104 PRODUCTION AND CONSUMPTION. 



PRODUCTION AND CONSUMPTION. 



Considerable surprise has been manifested in vari- 

 ous quarters, at the continued high prices of grain and 

 other articles of food ; and much ingenuity has been 

 displayed in tracing the effect of prices to their proba- 

 ble causes. With some the cause is a failure of crops; 

 others will have the high prices originate in monopoly 

 and speculation ; they have been charged upon the 

 banks or the government ; or, in short, therc is scarcely 

 a cause capable, or any effect in producing such a result, 

 which has not been brought forward to account for 

 present prices. While all these have had their weight 

 in producing the effect we witness, we think the most 

 important of the whole — ■- the relation existing between 

 production and consumption — has been comparatively 

 overlooked. 



Agriculture lies at the basis of all interests, the pro- 

 duction-^ of food being of paramount importance : but 

 the relative prosperity of that interest, or rather the 

 price of agricultural productions, is depending on the 

 demand for them among other classes of the commu- 

 nity, such as the mechanic, commercial, or manufactur- 

 ing interests. The price of provisions will usually, 

 therefore, correspond to the relative numbers employed 

 in these grand divisions; the first, or the farmers, being 

 the producers ; the latter, or the several classes enumer- 

 ated, being the consumers. If, in any community, all 

 were producers, it is clear the demand would be only 

 that of the individual producers. If in a community 

 all were manufacturers or mechanics — all consumers 

 and none producers — the result may be easily imagined. 

 If, in this community, the producing class exceeded 

 the others, ])rovisions would be low, as the demand 

 must of course be limited ; if the consuming class pre- 

 ponderated, the price of provisions must rise. Partial 

 failures in the crop, fluctuations in the money market, 



