The Sun.
London, England, 1839-10-24 00:00:00

NII/4123.7 A •
;;Qtet,"4

Z:be
2

LONDON:
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 24, 1839.

We perceive with regret, by the accounts from
Manchester, that the markets continue unfav our-
able, and that prices are falling, and the prospects
of the manufacturers are becoming more gloomy.
Notwithstanding the momentary abundance of
money in the City, there is a general impression
that prices will fall still lower, which deepens the
gloom. To us the apprehension of a fall in prices,
as abounding in evil, seems very strange, and of
itself to indicate that some erroneous principle is at
I the bottom of our political and commercial regula-
-1 tions. It will not, therefore, be considered inap-
propriate that we should now make a few observa-
tions on the subject of prices.
The great end and aim of all the valuable inven-
tions of human ingenuity is to save labour, or enable
1 man to obtain goods at a less cost. The spade
and the plough, the wind corn mill and the spinning
Imule, as well as the application of steam-engines to
propel vessels, with all the countless contrivances
of rean's skill, from a sewing-needle to a steam-
ship, all subserve this great purpose of supplying
the wants of man by a diminution of toil. Since
zny records have been kept man has made a pro-
gressive advancement in the great art of lessening
his toil by skilful inventions. In fact, before the
use of records is known, the process goes on, for
spears and hooks to uestroy game and fish are found
amongst barbarians wholly unacquainted with let-
ters. if we are entitled, from the numerous facts
ll we observe of bodies tending towards the centre of
the earth, to speak of gravity as a law of nature,
in spite of the numerous apparent, but explicable
exceptions to it, surely we are also entitled to de-'
sctibe this continual progress in invention, and the '
continual desire to lessen labour, of which our nu-
merous and splendid inventions are the visible proofs
4
RS a law of nature. We affirm, then riArats- it ;y a
law of nature that social man or society should go
on continually inventing machines to lessen labour.
But all price is ultimately paid by labour,
and the further result of these continual
inventions—the consequence of this law of
nature, is that the price of commodities, or
the cost of production, has a continued ten-
dency to decrease. That such has been the case
since the peace has been notorious. All the inge-
nuity and skill of our most skilful artizans and en-
Igineers, the whole of that which we may call the
1 practical mind of the nation, has been intent, du-
-1 ing the last quarter of a century, on simplifying the
processes of production, on inventing new and
more productive instruments, and on bringing all
kinds of commodities, not excluding those of
agriculture, to market by means of a less quan-
tity of labour or at a less cost of produc-
tion. Is it to be supposed that all these ex-
' ertions are fruitless, and these struggles vain ; or
must we conclude that it is also a law of na-
ture—the inseparable consequence of the other
law we have referred to, that as the cost of produc-
tion falls, so price must fall in the progress of so-
ciety ? We conclude that the fall of prices, which
so fills our manufacturers with apprehension, is the
necessary consequence of their exertions and their
own ingenuity, and of that perpetual striving after
improvement which is natural to each man in his
sphere. If this be so, should not the merchants
and manufacturers look for such a result, and
take their measures accordingly ? If they were
to look forward with this principle as a guide,
would they not find much advantage from that
fall of prices, which they continually endeavour to
bring about, which would extend the use of all
kinds of commodities to an ever-widening body of
consumers, and compensate the smaller price by a
more extensive demand ? That the effective de-
mand has not been co-extensive with the reduc,
tion in price, is, perhaps, the source of the appre.
hensions which are now continually felt from a fal
of prices.

The only exception to this general principle—
the only objection we have ever heard to the doc-
trine—that the cost of production and the price
of commodities have a continual tendency to
fall,—is, that the increase of population, forcing
society to have recourse to worse and worse
soils, causes us to procure the necessary sup-
plies of food at a continually increasing expense.
But if this be true in the long run, which we deny,
the fact at present is, that our necessary supplies of
food could be obtained, through the instrumentality
of our cheaply made cloths and cutlery from
the vast continents of Europe and America
at a far cheaper rate than food was ever before
supplied to the human race. So true is this,
that we make and maintain, at a great cost
of misery and min, a stringent and unpopular
law to prevent our people from') obtaining their food
at the smallest possible cost of production. The
exception to the general doctrine, which we have
mentioned, does not exist therefore, at this moment,
and the law of nature we have adverted to now holds
as true in regard to food as in regard to cotton, cloth,
or cutlery.

Another remarkable consequence flows from
this doctrine. As all the producers of commodities
exert themselves, and task their ingenuity to pro-
duce them at the least cost, while they are all de-

sirous of selling them in the best markets, there is

a perpetual tendency in all the markets of the com-
mercial world to an equalization of prices. Thus
the Germans and Hungarians would willingly
send us their corn, and bring down the price of
corn in our markets nearly to a level to that in their
own ; while we are willing to send them our manu-
Witted goods, and bring down the • f woollens
prices 'of
aiid-tvtons in Germany to a level with their price in

~• /'_~;

~%;