THE MIDDLEMAN IN AGRICULTURE. 81 



be selling in different parts of London at the same time at 

 prices ranging from 3§<i. to yd. ; nor is this anomaly 

 confined to the metropolis, for it appears that at the same 

 time the 4-lb. loaf was being sold at Hampstead for yd., 

 at Kingston-on-Thames for 6\d., at Birmingham for 6d., 

 at Shrewsbury for /\\d., and at Wolverhampton at a rate 

 varying from ^\d. to $\d. Again, the quotation given for 

 certain Lancashire towns was ^\d. and that for some other 

 English towns at from 4^. to b\d. In the ante-railway 

 days these divergences might have been easily explicable, 

 but in these times, when wheat is practically of the same 

 value in any part of the country, it would certainly seem 

 that a range of 100 per cent, in the price for the same 

 article, at the same time, is a circumstance which the 

 public may regard with a pardonable amount of natural 

 curiosity. 



An interesting statement was published in September 

 last showing the relation of the price of bread to the price 

 of wheat during a period of about eighteen months, the 

 retail price of household bread being that prevailing in a 

 large Wiltshire village. The dates at which the price of 

 bread changed were as follows, the official average price 

 of English wheat, as recorded at the same dates, being 

 added : — 



It may fairly be assumed that bakers do not sell bread 

 at a loss, and that when they charge 6d. per 4-lb. loaf for 

 bread, with wheat at 40s. per quarter, they are making a 

 profit. It is seen that from August, 1891, to February, 

 1892, the price of bread was maintained at 6d. per 4-lb. 

 loaf. In the first week of September, 1891, wheat rose to 



A.F. g 



