Each kind of commodity, as it passes through the many processes from the earth to the consumer, may be looked upon as a stream whose channel is broader at some points and narrower at others. Different streams of commodities narrow at different places. Some are narrowest and in fewest hands at the transport stage, when the raw material is being concentrated for production, others in one of the processes of manufacture, others in the hands of export merchants. Just as a number of German barons planted their castles along the banks of the Rhine, in order to tax the commerce between East and West which was obliged to make use of this highway, so it is with these economic "narrows." Wherever they are found, monopolies plant themselves in the shape of "rings," "corners," "pools," "syndicates," or "trusts." FOOTNOTES: [124] There still survive in certain old-fashioned trades firms which do business without formal written contracts, and which would be ashamed to take a lower price than they had at first asked, or to seek to beat down another's price. [125] There need, of course, be no actual diversion of goods into the possession of the Ring: the essence of the monopoly consists in the control, not in the possession of goods. [126] Baker, _Monopolies and the People_, p. 81. [127] Cf. Miss Potter, _The Co-operative Movement_, p. 199. [128] Porter, _Progress of the Nation_, pp. 283-285. [129] C.S.T. Dodd, "Ten Years of the Standard Oil Trust," _Forum_, May 1892. [130] "The Standard Oil Trust," Roger Sherman, _Forum_, July 1892. [131] Roger Sherman, "The Standard Oil Trust," _The Forum_, July 1892. [132] Argument of Standard Oil Trust before the House Committee on Manufactures, 1888 (quoted Baker, _Monopolies and the People_, p. 21). [133] J.W. Jenks, _Economic Journal_, vol. ii. p. 73. [134] _Report to the Commission of the Senate of New York State_, p. 440. [135] _Economic Journal_, vol. ii. p. 83. [136] "The Economic and Social Aspect of Trusts," _Political Science Quarterly_, Sept. 1888. [137] Baker, writing 1890, names fifty-nine articles which have at various times formed the material of Trusts, ranging in importance from sugar and iron rails to castor-oil, school slates, coffins, and lead pencils. CHAPTER VI. ECONOMIC POWERS OF THE TRUST. § 1. _Power of a Monopoly over earlier or later Processes in Production of a Commodity._ § 2. _Power over Actual or Potential Competitors._ § 3. _Power over Employees of a Trust._ § 4. _Power over Consumers._ § 5. _Determinants of a Monopoly Price._ § 6. _The Possibility of low Monopoly Prices._ § 7. _Considerations of Elasticity of Demand limiting Prices._ § 8. _Final Summary of Monopoly Prices._