“First Cow” Economics: An Oily Cake Monopoly
Part 2 of a series analyzing the economics in Kelly Reichardt’s latest film
When people hear the term “monopoly,” some may think of the popular board game for which nobody seems to know the actual rules. Others may think of tech giants like Apple, Google, Amazon, and Facebook, whose CEOs testified (virtually) in a historic antitrust hearing before the House Judiciary Committee just last week.
Most of us probably aren’t thinking of oily cakes.
In Kelly Reichardt’s latest film First Cow (2019), King-Lu (Orion Lee) and Otis “Cookie” Figowitz (John Magaro) build a successful business in 19th-century Oregon by stealing milk and selling baked goods. In a land full of hunters and trappers, baking is a rare skill and milk is a rarer resource. With both, the entrepreneurial pair create an oily cake monopoly that earns them a small fortune.
In part one of this series, I analyzed the interplay of supply and demand in the oily cake market, as well as how the law of diminishing marginal utility influences King-Lu’s sales strategy.
