Page:Principlesofpoli00malt.djvu/134

 without labour, but could only be supplied exactly in the same quantities as they would be in the actual state of things; then, supposing the wills and means of the purchasers to remain the same, there cannot be a doubt that all prices would also remain the same. But if this be allowed, it follows that the relation of the supply to the demand is the dominant principle in the determination of prices whether market or natural, and that the cost of production can do nothing but in subordination to it, that is, merely as it affects the ordinary relation which the supply bears to the demand.

It is not, however, necessary to resort to imaginary cases in order to fortify this conclusion. Actual experience shows the principle in the clearest light.

In the well known instance noticed by Adam Smith of the insufficient pay of curates, notwithstanding all the efforts of the legislature to raise it, a striking proof is afforded that the permanent price of an article is determined by the demand and supply, and not by the cost of production. The real cost of the education would in this case be more likely to be increased than diminished by the subscriptions of benefactors; but a large part of it being paid by these benefactors, and not by the individuals themselves, it does not regulate and limit the supply; and this supply, on account of such encouragement, becoming and continuing abundant, the price is naturally low, whatever may be the real cost of the education given.

The effects of the poor-rates, in lowering the wages of independent labour, present another practical instance of the same kind. It is not probable that public money should be more economically managed than the income of individuals. Consequently the cost of rearing a family cannot be supposed to be diminished by parish assistance; but a part of the expense being borne by the public, and applied more largely to labourers with families, than to single men, a fair and independent price of labour, adequate to the maintenance of a certain family, is no longer a