538 Many theoreticians ascribe a direct creation of new capital to credit, in so far as the capacity of the evidences of debt to circulate as a medium of exchange effects a real saving, and permits the former very costly and intrinsically valuable instruments of exchange to be used in some other way. ( 123.) Compare Ricardo, Proposals for a secure and economical Currency (1817). J. S. Mill, Principles, II, 174 and 36. McCulloch, Commercial Dictionary, art. Credit. And so it was in the first four editions of this book of mine. But here, too, there is, immediately, only a transfer of already existing capital. The person, for instance, who accepts a bank note for payment, loans a part of his capital to the bank; and the advantage to the whole community of such credit-operations consists chiefly in this: that so large a quantity of cash-capital which lay idle in banks etc., may be used more productively.

539 When Roesler says that credit is capital, the product of saving, and very serviceable in further production (Grands., 300), he confounds credit itself with the foundations of credit, which are, indeed, in large part material or moral capital.

540 Compare Discourse on Trade, Coyn and Paper-Credit, London, 1697, 72 ff.

541 Compare Buron, Guerre au Credit, 1868. Schaeffle, Tueb. Ztsch., 1869, 296 ff. With a thorough understanding of its politico-economical bearing, O. Michaelis, (Berliner V. Jahrsschr. 1863, IV, 121,) says: The capital-value of my credit is not equal to the nominal value of my evidences of indebtedness [notes etc.], but to the capitalized amount of the extra surplus which I have obtained in my business by means of credit, after deduction is made of the costs and of the risk-premium.

542 We shall, in the books to follow this, inquire with great care, what are the means best calculated to remedy this dangerous tendency. We need only remark here, that it is to be found in a judicious association of small capitalists, and also in the capitalization, so to speak, of personal qualities. A well organized society of work-men, without capital, may indeed obtain credit, as for instance, the Schultze-Delitsch societies, the Russian artel-schnicks (market-aid societies) etc. prove. (Fruehauf, Die russ. Artels in Faucher's Vierteljahrsschrift, 1868, I, 106 ff.) We may also mention the greater credit accorded to a land-owner the moment he becomes a member of a land-loan association as compared with what he could obtain before he had joined it. The popular belief of the ancient Egyptians afforded them a very great instrument of credit in the pledging of the remains of their ancestors. (Herodot., II, 136.)

543 B. Hildebrand is of opinion that the Political Economy of the future may be characterized as credit-economy, in the same way as the Economy of the present may be called money-economy, and that of the past as barter-economy of barter. (National OEkonomie der Gegenwart und Zukunft, I, 276 ff.) Hildebrand's view is correct in so far as that, with every advance in civilization, credit comes to have absolutely and relatively an ever increasing importance, although in the middle ages, especially under feudal forms (Lehensformen), there were numberless operations in credit. Otherwise, however, Hildebrand's three kinds of economy are, by no means, cooerdinated. While barter and purchase through the instrumentality of money, in every instance, entirely exclude each other, it is impossible to imagine a credit-transaction of which the promise of a barter-performance or of a money-performance does not constitute the base. During a "money-economical (geldwirthschaftlichen) period" [i.e., one during which money is the medium of exchange, and not notes; and when barter does not obtain.—Translator.] the service rendered by money as a medium of exchange may, for the most part, be supplanted by credit. Money, as a measure of value, still remains the substratum of credit itself. (See Knies in the Tuebinger Ztschr., 1860, 154 ff.; and in the Freiburger Programm, 9 Sept., 1862, 19.) Earlier yet, A. Wagner, Beitr. zur Lehre von den Banken, 1857 ff. Among the most practical propositions of Saint Simonism is that of a systeme general des banques, intended to administer all the goods of the nation, and to loan them to individuals engaged, in production. (Bazard, 205 ff.)

544 It is destructive of credit to allow the debtor to await several decrees or judgments before his liability is established; to allow him, on easy terms, delays, reversals of judgment, the costs of the case etc. The term within which a creditor might bring in his claim before the meeting of creditors in the Amsterdam Boedel-chamber was formerly thirty-three and a third years. (Buesch, Darst. der Handlung, Zusatz, 82.) In the presidency of Bengal there were, in 1819, 81,000 cases in arrears, and in 1829, 140,000. Westminister Review, XIX, 142.

545 And yet Melon is of opinion that the state should favor the debtor as much as possible. (Essai politique sur le Commerce, ch. 12, 18.) This was the view entertained on this subject by the older practitioners. In Bengal, the dhura, a species of "judgment of God," in which the party who could hold out longest against hunger was declared the victor, was the only means to compel a debtor to pay his debt. As a consequence, the Bengal peasant could not borrow money at less than 60 per cent. per annum. Edinburgh Review, XXII, 67. On the damages attending the credit-laws and credit-courts of Russia, by which all foreign goods are rendered exceedingly dear, see v. Sternberg, Bemerkungen ueber R., 100 ff. In a country in which a great many powerful personages are above the laws, an incorporated loaning bank may be an indispensable necessity. (Storch, Handbuch, II, p. 23 ff.) In Naples, even as recently as 1804, no debtor could be arrested during the last six months of the queen's pregnancy. At a previous period, one might fail in business there and escape all punishment by exposing the hindermost part of himself in a nude state publicly before a column of the Vicaria. (Rehfues, Gemaelde von Neapel, I, p. 203 seq., 222.) In Schwytz, the rate of interest is so high, because the law allows the debtor to pay his creditor, whether the latter will or not, in articles of household furniture, clothes etc., estimated at a very high value. (Hermann, Staatsw. Untersuchungen, 202.) It has now become quite usual in the United States, on account of the many delays granted to the debtor by "democratic" laws introduced there, instead of mere mortgage, to give full warranty deeds when capital is loaned. By this means, the creditor is in danger, when misfortune overtakes him, to see himself compelled to let his property go at one-fourth of its value.

546 See the Heliast oath in Demosth., adv. Timocr., 746. The Roman system of credits in the time of Polybius was much better than the Carthaginian. Polyb., VI, 56, XXXII, 13.

547 Sachsenspiegel, III, 39. J. Grimm, Deutsche Rechtsalterthuemer, 612 ff. Dahlmann, Daenische Gesch., II, 245, 339. Hermann, Russ. Gesch., III, 357. On slavery for debt among the Malays, see Ausland, 1845, No. 157.

548 Beaujour, Tableau du Commere en Grece, II, 176.

549 C. 2 X. De Pignor. An appropriate provision in a priestly government. Diodor., I, 79.

550 Staying in a place by the debtor until the creditor is satisfied, and other degrading stipulations, which, however, were prohibited by the police regulations of the Empire in 1548, art. 17.

551 Marten's Ursprung des Wechselrechts, 1797. Statuta Mediol., 1480, fol. 238 ff. The municipal law of Florence unconditionally imprisoned the father or grandfather for the debt of the son, when the latter engaged in industrial pursuits with their consent. (Stat. Flor., I, 201.) In Bologna, the brothers of a bankrupt who had constituted one household with him were held responsible for his debts. (Statuti dell' Universita de Mercantati della Citta di B., 1550, fol. 110.) The law of Geneva excluded from all positions of honor the son who had left his father's debts unpaid. Montesquieu, E. des Lois, XX, 16. The consequence was, that among the higher classes not a creditor lost anything for centuries. (K. L. v. Haller, Restauration der Staatswissenschaften, VI, 519.) Compare the "Nurenberger Reformation" of 1479, fol. 61 and 68 of the edition of 1564.

552 Compare the R. P. O. of 1548, art. 22. And so, by the Code de Commerce, III, 4, I, even the simple bankrupt in contradistinction to the fraudulent bankrupt is punished, and every person unable to pay his debts is declared a simple bankrupt, who, among other things, has made excessive household expenses, or lost considerable sums by play etc. Compare Sully, Memoires, Livre XXVI, who declares it to be his most wholesome law, that fraudulent bankrupts should, like thieves, be punished with death, and that all their fraudulent assignments, gifts, etc., should be declared void. Further, Ordonn. de Louis XIV., sur les Failletes, art. 11; J. de Wit, Memoires, 77 ff; v. den Heuvel, Sur le Commerce de la Hollande, 110 ff. Frederick William I., in 1715, threatened with the galleys all light-headed bankrupts, and, in 1723, all those who, knowing their insolvent condition, should effect further loans. Mylius, Corp. Const. March. II, 2, 31, 40. For China, see Davis, The Chinese, I, 247 ff. Gr. Soden, Nat. Oek., III, 231, demands that, in case of doubt, the guilt of the bankrupt should always be presumed.

553 In England only one-tenth of the number of bankrupts are considered innocent. Elliot, Credit the Life of Commerce, 1845, 50 ff.

554 The contrainte par corps of debtors was abolished in France in 1792, but restored in 1797. Even Turgot remarked that since slavery had ceased there was no further fear (?) that the poor would be oppressed by imprisonment for debt. (Sur le Pret d' argent, 31.) According to Droz, the question is not one of weighing "freedom" against "miserable money," but the deprivation of a few of that freedom and the non-fulfillment of obligations entered into, that is against the destruction of public confidence.

555 A similar development among the Greeks:

A. Rigorous slavery for debt, which Kypselos moderated at Corinth. (Pausan., V. 17, 2), and Solon abolished in Athens. (Plutarch, Sol., 15. Demosth., de fals. Legat., 412.)

