VII.

of the competition. Among competitors of equal CHA P. wealth and luxury the fame deficiency will generally occafion a more or lefs eager competition, according as the acquifition of the commodity happens to be of more or lefs importance to them. Hence the exorbitant price of the neceffaries of life during the blockade of a town or in a famine.

When the quantity brought to market exceeds the effectual demand, it cannot be all fold to those who are willing to pay the whole value of the rent, wages and profit, which must be paid in order to bring it thither. Some part must be fold to those who are willing to pay lefs, and the low price which they give for it must reduce the price of the whole. The market price will fink more or lefs below the natural price, according as the greatnefs of the excefs increases more or lefs the competition of the fellers, or according as it happens to be more or lefs important to them to get immediately rid of the commodity. The fame excefs in the importation of perishable, will occafion a much greater competition than in that of durable commodities; in the importation of oranges, for example, than in that of old iron.

When the quantity brought to market is juft fufficient to fupply the effectual demand and no more, the market price naturally comes to be either exactly, or as nearly as can be judged of, the fame with the natural price. The whole quantity upon hand can be difpofed of for this price, and cannot be difpofed of for more.

G 3

The

compe

BOOK Comption of the different dealers obliges them

I.

all tocept of this price, but does not oblige them to accept of lefs.

The quantity of every commodity brought to market naturally fuits itself to the effectual demand. It is the intereft of all those who employ their land, labour, or ftock, in bringing any commodity to market, that the quantity never fhould exceed the effectual demand; and it is the intereft of all other people that it never fhould fall fhort of that demand.

If at any time it exceeds the effectual demand, fome of the component parts of its price muft be paid below their natural rate. If it is rent, the intereft of the landlords will immediately prompt them to withdraw a part of their land; and if it is wages or profit, the intereft of the labourers in the one cafe, and of their employers in the other, will prompt them to withdraw a part of their labour or stock from this employment. The quantity brought to market will foon be no more than fufficient to fupply the effectual demand. All the different parts of its price will rife to their natural rate, and the whole price to its natural price.

If, on the contrary, the quantity brought to market fhould at any time fall fhort of the effectual demand, fome of the component parts of its price must rise above their natural rate. If it is rent, the intereft of all other landlords will naturally prompt them to prepare more land for the raifing of this commodity; if it is wages or profit, the intereft of all other labourers and

dealers

VII.

dealers will foon prompt them to employ more C HA P. labour and stock in preparing and bring it to market. The quantity brought thither will foon be fufficient to fupply the effectual demand. All the different parts of its price will foon fink to their natural rate, and the whole price to its natural price.

The natural price, therefore, is, as it were, the central price, to which the prices of all commodities are continually gravitating. Different accidents may fometimes keep them fufpended a good deal above it, and fometimes force them down even fomewhat below it. But whatever may be the obstacles which hinder them from fettling in this center of repofe and continuance, they are conftantly tending towards it.

The whole quantity of industry annually employed in order to bring any commodity to market, naturally fuits itself in this manner to the effectual demand. It naturally aims at bringing always that precife quantity thither which may be fufficient to fupply, and no more than fupply, that demand.

But in fome employments the fame quantity of industry will in different years produce very different quantities of commodities; while in others it will produce always the fame, or very nearly the fame. The fame number of labourers in husbandry will, in different years, produce very different quantities of corn, wine, oil, hops, &c. But the fame number of spinners and weavers will every year produce the fame or very nearly the fame quantity of linen and woollen cloth.

G 4

BOOK cloth. It is only the average produce of the

I.

In

one fpecies of industry which can be fuited in
any respect to the effectual demand; and as its
actual produce is frequently much greater and
frequently much lefs than its average produce,
the quantity of the commodities brought to mar-
ket will fometimes exceed a good deal, and fome,
times fall fhort a good deal, of the effectual
demand. Even though that demand therefore
fhould continue always the fame, their market
price will be liable to great fluctuations, will
fometimes fall a good deal below, and sometimes
rife a good deal above, their natural price.
the other species of industry, the produce of
equal quantities of labour being always the fame,
or very nearly the fame, it can be more exactly
fuited to the effectual demand. While that
demand continues the fame, therefore, the mar-
ket price of the commodities is likely to do fo
too, and to be either altogether, or as nearly as
can be judged of, the fame with the natural
price. That the price of linen and woollen cloth
is liable neither to fuch frequent nor to fuch
great variations as the price of corn, every man's
experience will inform him. The price of the one
fpecies of commodities varies only with the vari-
ations in the demand: That of the other varies
not only with the variations in the demand, but
with the much greater and more frequent varia-
tions in the quantity of what is brought to mar-
ket in order to fupply that demand.

The occafional and temporary fluctuations in the market price of any commodity fall chiefly

upon

VII.

upon those parts of its price which refolve them- CHA P. felves into wages and profit. That part which refolves itself into rent is lefs affected by them. A rent certain in money is not in the leaft affected by them either in its rate or in its value. A rent which confifts either in a certain proportion or in a certain quantity of the rude produce, is no doubt affected in its yearly value by all the occafional and temporary fluctuations in the market price of that rude produce; but it is feldom affected by them in its yearly rate. In fettling the terms of the leafe, the landlord and farmer endeavour, according to their best judgment, to adjust that rate, not to the temporary and occafional, but to the average and ordinary price of the produce.

Such fluctuations affect both the value and the rate either of wages or of profit, according as the market happens to be either over-stocked or under-ftocked with commodities or with labour; with work done, or with work to be done. A public mourning raifes the price of black cloth (with which the market is almost always underftocked upon fuch occafions), and augments the profits of the merchants who poffefs any confiderable quantity of it. It has no effect upon the wages of the weavers. The market is underftocked with commodities, not with labour; with work done, not with work to be done. It raifes the wages of journeymen taylors. The market is here under-ftocked with labour. There is an effectual demand for more labour, for more work to be done than can be had. It finks the