Pagina 461 de 2651

The most fertile coal mine, too, regulates the price of coals at

all the other mines in its neighbourhood. Both the proprietor and

the undertaker of the work find, the one that he can get a

greater rent, the other that he can get a greater profit, by

somewhat underselling all their neighbours. Their neighbours are

soon obliged to sell at the same price, though they cannot so

well afford it, and though it always diminishes, and sometimes

takes away altogether, both their rent and their profit. Some

works are abandoned altogether; others can afford no rent, and

can be wrought only by the proprietor.