B. The reckless creation of debts as seen in Aristophanes; while outside of Athens slavery for debt lasted yet a long time. (Hermann, Griech. Privatalterth., 57, 20.) In the time of Demosthenes, the merchant in arrears in the payment of his debts was cast into prison, and the bottomry-debtor who deprived his creditor of his security might be punished with death, (Demosth. adv. Pharm., 922, 958), and this although the cessio honorum was introduced. Hermann, 70, 3. Compare Xenoph., Vectigg., 3, Demosth. adv. Apat., 892; adv. Lacrit., and adv. Dionys. In Corinth, the state superintended expenses made by parties. This was part of its credit-policy. (Athaenaeus, VI, 227.) For a remarkable Rhodian law relating to debts, see Sext. Emp., Hypot. I, 149.

In Rome:

A. The chief characteristic of the ancient law in this matter was the eventual sale of the person of the debtor on the getting of the loan (nexum); the power of the creditor to put the addictus to death or to sell him in foreign parts; finally, the in partes secanto, in the concourse of creditors. Without these rigorous provisions, the borrower might easily have evaded his debts, by the emancipation of his son and turning over his property to him. (Niebuhr, Rom. Gesch., II, 770 ff; Savigny in the Abb. der Berliner Acad., 1833. Zimmern, Gesch. des roem. Privatrechts, III, 131 ff.)

B. Later, we find nothing of the execution of the debtor, or of the sale of his person; but he might be compelled to do slave labor for his creditor without any protection against ill-treatment. Slavery for debt was restricted by the Lex Poetelia. (Niebuhr, III, p. 178; Mommsen, III, 494.) The Praetorian law introduced the custom of putting the creditor in possession of the goods of the debtor, with power of sale, which proceeding rendered the debtor infamous. See several passages in Walter., Roem Rechtsgesch, 763 ff; Tertull., Apol., 4; Tab. Herac. I, 115 ff. Later, Caesar's Lex Julia permitted the honest debtor to escape imprisonment by the assignment of his goods.

C. The moneyed oligarchy which prevailed in Rome caused the adoption of exceedingly severe measures against delinquent debtors. (Plut., Lucull., 20. Cic., ad. Att. V. 21, VI.), although its members themselves incurred debts in the most reckless manner. Caesar, in the year A.C. 62, excluding his active (activen), owed debts to the amount of 25,000,000 sesterces; M. Antonius, in the year 24, 6,000,000; in the year 38, 40,000,000; Curio, 60,000,000; Milon, 70,000,000. (Mommsen, Roemische Geschichte, III, 486.) Compare Gellius, XX, 1, XV, 14.

556 Whenever a new shop-keeper, who sells goods on monthly credits, settles in a district, the number of poor persons invariably increases. (McCulloch, Commercial Dictionary.) The ruinous credit given by the Jews to the Westphalian peasants begins with an account for the goods which they have succeeded in pressing upon them, after five or six years have elapsed. The Jew seldom sues accounts at law; but he besieges the debtor and discovers where his last head of cattle and his last little supply of provisions are to be found. As he is willing to accept everything that has any value, sometimes in payment of arrears, and sometimes in payment for some new piece of trash, he is sure to obtain his dues in the end, but not until his victim, who is sunk deeper and deeper in the abyss of debt by every "accommodation," is entirely ruined. (Schmerz, Rheinish-Westphael. L.W., 396 ff.)

557 In the lower and middle stages of civilization, we find a multitude of laws by which minors, students etc., but especially land-owners are limited to a minimum of credit, which, however, varies very much with the person, and is subjected to a number of embarrassing forms, the consent of a third person, for instance etc. (Compare Bayerische L.O. von 1553, fol. 83.) Such laws, however, give as much room to the play of dishonesty as they take away from that of want of reflection.

558 On the municipal regulations (Staedteordnungen) of the 14th and 15th centuries, which compelled Jewish creditors especially to have their evidences of indebtedness redeemed within from every two to five years, see Stobbe, Juden im Mittelalter, 129. Compare further the Wuertemberg L. O. of 1515, Statut. Ferrar, ed. 1650, lib. II, rub. 37, 289. According to the other provisions of the laws in North America, some book accounts were required to be sued on within six and others within seventeen years. (Ebeling, Gerchichte und Erdberschreibung der v. Staaten, II, 247, 298.) The Prussian law of March 31, 1838, provides a period of limitation of three years for all ordinary commercial debts. A similar law was passed in the Kingdom of Saxony, in 1846. In London, there has been found a great number of hatters, tailors, boot and shoe dealers etc., whose books showed credits of more than L4,000, most of them not to exceed over L10. How much of all this must be lost entirely, and how that loss must increase the sums paid for boots, shoes and hats by the prompt payer! (McCulloch, v. Credit.) We find, even in Athens, that the period of limitation was shortened in the interest of credit, and that in the case of minors, it did not exceed five years. (Demosth. adv. Nausim., 989.) Security for a debtor not over one year. (Demosth., adv. Apatur., 901.) The prohibition of Zaleukos to issue any evidences of debt whatever goes much farther. (Zenob., Proverb. V, 4.)

559 Compare the report of the Dresden Handelskammer, 1864, 11.

560 A. Mayer, in Faucher's Vierteljahrsschrift, 1865, IV, 65.

561 We learn from the debates in the English parliament of February 9, 1827, that, in two years and a half, there were, in London and its environs, 70,000 cases of imprisonment for debt, the costs of which were from L150,000 to L200,000. In 1831, there were in one debtors' prison 1,120 prisoners, who owed on an average L2 3s. 2d. (McCulloch, l. c.) There was, in 1792, a case of a woman who, for a debt of L19, remained in prison 45 years, and others like it. (See Archenholtz, Annalen, IX, 87 ff; X, 169 ff, XIII, 125.) In England in 1844, arrest for sums less than L19 was prohibited. Johnson had already proposed a similar provision. (Idler, 1758, Nos. 22 and 38.) Imprisonment for debt was abolished in France, England and Austria in 1867; in the North German Confederation, on the 29th of May, 1868, but arrest for security's sake was retained. Sismondi finds fault with nearly all laws in the premises, because they attack the person of the debtor rather than his personal property, and his personal, rather than his immovable, property. He would have all this just the contrary of what it is. The first interferes with the very source of wealth, the productive power of labor; the second causes goods to be sold much below their value. Neither of these evils attends the last. (N. Principes, I, 250.)

562 A law of the North German Confederation allows the pledging of future wages, only in the case of public officers, and those holding permanent places in the service of private parties, whose salaries are over 400 thalers per annum. The original draft had excepted only the things necessary to workmen and those directly depending on them; while the law as passed makes the prohibition general. This was undoubtedly done for the convenience of employers as well as of courts; as for instance in the circuit of Dortmund, there were, in one year, 10,000 cases in which wages were garnisheed. (Annalen des N.D. Bundes und Zollvereins, 1869, 1071 ff.) But the recklessness of those workmen whose wages are below the average, might have been just as well guarded against without dragging those whose wages are above the average down to their level, if a distinction had been made between production-credit and consumption-credit, and the latter had been limited by providing that no suit should be instituted for supplies made to public houses, taverns etc.

563 In the second book of Moses, 22, 25 ff., and the fifth, 24, 6. A very old Norman law provides that in actions for debt, execution should not issue against effects of the debtor which are indispensably necessary to him to maintain his position, such as the horses of a count or the armor of a knight. (Dialog. de Scaccario.) Magna Charta extended this provision so as to include the agricultural implements and cattle of the peasantry. The moment these laws, in consequence of a false principle of humanity, except anything but what is absolutely necessary, they injure credit. Thus, for instance, in Brazil, a law of 1758, providing that nothing immediately employed in or directly necessary to the production of sugar should be seized on execution, caused great injury to the production of sugar. (Koster, Travels in B., 1816, 356 ff.)

564 2, Cod. De Prec. Imper. Off., I, 19. The diets of the Empire had granted such letters in the fourteenth century. (Wachsmuth, Europ. Sittengesch., IV, 690.) They were granted, as a rule, only with the previous knowledge of the Emperor, by the police ordinances of the Empire of 1548, art. 22.

565 So in Austria, Saxony, Brunswick, the electorates of Hesse and Baden. In Prussia, they could be granted only after a juridical decree to that effect; and an appeal to a superior court was allowed to reverse or affirm it. Compare Mittermaier in the Archiv. fuer civilist. Praxis, XVI, and also P. de la Court, Aanwysing der politike Gronden en Maximen van Holland etc., 1669, I, ch. 25. Nuernberg obtained as a privilege, in 1495, that no moratorium should be valid as against its citizens. (Roth, Geschichte des Nuernb. Handels, I, 86.)

566 Compare the discussions in the French National Assembly, in the month of August, 1848. It is much less disadvantageous in times of great commotion, when all business is brought to a stand still, to extend the time in which bills of exchange etc. are payable. Such a measure prevents a number of bankruptcies which the real balance of debts due to one and owing by him does not render necessary.

567 In the persecution of the Jews in the middle ages, the so-called Brief-todten (letter-killing), or the destruction of titles, was very common. In 1188, the French government released all crusaders from the payment of interest on their debts, and granted them an extension of three years' time to pay off the principal. (Sismondi, Hist. des Francais, VI, 82.) Similar compulsory measures were provided against the Jews and usurers in 1223 (Ibid, VI, 539 ff.); and in 1299 (Ordonnances, I, 1331), on the formal request of the nobility. (Ordonnances, II, 59.) Again, in 1594, there was a release of one-third of the interest on all national and private debts. (Sismondi, XXI, 318.) The general moratorium of the Milanese for a term of eight years, introduced in 1251, after their war with France, was of an essentially different character. (Sismondi, Geschichte der italienischen Republiken, III, 155.) The same is true of the general indult granted by Philip II. in Belgium. (Boxhorn, Disquisitt. politicae, 241 ff.)

