I shall remark at the same time,that although the evil is great it may still seem greater than it is.The commodities which superabound in the markets of the universe,may strike the eye by their mass,and alarm commerce by the depredation of their price,and still be only a very small part of the commodities made and consumed of each kind.There is no warehouse that would not be very soon emptied,if every kind of production of the commodity contained in it was simultaneously to cease in all parts of the world.
It has been further remarked,that if the quantity sent in the slightest degree exceeds the want,it is sufficient to alter the price considerably.
It was a remark of Addison ,in his Spectator,(No.200,)that when the wheat harvest exceeds by one-tenth the ordinary consumption,wheat falls one half in price.Dalrymple (35)makes an analogous observation.We must therefore not bc astonished,that a slight excess is often taken for an excessive abundance.
This superabundance,as I have already remarked,depends also upon the ignorance of producers or merchants,of the nature and extent of the want in the places to which they sent their commodities.In later years there have been a number of hazardous speculations,on account of the many fresh connexions with different nations.There was every where a general failure of that calculation which was requisite to a good result;but because many things have been ill done does it follow that it is impossible,with better instruction,to do better?I dare predict,that as the new connexions grow old,and as reciprocal wants are better appreciated,the excess of commodities will every where cease;and that a mutual and profitable intercourse will be established.But in the mean time it will.be proper gradually,and as much as the circumstances of each State will permit,to diminish the general and permanent inconveniences which arise from too expensive a production.
We must fully convince ourselves that every one will sell his productions more easily,in proportion as others gain;that there is only one way of getting,which is either by our labor or by the labor of the capital and land we possess;that unproductive consumers are only substitutes for productive consumers;that 'the more producers there are the more consumers there are;that for the same reason,each nation is interested in the prosperity of the rest,and that they are altogether interested in having easy communications;for every difficulty is equivalent to an increase of expence.
Such is the doctrine established in my works,and which I confess to you,Sir,does not hitherto appear to me to have been shaken.I have taken up the pen in defence of it,not because it is mine,(What is the sorry self-love of an author in comparison with things of so great importance?)but because it is to a high degree social,that it shows to mankind the source of real wealth,and warns them of the danger of corrupting that source.
The rest of this doctrine is not less useful,in as much as it shows us that capital and land are not productive,unless they become property sacred to the proprietors.That even the poor themselves are interested in defending the property of the rich,and consequently in the maintenance of good order;because a subversion,which never could do more than give them a fleeting prey,would take away from him a constant income.When Political Economy is studied as it ought to be;when we once begin to perceive in the course of this study,that the most wholesome truths rest upon the most certain principles,we have nothing so much at heart as to place these principles within the reach of every comprehension.Do not let us increase their natural difficulties by useless abstractions;do not let us repeat the ridiculous performances of the economists of the 18th century,by endless discussions on the net produce of the earth.Let us describe the mode in which things take place,and explain the chain which connects them.Then our writings will acquire a great practical utility,and the public will be really indebted to those writers who,like yourself,Sir,have so great means of giving them information.
