To prove this, I will be
obliged to turn somewhat aside from the form of reasoning which
belongs to this work. I will do so, however; first, because the
question in discussion turns upon this point; and again, because it
will give me the opportunity of exhibiting a law of political economy
of the highest importance, and which, well understood, seems to me to
be destined to lead back to this science all those sects which, in our
days, are seeking in the land of chimeras that social harmony which
they have been unable to discover in nature. I speak of the law of
consumption, which the majority of political economists may well be
reproached with having too much neglected.
Consumption is the _end_, the final cause of all the phenomena of
political economy, and, consequently, in it is found their final
solution.
No effect, whether favorable or unfavorable, can be vested permanently
in the producer. His advantages and disadvantages, derived from his
relations to nature and to society, both pass gradually from him; and
by an almost insensible tendency are absorbed and fused into the
community at large--the community considered as consumers.
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