568 The abolition or release of debts, so frequent in ancient revolutionary times, reminds us, in many ways, of the crises precipitated in modern times by paper money and produced by the state. The ancestors of Alcibiades and Hipponikos laid the foundation of an immense fortune, in Solon's time, by purchasing land in large quantities with money borrowed from several citizens, a short time before the abolition of debts. (Plutarch, Sol., 15.)

569 Enormous consumption of wax in the churches of the middle ages. In the cathedral of Wittenberg alone, a short time before the Reformation, more than 35,000 pounds of wax candles etc. were burned yearly. At the same time, honey was generally used instead of sugar. How much more important, therefore, at that time must bee-culture have been, considered from the point of view of circulation as compared with what it is to-day. And so in Catholic countries, a difference in the external manifestation of religion causes the relative importance of the consumption of fish to increase and decrease. In 1803 there was little demand in France for ivory crucifixes, rosaries etc. In 1844, the demand for them and for prie-Dieu for the bed-room etc. was increased. (Mohl, Gewerbwissenschafliche Reise, 101.) To engage successfully in the sale of sugar in Persia, it is necessary to know that in that country it is liked only in little hat-shaped lumps, which are used only as semi-voluntary gifts; and that, in such case, custom fixes the number of lumps. (Steinhaus, Russlands commercielle etc. Verhh., 151.) In the Levant, workmen prefer bars of iron which are small and of varied form because they find it difficult to manipulate the large ones. The English bear this in mind much better than the Russians. (Steinhaus.) A merchant sending wood to Southern France must be acquainted with the form of the staves used in the manufacture of barrels there. Compare Buesch, Geldumlauf, VI, 2, 2.

570 The circulation of goods compared to the circulation of the blood: by Mirabeau, Philosophie Rurale, ch. 3. Turgot, Sur la Formation etc. 69. Canard., Principes, ch. 6.

571 Eiselen, Volkswirthschaftslehre, 98 ff. If in ancient times commerce played a much less important part than it does among the moderns, it was, as Montesquieu says, because the whole commercial world was then more uniform in climate and the character of its products than it is now. (Esprit des Lois, XXI, 4.)

572 Of the successive steps, sheaves, corn, flour, bread,—flour has the greatest capacity for circulation. And, indeed, the last operation of labor on a great many goods, because of their consequent more narrowly specialized utility, is accompanied by a decrease in their capacity for circulation. As an illustration, we may mention ready-made clothing as compared with cloth. The capacity for circulation of a commodity is very much advanced when the demand is wont to increase with the supply, as is the case with gold and silver, but not with learned books, optical instruments etc. Many commodities have but little circulating capacity, because no one desires to purchase them but at first hand. See Menger, Grundsaetze, I, 245 ff.

573 Knies., Die Eisenbahnen und ihre Wirkungen, 1853, 79.

574 Compare Schmitthenner, I, who calls attention and with reason to the importance of loans on chattel mortgages. But Berkeley, Querist, No. 265, remarks that a squire with a yearly income of L1000 can, "upon an emergency," do less good or evil than a merchant with L20,000 ready money.

575 A very important difference between Russia and England.

576 Storch, Handbuch, I, 273 ff. There is also a useless circulation which is not calculated to promote the division of labor, but to employ idle time or idle capital, as in the case of games of hazard, speculation in stocks, wheat etc. Even impoverishing consumption may produce rapidity of circulation, as in Germany during the war years 1812 and 1813. (F. G. Schulze, N. OEkonomie, 1856, 667.) Relying on this fact, Hume (1752) on Public Credit, Discourses, No. 8, argues in favor of the old opinion, that all circulation is wholesome and to be encouraged. Boisguillebert, Traite des Grains, I, 6, went so far as to laud war because it accelerated the circulation of wealth. On the necessity of a circulation sans repos, see ibid., II, 10. In a similar way Law, Trade and Money, 1705, and Dutos, Reflexions Politiques sur le Commerce, over-valued the circulation of wealth as such. Concerning the Mercantile System, see 116. Darjes, Erste Gruende der Cameralwissenschaft, 1768, 531. And even Buesch, Geldumlauf, I, 29, 32 ff., III, 96, who in other places nearly always overlooks real production and sees only the circulation of money caused thereby. Thus he calls the poor when they are helped in money, and spend it, useful members of society! (IV, 32, 39. Similarly, v. Struensee, Abhandlungen, 1800, I, 282 ff., 400 ff.)

577 As, for instance, happened in France in 1577, when all commerce, and in 1585 all industry, were declared to be de droit domanial. Louis XIV. was of opinion that the king was absolute master of all private property of priests and people. (Memoires histor. de Louis XIV., II, 121.) Compare Duclos, Memoires, I, 14 ff.

578 Compare Theod. Cod., V, 9, 1; Just. Cod., X, 19, 8; XI, 47, 21, 23; XI, 50, 51, 52, 55, 58. How full the really classic period of the Roman jurists was of the idea of freedom of competition, we see in Paullus: L. 22, 3, Dig. XIX, 2. The provisions concerning loesio enormis appear first in the time of Diocletian. (Just. Cod., IV, 44, 2.)

579 Benjamin Franklin says that the freer the form of government is, the more the people show themselves in their true aspect. Ancient Rome, with the early development of its rational disposition, soon learned to favor freedom of commercial intercourse. Compare Mommsen, Roemische Geschichte, I, passim. This was, certainly, an element of its greatness, but also of the proletarian evils developed in it an early date, and which were weighed down only by the absolute growth of the state and the development of its economic interests during centuries.

580 Nor must it be forgotten that competition raises prices as well as lowers them. The expressions higher price and lower price denote only different sides of the same relation. M. Chevalier is of opinion that our present breathless competition is characteristic only of a period of transition prolific in new inventions, a competition soon to be followed by peace. (Cours, II, 450 ff.)

581 Ἀγαθὴ ἔρις: Hesiod., Opp., 10 ff.

582 "Whoever speaks of competition suppresses the existence of a common aim," says Proudhon, although he adds, after Bileam's way, that to cure the evils of competition by competition, is as absurd as to lead men to liberty by liberty, or to cultivate the mind by cultivation of the mind.

583 Compare Bastiat, Harmonies economiques, ch. 10.

584 If all classes were protected against competition, no class would derive any advantage from it, since a "universal privilege" is an absurdity. If only certain classes or individuals are protected, it is done at the cost of all others.

585 The question should not be formulated thus: "Caprice or rule?" but "Rule of morals, or rule of law?" Schmoller against v. Treitschke in Hildebrand's Jahrbb.

586 Concerning the arguments by which the commercial restrictions of the middle ages were defended, see below. They were, for the most part, well founded for the age in which they were advanced. A judicious education will often be compelled to provide limitations, but always with the intention, by this means, of making possible a really greater independence. Thus the current of commerce may be too weak in a poor and thinly settled country in order that supply and demand should always and everywhere meet and be satisfied. Under such circumstances, their artificial concentration at certain points is among the most efficient means of promoting the economy of the whole people. The policy of freedom of commerce was recommended even in the seventeenth century by J. Child, by North and Davenant. W. Roscher, Zur Geschichte der englisch. Volkswirthschaftslehre, 65 ff., 85 ff., 113 ff., 142 ff. And earlier yet, in Holland, by Salmasius, De Usurus, 1638, 583 and de la Court. Compare Tuebinger Ztschr., 330 ff. Thus Boisguillebert says: Il n'y avait qu'a laisser faire la nature et la liberte, qui est le commissionaire de cette meme nature. (Factum de la France, 1707, ch. 5.) See, also, Dissertation sur la Nature des Richesses, ch. VI; Detail de la France, 1697, II, ch. 13; Tr. des Grains, II, 8. For the most part dictated by a reaction against Colbertism.

See further, Melon, Essai Politique sur le Commerce, 1734, ch. 2. M. Decker, Essay on the Causes of the Decline of Foreign Trade, 1744, 31 ff, 106 ff. J. Tucker, Essay on the advantages and disadvantages which respectively attend France and Great Britain with regard to Trade, 1750. Forbonnais, Elemens du Commerce, 1754, I, 63. Genovesi, c. I, 17, 3, is of opinion that at least in case of doubt, commerce stood more in need of freedom than of protection. Verri, in his Meditazioni, goes still farther. The Physiocrates, with their laissez aller and laissez faire recommend competition as the best means to increase the net income of a people. According to Dupont, 147 ff, ed. Daire, the province of legislation is confined to declaring the laws of nature. His motto is: liberte and propriete. Adam Smith asks that the state should do only three things: insure protection against foreign states, the administration of justice at home, the establishment and maintenance of certain institutions of advantage to the whole community, but which private interest could not establish for want of means to cover the expenses attending them. (Wealth of Nations, V, ch. I, 2.) Hence he demands (III, ch. 2) the abolition of all kinds of fidei commissa, of royalty in mines (I, ch. 11, 2), of all corporate and exclusive privileges, of all protective duties etc. (IV, ch. I ff), but especially of the colonial policy hitherto in vogue. (IV, ch. 8.)

