date

9 Decr 1801 Maximum 1
9 Decr 1801

Maximum

1

It has been observed – and with great appearance of truth that the interest of

the Vendor {and Grower} of corn is always the same as that of the public in all

conjunctures /at all times/.

It certainly is so at a time of moderate plenty: it may be so at the time of a

slight degree of scarcity. It as certainly is not /But It seems by no means

equally clear that it is/ so in a time of extraordinary scarcity. In a time of

extraordinary scarcity it is the interest of the public that the price should

rise to {the degree sufficient to produce the utmost degree of economy

consistent with the preservation of the lives and healths of the inhabitants of

the inhabitants. /such a degree of economy as shall if possible be sufficient to

keep the supply from being exhausted in any superior degree before the time when

the first crop assisted by such intermediate supplies as shall have been

obtained from abroad shall have come to its relief./ That the price should rise

thus high is also the interest of the grower and vendor of the articles of

subsistence. But at that point the union of interests stops /interests

separate/. It is not the interest of the public /consumer/ that the price should

rise a single step beyond this mark. It is the interest of the grower and dealer

that it should keep on rising above this mark as high as possible.

In the case of a moderate stock what makes it the interest of the Grower and the

vendor that the price should not rise beyond /above/ a certain mark is that if

it were to rise above the mark the diminution might be so great that by the

commencement of the next harvest they might find a
Similar Items
  • Title: [9 Decr 1801 Maximum 2]
    Description: 9 Decr 1801

    Maximum

    2

    a quantity of the old stock upon their hands, But /though/ even in this case it

    would not be the interest to let the commodity go out of their hands at a lower

    price and consequently at a quicker rate, unless in consequence of the final

    glut produced by the intervening diminution of /in the/ consumption the ultimate

    fall of price were to become so great as to do more than take back again from

    them the intermediate profit derived from the intermediate artificial

    scarcity.

    But in the case of an extraordinary scarcity – a decided and known deficiency

    this check no longer holds: the whole or a part scarce distinguishable from the

    whole is necessary to keep the inhabitants alive: the whole must therefore be

    bought at whatever price. By the poor themselves it could not have been bought

    at a price anything near so high as that at which we have seen it bought: but by

    the poor assisted by the rich it might be bought and has been bought at that

    price and might have been bought at a price still greater /higher/: how much

    higher it is /seems/ difficult to say. The quantity of money in the country

    might in former times when money was gold and silver and the quantity of it

    unlimited, have set a limit to this encrease – but now that money is paper – and

    the quantity of paper without limit, the limits of the quantity capable of being

    raised for the purchase of necessaries in the several hands through which they

    have to pass are at any rate very ill defined.
  • Title: [12 Decr 1801 Maximum Beginning]
    Description: 12 Decr 1801

    Maximum

    Beginning

    3

    I do not believe in the existence of combination in any instance. I do not mean /not/ that were evidence to present itself, I should be at all disinclined to believe /listen to/ it: but as from the nature of the case it is that sort of fact which I should not expect to see exist, it is of course that sort of fact which I should not expect to see made out by evidence.

    The very enormity of the heighth to which we have seen the prices rise is to /in/ my view of the matter an argument against the improbability of any such combination. On the supposition of a combination, I find it difficult to conceive how it should have ever fallen so much even to the too high mark to which we have seen it fall, or how it should ever have risen so high as we have seen it rise. {Remorse, fear of popular censure and legal punishment out of the question, personal prudence must I think have been sufficient to prevent any individual farmer or dealer from proposing at the beginning of the season any such price as the £8 or £9 a quarter we have seen it rise to. Consistently with personal prudence a man could not at the commencement of the scarcity – when wheat was at 50s or 60s a quarter enter into /build upon/ engagements calculated upon any such price as 170 or 180.}

    [marginal note:] Distinguish between the Farmer & the Dealer
  • Title: [20 Decr 1801 Maximum Ulteriora]
    Description: 20 Decr 1801

    Maximum

    Ulteriora

    Bounty &c […?]

    Magazines

    1

    11

    I have heard of a plan for ordering /an intention so to order/ matters that /an

    arrangement by which/ the price of wheat shall be made or at least permitted to

    rise as high as 10s a bushel, I suppose by restraint on importation till it has

    arrived at that mark: and I have heard that price admitted to be sufficient,

    though not more than sufficient, but the means insufficient, unless a bounty on

    export be of the number.

    If what is above observed respecting the want of land be just, that or any still

    higher price with or without the /a/ bounty will be inadequate, and if a bounty

    be given, the amount of it will be so much thrown away. The quantity of

    cultivated land not being augmented, or at least not being augmented in

    proportion to the existing deficiency of corn /agricultural produce/, added to

    the growing superflux of population, whatever quantity is added to corn will be

    so much taken from other produce. As to the bounty so much as it amounts

    /amounted/ to , by so much would the scarcity and price of the aggregate of all

    agricultural produce taken together be enhanced. So much more corn as was

    produced in consequence so much less of other agricultural produce would be

    producible by the same land: and of the extra quantity of corn produced, a part

    at least is proposed to be and by the supposition must be, exported /sent/ out

    of the country. What part and what proportion it may bear to the whole

    extra