Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1879-11-12
DO Merchants Fix the Prices 2

1t has been common complaint among
farmers that the mercantile class fix the
prices not only of the goods they sell, but
also of the produce which they buy from the
farmer. On the other hand, we are told that
neither party fixes or can fix the price Of
any kind of staple goods of general growth
or manufacture, but that this is done by the
claws of trade" When this statement is
brought out the common man is shut up"
He may still doubt he may still, indeed,
adhere privately to his original opinion, of
which he thinks he has had plenty of proof.
But it seems to be held sort of impiety to
doubt these laws of trade, which are put for
ward as though they were, like the laws of
nature, of divine enactment. Writers and
speakers soon find out the power of this
phrase to silence the unsophisticated, and
make use of it accordingly, although it
would puzzle many of them greatly to tell
what they mean by it themselves.
What are these mysterious laws of trade ?
BY what authority were they enacted, and
what executive is charged with their enforce
ment ? Who are subject to them, and what
are the penalties of their violation ? Or are
they impossible of violation, like the law of
the tides, or of the succession of the seasons ?
Let us take wheat, for instance, and in
quire how the laws of trade regulate its
price. Suppose there is a short crop and
no foreign supply. The laws of trade cause
the price to go up; and this no human
power, we are told, can prevent, because men
with money to buy will have wheat-bread
and will offer enough money for it to secure
what they want. The price will go up until
it reaches rate which cuts off enough poor
buyers to leave the supply just equal to the
wants of the rest of those who want wheat.
This is the law of trade in regard to wheat
when there is other food to be had. When
no other food is to be had the law of trade
will starve enough of the weaker and poorer
people TO leave sufficient for the rest. If, on
the other hand, there is an excessive sup
ply of wheat, with no foreign demand and
sufficient supply of all other kinds of food,
then the price of wheat will go down until
demand is created, either at home or abroad,
to take the excess. If there is an excess of
all kinds of food, then the price of all food
will fall according to the degree of excess,
until it may become practically valueless in
the hands of the producer, and the market
price be merely the cost of carrying it from
the producer to the consumer. 1t is some
times the case in our Western states that
corn is not worth the cost of its carriage
from the farm to the railroad.
In all these and similar cases the law of
trade, which Is simply the law of supply and
demand, will fix the price. Such would al
ways be the result if no man bought more
than he needed, and nobody between the
producer and the consumer had the power
to exact more than fixed sum or just rate
for his services as a middleman." But in
the presence of vast accumulated capital,
and of cooperative monopoly standing be-
tween producer and consumer, these laws of
trade are at once nullified. When, there
fore, somebody pirates to us about the laws
of trade fixing prices, what have we to do
but to refer to such notorious cases as the
operations of spectators in breadstuffs like
Keene, who "corners " wheat and at once
advances the price of flour, it may be dol
lar barrel, in every village in the land. By
the arbitrary use of his accumulated capital,
and for his own profit, he cuts off the supply,
and is for time king over this omnipotent
law" And see in the following paragraph
from commercial paper how another great
capitalist triumphs in his power to nullify
the laws of trade:
"The great English steamship owner, Nc
liver, has recently announced in speech that
as soon as the supply of breadstuffs from this
country begins to increase in volume under
the inevitable demand from Europe this fall,
the New York and Liverpool steamships will
unite to raise their rates. As the railroads
have already done the same thing, the profits
of the producer are likely to be materially
reduced in marketing this years crop"
Wemight go on with any quantity ofproof
like this that the trading classes do fix prices
both ways as regards producers. Occasion
ally the producers get slight and tempo
rary advantage, but this is only when produc-
ton is so short that they can realize very
little from it. This power of capitalists to
disturb and control prices for their own
profit is so great an evil that within very
short time it will become a prevailing
tissue everywhere. And it will be strange
if the ingenuity of man cannot find rem
edy for it.