University Library.[1] This complaint was simply that the jury was not wholly disinterested and did not take sufficient testimony. That the system itself was not in dispute is shown by the following interesting passage:
"It is evident, that Grain, sooner or later, and, probably, within a short period, will become the only standard, by which land-rents will be paid throughout the kingdom. Money, from its fluctuating character for the last thirty years, has proved a medium mutually unfair, and not less dissatisfactory, to both landlords and tenants. Taught by past experience, no landlord is now willing, without the assurance of an adequate rent, to alienate his property for any considerable length of time; and without lease of acre endurance, no tenant is disposed to embark his capital and skill in the adventure of cultivation. In Grain, as a measure of value, a medium has, at length, been found, which, while it preserves the just rights of the one, secures a return for the honest industry of the other."
Were the system very unsatisfactory it would scarcely have been continued through over two centuries.
It should be further emphasized that, whatever slight danger now exists of abuse of Scotch Fiars prices, would be almost infinitely reduced by the plan here proposed; because, in that plan, we are concerned with great public markets in big cities, with highly standardized grading of goods and standard price quotations instead of with small crude country markets, and because we have to deal with a large number of commodities instead of with only one. It is inconceivable that any sinister influence, in order to help the debtor or creditor, could manipulate a sufficient number of commodities to affect appreciably the index number. Even if some one could "corner" a market and double the price of one commodity this would not raise the general price level one per cent. To accomplish even such a feat is out of the question, while to
- ↑ In the "Report of a Committee of The Commissioners of Supply for Lanarkshire; Appointed to enquire into the procedure by which the Fiars of Grain for that county were struck, for the year 1816; together with some investigation of its principles and some suggestions for its improvement," Edinburgh, 1817. Recorded in Tract 579, Yale University Library.
