ermanently limited by, the
excess of their quantity above the quantity necessary to maintain the
labour required to produce them; without which excess of quantity no
demand could have existed, according to the laws of nature, for more
than was necessary to support the producers.

It has been stated, in the new edition of the Wealth of nations, that
the cause of the high price of raw produce is, that such price is
required to proportion the consumption to the supply. [8] This is also
true, but it affords no solution of the point in question. We still want
to know why the consumption and supply are such as to make the price so
greatly exceed the cost of production, and the main cause is evidently
the fertility of the earth in producing the necessaries of life.
Diminish this plenty, diminish the fertility of the soil, and the excess
will diminish; diminish it still further, and it will disappear. The
cause of the high price of the necessaries of life above the cost
of production, is to be found in their abundance, rather than their
scarcity; and is not only essentially different from the high price
occasioned by artificial monopolies, but from the high price of those
peculiar products of the earth, not connected with food, which may be
called natural and necessary monopolies.

The produce of certain vineyards in France, which, from the peculiarity
of their soil and situation, exclusively yield wine of a certain
flavour, is sold of course at a price very far exceeding the cost of
production. And this is owing to the greatness of the competition for
such wine, compared with the scantiness of its supply; which confines
the use of it to so small a number of persons, that they are able, and
rather than go without it, willing, to give an excessively high
price. But if the fertility of these lands were increased, so as very
considerably to increase the produce, this produce might so fall in
value as to diminish most essentially the excess of its price above the
cost of production. While, on the other hand, if the vineyards were to
become less productive, this excess might increase to almost any extent.

The obvious cause of these effects is, that in all monopolies, properly
so called, whether natural or artificial, the demand is exterior to, and
independent of, the production itself. The number of persons who might
have a taste for scarce wines, and would be desirous of entering into
a competition for the purchase of them, migh