THE PRICE OF WHEAT 133 
CHAPTER VII. 
THE PRICE OF WHEAT. 
1. General Remarks on Price Determination. 
It is a common-place that any investigation into the 
factors determining the price of any commodity should 
commence with an analytic survey of the conditions 
affecting the supply of and demand for that commodity. 
Wheat is no exception to this common rule. The price of 
wheat is normally determined by conditions of supply 
and demand in a market which is almost world-wide. 
The influence exerted by these conditions over price is 
of both immediate and ultimate importance. Direct 
variations in price result from variations in supply or 
demand, while fluctuations in price bring into operation 
forces which tend to adjust supply and demand to the 
changes in price. The former variations are immediate, 
and give rise to market price; the operation of the 
latter requires a long period, and they exert an ultimate 
influence, being fundamentally the cause of the transition 
from market, through sub-normal, to normal price. 
The terms market price and normal price will receive 
consideration in the forthcoming exposition of the general 
factors determining the price of wheat. Before entering 
into this exposition it will be well to call attention to 
the importance of considering the problem in detail. 
Produced in considerable quantities in almost every 
country, and consumed almost universally throughout 
the civilised world, wheat is subject to innumerable 
factors operating on supply and demand. No other 
commodity of the same class is produced over such a 
