ABSTRACT

No sooner were the facts faced, so far as they were then understood, than the height of the crisis bad passed. The Bank of England was permi tted to issue one pound and two pound notes, the Mint was .~et to work to coin bullion a.s rapidly as possible, gold WM obtained from abroad in considerable quantities, o.nd by the end of the year, which ho.d begun amid universal content o.nd general jubilation, the despairing people bad decided that they might yet be able to meet their losses and pull through. Notwithstanding the enormous seale of the nndert.akings and commitments in comparison with the population and realised wealth of the Great Bri tain of that day, the bankruptcies after all were not numerous. The actual Joss was not nearly so great as men in their panic had thought. Savings had been swept away to a. large extent, and the bitter cry of the small investor, the subdued wail of the widow and the orphan, was heard in the land But froLU the economical point of view, and as regarded Lhe interests of the mass of the people, the greatest mischief was caused by the glut

of commodities, which Fourier, following the lead of Robert Owen, pointed to as the peculiar feature of this trade crisis in every country affected by it. That glut of commodities was increased by the anxiety of the middle-class and the wealthy to make up by economy for the losses which they had sustained; and men and women were again thrown out of work as before by the fact that their power to produce wealth was being continually enhanced, while they themselves had as little control over the o'vnership or the distribution of the wealth which they produced as they bad over the raw material, machinery, and tools by which through them it was created.