1802.) 
and whether the poffeffors are willing to 
part with them ;—the price of thofe of 
god and filver is two or three/ times. their 
weight, Foyt tt 
Brundufium—Two of the inhabitants 
poflefs fome medals—the fame requelt-— 
the fame queftions—the fame price—the 
fame offer for the duplicates, if you can- 
not obtain any others. ; 
For the Monthly Magazine. 
DEFENCE Of FORESFALLING, &c. 
[ Continued from page 205. } 
“> EFORE I proceed to examples, I 
fhall lay down three other maxims 
relating to the commerce in provilions, 
and add fome previous and explanatory 
reafoning. Thefe maxims, and thofe 
which you have inferted in your Magazine 
for September, will be opened by the fame 
reafoning, and confirmed by the fame ex- 
amples. | 
1. No monopoly of any article of ge- 
neral ufe can be made! but by the whole 
ftrength of the community; that is, by 
the intetference of Government. 
2. When undue quantities of any ar- 
ticle of general ufe are kept back, the cer- 
tain confequence to the publicis, a lower 
average price, and to the hoarder lofs*. 
3. The average price of every thing is 
fet, not by the feller, but always by the 
wants of the buyer, conjointly with the 
quantum of produce. The wants of the 
buyer regulate confumption ; and the ba- 
lance between confumption and produce is 
rice, 
The man who travels about the coun- 
try, and buys of the farmers poultry to 
carry to market, is called a hicler, and, 
it is agreed, does noharm. But, if the 
fame man meets the lame farmers on their 
way to market, and thez buys their poul- 
try, he is called a foreftaller, and punifh- 
ed for preventing the farmers trom going 
the whole way. If he is to be punithed 
at all, it thould be for not being more 
alert, and for fuffering them to go fo far, 
‘The good that he has done is but a part 
of the good that he might havedone. He 
has faved but a part of the time of the 
farmers, when he might have faved 
the whole. The evil that he is ac- 
*By undue I mean a greater quantity than 
would be kept back, if equal quantities were 
brought forward throughout the year. If, for 
example, the confumption of any country be 
305 in the year, and lefs than one per day be 
brought forward, an undue quantity is kept 
back, . 
Defence of Foreftatling, Se. 
cufed of doing is, that.he has rzifed the 
51g 
price of the poultry at the market: for, 
that the price muft be higher in propor 
tion to the profit made by the foreftaller, 
The contrary is the truth. The fore- 
ftaller can afford to fell the poultry for lefs 
than the farmers could have afforded if 
they had gone on to the market: for the 
foreftaller, like the higler, has fpent the 
time of one; the farmers mutt have waft. 
ed the time of more,perhaps of many more, 
than one. If the foreftaller has fold the 
poultry at the fame price as, or even ata 
higher price than, that at which the far- 
mers would have fold them, the public, 
in the firft cafe is, in the fecond cafe may 
be, ultimately benefited; becaufe, what~- 
ever abridges the farmer’s labour, is an ad- 
vantage tothe public. The price of any 
produce is, other circumftances being the 
fame,in proportion to the time confumed 
in producing it. Each individual farmer 
valued the time faved, at more than the 
difference between the fum at which he 
fold to the foreftaller, and the fum at 
which he might have fold at the mar- 
ket. But what reafon is there for 
fuppofing that the farmer would have fold. 
at the market for lefs than the foreftaller ? 
None, but that he is in hafte to return 
home. Yet the foes to foreltalling will 
hardly allow, that they wifh to make pro- 
vifions cheap by diftrefling the farmer in 
oint of time. , 
A {mall farmer muft make up his rene 
foon after Michaelmas, and is obliged to 
fell all, or an undue quantity, of his corn, 
The corn-dealer buys it, 1ft at the fars 
mer’s. houfe, though this is not penal,’ un- 
Jefs, in the opinion of the interpreters of 
the common law, he fhould happen to - 
buy too much ; yet it raifes an outcry, 
and is not pardoned like buying poultry 
2dly,or inthe way to market, which is fore- 
ftalling ; 3dly, or in the market, and, if he 
fells any part of itagain on the fame day, it 
is regrating, and regarded by many as the 
moft enormous crime of all. He may fell 
what he bought yefterday, and keep what 
he has now bought till to-morrow, but 
muft not fell the’ identical corn. “What: 
difference this can make 'to the confumer 
has, I believe, never been explained. The 
good, hawever, that the corn-dealer has 
done to the farmer is this: he has faved 
the whole, omhalf, or fome part, of his 
time ; and, what is in this cate of more 
conlequence, he has affilted him with his 
capital. It will be faid, that, in the cafe 
of the farmer being arrived atthe market, 
he would have had the fame price trom 
3 Uz the 
