In: Economics
Give the complaints voiced by farmers at the end of the 19th century and evaluate the validity of these complaints.
The complaints voiced by farmers at the end of the 19th century are:
(a) Supply exceeding demand - With more people settling down in the west and due to industrialization of new farm tools, the technology improved and this lead to increase in the crop production. Farmers increased the supply of crops so that they can earn more money by selling but because demand did not increase as much as the supply, the prices of the crops declined further below. This is a valid complaint since the supply was actually greater than the demand.
(b) Rising Tariffs - The government imposed tariffs on industrial products which made items purchased as capital more expensive but this is not make the agricultural prices high because of the rising input prices. So, the farmers had to bear more cost to produce the products but when they sold they did not make much profit. This is also a valid complaint since the prices of the agricultural prices did not go up as should be the case if the input prices also rise.
(c) High Freight Rates - The farmers also complained that there was high freight rates which made transportation more costly. This is not a valid complaint since the transportation cost was declining during that period. The commercialization of agriculture was done by railways which made the real transportation cost low.