The long view on the moral crisis in capitalism | Letters

This week we learned that the directors of the housebuilding company Persimmon are to share a bonus of 600m (Executive pay is obscene - restructuring the economy is the only way to curb it, G2, 14 June). This revelation was greeted with calls for these executives to "show restraint", given the ongoing shortage of affordable housing. After all, as the Conservative party tells us, "we're all in this together".

I was reminded of an earlier campaign to encourage the rich to show restraint and demonstrate solidarity with the people disadvantaged by government policy. I'm thinking of events in 1795, when wheat prices in England rose precipitously. Working people relied on bread, and spent a significant percentage of household income on it. Concerned that the high cost of bread would cause hardship, and that hardship might lead to unrest, MPs called on the wealthy to show restraint. Gentlemen up and down the country signed pledges and issued public statements affirming that until prices fell they and their households would eat more economical wholegrain breads, and would not use scarce grain for non-essential purposes such as in hair powder.