[Footnote 217-7: Suppose a people, the country population of which produce annually $100,000,000 in corn over and above their own requirements, and thus open a market for those engaged in industrial pursuits to the extent of $100,000,000. And suppose that in consequence of three plentiful harvests, and because of an inability to export, the market should grow to be over-full, to such an extent that the much greater stores of corn have now (§ 5, 103) a much smaller value in exchange than usual. The latter may have declined to $70,000,000. Hence the country people now can buy from the cities only $70,000,000 of city wares. The cities, therefore, suffer from over-production. That people dispensing with the use of money should establish an immediate trade between wheat and manufactured articles, in which case the latter would exchange against a large quantity of the former, is not practicable, because no one can extend his consumption of corn beyond the capacity of his stomach, and the storage of wheat with the intention of selling it when the price advances is attended with the greatest difficulties.]
[Footnote 217-8: If, for instance, there are too many railroads in process of construction, all other commodities may in consequence lose in demand, and when the further construction begins to be arrested on account of a superfluity of roads, the new rail factories, etc. are involved in the crisis.]
[Footnote 217-9: On the special pathology and therapeutics of this economic disease, compare _Roscher_, Die Productionskrisen, mit besonderer Rücksicht auf die letzen Jahrzente in the Gegenwart, Brockhaus, 1849, Bd., III, 721 ff., and his Ansichten der Volkswirthschaft, 1861, 279 ff.]
Prodigality is less odious than avarice, less irreconcilable with certain virtues, but incomparably more detrimental to a nation's economy. The miser's treasures, even when they have been buried, may be employed productively, at least, after his death; but prodigality _destroys_ resources. So, too, avarice is a repulsive vice, extravagance a seductive one. The practice of frugality[218-1] in every day life is as far removed from one extreme as the other. It is the "daughter of wisdom, the sister of temperance and the mother of freedom." Only with its assistance can liberality be true, lasting and successful. It is, in short, reason and virtue in their application to consumption.[218-2] [218-3]