68 A NEW AGRICULTURAL POLICY 



and Nineties, when wheat dropped in 1896 to 

 its lowest recorded price of 22s. iod. per qr. 

 Indeed, in that year, wages were higher than 

 they were in the glorious Sixties ! Ours is 

 largely a milk and meat producing country, 

 and the producers of milk and meat, as well as 

 the producers of barley, poultry, eggs, fruit, 

 and vegetables have had to pay the same 

 wages as the producers of wheat and oats. 



So little has been the connection between a 

 statutory minimum wage and guaranteed prices, 

 that in the Agricultural Bills presented by 

 both Conservative and Labour members, in 

 the House of Commons in 19 13, there is no 

 mention of guaranteed prices ; nor are there 

 any prices guaranteed to-day to those manu- 

 facturers in some forty different industries who 

 have to pay the legal minimum wage under the 

 Trade Boards Act. 



Wages rose, it is true, but so did the prices 

 of farm produce. 



Let us look at a few figures. 



The spurt in wheat production took place in 

 the winter of 19 17-18. It was in the autumn 

 of 191 8 when many a stubble field began to go 

 back to grass. 



The average wage, including all allowances, 

 in England, in 1913, was 17s. 9d. The minimum 

 wage, including all allowances, in October 

 191 8, in twenty-four counties of England and 

 Wales, was only 30s. Hours certainly were 



