Quota and Consumer The very interesting interview with Major Walter
Elliot in the Daily Telegraph of Monday served to illus- trate rather than to clarify the difficulties of the agricultural situation. Major Elliot preferred to talk of " contract " arrangements rather than quotas, the former savouring rather of planning, and the latter rather of restriction, and he is, of course, right in emphasizing the dangers of violent fluctuations in supply and in price.
But the trouble is that the purchasing power of the mass of the poorer consumers is rigidly limited, and if meat and bacon prices are raised the poor man's wife will simply buy something else, or buy even less than she does. The answer to that, no doubt, is that any reduced demand will be thrown on the shoulders of the foreigner, the home quota remaining steady. That does not go far to meet the real problem, which is how to increase demand. If the 3,000,000 unemployed in this country were somehow enabled to increase their meat purchases, the farmers' problem would be solved. The key to the producer's problem lies ultimately with the consumer. * * * *
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