The principal discussion on Wednesday turned on the amend- ment
giving the Board of Trade power to fix maximum prices. This amendment was accepted by Sir Auckland Geddes. Experi- ence ought to have warned him against this dangerous proposal. A maximum price always tends to become a minimum price. As a matter of fact, prices cannot be controlled at all unless the con- trolling authority also controls the supplies. In the earlier stages of the war, when maximum prices were fixed for potatoes, the Great Potato Mystery instantly developed. Where the potatoes went to nobody quite knew, but that a glut of potatoes suddenly became a shortage for all practical purposes was only too patent. Lord Robert Cecil very forcibly pointed out that the amendment destroyed the whole basis and structure of the Bill. As he said, it is a terrible power to confer on the Board of Trade, this authority to say what is a, reasonable price for any single article.
