of Edinburgh, Session 1871-72. 
619 
and supply at each price for a certain kind of goods. If all sellers 
were of one mind, and were willing to supply all their goods at 
a given price x, and were quite determined to sell no goods below 
that price, the supply curve would be a mere straight line parallel 
to OX, and ending abruptly at the ordinate raised at x. Similarly, 
if all buyers were of one mind, and would only buy below a given 
price x, hut were willing to buy all they want at that price, and no 
more at any lower price, the demand curve would he a line parallel 
to OX ending abruptly at the ordinate raised at x, and the price 
would be quite indeterminate. If the two lines overlapped, trans¬ 
actions might take place at any price between that at which the 
Y 
sellers were willing to sell and the buyers willing to buy ; there 
would in this case be no market price. This case does not repre¬ 
sent the true state of either buyers’ or sellers’ minds in any real 
large market. There are always a few holders who would only sell if 
the price were much higher than the market price,—these are the 
people who expect prices to rise; there are some who are just willing 
to sell at the market price, hut who will not sell a penny below; and 
there are others, weak holders, who expect prices to fall, and these 
would really, if pushed to extremity, sell below the market price. 
This condition of things is represented by the supply curve in fig. 1, 
