Page:Emile Vandervelde - Three Aspects of the Russian Revolution - tr. Jean Elmslie Henderson Findlay (1918).djvu/108

 supply exceeding the demand, the price of wheat goes down considerably. As every one knows, the sale of wheat in the spring is much more advantageous. But we shall not dwell at length on this fact here. We are not dealing, either, with the causes of this state of things. Let us note, however, that in Western Siberia there is, as a result of the great distances, of the fact that most of the places are very far distant from marketing centres, great difficulties in the transportation of the wheat to the latter. Groups of agents and corn-dealers have spread a network over this out-of-the-way part of the country. There they live and grow rich, thanks to the ignorance of grain-marketing conditions of the peasants in these distant parts of Siberia. It frequently happens that some corn-dealers will band together to create an artificial drop in the price of wheat, and thus force the peasant coming to the market from a distance to sell his wheat at a price already agreed on. Moreover, it is well known that the practice of fraud in the matter of weights and measures is carried on to a great extent