Should the Manufacturer Have the Right To Fix Selling Prices?
| Date | 01 January 1916 |
| Author | Gilbert H. Montague |
| DOI | 10.1177/000271621606300104 |
| Published date | 01 January 1916 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
55
SHOULD
THE
MANUFACTURER
HAVE
THE
RIGHT
TO
FIX
SELLING
PRICES?
BY
GILBERT
H.
MONTAGUE,
Counsellor
at
Law,
New
York.
If
a
categorical
answer
be
required
to
this
question,
it
will
have
to
be,
Yes—and
No.
For
many
different
things
may
be
meant
by
this
question:
some
deserving
indisputably
the
answer
Yes;
some
receiving,
by
universal
consent,
the
answer
No;
and
many
more
presenting
considerable
difficulties
in
the
way
of
any
answer
whatsoever.
I
Everyone
probably
will
agree
that
the
manufacturer
has,
and
should
have,
the
right
to
set
the
prices
on
his
own
goods
to
his
own
immediate
customers.
Everybody
who
sells
anything
has
always
had
this
right.
Nobody,
therefore,
would
now
deny
it
to
the
manu-
facturer.
But
ought
the
manufacturer
to
be allowed
to
reserve
to
him-
self
the
right
to
set
the
price
at
which
his
goods
shall
be
sold
by
his
customers
to
their
customers,
and
by
his
customers’
customers
to
their
customers,
and
so
on
down
the
line
of
trade
that
begins
with
the
manufacturer,
and
ends
when
the
last
retailer
parts
with
his
goods
to
the
ultimate
consumer?
The
general
run
of
people
who
sell
things,
it
is
admitted,
do
not
claim
any
such
right.
Most
people,
indeed,
not
only
omit
to
claim
it
but
appear
to
get
along
quite
contentedly
without
it.
A
consid-
erable
amount
of
popular
and
governmental
and
judicial
opinion,
also,
appears
to
be
somewhat
loosely
to
the
effect
that
people,
perhaps,
do
not
have
any
such
right.
Why
then
do
certain
manufacturers
want
it?
And
are
there
any
good
reasons
why
any
manufacturer
needs
it
any
more
than
other
people?
Manufacturers
generally
do
not
feel
the
need
of
any
such
right.
But
manufacturers
of
trade-marked
and
branded
goods
advocate
it
as
a
business
necessity.
Why
does
the
manufacturer
of
popular
trade-marked
and
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