94 
POLITICAL ECONOMY 
data upon a consideration of which the 
monopolist forms his decision. The monopo 
list is in the fortunate position (fortunate from 
his own point of view) of being able to decide 
what the market supply shall be. When he 
has so decided, price gets fixed by the mech 
anics of the market set in action by demand. 
Of course an employer who is competing with 
others is just as much at liberty as a mono 
polist to decide upon producing a limited 
quantity only of the article that he furnishes 
to the market, but, as his works are not the 
sole source of the supply, his decision does 
not affect the total market supply in the long 
run. Other employers would eventually fill 
up any gap created by his restriction of his 
output if it were normally profitable to do so. 
We shall proceed at first on the assumption 
that the monopoly that we are studying is a 
rigid one, or in other words that the control 
over the supply is complete ; and for the sake 
of brevity of statement I shall write as if 
a monopoly were always in the hands of a 
single individual, though, as a matter of fact, 
a monopoly may be a company managed by 
directors or a group of combined employers. 
Now the object of the monopolist, other 
things being equal, will be to maximise his 
net takings, that is the difference between