The Farmer's Magazine (Volume 8) (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos, missing text, images, or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1807. Not illustrated. Excerpt: ... knows very wcli, that, if lie plays with the same personsi and at the same stake, all. the year round, he will be no great loser; if at all, in the end. It is just so with corn, and with all other trades. A person with the requisite capital, engaged in either, seldom loses much by a fall in the value of the commodity he deals in, as, at all events, he has an equal chance of advantage from a rise at other times.. It is said that the corn trade has one feature peculiar to it;--* it now and then presents fit opportunities far speculation.' I really was not aware, till now, of air speculation being confined within the limits of the corn trade alone, and that no person ever made large purchases of any other commodity with a view to a future rise on the price of that article. . I had been accustomed to believe, that every trade presented more or less sit opportunities of speculation, from the very nature of the thing; and my belies never was attempted to be shaken, till Gordius promulgated his sentiments upon the subject. How so absurd an ide& ever found a footing in the imagination of a person, in his own estimation capable of writing upon a question certainly of some difficulty, it is no easy matter to conceive. What would the merchants of Liverpool and Glasgow say, if your correspondent was to tell them, upon 'Change, that nobody ever speculated upon cotton oc sugar? It is a favourite argument with your correspondent, that, with the restoration of the blessings of peace to an exhausted world, corn 1 will become universally plentiful, and consequently cheap. * That corn may then become more plentiful than it happens to be at present, I do not pretend to deny; but that this effect, must nt ctssarily follow from that event taking place, I by no means admit. ...