FREE TRADE.

Press, Volume XVIII, Issue 2668, 18 November 1871, Page 3

FREE TRADE.

In an article on the " growth of population in the United Kingdom in the last census period," the Economist makes the following remarks on free trade:—

Another reason for congratulation is the proof afforded of the wisdom of our free trade policy. The benefits of that policy have been cumulative, being more conspicuous in the later period than in the first • and this should have been expected beforehand. the first removal of multiplied checks to industry should have caused the greatest improvement, but absolutely the increase of capital consequent on the firat burst of prosperity prepares the way for a constantly increasing harvest. Other causes have of course co-operated, especially the wonderful growth of steam power and but Freetrade permitted the growth, and we are, at any rate, indebted to Freetrade for one thing which is a known cause of prosperity, and was more felt in XBGI-7L, Freest rade having been more fully in operation, than in the earlier decade. We refer to cheap corn, and the comparative absence of great fluctuations in the price, the two decades contrasting as fqUftwa ;— =•

Average. 54*7 ... 61-1 Thus corn waa on the average 3s 6d a quarter cheaper in the second decade than in the first, while the extremes were muoh Jess —the highest price of 1881-70 being 64s sd, while there were three years in 1851-GO when the averages were 72s sd, 71a Bd, and 69a 2d. Perhaps the first decade wou,ld have been as prosperous as the second but for the Crimean war, which interrupted the course of Free-trade, and caused these high prices. Otherwise the circumstances of 1861-7Q bave not been exceptionally favourable. The cotton famine and the extraordinary panic of 1866 were in themselves as calamitous external incidents a& those of any decade of the pentui-y, but the country has grown in spite of them.

AVEBi AGE B—i [)*• WHEAT. lst year 2nd year 3rd year 4th year 5th year 6th year 7th year 8th year 9th year Qth year 1851-60 1861-70 386 ... 55*4 40-9 ... 55*5 53*3 ... 44-9 72*5 .„ 4(X-3 748 ... 41*10 69'2 ... 4911 56 - 4 ... 64*5 44-2 .. 03-9 43*9 ... 48-2 533 ... 4611