another. The buying and selling being now separated, it may very well
occur, that there may be, at some given time, a very general inclination
to sell with as little delay as possible, accompanied with an equally
general inclination to defer all purchases as long as possible. This is
always actually the case, in those periods which are described as
periods of general excess. And no one, after sufficient explanation,
will contest the possibility of general excess, in this sense of the
word. The state of things which we have just described, and which is of
no uncommon occurrence, amounts to it.

For when there is a general anxiety to sell, and a general
disinclination to buy, commodities of all kinds remain for a long time
unsold, and those which find an immediate market, do so at a very low
price. If it be said that when all commodities fall in price, the fall
is of no consequence, since mere money price is not material while the
relative value of all commodities remains the same, we answer that this
would be true if the low prices were to last for ever. But as it is
certain that prices will rise again sooner or later, the person who is
obliged by necessity to sell his commodity at a low money price is
really a sufferer, the money he receives sinking shortly to its ordinary
value. Every person, therefore, delays selling if he can, keeping his
capital unproductive in the mean time, and sustaining the consequent
loss of interest. There is stagnation to those who are not obliged to
sell, and distress to those who are.

It is true that this state can be only temporary, and must even be
succeeded by a reaction of corresponding violence, since those who have
sold without buying will certainly buy at last, and there will then be
more buyers than sellers. But although the general over-supply is of
necessity only temporary, this is no more than may be said of every