Note 69 — Chapter I · : THE PHYSIOCRATS

Dialogues, p. 153. The dearth of plenty, as they paradoxically put it, stimulates production, and Boisguillebert, in an equal paradox, remarks that “Low price gives rise to want.” In the Maximes, p. 98, Quesnay contents himself by saying that free trade in corn makes the price more equal. “It is clear,” he adds, “that, leaving aside the question of foreign debt, equal prices will increase the revenue yielded by the land, which will again result in extended cultivation, which will provide a guarantee against those dearths that decimate population.”

Mercier de la Rivière writes in a similar vein. “A good constant average price ensures abundance, but without freedom we have neither a good price nor plenty.” (P. 570.)

Turgot in his Lettres sur le Commerce des Grains develops the argument at great length and tries to give a mathematical demonstration of it. There was no need for this. It is a commonplace of psychology that a steady price of 20 is preferable to alternative prices of 35 and 5 francs respectively, although the average in both cases is the same.