109 



custom, a Grower is one thing a Manufacturer 

 another ; but if in a time of failure in cereal crops, 

 a Miller could obtain supplies of wheat, by growing 

 it himself, at home or abroad, and by no other 

 means, I am not prepared to say that, that Miller 

 would be the wisest in his generation, who sat down, 

 in his counting house, and refused to do so, because 

 it was not in accordance with ( sound principles of 

 trade.' 



There are other points as regards the principle por- 

 tion of the subject, which having a material bearing on, 

 questions relating to India, it is important should, 

 not be lost sight of in discussing matters of the kind 

 where India alone is concerned, or where commercial 

 relations between the two Countries are called into 

 existence. In the first instance, it must be recollect- 

 ed that propositions based on principles of Political 

 Economy, are true, only, in so far as the conditions 

 and laws which regulate them are allowed free 

 and unrestricted action. Thus, the entire theory of 

 values and prices, as here alluded to, rests on the 

 assumption of a state of society, in which that 

 healthy competetion which arises from the self 

 interest of all parties concerned, exists. Here 

 the idea has not yet been born. Again, in drawing 

 conclusions in accordance with the laws of this 

 Science, such an amount of knowledge on the part 

 of buyers and sellers, as will admit of both making 

 themselves acquainted with the ordinary circum- 



