AGRICULTURAL PROGRESS IN THE TROPICS 55 



been outlining. There exist in general two agricultures side 

 by side, with but few intermediate stages — the great and 

 progressive capitalist agriculture, mainly but not exclusively 

 pursued by white men, and the still greater peasant agriculture, 

 pursued by the poorer folk, almost, though not entirely, upon the 

 principle of grow-what-you-want-and-consume-what-you-grow. 



Are these two agricultures to continue in this state or 

 are they to become more assimilated, the peasant agriculture 

 becoming more progressive and additional intermediate types 

 appearing? This is the great problem of the day, and we 

 come back now in fact to the question of the ideals, with 

 which we began. 



The ideal of some administrators, and of many people in the 

 north who have no acquaintance with the actual conditions of 

 tropical countries, has been to hold back progress, at any rate 

 so far as the natives are concerned, at the early stage which 

 we have called grow-what-you-want-and-consume-what-you- 

 grow. Now it is at least open to argument that such a position 

 cannot in any case be maintained. It is liable to be upset by 

 any immigration of alien races and cannot be adhered to if 

 the course of opening up roads, railways and other means of 

 transport, which is being followed in most tropical countries, 

 be not abandoned. Further, as we have already pointed out, 

 the white powers have taken possession of the great bulk of 

 the tropics, and must have the agricultural products of these 

 countries. To adhere strictly to this position would of course 

 mean that the Government would have scarcely any money 

 whatever to work upon, for the only taxable value in most 

 tropical countries in the long run is the exportable products. 

 Tropical governments have in consequence had to give way to 

 modern progress. 



So long as the natives continue at this stage, or at one 

 near to it, so long can there be no export from the country, 

 and it might just as well be non-existent. These facts, with 

 the success of European planting enterprises, have led to the 

 ideal which is at the other extreme, the opening up of most 

 of the country as a planting country for Europeans, leaving the 

 native to continue to grow what he wants and consume what 

 he grows or to become a labourer on the estate of the white 

 man. 



As we have already pointed out, this ideal is that of the 



