18 



from very deficient produce; on the other hand, 

 it is not the interest of the public to have too 

 low prices, proceeding from over-abundance, 

 which may discourage the farmer, and induce 

 him to retrench his cultivation. Such retrench- 

 ment naturally leads back to scarcity, and a 

 change of this kind, from plenty to scarcity, is 

 a much greater evil than if the produce had 

 never exceeded the lowest point of the vibra- 

 tion. Though it be the interest of the public, 

 therefore, that grain should be cheap, it never 

 can be its interest that grain should be so cheap 

 as to injure the cultivator. Such an over- 

 cheapness may sometimes arise in the course 

 of nature, by the farmer's improvident over- 

 trading, and, in such a case, should be left to 

 remedy itself by natural means. It will, how- 

 ever, scarcely ever amount to an evil, if things 

 be left to their own course, and nothing ob- 

 struct the natural efforts of competition to re- 

 lieve itself. But whenever the cheapness is 

 produced artificially, or by forcible means, it 

 may be pronounced pernicious, as injurious to 

 the public in the long-run, as immediately to 

 the grower. 



Cheapness and deamess,- it is to be observed, 

 are variable terms, importing the relation be- 

 tween the demand and the actual supply. It is 

 therefore impossible to fix them by any de- 



