The general run of agricultural commodities is produced under competitive conditions by relatively small-scale cultivators scattered over a large area. The final purchasers are also scattered, and centres of consumption are distant from regions of production. The dealer, therefore, since he is indispensable, is in a stronger economic position than the seller. This situation is markedly true when the producer is a peasant who lacks both commercial knowledge and finance so that he is obliged to sell as soon as his harvest comes in; it is true also, though to a lesser extent, of the capitalist plantation for which the only source of earnings is a particular specialized product. In this kind of business, both demand and supply are said to be inelastic in the short run—that is, a fall in price does not have much effect in increasing purchases and a rise in price cannot quickly increase supplies. Supplies are subject to natural variations, weather conditions, pests, and so forth; and demand varies with the level of activity in the centres of industry and with changes in tastes and technical requirements. Under a regime of unregulated competition such markets are, therefore, tormented with continual fluctuations in prices and volume of business. Though dealers may mitigate this to some extent by building up stocks when prices are low and releasing them when demand is high, such buying and selling often turns into speculation, which tends to exacerbate the fluctuations.

The behaviour of primary commodity markets is a serious matter when whole communities depend upon a single commodity for income or for employment and wages. The agricultural communities that form part of an industrial economy are therefore generally sheltered from the operation of supply and demand by government regulations of various types, price supports, or tariff protection. Though some attempts have been made to control world commodity markets, these are generally more talk than performance. Some nations, Australia for example, have been able to make enough profit from primary commodity exports to attract capital into the development of industry; but most of the so-called developing countries find their export earnings insecure and insufficient. Their spokesmen complain that the world market system operates in favour of the industrialized nations.

Glenn G. Munn, F.L. Garcia, and Charles J. Woelfel, Encyclopedia of Banking and Finance, 9th ed., rev. and expanded (also published as The St. James Encyclopedia of Banking & Finance, 1991), provides comprehensive definitions, many with bibliographies. Edward I. Altman and Mary Jane McKinney (eds.), Handbook of Financial Markets and Institutions, 6th ed. (1987), is a thorough compilation. Detailed information on a variety of markets is provided in Francis A. Lees and Maximo Eng, International Financial Markets: Development of the Present System and Future Prospects (1975), a descriptive treatment; Charles R. Geisst, A Guide to the Financial Markets, 2nd ed. (1989), for the general reader; Frank J. Fabozzi and Frank G. Zarb, Handbook of Financial Markets: Securities, Options, and Futures, 2nd ed. (1986); and Perry J. Kaufman, Handbook of Futures Markets: Commodity, Financial, Stock Index, and Options (1984), including the history, regulation, and mechanics of futures trading. Further discussion of financial futures is found in Mark J. Powers and Mark G. Castelino, Inside the Financial Futures Markets, 3rd ed. (1991), an explanation of the exchanges and their functions; and Nancy H. Rothstein and James M. Little (eds.), The Handbook of Financial Futures: A Guide for Investors and Professional Financial Managers (1984), a discussion of the market’s development, organization, and regulation.

The first chapter of Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations (1776, reprinted frequently), contains his famous discussion of the division of labour. Alfred Marshall, Principles of Economics, 9th ed., 2 vol. (1961), conveys his approach to the market. The development of the general equilibrium approach to markets by Leon Walrus and others is well recounted by Joseph A. Schumpeter, A History of Economic Analysis, ed. by Elizabeth Boody Schumpeter (1954). The best short introduction to the Keynesian Revolution is by Michal Kalecki, Studies in the Theory of Business Cycles, 1933–1939 (1966; originally published in Polish, 1962). These essays were written before the publication of the great work of John Maynard Keynes, The General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money (1935, reissued 1991). A critical account of the theory of imperfect competition is presented in the preface to Joan Robinson, The Economics of Imperfect Competition, 2nd ed. (1969, reissued 1976). A slightly different approach is that of Edward Hastings Chamberlin, The Theory of Monopolistic Competition, 8th ed. (1962). Economies without markets are described in Karl Polanyi, Primitive, Archaic, and Modern Economies, ed. by George Dalton (1968), a collection of essays of great interest and originality. Andrew Shonfield, Modern Capitalism (1965, reissued 1978), studies the ways in which various countries have adapted their economic administration to modern requirements. A more critical view of modern capitalism is that of John Kenneth Galbraith, The New Industrial State, 4th ed. (1985). A Marxist view is set forth by Paul Baran and Paul Sweezy, Monopoly Capital (1966). A summary of the attempts at economic reform in the then-existent Soviet Union and other countries with socialist economies is given in Michael Ellman, Economic Reform in the Soviet Union (1969). The economic problems of the poor countries are examined in Gunnar Myrdal, The Challenge of World Poverty (1970), a continuation of his monumental work Asian Drama: An Inquiry into the Poverty of Nations, 3 vol. (1968), also available in an abridged edition (1971).

The classic appraisal of the market from the standpoint of social welfare is A.C. Pigou, The Economics of Welfare, 4th ed. (1962). Appraisals of welfare economics include I.M.D. Little, A Critique of Welfare Economics, 2nd ed. (1957, reissued 1970); J. de V. Graaff, Theoretical Welfare Economics (1957, reissued 1975); and Maurice Dobb, On Economic Theory and Socialism (1955, reissued 1972). Thorstein Veblen, The Place of Science in Modern Civilisation, and Other Essays (1919, reprinted 1990), most directly expresses his critique of the market ideology.