1831 .] 
in Manufactures . 
195 
employed by 1000 capitalists aiming at the same object, the same motives must in- 
fluence alike, the one or the thousand : if, under the existing circumstances of the 
society, there can be a demand for only a certain number of articles at any particular 
price, which I believe to be satisfactorily shown, and if a falling below, or increase 
beyond this quantity, brings impoverishment on those engaged in their production ; 
it follows, inevitably, that monopolists and free traders have the same interest 
exactly, in supplying markets. 
It is not, therefore, owing entirely, as has been generally supposed, to the influ- 
ence of competition in trade, that prices fall : this event would take place, it 
appears, although perhaps more slowly, if competition were not known ; and it is 
not the case, as we have been frequently assured, that when the lowest permanent, 
or as it is termed, the necessary price, is obtained, the manufacturers are in worse 
circumstances than when prices are higher. And we find, further, that the word 
monopoly has been, in a great measure, a bugbear ; for believing in its influence, to 
the extent generally done, is believing that men prefer great prices to great gains ; 
which it is impossible they ever should have done. One chest of tea, and one chest 
only in the English market, would sell for a higher price than if thousands of simi- 
lar chests were to be met with. If obtaining high price alone were a monopolisms 
object, why should more than one chest be imported annually by the East India 
Company ? and if obtaining high price be not the object of monopolists, what then, 
I ask, is their object ? The answer must be, the largest aggregate gain. It is very 
true, that a limited number of individuals in a distant quarter perhaps, cannot bring 
products to market at so cheap a rate, as separate individuals, eagerly endeavouring, 
on the spot, to lower the cost of their wares ; and that an exclusive management may 
be incapable of so conducting trade, in all its details, as to meet the whole contingent 
demand which might, but from this incapacity, spring into existence. Tire removal 
then of monopoly and restrictions, might tend materially to national enrichment ; 
not however by inspiring with another principle of action, those who supply the 
market ; but by tending to a reduction in the cost of production ; to a consequent 
diminution of price, arid to an extension of demand and consumption ; by which 
not only greater gains would be made by the trading class, but a greater enjoyment 
insured to the greater number of individuals, within whose reach the product is 
brought, in consequence of a fall of price. 
With every fall in the price of any article in actual demand in society, the 
society is inevitably enriched, and this not virtually but in reality ; for all con- 
sumers of cheapened articles, besides being able to supply themselves as formerly, 
must now be possessed of a disposable fund equal to the difference between the 
present and the former price ; and as all inevitably expend their whole income, 
either productively or unproductively, (mere hoarding being out of the question,) 
there must, after such an occurrence, be called into existence a new and effective 
demand for some other wares, if not for a larger quantity; or better description of 
those wares which have been cheapened ; man’s desire for wrought wares is, we 
know, limited only by the want of means to procure them : — lowering the price of 
wares is an increase of these means ; for the revenue of the society consists, origi- 
nally, of the products periodically given off by the influence of the living principle in 
food ; and subsequently of these, together with the wrought pi'oducts of labour and 
capital, which are, to the ultimate po ssessors, much more desirable than the food 
offered by them in exchange. If then the command of these more desirable pi oducts 
be increased, the real wealth of the society has been increased. Let us keep in mind 
that important reproduct ive power in which the income of society has its origin, 
and the probable readiness with which individuals will deprive themselves of a 
