60 COMMERCIAL STATISTICS. 
“JT will now take another case —that of eggs; that is 
a very good illustration, for it is in everybody’s power to 
rear poultry, and, if I may say, grow eggs. 
In 1855, though that was a time when freedom of trade 
had advanced largely in the country, and when there was, 
consequently, a very great increase in the consumption of 
good food by the people, 100,000,000 eggs were imported 
from abroad, which represented a consumption of an 
average of 34 foreign eggs to every man, woman and 
child. 
You might have said, if asked to send eggs: ‘O, no! 
there are already plenty or more than enough in the 
market.’ 
But that is not the fact, for in 1880 the import had in- 
creased to 750,000,000 eggs from foreign countries. 
It is hardly credible, so vast and so multiplied is the 
demand for these little but very useful commodities, every 
one of them helping to feed somebody. 
The consumption per head has increased from 34 to no 
fewer than 264 eggs. 
That illustrates what I have said to you about the enor- 
mous, insatiable capacity of the human stomach. Depend 
upon it, that if it be in your power to turn your attention 
—I do not say at first on a very large but on a moderate 
scale —to the production of those articles which are of 
the nature of comforts, or even comparative luxuries, 
for popular consumption, you will see that gradually the 
market will open and adjust itself for their reception. 
I think the figures I have quoted are a distinct proof 
of the truth and reality of what I have said.” 
