28 
of provifions has for fome time been higher 
than was requifite, to indemnify the pro- 
ducers for their expences, and afford 
them a fair and cuftomary profit. I think 
likewle, that it will admit of little dif- 
pute, that the commerce in thofe articles, 
particularly in corn, has within a few 
years undergone a material change. Corn- 
dealers have fpread themfelves over the 
country ; factors in the metropolis have, 
Timagine, univerfally, become dealers, 
and large capitals have been invefted in 
the trade, which has been conduéted very 
much upon a principle of {peculation. 
Thefe faés muft excite a fufpicion that 
the trade may have occafioned an undue 
advance in the price of thofe commodities ; 
but to warrant that conclufion, more di- 
reét proofs are certainly required. ; 
If the quantity of wheat confumed-in 
_London be upon an average 10,000 quar- 
ters per week, and the price fhould be 4l. 
per quarter, a capital of half a million 
could fwallow up nearly three months’ fup- 
ply. At this period half a million is not 
an enormous fum, and a large real capital 
would carry along with it a credit, proba- 
bly to at leaft an equalamount. From 
this ftatement apparently we muft infer, 
that large capitalifts will have a confidera- 
ble power over the corn-market. Yet, 
undoubtedly it could only in a feafon of 
great fcarcity be the object of dealers to 
withhold the articles /oug from the public, 
becaufe a period would at length arrive, 
when the market muft be glutted, and a 
lofs confequently incurred, But it feems 
that policy would lead them to purchafe 
of the growers or their agents the whole, 
or the greater part, of the quantity offered’ 
for fale, and thus to compel the millers to 
‘buy of them certainly at an advanced 
price; to fell much or little as their inte- 
ret might prompt them; and, to employ 
manceuvres to fecond their purpofes. 
When the trade in any article is brifk, its 
price naturally advances, or is kept up; 
and an increafed number of dealers makes 
fuch a trade as that in corn brifk, as no 
one attempts to underfell another; and, 
if the quantity to be fold fhould, at any 
time, be unufually great, the buyers will 
probably be likewife fuficiently numerous, 
When an article pafies through the hands 
of feveral perfons between the producer 
and the confumer, it is to be prefumed 
that each of thofe perfons, though per- 
formingno manufacturing operations upon 
the article, will Gerive a profit from it. 
Tf it had not been fo transferred, and the 
confumer had no previous demand for it, 
then it muft have remained, we will fup- 
Caufes of the Dearnefs of Provifions. 
[Feb t, 
‘pofe, in the hands of one perfon, who 
would have been paid for his time and the 
ufe of his capital. It is indeed not only 
advantageous to the public, but it is in 
every-point of view highly expedient, that 
when the farmers bring a greater quan-. 
tity of corn to market than is wanted for 
immediate confumption,fome perfons fhould 
advance to the farmers a fair price for 
theic commodity, and hold it till there is 
a demand for it from the confumers. 
But the number of perfons engaged in 
this bufinefs, or the extent of their capital, 
may be larger. than is required for that 
purpofe ; and then the price of the com- 
modity muft experience an undue advance. 
Befides, it needs the logic derived from 
faéts to convince me that ten or twelve 
perfons, through whofe hands an article 
paffes, will exaét no more as the aggregate 
of their profits, than would have been 
exaéted by one perfon who might have 
held the article during the fame period of 
time. Surely no perion of refleétion will 
contend that this can be the cafe: neither 
can it be fairly fuppofed that the ten or 
twelve perfons would take more care of 
the article than one perfon might take, 
If they aggregately fpend more time and 
labour upon it, that expence is entirely 
fuperfluous, and the public ought not ta 
be burthened with it. If no one had ca- 
pital fufficient to hold the whole quantity 
in his own hands, ftili they fhould not 
have purchafcd from each other, but from 
the producer or his agent; and then, as 
all would purchafe at the fame price as 
the firft or fingle dealer, the confumers 
would be fupplied at a fair rate. 
Your correfpondent confiders that the 
time confumed by the farmer in going to 
market, is invariably of more value to the 
community than the time of a dealer who 
fhould purchafe the corn at his houfe. It 
might be fo if farmers in general, when. 
at hoine, were accuftomed to make the 
moft of al/ their time. But this fact is 
very dubious. It is ftill more doubtful, 
in my opinion, that the farmers themfelves 
atually affix any value to the time they 
employ in going to market, or that they 
demand a higher price for their produce 
at the market, than they would have de- 
manded of perfons who fhould call upon 
them as purchafers. None but the very 
inferior clafs of farmers perform much 
manual labour; and others do not pradéfi- 
cally confider that every moment of their 
time ts required for fuperintending the 
operations going on in their barn or their 
fields. 
I have not the means of afcertaining, 
but 
