Ever yours,
David Ricardo.
XXXV.
Gatcomb Park, 10th Sept., 1815.
My dear Sir,
Nothing could be more unlucky than our missing each other as we did this year. I should think there would be no obstacle to our leaving town a little earlier next year, when I hope we shall at length have the pleasure of seeing Mrs. Malthus and you at Gatcomb.
It is the general remark in our part of the country that a finer season was never remembered. The rain, of which we have certainly had a deficiency, has generally come at night, and the days which have followed have been beautiful. The temptation to enjoy it has been so great that I have been incessantly out with some one or other of my friends who have been staying with me, either riding or walking, which makes such inroads on my time that I find I have much less leisure here for reading and study than I have in London. Before I came here I often saw Mr. Grenfell[108], who is very warm on the subject of the Bank and the advantageous bargains which it has always made with government, as well for the management of the national debt, the composition which it has hitherto paid for stamps, as for the compensation which government has received in the way of loan for enormous average deposits left with the Bank. I am quite of his opinion, and indeed I go much further; I think the Bank an unnecessary establishment, getting rich by those profits which fairly belong to the public. I cannot help considering the issuing of paper money as a privilege which belongs exclusively to the State; I regard it as a sort of seignorage, and I am convinced, if the principles of currency were rightly understood, that commissioners might be appointed, independent of all ministerial control, who should be the sole issuers of paper money,—by which I think a profit of from two to three millions might be secured to the public, at the same time that we should be protected from the abuses of the country banks, who are the cause of much mischief all over the kingdom. These commissioners should also have the management of the public debt, and should act as bankers to all the different public departments. They might invest the eleven millions which is the average of public deposits in Exchequer Bills, a part of which might be sold whenever occasion required. This of course (at least all of it) could not be effected till the expiration of the Bank Charter in 1833; but it is never too soon to give due consideration to important principles, which might be recognized, though not yet acted on. In looking over the papers which have from time to time been laid before Parliament, I think it might clearly be proved that the profits of the bank have been enormous. I should think they must have a hoard nearly equal to their capital. By their charter they are bound to make an annual division of their profits and to lay a statement of their accounts before the proprietors; but they appear to set all law at defiance. I always enjoy any attack upon the Bank, and [if I] had sufficient courage I would be a party to it.
Though I have been thinking on this subject lately, I am not less interested about our old subject, of the advantages or disadvantages of high prices for raw produce. If I agreed with Mr. Torrens that such high prices were accompanied with a rise in the prices of commodities, and, if I thought that such rise would not preclude the usual exchanges with foreign countries, I should of course agree with you that with such general high prices we should command a greater quantity of foreign commodities in exchange for a given quantity of ours; but I cannot admit in the first place that commodities would rise because corn rose[109]; and, secondly, if they did so rise there are but very few which we could sell in equal quantity at the advanced price to foreigners; and, if we sold less to them, we could buy less of them, and thus would our general commerce suffer. I can see great advantages attending low general prices but none in high prices. On this subject we are not likely to agree. I hope you are diligently employed and that early in the year we shall see something new from your pen. I have some curiosity to see a pamphlet just advertised[110], in the title page of which your name is mentioned.
Ever yours,
David Ricardo.
... Have you seen Monsieur Say's [Catec]hisme d'Economie Politique? He has softened but not [expung]ed the objectionable definitions.
Note.—Correspondence between Ricardo and J. B. Say is given in the 'Œuvres Diverses' of the latter, published after his death (Guillaumin, 1848), with notes by Ch. Comte, Daire, and Horace Say. J. B. Say (born 1767) was the son of a Lyons merchant, of Huguenot origin. When a boy, he was sent with his brother Horace to learn business in London, where he was struck, amongst other things, by the fact that his Croydon landlord built up one of the two windows of his lodgings to escape window tax. Having gained familiarity with the English language and English ways he returned to France in 1789 and entered the employment of a Life Insurance Company, the manager of which (Clavière) lent him a copy of the 'Wealth of Nations,' not yet translated into French. The reading of it made him an economist for life, as it did for Ricardo ten years later. After serving in the revolutionary army in 1792, he left commerce for journalism. His chief book, Le Traité de l'Economie Politique, appeared in 1803. Too independent to please Napoleon, he was forced to quit his new profession for his old; and his commercial travelling landed him eventually at Geneva, where he made the acquaintance of Necker, Madame de Stael, and Benjamin Constant. He came back to France (to Auchy, Pas de Calais) to spin cotton, retiring with a moderate fortune in 1813. After the Peace he was sent by Government to report on the economical condition of England. He was cordially received by Ricardo, Bentham, and other economists; and on his return to Paris narrated with pride to his audiences at the Conservatoire des Arts et Metiers that the Glasgow professors had made him sit in the chair of Adam Smith. After an active life of teaching and writing, he died in Paris, 15th November, 1832.