Year: 1862

/ High Prices and La gislative FrohsblsIons


We observe that the South Carolina Legislature i
attempting a very absurd and very impossible thing
1t is attempting to regulate the prices of marketable
commodities by legislative enactmeDts Since the war
commenced we have observed very closely the effect of
all such legislation both on the part of the States and
the Confederate authorities, and we have vet to see
single instance n which the evil which it was souoht to
cure was not great intensified. Some time last wear
the Governor of Georgia aahorized the seizure Of all
the salt in the hands of specuators and proh tied s
transportation from the State under heavy penalties


We endorsed the act because thought, without re-
lection that it would be of service to the peone but it
was J1st the the trade in salt broken up in
Georgia. the article became higher and scarcer and the
| people were the sufferers. The Provost Marshal of
Richmond attempted to fix the price OF such articles as
butter eggs poultry, beef, &C. in that market aud the
quence was that the hucks rs refused 10 eunDv
the market at those prices the people became the sui
erers and the Provost Marshal had annu his arbi
rary ordinance For long time the Confederate sr-
hOrties attempted to fix the price of neat -four sugar
provender &c. purchased tor the use of the government


The people would not sell at thuse prices speculation
ceased and the government had resort TO impress
men for supplies. They found that this was not
OLly system of public puader tie part OF the gov
enment but that failed to furnish them the necessary
supplies The ult that the absurdity of making
and controlling prices abandoned by the govern
meut authorities and they come into market with
the people upon terms OF fair competition. We might
aude to other instances in which State cor
poraton and Confederate authorities have attempted
to regulate and control the PRICES OF articles of consumu
tiOn but the inevitable failure has attended them
ALL and the evil been vastly increased by tue remedy
And such in the very nature OF things will nfahbly be
the result of such arbitrary and foolish legislation.
The reason of this is obvious upon IA moments re-
tieciion. Nine enths of the people have mistaken the
cause of high prices. They think it is some
arbitrary and tyrannical tariff of charges fixed by
mercIess set of spectators and extotouers II it
not for tie spectators, say they prices of everything
would rule low. There never was greater mistake
upon earth. They put the cart before the horse. They
might just as well denounce the ridiculous proposition
that vutures drew the carrou, for it demonstra6e
fact that were it not for the high prices there would
be no speculation Make sugar ten or twenty cents
pound and there will not be another barrel brought to
Virginia during the war; and another specuator
engaged n the trade. Fix the price of salt at five dol
lars per SACK and not another speculator will go after
it, and the people will have to do without it, Gut
down the price of calico to ten or twenty cents per yard
and not another yard will the blockade Fix the
price of shoes at three five dollars and not another
pair will be made. Fix the price OF wood at five dol
lars per cord, and nobody will SELL Reduce butter to
twenty-five cents per pound, and we will have to eat
greaseess bread for five years to come In short put
down high prices, and you will pull down spectators
and put down specuatOrs, and you will impoversh the
the markets and starve and freeze the people.


These truths are so seevident, that it seems aston
shng they should fail to the sanction OF the least
observant and thoughtIess amongts US No man spec





laes to make money, and he will speculate on those
things Of which he make the most money This is
human nature and common sense 1t has been so from
the beginning of commerce. and will be to the end Of
time, in peace and in Destroy speculation and
you at once sweep the white sails of commerce from the
SEAS and arrest the course of trade upon the aad Every
would have to be his merchant, his sales
man, his own manufacturer and his own banker. High
prices therefore, make spectators and If asktd
what makes high prices, answer emphatcalIy the
G0Gr, and lis concomtants. High prices great profits
and mm ense fortunes attend all wars conducted upon
paper issues Prices have gone up pGy2 pas.
Su with the increase of the currency and The
demands of trade, and they will come down
in the ratio precisely the currency is curaed
after the war; and the demands of trade cease and not
before. The war has made paper money abundant
tar too much for ordinary trade, and it has made
nearly every thing and in greater demand Had
We no should have blockade, and without the
blockade we would get cacoes at twenty cents per
yard instead of two dollars. The has made salt
scarce by cutting off from various abundant sources
of supply salt is selling at the fabulous prices
OF seventy and eighty cents per pound. This is too
high, Doubt and there is little doubt that those
who make salt have extOrted upon the people and made
fortunes. But supply and demand are fundamental
laws which control ali trade, and while, like any other
wholesome laws, they may be, aud doubtless are abus
ed to the injury OF the people, it is equally certain
that no law control correct the evil, any more
than it can affect tie laws of graviat5n


Free trade is the best law aud tie only law which car
regulate the prices and govern commerce and the leg
sIaor who attempts to tinker with and upset the un
ddmnal principles OF all political economy, and
arrest the ural course OF things under Crduar
extraordinary state Of circumstances only der
> himself ridiculous and multiplies the evils which h
= seeks remedy.