When the hungry stomach is at Paris, and corn which can satisfy it is at Odessa, the suffering cannot cease till the corn is brought into contact with the stomach.  There are three means by which this contact may be effected. 1st.  The famished men may go themselves and fetch the corn. 2nd.  They may leave this task to those to whose trade it belongs. 3rd.  They may club together, and give the office in charge to public functionaries.  Which of these three methods possesses the greatest advantages?  In every time, in all countries, and the more free, enlightened, and experienced they are, men have voluntarily chosen the second.  I confess that this is sufficient, in my opinion, to justify this choice.  I cannot believe that mankind, as a whole, is deceiving itself upon a point which touches it so nearly.  But let us now consider the subject.

For thirty-six millions of citizens to go and fetch the corn they want from Odessa, is a manifest impossibility.  The first means, then, goes for nothing.  The consumers cannot act for themselves.  They must, of necessity, have recourse to intermediates, officials or agents.

But observe, that the first of these three means would be the most natural.  In reality, the hungry man has to fetch his corn.  It is a task which concerns himself, a service due to himself.  If another person, on whatever ground, performs this service for him, takes the task upon himself, this latter has a claim upon him for a compensation.  I mean by this to say that intermediates contain in themselves the principle of remuneration.

However that may be, since we must refer to what the Socialists call a parasite, I would ask, which of the two is the most exacting parasite the merchant or the official?

Commerce (free, of course, otherwise I could not reason upon it), commerce, I say, is led by its own interests to study the seasons, to give daily statements of the state of the crops, to receive information from every part of the globe, to foresee wants, to take precautions beforehand.  It has vessels always ready, correspondents everywhere; and it is its immediate interest to buy at the lowest possible price, to economize in all the details of its operations, and to attain the greatest results by the smallest efforts.  It is not the French merchants only who are occupied in procuring provisions for France in time of need, and if their interest leads them irresistibly to accomplish their task at the smallest possible cost, the competition which they create amongst each other leads them no less irresistibly to cause the consumers to partake of the profits of those realised savings.  The corn arrives:  it is to the interest of commerce to sell it as soon as possible, so as to avoid risks, to realise its funds, and begin again the first opportunity.