V.

provident conduct. Though from excefs of CHAP. avarice, in the fame manner, the inland corn merchant should fometimes raise the price of his corn fomewhat higher than the scarcity of the feafon requires, yet all the inconveniencies which the people can fuffer from this conduct, which effectually fecures them from a famine in the end of the feafon, are inconfiderable, in comparifon of what they might have been expofed to by a more liberal way of dealing in the beginning of it. The corn merchant himself is likely to fuffer the moft by this excefs of avarice; not only from the indignation which it generally excites against him, but, though he fhould efcape the effects of this indignation, from the quantity of corn which it neceffarily leaves upon his hands in the end of the feafon, and which, if the next feafon happens to prove favourable, he muft always fell for a much lower price than he might otherwise have had.

Were it poffible, indeed, for one great company of merchants to poffefs themselves of the whole crop of an extenfive country, it might, perhaps, be their intereft to deal with it as the Dutch are faid to do with the spiceries of the Moluccas, to destroy or throw away a confiderable part of it, in order to keep up the price of the reft. But it is fcarce poffible, even by the violence of law, to establish such an extenfive monopoly with regard to corn; and, wherever the law leaves the trade free, it is of all commodities the leaft liable to be engroffed or monopolized by the force of a few large capitals, which

IV.

BOOK which buy up the greater part of it. Not only its value far exceeds what the capitals of a few private men are capable of purchasing, but fuppofing they were capable of purchafing it, the manner in which it is produced renders this purchase altogether impracticable. As in every civilized country it is the commodity of which the annual confumption is the greateft, fo a greater quantity of industry is annually employed in producing corn than in producing any other commodity. When it first comes from the ground too, it is neceffarily divided among a greater number of owners than any other commodity; and thefe owners can never be collected into one place like a number of independent manufacturers, but are neceffarily scattered through all the different corners of the country. These first owners either immediately fupply the confumers in their own neighbourhood, or they fupply other inland dealers, who fupply thofe confumers. The inland dealers in corn, therefore, including both the farmer and the baker, are neceffarily more numerous than the dealers in any other commodity, and their difperfed fituation renders it altogether impoffible for them to enter into any general combination. If in a year of fcarcity, therefore, any of them should find that he had a good deal more corn upon hand than, at the current price, he could hope to dif pofe of before the end of the season, he would never think of keeping up this price to his own lofs, and to the fole benefit of his rivals and competitors, but would immediately lower

V.

it, in order to get rid of his corn before the new CHAP. crop began to come in. The fame motives, the fame interests, which would thus regulate the conduct of any one dealer, would regulate that of every other, and oblige them all in general to fell their corn at the price which, according to the best of their judgment, was most suitable to the scarcity or plenty of the season.

Whoever examines, with attention, the history of the dearths and famines which have afflicted any part of Europe, during either the courfe of the prefent, or that of the two preceding centuries, of several of which we have pretty exact accounts, will find, I believe, that a dearth never has arisen from any combination among the inland dealers in corn, nor from any other caufe but a real scarcity, occafioned fometimes, perhaps, and in fome particular places, by the waste of war, but in by far the greatest number of cafes, by the fault of the feafons; and that a famine has never arifen from any other caufe but the violence of government attempting, by improper means, to remedy the inconveniencies of a dearth.

In an extenfive corn country, between all the different parts of which there is a free commerce and communication, the fcarcity occafioned by the most unfavourable feafons can never be fo great as to produce a famine; and the fcantieft crop, if managed with frugality and œconomy, will maintain, through the year, the fame number of people that are commonly fed in a more affluent manner by one of moderate plenty. The

U 4

IV.

BOOK The feafons moft unfavourable to the crop are thofe of exceffive drought or exceffive rain. But, as corn grows equally upon high and low lands, upon grounds that are difpofed to be too wet, and upon those that are difpofed to be too dry, either the drought or the rain which is hurtful to one part of the country is favourable to another; and though both in the wet and in the dry feafon the crop is a good deal lefs than in one more properly tempered, yet in both what is loft in one part of the country is in fome measure compenfated by what is gained in the other. In rice countries, where the crop not only requires a very moift foil, but where, in a certain period of its growing, it must be laid. under water, the effects of a drought are much more difmal. Even in fuch countries, however, the drought is, perhaps, fcarce ever fo univerfal, as neceffarily to occafion a famine, if the govern ment would allow a free trade. The drought in Bengal, a few years ago, might probably have occafioned a very great dearth. Some improper regulations, fome injudicious restraints, impofed by the fervants of the East India Company upon the rice trade, contributed, perhaps, to turn that dearth into a famine.

When the government, in order to remedy the inconveniencies of a dearth, orders all the dealers to fell their corn at what it fuppofes a reasonable price, it either hinders them from bringing it to market, which may fometimes. produce a famine, even in the beginning of the feafon; or if they bring it thither, it enables

the

V.

the people, and thereby encourages them to con- CHA P. fume it fo faft, as muft neceffarily produce a famine before the end of the feafon. The unlimited, unreftrained freedom of the corn trade, as it is the only effectual preventative of the mi series of a famine, fo it is the best palliative of the inconveniencies of a dearth; for the inconveniencies of a real scarcity cannot be remedied; they can only be palliated. No trade deferves more the full protection of the law, and no trade requires it fo much; becaufe no trade is fo much exposed to popular odium.

In years of fcarcity the inferior ranks of people impute their distress to the avarice of the corn merchant, who becomes the object of their hatred and indignation. Inftead of making profit upon fuch occafions, therefore, he is often in danger of being utterly ruined, and of having his magazines plundered and destroyed by their violence. It is in years of fcarcity, however, when prices are high, that the corn merchant expects to make his principal profit. He is generally in contract with fome farmers to furnish him for a certain number of years with a certain quantity of corn at a certain price. This contract price is fettled according to what is fupposed to be the moderate and reasonable, that is, the ordinary or average price, which, before the late years of fcarcity, was commonly about eightand-twenty-fhillings for the quarter of wheat, and for that of other grain in proportion. In years of scarcity, therefore, the corn merchant buys a great part of his corn for the ordinary