five hundred millions of real capital; for
which, on a rough average, exclusive of the sinking fund, it engaged to
pay about five per cent. But if corn should fall to fifty shillings a
quarter, and other commodities in proportion, instead of an interest of
about five per cent., the Government would really pay an interest of
seven, eight, nine, and, for the last two hundred millions, ten per
cent.

"To this extraordinary generosity towards the stockholders, I should be
disposed to make no kind of objection, if it were not necessary to
consider by whom it is to be paid; and a moment's reflection will shew
us, that it can only be paid by the industrious classes of society, and
the landlords, that is, by all those whose nominal income will vary with
the variations in the measure of value. The nominal revenues of this
part of the society, compared with the average of the last five years,
will be diminished one half, and out of this nominally reduced income,
they will have to pay the same nominal amount of taxes."[62]

In the first place, I think, I have already shewn, that the nominal
income of the whole country will not be diminished in the proportion
for which Mr. Malthus here contends; it would not follow, that because
corn fell fifty per cent., each man's income would be reduced fifty per
cent. in value.[63]

In the second place, I think the reader will agree with me, that the
increased charge, if admitted, would not fall exclusively "on the
landlords and the industrious classes of society:" the stockholder, by
his expenditure, contributes his share to the support of the public
burdens in the same way as the other classes of society. If then money
became really more valuable, although he would receive a greater value,
he would also pay a greater value in taxes, and, therefore, it cannot be
true that the whole addition to the real value of the interest would be
paid by "the landlords and the industrious classes."

The whole argument, however, of Mr. Malthus, is built on an infirm
basis: it supposes, because the gross income of the country is
diminished, that, therefore, the net income must also be diminished, in
the same proportion. It has been one of the objects of this work to
shew, that with every fall in the real value of necessaries, the wages
of labour would fall, and that the profits of stock would rise--in other
words, that of any given annual value a less portion would be paid to
the labouring class, and a l