how this may be, nay, must
needs be the case with the very high salaries paid to master
manufacturers. Such salaries would not be paid, did not the intelligence,
skill, and organizing capacity of these men cheapen by a still larger
amount the commodities made under their direction. The case is precisely
similar with the merchant engaged in legitimate commerce. By his knowledge
of the right times and best modes of purchasing, by his enterprise and
sagacity in maintaining intercourse with and between distant markets, and
by his outlay of capital and skill as a carrier of commodities from the
place of their production to the place where they are needed for use, he
cheapens the goods that pass through his hands by a greater amount than
the toll he levies upon them, which--however large--is his rightful due.

Thus also, when, in anticipation of a scarcity of some one commodity, a
merchant so raises the price as essentially to diminish the sale, *he
earns his increased profits*; for an enhanced price is the only
practicable check on consumption. For instance, if at the actual rate of
consumption the bread-stuff on hand would be consumed a month before the
new harvest could be made availing, no statistical statement could prevent
the month of famine; but experienced grain-merchants can adjust the price
of the stock in hand so as to induce precisely the amount of economy which
will make that stock last till it can be replaced. They will, indeed,
obtain a large profit on their sales, and will be accused by ignorant
persons of speculating on scarcity and popular apprehension; but it will
be due wholly to their prescience that the scarcity did not become famine,
and the apprehension suffering; and they will have merited for this
service more than the largest profits that can accrue to them.

The same principles will apply to *speculation in stocks*, which is in
many minds identified with dishonest gain. Stocks are marketable
commodities, equally with sugar and salt. They are liable to legitimate
fluctuations in value, their actual value being affected, often by facts
that transpire, often by opinions that rest on assignable grounds. Now if
a man possess skill and foresight enough to buy stocks at their lowest
rates and to sell them when they will bring him a profit, he makes a
perfectly legitimate investment of his intelligence and sagacity, and in
facilitating sales for those who need to sell, and purchases for those who
wish to