The Pleasant Aspects of the Current Scarcity

because he needed money daily for the sustenance of his soldiers, sell off his produce quickly and at any price, even when he barely earned a meager daily wage for his trouble and sweat, given the prices at the time. Now, the farmer calculates what his crops must cost him in order to exist and to be able to bear, and finally pay off, the burdens attached to his land, and he holds to these prices. Thank God that he can! That need no longer forces him into prices at which he would have eventually had to perish!

Even if this last cause, namely the improved domestic and economic situation of our farmers, has perhaps only the smallest share in producing the current high prices, one can nevertheless