The Sun.
London, England, 1842-11-03 00:00:00

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LONDON :
MOTLMNG. NOATEMBEIZ, 3, 1842.

4-Pavagraph isgoing the rounds of the news-
114.per to the;eii
g
ect that the Government is insti-
tatin inquiries into the price of flour and bread
in various places., with- a view to make some re-
gulations for the trade of the miller and the
baker. It seems not at all unlikely that advan-
tage may be taken of the present high price of
bread, compared to the price of wheat, to impose
some restrictions on these trades. At any rate
t :ere is a treat number of persons amongst the
,
consumers, who, being too careless or indifferent
to Frotect themselves from extortioo, demand
and expect to be protected i;gainst their own fol-
lies by some new law. They will not neglect so
favourable an opportunity, and calling loudly for
a rifv regulation, they may be able, by the pres-
ure of 'a momentary and passing evil, which com_
s
petition will speedily' cure, to fasten a new and
mischievous assize of bread on the publi and
inflict injury on it for ages.
All such laws are based on this principle, that
a certain definite proportion shall always obtain,
and in all places, between the price of wheat, the
price of flour, and the price of bread, which is
manifestly unjust. Wheat is of various qualities,
and will yield much more and better flour one
season than another. A law which should fix
the price of flour in relation to the price of wheat
would be too low when the wheat ground badly,
and too high when it yielded an unusual quan-
tity of fine flour. In one case it would be unjust
to the miller, in the other unjust to the buyer,
but it would be almost always unjust to one or
the other.

Similar facts are true of flour when made into
bread. Some flour will make more bread than
ther flour. There maybe something also in the

art of baking, which will enable one .man to
make more loaves out of a sack of flour than his
neighbours. If lie sell his bread below the
assize, he affronts other bakers. To fix :In
assize is to prevent the consumer in some cases
from reaping the advantage of the increasing
skill of the baker.

It is a fact also, that the addition of potatoes to
I flour, far from injuring bread, makes it light and
wholesome, and at present there- is very little
bread made in the metropolis which does not
contain a small quantity of potatoes. How shall
that proportion be measured by an assize, so that
the consumer shall not pay more or less than he
ought, and more or less than be would pay with
an open trade and the fact avowed?
Some bakers, too, live in a populous, and others
in a thinly inhabited neighbourhood; and there
are situations where a baker who bakes only a
sack of flour a week is as much required as in
others a baker who bakes half a dozen sacks.
One of these may make a fortune by his trade,
while the other will scarcely make a living.
Now why is the man whose services are needed
as a baker, and who can only sell a sack of flour
per week, to be prohibited from charging a half-
penny or a penny more for a loaf, if his few cus-
tomers are agreeable to pay him, and without
which he may be unable to supply them ? To
prohibit that is, in fact, to prohibit them from
having bread from him, for the condition on
which he can supply them is, that he makes
his own living by it. Or why should the
man who makes a great deal of bread, and
who is perhaps at comparatiVely little more
expense than the man who makes a little,
be prevented from selling it if he can with a pro-
fit below the assize price ? The law may not
prevent him, but if it ordain a proportionate
price, it will be invidious in him to sell below
that—he will be slow to do it, and the consumers
will be deprived of an advantage which they
ought to derive from their numbers.
These facts are shadows of the actual variations
in the varying value of a loaf in different situa-
tions and circumstances, which must make every
law which fixes a definite proportionate price on
bread and flour in relation to wheat unjust either
to the producer or the consumer. No law can
be adapted to these varying circumstances, and
therefore no such law ought to be enacted.,
In confirmation of these remarks, let us refer
to the case of coach and cabmen, and watermen,
whose fares are regulated on one settled plan
by the Legislature or the Watermen's Company,
and who are continually summoned before the
Magistrates for acts of extortion or attempts at
extortion. It is generally admitted that to re-
gulate the fares these workmen are to demand
is extremely proper. No doubt it saves many
-gentlefolks a great deal of trouble, and enables
them to put their own discretion in their pocket,
as they can rely on the law instead. But sup-
pose the weather to be extremely fine, and it is
a pleasure to go on the water, or ride behind a
horse, and there are numberless watermen or
cabmen willing to be hired; or supposing it to
be excessively stormy, pouring down rain and
hail, so that the coachman can scarcely sit on
his box, or the waterman scarcely make any
way against the storm across the Thames, is it
not, in the first instance, a gross and palpable in-
justice to the public to make them pay the same
fares as in led weather, and in the latter an
equally gross and palpable injustice to the water-
men and coachmen to ordain them the same
payment as in fine weather? A -regulation
better calculated to make watermen and cabmen
keep within doors when the weather is very
bad, and deprive the public of accommodation
when it is probably most needed, cannot well be
conceived.

