6938. PRICE OF WHEAT.—
The average
price of wheat on the continent of Europe,
at the commencement of its present war with
England, was about a French crown, of one
hundred and ten cents, the bushel. With us it
was one hundred cents, and consequently we
could send it there in competition with their
own. That ordinary price has now doubled
with us, and more than doubled in England;
and although a part of this augmentation May
proceed from the war demand, yet from the extraordinary
nominal rise in the prices of land
and labor here, both of which have nearly
doubled in that period, and are still rising with
every new bank, it is evident that were a general
peace to take place to-morrow, and time
allowed for the reestablishment of commerce,
justice and order, we could not raise wheat for
much less than two dollars, while the continent
of Europe, having no paper circulation, and that
of its specie not being augmented, would raise
it at their former price of one hundred and ten
cents. It follows, then, that with our redundancy
of paper, we cannot, after peace, send a
bushel of wheat to Europe, unless extraordinary
circumstances double its price in particular
places, and that then the exporting countries
of Europe could undersell us.—
To J. W. Eppes. Washington ed. vi, 242.
Ford ed., ix, 414.
(M.
Nov. 1813)
