296 WISCONSIN STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
But just this condition of things neverdid exist in point of fact, 
and never will. It precludes the very idea of association. 
As civilization advances, individuals and nations learn that true 
independence comes of the completest interdependence. They 
produce, not to satisfy an immediate and definite demand, but in 
anticipation of a general indefinite one. Intelligent foresight is 
now the grand pre-requisite for successful production, and demand 
and supply become terms of the highest import. 
In the broadest sense, demand is but another expression for the 
wants and wishes of men, and supply, for the existing means of 
satisfying them. But the real significance of these terms lies in 
a more definite and restricted meaning. Demand in this sense 
must be “ effectual ”— desire coupled with ability to purchase. 
And supply is not services and commodities in general, but those 
which are in the market, for sale. In commercial language, money 
ready to be paid out for products, constitutes demand, and pro¬ 
ducts ready to be exchanged for money, make supply. The law 
of market price is the equation of demand and supply. When 
these are equalized, the current rate of exchange is determined. 
But the effect of these modifying agencies upon the prices of all 
things is not equally controlling. 
Exchangeable commodities may be roughly divided into three 
general classes: 1st. Those of which the supply can be readily and 
indefinitely increased ; 2d. Those of which the supply is absolutely 
limited ; 3d. Those of such a nature that the supply, though not 
absolutely fixed, can only be increased with difficulty, or after 
considerable lapse of time. In the first and most numerous class, 
where supply can be promptly and indefinitely increased, cost of 
production operates to regulate mainly the average price, while de¬ 
mand and supply cause fluctuations only. The harmonious and 
double-acting law by which these temporary influences are equal¬ 
ized, is one of the most beautiful in the whole science of exchange. 
Any excess or deficiency in demand, not only tends to check itself, 
but it is also checked through its influence upon supply ; so on 
the other hand any excess or deficiency of supply meets at once a 
double check. 
A rise of price from increased demand is checked, first, by re¬ 
stricting the number of purchasers; second, by increasing the sup- 
