^!'*','^!'''}.'' '"
tudesof the struggle, which already £',''ropo °
hail reached £10,0000,000 a year, App. c.'xcvl
and would certainty, if left to ilsclf, wliuru Uie
have extinguished 'the whole public Jf^'J,^*' ""' '"
debt by the year 1815.'

When such had been the prosperity and sr.

great the progress of the empire,

durinj; the continuance of a lone 3- ,

1111 â–  .1 7- Warm and

and jjloody war, m the course ol „^.,|(,rlll anti-

which it had repeatedly been re- eipations of
duccd to the very greatest straits, K'n<'ral prow-
and compelled to" tight for its very '[.'l^^. '"' ^''''
cxistentjc against the forces of com-
bined Europe, there seemed to bo no possible
limits which could bo assigned to the prosperity
of the state when the contest was over, and tho
blessings of peace had returned to gladden our
own and every other land. If the industry of



M



HISTORY OF EUROPE.



[Chap. 11



our |H'i>iilr luul lu'Oii sn sn^iiuiicd, llii'ir pidijfrcss
M> ^rcat, iliuiiii; a war in wliirli we wcio lor n
loiiii jK-riixl .-lull out riniii till" Conlineni, ami for
a lime from Amcrii-a uImi, wlial niii:lit be cx-
jH^clcd when universnl pence prevailed, and the
Lirbors of nil nations, ioni; fainisliinjr for tlie
luxuries of British prinliicc and mariiiractnrcs,
were every where thrown open for their recep-
tion? Views of this sort were so obviously
supported by the appearances of the social
world, that they were embraeed not only by the
ardent and enlhusiastic, but the prudent and the
sagacious, in every part of the country. The
landholders borrowed, the capitalist lent money,
on the faith of their justice. The merchant
embarked his fortune in the sure confidence that
the present flattering appearances would not
prove fallacious ; and the eloquent preacher
expressed no more than the general feeling
when he said — "The mighty are fallen, and
the weapons of war have perished. The cry of
freedom bursts from the unfettered earth, and
the standards of victtry wave in all the winds of
heaven. Again in every corner of our own land
the voice of joy and gladness is heard. The
cheerful sounds of labor rise again in our streets,
and the dark ocean again begins to whiten with
our sails. Over this busy scene of human joy
the genial influences of heaven have descended.
The unclouded sun of summer has ripened for
us ail the riches of harvest. The God of nature
hath crowned the year with his
goodness, and all things living are
filled with plenteousness. Even
the infant shares in the general joy;
and the aged, when he recollects
the sufferings of former years, is
led to say, with the good old Simeon
in the Gospel, ' Lord, now let thy servant de-
part in peace, for mine eyes have seen thy salva-
tion.' " '

Such were the expectations and feelings of the
4. people at the termination of the war.

Univer-sal dis- Never were hopes more cruelly dis-
of ^heseâ„¢^"' appointed, never anticipations more
liopes, and desperately crossed. No sooner was
general dis- the peace concluded than distress.
tress. wide-spread and universal, was ex-

perienced in everj' part of the country, and in
every branch of industry. It was felt as much
by the manufacturers as the agriculturists ; by
the merchants as the landlords : and, ere long,
the general suffering rose to such a pitch that,
while the table of the House of Commons groan-
ed under petitions from the farmers, complain-
ing of agricultural distress, the Gazette teem-
ed with notices of the bankruptcy of traders ;
and disturbances became so common and alarm-
ing in the manufacturing districts, that special
commissions bad to be sent down, in this and
the following year, to Ely, Derby, and the prin-
cipal seats of the outrages, by whom the law
was administered with unsparing but necessary
rigor. The farmers, as usual with that class.
bore their distresses with patience and resigna-
tion ; but the manufacturers, alw.iys more ex-
citable and tumultuous, were not so easily ap-
pea.sed. In the southern part of Staffordshire
the distress was felt as peculiarly severe, and
the working people in the populous village of
Bilston were reduced to such a degree that
they all fell upon the parish, the funds of wb'ch



' Sermon on
(he Thanks-
giving, Jan.
13, 1614, by
the Rev.
Archibald
Alison — Ser-
nions, i. 450.



