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sounder discretion by lowering 1 his price, to such a 

 sum as will leave him a fair profit. Failing- his ob- 

 taining- this, if the article will not spoil, he holds for 

 another season, or carries it to another market. Thus, 

 a seller, may fix a price beyond what a buyer will 

 give, and a buyer may offer a price below what a 

 seller will take. Under ordinar}^ circumstances, 

 however, though the sellers fix the price, the buyers 

 reg-ulate it, the action of each always supposing 

 healthy competition operating- to establish an 

 equilibrium. This, I believe, is termed the i market 

 value f and as regards buyer and seller it may be 

 considered mutually arrived at. If, however, a seller 

 has a monopoly, of any commodity, for which there 

 may be a demand, the case is different. He then 

 fixes his own price, and buyers, unable to regulate 

 it, have no alternative but to pay it or go without. 

 This may be called the seller's price, the limit to 

 which, can be determined only, by equalizing the 

 ratio the necessities of the parties bear to each other, 

 or that of the quantity in demand to the quantity 

 of the commodity for sale.* Another case is the 



* Mr. Mill (Principles of Political Economy, p. 543) objects 

 to the term ratio, on the double ground of its being unprecise, 

 and inappropriate. It may be so ; for, to speak of a ratio 

 between two varying magnitudes is mathematically absurd. I 

 use the term, because it is current ; and he has not, unfor- 

 tunately, left us any better to define the operation by which 

 an equilibrium is effected by which the terms of the equation 

 are made equal. In objecting that the quantity in demand is 

 not fixed, but varies according to the value, he says : " The 

 demand, therefore, partly depends on the value. But it was 

 before laid down that the value depends on the demand. From 



