e not to be overlooked
because of unimportance.

In the chapter on monopolies of mineral wealth it was stated that the
French copper syndicate is not a "trust," but a "corner." It has not
been common to consider "corners" as a species of monopoly, except as
they have, like the latter, acquired a bad reputation with the general
public from their effect in raising the price of the necessaries of
life. But if we look at the matter carefully, it becomes plain that the
aim of the maker of corners is the same exactly as that of the organizer
of trusts,--to kill competition. The difference lies in the fact that
the "corner" is a temporary monopoly, while the trust is a permanent
one. The man who forms a corner in, let us say, wheat, first purchases
or secures the control of the whole available supply of wheat, or as
near the whole supply as he can. In addition to this he purchases more
than is really within reach of the market, by buying "futures," or
making contracts with others who agree to deliver him wheat at some
future time. Of course he aims to secure the greater part of his wheat
quietly, at low figures; but after he deems that the supply is nearly
within his control, he spreads the news that there is a "corner" in the
market, and buys openly all the wheat he can, offering larger and larger
prices, until he raises the price sufficiently high to suit him. Now the
men who have contracted to deliver wheat to him at this date are at his
mercy. They must buy their wheat of him at whatever price he chooses to
ask, and deliver it as soon as purchased, in order to fulfil their
contracts. Meanwhile mills must be kept in operation, and the millers
have to pay an increased price for wheat; they charge the bakers a
higher price for flour, and the bakers raise the price of bread. Thus is
told by the hungry mouths in the poor man's home, the last act in the
tragedy of the "corner."

Fourier tells of an event in his early life which made a lasting
impression on him. While in the employ of a mercantile firm at
Marseilles, his employers engaged in a speculation in rice. They
purchased almost all the available supply and held it at high prices
during the prevalence of a famine. Some cargoes which were stored on
shipboard rotted, and Fourier had to superintend the work of throwing
the wasted grain, for the want of which people had been dying like dogs,
into the sea. The "corners" of the present day are no less productive of
discontent