6 to 15 cents; in 1905 from 8 to 17 cents. 
Many conditions at home and abroad affect the 
price, such as bad harvests or inferior grades 
of produce. 
The tobacco trust has been very unjustly 
blamed by many for the falling price of tobacco. 
As a matter of fact and record, however, the 
concentration of buying power by eliminating 
the middleman and the small dealers has not 
only placed the grower in a better position by 
giving him a better price, as recent records 
show, but it has benefited the consumer also 
who can obtain the superior grades at a lower 
price. It is the middleman’s profit that has 
been cut. Moreover, the concentrated buying 
power of the large interests here has been an 
effective force in keeping up tobacco leaf prices 
against the foreign buyers.. It must be re- 
membered that about half of our crop is ex- 
ported. The buyers of this portion, who are 
principally the agents of foreign governments 
(in the cases where tobacco is a government 
monopoly as in France, Italy, etc.) assemble 
at the auctions and bid in the usual way. As 
this competition is very limited there is always 
an opportunity for such buyers to agree among 
themselves as to the limit of prices. This has 
been one of the important factors which has 
kept the prices of tobacco leaf down. The con- 
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