If a commodity is raised by authority above what it will yield with a profit to the buyer, that commodity will be the less dealt in.
Edmund Burke
The Public Record
Edmund Burke was an Anglo-Irish writer, philosopher, and politician who is widely credited as the founder of the cultural and political philosophy of conservatism. Regarded as one of the most influential conservative thinkers and political writers of the 18th century, Burke spent the majority of his career in Great Britain and was elected as a member of Parliament (MP) from 1766 to 1794 in the House of Commons of Great Britain with the Whig Party. His writings played a significant role in influencing public views and opinions in both Great Britain and France following the French Revolution in 1789, and he remains a major figure in modern conservative circles.
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They pull down what is above; they never raise what is below; and they depress high and low together beneath the level of what was originally the lowest.
A perfect equality will, indeed, be produced,--that is to say, equal want, equal wretchedness, equal beggary, and, on the part of the partitioners, a woful, helpless, and desperate disappointment.
But if authority comes in and forces the buyer to a price, what is this in the case (say) of a farmer who buys the labor of ten or twelve laboring men, and three or four handicrafts,--what is it but to make an arbitrary division of his…
The only question is, What is it worth to the buyer?
When any commodity is carried to market, it is not the necessity of the vendor, but the necessity of the purchaser, that raises the price.
If I am right in this notion, then labor must be subject to all the laws and principles of trade, and not to regulations foreign to them, and that may be totally inconsistent with those principles and those laws.
When a man cannot live and maintain his family by the natural hire of his labor, ought it not to be raised by authority?
But in calamitous seasons, under accidental illness, in declining life, and with the pressure of a numerous offspring, the future nourishers of the community, but the present drains and blood-suckers of those who produce them, what is to…
It is therefore the first and fundamental interest of the laborer, that the farmer should have a full incoming profit on the product of his labor.
On the other hand, if the farmer ceases to profit of the laborer, and that his capital is not continually manured and fructified, it is impossible that he should continue that abundant nutriment and clothing and lodging proper for the…
It is plainly more the farmer's interest that his men should thrive than that his horses should be well fed, sleek, plump, and fit for use, or than that his wagon and ploughs should be strong, in good repair, and fit for service.
For of all the instruments of his trade, the labor of man (what the ancient writers have called the instrumentum vocale) is that on which he is most to rely for the repayment of his capital.
It is the interest of the farmer that his work should be done with effect and celerity; and that cannot be, unless the laborer is well fed, and otherwise found with such necessaries of animal life, according to its habitudes, as may keep…
But in the case of the farmer and the laborer, their interests are always the same, and it is absolutely impossible that their free contracts can be onerous to either party.
If he is in any way a maker or regulator of the contract, in so much he is disqualified from being a judge.
The vulgar error on this subject arises from a total confusion in the very idea of things widely different in themselves,--those of convention, and those of judicature.
Whatever is above that is a direct tax; and if the amount of that tax be left to the will and pleasure of another, it is an arbitrary tax.
If we were wildly to attempt to force them beyond it, the stone which we had forced up the hill would only fall back upon them in a diminished demand, or, what indeed is the far lesser evil, an aggravated price of all the provisions which…
Labor is a commodity like every other, and rises or falls according to the demand.
Patience, labor, sobriety, frugality, and religion should be recommended to them; all the rest is downright fraud.
It is no relief to their miserable circumstances; it is only an insult to their miserable understandings.
When I say that we of the people ought to be informed, inclusively I say we ought not to be flattered: flattery is the reverse of instruction.
When the poor rise to destroy the rich, they act as wisely for their own purposes as when they burn mills and throw corn into the river to make bread cheap.
Whether they mean it or not, they do, in effect, execute their trust,--some with more, some with less fidelity and judgment.
Politicians like Edmund Burke
