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ydll then bring more to market, to avoid this risk of loss ; or ifthe demand is so great, at the existing price, that there appearsto be a probability of the existing consumption soon renderingthe existing stock so very scarce, that a very great augmentationin price may soon be expected, dealers will then diminish therate of supply of the market, till the probability recurs of theopposite alternative. Nothing can happen more salutary thanthese operations ; and no operation can, with more certainty, bedepended upon, than that which ensues, of course, from theself-interest of those concerned. Such measures, we say, executethemselves.
But, if the powers of government were to be interposed in fix.ing a maximum, lower than what these natural operations of self-interest would establish, the consequence would be, the encou-ragement of a rate of consumption higher than the existing sup-plies would allow of; and, if the whole were consumed at that,rate, even a single week before the return of another crop, thepeople must die of famine. And if an interference were made,merely to enforce what would ensue of course, it must be entire-ly nugatory. The matter is left perfectly safe in the hands ofdealers, who alone, indeed, are in the capacity of calculating a-Tight, from their habitual experience in feeling the pulse of themarkets. *
Regulation of ’wages of labour has sometimes been attemptedby the Justices of the Peace ; but, as Hutcheson observes in hisvaluable work, ‘ this very delicate jurisdiction they have hitherto4 exercised with much discretion. ’ Where labourers are few,in proportion to the extent of capital to employ them, wagesmust rise, from the competition of capital; and where they aremore numerous, in proportion to capital, the competition of la-bourers for employment, must beat down the rate of wages ; anyregulations counteracting this natural tendency must themselvesbe counteracted and evaded. In the first case, high wages en-courage the multiplication of the population to the extent of thework ; in the latter, low wages are necessary, that each may gethis share ; for even the omnipotence of an act of Parliament cannot create capital to afford employment to every given num-ber, at high wages.
In great towns, the resort of strangers, ignorant of the state ofthe country, and where there are frequently recurring occasionsfor immediate and short services, which cannot wait for exami-nation of market rates, such as those of porters, chairmen, andhackney-coachmen, it seems very proper that the rate of suchservices should be fixed, at short intervals, in proportion, to theordinary rate of labour, and published.
? See Smith and Malthas. Agricultural Report of Ttvccddale, Note H.