The attacks of the Socialists on freedom of competition were begun by Fichte, Geschlossener Handelsstaat, 126, in which it is called a robber-system or system of spoliation. He would have the state have more solicitude for human industry than if men were so many swallows. See further, Sismondi, N. Principes, passim, who everywhere demands the protection of the government for the weaker. Fourier, N. Monde industriel, 396, who thinks that le monopole general is always a preservatif contre le commerce. Bastiat, Harmonies economiques, ch. 10, has a very valuable refutation of these follies. Recently, Rodbertus, Hildebrand's Jahrbuecher, 1865, II, 272, is of opinion that "social individualism" has ever had in history the task of dissolving decaying societies, as, for instance, under the Caesars.

587 Whoever would sell to others must purchase of them. (Child., Discourse of Trade, 358.) Similarly Temple, Works III, 19, and Becher, Polit. Discurs, 1547. This view seems to have become the national one first in Holland. Compare also Quesnay, 71 and Mirabeau, Philosophie rurale, 1763, ch. 2.

588 We often hear it said: "nothing sells because there is no money." But the real cause here is, in most instances, not a want of money, but a want of other goods which might serve as a counter-value. In bad times, for instance, there is many a weaver who would consider himself fortunate, even if he could get no money for his cloth, to obtain instead, meat, bread, wood, raw material etc. If money only were wanting, that might easily be as favorable a symptom in commerce, as when there are not enough shops, steamers etc., to carry on the business of the country. Compare North., Discourses upon Trade, 1691, 11 seq., but especially J. B. Say's celebrated theory of Markets, traite I, ch. XV.

589 See Humboldt's observations as to how, in Spanish America, agriculture in the vicinity of the mines increases and decreases with the wealth of the latter. (N. Espagne, III, 11 ff.) See also Harrington (ob. 1677), On the Prerogative of a Popular Government, I, ch. 11; Cantillon, Nature du Commerce, 16. And so Stein., Lehrbuch, 122 seq., points out how great enterprises produce especially for the consumption of the small householder without capital, and how, therefore, the flourishing condition of the one determines that of the other.

590 Those indeed who live by the spoliation of others, as robbers, deceivers etc. are interested in the economic prosperity of the latter only so long as their spoliation of them is not endangered. Only to this extent can it be claimed with Fr. List that the nobility of the Middle Ages, in obeying the selfish calculation which led to the oppression of the peasantry, engaged in as bad a speculation as a manufacturer of our day would who should feed his steam-engine with nothing but saw-dust or scraps of old paper. The cities of the middle ages had a much more undoubted economic interest in the emancipation of the peasantry as a class than the nobles or the clergy.

591 Such exceptions there certainly are, even if it were not true "that the most godly cannot rest in peace unless he is acceptable to his ungodly neighbor." Nations that furnish the same products as we do may, indeed, "spoil our market," just as at home the selfish shoemaker may desire the prosperity of all wearers of shoes, that is of all other industries, but not that of all other producers of shoes. The view that long prevailed, that one man's gain was always some other man's loss (Th. Morus, Utopia 79, ed. Colon. 1555; Baco., Sermones fideles, cap. 15; quid-quid alicubi adiicitur, alibi detrahitur; M. Montaigne, Essais I, 21: les prouficit de l'un est le dommage de l'autre) prevailed much longer in international affairs where observation is much more difficult than in national affairs; although even here, P. de la Court, Maximes politiques, 1658, contrasts the economic interest of Holland with that of the rest of the Netherlands and prefers it to theirs. Even Voltaire says: "The desire of the greatness of the Fatherland includes the desire of evil to our neighbor. Evidently no country can gain except what another loses." (Dict. philosophique, v. Patrie.) Compare, however, the peut-etre in his Histoire de la Russie, I, 1, on the occasion of the English-Russian treaty of commerce. Similarly, Galiani, Della Moneta, I, 1, IV, 1; Verri, Opuscoli, 335, and recently v. Cancrin who says that "in every-day life, property is acquired only at some other person's expense." (Weltreichthum, 1821, 119. Oekonomie der menschl. Gesellschaft, 1845, 23.) The cosmopolitan view (Xenoph., Cyrop., III, 2, 17. Hier., 10) which prevails in Adam Smith's school was introduced by Hume, Essays, 1752, On the Jealousy of Trade. Quesnay, Encyclopedie, v. Grains, 294, ed. Daire; A. Smith, Theory of moral Sentiments, 1759, p. 6, sec. 2, ch. 2. Pinto, Lettre sur la Jalousie de Commerce, 1771, and J. Tucker, Four Tracts on commercial and political Subjects, 1776, 34 ff and 42 ff. "The system of states exercises no influence whatever on the world's commerce." (Lotz, Handbuch I, 11.) More recently, R. Cobden, in his Russia, Edinb., 1836, among others argued, that the conquest of Turkey by the Russians would be useful to England, because then more (?) English products would probably be sold there. Russia would become no stronger thereby, as conquests always injure the conqueror more than they benefit him. The idea of European equilibrium is therefore a chimera, because no state can be prevented from having an internal growth, as great as may be. Thus, in the summer of 1853, we heard the London Times sometimes preach that every cannon-shot fired by the English at the Russians might kill an English debtor or an English customer. The Venetians entertained a similar view at the beginning of the fifteenth century. Compare M. Sanudo in Muratori, Scriptores, XXII, 950 ff. See above, 12.

Moreover, Malthus had recognized that there were natural rivalries between nations which produced exceptions to Tucker's laws. (Principles, Preface.) Similarly Garve, in Cicero's Pflichten (1783), III, 146 ff.

592 B. Franklin, Works, vol. III, 49. Sismondi claims for all civilized nations the right of interfering with the governments of other nations with whom they have or might have commercial relations, and of insisting that they shall have a good government under which commerce may freely develop. (N. P. VII, ch. 4.)

593 As for instance when the ami des hommes says that he felt towards an Englishman or a German as he did towards a Frenchman with whom he was not acquainted. Mirabeau, Philosophie rurale, ch. 6.

594 Thus, for instance, the Stoic, Zeno: Plutarch. De Alex, fort, 1, 6.

595 Compare even Lauderdale, Inquiry, 274 ff.

596 How well, for instance, the English sustained Napoleon's continental blockade, the evils produced by which were intensified by several bad harvests. Its worst time did not, indeed, coincide with that of the struggle with the United States. The ancient Athenians, during their contest with Philip of Macedon, considered the question of the supplies from the Bosphorus etc. as one of life and death. But this can be looked upon only as a cogent proof of the small development which their commercial talents had received at the time. How easily might they not, according to our ideas, have obtained corn from Sicily or Egypt.

597 According to the acute analysis of language made by F. J. Neumann, Tuebinger Ztschr., 1872, 317 ff., the word "price" has reference to an actual purchase or sale, while the expression "value in exchange," generally called simply value, is based upon a valuation, or intimates in a general way that an object possesses value; value in exchange is, so to speak, the average of several price-determinations. Price, according to Schaeffle, is the external consequence of value in exchange, a means of representing the latter. (N. OEk., III, Aufl., I, 218.) Only through the difference between value in exchange (universal possibility) and price (special reality) is the laesio enormis of the jurists possible. (Schmitthenner, Staatswissenschen, I, 416.)

598 By market price, prix courant, is meant the money-price of commodities, determined by competition.

599 A problem very similar to that of the motion of bodies in space.

600 Lotz, Handbuch, 50 ff., calls those commodities costly which are obtained only at a high cost of production, and dear, those whose price is above the cost of production.

601 Compare Canard, Principes d'Economie politique, ch. 3. Almost simultaneously, H. Thornton, 1802, Paper-Credit of Great Britain.

602 See Jackson's Account of Morocco, 284, for cases in which, in the Sahara, when the burning winds of the desert had dried up the water in the leathern bottles of the caravan, a drink of water cost from $10 to $500.

603 The North American aborigines very frequently consent, in their exchanges, to take any offer made to them by their equals, however insufficient it may be, because they fear revenge. Schoolcraft, Information etc., II, 178. As to the effects of cunning, the Tungusi, when they get a glass of brandy from the Russians, grow almost idiotic, and give away their goods at mock-prices in drink. (v. Wrangell, Nachrichten, I, 233.) In the higher stages of civilization, on the other hand, very distinguished people are, by no means, privileged because of their position, in the struggle for prices. In modern times, claims (reclamen) have taken the place of greater physical or political power. Compare E. Hermann, Leitfaden der Wirthschaftslehre 1870, 91 ff.

604 Thus Galiani says, that before one of the two parties has expressed his want to buy or to sell, the pans of the scales are in equilibrium. The first that speaks breathes on one of them, and it drops. (Dialogue sur le Commerce des Bleds, 1770, No. 6.) This has been verified in a striking manner in California, where the most valuable commodities were often purchased at auction at the lowest prices, while when purchased from merchants and even the most wretched shopkeepers, they were sold enormously dear. (Gerstaecker, in the Allg. Zeitg., May, 1850.) Thus there were harvested in France, in 1817, 48,000,000 hectolitres of wheat, valued at 2,046,000,000 francs, in 1820, 44,500,000 hectolitres valued at 895,000,000 francs. (Cordier.) This vast difference in price existed, because in 1817, the whole world was still trembling under the impression made by the failure of the crops in 1816, while in 1820, the feeling of comfort and security caused by the rich year 1819, still prevailed. Low prices at forced sales under decree etc. See below, 5. That travelers are so frequently taken advantage of in effecting changes of money is explainable partly by their urgent wants, which are well known to the opposite party, and partly by their supposed ignorance in the matter. And so, at auction sales, out-bidding one another has something very seductive in it for ignorant or hot-headed purchasers.

