RELATED TOPICS 273 



from Australia, there ensued something of a panic in 

 the local wheat market. Fortunately for New Zealand 

 it was found at length, that the supply of wheat was 

 actually over 6,600,000 bushels, and this supply, as a 

 matter of fact, was sufficient for the demands of local 

 consumers until the harvest of this year." 



(d) The Problem of Price Control. Of recent years 

 the attitude of economists towards the possibility of 

 public price control being efficacious has changed con- 

 siderably. The classical economists were opposed to 

 the assumption of this duty on the part of the State, 

 as they were to State interference generally. This 

 attitude was undoubtedly the product of their own 

 experience, and they did not anticipate the most recent 

 development of capitalism, the concentration of capital 

 with monopoly as its objective. In a recent work on 

 Monopolies* Dr. W. Jethro Brown shows clearly that 

 "the advent of the trust and the combine invalidates 

 the assumptions of classical economists ; and many econo- 

 mists of to-day advocate extensions of the sphere of public 

 control which in former times would have met with 

 universal condemnation. 'I see nothing for it/ writes 

 Prof. Sir. W. J. Ashley, 'but that in countries where the 

 monopolising movement is well under way, governments 

 should assume the duty in some way of controlling 

 prices.' Prof. Wyman, of Harvard, after advocating 

 the creation of an Inter-state Trade Commission, with 

 power to give relief against extortionate charges, con- 

 cludes, 'confine its power over prices to reducing prices 

 against which specific complaint has been made to it, 

 but disposing of such complaints let it fix the price in 

 question for the future.' 'I feel constrained to advo- 

 cate,' says Prof. Seager, of the Columbia University, 

 'government regulation of prices, just as most of us 



*"The Prevention and Control of Monopolies." (August, 

 1914), page 142. 



