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Old 04-08-2011, 01:44 PM   #48
whswhs
 
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Lawrence, KS
Default Re: Looking for fantasy/medieval weapon & equipment lists

Quote:
Originally Posted by Icelander View Post
While your main point is helpful, this statement is, in fact, not accurate.

If cream, as it indeed does, spoils quickly, the dairyman does have a compelling reason to sell all his cream quickly. The fact that it is worth nothing (or very little, at least) once it spoils. So if the people living near the dairyman can consume only a limited amount of cream, he might be forced to sell the rest to butter-makers, simply to avoid throwing it away.
In an equilibrium situation, market forces will work to prevent such an outcome as you envision.

* If a normal cream buyer will pay 3d a pint, but a butter maker will pay 1/2d a pint, the dairyman would obviously much rather sell to the cream buyer. He might occasionally have cream left over that he has to sell cheap, but that won't be his goal, and a buttermaker won't want to rely on it for his raw material. If selling at 3d a pint means that one-third of the output goes unsold, routinely, then the average price is (2/3)3d + (1/3)1/2d = 2 1/6d; the dairyman can cut his price to 2 3/4d, 2 1/2d, or even 2 1/4d and come out ahead . . . so the market price of cream will be a bit lower and nearly all of it will sell.

* In saying "3d" we must assume that this process has already happened, and 3d is the price at which nearly all the cream sells.

* Alternatively, the dairyman can adjust his output of cream to avoid unsold cream. He can produce less cream and less skim milk (or, in the real world, less butter and less buttermilk) and more whole milk. Doing the labor of separating the cream is a waste if you don't make a profit from it.

* The quantity of cream that the locals can consume is also not fixed. If the price drops to 2 1/2 d, they can find more uses for it, having more cream in their diets.

* The greater the disparity between the price of cream-used-to-make-butter and cream-used-otherwise, the stronger these market forces are. If butter makers will pay 2 1/d for cream, then the dairyman has much less reason for reluctance to sell to them; he doesn't lose much, and may even find a guaranteed sale worth the slight cut in income. But this will also mean that butter must be a lot more expensive than cream by weight.

Bill Stoddard
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