WHAT IS WRONG...WITH BRITISH _ AGRICULTURE ?
fro fhe Editor of the SPECTATOR.] • SIR,—Mr. Montague Fordham, at least as speaking for economists, should,_ know full well that the ,agricultural question cannot be picked out for solution separately from all the. other industrial problems which face the economist. The interdependence of the industrial, fabric .0_ a theme constantly upon the lips of every modern exponent of economic science. Therefore to. offer,. or even to hint at, a separate solution, cut and_ dried, of the, agricultural problem must be in itself an admission of, , futility. There__ are, of course, the small questions (like tied houses) ; , but the.maio question is an economic problem, not an agricultural. This is the problem which needs ventilating, and it .demands a
general solution in economics,. _ _
Mr. Fordham's letters in your issues of December 29th and January 12th lead up:to the question of the substitution of the " standard price system" for the system of " vacillating prices." This, then, is a general- solution which he Offers over the whole field Of economics. For we cannot suppose a standard price system to be inaugurated in agriculture without the need of simultaneously fixing the prices of goods over a progressively widening field of industry. If we Control the prices of what the farmer sells, we must also control the prices of what he must buy—or else he will not be a penny the better off.
Rents and the prices of goods will simply rise " on him'," maintaining the relative status quo. Now, we notice that Mr. Fordham, while advocating this standard price, is very careful to omit all details as to how it is arrived at: He can take it from me that when he comes to try and settle It 'over the whole field of the industry and commerce of this country there is only one price which will fill the bill, namely, the cost price. For, when you have settled the farmer's profit, and the tinker's and tailor's and candlestick-maker's, you will find, in the end, that you have not taken the consumer into account at all. You will have arranged for every producer and middleman to have a profit by arranging for their goods to stand at a premium in the market Consequently you have arranged for the consumer's interest, and the large and important factor of the wages of labour, to be at a, perpetual discount over the whole market. In fact, you have arranged nothing, for that is 'the condition of affairs at the present moment. If, therefore, Mr. Fordham's price is not the cost price, then he has about as much chance of popularizing his solution as a celluloid dog has of chasing an asbestos cat through hell.—I am, &c.,
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