date

10 Decr 1801 Maximum 6. Scarcity
10 Decr 1801

Maximum

6. Scarcity Crops

1

6. “It is not enough to say, that the maximum shall be set so high, that

generally speaking, the farmer shall be a gainer” – (Certainly – but quere was

this ever said by any body?) What (continues the Hon. Gentleman) will that man

say to your average[?] whose crop has almost totally failed, and who even at the

very high price of the market may possibly be a loser? Will you make him a

greater loser by arbitrarily reducing the price of his corn?”

Thus far the Hon: Gentleman: for my own part I must confess I see not what true

light can /will/ be thrown on the subject by a dialogue /conversation/ between a

man {placed} /put into/ a case from which nothing can be concluded, and a

supposed simpleton of a legislator – such an one as the man would never meet

with.
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  • Title: [10 Dec r 1801 Maximum 6. Scarcity]
    Description: 10 Dec r 1801

    Maximum

    6. Scarcity Crops

    6

    which the humanity of the Hon. Gentleman appears at one time /on this page/ at least to have leaned.

    As to the word arbitrarily, in the passage where by a figure not of arithmetic but of speech he examines his antagonist upon interrogatories, and asks /asking/ him whether he would make the farmer a loser by arbitrarily reducing the price of his corn, the examinant I should conceive need not be in /at/ any great difficulty /pain/ about the answer. The authority he may say /answer/ is the same in the one case as in the other: it is the same authority you call in a few pages after to reduce the price of the farmers corn by bounties upon importation: you do not suppose it will act arbitrarily when it forces down the price of home grown corn by bounties upon foreign corn: you have no right to suppose it will act arbitrarily when it fixes /if it were to fix/ the price by a prohibition put upon higher prices. Parliament is the tool /being the authority/ you have to work with, you must take it as it is, and in both places make the most of it: you can not have it a good Parliament in one page, and an arbitrary one in another.
  • Title: [10 Decr 1801 Maximum 6. Scarcity]
    Description: 10 Decr 1801

    Maximum

    6. Scarcity Crops

    2

    Here as before, the Hon: Gentleman having wrapped up his argument in an interrogation, at the peril of the charge of misconception and misrepresentation, I find myself obliged to make a proposition for the Hon Gentleman which I do with all imaginable diffidence and reluctance, prepared and resolved to discard it /turn it out of doors/ the very instant he disowns it: protesting most sincerely that if this be not what he means I am altogether unable to conjecture what else it can be

    { In this paragraph a proposition will I think be found eventually included /assumed/ a proposition, which the Hon:ble Gentleman upon further /maturer/ reflection, to the Hon: Gentleman himself will, I am inclined to think appear untenable:} This is – that the price of corn ought at all times to be of such a height, as to afford something not much less than living profit to a farmer whose crop has “almost totally failed”. I could wish the proposition were /had been/more determinate: but had I made it so, I might have been accused /taxed/ not without ground, of misrepresenting it. This, if the Hon.ble Gentleman will take the trouble /have the goodness/ to take pen and ink to it, or even without pen and ink bestow a little thought upon it in the line of calculation is what he will find rather an expensive mode of insurance.
  • Title: [10 Decr 1801 Maximum 6. Scarcity]
    Description: 10 Decr 1801

    Maximum

    6. Scarcity Crops

    3

    It may be rejected /set down/ /noted down/ as no better than an argument ad

    hominem, if I were to call to mind upon this occasion as upon a former, that the

    case of the scarcity-crop farmers which is here regarded as the prevailing one

    which is here assumed /taken up/ as having a claim to be the measure and

    standard of the desirable rate in regard of price is thrown out of the question,

    that the cause of this unfortunate class so decidedly taken up and patronized,

    is in less than six pages after given up and deserted. Of two inconsistent

    propositions the Hon: Gentleman will at all times /any time/ be at liberty to

    adhere to which he pleases, though he can not well adhere to both at the same

    time, he may at any time, on condition of giving up the other /one/ adhere to

    either. On the terms of acknowledging that the measure we have seen him

    announcing with complacency and which on that ground I will venture till

    corrected to call his measure – the measure of encouraging importation for the

    express purpose of keeping down the price – upon the terms I say of giving up

    this /his/ measure of his, he may at any time abide by /adhere to/ this argument

    which is more particularly and exclusively /decidedly/ his own /he may at any

    time make his election/. He may say happen what will to the consumers – I will

    take care of the unfortunate part of the farmers I will bring them whole at any

    rate. The