were inadequate to preserve them from abso-
lute starvation. The iron trade in particular was
eve;7 where sullering under great distress:
large bodies of workmen, dismissed from their
forges, paraded the country, demanding charity
in a menacing manner ; and at Merthyr-Tydvil,
in South Wales, the disorders were not appeas-
ed without military interference. To excite
public commiseration, great numbers of these
dismissed workmen fell upon the
expedient of drawing loaded wag- jgie^p g^f'^
ons of coals to distant towns ; and Memoirs of
a division of these wandering pcti- Lord Sid-
tioners approached the metropolis. J^y^'isi'"'
and were only turned aside by the ' "
resistance of a powerful body of police." '

It was with the merchants engaged in the ex-
port trade that the di.stress, which
soon became universal, first began; i)(.„in„ing o'
and in them it appeared even be- the^distress
fore hostilities had ceased. Pos- among the ex-

sessed with the idea that the inhab- P^""' "^"'

„ , „ . , chants,

itants ot the Continent were lan-
guishing for British colonial produce, from which
they had so long been excluded, and inflamed by
the prospect of the sudden opening of their ports
to our shipping, the English merchants thought,
and acted upon the opinion, that no limits could
be assigned to the profitable trade which might
be carried on with them, especially in that ar-
ticle of merchandise. So largely was this no-
tion acted upon, that the exports of foreign and
colonial produce from Great Britain and Ireland,
which in 1812 had been £9,533,000, rose in
1S14 to £19,365,000. The necessary effect of
so prodigious an increase of the supply thrown
into countries impoverished to the very last de-
gree by the war, and scarcely able to pay for
any thing, was that the consignments were, for
the most part, sold for little more than half the
original cost, and ruin, wide-spread and uni-
versal, overtook all the persons engaged in the
traffic. The eastern ports of the kingdom, in
particular London, Hull, and Leith, suffered
dreadfully by the extensive and disastrous ship-
ments to the north of Europe. England then
began to learn a lesson which has been suffi-
ciently often taught since that time — namely,
how fallacious a lest the mere amount of exports
is of the flourishing condition of the country in
general, or even of the branches of trade in
which the greatest increase appears in particu-
lar. That increase often arises from a failure
of the home market, which renders it necessary
to send the goods abroad, or from absurd and
ruinous speculation, which terminates in nothing
but disaster. The year 1514, during which
foreign and colonial produce to the extent ol
£19,500,000 was exported, was far more disas-
trous to the persons engaged in that trade than
the three succeeding years,'* in , Annual Reg.
which the exports ol that descrip- ]614, 219;
tion sank to little more than a half 1815, 144
of that amount.

This distress, however, was not long of spread-
ing to the agriculturists, and among them it



* Exports of foreign and colonial produce :

1814 £19,365,981

1815 15,748,554

1816 13,480,781

1617 10,292,684

-Auso.n's Europe, Appendix, chan. xcvi



.815.]

assumed



HISTORY OF EDROPE.



21



more formidable, because seltleJ
g and irremediable form. Notwith-

Us spread to standing the protection to British
the agricul- agriculture whicli had been afforded
turists. jjy jj^g PQ|.jj jjj^y passed in 1S14, of

which an account has already been given/ it had
1 History of already become apparent that the
Europe, c.xcii. opening the harbors of America
'*•*"• and Northern Europe for supplies

of grain, coupled with the cessation of the lavish
expenditure of the war, would seriously affect the
prices of every species of agricultural produce.
Already, they had fallen to little more than two-
thirds of what they had been during the five last
years of the war.* Although the prices which
they still fetched may seem high to us, who
have been accustomed to the much greater re-
duction which has since taken place, yet the fall
from 120s. in 1813, to 76s. in 1S15, and 57s. in
the spring of 1816, for the quarter of wheat, was
sufficiently alarming, and struck a prodigious
panic into the minds of alj persons engaged in
agricultural pursuits. The rise in the price of
rural produce had been so steady and long-con-
tinued, and the affluence in consequence arising
to all persons connected with land, or depending
either on the sale of its produce or the purchases
flowing from its prosperity, so great, that all
classes had come to regard it as permanent,
and they had all acted accordingly. The land-
owners had borrowed money or entered into
marriage-contracts on the faith of its continu-
ance : present expenditure, provisions to chil-
dren, had been regulated by that standard. The
tenantry, in those parts of the country where
leases were common, had entered into lasting
contracts, in the belief that the high prices
would continue ; and they could now anticipate
nothing but ruin if they were held to their en-
gagements. A general despondency, in conse-
quence, seized upon the rural classes; numbers
of farms were thrown up in despair ; and the
universal suffering among that important class
not only spread a general gloom over society,
but seriously affected the amount of manufac-
' Ann. Heir, tured articles taken off by the home
1815, 144, 145; market, by far the most important
1810,92,93. ygf)(. j-Qf that species of industry.*
Before the close of the year 1816, these causes
7, of distress assumed a diiferent, but

