Chapter 2 McMillan - Triumphs of Intelligence

            Markets can occur anywhere and it is nearly impossible to stop these trades.  The Makola marketplace in Ghana demonstrates this notion about markets and how complicated they can become.  In addition to buying the goods from other consumers, the stallholders must organize a means of transportation for the goods also.  To make matters worse, the stallholders are illiterate; therefore, they have to use their memory to calculate the cost of each item.  In determining the price of a good, all the factors that lead up to producing that good must be factored as well.  The stallholders also had to worry about the Ghanaian government too because they will rebel if the stallholders do not obey the price controls.  As a result, soldier would demolish the stalls and create havoc for the marketplace.  However, the stallholders demonstrated their willingness to trade goods by setting up the stalls within a week of demolition.

The process of trading goods in these camps is based on the necessities to survive.  In fact, they can even occur in refugee or prison camps. They trade the goods that they don’t need with others who have goods that they want (cigarettes could be traded for a can of food).  The prices were constantly changing with supply and demand.  When the food was delivered early in the week, the prices began low and climbed as the week progressed.  Simply stated, these markets find ways to occur, even through the hard times in refugee or prison camps.  “When their livelihoods are on the line, people are ingenious at finding ways to improve their lot by creating new markets or designing better ones” (16).

            According to McMillan, “the internet has made possible global markets for all kinds of goods that previously had only local markets” (19).  It has linked buyers and sellers to one another, worldwide.  Pierre Omidyar’s creation of AuctionWeb was a turning point that made exchanges easier.  After partnering with Jeffrey Skoll, the two combined to launch eBay, which currently serves as the Internet’s biggest exchange services.  The auction mechanism that was utilized by eBay benefitted the buyers and the sellers.  The buyers eventually received their goods while the seller received the most possible money for the good as well.