Econlib

The Library

Other Sites

Front Page arrow Titles (by Subject) arrow 501.: ricardo to trower1 - The Works and Correspondence of David Ricardo, Vol. 9 Letters 1821-1823

Return to Title Page for The Works and Correspondence of David Ricardo, Vol. 9 Letters 1821-1823

501.: ricardo to trower1 - David Ricardo, The Works and Correspondence of David Ricardo, Vol. 9 Letters 1821-1823 [1821]

Edition used:

The Works and Correspondence of David Ricardo, ed. Piero Sraffa with the Collaboration of M.H. Dobb (Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, 2005). Vol. 9 Letters 1821-1823.

Part of: The Works and Correspondence of David Ricardo, 11 vols (Sraffa ed.)

About Liberty Fund:

Liberty Fund, Inc. is a private, educational foundation established to encourage the study of the ideal of a society of free and responsible individuals.


501.

ricardo to trower1

My Dear Trower

I am told that nothing has been laid before the H of Commons in the present Session, respecting the Poor Rates. There is a committee sitting on Poor Rates Returns, but they have not yet made their Report.

Mr. Mill is acquainted with the Editor of the Chronicle2 —I have given your letter to him with a view to get it inserted in the above paper; he will speak to the Editor on the subject, but he has doubts whether so long a letter can be inserted, at the present time, when the Parliamentary proceedings engross so large a portion of the paper.3 —I have read your letter, and agree with the greatest part of it. I am much flattered by the approbation you express of my plan of bullion payments. You estimate the coin in circulation previous to 1797 higher than I think it really was. The whole amount of circulation, at the present moment, both in London and the country, does not probably much exceed 32 millions, of which there are nearly 16 millions of Bank of England notes of 5 pounds and above, 7,500,000 of sovereigns, and nine millions of country Bank notes. If this be true there has been little or no falling off in the amount of Bank of England notes and coin together since 1819, but country Bank notes have diminished to the amount of 7,500,000£, and if we could get returns it would I think be found to be confined chiefly to the Agricultural districts;—it is nevertheless a great reduction.

If paper money displaced 20 millions of notes the whole profit from the interest of 20 millions was not enjoyed by the Bank of England, the country Banks participated in the advantage.—By a return laid before the H of Commons more than 19 millions of sovereigns have been coined since 1817. During the period that the Bank so foolishly issued coin, when it was advantageous to export it, they got rid of 5 millions of sovereigns,1 so that if these were all exported more than 14 millions of sovereigns must now be in the country. Besides this quantity of gold it is probable the Bank may have a tolerable supply of bullion, and perhaps also some guineas. How badly has this business been managed! We might safely, even with payments in coin, dispense with 3 millions of gold since we are to maintain the 1 and 2 £ circulation in the country.—

On tuesday, Mr. Western brings forward his motion respecting Mr. Peel’s bill, I am very much interested in that discussion.2

Mrs. Ricardo unites with me in begging our kind remembrances to Mrs. Trower.

Yrs. very truly

David Ricardo

If your letter is inserted I will send you the paper.—

[1 ]MS at University College, London.—Letters to Trower, LVIII.

[2 ]John Black, editor and manager of the Morning Chronicle since the death of James Perry in 1821; ‘a particular friend of my father,’ says J. S. Mill, ‘imbued with many of his and Bentham’s ideas, which he reproduced in his articles....Black was one of themost influential of the many channels through which my father’s conversation and personal influence made his opinions tell on the world’ (Autobiography, pp. 89–90).

[3 ]Trower’s letter was not published.

[1 ]In the months of April and September 1817. (See Tooke’s History of Prices, vol. ii, p. 51.)

[2 ]See above, V, 198.