O4 
fo put to prefs a pamphlet, explaining 
every thing refpeéting it. I have no 
doubt but it will prove itfelf worthy the 
attention of every practitioner in medi- 
cine ; and beg you, Sir, to accept the beft 
wifhes of an old man, who is happy in 
having rendered fociety a fervice. 
Iam, Sir, your’s, &c. 
NATHANIEL SMITH. 
- Brighthelmftone, Dee. 7, 1802. 
—— ae 
For the Monthly Magazine. 
“© DEFENCE of FORESTALLING” EX- 
AMINED, ; 
HE arguments in favour of foreftall- 
ing, publifhed.in your Magazine for 
April, demanded an early notice. I did 
expect to find them commented upon in 
your laft number, and, for that reafon ab- 
ftained from the obje€tions which had oc- 
curred tomyfelf. To entertain a correct 
opinion upon the influence of foreftalling, 
is an object of important intereft to the 
public. “ All muft be affeéted by the prac- 
tice, the fate of which, and whofe very 
exiftence, will be finally decided by the 
verdiG of public opinion. . 
¢¢ If (fays Miforhetor) one half of a 
commodity, in its way to market, be met 
and purchafed by one half of the people 
that would otherwife have gone to that 
market, the other half of the commodity. 
that actually arrives at the market, bears 
the fame proportion to that half of the 
buyers that actually gothere, as the whole 
of the commodity bears to the whele of the 
buyers. 
This is the language of an ingenious 
advocate ; but the reafoning is far from 
being conclufive. It embraces an erro- 
neous affumption, the fallacy of which 
mut always be fatal tothe arguments pur- 
feed upon the faith of its correétnefs. To 
affume that the portion of buyers which 
fhall have made its requifite purchafes, 
will, on that account, abfent it{-If from 
the public market, is to adopt an hypo- 
thefis not generally true. 
The people who fhall buy ‘* one-half of 
a commodity in its way to market,’” will 
do fo under the expectation of fome advan- 
tase ; and they will praétife, fubfequent- 
ly, thofe meafures which are calculated to 
fecure the expe&ted advantage. This is 
the common policy of traders. It is not 
fuficient that purchafes are effetted ; the 
fales are yet to be accomplifhed : it is ne- 
ceflary that thefe fhall be* profitable. — 
Thefe people, therefore, will not confine 
themfelves at home with their purchafes : 
they wiil be found regularly prefent at the 
Defence of Foreftalling continued, 
’ 
[Feb. 1, 
market, and for very prudential reafons : 
a depreffion in the value of the commodity 
would render their own contracts lefs pro- 
fitable : their fpeculation would fail of its 
‘advantages, if the market produced lefs 
prices than they had given on the road: 
it is their intereft to guard againft this 
contingency, by {welling the tide of buy- 
ers. If their attendance and aétivity can 
raife the price of the commodity, fomuch 
the better for themfelves ; the profit upon 
that quantity which they have already 
bought, will be proportionally augment- 
ed: they will fell to the public, not ac- 
cording to the price which they have a&tu- 
ally given on the road, but according to 
the price in the market; and with every 
advance of the market their gains will 
progreffively increafe. As faras that in- 
fluence extends, which motives of intereft 
are found to poflefs in. regulating the con- 
duét of men, thefe people mut be impell- 
ed to affect the tranfa€tions of the market 
injurioufly to the confumer. 
That half of the people who are aétu- 
ally in want of the commodity, aad who 
are totally ignorant of the previous en- 
gagements of the other buyers, become 
ferioufly agitated by indications of a fcar-— 
city : the market is crowded with appa- 
rent purchafers, and the fupplies are ob- 
vioufly fmall. A tedious refiftance to the 
prices may place them in a fituation where 
their wants cannot be fupplied ; but this 
fituation, fo fatal to their trade, mult be 
ftudioufly averted: without the commo- 
dity, they cannot adminifter to the necef- 
fities of their cuftomers 5 and, if thefe are 
compeiled to carry their money to other 
dealers, they may lofe them as cuftomers 
for ever. To obtain the commodity is, 
therefore, with them who are in real want 
of it, the firft obje& of folicitude; and a 
vifible (though fa@itious) infufficiency of 
fupplies, by exciting this fpirit of folici- 
tude in one‘half of the buyers, will ever 
immediately tend to raife the price of an 
article. Traders regulate their profits by 
the wants and avidity of their cuftomers. 
If forty perfons conftitute the buyers 
ina market, as long as this number con- 
tinues to go there with the ufual demand, 
and meets with the ufual quantity of fup- 
plies, the value of the commodity will 
preferve an unvarying denomination. No 
one clafs of buyers can have an intereft in- 
dependently of the others ; and none can 
be urged by confiderations of perfonal be- 
nefit, to encourage an advance inthe prices ; 
all will be equally aTected by every change 
that takes place. But, if twenty of thefe 
buyers go to meet and. purchafe one-half 
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