OCR Text |
Show 446 pN THE IMMEDIATE CAUSES [CH. VI I. would arise from the interruption of accustomed cotnmunications. 1"1he san1e, or a greater quantity of commodities might be produced for a short time; but the distribution not being such as to proportion the supply in each quarter to the demand, the whole would fall in exchangeable value, and a very decided check to production would be experienced in reference to the whole country. It follows, that the labouring classes of society may be thrown out of work in the midst of an abundance of necessaries, if these necessaries are not in the hands of those who are at the same time both able and willing to employ an adequate quantity of labour. It is of no use therefore to make suppositions about a great increase of produce, and, rejecting all reference to a circulating mediun1, to conclude that this great increase will be properly distributed and effectively consun1ed. It is a conclusion vvhich '\\Te haVe nO tight WhateVer tO 111ake. We knOW, both from theory and experience, that if the 'vho1e produce falls in money value, the· distribution n1ust be such as to discourage production. As long as this fall in the tnoney price of produce continues to diminish the power of commanding domestic and foreign labour, a e:reat discourao·e1nent to pro- ~ . 5 duction must obviously continue; and if, after labour has adjusted itself to the new level of prices, the permanent distribution of the produce and the permanent tastes and habits of the people should not be favourable to an adequate degree of consumption, the clearest principles of political ceo- I SEC. VIII.] OF THE PROGRESS OF WEALTH; 447 non1y shew that the profits of stock might be lower for any length of time than the state of the land rendered necessary; and that the check to production might be as pennanent as the faulty distribution of the produce and the unfavourable tastes and habits which had occasioned it. It is scarcely possible for any essential change to take place in the value of the circulating medium of a country 'vithout occasioning an alteration in the distribution of its produce. The imprudent use of paper money must be allo\ved to be the principal cause of these changes. But even without a paper currency, or with one always maintaining the san1e value as bullion, every country is liable to changes in the value of its produce, com-· pared "vith its money; and as such changes tnust have a great effect on the distribution of produce, partly ten1porary, and partly permanent, a determination to reason on these subjects, without taking into account the effects of so powerful an agent, 'vould be purposely to shut our eyes to the truth. Referring therefore ultin1ately to the command over labour, domestic and foreign, as the best practical measure of the value of the 'vhole produce, it vvill ?e useful to refe.r previously to its bullion value, In order to ascertain ,vhether the distribution of the produce is such as to enable it to co1nmand labour in sotne proportion to the .increase of its quantity. If the bullion val{!le of a country's products so increases as to cotntnand yearly an increased quantity of dorncstic and foreign labour, \Ve may feel pretty well assured that it is pro- |