Severe scare- a still more alarming form. The
ityofl816. summer of that year was uncom-
monly wet and stormy, insomuch, that not only
was the quantity and quality of the grain every
where rendered deficient, but in the higher and
later parts of the country the harvest never
ripened at all. So stormy, melancholy a seasor
had not been experienced since 1790; the con-
sequence of course was. that the price of grain
rapidly rose, and the average for the year was
82«. a quarter. But it was much higher than
this average in the latter months; indeed, in
some places in the north of England, wheat in
October was at a guinea a bushel. t The ef-
* Average price of wheat per Winchester bushel :



1809
1810
1811
1812



ShiMinso
105
112
108
118



1813

1814
1815
1810



Sliillings.
120
85
76
82



feet of this, of course, was to admit foreign im-
portations duty free — the prices having sur-
mounted that of SCs., fixed by the sliding scale
as the turning point at which free foreign im-
portation was to commence. This happy cir-
cumstance had the efiect of checking the rise in
the price of provisions, which, but for that cir-
cumstance, would doubtless have reached the
level of a famine. The importation of wheat
in that year amounted to 22.5,000 quarters ; but
in the next, when the eflect of the scarcity of
1816 was felt, it rose to 1,620,000 quarters, and
in 1818 to 1,593,000.1 But from this circum-
stance sprang up a new cause of i porter's
distress to the farmers, which was Prog, of Nat
felt with the utmost severity in ^^~' ^'^ ^'^i'-
this and the two succeeding years. The im-
portation kept down prices, but it did not re-
store crops; it deprived the farmer of a remu-
nerating price for what remained cf his produce,
without making up to him what had been lost
And the nation, on comparing its present con-
dition with what it had been during the last

years of the war, began to feel the „ , ■„

1 /■ A 1 o ■ 1 • 1 " Ann. Keg.

triuh of Adam bmith s remark — 1816,144;

"High prices and plenty are pros- Sidmouth's
perity ; low prices and want are l*''*^' "'• ^^^<
misery .2 *

When such general distress pervaded the
whole classes depending upon land „

— then, as now, by far the largest Distress
and most important part of the com- among tlie
munity t — it was not to be supposed manuiactur
that the in.iuu,aeturing interests causes to
were not also to be laboring under which it waa
difficulties. The distress among owing.
them, accordingly, was universal — and equally
among those who toiled for the foreign, as with
those who supplied the home market. In some
branches of industry which went directly to
the supplying of arms and stores of war the
depression, on the cessation of hostilities, was
immediate and excessive. England had for
several years past been the great armory of
the world, and could not but suffer severely in
several branches of its industry on the return
of peace. It is to this cause, chiefly, that the
rapid reduction in the price of copper and iron
was to be ascribed — the former of which had
fallen from £180 to £80, the latter
from £20 to £8 per ton.' But the Liibjiii""^^
depression was not confined to those
branches of industry which were directly em-
ployed on warlike stores ; it was universal, and
felt as severely in those which were devoted
to the supplying of pacific wants, as in those



-Allson's Euuope, Appendix, chap. xcvi.

t On 8lh October, the Earl of Darlington wrote to
l»ord Sidinouth, llien Home Secretary ; — " The distress
in Yorkshire if unpreredented ; there Ih a total stagna-



tion of the little trade we over had ; wheat is already
more than a guinea a bushel, and no old corn in store ;
the potato crop has failed ; the harvest is only begiiuiing;
the corn being in many parts still green, and I fear a
total defalcation of all grain this season, fVom the deluge
of rain which has fallen for several weelis, and is still
falling." — Earl of Darmnoton to Lord Sidmouth, 8tli
Oct. 1816. Life nf Sidrnuulh, iii. 150.

