Ch. V. Of Poor-Laws. 67 



provisions, there would be less food remaining to 

 divide among the rest ; and consequently each 

 man's patent would be diminished in value, or the 

 same number of pieces of silver would purchase a 

 smaller quantity of subsistence, and the price of 

 provisions would universally rise. 



These general reasonings have been strikingly 

 confirmed during the late scarcities.* The sup- 

 position which I have made of a collection from 

 the rich of eighteen shillings in the pound has been 

 nearly realized ; and the effect has been such as 

 might have been expected. If the same distribu- 

 tion had been made when no scarcity existed, a 

 considerable advance in the price of provisions 

 would have been a necessary consequence ; but 

 following as it did a scarcity, its effect must have 

 been doubly powerful. No person, I believe, will 

 venture to doubt, that if we were to give three 

 additional shillings a day to every labouring man 

 in the kingdom, as I before supposed, in order 

 that he might have meat for his dinner, the price 

 of meat would rise in the most rapid and unex- 

 ampled manner. But surely, in a deficiency of 

 corn, which renders it impossible for every man 

 to have his usual share, if we still continue to fur- 

 nish each person with the means of purchasing 

 the same quantity as before, the effect must be 

 in every respect similar. 



It seems in great measure to have escaped ob- 



• The scarcities referred to in this chapter were those of 1800 

 and 1801. 



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