424 AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS 



Thus, for instance, we may find that he would buy 



6 Ibs. at 50^. per Ib. 10 Ibs. at 24</. per Ib. 



7 4 o " " ii " " 21 " " 



8 " " 33 " " 12 " " 19 " " 



9 ' " 28 13 ' " 18 



If corresponding prices were filled in for all intermediate amounts 

 we should have an exact statement of his demand. 



We cannot express a person's demand for a thing by the amount he 

 is willing to buy, or by the "intensity of his eagerness to buy a certain 

 amount," without reference to the prices at which he would buy that 

 amount and other amounts. We can represent it exactly only by 

 lists of the prices at which he is willing to buy different amounts. 



So far we have looked at the demand of a single individual. And 

 in the particular case of such a thing as tea the demand of a single 

 person is fairly representative of the general demand of a whole 

 market: for the demand for tea is a constant one; and, since it can 

 be purchased in small quantities, every variation in its price is likely 

 to affect the amount which he will buy. But even among those things 

 which are in constant use there are many for which the demand on the 

 part of any single individual cannot vary continuously with every 

 small change in price, but can move only by great leaps. For instance, 

 a small fall in the price of hats or watches will not affect the action of 

 everyone; but it will induce a few persons, who were in doubt whether 

 or not to get a new hat or a new wa.tch, to decide in favor of doing so. 



In their broad results the variety and the fickleness of individual 

 action are merged in the comparatively regular aggregate of the action 

 of many. In large markets, then where 'rich and poor, old and 

 young, men and women, persons of all varieties of tastes, tempera- 

 ments, and occupations are mingled together the peculiarities in the 

 wants of individuals will compensate one another in a comparatively 

 regular gradation of total demand. 



There is then one general law of demand, viz., that the greater the 

 amount to be sold, the smaller will be the price at which it will find 

 purchasers; or, in other words, that the amount demanded increases 

 with a fall in price, and diminishes with a rise in price. There will 

 not be any exact relation between the fall in price and the increase 

 of demand. A fall of one-tenth in the price may increase the sales 

 by a twentieth or by a quarter, or it may double them. But as the 

 numbers in the left-hand column of the demand schedule increase, 

 those in the right-hand column will always diminish. 



