A Treatise on Political Economy - The Production, Distribution, and Consumption of Wealth

...that of most food items that are suitable for human consumption in general, regardless of sex or age. For this reason, the demand for a specific object, product, or act of productive exertion The physical or mental effort required to produce a good or service. has a certain degree of scale. The total demand for sugar in France is said to exceed 500,000 quintals A quintal is a historical unit of weight, usually equal to 100 kilograms. per year original: "per annum". Even an individual’s demand for a specific product for their own consumption may be more or less urgent. Whatever its intensity may be, it is known by the general name of demand. The quantity available at any given time, ready to satisfy those who want that specific article, is called the supply or the amount in circulation.

But this must be understood with some limitations; for there is no object of pleasure or utility for which the mere desire might not be unlimited, since everyone is always ready to receive whatever can contribute to their benefit or gratification. There must, therefore, be some bounds to demand. The most effective limitation is the ability to give another equivalent product in exchange for the object desired. All the porters in a commercial city might desire to have a carriage and six horses original: "coach and six"; a high-status luxury vehicle of the time. to perform their business more comfortably, yet this desire does not raise the price of horses and carriages a single bit original: "a tittle". The objects that each individual has to give as an equivalent for the object of their desire are nothing other than the products of their own productive means, which are limited even in the case of the wealthiest member of society.

Wealth is, in all countries, distributed in every...