When it rains it is continually said a coach is
not to be had for love or money. The same is
said of boats. Why should either coaches or
boats be obtained ? How can the public expect
that coachmen or cabmen should brave all the
inclemency of a storm, spoil their own cloth-
ing, damage their cattle or their vehicle, submit
to great annoyance and expense, for the same
reward as they obtain in fine weather, when it is
a pleasure to serve the public? If it be said
that the fares, being too high in fine weather
balances the too low fares in bad, we answer that
it is not so, and that in fine weather injustice is
done to the public by not permitting-perfectly free
competition, and that in bad weather gross injus-
tice is done to two useful classes of men by cut-
ting off the rewards properly due for their ex-
posure and exertions.

It may be convenient to the public to have a
tariff of fares, but would it not also be convenient
to have a tariff fur all other services? The
master-tailor, hatter, and shoe-maker, in many
cases, charge much xnore than the sum they pay
their workmen ; and if there must be an assize
of bread, and cab fares fixed by statute, why not
also have a law to regulate the price of a coat
proportionate to the price of cloth, the price of a
hat proportionate to the cost of felt and beaver,
and the price of a pair of boots proportionate to
the cost of leather ? It is felt by many classes of
opulent tradesmen that such regulations would be
an unbearable thraldom, and they have sufficient
political power to keel) their business unshackled.
If cabmen and watermen were at once opulent,
numerous, and enlightened, they would also be
able to throw off a law which gives them a fixed
reward for services extremely variable in value.
If these two cases of cabmen and watermen,
which are two of the strongest to justify re-
gulations, and are generally approved of, admit
of many doubts, do not those doubts confirm the
objections we have made to affixing an invariable
proportionate price to flour and bread when their
relative value must continually vary ? We think
they do, and we would at once warn the public
against countenancing or demanding new re-
strictions.

We are the more disposed to call attention
just now to these circumstances, because we ob-
serve, besides the project for fixing an assize of
bread on the public, it is proposed by some med-
nalrilecii.rogfa
tnhiseeFdrCenhcaiml
obnertiol
dcl(iinaglmLeirbceer,aalfstetro
thn
e
City of London. Some superannUated or'uniuc-
cessful old gentlemen, who, not having regulated
their own affairs very well, suppose they can re-
gulate the affairs of our trading metropolis, want
to have a power of that kind placedin their hands.
There is a Chamber of Commerce at Glasgow
are the affairs of that city better regulated than
those of London ? There is one at Manchester,
some of the leading members of which were also
Directors of the Manchester Bank; has its skill
and knowledge saved Manchester from a great
calamity and a great stigma? There are Cham-
bers of Commerce in all the ports of France;
have they done anything for the trade of that
country, except to stifle it ?

Of all the contemptible and absurd importa-
tions of political institutions that we are ac-
quainted with, the importation by England—the
most successful maritime and commercial nation
of the world—of the commercial and maritime re-
gulations of France, the least successful com-
mercial country of the globe, is the most
contemptible and absurd. We can pardon
the Spaniards, the Mexicans, the Portuguese,
and the French for importing our insti-
tutions, in the expectation of obtaining thereby
Prosperity and greatness, because Britain has
been prosperous and great under them; but
We cannot pardon the poor and wretched
spirit of imitation which would import amongst
a free and successful people the slavish institu-
tions of an unsuccessful nation. All such insti-
tutions :leis, Chambers of Commerce, except. they
be nl
voluntary, and such regulations as
assize of bread, and fares of coaches, fixed by law,
are contrary, and even hostile to trade, the
spirit of which is perfect freedom.
Society must be governed by the principle of
competition in all things, or by the principle of
fixed regulations. If the Legislature essay to
fix the price of corn, it must settle the wages of
labour; Wit determine what profit a baker shall
snake out of a sack or flour, it must settle how
much a tailor shall make by a piece of cloth.
To regulate all the business of individuals is fiir
beyond the power of arty Legislature, even in
communities where the people are divided into
castes; and as the reg uiating principle, there-