THE PRICE OF WHEAT 261 



growing perfection of the speculative machinery and of the 

 knowledge of the conditions of supply and demand; and the 

 increasingly great combinations of commercial wheat interests, 

 already foreshadowed by the large combinations of transporta- 

 tion, elevator and milling interests, will continually reduce the 

 importance of wheat as a commodity in the speculative markets 

 of the world, perhaps to the extent of finally eliminating it 

 entirely. 



