want of the former. To produce, implies that the producer desires to
consume; why else should he give himself useless labour? He may not wish
to consume what he himself produces, but his motive for producing and
selling is the desire to buy. Therefore, if the producers generally
produce and sell more and more, they certainly also buy more and more.
Each may not want more of what he himself produces, but each wants more
of what some other produces; and, by producing what the other wants,
hopes to obtain what the other produces. There will never, therefore, be
a greater quantity produced, of commodities in general, than there are
consumers for. But there may be, and always are, abundance of persons
who have the inclination to become consumers of some commodity, but are
unable to satisfy their wish, because they have not the means of
producing either that, or anything to give in exchange for it. The
legislator, therefore, needs not give himself any concern about
consumption. There will always be consumption for everything which can
be produced, until the wants of all who possess the means of producing
are completely satisfied, and then production will not increase any
farther. The legislator has to look solely to two points: that no
obstacle shall exist to prevent those who have the means of producing,
from employing those means as they find most for their interest; and
that those who have not at present the means of producing, to the extent
of their desire to consume, shall have every facility afforded to their
acquiring the means, that, becoming producers, they may be enabled to
consume.

These general principles are now well understood by almost all who
profess to have studied the subject, and are disputed by few except
those who ostentatiously proclaim their contempt for such studies. We
touch upon the question, not in the hope of rendering these fundamental
truths clearer than they already are, but to perform a task, so useful