Section CXIV Prices Fixed by Government
No power can, of course, fix the price of a commodity in the long run, which cannot at the same time fix the relation of supply and demand. Hence, set prices fixed by governmental authority can be made to play a part in practice only in so far as they do not establish a price in opposition to the real state of things, only to the extent that they give undoubted expression to it in a manner in harmony with natural conditions. With this restriction, set or fixed prices may, in the absence of real competition, which can always best determine prices, be useful to both parties; otherwise one party would at one time, and the other at another, profit by an unjust advantage; but it would not be long before both would suffer from the perturbation caused thereby in all commercial transactions. How pleasant it is for a traveler in Switzerland, or even in Italy, to find set prices established there.675 Especially where competition is prevented by state privileges, the establishment of set prices by the state for the protection of the public may be necessary.676 It is more difficult to fix a set price for a commodity in proportion to its complexity and to its variableness in quality; and where there are different grades of quality of the same commodity, and the transition from one grade to another is almost imperceptible, such price is easily evaded.677 In the case of every enterprise carried on by many in common, where no competition is possible, it is necessary to supply the defect by means similar to the establishment of fixed prices; as in the case of government, by fees for governmental services, and the coöperation of a chamber of deputies in the imposition of taxes and the determination of official salaries etc.678