Farmers Market Mechanism

Happy ever after in the market place
Desmond lets the childern lend a hand
Molly stays at home and does her pretty face
And in the evening she still sings it with the band
--The Beatles

For the past couple of years, my neighborhood has sponsored a farmers market on Sundays. This year, the weekly market will be set up in the town square.

Markets are often explained in terms of sellers and buyers. For instance, markets are often defined as places where sellers and buyers come together.

In the farmers market case, the sellers are customarily considered to be the farmers with their produce. The buyers are viewed as the neighborhood folks heading to the square with cash (broadly defined) in hand.

Generally, then, sellers are typically seen as those who bring goods and service to the market; buyers are those who bring the money.

But what exactly is money? It's often defined as a medium of exchange. But corn or apples are also mediums of exchange.

At its essence, money in the form of paper or coins is meant to represent a portion of income from productive effort. One dollar might represent 4 ears of corn from a farmers' production, or a fraction of a customer service representative's phone conversation assisting a client. It is the fungibility of paper or coins money that makes it a desirable proxy for income in social situations.

Typically, then, a farmer is seen as 'selling' 4 ears of corn to the customer service rep, who 'buys' them with a dollar bill. Just as accurately, however, the CSR can be seen as 'selling' the fraction of a service call to the farmer, who 'buys' the call with 4 ears of corn.

Precisely who is the seller and who is the buyer seems a subjective matter.

More accurately, then, markets are places of trade or exchange. In market exchanges, people trade portions of their income or (when the paper or coin money used in trade is created by fiat) claims on other people's income.

Viewed thru this lens, sellers and buyers do not populate markets. Traders do.