SECTION C COMMERCE AND EXCHANGE 



(Hall 10, September 24, 10 a. m.) 



SPEAKERS : PROFESSOR E. D. JONES, University of Michigan. 

 PROFESSOR CARL PLEHN, University of California. 



THE MANUFACTURER AND THE DOMESTIC MARKET 



BY EDWARD D. JONES 



[Edward D. Jones, Junior Professor of Commerce and Industry, University of 

 Michigan, b. Janesville, Wisconsin, 1870. M.S. Ohio Wesleyan University; 

 Ph.D. University of Wisconsin; Expert in Social Economy, with Department of 

 Education and Social Economy, United States Commission, Paris Exposition, 

 1900; Assistant Professor of Economics, University of Wisconsin, 1901. 

 Member of American Economic Association; Michigan Political Science 

 Association; National Geographical Society; Political Economy Club of 

 Chicago. Author of Economic Crises; The People and the Country; Resources 

 and Industries of the United States.] 



American Domestic Market 



THE American domestic market is probably the most complex in 

 the world. It has become so because it occupies the largest eco- 

 nomically high-grade area which is under one political control, with 

 a uniform language, system of weights and measures, trade customs, 

 and laws. In America there have been lacking the diversified agri- 

 culture, the household industry, the public market-places, and the 

 inertia of custom which, in other countries, have kept the domestic 

 markets simple. Sharp territorial specialization has always char- 

 acterized our industry. The different forms of agriculture, devel- 

 oped under an essentially manufacturing instinct and compelled 

 to specialization by the distance of the European market, have a 

 clearly differentiated geography. The mining, lumbering, agri- 

 cultural, and manufacturing regions are singularly distinct. This 

 has compelled an extensive internal exchange, to facilitate which 

 adequate transportation facilities have been forthcoming; and it 

 has necessitated comprehensive methods of performing mercantile 

 functions, which the administrative genius of American industrial 

 leaders has provided. The result of these forces in our national 

 economy, as it finds expression to-day in the organization and 

 processes of the domestic market, is too large a subject for any paper. 

 I wish, therefore, to choose a theme, and I invite your attention 

 to the wide range of mercantile functions which is being assumed 



