date

12 Dec. 1801 Maximum Beginning
12 Dec. 1801

Maximum

Beginning

Terms[?]

3

say that neither of those […?] /conceptions/ /allusions/ will serve to convey a

just conception of the principles on which the arguments of /in/ that book are

grounded. Neither on that or any other occasion have I ever given or shall I

ever give, serpents for fish, sentiment or metaphor for argument. I have not, I

never had nor ever shall have any sentimental horror /any horror, sentimental or

anarchical/ of the hand of government. I leave it to Adam Smith and the

champions of the rights of man (for confusion of ideas will jumble together the

best subjects and the worst citizens upon the same ground) to talk of invasions

of natural liberty and to give as a special argument against this or that law,

an argument the effect of which would be to put a negative on /upon/ all laws.

Of The interference of government, as often as in my humble view of the matter

any the smallest ballance on the side of advantage is the result /is an event I

witness/, with altogether as much satisfaction as I should its forbearance, and

with much more than I should its negligence. Neither in that book nor in any

other book of mine will any expression be found in /by/ which any such

association is attempted to be made between the idea of money and that of a

level between rates of interest and levels. The particles of a mass of fluid,

the particles of a mass of water have a propensity when left to themselves to

range themselves upon the same level: human creatures have on their part a

propensity to save their own lives: and when water in the search after a level

is making its way too fast into a ship, pumps are employed by men to

prevent
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  • Title: [12 Dec.r 1801 Maximum Beginning]
    Description: 12 Dec.r 1801

    Maximum

    Beginning

    Terms[?]

    4

    prevail on it to get the better of that propensity, and look out for /betake

    itself to/ a higher level, and this may serve as an argument in favour /support/

    of maximum to any gentleman who finds himself disposed /feels in himself a

    propensity/ to consider it as such.

    [marginal note:] I choose rather to remain unread than feed readers with such

    arguments.
  • Title: [12 Decr 1801 Maximum Beginning]
    Description: 12 Decr 1801

    Maximum

    Beginning

    Terms[?]

    2

    On what precise ground I had happened to be numbered among the condemners of a

    measure I had never presumed so much as to glance /glanced/ at is a question I

    can answer no otherwise than by conjecture. I had brought to view an /the/

    interference of the legislator in a case in which for the reason given,

    according to my humble conception of the matter that interference might have as

    well been spared: or I had talked about levels, and about things finding their

    own level observing that level was a very proper thing to find, and that money,

    if left to itself, would stand a good chance of finding it. What helps to

    incline me to this conjecture is – that gentlemen when they have done me the

    honour to join with me as they supposed /it seemed to them/ in opinion on this

    subject /ground/, would /have/ sometimes whether for shortness or for ornament

    refer /referred in this way/ to a law in hydrostatics as the ground for it.

    Money according to in my opinion, I mean according to their edition of it – was

    a sort of thing that would find its own level or that ought to be left to find.

    Between what does naturally take place and what ought to take place, there is

    indeed some difference: but it is a difference which moralists are apt enough to

    overlook which they constantly overlook as often as they talk of the law of

    nature, and which it is quite as easy for them to overlook, if instead of

    sufferings and enjoyments, they betake themselves to measuring of levels. In the

    play of convivial conversation I have never had the inurbanity to requite a

    complement with a criticism: but on a serious occasion, speaking with that

    sincerity and recollection that becomes a man who is addressing himself to the

    public and to save a well intended and as I flattered myself a harmless

    publication from being a cause of mischief and mistake, I must needs

    say
  • Title: [[tear in page] Decr 1801 Maximum]
    Description: [tear in page] Decr 1801

    Maximum

    Beginning

    Defence of a Maximum

    In introducing these pages to the notice of the Reader the first thing to be

    done is to shut the door against any such misconceptions as might be apt to

    arise out of the title page.

    In speaking of a Maximum as a defensible measure all I mean to contend for is –

    that a price might be found – which though {with or without variation grounded

    in local circumstances} inferior in no small degree to the highest prices that

    have been known to be given and demanded and given in some instances – might be

    fixed upon /marked out/ as the highest that should be suffered to be taken, by a

    fixation which would be productive of some relief without any such

    disadvantageous effects as would overbalance the advantage.

    In the eventual recommendation thus given in favour of a maximum measure of this

    kind I do not mean it as a means of ensuring an habitual middling price, much

    less habitual cheapness. It will not create land: it will not annihilate money:

    it will neither create nor unfetter land, nor unfetter it.