"A BOLT) PEASANTRY . ."
- [To the Editor- of. the -SPECTATOR.] SIR,—The lines from-Goldsmith's "Deserted Village," quoted by Mr. Cecil Wilson- in. your issue- of to-day-(June ,22nd) are, when read in- connexion with the conditions that provoked them, a strong. plea for,Free. Trade,-
In the early part of the. eighteentheentucy the sinall.fannee
or yeoman and peasant proprietor flourished in England, and this was the period of cheap wheat. In 1761 wheat was 26s. 9d. per imperial quarter. In 1770, when Goldsmith wrote his " Deserted Village," it had risen to 43s. ed., a high price reckoned in the then 'existing value ofrhoney.- Corn had to be grown, but a small man cannot grow corn profitably. Corn growing requires . a large area, the best labour-saving machinery, and capital. The small man can grow vegetables, fruit, potatoes ; and he can produce pciultry, eggs, milk, butter and Pigs ; but he cannot grow corn except at a loss : he is a consumer not a producer of corn. For he requires grain for his poultry and meal for his pigs. So the farms were " engrossed," the yeoman and the smallholder dis- appeared, and only a fraction could find employment as labourers on the " engrossed " farms.
Another illustfation of the economic law is to be found in Russia. In pre-War days sixty per cent. of the land was held by peasants and -forty per cent. by landoWners. Ruisia exported large quantities of corn and Europe lived on the contents of the " bulging cernbins " of Odessa. The greater part of this corn, about sixty per cent., was produced by the large landowner with the aid of capital and agricultural machinery. The landowner has been eliminated, and we learn from your " Letter from Moscow " that Russia will have to import a million tons of grain this year.
This experience only confirms the truth of the economic law, which declares that grain cannot be grown profitably by smallholders. It is grown by Russian peasants, but subject to a standard of living that would be impossible in the West.—
I am, Sir, &c., - GRAHAM BOWER. Studwell Lodge, Droxford, Hants.
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