A Treatise of Political Economy

by Say, Jean-Baptiste (1850)

Key Passage

In a community, city, province, or nation, that produces abundantly, and adds every moment to the sum of its products, almost all the branches of commerce, manufacture, and generally of industry, there is always a large quantity of products in the market, ready to bid for new productive services. And vice versa, whenever, by reason of the bludners of the nation or its government, production is stationary, or does not keep pace with consumption, the demand gradually declines, the value of the product is less than the charges of its production; no productive exertion is properly rewarded; profits and wages decrease; the employment of capital becomes less advantageous and more hazardous; it is consumed piecemeal, not through extravagance, but through necessity, and because the sources of profit are dried up. (p.140)

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