The Pleasant Aspects of the Current Scarcity

this high price; on the contrary, if a shortage were the cause of it, I would bear it resignedly as a dispensation of God, but if a spirit of usury and anxiety is the cause, that must vex me all the more and fill me with indignation! To those who speak thus, I now gradually bring the bright side of the matter more into view by saying:

If, according to my calculation, the yield of this year's harvest is 6/13 lower than in an ordinary year, we would have really had to expect a shortage if the high prices that occurred immediately after the harvest had not reduced this year's consumption by 3/13.

Thus, the high prices that occurred immediately after the harvest, and the resulting reduced