In the same way, a chamber in which each should consult exclusively his own immediate interest as a consumer, would tend to systematize liberty, to suppress all restrictive measures, to overthrow all artificial barriers—in a word, to realize the theory of plenty.
Hence it follows:
That to consult exclusively the immediate interest of the producer, is to consult an interest which is anti-social.
That to take for basis exclusively the immediate interest of the consumer, would be to take for basis the general interest.
Let me enlarge on this view of the subject a little, at the risk of being prolix.
A radical antagonism exists between seller and buyer.*
The former desires that the subject of the bargain should be scarce, its supply limited, and its price high.
The latter desires that it should be abundant, its supply large, and its price low.
The laws, which should be at least neutral, take the part of the seller against the buyer, of the producer against the consumer, of dearness against cheapness,** of scarcity against abundance.
* The author has modified somewhat the terms of this
proposition in a posterior work.—See Harmonies
Économiques, chapter xi.—Editor.
** We have not in French a substantive to express the idea
opposed to that of dearness (cheapness). It is somewhat
remarkable that the popular instinct expresses the idea by
this periphrase, marche avantageux, bon marche'. The
protectionists would do well to reform this locution, for it
implies an economic system opposed to theirs.