21
will do his best to get hold of all the hundred bales of cotton. This example is no arbitrary supposition. In the history of the trade we have experienced periods of failure of the cotton plant, when particular companies of capitalists have endeavored to purchase, not only a hundred bales of cotton, but the whole stock of cotton in the world. Therefore in the case supposed each buyer will try to beat the others out of the field by offering a proportionately higher price for the cotton. The cotton-sellers perceiving the troops of the hostile host in violent combat with one another, and being perfectly secure as to the sale of all their hundred bales, will take very good care not to begin squabbing among themselves in order to depress the price at the very moment when their adversaries are emulating each other in the process of screwing it higher up. Peace is, therefore, suddenly proclaimed in the army of the sellers. They present a united front to the purchaser, and fold their arms in philosophic content; and their claims would be absolutely boundless if it were not that the offers of even the most pressing and eager of the buyers must always have some definite limit.
Thus if the supply of commodity is not so great as the demand for it, the competition between the buyers is keen, but there is none or hardly any among the sellers. Result: A more or less important rise in the price of goods,
As a rule the converse ease is of much more frequent occurence, producing an opposite result.
