Page:Thoughts on the Corn laws, addressed to the working classes of the county of Gloucester.djvu/20

16 any particular kind of machinery rather has a tendency to diminish price. That has been the case with a vast number of machines in this country: the power-looms, for example, are now made at a very low price, owing to there being a great demand for them. Steam-engines in like manner: the great demand for them has put a number of heads and hands to work upon them, and they have been produced at a much less price, in consequence of such increased demand, than they would have been sold for, had the demand been a more limited one."

But the case is far different with some other articles particularly with agricultural produce. If an arable farm, under ordinary cultivation, produce one hundred quarters of wheat, it is probable that no increased expenditure could make it produce two hundred quarters; and any increase of its average crop could only be obtained by a much more than proportionate increase of expenditure. The farmer, it should also be observed, unlike the manufacturer, does not regulate the amount of his crop by the demand for it, (though he may alter the kind of crops according to the taste of his customers,) but always tries to raise as large a produce as he can. For, in long periods of time, population will accommodate itself to the amount of food; or, in other words, the demand will accommodate itself to the supply, and not the supply to the demand, as is more or less the case with other articles. And