Another source of error arises from the circumstance, that when the landlord is present, the gain is concentrated, and theloss diffused; when he is absent, the gain is diffused, and the loss concentrated. When he quits his estate, we can put ourfinger on the village tradesman and labourer who lose his custom and employment. We cannot trace the increase of customand employment that is consequently scattered among millions of manufacturers. When he returns, we see that theexpenditure of 2000 l. or 3000 l. a year in a small circle gives wealth and spirit to its inhabitants. We do not see, howeverclearly we may infer it, that so much the less is expended in Manchester, Birmingham, or Leeds. The inhabitants of hisvillage attribute their gain and their loss to its causes; and their complaints and acknowledgments are loud in proportion tothe degree in which they feel their interests to be affected. No single manufacturer is conscious that the average annualexport of more than forty millions sterling has been increased or diminished to the amount of two or three thousandpounds. And even if aware of that increase or diminution, he would not attribute it to the residence in Yorkshire or Paris ofa given individual, of whose existence he probably is not aware. When to obvious and 'palpable effects nothing is to beopposed but inferences deduced by a long, though perfectly demonstrative reasoning process, no one can doubt which willprevail, both with the uneducated and the educated vulgar.
Many persons, also, are perplexed by the consideration, that all the commodities which are exported as remittances of theabsentee's income are exports for which no return is obtained; that they are as much lost to this country as if they were atribute paid to a: foreign state, or even as if they were thrown periodically into the sea. This is unquestionably true; but itmust be recollected, that whatever is unproductively consumed, is, by the very terms of the proposition, destroyed, withoutproducing any return. The only difference between the two cases is, that the resident landlord performs that destructionhere; the absentee performs it abroad. In either case, he first purchases the services of those Who produce the things whichhe for his benefit, not for theirs, is to consume. If he stays here, lie pays a man to brush a coat, or clean a pair of boots, orarrange a table -- all which in an hour after are in their former condition. When abroad, he pays an equal sum for theproduction of needles, or calicoes, which are sent abroad, and equally consumed without further benefit to those whoproduced them. The income of unproductive consumers, however paid. is a tribute; and whether they enjoy it here orelsewhere, is their own concern. We know that a man cannot eat his cake and have it; and itis equally true that he cannotsell a-cake :to another and keep it for himself.
The last cause to which I attribute the slow progress of correct opinions on this subject, is their distastefulness to the mostinfluential members of the community. Nothing can be more flattering to landlords, annuitants, mortgagees, andfundholders, than to be told that their residence is of vital importance to the country. Nothing can be more humiliating thanto be assured that it is utterly immaterial to the rest of the community whether they live in Brighton, or London, or Paris.
Those who are aware how much our judgment, even in matters of science, is influenced by our wishes, will not besurprised at the .prejudices against a doctrine which forbids the bulk of the educated class to believe that they' arebenefactors to their country. by the mere act of residing within its shores.
I may appear, perhaps, to have dwelt too much on a single subject; but no prevalent error can be effectually exposed untilits prevalence has been accounted for. And these arc errors which are to be heard in every society, and often from thosewhose general views in polltical economy are correct. They may be called harmless errors, but no error is, in fact, harmless;and when there is so much in our habits that really requires alteration, we may lose sight of the real and the remediablecauses of evil, while our attention is misdirected to absenteeism.
