BULK BUYING
Sm,—The controversy round bulk buying arrives at no conclusion. Is it not possible that these early, spasmodic attempts to develop a new business technique quite fail to explore the full benefits of such a system? If one Government could place a firm order for the supply, over a number of years, of a particular commodity—say corn—at a stable price, possibly through an international body with considerable powers and authority such as are already in some part possessed by the International Wheat Board—power to equate world production with world demand, and power to arrange reasonable prices based on the amount of work required in production—if, moreover, similar control could be exercised over a dozen or more other primary commodities of the " reproducible at will " variety, then producers would get assured markets, consumers assured supplies and, possibly most important of all, the world would be within sight of stable currencies.
It would, of course, be urged that to achieve this would need an effort of world co-operation quite outside the range of practical politics. That may or may not be true. In the seventeenth annual report of the Bank of International Settlements, on the first page, occurs the following state- ment: " Nothing enduring can be built on the quicksands of con- stantly changing monetary values." That certainly is true ; the late Sir Josiah Stamp was pointing out that very thing some twenty years ago— his " economic enemy No. 1 "—since which time we have had instance after instance of the correctness of his diagnosis. Unfortunately it is easier—better practical politics—to drift along the road that leads to 6r Queens Road, Felixstowe.
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