[315] There is, indeed, a difficulty which I happily need not discuss. Undoubtedly the doctrine of gluts was absurd. There is, of course, no limit to the amount of wealth which can be used or exchanged. But there certainly seems to be a great difficulty in effecting such a readjustment of the industrial system as is implied in increased production of wealth; and the disposition to save may at a given time be greater than the power of finding profitable channels for employing wealth. This involves economical questions beyond my ability to answer, and happily not here relevant. [316] _Letters to Malthus_, p. 101. [317] _Ibid._ p. 52. [318] _Works_, p. 174 (ch. xxi.). [319] _Works_, p. 66 (ch. vi.). [320] _Works_, p. 240 (ch. xxxi.). [321] Ricardo, _Works_, p. xxiv. [322] Menger's _Das Recht auf den vollen Arbeitsertrag_ (1891), p. 38. [323] _Works_, p. 228 (ch. xxviii.). [324] _Works_, pp. 29, 60. [325] _Ibid._ p. 166. [326] _Works_, p. 170 (ch. xx.). [327] _Ibid._ p. 7. [328] So he tells Malthus (_Letters_, pp. 173, 174) that the buyer has 'the least to do in the world' with the regulation of prices. It is all the competition of the sellers. 'Demand' influences price for the moment, but 'supply follows close upon its heels, and takes up the regulation of price.' [329] _Works_, p. 234. [330] Bentham's _Works_, x. 498. [331] _Works_, p. 250 (ch. xxxii.). [332] Stewart's _Works_, x. 34. [333] See Bagehot's remarks upon J. S. Mill's version of this doctrine in _Economic Studies_: chapter on 'Cost of Production.' [334] Another illustration of the need of such considerations is given, as has been pointed out, in Adam Smith's famous chapter upon the variation in the rate of wages. He assumes that the highest wages will be paid for the least agreeable employments, whereas, in fact, the least agreeable are generally the worst paid. His doctrine, that is, is only true upon a tacit assumption as to the character and position of the labourer, which must be revised before the rule can be applied. [335] J. S. Mill, too, in his _Political Economy_ makes the foundation of private property 'the right of producers to what they themselves have produced.' (Bk. ii. ch. ii. § 1.) [336] Mr. Edwin Cannan, in _Production and Distribution_ (1894), p. 383. [337] A definition, says Burke in his essay on the 'Sublime and Beautiful' (introduction) 'seems rather to follow than to precede our inquiry, of which it ought to be considered as the result.' [338] _Works_, p. 34 (chap. ii.). Rent is there defined as the sum paid for the original and indestructible powers of the soil. [339] _Works_, p. 132 (chap. xvii.). He admits (_Ibid._ p. 210 _n._) that the labourer may have a little more than what is absolutely necessary, and that his inference is therefore 'expressed too strongly.' [340] See _Letters to M'Culloch_, p. xxi. [341] 'The assaults upon Malthus's "great work,"' he says (_Works_, p. 243, ch. xxxii.), 'have only served to prove its strength.'