399] PRESENT ORGANIZATION OF BUTTER MARKET 175 



quotations the pressure of the dealers is all one way and 

 that is downward. This may be an unconscious effort on 

 their part, or it may be deliberate action. Obviously, how- 

 ever, the quotations can not be depressed very much too low 

 because the butter would not come to the city where abnor- 

 mally low prices prevailed. This, however, could be avoided 

 by establishing quotation committees in every distributing 

 center and having agreements entered into by all of the 

 committees on the question of prices. 



Correct quotations are so extremely important to the 

 trade and producers, because of the time saved to every 

 person concerned in determining the price, that some 

 method should be found by which they may be in true ac- 

 cord with the conditions of supply and demand, and not 

 made to favor only one group of interested persons. Var- 

 ious methods have been tried in Europe. In Hamburg, Ger- 

 many, the Association of Importers and Exporters was or- 

 ganized about 1888 1 with a view to quoting the real 

 prices paid the producers. The plan was promised the sup- 

 port of the Schleswig-Holstein Creamery Association pro- 

 viding the dealers would in no case pay a higher price than 

 that quoted by the merchants' association. The plan was 

 not successful, for about 1890 the Creamery Association 

 began selling part of its output " by auctions, and has since 

 then maintained them in ever-increasing degree in spite of 

 the natural opposition from the merchants, whose com- 

 mittee evidently consists of dealers only ". In Hamburg, 

 a committee of fourteen "members consisting of eight whole- 

 sale dealers and six retailers quotes prices. But the pro- 

 ducers were also dissatisfied, and " in 1907 the Creamery 

 Association of Mecklenburg- Schwerin started a butter auc- 



1 All data on European markets are based on an article by J. H. 

 Monrad in the New York Produce Review and American Creamery, 

 March 3, 1915. 



