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and sell goods. In former days part of a town was kept as the market
or marketplace, and people would travel many kilometers on special
market days in order to buy and sell various commodities.
Today, however, markets
such as the world sugar market, the
gold market and the cotton market do not need to have any fixed
geographical location. Such a market is simply a set of conditions
permitting buyers and sellers to work together.
In a free market, competition takes
place among sellers of the
same commodity and among those who wish to buy that commodity.
Such competition influences the prices prevailing in the market.
Prices inevitably fluctuate, and such fluctuations are also affected
by current supply and demand.
Whenever people who are willing to sell a commodity contact
people who are willing to buy it,
a market for that commodity
is created. Buyers and sellers may meet in person, or they may
communicate in some other way: by letter, by telephone or through
their agents.
In
a perfect market, communications are easy, buyers and
sellers are numerous and competition is completely free. In perfect
markets there can be one
price for any given commodity, the lowest
price which sellers will accept and the highest which consumers
will pay.
There are, however, no really perfect markets and each
commodity market is subjected to special conditions. It can be said
however that the price ruling in a market
indicates the point where
supply and demand meet.
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