Principles of Political EconomyPerry, Arthur Latham
General
Principles of Political Economy
Perry, Arthur Latham
Economics
If only two things can limit the universal market, and if there never
has been and never can be any lack on the part of some men of Desires
which the efforts of other men can satisfy through exchange, can there
ever be any lack in the second element of a market, namely, in
Return-services? It is not meant to be asserted, that there are not
definite limitations at any one time or place, or in the whole world
at any given period, in the capacities of men then and there to
produce material commodities, with their knowledge of things and
powers of invention; but what _is_ meant to be asserted is this, that
wherever Production is most busy and universal in response to the
desires of some men somewhere, _there_ will be the greatest plenty of
return-services, with which to pay for the services of these "some
men somewhere" offered in response to the desires of the first set of
producers. Therefore, no general glut of products is possible to
occur. The more and the more _kinds_ of commodities produced anywhere,
the better market _that_ for the more and the more kinds of
commodities produced somewhere else. The nearer Industry may seem to
be about to come to the goal of a limit, the farther off from that
goal it is in reality. The aggregate of human industrial powers has
indeed a potential limit at any one moment, but the knowledge of
things and the power of invention and the means of transportation are
enlarging every moment of time; so that, that potential limit never
can become an actual limitation. Human industry will go on enlarging
and diversifying itself so long as the world shall stand.
Let us put this vastly important argument in other and briefer words:
the Desires of men which the Efforts of other men can satisfy through
exchange are unlimited in number and indefinite in degree; and
therefore, mutual industrial efforts can continue to be put forth in
exchange, until these unlimited and indefinite desires of all men are
all met,--a goal which clearly never can be reached.
This proposition demolishes at a stroke the fallacy, that pervades Dr.
Chalmers' book but just now alluded to; and, what is more to the
present point, demolishes equally fallacies current and prevalent in
the United States at this hour. What our national industries need and
all they need, what they always needed and all they ever will need, is
a quick market for their products; products in market is the only
market for products; but the United States for 30 years past has been
putting vast obstacles in the shape of formidable taxation in the way
of the presence of products from abroad in our domestic market, and
consequently and inexorably the market for domestic products has been
lost in foreign countries, to the immense and irreparable damage of
domestic producers as well as to the foreign producers themselves.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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