Page:The Effects of Civilisation on the People in European States.djvu/48

26 that lately prevailed, for two or three seasons, in a great part of Europe. Many people were of opinion, that the real scarcity of provisions was not proportionable to the high price they bore, but that this was occasioned by artificial causes, and several were assigned of that kind. The wealth of great farmers, and the assistance of bankers given to lesser ones, have, in some people's opinions, enabled both to keep their corn, and such other things as their farms produce, from market; and by these means to raise the price of them. Jobbers, regraters, and millers, are charged with occasioning the same effect. Not to observe that such people are not new, and have subsisted a long time without such an effect, to all these supposed causes, and such as these, one common and short answer may be given: That as the price was near four times the usual one, the poor could not, with their earnings, buy more than a third or fourth part of what they used to buy when it was lower; consequently they must consume less. Therefore, if the quantity of corn in the country was not small in proportion to this diminished consumption, there would be, towards harvest, a great deal of corn remaining in the hands of the farmers, which the farmers would, if they considered their own interest, then bring to market in greater quantities than they had done before; for they must suppose