132 



terms, that the buyer shall have to accept delivery 

 -within some fixed period of so many days after being 

 advised by the farmer, who has the option of deciding 

 which date more or less it shall be. The price of the 

 cereals is to be that ruling on the day of delivery, that 

 is to say, the average price for the day fixed by the 

 market board of the mean between the highest and low- 

 est quotations recorded for actual sales. 



The grain mlarkets, although the brokers are many, 

 are more or less subject to the control of four or five 

 iirms, who form a remarkably strong trust or com- 

 bine. In the majority of cases it is their agents who 

 have advanced the money and purchased the crop, and 

 since the buyers in the camp are the same buyers on 

 the market, the prices ruling are really under their 

 control . 



Where the farmer has the option of fixing a price 

 previous to delivery, the price at which the cereals are 

 to be delivered is fixed so low that only thoir combina- 

 tions, some extraordinary fluctuation of price arising 

 from speculation, can at times make it ap pear that by 

 accepting delivery at the price agreed they, the brok- 

 ers, are out of pocket in the deal. 



The system of advances exclusively or largely by 

 the same parties who control the price which the farm- 

 er is to receive leaves the latter, too, dependent on his 

 creditors, and promotes speculation at his expense, and 

 always to his disadvantage. 



It is useless to point out the folly of the farmer in 

 submitting to such onerous conditions, or to the un- 

 wisdom of starting an undertaking without sufficient 

 means to carry it through, or to denounce the arbitrari- 

 ness of the money lending grain exporting houses in 

 exacting such stringent contracts, or to charge the "al- 

 maceneros" with extorting the last cent from the far- 

 mer : the most essential is the remedy . 



The farmer needs money or credit, whether these 

 credits are obtained through customary sources or 

 through special means is much the same thing to the 

 "chacarero". He wants credit, and will and does pay 

 heavy prices for it, when he has the prospects of mak- 

 ing over and above the money loaned. 



FARMER DEPENDS ON COMMERCIAL HOUSES 

 FOR CREDIT. 



Under the present conditions of things and for 

 many years to come, the farmer must depend in nor- 



