WhiteOakBayou@lemmy.world 1 day ago
The law of supply and demand. If the demand starts to outstrip the supply the price will go up to compensate and reduce the demand. At the local level, imports can fill supply gaps. Demand isn’t really constant. The word used to describe it is elastic. For trees, they cut down however many they are going to. Replant, move to the next patch the next season and so on.
dustyData@lemmy.world 1 day ago
There’s a whole futures market for this and many other prime matter. Companies, including retailers, buy stocks ahead of time. That’s the original meaning of a stock. The company then fulfills orders as the stocks become due or they get renegotiated for a later date. This is a crucial source of financing for these industries. As they get the cash influx by selling promises of future productivity.