82 HOME TRADE AND FOREIGN TRADE 



making much difference in the price of bread 

 anywhere, and less in one place than in another. 

 It is not duties the consumer need nowadays 

 fear, so much as combination against him by 

 retailers. Since commodities are so widely and 

 largely produced, though easy enough to over- 

 load a market it is not so easy to shorten supply ; 

 competition is too keen. Suppose the supply of 

 any article to be in excess of the demand, the 

 price falls : if supply falls short of demand, 

 the price rises. If the price fall low enough, 

 the producer, by reason of the low price he 

 gets, pays the duty, if there be one. This must 

 particularly apply to articles depending for their 

 quantity on the productive power of nature and 

 on weather conditions. 



It is not known what results follow the 

 operations of the manufacturer ; but it is believed 

 that if all the figures, instead of being kept 

 secret, were published for the world to see, it 

 would be found that the manufacturers of Great 

 Britain pay away considerable amounts out of 

 their profits, in the form of a duty on the goods 

 they send abroad, not perhaps directly, but in 

 consequence of the low prices they are compelled 

 to accept. And further, it is strongly suspected 

 that these prices often reduce the scale of profits 

 to a very low level, and sometimes even spell 

 a loss. 



Now, it is quite clear that whenever, to secure 

 a deal, a low price is accepted, and profits are 

 correspondingly reduced, the manufacturer loses 

 capital ; he remains with less capital to reinvest 



