Markets. 



By Pjktkr J(jHANNEs Du Toir. 



IMie term " market " is usually regarded in a vague general 

 way. leading one to conclude that markets are selling places which 

 can absorb without limit any i^roducts which might be raised. 

 That would be the case if one of the two ])arties who make a 

 market possible, the seller, were content to let the buyer have his 

 |)roduce at the buyer's own price. But since the seller desires to 

 live, his requirements for continuing his existence obviously call 

 for a return for his labour which, as far as he is able by his intel- 

 ligence, physical exertion or other means to make it so, .will at 

 least suffice for that purpose. Markets are, therefore, selling 

 ])laces limited by the prices which the buyer is jjrepared or able 

 to pay and which the seller at the same time is prepared or able 

 to accept. The extent to which the buyer is likely to meet the 

 seller determines the extent to which the seller will meet the 

 buyer, that is, to which the seller will grow a product which the 

 buyer requires. The farmer will produce according to the mar- 

 ket he has. He will not and cannot reasonably be expected to 

 l)roduce more, because he cannot in justice to himself and his 

 dependents produce at a loss, or even at a less profit than that 

 which he may deem to be a fair return for his ex])enditure of 

 labour, of money, of implements, of seed and so forth. (Greater 

 market must therefore precede increased production. 



The farmer has to include in his expenditure the cost of 

 obtaining his • equirements for i)roducing and the cost of placing 

 on the market what he has produced. Length of railways and 

 of roads, distan.cc from a railway line, bad roads, absence of 

 necessary bridges, mountainous country — all add to the cost of 

 production ; and since each ])roducer has to comj^ete with others 

 in his own market, th(^-;e disadvantages determine the extent to 

 which he will produce a particular commodity and the nature 

 of the commodities which he will grow. It may, for example, 

 not pay him to grow more wheat than he requires for his own 

 use : he may not be able to ])lace a surplus above his require- 

 ments in successful competition with other growers of wheat. 

 The same causes may operate in favour of his deciding on stock- 

 raising in preference to agriculture. As these disabilities dis- 

 api)ear or are lessened, he might find it more profitable to alter 

 his farming ])ractice by combining extensive agriculture with 

 stock-raising, or even giving the former the chief place in his 

 operations. In other words, the conditions under which he lives 

 may, by being altered, such as by the building of railways, or by 

 education, or by the discovery of minerals and the building up of 

 an industrial centre near by, influence profoundly his farming 

 practice. But the economic structure on which his operations 

 are based mu^^t be changed before he can suffer a departure from 

 those operations themselves. I,et us take the cattle industry. 



