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Paul in Mich
04-09-2005 19:55:04
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Re: War Tractors in reply to TGIN, 04-08-2005 11:42:46
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During the war, tractor production, while not put on hold as was the case with automobiles, were manufactured in much smaller numbers than prewar production numbers. While numbers were down, demand was higher as many tractor manufacturers had just introduced a new, modern, styled tractors in 1939 and 1940. Hydraulics was new, and farmers were comming out of the depression and could better afford a new tractor. The problem was that the demand was greater than the supply. The government, in its infinite wisdom, placed a price cap on new farm equipment which included tractors and combines. Of course, government back then as now did a poor job of closing the loopholes, and the loophole was that the price control applied to only NEW, and not used..... ....Enter Joe Smarter than Government Equipment dealer..... ..Dealers would invoice out a new tractor or combine to a friend or relative who would store it in a barn for a year, or whatever period of time it took to designate the tractor USED, then trade it back to the dealer for another NEW tractor or combine, and the dealer would then have a USED tractor or combine with zero of very little hours which he could then sell at a premium thereby circumventing the price control placed by the government. Call it blackmarketing, but the reality was that the dealer could get market value for the equipment rather than sell a 1944 model at the 1941 price. I don"t know exactly the length of time a NEW tractor or combine had to be invoiced out before it could be considered Used, but whether it was a Year of a day, the process was the same, and the effect was to circumvent the goverment mandate.
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