53] THE INFLUENCE OF THE CREDIT SYSTEM 53 



credit, usually by signing papers in the manner above 

 outlined in discussing the lien laws. Within this line of 

 credit, limited in range according to the size of the farm, 

 purchases of provisions, clothing, implements and other 

 necessaries are made along from January to July or 

 August. These lines of credit vary from sixty dollars up 

 to one hundred and twenty-five dollars against a one- 

 horse farm of from twenty to thirty acres, and from one 

 hundred and twenty-five to two hundred and twenty-five 

 dollars against a two-horse farm. When the negotia- 

 tions are made at the beginning of the year, it is under- 

 stood that the goods bought will be charged on the 

 books not at competitive cash prices, but at time prices, 

 though usually the ratio which the latter shall bear to the 

 former is not the subject of any specific agreement be- 

 tween the parties concerned. As therefore from time to 

 time purchases are made by the farmer, the goods are 

 quoted to him at "time" prices, and nothing is said 

 about the cash value of the articles. Inasmuch as many 

 of the farmers are ignorant, and inasmuch as they can 

 usually obtain credit with only one merchant at a time, it 

 seems that the merchant is given an inviting opportunity 

 for making undue exactions from the farmer in the 

 matter of prices. Such is, indeed, the case, and without 

 doubt many innocent and helpless farmers have become 

 in this way the victims of unscrupulous merchants. But 

 some writers have exaggerated not only the inclination, 

 but also the power of the merchants in this regard. Of 

 course in so far as the customer is ignorant, and is with- 

 out friends capable of advising him, he is at the mercy of 

 the merchant everywhere. The credit system merely 

 enlarges the possibility of extortion in such cases. This 

 fact, however, must not obscure the further fact that 

 credit prices are also competitive prices. 



