. "How can
prices be regulated in a country where there is no competition between
buyers or sellers?"

"Just as they were with you," replied Dr. Leete. "You think that needs
explaining," he added, as I looked incredulous, "but the explanation
need not be long; the cost of the labor which produced it was
recognized as the legitimate basis of the price of an article in your
day, and so it is in ours. In your day, it was the difference in wages
that made the difference in the cost of labor; now it is the relative
number of hours constituting a day's work in different trades, the
maintenance of the worker being equal in all cases. The cost of a man's
work in a trade so difficult that in order to attract volunteers the
hours have to be fixed at four a day is twice as great as that in a
trade where the men work eight hours. The result as to the cost of
labor, you see, is just the same as if the man working four hours were
paid, under your system, twice the wages the others get. This
calculation applied to the labor employed in the various processes of a
manufactured article gives its price relatively to other articles.
Besides the cost of production and transportation, the factor of
scarcity affects the prices of some commodities. As regards the great
staples of life, of which an abundance can always be secured, scarcity
is eliminated as a factor. There is always a large surplus kept on hand
from which any fluctuations of demand or supply can be corrected, even
in most cases of bad crops. The prices of the staples grow less year by
year, but rarely, if ever, rise. There are, however, certain classes of
articles permanently, and others temporarily, unequal to the demand,
as, for example, fresh fish or dairy products in the latter category,
and the products of high skill and rare materials in the other. All
that can be done here is to equalize the inconvenience of the scarcity.
This is done by temporarily raising the price if the scarcity be
temporary, or fixing it high if it be permanent. High prices in your
day meant restriction of the articles affected to the rich, but
nowadays, when the means of all are the same, the effect is only that
those to whom the articles seem most desirable are the ones who
purchase them. Of course the nation, as any other caterer for the
public needs must be, is frequently left with small lots of goods on
its hands by changes in taste, unseasonable weather and various other
causes. These it has t