12 Decr 1801

Maximum

Beginning

5

bread. The supposition of a combination among farmers is a supposition altogether

unnecessary to the accounting for the effect, when without any such combination,

a competition among the Dealers is a cause adequate to the production of the

effect in an equal, or any superior degree. When in the case of the South Sea

Scheme an annuity that had been sold at £100 rose in the course of a few months

at £1000, the cause of it was not by a combination among those who actually /the

actual possessors of/ the property, but a competition among those who being

confident that how high a price soever they should give for it, they should

always be able to sell it at a still higher, were continually anxious to possess

more and more of it. When in Holland at the time of the rage of /for/ tulips

/Tulip Rage/ a flower of that kind that would /might/ before that time have been

had for a shilling or two found purchasers at 5 or 10 guineas, it was still not

any combination amongst the growers of these superfluous ornaments /beautifull

trifles/ /rarities/, but the competition, the adventurous wager-laying

competition among the purchasers that was the known and real cause.