| Sumario: | Modern economic analysis might be dated as beginning with the intensified study of the forces of demand. The use of the demand curve has accompanied this development almost from the start. Nevertheless, despite the importance of this analytic tool there are few thorough going discussions of the foundations on which the curve rests. Isolated remarks are found in abundance, especially so in recent years when the conventions of earlier practice have been called into question. It is probably time to integrate these remarks and to see where they lead, to contrast them to the older ideas and their end-results. In the discussion, attention is first devoted to the older, and more usual, views of the demand curve. Actually this amounts to an examination of economist Alfred Marshall's assumptions. For not only did he take the trouble to mention its grounding, in contrast to lesser luminaries, but he also did most to implant the curve in the general and professional consciousness, although not actually the first to use the concept. After surveying Marshall's ideas, stress is placed on the major theme of the article, namely, of the interrelations among demand curves. Then, after consideration of some supplementary matters, a restatement of the assumptions on which the demand curve rests is offered.
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