* "If we think we are to go on smoothly without the
effectual means of repressing mischief, and large mean.*
too, we shall be most grievously mistaken. I look lO the
winter with fear and trembling. In this island our wheat
is good for nothing ; barley and oats reasonably good.
As a farmer I am ruined here and in Durham. So much
for peace and plenty." — Lord Chancellor Eldon to Lord
Sidmouth, 8ih Oct. 1810. Subnoulh's Life, iii. 151.

t The classes directly or indirectly dopcnident on land
are now (1852), in round numbers, 18,000,000; on man-
ulacturos and towns, 10,0C"J,000.— SrACKMA.N'a Tabid,
1852.



HISTORY OF EUROPE.



[Chap, ll



wlm-h were immeiliiitoly connected wilh hos- soon demonstnitcd the fallacy of all hopes of a
111. lies. All were suli'erinji:, and apparently j relief to the public sulfering from these appli-
wiih equal severity. llistress was as great ances. Retrenchment was, by the voice of the
among the colton-spinners of Manchester or ; country and the anguish of general suffering,
(.ilnsgow, the silk-weavers of Spilalliclds, or the forced upon the Government; the income and

malt taxes, amounting to £17,000,000 a year,
were abolished ; the public expenditure was



glove-maiuifactur«rs of Nottingham, as anionr
the hardware-men of Uiriningham, or the iron-
niouldors of Merihyr-Tydvil. The home mar-



reduced from £102,000,000 to £82,000,000



•iei was soiii founil to be reduced to a half of ; nearly 300,000 men were disbanded in the army

and navy ; and still the distress went on con
stantly increasing, and was greater than ever
in the close of the very year 1816, in the course
of which these immense reductions had been
carried intoefTect. It is evident,. therefore, that
some more general and lasting cause was in op-
eration than those to which the adherents of
either party at that period ascribed it ; and
without denying altogether the influence of
some of these subordinate ones, it may now
safely be affirmed that the main cause was the
following :

The annual supply of the precious metals for
the use of the globe, derived from jo.

the South American mines, had Diminished
been, for some years prior to 1808, supply of the
about ten millions sterling: and of ^ffai*^%



'.ts former amount ; and the manufacturers,

finding their usual vents for their produce

("ailing them from domestic wants, sent them in

Jespair abroad ; but with so little success that

, ... , _ the entire exports of British pro-
' Alison s Eu- , , ' ,. , I • L •

duce and nianulactures, which m

1S15 had risen to £42,875,000,

sank in the succeeding year to

£35,717,000.'

Depression so severe and wide-spread could



rope, c. xcvi.
App. Sill-
mouth's Life,
ill. 151, 153.



0.



not be explained by the mere trans,
ition from a state of war to one of
peace, to which the partisans of
Government at that period, and for
long after, constantly ascribed it.
Every impartial and thinking per-
son saw that, although that might explain the
depression in some particular branches of in-
dustry which had been connected with hostilities.



This general
Bii/Tering was
not owiiis to
the transition
from war to
peace.



'o ).""""' metals from
this, about a half w^as coined in South Amer-
South America, and the remainder ^'^^â– 



it could not account for the universal depression for the most part found its way to Europe in the



in all branches of industry, alike agricultural and
manufacturing, for the home trade and the ex-
port sale. Still less could it explain the fact
that the depression was universal in all markets,
and even greatest in those connected with paci-
fic employments, w'hich might have been ex-
nected to have taken an extraordinary start on
the termination of war expenditure. As little
could the reduction be accounted for by the re-
duction of taxation, and diminution of the ex-
penditure of governments in general, and that of
Great Britain in particular ; lor that only altered
the direction of expenditure, without lessening
its amount ; if it put less into the hands of Gov-
ernment to spend for the people, it left more in
the hands of the people to spend for themselves.
The Whigs and Radicals had a very clear solu-
tion of the question : the difficulties all arose
-Vom excessive taxation, and the measures of a
corrupt oligarchy ; and the remedy for them was
to be found in parliamentary reform, and an un-
sparing retrenchment in all branches of the pub-
lic expenditure. A vehement outcry, according-
ly, was raised for these objects, which was sup-
ported with equal eloquence and ability both in
p.nd out of Parliament.* But experience very

