From what has been already said, it is obvious that periods of "brisk
demand" are also the periods of greatest production: the national
capital is never called into full employment but at those periods. This,
however, is no reason for desiring such times; it is not desirable that
the whole capital of the country should be in full employment. For, the
calculations of producers and traders being of necessity imperfect,
there are always some commodities which are more or less in excess, as
there are always some which are in deficiency. If, therefore, the whole
truth were known, there would always be some classes of producers
contracting, not extending, their operations. If _all_ are endeavouring
to extend them, it is a certain proof that some general delusion is
afloat. The commonest cause of such delusion is some general, or very
extensive, rise of prices (whether caused by speculation or by the
currency) which persuades all dealers that they are growing rich. And
hence, an increase of production really takes place during the progress
of depreciation, as long as the existence of depreciation is not
suspected; and it is this which gives to the fallacies of the currency
school, principally represented by Mr. Attwood, all the little
plausibility they possess. But when the delusion vanishes and the truth
is disclosed, those whose commodities are relatively in excess must
diminish their production or be ruined: and if during the high prices
they have built mills and erected machinery, they will be likely to
repent at leisure.

In the present state of the commercial world, mercantile transactions
being carried on upon an immense scale, but the remote causes of
fluctuations in prices being very little understood, so that
unreasonable hopes and unreasonable fears alternately rule with
tyrannical sway over the minds of a majority of the mercantile public;
general eagerness to buy and general reluctance to buy, succeed one