As in the case of demand, there is no reason the supply relationship must be a straight line.

   We see that as the market price rises, the desired quantity supplied rises too, just as with our linear supply curve. In this example we show that as price rises from 1 to 5, the desired quantity supplied rises from 2 to 6.

   We still haven't explained why the supply curve should be upward sloping. A complete answer will have to wait until we study production costs and perfect competition. However, we can understand the basics now, by recalling what we know about opportunity costs.

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