there is competition, a trader cannot be paid more than what is termed a fair price for his goods, because if he attempts to obtain more than the ordinary price he will be undersold by other traders. When buyers compete with each other they are anxious to secure the greatest gains, or in other words, to buy upon the best possible terms; and thus, when buyers are each intent on purchasing on the most favourable terms, a commodity is sure to realise what it is worth. It therefore follows that if on the one hand competition prevents a trader obtaining exceptionally high profits; on the other hand, it ensures to him a fair price for his goods. Some, perhaps, may think it unfortunate that employers, stimulated by a desire to realise the largest gains, should seek to engage their labourers on the lowest possible terms. But such conduct upon the part of the employers inflicts no injury upon the labourers; for whenever there is activity of competition, an individual manufacturer or trader is as powerless to get labourers to work for him at less than the ordinary wages as he would be to buy cotton at a cheaper rate than his fellow-manufacturers. The price of cotton is maintained because there are those who are anxious to purchase it; the rate of wages is also maintained by those who are anxious to purchase labour. Competition, consequently, exerts no tendency to reduce profits or wages; the tendency is rather one of equalisation.
Competition varies in intensity in different countries.Competition acts with far greater force in some countries than in others. In England the commercial spirit is so active that we are liable to forget that in some countries various transactions, such as the renting of land, the hiring of labour, and the sale of commodities, are regulated by custom to a far greater extent than by competition.
It has been often remarked that all men are more or less the slaves of habit. Every nation has some customs which become, as it were, engrafted on its existence; customs, which in their origin were perhaps purely social, have in many cases, after a certain lapse of time, produced effects of great pecuniary consequence. In this way the results which would ensue if competition freely operated are often interfered with; for men not