76 Of Poor- Laws. Bk. iii. 



taken place in the market, the price of grain 

 would have fallen only in a comparatively incon- 

 siderable degree, the parish allowances could not 

 have been resumed, the increased quantity of 

 paper would still have been wanted, and the price 

 of all commodities might by degrees have been 

 regulated permanently according to the increased 

 circulating medium. 



If instead of giving the temporary assistance of 

 parish allowances, which might be withdrawn on 

 the first fall of price, we had raised universally the 

 M'ages of labour, it is evident, that the obstacles 

 to a diminution of the circulation and to returning 

 cheapness would have been still farther increased ; 

 and the high price of labour would have becomxe 

 permanent, without any advantage whatever to 

 the labourer. 



There is no one that more ardently desires to 

 see a real advance in the price of labour than my- 

 self; but the attempt to effect this object by 

 forcibly raising the nominal price, which was prac- 

 tised to a certain degree, and recommended almost 

 universally during the late scarcities, every think- 

 ing man must reprobate as puerile and ineffec- 

 tual. 



The price of labour, when left to find its natural 

 level, is a most important political barometer, ex- 

 pressing the relation between the supply of pro- 

 visions, and the demand for them; between the 

 quantity to be consumed and the number of con- 

 sumers ; and taken on the average, independently 

 of accidental circumstances, it further expresses 