605 It was considered immoral by his contemporaries, when William the Conqueror introduced the custom of farm-letting to the highest bidder. (A. Thierry, Conquete de l'Angleterre, II, 116, ed. Bruxelles.) It is repugnant to poetic and delicate minds to think that everything has a price exactly fixed. ( 2.) I need only refer to the picture of Helen which Zeuxis exhibited for money, which act of his was characterized, by his cotemporaries, as a species of prostitution. Val. Mac, III, 7. AElian, V, 4, IV, 12. Socrates judgment on the payment of the sophists. Xenoph., Memor., I, 6, 13.

606 Competition has only a negative influence on prices, inasmuch as it modifies the extreme operation of the other grounds of their determination. Thornton, Paper Credit. Lotz, Revision, 1811, I, 74 ff, 241 ff.

607 The expression, "intensity of demand," in Malthus, Principles, ch. 2, sec. 2. As early a writer as Sir J. Stewart calls attention to the difference between large and high and small and low demand. A high demand will always raise the price, as when, for instance, two wealthy virtuosi compete at an auction. Paucorum furore pretiosa, as Seneca says. An English penny of the time of Henry VII, once sold, on such an occasion, for L600. In 1868, at the Lafitte auction, seven bottles of wine sold to Rothschild at 235 francs a piece after the Maison doree had offered 233. (N. freie Presse, Dec. 17, 1868.) A great demand has frequently no result but to increase the supply, and the price rises only in so far as the demand is too sudden to permit a parallel growth of the supply. (Principles, Book II, ch. 2, 10.) The present price of tea could not remain unaffected, if ten different private merchants, competing one with another, or the agent of a privileged commercial society, should send orders to China for an equal quantity of tea. (Verri, Meditazioni, IV, 8 ff.)

608 Immense weight laid on the aequalitas permutationis (after Aristot., Eth. Nicom., V. 7,) in the ethics and economics of the scholastic middle ages, and in the time of the Reformation. Compare Melancthon, in Corp. Ref., XVI, 495 ff, XXII, 230.

609 A very barbarous theory of price in Xenoph., De Vectigg., 4. The ancients made little progress in this respect, although there are not wanting ingenious observations on certain phenomena of prices. (See Aristot., (?) Oecon. II; Cicero, De Off. III, 12 ff.) Mariana, De Rege et Regis Institutione, 1598, III, explains price as the relation of value to quantity. According to Locke, the price of a thing is determined by the relation between "quantity" and "vent": the increase or diminution of its useful qualities influences it only so far as it alters that relation. (Considerations on the Consequences of the Lowering of Interest etc, 1691, Works II, 20 ff.) Law, on the contrary, says that the "vent" can never be greater than the "quantity," but that the "demand" may be. Wherefore, he proposes the formula: quantity in proportion to the demand. (Trade and Commerce considered, 1705, ch. 1.) In chap. 6, Law distinguishes three elements in price: quality, quantity and demand. The expression "quantity" is, certainly, very unsatisfactory. How many examples does not Tooke (Thoughts and Details, on the high and low Prices of the last thirty Years, 1823, part IV) give to illustrate how, when the supply was smallest, prices were lowest and vice versa! It was so almost always after the market was over-filled, when a great many speculators had lost and no one dared to purchase anew. Montanari (ob. 1687) furnishes us with an excellent theory of prices. (Della Moneta, 64 ff., Custodi.) And a still better one, Sam. Pufendorf, Jus Naturae et Gentium, 1672, V. 1, who must be considered the best authority on the laws of prices before Stewart. Boisguillebert, Traite des Grains, II, 1, 10. Galiani, Della Moneta, I, 2, knows only the factors utilita, and rarita, although in his exposition of the latter, he discusses many points which would be called the cost of production in our time. The wisdom of Providence has granted us the most useful things in the greatest abundance to make them cheap. Stewart, Principles II, 2, 4, rendered a great service to the theory of prices, tracing back supply to the cost of production, demand to want and ability to pay; and his deserves to be called the immediate predecessor of Hermann's remarkable theory. (Hermann, Staatsw. Untersuchungen, 66 ff.) For a peculiar theory of prices, see Paganini, Saggio sopra il giusto Pregio delle Cose, 189 ff. Neri, Osservazioni, 1751, 127. Gust. Menger, Grundsaetze, I, 179 ff., has made an interesting attempt to explain the formation of prices in its simplest shape, in the supposition of a monopoly in the seller, and by then going over to the subsequent modifications introduced by the competition of many sellers.

610 "Instead of separating, in the same matter, the points of view of the buyer and seller, we may distinguish the consideration of the thing to be acquired and the thing to be given by one and the same person." (Rau.) The possessor of the more current commodity appears especially as demanding, that of the less current as offering or supplying, (v. Mangoldt.)

611 This is for free goods=0, for monopolized goods=1/0.

612 The obvious fact that every price supposes a comparison of two commodities, and that every buyer is, at the same time, a seller, has been overlooked by only too many writers. And hence Dutot's opinion, that, as all men buy and few only sell, the state, in case of doubt, should favor the buyer. (Reflexions sur le Commerce et les Finances, 1738, 962, ed. Daire.) And so the often-mooted question whether universal dearness or cheapness is more useful: the latter advocated, for instance, by Herbert, Police generale des Grains, 1755; Verri, Meditazioni, V; the former by Boisguillebert, Traite des Grains, I, 7, II, 9; and by the Physiocrates. (Quesnay, Maximes generales, Nr. 18 ff., I, Probleme Economique; also by A. Young, Polit. Arithmetics, ch. 8.) The laity in Political Economy understand by dearness only the general cheapness of the medium of circulation or exchange, and vice versa.

613 Thus, even a poor man in Naples sometimes requires a glass of ice-water. The introduction of the extensive use of snow into Sicily improved the condition of the public health. (Rehfues, Gemaelde von Neapel, I, 37 ff.) On the other hand, furs, in the far north, are articles of prime necessity. Newspapers in a free country satisfy a want much more urgent than in countries which are not free. And so, Senior says that shoes are "necessaries" to all Englishmen, since without them, their health would suffer. To the lower classes of Scotland they are "luxuries." Custom permits them to go barefoot without hardship or degradation. For the middle classes of the same country, they are "decencies." Shoes are worn there, not to protect the feet but one's civil position. In Turkey, tobacco is a decency and wine a luxury. The reverse is the case in England. (Outlines, 36 ff.)

614 As to the relativity of the opposites of "temperance" and "excess," every person should attend to the following points: a, not to exceed one's income; b, to provide for one's self and one's family; c, to lay by something for a rainy day; d, to place one's self in a position to care for the poor; e, to indulge in no pleasure injurious to body or mind; f, to give no bad example. (Tucker, Two Sermons, 29 ff.) Menger, Grundsaetze, I, 92 ff., endeavors to compare the value in use of different commodities from the point of view, that the means of gratification of a less urgent want, when the more urgent wants of the present are satisfied completely, should be preferred to the means of over-gratifying the latter.

615 Thus the price of many dark articles of apparel rises in a moment of unexpected universal mourning. A very remarkable case in Paris, at the death of Henry II. (Montanari, Delia Moneta, 85, Custodi.) On the other hand, a change of fashion may greatly depress the price of many commodities. Such a change may take place even in the case of precious stones; as, for instance, now in London, a perfect emerald is most highly prized. (King, Precious Stones and Metals, 1871.) The rise of many drugs in times of cholera, and of leeches, for example, in Paris, 600 per cent. Rise of the price of powder, horses etc. at the outbreak of a war, and of the price of iron caused by extensive railroad building. In Circassia, a good shirt of mail was formerly worth from 10 to 200 oxen: but since it was discovered not to be a protection against cannon balls, its price fell 50 per cent. (Bell, Journal of a Residence in Circassia, I, 403.)

616 On "connected" (connexen) goods, the use of one of which supposes the use of the other, as, for instance, sugar and coffee, wood and stone used in the construction of buildings, see Schaeffle, Nat.-Oek, II. Aufl., 179.

617 Observed by Necker, Sur la Legislation et le Commerce des Grains, 1776. Compare Roscher, Ueber Kornhandel und Theuerungspolitik, 1853, 1 ff. In Athens, for instance, the medimnos of wheat cost ordinarily five drachmas, but during the siege by Sulla it rose to 1000 drachmas. (Demosth. adv. Phorm., 918. Plutarch, Sulla, 13.) Compare II. Kings, 6, 25, 7, 1. In Paris during the siege by Henry IV. it rose to 5000 per cent. of the ordinary price. (Lauderdale, Inquiry, 60 ff.) During the siege of Breisach, in 1638, a mouse was finally worth 1 florin, the quarter of a dog, 7 florins, a quarter of wheat, 80 thalers. (Roese, Leben H. Bernhards, M., 11, 269.) Compare Strabo, V, 248 seq.

618 Wheat is still more indispensable than meat. Hence, in the ten principal markets of Prussia, the price of rye rose much more from 1811 to 1860 than the price of beef; the former between 0.32 and 1.03 silver groschens and the latter between 2.32 and 4.94 silver groschens. (Annalen der preussischen Landwirthschaft, 1869, No. 9.) And so in the Rhine district, the wine harvests have undergone much greater changes in price than the prices of must, although the years differed very largely in the quality of the yield. Thus the crop of 1830 was only 225, that of 1868, 10,845 pieces, and yet the minimum price between 1831 and 1865 was only from 3 to 58 flr. per ome. (Engel, Preuss. Statist., Ztschr., 1871, 168 ff.)

