238 THE BOOK OF WHEAT 



for the farmers to combine among themselves and enlist the 

 interest of the railroads. When the elevator systems also 

 combine with the railroads, the farmer seems to be quite at 

 their mercy. It is claimed that this condition of affairs is 

 shown to exist by the recent investigation of the Interstate 

 Commerce Commission, and that the elevators control prices. 

 The only remedy would seem to be for the farmers to start in- 

 dependent elevators, and to secure the aid of law, if necessary, 

 to get their wheat shipped to the primary markets, where com- 

 petition has generally kept up the level of prices. The proof 

 of the latter statement is shown by the fact that the primary 

 market with the highest level of prices has secured the traffic. 



Exportation and Price. There is a tendency for exportation 

 to decrease as population increases. When a country con- 

 sumes all of the wheat which it produces, then its price of 

 wheat is fixed within the country, provided there are no re- 

 straints to trade, and that the cost of production is not greater 

 than the cost of importing grain. As soon as a country has a 

 surplus for export, and receives more for exported wheat than 

 the home price, plus the expense of exporting, exporting will in- 

 crease, the home price will rise, production will increase, and 

 the price is no longer fixed within the country. The country 

 which buys the export may thus fix the price of wheat for the 

 country which produces it, but such a price under normal con- 

 ditions must always be higher than that which the producing 

 country could possibly fix for itself, and consequently a benefit 

 to the latter country. It is as a consumer of the world's sur- 

 plus that England has held a position of such commanding im- 

 portance in fixing the price of wheat. It has been asked 

 whether the large combinations of grain interests can or do fix 

 grain prices. The only conditions under which they could per- 

 manently do so in a large market would be that they have an 

 approximately complete knowledge of the conditions of supply 

 and demand, and that they would be far-sighted enough to fix 

 the price in accordance with what it naturally should be under 

 the existing conditions. 



The Visible Supply and Price. The consumers of wheat al- 

 ways have an advantage over the producers in that demand is 



