med demand was lessened, the silk manufacturers were unable to
obtain any relief by extending their trade in the great neutral markets
of the world, being excluded by price, and the whole surplus quantity
remained a dead weight on this market only; whereas other branches of
manufactures, practically enjoying no protection, in the case of
depressed trade at home, had an opportunity of immediate relief, by
spreading the surplus thereby created, at a very trifling sacrifice,
over the wide markets which they supplied.

In this way the extent and duration of the vicissitudes and depressions
in the silk trade were without parallel in any other; but since 1824,
since this trade has been placed in a natural position by the removal of
monopoly, the whole aspect of it has changed, and these peculiar evils
have all disappeared.

Then again with regard to the products of land, which the law attempts
to protect more highly than any other. Here again, though the price to
the community is maintained much above the prices of other countries, no
one person connected with raising the produce can command a higher rate
of profit, or higher wages for labour, than other trades having no
protection whatever; for if they did, competition would soon reduce them
to the same level; but, on the contrary, the wages, of agricultural
labourers, and the profits of farmers, are always rather below than
above the common rate, and simply from this fact, that the children of
farm labourers, and of farmers, who first naturally look to the pursuits
of their parents for a trade or occupation, increase in numbers without
any corresponding extension of the means of employment, and the
competition among them is therefore always greater than in other trades
which have the power of extension; and the vicissitudes to which the
farmer is exposed are notoriously greater than any other trade. His rent
and expenses throughout are fixed by an artificial price of produce,
which price can only be maintained as long as a certain scarcity exists;
but the moment the markets are plentifully supplied, either from a want
of demand owing to a depression of trade, or from the result of a good
harvest, he finds that plenty takes out of his hand all control of
price, which quickly sinks to the natural rate.

With a free trade the farmer would never be exposed to such reverses. In
that state, if the demand and price increased, it would be checked by an
increase of imports from ot