* " From a struggle which appalled, I believe, the
fMjIdest among us, we have by the talents and firmness
of our general, and the intrepid and patient courage of
our troops, been blessed with glorious victory. By the
act of Ministers we have, from a state of triumph and
exultation, from hopes of security, justified by success,
been left to contemplate the real result of all these things.
Let us look around us and sec the state of our country ;
let us go forth among our fields and manufactories, and
let us see what are the tokens and indications of peace.
Can we trace them among a peasantry without work,
and consequently without bread?— among farmers unable
to pay their rents, and a fortiori unable to contribute to
that parochial relief on which the peasantry is rendered
dependent ? — among landowners unable to collect their
rents, and yet obliged to maintain their rank and station
as gentlemen in society 7 Let us listen to the cry of the
country— it is poverty, from the proudest castle to the
meanest cottage, poverty rings in our ears ; it lies in our
path whichever way we turn. It is not the congratula-



form of bullion.* The rapid rise i Humboldt's
in the price of commodities all over Nouv. Esp.
Europe, during the latter years of "'■ ^^®-
the war, was in part owing to the increased
supply of the precious metals, obtained in conse-
quence of the great rise in their value from the
necessities of the belligerent powers. Gold, in
consequence of this, had in 1813 and 1814 risen
to £5. 8s. an ounce, from £4, which it had been
in the beginning of the century. But the long
and desolating wars in which the whole Spanish
provinces of South America had been involved
since 1809, in consequence of their calamitous
revolution, soon put an end to this auspicious
state of things. The capitalists who worked the
mines were ruined during these disastrous con-
vulsions; the mines them.selves ceased to be
worked, the machinery in them went to destruc-
tion, and they were in many places filled with
water. So complete did the ruin become, that
the population of the city of Potosi, in Peru, from
whence the celebrated silver mines of the same
name were worked, which in 1805 contained
150,000 inhabitants, had sunk in j „.., ,
1825 to 8000.* The only supplies Mem. ii. 319-
of the precious metals which were Alison's Eu
obtained during these disastrous '"P?) ''^ Ixvii.
years, were from the melting down
of their gold and silver plate by the wealthy pro-
prietors of former days, who had been reduced
to ruin, and from turning over the heaps of
rubbish which had been turned out of the mines
in the days of the r prosperity. But so diminutive
and precarious were the supplies thus obtained

tory that can drown this lamentable cry ; it is not in the
power of the noble lord, it is not in the power of this
House or of Parliament, to stifle the cry of want, nor to
brave the stroke of universal bankruptcy. There is but
one means left to satisfy the country, to avert these evils,
or to redeem the pledged faith of Parliament— Retrench-
ment, rigorous and severe retrenchment, in every branch
and in every article of the public expenditure." — Lord
Nuoent's Speech on Lord G. Cavendish's motion for



. reduction of expenditure, April 25, 1816, Pari. ZJei. xxxii-
tions of the noble lord opposite, it is not the song of vie- ; 1222



18 IC]



HISTORY OF EUROPE.



29



that they rapidly ilocliueil from year to year;
and in the year 1S16, the whole amount raised and
coined in South America was only £2,500,000,
, _ just a quarter of what the amount
ro7ef c"u%ui!' raised in all parts of the globe
t)^ 84, 87 ; had been ten years bcl'ore, and only
Uunibolili's a third of what had been raised

3%"40^^'''"'' ^'"1 '^°'"e'i '" ^o"'^^ America in

' 'â–  1S05.1*

This great diminution in the supply of the
11. precious metals for the use of the

Simultaneous globe was necessarily attended by
aiiU rapid con- .^ (reneral fall of prices over the
traction ol the ,» , , , , '

paper curren- whole world, and was one great
cy ol' Great cause of the poverty and sullisring
liritain. which every where prevailed. But

its effect was most seriously aggravated, in the
particular case of Great Britain, by the simulta-
neous and still more serious contraction in its
paper circulation, and the credit afforded to its
merchants, by the declared intentions of Govern-
ment in regard to the resumption of cash pay-
ments by the Bank of England. By the existing
law under which that establishment acted, it
was provided that the restriction on cash pay-
ments should continue "for six months after the
conclusion of a general peace, and
c *t\^^° "" ^on^-cr." 2 As the time had now