For William in Calcutta, 1754.
IN rice countries, where the crop not only requires a very moist soil, but where, in a certain period of its growing, it must be laid under water, the effects of a drought are much more dismal. Even in such countries, however, the drought is, perhaps, scarce ever so universal as necessarily to occasion a famine, if the government would allow a free trade.
The drought in Bengal, a few years ago, might probably have occasioned a very great dearth. Some improper regulations, some injudicious restraints, imposed by the servants of the East India Company upon the rice trade, contributed, perhaps, to turn that dearth into a famine.
When the government, in order to remedy the inconveniencies of a dearth, orders all the dealers to sell their corn at what it supposes a reasonable price, it either hinders them from bringing it to market, which may sometimes produce a famine even in the beginning of the season; or, if they bring it thither, it enables the people, and thereby encourages them to consume it so fast as must necessarily produce a famine before the end of the season.
Précis
Shortly after the Bengal famine of 1769, Scottish philosopher Adam Smith wrote that although a drought had made a food shortage inevitable, the subsequent famine was a consequence of interference from the East India Company, imposing unwise restrictions on farmers. Allowing free trade, he concluded, would prevent such disasters happening in the future. (52 / 60 words)