850 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 



more likely an inadequate estimate of demand. The European 

 demand for American wheat is variable because it depends in 

 no small measure upon the harvests in other parts of the world. 

 In many sections crops are not so well reported, so that wide 

 differences of opinion may well exist. Both the Leitcr and 

 Patten operations were based upon inferences with reference to 

 European demand, but Leiter failed to realize the significance of 

 crop prospects. There had been several short crops, and there 

 was an unusual European demand which others did not foresee. 

 The growing crop, however, was promising and ultimately proved 

 to be large. The final offerings of the bears were based on cer- 

 tain knowledge of the abundance of the harvests in the great 

 wheat-producing regions of the world. Patten was careful both 

 in his wheat deal and in the cotton deal in which he was associ- 

 ated in 1909-19 10. The last stages in the series of operations 

 were in both cases dominated by the crop reports. 



These episodes are without exception the most spectacular of 

 modern speculative transactions. They exhibit the working of 

 the modern markets when subjected to most unusual and extreme 

 conditions. Under similar circumstances the mediaeval markets 

 would have failed utterly. These modern markets revealed in 

 each instance a remarkably prompt understanding of the situation. 



