On other Pseudo-commercial and Pseudo-bank Containers

Abstract

The article begins with a dialogue between a rationalizer and an observer on the relative merits of dispersed or highly concentrated commercial systems. The rationalizer wishes to reduce the number of small shops and sellers, considering an excessive number of intermediaries to be parasitic and an undue burden on the consumers. The observer defends the role of different types of operators in a segmented market. The former argues that prices are high because too many sellers unload on buyers their inefficient additional costs. Einaudi (who is behind the observer) quotes Federico Le Play and Camillo Benso, Count of Cavour, in order to criticize all forms of governmental regulation reducing competition and consumer choice, first in the specific example of bakers in Paris and then he extends the argument to the banking system in the second part of the article.

First published as ‘Di altri scatoloni pseudo-commerciali e pseudo-bancari’, in Riforma Sociale, XLII, Vol. XLVI, No. 1 (January–February 1935), pp. 1–22.