Your contributor first tried using eBay in its early days and was not very impressed. The experiment was not repeated for several years.

However, a combination of desperation for a particular item and the persuasion of an acquaintance with a more successful experience led to the internet auction site being given a second chance over the summer – with such positive results that there is a danger of addiction.

eBay has come of age – for reasons that should bring joy to all supporters of free markets.

First, it is a perfect example of how supply and demand can be seen to be setting a fair price. If you are looking for an item that comes up fairly frequently, and are in no hurry, it is worth taking the time to watch the closing prices of auctions. There are exceptions, when someone gets caught up in the heat of bidding, or picks up a bargain while no one else is watching, but, more often than not, prices for items of the same type usually settle around similar figures.

Second, it illustrates how open markets with a free flow of information are better at improving quality than any amount of regulation. When most business was essentially local, reputation was the key to quality. One of the drawbacks of globalisation was that reliable information about reputation became harder to obtain. However, that is less of a problem on eBay now that their rating system is well-established. Most sellers, and buyers, are proud of their scores and will go out of their way to avoid them being reduced by a single negative rating.

Operations like eBay and Amazon Marketplace point the way to how most businesses will operate in future. Some products and services, by their nature, require personal contact, but, for the vast majority, the global marketplace is already a fact of life, and international marketing and sourcing the norm. This will be increasingly tough on businesses, like the proverbial corner shops, whose focus has been exclusively local, but even such businesses may profit if they take the opportunity to develop an online operation that synergises – using that word properly for once – with their existing work.

British pubs are more than just bars. They are a focus of local community life.

Increasingly they are the only focus of local community life. The same politicians who bemoan the decline of community life are partly responsible for the closure of all the others – village schools, libraries, sub-post offices, and, indirectly, churches. It is true that changing social patterns are the primary cause of many closures – ten years ago, your contributor would go almost daily to the local post office with an armful of letters and packages of papers, nearly all of which are now sent by e-mail – but in most cases it was a political decision that provided the straw that broke the camel’s back.

The same is true of the traditional village pub. Alcohol sales have remained strong despite – or perhaps due to – the recession, but many prefer to drink at home or in soul-less urban nightclubs.

Yet there is still great demand for old fashioned pubs. The real problem is on the supply side, and this is where the politicians do their usual damage. High property taxes and the difficulty in finding casual bar staff, not helped by minimum wage legislation and other anti-employment measures, have made prosperous pubs marginal and marginal pubs unviable.

No wonder pubs are closing at an alarming rate.

Running a pub has never been an easy job. Most Britons, certainly most male Britons, have dreamt of doing it at some point in their lives – but it was always a dream that was unlikely to survive a half hour conversation with someone who had actually done it. Now even experienced licensees are leaving the business and not looking back. Their work ethic and knowledge are irreplaceable.

For those of us who believe that business is about more than profit and loss – it is also about meeting collective and individual needs – the damage to what is left of British community life is a double tragedy, but even the most ruthless economic Darwinist must disapprove when thousands of otherwise viable businesses are closed in defiance of the laws of the free market.

Once again, businesses are lost not because of supply and demand but because of state interference with them.