122 COMMERCE AND EXCHANGE 



pursued by large concerns, and we may find plate-glass jobbed, meat 

 sold from subsidized shops, and Standard Oil hawked upon the streets, 

 many of the consolidated corporations which have acquired large 

 control over the market do not attempt to invade it directly or 

 supplant dealers in the performance of mercantile functions. These 

 rather content themselves with exercising power over prices and the 

 terms of sale by curtailment agreements, price pools, joint selling 

 agencies, and other more direct means. The greatest invasion of the 

 mercantile field in the distribution and sale of consumers' goods 

 occurs under the influence of strong competition between manu- 

 facturers and especially where this meets a more or less obstructive 

 conservatism, not to say inefficiency, in the regularly constituted 

 agencies of distribution. Of the positive force, the competition 

 between manufacturers, it will not be necessary to say anything; of 

 the negative condition found in the inertia of wholesale and retail 

 trade a few words will be in place. 



Confining our attention to the retail trade for the sake of brevity, 

 we must at once make an important admission. In this field there 

 has sprung up the remarkable institution known as the department 

 store. These establishments, dealing directly with manufacturers, 

 willing to engage in want-creation and increase the volume of business 

 by advertising and price reduction, willing to accept new goods of 

 merit because understanding the profit of novelties, and having a 

 clear grasp of the principles of merchandising, have not only been 

 able to serve the consuming public well, but have been satisfactory 

 distributive agents for manufacturers. The rank and file of the 

 million or more proprietors of retail stores have, however, been un- 

 satisfactory to such manufacturers as have been chafing for better 

 outlets under the stress of competition. The average retail store 

 proprietor has too easily accepted as unsurmountable the apparent 

 limitation of his local field, and has often been caught in the infinite 

 detail which characterizes the business and rendered by it incapable 

 of constructive commercial policy. Competition has choked many 

 who are lacking in ingenuity, for retailing is a business easily entered 

 on a small scale, and competition in it, almost more than in any 

 other type of business, takes the form of simple multiplication of 

 concerns and division of trade. More than anything else, however, 

 the business of retailing as a whole has been held back by confusion of 

 mind as to the proper policy - - the economic laws so to speak - - of 

 the business. This confusion may be partly accounted for by the 

 extreme variety of establishments which fall under the general 

 caption of retail institutions, but the chief explanation lies in the 

 recent history of American trade. 



During the period of the Civil War and the immediately subse- 

 quent years there was such a scarcity of goods that overbuying was 



