ABSTRACT
In the discussions with regard to the extent and origin of the deplorable distress prevalent in the manufacturing districts of England and Scotland, much has been said of “overproduction,” “overtrading,” “unnatural increase,” and the like. Some have attributed the whole of the existing misery to the reaction consequent upon too rapid an extension of our manufactures; while others have urgently demanded a legislative “limitation of production,” as the sole means of extricating the country from its present sufferings, and preventing a recurrence of them for the future. The present excess, then, of the production of manufactured goods over the consumption of them, and the consequent sufferings of the People, are to he traced not toover-production, but tounder-consumption, —not to an “artificial and unnatural” increase in the supply, but to an “artificial and unnatural” limitation of thedemand.