619 In England, the price of wheat has not unfrequently risen from 100 to 200 per cent. when the harvest was from one-sixth to one-third under the average, and when a supply from abroad had modified even this condition of things. (Tooke, History of Prices, I, 10 ff.) Tooke is of opinion that in a country with poor-laws like those of England, a deficit of one-third in the wheat crop, if there were no stores remaining and no importation from abroad, would cause the price of wheat to rise, 500, 600, and even 1000 per cent (p. 15.)

620 See Davenant, Political and Commercial Works, London, 1771, II, 224. Tooke was somewhat acquainted with Davenant. According to this law, a deficit in the harvest of 10 per cent. would raise the price of corn 30 per cent.; one of 20 per cent. would raise the price of corn 80 per cent.; one of 30 per cent. would raise the price of corn 160 per cent.; one of 40 per cent. would raise the price of corn 280 per cent.; one of 50 per cent. would raise the price of corn 450 per cent.

621 In England, it is 38.8 per cent. of the supply that comes to the market. (Quart. Review, XXXVI, 425.) In Belgium 40, and in Saxony at least 50 per cent. (Engel, Jahrb. der Statistik etc. von Sachsen, I, 276.) In Germany, the farmers consume on an average two-thirds themselves. (v. Viebahn, Zoll.-v-Statist., II, 958.) With this Plato, De Legg., VIII, agrees remarkably well.

622 On the difference in this respect between England, Germany and northwestern Norway, see Hermann, p. 71.

623 Hence it not unfrequently happens that grain grows dear not from any real want of it, but because it is generally supposed that such want exists. For an explanation of why it is that wheat and similar commodities have an almost invariable price, when the average is taken of a long series of years, see infra 129.

624 Case in Naples in which after a poor harvest the price of corn remained very low, because the oil-harvest had also failed, and the poor could earn nothing in that industry in which they were largely employed, and vice versa. (Galliani, Della Moneta, II, 2.) Thus Adam Smith, Wealth of Nations, I, ch. 7, distinguishes between "effectual" and "absolute" demand. Similarly J. Steuart, Principles I, ch. 18. Care should be taken to distinguish in this respect between desire and demand.

625 Thus, in the famine in Ireland in 1821, during which potatoes rose to fabulous prices, but wheat scarcely at all, and had therefore to be exported.

626 In Tooke, History of Prices (2d edition of the Thoughts and Details etc.), we meet repeatedly with the assertion that when the price of wheat rises, the price of colonial products and manufactured articles sinks, and vice versa. Thus, in England, the price of the evidences of national debt increases from two to three per cent. in fruitful years above what it is after a bad harvest. (Lauderdale, Inquiry, 93.) The British nation paid for the cotton it needed for their own consumption in 1845 over L19,500,000; in 1847 only L9,500,000. (Banfield, Organization of Industry, 162.)

627 Hence J. B. Say has said that the disposable wealth of a people is like a pyramid, with the scale of prices of the various commodities inscribed on its side. The higher a commodity is in this scale of prices, the smaller is the corresponding section of the pyramid. Compare Sir W. Temple, Essay on the Origin and Nature of Government, Works I, 23 ff.

628 This fact, in connection with the preceding, explains the well known puzzle, why the remnant of a piece of goods is comparatively cheaper than the whole piece, while a small share in the public debt is dearer than a large one. (Lauderdale, ch. 1.)

629 Rhode Island was, it is said, bought from the Indians in 1638 for a pair of spectacles. (B. Franklin, Political ... Pieces, 1707.) According to Chalmers, it was bought for 50 threads of coral, 12 hatchets and 12 overcoats. (Political Annals of the U. States.) Compare Ebeling, II, 108. Holland cloths and opium were exchanged for a long time at Sumatra for gold dust worth ten times their value. (Saalfeld, Geschichte des holl. Kolonialwesens, I, 260.) The Hudson Bay Company realized, it is said, at the beginning of this century, in trading with the Indians, a profit of 2000 per cent. (Anderson, Origin of Commerce, a. 1751.) When Altai was discovered, the natives gave as many sable-skins for a Russian kettle or boiler as could be crammed into it. With 10 rubles in iron it was an easy easy matter to gain 500-660 rubles. Storch, Gemaelde des russ., R., II, 16; K. Ritter, Erdkunde, II, 557. Similar cases among the Germans: Tacit., Germ., 5.

630 A seller not actually engaged in the business of selling for a livelihood, and who has not purchased or produced with the intention of selling, is apt to consider instead of this the market price, towards the determination of which those actually engaged in trade have cooeperated. Somewhat inaccurately, the amount of the cost of production is called by Adam Smith and Ricardo, "natural price," by J. B. Say, prix naturel, also prix originaire, because the commodity at its first entrance into the world cost so much. Sismondi and Storch call it prix necessaire, and Lotz, Kostenpreis. P. Cantillon, Nature de Commerce, 33 ff., understands by the prix intrinsique of a commodity, the amount of land and labor, taking the quality of both also into consideration, necessary to its production.

631 The cheapest cotton thread is numbered from 60 to 80. The coarser is dearer on account of the quantity of raw material in it, and the finer because of the greater amount of labor in it. (Babbage.) For similar reasons, the Venetian chains cost per braccio, No. 0, the finest, 60 francs; No. 1, 40 francs; Nos. 2 and 3, 20 francs; No. 24, coarsest, 60 francs. (Rau.)

632 If a person engaged in production has himself furnished certain of the elements of production; if, for instance, he has worked with his own hands, employed his own capital etc., he is wont to charge as much for these as they would be worth, if he hired himself out or loaned his capital.

633 The greater number of political economists consider the cost of production only from the standpoint of the individual engaged in production. Thus Darjes, Erste Gruende, 218 seq.; Ad. Smith, Wealth of Nations, I, ch. 6. J. B. Say calls even production an exchange in which the productive services of natural forces, of labor and of capital are parted with in order to obtain products. The estimate put upon the value of these services is the cost of production. For some interesting examples as to how the cost of production, in this sense, is calculated, see Hermann, I ed., 136 ff.

634 Jacob translated by Say, 1807, II, 450. Hufeland, N. Grundelgung, I, 309.

635 Compare L. Lauderdale, Inquiry, 124, against the Physiocrates. (Riedel, Nat.-Oekonomie, 1838, I, 68.) A country which possesses advantages over other countries, in respect to the cost of production of a commodity, can offer it in the market cheapest. Where, for instance, with the employment of the same amount of capital, a specially large quantity of wheat can be produced, whether it be because of the unusual fertility of the soil, or because of the extensiveness of agriculture (farming over a large area), wheat will, the demand being the same, be specially cheap, whatever the proportion of the three branches of income may have been. If relatively a great number of workmen have been employed in its cultivation, each will receive smaller wages, and vice versa.

636 Copper and steel engraving affords an example of the different kinds of wear of fixed capital, and the influence it may have on prices. Canard, Principes, ch. IV, considers that one of the most important elements in the cost of production is the length of time that capital must "stagnate" for the sake of production.

637 On this risk depends, for instance, the high price of vanilla (Humboldt, N. Espagne, IV, 10,), sparkling wines and articles of fashion.

638 Mangoldt, Lehre vom Unternehmergewinn, 1855, 81 ff. Compare v. Thuenen, Der isolirte Staat, II, 1, 80 ff.

639 Wool and mutton, brandy and fattened cattle, calves and milk, honey and wax, gas and coke, hens and eggs etc.

640 Adam Smith himself remarked that all artificial lowering of the price of skins or wool must necessarily raise the price of the meat, and vice versa. (Wealth of Nations, I, ch. 11, 3.) For a very elaborate theory on this subject, see J. S. Mill, Principles, III, ch. 16, 1. Thus Australian wool did not rise as much in price as the production of gold there might have led us to suppose, for the reason that mutton rose to an exceedingly high price.

641 It is an important and correct remark of Carey's, that the price of a commodity depends much more on the cost of producing its like than on its own cost of production, which already belongs to the past.

642 Compare J. S. Mill, III, ch. 3, 1. A much too high price, caused by speculation, or a much too low one, by depreciation, is regularly followed by an ebb or flow just as much too great. (Tooke, History of Prices, III, 55.) And Law, Trade and Money, 41, remarks that the price of a commodity always tends to coincide with the "first cost." This fact Adam Smith expresses by saying that the cost of production is the center about which the market price always gravitates. (I, ch. 7.) But here there is still the error lurking, that the producer's profit is a part of the cost of production. Compare Malthus, Definitions, ch. 6.

