272 PRINCIPLES OF RURAL ECONOMICS 



This kind of economy, that is, the kind which economizes labor 

 and muscular energy, is more important in this country, where 

 wages are high, than in any other country where wages are low. 



Problems of buying and selling. As suggested above, the 

 problem of buying and selling grows in importance as farming 

 develops from the self-sufficing to the commercial stage, and still 

 further as it develops from the growing of staple crops to the 

 growing of agricultural specialties. Aside from the fundamen- 

 tal problem of the buyer, namely, what to buy, there are three 

 problems of general importance, from whom to buy how to 

 buy, and with what to buy. 



The middleman. The first of these .problems involves some 

 study of the commercial organization of the country, for the 

 problem is really whether to buy from middlemen or, as far 

 as possible, from producers. Fundamentally, the purpose of the 

 middleman is to save trouble for both the producer and the con- 

 sumer. If the producer is to take time finding a consumer for his 

 product, that time is lost to the work of production, since he is 

 thereby prevented from producing as much as would otherwise 

 be possible. The middleman, who saves him that trouble and 

 enables him to devote all his time to the work of production, 

 is therefore performing an important service and is entitled to 

 some profit on a transaction to pay him therefor. A like service 

 is, of course, performed for the consumer. So long as the profits 

 of the middleman are no more than sufficient to reward him 

 for the services performed, neither the farmer nor the consumer 

 of farm products has any right to complain. It sometimes 

 happens, however, that the market becomes so overorganized 

 as actually to make work for the middleman and to put the con- 

 sumer more or less within his power ; for goods in the process 

 of transition from producer to consumer are practically forced 

 by the organization of the market to go through certain spe- 

 cial channels, and all other channels are virtually closed. The 



