Joseph Hume quotes

In Great Britain the price of food is at a higher level than in any other country, and consequently, the British artisan labours at a disadvantage in proportion to the higher rate of his food. (Joseph Hume)
Worse there cannot be; a better, I believe, there may be, by giving energy to the capital and skill of the country to produce exports, by increasing which, alone, can we flatter ourselves with the prospect of finding employment for that part of our population now unemployed. View quote
Joseph Hume
The advantage to Great Britain of a regular free trade in corn would, therefore, be more by raising the rest of the world to our standard and price, than by lowering the prices here to the standard of the Continent. View quote
Joseph Hume
Land, in England, is valuable, because we have highly-paid artisans to consume the produce on the spot. View quote
Joseph Hume
Fortunately for England, all her imports are raw materials. View quote
Joseph Hume
Destroy or take away the employment and wages of those artisans - which the corn laws in a great measure do - and you will, ere long, render the land in Great Britain of as little value as it is in other countries. View quote
Joseph Hume
I see no reason for giving the capital employed in agriculture greater protection than the capital vested in other branches of trade, manufacture, or commerce. View quote
Joseph Hume
I am willing to admit that if the agriculturists are oppressed by peculiar burdens, they ought to be relieved from them, or be allowed a fair and just protection equivalent to all such peculiar burdens. View quote
Joseph Hume
I maintain that the existing corn laws are bad, because they have given a monopoly of food to the landed interest over every other class and over every other interest in the kingdom. View quote
Joseph Hume
There is abundant proof that the opening of our ports always tends to raise the price of foreign corn to the price in the English market, and not to sink the price of British corn to the price in the continental market. View quote
Joseph Hume
Now, what produces a want of demand A refusal to take from other countries the commodities which they produce. (Joseph Hume)
What farmers require is, that the prices should be moderate, and the markets steady and for this reason I did, in 1826, 1827, and 1828, take the course which I would now recommend to the House. View quote
Joseph Hume
Our people are unemployed and anxious to work for the food which foreigners can give us. View quote
Joseph Hume
At the present moment the people of England are only three-quarters fed, and the result of this improvement in the export of our manufactures would be, that they would be entirely fed. View quote
Joseph Hume
We ought, therefore, to lessen the price of food to our manufacturers, and place them more on a level with the manufacturers who have cheaper food, and also much lighter taxation. View quote
Joseph Hume
So that a famine price is vague, and the plan subject to all the inconvenience now experienced. View quote
Joseph Hume