Владеть первым звеном цепи

A trader who only buys stays at the mercy of what is available. That is tolerable in the abundant lines and expensive in the ones whose market tightens every few years.

Investing in land and livestock was less an expansion into a new activity than an insurance on one end of the book: production whose conditions we know, a quality standard we set ourselves, and first-hand knowledge of what it means to grow the crop rather than buy it.