108 
POLITICAL ECONOMY 
miracle ; but the monopolist would be exceed 
ingly foolish to take this for granted. Many 
established industries will sell for years 
beneath their full cost of production rather 
than shut down, because shutting down 
involves the destruction in bulk of their fixed 
plant. They will continue to sell so long as 
the price is well above the specific cost of 
production, that is the cost of production 
apart from standing charges which would not 
be saved by the cessation of activities. And 
as regards other industries, not of this kind, 
in which output instantly and adequately 
contracts as soon as prices become in any 
degree unremunerative, we find that the 
possibility of such an immediate curtailment 
of production implies the possibility of an 
equally immediate increase of output as soon 
as a recovery in price renders it profitable. 
Tersely put, it is probably the case that 
competitors who are easily routed are easily 
rallied by a hardening of the market, and that 
those who are not easily routed can only be 
defeated eventually after a lengthy and 
exhausting campaign. Dumping of this order 
is far more likely in the case of articles which 
are unique and for which there is no perfect 
substitute. It might, for instance, pay the 
patentee of a new breakfast food to sell