The Story of 'Market Economy' in the Palestinian Countryside

-        27-12-2018

-        Al-Hajj "Abu Quraqea" – may God have mercy on him – as I remember him well in the sixties, when he used to stroll through the alleys of our town, walking on foot, was a trader who bought and sold rabbits and birds..and most of his trade was in our town, buying birds and then reselling them, from some families who raised local chicks and pigeons that fed on grains of corn, barley and wheat..until they reached a weight that qualified them to be placed on the scale and their owners would earn money in exchange for their prices..they knew the right time to sell to Abu Quraqea the itinerant buyer...and he would shout repeating his famous phrases that he called out from the moment he first entered the streets of the alleys until their ends to announce his offer — his demand — to buy birds and complete purchases "those who have chicks and pigeons and rabbits for sale" and when he paused for a moment, we knew that he had secured a sale...and when he shouted again, we knew he had finished the sale at his multiple selling points in the town...and he would bring with him his famous two-pan scale and the brass weight measures in shapes that at the time we used to see as wonders and there were stones with the brass weights with which he claimed that this stone weighs half a kilo..so he used it as a half-kilo (500 gram) standard with the other weights if the need required...and everyone accepted his account..so you would see weights of various measures and types, some brass and some stone as I mentioned..as for fractions in the weights he would adjust them and round them to the nearest hundred grams in his favor..and everyone agreed, for there was demand from the village public for his cash offer whose coin denominations were the qirsh and the tariff and the shilling (five qirsh and commonly pronounced shlem) and the bariza (which is ten qirsh) as the change denominations of currency in the Jordanian dinar....His phrase that he would call out and shout as I mentioned was "those who have chicks and pigeons and rabbits for sale"!! in a tuned voice. elongated. and he repeated it repeatedly....It is still engraved in our ears and minds until now. I recall it as if it equaled an entire chapter of a marketing book these days by the greatest economic experts such as Adam Smith or Keynes or Friedman...!! The market trade that he called out is what contemporary advocates of liberal capitalism call now..and which gives the impression that market equilibrium is what achieves welfare and economic renaissance without the slightest government intervention..it was present in the behavior of the parties to the buying and selling process..!! The late "Abu Quraqea" imposed his terms and weights and his word could not be contradicted..he monopolized the price and did not give a true weight to the bird nominated for sale.!! Demand for selling was high, but in terms of supply he was cunning in imposing his price..so if he saw, for example, that the bird was thin, (for example, squabs of pigeons) he would tell the seller: this bird is no good..and the seller would be forced to sell it at a low price per kilo meaning he burned the price!!..that is, much lower than the prevailing price with "Abu Quraqea", which also varied from alley to alley. For example, if this alley asked him a lot and scrutinized the scale calibrations of the two-pan scale, he would grant them a little more than the price of the other alley, which did not haggle over prices and believed everything he said!! The economy was instantiated by the late Hajj "Abu Quraqea" with his basic concepts in this market in which usually no one rivaled him!! I will not forget that venerable, hardworking Hajj "Abu Quraqea"...and he would repeat that phrase and we would gather around him after we informed the relevant people in the alley that "Abu Quraqea" had come...and most of his customers were women..which makes me feel that the "general budget" portfolio in those days for rural families was entrusted to our mothers and grandmothers in general. Since the husbands, as I imagine, used to go in those days to the fields...for farming and tending the land!!. His two-pan scale was like the pans of the scale of justice....he would put the weight measures in one pan, and the bird or rabbit in the other pan, after he or the seller had bound the bird by its wings so it would not escape and fly..or the rabbit which he held by its long ears ..and they would keep them that way until it was weighed and the negotiation process on the price per kilo would begin..and the area would be filled with bustle and commotion in negotiation that reminds me of public markets...and sometimes the late Abu Quraqea would buy local eggs...as I remember every 6 local eggs were a shilling.(5 qirsh)..and "Abu Quraqea" was competed by one of the townsmen, Hajj Fadel. - may God have mercy on him - who would buy local eggs and some pigeons and rabbits at times, and he always carried a large basket (a large sabta) but his trade was not with the skill of "Abu Quraqea" who was from one of the villages neighboring our town, but he — that is "Abu Quraqea" — when he sensed that the townsman moved to buy, he would move the price a bit in favor of the sellers..., based on foundations and principles of competition. To remain master of the pigeon market in the town...and to push the town man out of the market..he mastered the rules of supply and demand and price incentives very simply.....so he would capture most of the sales deals in the village...!!.

-        What prompted me to recount the rural story of the late Hajj "Abu Quraqea" is his two-pan scale....which reminds us these days of the government's general budget for the year 2019...which steers the course of the national economy with a general budget that resembles some of the principles of the late "Abu Quraqea"'s two-pan scale....one pan contains revenues and the other pan contains expenditures, in this two-pan scale..the government strives to make the two pans at least equal, that is, revenues equal expenditures..and the government always hopes that revenues will exceed expenditures to create a surplus rather than a deficit., because when the government runs a deficit in implementing the items of the general budget, it is forced to issue debt to cover such a deficit...and then the accumulations of public debt begin. which affect all aspects of the national economy and its indicators such as prices, inflation, unemployment, exchange rates..and interest rates. and the level of income and general welfare that burden the homeland, its current generations and future generations and change hope into bitter pain..!!
I will write later on this page, so as not to strain your eyes with long writing which you always complain about!!! With my love to you in all circumstances because our common hope..is to serve our small homeland Palestine and our large Arab homeland to which we belong with pride and dignity..!...

·       On a related subject to this post, the subsequent article..will be titled.."The People Await ...the general budget for 2019"..which reminded me to write on this important subject, which concerns every citizen because — that is, the citizen — is essentially the one who pays the government's revenues for the most part. Whether from taxes of various kinds or fees and customs..whether this citizen is an employee or a professional or one of the owners of projects in the private sector or sole proprietorships and companies or factories..or an ordinary citizen who uses public facilities ...etc. And he is the one who bears the public debt and its interest..!! So he has the right to hold the government accountable on every item of its revenues and expenditures...and the degree of its adherence to the items of the general budget approved by the representatives of the people...So the story of Hajj "Abu Quraqea"'s two-pan scale is one of the motivators for me to write in the upcoming topic "The People Await ...the general budget for 2019" ...All my greetings to you.