OF VALUE.

189

decrease, the possessors of the commodities
would be exposed to the necessity of bringing
them to market at a reduced rate, especially if
they were commodities of which the supply
could be neither immediately stopped, nor ad-
justed to the new state of the demand. The
holders, in this case, would be exposed to all
the disadvantages incident to a monopoly in
which there were separate interests. The com-
petition amongst themselves would force the
whole of their supply into the market.
Occurrences of this kind must not be con-
sidered asrare or unimportant. Mr. Tooke, in
his recent valuable work ‘on the High and
Low Prices of the Thirty Years, from 1793
to 1822,” has most strikingly shown the fre-
quency and extent of excesses and defi-
ciences in the supply of corn, as well as the
momentous effects which they occasion. These
effects are all referable to the principle of a
temporary monopoly. Foreign supplies being
put out of the question, the holders of corn
have obviously a monopoly of the article till