DEMAND FOR COMMODITIES DEMOCRATIC 241 



But though supply thus depends on the domina- Book m 

 tion of the few, and rises and falls with the 

 ability with which that domination is exercised, The m st 

 it is itself at the same time under the domina- cannot make 

 tion of the many. Some industrial genius may drinkbeer 

 make a colossal fortune by directing the labour of[|j. e e yd 

 some thousands of men to the production (let us 

 say) of a new species of beer ; but his enterprise 

 will succeed only because millions of men like the 

 beer, and demand it under the direction of their own 

 taste alone. The tastes of the many, of course, 

 exhibit many varieties. Where a million men 

 demand beer, another million will demand whisky ; 

 and there are many commodities, such as guns, golf 

 balls, and cricket bats, the demand for which is 

 confined to comparatively small classes. But the 

 point here insisted on is, not that every member of 

 the community demands the same commodities, 

 but that whatever commodities are demanded, are 

 demanded in each case in accordance with the 

 spontaneous wishes of individuals, and that the total 

 force of the demand is the cumulative result of a 

 number of actions and desires which happen to be 

 spontaneously similar. The commodities supplied 

 to them have, in other words, to be accommodated 

 to a genuinely democratic order ; and if the consum- 

 ing democracy does not consider them suitable, it 

 virtually, by refusing to buy them, condemns them 

 to be destroyed. Thus if we direct our attention to 

 consumption, the few the directors of industry- 

 are the servants of the many ; though if we direct 



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