The Online Library of Liberty

A project of Liberty Fund, Inc.

• Introduction, By Henry Higgs
• Previous Editions, By Henry Higgs
• Essay On the Nature of Trade In General
• Part One
• Part I, Chapter I: Of Wealth
• Part I, Chapter II: Of Human Societies
• Part I, Chapter III: Of Villages
• Part I, Chapter IV: Of Market Towns
• Part I, Chapter V: Of Cities
• Part I, Chapter VI: Of Capital Cities
• Part I, Chapter VII: The Labour of the Husbandman Is of Less Value Than That of the Handicrafts-man
• Part I, Chapter VIII: Some Handicrafts-men Earn More, Others Less, According to the Different Cases and Circumstances
• Part I, Chapter IX: The Number of Labourers, Handicraftsmen and Others, Who Work In a State Is Naturally Proportioned to the Demand For Them
• Part I, Chapter X: The Price and Intrinsic Value of a Thing In General Is the Measure of the Land and Labour Which Enter Into Its Production
• Part I, Chapter XI: Of the Par Or Relation Between the Value of Land and Labour
• Part I, Chapter XII: All Classes and Individuals In a State Subsist Or Are Enriched At the Expense of the Proprietors of Land
• Part I, Chapter XIII: The Circulation and Exchange of Goods and Merchandise As Well As Their Production Are Carried On In Europe By Undertakers, and At a Risk
• Part I, Chapter XIV: The Fancies, the Fashions, and the Modes of Living of the Prince, and Especially of the Landowners, Determine the Use to Which Land Is Put In a State and Cause the Variations In the Market-prices of All Things
• Part I, Chapter XV: The Increase and Decrease of the Number of People In a State Chiefly Depend On the Taste, the Fashions, and the Modes of Living of the Proprietors of Land
• Part I, Chapter XVI: The More Labour There Is In a State the More Naturally Rich the State Is Esteemed
• Part I, Chapter XVII: Of Metals and Money, and Especially of Gold and Silver
• Part Two
• Part Ii, Chapter I: Of Barter
• Part Ii, Chapter II: Of Market Prices
• Part Ii, Chapter III: Of the Circulation of Money
• Part Ii, Chapter IV: Of Further Reflection On the Rapidity Or Slowness of the Circulation of Money In Exchange
• Part Ii, Chapter V: Of the Inequality of the Circulation of Hard Money In a State
• Part Ii, Chapter VI: Of the Increase and Decrease In the Quantity of Hard Money In a State
• Part Ii, Chapter VII: Continuation of the Same Subject
• Part Ii, Chapter VIII: Further Reflection On the Same Subject
• Part Ii, Chapter IX: Of the Interest of Money and Its Causes
• Part Ii, Chapter X: Of the Causes of the Increase and Decrease of the Interest of Money In a State
• Part Three
• Part Iii, Chapter I: Of Foreign Trade
• Part Iii, Chapter II: Of the Exchanges and Their Nature
• Part Iii, Chapter III: Further Explanations of the Nature of the Exchanges
• Part Iii, Chapter IV: Of the Variations In the Proportion of Values With Regard to the Metals Which Serve As Money
• Part Iii, Chapter V: Of the Augmentation and Diminution of Coin In Denomination
• Part Iii, Chapter VI: Of Banks and Their Credit
• Part Iii, Chapter VII: Further Explanations and Enquiries As to the Utility of a National Bank
• Part Iii, Chapter VIII: Of the Refinements of Credit of General Banks
• Richard Cantillon and the Nationality of Political Economy, By W. Stanley Jevons
• Life and Work of Richard Cantillon, By Henry Higgs
• Appendix a
• Appendix B: Bibliography

Part I, Chapter IV

Of Market Towns

There are some Villages where Markets have been established by the interest of some Proprietor or Gentleman at Court. These Markets, held once or twice a week, encourage several little Undertakers and Merchants to set themselves up there. They buy in the Market the products brought from the surrounding Villages in order to carry them to the large Towns for sale. In the large Towns they exchange them for Iron, Salt, Sugar and other merchandise which they sell on market-days to the Villagers. Many small Artisans also, like Locksmiths, Cabinet makers and others, settle down for the service of the Villagers who have none in their Villages, and at length these Villages become Market Towns. A Market Town being placed in the centre of the Villages, and at length these Villages become Market Towns. A Market Town being placed in the centre of the Villages whose people come to market, it is more natural and easy that the Villagers should bring their products thither for sale on market-days and buy the articles they need, than that the Merchants and Factors should transport them to the Villages in exchange for their products. (1) For the Merchants to go round the Villages would unnecessarily increase the cost of carriage. (2) The Merchants would perhaps be obliged to go to several Villages before finding the quality and quantity of produce which they wished to buy. (3) The Villagers would generally be in their fields when the Merchants arrived and not knowing what produce these needed would have nothing prepared and fit for sale. (4) It would be almost impossible to fix the price of the produce and the merchandise in the Villages, between the Merchants and the Villagers. In one Village the Merchant would refuse the price asked for produce, hoping to find it cheaper in another Village, and the Villager would refuse the price offered for his merchandise in the hope that another Merchant would come along and take it on better terms.

All these difficulties are avoided when the Villagers come to Town on Market-Days to sell their produce and to buy the things they need. Prices are fixed by the proportion between the produce exposed for sale and the money offered for it; this takes place in the same spot, under the eyes of all the Villagers of different Villages and of the Merchants or Undertakers of the Town. When the price has been settled between a few the others follow without difficulty and so the Market-price of the day is determined. The peasant goes back to his Village and resumes his work.

The size of the Market Town is naturally proportioned to the number of Farmers and Labourers needed to cultivate the Lands dependent on it, and to the number of artisans and small Merchants that the Villages bordering on the Market Town employ with their assistants and horses, and finally to the number of persons whom the Landowners resident there support.

When the Villages belonging to a Market Town (i.e. whose people ordinarily bring their produce to market there) are considerable and have a large output the Market Town will become considerable and large in proportion; but when the neighbouring Villages have little produce the Market Town also is poor and insignificant.