Prices determine how resources are to be used. They are also the means by which products and services that are in limited supply are rationed among buyers.

The price system of the United States is a complex network composed of the prices of all the products bought and sold in the economy as well as those of a myriad of services, including labor, professional, transportation, and public-utility services. The interrelationships of all these prices make up the“system“ of prices.

The price of any particular product or service is linked to a broad, complicated system of prices in which everything seems to depend more or less upon everything else. If one were to ask a group of randomly selected individuals to define “price“, many would reply that price is an amount of money paid by the buyer to the seller of a product or service or, in other words, that price is the money value of a product or service as agreed upon in a market transaction.

This definition is, of course, valid as far as it goes. For a complete understanding of a price in any particular transaction, much more than the amount of money involved must be known. Both the buyer and the seller should be familiar with not only the money amount, but with the amount and quality of the product or service to be exchanged, the time and place at which the exchange will take place and payment will be made, the form of money to be used, the credit terms and discounts that apply to the transaction, guarantees on the product or service, delivery terms, return privileges, and other factors.

In other words, both buyer and seller should be fully aware of all the factors that comprise the total “package“ being exchanged for the asked-for amount of money in order that they may evaluate a given price.

全文翻譯：
　　
“價格“的定義 價格決定資源的使用方式。 價格也是有限的產品與服務在買方中的配給 手段。
　　
美國的價格系統是復雜的網狀系統，包括經濟生活中一切產品買賣的價格，也包括 名目繁多的各種服務，諸如勞動力、專職人員、交通運輸、公共事業等服務的價格。
　　
所有 這些價格的內在聯系構成了價格系統。 任何一種個別產品或服務的價格都與這個龐大而復 雜的系統密切相關，而且或多或少地受到系統中其它成份的制約。如果隨機挑選一群人，問 問他們如何定義“價格“，許多人會回答價格就是根據賣方提供的產品或服務，買方向其付出 的錢數。
　　
換句話說，價格就是市場交易中大家認同的產品或服務的貨幣量。 該定義就其本 身來說自有其道理。
　　
但要獲得對價格在任何一樁交易中的完整認識，就必須考慮到大量“ 非貨幣“因素的影響。 買賣雙方不但要清楚交易中的錢數，而且要非常熟悉交易物的質量和 數量，交易的時間、地點，采用哪種形式付款，有怎樣的緩付和優惠，對交易物的質量保證、 交貨條款、退賠權利等等。
　　
也就是說，為了能估算索價，買賣雙方必須通曉構成交易物價 格的通盤細節。