643 The English view, one very characteristic of the people, is that the equilibrium of prices depends on this, that all commodities should have a value equal to that of the labor they have cost. (Compare Aristot., Eth. Nicom., V, 5.) The same doctrine is to be found in its germinal state in Hobbes, Leviathan, 24, 1651, and Rice Vaughan, Discourse of Coin and Coinage, 1675. More exhaustively in Petty, Treatise of Taxes and Contributions, 1679, 24, 31, 67. (Compare Locke, Civil government, II, 40 ff.; B. Franklin, Inquiry into the Nature and Necessity of a paper Currency, 1729; Works, ed. Sparks, vol. II.) Adam Smith admits this to be true only of the first beginnings of society, before the origin of property in land and in capital. (Wealth of Nations, I, ch. 5.) Most largely developed in Ricardo, Principles, ch. I, 4, 30. Marx, Zur Kritik der polit. OEkonomie, 1859, 6, endeavors to improve on this by calling all values in exchange "a determinate quantity of thickly curdled working-time," meaning by work an averaged qualitaetslose, social work of production. Per contra, compare Hufeland, N. Grundlegung, I, 134, 156 ff.; and Malthus, Principles, ch. 2, secs. 2, 3, who claims very earnestly that price is not determined by the cost of production, but by the relation existing between demand and supply, the cost of production influencing it only to the extent that it influences this relation. He calls attention to the poor-rates by which the cost of production of labor is raised, but its wages decreased; also to the case of bank notes etc. (Tooke, History of Prices, V, 49 ff; J. S. Mill, Principles, III, ch. 16, 2.) For a very marked case of reaction against Adam Smith and Ricardo, see Macleod, Elements, ch. 2, who, however, is much too one-sided in considering only the amount necessary to the purchaser, and his means. Even Condillac had said: une chose n'a pas une valeur, parcequ'elle coute, mais elle coute (du travail ou de l'argent), parcequ'elle a une valeur. (Commerce et Gouvernement, 16.) Ricardo's doctrine is more tenable than appears at first blush. We need only to interline his theory of rent, admit that capital is accumulated labor, subtract all objects constituting a natural monopoly, and not forget that the intrinsic value of labor is one of the causes of the difference of price of different sorts of labor. Ricardo does justice to value in use even en passant. A strange effort by McCulloch to make labor the cause of the non-use of capital. (Principles, III, ch. 6, 2.) McCulloch has not unfrequently exaggerated the half-truths of his doctrines to such an extent as to produce unwittingly a reductio ad absurdum. According to Torrens, before any separation of capitalists from workmen, price depends entirely on the work done, and afterwards on the capital expended, inasmuch as wages, rent etc. are covered by the capital of the person who engages in the enterprise. (Production of Wealth, ch. 1.)

644 Ce que l' on appelle cherete, c'est l' unique remede a la cherete. (Dupont de Nemours.) Tenders of division in common, in England, increase and decrease according to the higher or lower price of corn during the preceding year. (Tooke, Thoughts and Details, III, 105 ff.) The cotton famine after 1861 increased the price of flax-yarn in a short time fifty per cent., although the raw material of flax did not rise in price, but only because care was not taken to increase the number of flax-spinners. (Ausland, I, 1865.) However, there were in 1864, 490,000 flax-machine spindles in course of erection. (Report of the Chemnitz Chamber of Commerce, 1864, 101.)

645 By the discovery, for instance, of new natural forces, the invention of machines, improved division of labor, improved roads etc. In France, in consequence of technic improvement, a quintal of saltpeter fell from 100 to 9 francs. See a similar instance in Chaptal, De l' Industrie francaise, II, 64, 70, 434.

646 Hermann, Staatsw. Untersuchungen, 212.

647 The highest but unattainable ideal of such progress would consist in this, that all products should be obtained without cost. If this ideal were attainable, every one would be infinitely rich and all wealth would be free, like the air and the sunshine. (Compare J. B. Say, Traite, II, 2.) The complete victory of mankind over nature would consist in that all men should be free and all the forces of nature the slaves of man. (Smitthenner.) Carey intimates something similar when he says that, with the advance of civilization the tendency is for men to become more and more valuable and commodities to have less of "value."

648 We might here speak of an aristocratic and democratic principle of the determination of prices. The greater utility of the latter is advocated in the Discourse of Trade, Coyn and Credit, London, 1697. Bacon has a good word to say for the maxim: "Light gains make heavy purses; for light gains come thick, whereas great come now and then." Similarly, Gurnay in Cliquot de Blervache, Considerations sur le Commerce etc., 1758, 48, 54. As to how Morrison, the celebrated merchant, became rich by adhering to the principles: "to sell cheap as well as to buy cheap," and "always tell the truth," see Chadwick, in the Statistical Journal, 1862, 503. Compare the related opinion of Adam Smith's continuator in an ethical direction, Garve, zu Cicero's Pflichten, III, 100. The contrary principle, the cunning of the Judaeans, according to Strabo, XVII, 800, was followed by the Dutch East India Company, when it, in 1652, caused the greater number of the vegetable roots on the Moluccas to be destroyed. Saalfeld, Geschichte des hollaendischen Kolonialwesens, I, 272. Also, when great quantities of roots were destroyed by burning in the East Indies. (Huysers Beschryving der Oostindischen Etablissmenten, 1789, 22.) For a clever argument against such practice, see de la Court, Anwysing der heilsame Gronden, 1663. The principle similar to that of the patent, mentioned in the text, works at the same time democratically and aristocratically, both words understood in their best sense.

649 This is true, first of all, in those industries which are intimately connected with one another, or of those which are carried on with scarcely any fixed capital; also in lower stages of civilization, where the lights and shades caused by a highly developed division of labor are not very intense. On the numerous difficulties overlooked by Ricardo in every other case, see Sismondi, N. P., II, ch. 2. The workman thereby loses his former skill, that is his principal capital, and can certainly not wait until he has acquired other and different skill.

650 When a lowering of prices is expected, demand is less than consumption: "postponed demand;" whereas, an expectation that the price will rise, produces "anticipated demand." Tooke, History of Prices, II, 155.

651 Thus, for instance, if the workmen were exposed to starvation, or were likely to take their departure; if great stores of raw material were in danger of spoiling; if fixed capital of great value were engaged in one industry and could not be easily transferred to another. The first and third causes are frequently met with in mining, and give rise to the mode of carrying on the operation known as Zubusgruben, that is, a species of working mines upon shares. In England, after the spring of 1862, cotton yarn was not so much dearer than raw cotton, that the loss caused by the decline could be made up. (Ausland, 24 Sept., 1862.)

652 Besides, in the time immediately following, the price lowered by too great a supply, may produce a species of desperation among producers, which would lead them, in the hope of covering their losses, to increase the supply still more, until many of them were ruined. Generally, when a time of high prices is followed by a time of low prices, we find an interval during which sellers endeavor to defend themselves against the decline, and during which, as a consequence, scarcely any business is transacted, while high prices are nominally continued. And so vice versa. Tooke, History of Prices, II, 62.

653 Thus, for instance, when the change of fashion brought about the disuse of long periwigs in every-day life, their price did not cease to fall until they had entirely disappeared. But, if a person wishes to have one made to-day for a masquerade, for the stage, etc., he would pay as much for it as its former price. On the other hand, the price of whalebone has never been again as high as it was in the time when hooped petticoats were worn.

654 The great plague in the time of Edward III. caused during the first year, on account of the decreased consumption, an extraordinary cheapness of provisions. In the following year, however, they became alarmingly dear, because there were few producers, especially among the humble classes. A quarter of wheat cost in 1348, 4s. 2d.; in 1349, 5s. 5d.; in 1350, 8s. 3d.; in 1351, 10s. 2d.; while in 1346 and 1347, its average price was 6s. 8-7/8d. Rogers, History of Agriculture and Prices, I, 232.

655 As for instance when new taxes or excises are imposed. Generally when the cost of production has largely increased, purchasers do not wait until a decrease of competition among sellers compels them to exact higher prices, but meet them half way, especially when many greatly desire the commodity, and the increase of the cost is only small. (Rau, Handbuch, I, 163.)

656 Under this rule fall, according to 33, most products of industry properly so called. "If we lose a market for a year, we generally lose it for all time," said an experienced manufacturer before the parliamentary hand-loom weavers' committee, 1840-42. Of course the cost of transportation as far as the market must be estimated as part of the cost of production. In consequence of this, as well as of the difference of taxation duties etc., the superiority of one producer to another may be more than overcome. In the case of colonial commodities, which go into the interior of a country from different sea-ports, the territory supplied from each port is determined for the most part by these data. Thus, in Switzerland, for instance, we find the districts supplied by Havre, Genoa and Rotterdam; in Austria, the districts supplied by Hamburg and Triest contiguous, but the boundary line subject to many changes. (Rau, Lehrbuch, I, 164.) It must be understood that we do not here speak of abnormal expenses made by producers individually, whether in consequence of want of skill or because of accident.

657 This is true especially of agricultural production, in which, as a rule, beside the most fertile and most advantageously situated land, the worse must be used. What Whately calls "surplus-profit" appears here in the form of rent, whereas, in other cases, it takes the shape of unusually high wages, or profit on capital. This is very beautifully and systematically developed by Schaeffle, N. OEk., II; Aufl., 192 ff. According to Senior, Outlines, 15, the price-relation of two commodities to each other depends not on the quantities of them which come to market, but on the relative power of the difficulties which stand in the way of an increase in these quantities. If the same producers can pursue the cheaper mode of production which does not suffice to supply the market, as well as the dearer, we have, generally, a price which is the mean between the two costs of production. The same is true in the case of "smuggled" goods which ought to have paid duty. (Hermann, loc. cit., 83, seq.)

658 To this section belong the secrets of production which may be taken advantage of either ad libitum or within certain limits. In agriculture, advantages of production can seldom remain secret. Compare, however, the case mentioned in Garnier's translation of Adam Smith, V, 119, and that of the orchards which yielded L1,000 yearly for every 32 acres, and which were a result of the recent introduction of the culture of the cherry in Kent, in the reign of Henry VIII. (Anderson, Origin of Commerce, a, 1540.) There is therefore, a certain odium attached by agricultural producers to keeping secret a means of agricultural improvement.

