DISTRIBUTION OF AGRICULTURAL INCOME 323 



addition to waiting there is the risk of losing. It is as necessary 

 that some one should risk his capital as it is that some one should 

 wait. But no one is likely to do this unless he is tempted by the 

 hope of a profit. Whoever does it under such an inducement is 

 to that extent a speculator. To be sure, he may be several other 

 things besides ; he may be the storer of goods, as in the case 

 of the owner of a warehouse, and a distributor of goods, as in 

 the case of a merchant; but in so far as he is merely a buyer 

 of goods when they are cheap and a seller when they are high, 

 he is a speculator. 



Let us suppose, as an extreme illustration, that no one were 

 willing to hold any part of a wheat crop from the time of its 

 harvesting until such times as it was most needed. The whole 

 crop would then have to be used up at once, and in order to be 

 so used it would have to be put to very inferior purposes, or used 

 in the satisfaction of very inferior wants. Consequently its util- 

 ity or want-satisfying power would be very low. During the 

 remainder of the year there would be a scarcity of wheat, and 

 many important wants would have to go unsatisfied. By holding 

 a part of the crop till it is needed more than it is immediately 

 after harvest, its utility would be greatly increased and the well- 

 being of the community enhanced. Whoever does this holding, 

 whether it be the farmers themselves, the millers, or a special 

 class of speculators, is serving the community by increasing the 

 want-satisfying power of some of the goods in its possession. 

 Whatever in the way of profits is secured by this process may 

 be regarded as payment for this service. 



But much that goes on under the name of speculation does 

 not deserve that name, in spite of its opprobrious sound. Gam- 

 bling is a better name for those transactions which pretend to 

 be buying and selling, but which consist really in betting on the 

 course of the market. It is quite as easy for a couple of men, 

 either in or out of the stock market or the board of trade, to 



