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nydus/On The Principles of Political Economy, and TaxationPublic
Page 353 of 421
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CHAPTER XXIX.

and high price of any other commodity will encourage its production. In this view it will be seen, from what I have said of the effects of bounties, that I entirely concur. I have noticed the passage Mr. Malthus's "Observations on the Corn Laws," for the purpose of shewing in what a different sense the term real price is used here, and in his other pamphlet, entitled "Grounds of an Opinion, &c." In this passage Mr. Malthus tells us, that "it is clearly an increase of real price alone which can encourage the production of corn," and by real price he evidently means the increase in its value relatively to all other things, or in other words, the rise in its market above its natural price, or the cost of its production. If by real price this is what is meant, Mr. Malthus's opinion is undoubtedly correct; it is the rise in the market price of corn which alone encourages its production, for it may be laid down as a principle uniformly true, that the only encouragement to the increased production of a commodity, is its market value exceeding its natural or necessary value.

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