659 Compare Boisguillebert, Traite des Grains, II, ch. 2. John Stuart Mill speaks of an equation: the price of a commodity in a given market is always high enough to produce a demand corresponding to the present supply, or to an expected supply. The price of such commodities only which may not be increased to any desirable extent depends on supply and demand. In the case of all others, on the other hand, demand and supply depend on the price, and this on the cost of production. Supply and demand always tend to an equilibrium which is never really attained where the price is high enough to cover the cost of production (?). (Principles, III, ch. 2, 4; ch. 3, 2.) Schaeffle's theory of prices is topped by the proposition that all competing sellers and all competing buyers, after an economic fashion, do not wish to sell below individual cost-value, nor to rise above individual value in use, in purchasing. Hence, in a throng of competition of supply the costliest productions step out of the field of competition in a descending cost-value series; and in a throng of competition of demand, the most wearied cravings in an ascending value-in-use series; until the quantities offered in supply and asked for cover each other without loss, and have placed each other in quantitative equilibrium. (N. OEk. Aufl., I, 188 ff.; compare 173, 185.) It is, however, to say the least, an instance of baseless solicitude, when Wade, History of the middle and working Classes, 214, says that one unemployed workman might depress the aggregate wages of labor, almost ad infinitum.

660 Hufeland, N. Grundlegung, I, 78; Ricardo, Principles, ch. 31.

661 Dunoyer, Liberte du Travail, VIII, ch. 4; Rau, Lehrbuch, I, 158.

662 For a good classification of monopolies, see Senior, Outlines, 103 ff. Menger, Grundsaetze, I, 195, shows that no monopolist can arbitrarily determine the extent of the market for his monopoly-product when the price is fixed, nor when the extent of the market is known, the height of the price. Moreover, the price may remain longer above than under the cost of production, for the reason that it is easier to abandon a business than to begin one, and that the fear of loss is more frequently an incentive to action than the hope of gain. Hence the price of corn, when everything else is very dear, is more apt to vary from the average price, than in times when everything is very cheap. For instance, the Munich prices from 1750 to 1800 show that its highest price was 147 per cent. above, and its lowest 47 per cent. below the average of twenty years. (Rau, Lehrbuch, 162, 182.)

663 Chance plays a great part here. Thus, Murillo's Conception which Marshal Soult had offered several times for 150,000 francs, but in vain, was sold in May, 1852, for 586,000 francs. Paul Potter's young bull at the Hague, which cost 625 florins in 1748, was valued before the middle of the nineteenth century at 200,000 florins. (Dethmar.)

664 The purchaser resolves to do so because it would, in all probability, cost him more to go to India or Brazil in search of precious stones. Besides after the working of the Brazilian mines in 1728, and again after the French Revolution, the price of diamonds fell greatly; in the one case, from an increase of the supply, in the other from a decrease of the demand. (Ritter, VI, 355, 365.)

665 Thus, the Champagne and Johannisberg grapes, when transplanted to the Crimea, lost most of their native taste. On China's practical monopoly of tea culture, and Ceylon's, especially in its southwestern part, of cinnamon, at least so far as the peculiar aroma is concerned, compare Ritter, Erdkunde, VI, 123 ff. The small deer of Angora no sooner leave the little district of Asia Minor to which they belong, than they are in danger of degenerating. (Revue des deux Mondes, May 15, 1850.) Indian birds-nests cost no more than 11 per cent. to gather, dry etc., of the market price. (Crawfurd, East India Archipelago, III, 432 ff.; Hogendorp, Sur l'Ile de Java, 201.)

666 Poor material for fuel, poor day-laborer work—dwellings, medical attendance. (Menger, Grundsaetze, I, 116.)

667 Thus sea fish, oysters etc. were formerly much cheaper during the summer than during the winter, at Ostend and Scheveningen, because during winter they could be sent to a distance. At Billingsgate market, in the mackerel season, fish cost per hundred 48 to 50 shillings at 5 o'clock in the morning, 36 shillings at 10 o'clock, and 24 shillings in the afternoon. (H. Schulze, Nat-OEkonomische Bilder aus England, 1853, 241.) In the Rhine country, the price of fruit does not vary so much as in Saxony, because it is customary there to employ the surplus in the manufacture of cider, of preserves etc., thus making it transportable and durable. Frequently, after a very abundant crop of grapes or olives, under-prices prevail, sometimes on account of a want of vessels, cellar-room etc.; they must, therefore, be sold rapidly.

668 Compare Adam Smith, Wealth of Nations, I, ch. 7.; Tooke, History of Prices, I, 97. Furs vary very much in price, sometimes 300 per cent. in a year, because, in the case of this entirely natural product, every thing depends on the stores of them, on the temperature etc. (McCulloch, Commerc. Dict., s.v.) On the other hand, the price of coffee usually varies only after periods of a number of years, because new plantations produce only after a lapse of years. (Ibid.) Pigs vary much more than cattle in price, because the former may be made ready for the slaughter house in one-third of the time required for the latter. (Thaer, Rationelle Landwirthschaft, IV, 374.)

669 Thus the rent of farms, where a numerous proletarian population will live exclusively from agriculture, depends on scarcely anything but the number of people and the extent of the land. (J. S. Mill, Principles, III, ch. 2.) In retail trade, where personal want comes in question, prices are much more subject to be modified by small circumstances, than in wholesale trade, where both parties are only intent on "doing business." (J. S. Mill, III, ch. 1, 5. Tooke, II, 72 f.)

670 Hucksters, butchers, dealers in corn, inn-keepers etc. A remarkable case where Parisian dealers in hare-skins attempted to ruin the new fashion in silk hats by distributing a great number of them among the rabble, at mock-prices. (Hermann, 1st ed., 91.) The author witnessed a similar but unsuccessful attempt in Berlin in 1838-39, by the tailors against the so-called Macintosh coat. On the conspiracy of the English dealers in second-hand goods against auctions, see Athaeneum, Dec. 5, 1863. It is one of McCulloch's characteristic exaggerations, that he says that conspiracies to raise the price of a commodity by artificial means, are broken just as soon as they begin to obtain their object by the interest of the individual members to profit by the advanced prices. (Edition of Adam Smith, Edinb., 1863, p. 59.)

671 J. S. Mill, Principles, II, ch. 4.

672 Monopolies universally prohibited: L. un. C. De Monopol. (IV, 59.) Police-order of the Empire, 1548, tit. 18.

673 Privileges which the purchaser voluntarily accords to the seller are wont to be useful to both parties. (Hermann, loc. cit. 155, 158.)

674 Besides, guilds, castes, corporations etc. may, when the vent diminishes, produce under-prices as readily as they may monopoly-prices when the vent is very good. (See Adam Smith, Wealth of Nations, I, ch. 7.)

675 Thus, for instance, the traveler who wanted to cross a stream, would find himself delivered over to the tender mercies of the ferry-man, without protection of any kind against his demands. But repeated impositions in the matter of prices would have for effect to bring a point into disrepute as a place of crossing, and would induce the public to seek another. Similarly in the case of hackney-coachmen and carriers in large cities, and in that of innkeepers, at hotels and postal termini etc.

676 Fixed prices by governmental authority were soonest attempted after bad harvests, but, indeed, with a strange ignorance of the natural grounds of the increase in price of bread-stuffs. Thus in the time of Charlemagne. (Capitul. a, 805; Baluz, I, 423.) Similarly in the case of other articles of universal necessity, when oppressively but necessarily dear. (See 175.) During the last centuries of the middle ages, with their multitude of actual monopolies, and at the beginning of the modern era, fixed prices became more and more general. The earliest instance in the history of England of a fixed price for bread was in 1202 (v. Raumer, Hohenstaufen, V, 372), and in 1266, 51 Henry III. The earliest in Prussia was in 1393. (Voigt, Geschichte von Preussen, II, 659.) Many instances of fixed prices in the Rhine provinces of Austria in 1530. In Mylius, Corp. Const. March, V, 2, 587 ff., we find an ordinance of 1653 fixing prices in Berlin, and including 72 industries. There is a very complicated system of fixed prices in the police ordinance of the electorate of Saxony of 1612, and in the decree concerning the coin of 1822. As to how, in Saxony in 1578, an attempt was made to ascertain the cost of the production of shoes by shoemakers, see Joh. Falke, Gesch. des Kurf. August in volkswirthschaft. Beziehung, 1868, 252. There was an enormous extension of governmental fixing of prices under Philip II.; one of the principal causes why Castile was so far behind Aragon economically. (Townsend, Journey through Spain, II, 221.) Sometimes these measures were adopted to prevent distress-prices; as in Hochheim, in favor of the vintners. (Becher, Polit. Discurs, II, 1652.) The predilection especially of German authorities for the fixing of prices by governmental power, in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries is very remarkable. Thus Luther, vom Kaufhandel und Wucher, 1524; Calvin, Leben Calvins, by Henry, II, Beilage, 3, 23; Bornitz, De Rerum Sufficientia, 1625, 246; Seckendorff, Teutscher Fuerstenstaat, 5th ed., 1776, 210; Becher, II, 1823 ff.; Horneck, Oesterrich ueber Alles, wenn es will, 1684, 123; Leibniz ed. Dutens, VI, I, 250; Thomasius, Goettl. Rechtsgelahrtheit, 1709, 209; even Frederick the Great, Mylius, N. Corp. Const. March, I, 190. Similarly, Mariana, De Rege et Regis Institutione, III, c. 9. Compare, however, III, c. 8, and Bacon, Serm., 15; Historia Henrici, 1037, 1040. On the other hand, Child, 1690, and North, 1691, reprove all such measures. Roscher, Zur Geschichte der englischen Volkswirthschaftslehre, 65, 90 f. Earlier yet, Salmasius, who would allow the free fori ratio to govern. (De Usuris, 1638, 583.) For a very rigorous price-tariff in the old Indian laws, by which, inter alia, the price of provisions was to be fixed anew every fourteen days, see Menu, Laws, VIII, ch. 401 ff.