The Blacksmith’s Inflation Correction
A local farmer brags about his record-breaking pork sales, only to find the village blacksmith has adjusted his own prices accordingly.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
While the village blacksmith toiled manfully over the old farmer's plowshare, the owner of the share recounted at some length the wonderful success he had had with three litters of pigs he had marketed that day. 'Them pigs were less than eight months old,' the farmer ran on, 'and they brought me 10 cents a pound, or a little more than $400. Why, a few years ago those same pigs would have brought me only half as much. I tell you, the farmer is having his harvest now!' The smith, having finished sharpening the share, handed it to his customer. From a well-worn purse, the farmer took two dimes, the usual price for the job, and dropped them into the smith's hand. 'You'll have to come again,' said the smith, still holding the money in his outstretched palm. 'I charge 30 cents since the first of the year for sharpening that size plow.' 'Why, how now?' the farmer exclaimed testily. 'That's an outrage. Why have you raised the price on me?' 'To buy some of that high-priced pork you were tellin' me about,' was the smith's calm reply.
“I charge 30 cents since the first of the year for sharpening that size plow... To buy some of that high-priced pork you were tellin' me about.”
This 1916 vignette captures the classic tension between producers and service providers during an inflationary cycle. It remains a timeless illustration of how local economic shifts quickly permeate every corner of a small town's commerce.
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