That The Chance Of Gain

The Statesman Who Should Attempt To Direct Private People In What Manner They Ought To Employ Their Capitals Would Not Only Load Himself With Most Unnecessary Attention But Assume An Authority Which Could Safely Be Trusted To No Council And Senate Whatever, And Which Would Nowhere Be So Dangerous As In The Hands Of Man Who Have Folly And Presumption Enough To Fancy Himself Fit To Exercise It.

As We Have No Immediate Experience Of What Other Men Feel, We Can Form No Idea Of The Manner In Which They Are Affected, But By Conceiving What We Ourselves Should Feel In The Like Situation.

We Rarely Hear, It Has Been Said, Of The Combinations [that Is, Unions Or Colluding Organizations] Of Masters, Though Frequently Of Those Of Workmen. But Whoever Imagines, Upon This Account, That Masters Rarely Combine, Is As Ignorant Of The World As Of The Subject. Masters Are Always And Everywhere In A Sort Of Tacit, But Constant And Uniform Combination, Not To Raise The Wages Of Labor Above Their Actual Price.

With The Greater Part Of Rich People, The Chief Enjoyment Of Riches Consists In The Parade Of Riches, Which In Their Eye Is Never So Complete As When They Appear To Possess Those Decisive Marks Of Opulence Which Nobody Can Possess But Themselves.

Such Regulations May, No Doubt, Be Considered As In Some Respect A Violation Of Natural Liberty. But Those Exertions Of The Natural Liberty Of A Few Individuals, Which Might Endanger The Security Of The Whole Society, Are, And Ought To Be, Restrained By The Laws Of All Governments; Of The Most Free, As Well As Or The Most Despotical. The Obligation Of Building Party Walls, In Order To Prevent The Communication Of Fire, Is A Violation Of Natural Liberty, Exactly Of The Same Kind With The Regulations Of The Banking Trade Which Are Here Proposed.