72 FIELDS, FACTORIES AND WORKSHOPS. 



is, are we not yet bound to analyse that compound result 

 which we call price, rather than to accept it as a supreme 

 and blind ruler of our actions ? 



We know, for instance, how French agriculture is 

 burdened by taxation. And yet, if we compare the 

 prices of articles of food in France, which herself grows 

 most of them, with the prices in this country, which im< 

 ports them, we find no difference in favour of the import- 

 ing country. On the contrary, the balance is rather in 

 favour of France, and it decidedly was so for wheat 

 until the new protective tariff was introduced. As soon 

 as one goes out of Paris (where the prices are swollen 

 by a heavy octroi), one finds that every home produce 

 is cheaper in France than it is in England, and that the 

 prices decrease further when we go farther East on the 

 Continent 



There is, however, another feature still more unfavour- 

 able for this country : namely, the enormous development 

 of the class of middlemen who stand between the im- 

 porter and the home producer on the one side and the 

 consumer on the other. We have lately heard a good 

 deal about the quite disproportionate part of the prices 

 we pay which goes into the middleman's pockets. We 

 have all heard of the East-end clergyman who was 

 compelled to become butcher in order to save his 

 parishioners from the greedy middleman. We read in 

 the papers that many farmers of the midland counties 

 do not realise more than gd. for a pound of butter, while 

 the customer pays from is. 6d. to is. 8d. ; and that from 

 i Xd. to 2d. for the quart of milk is all that the Cheshire 

 farmers can get, while we pay 46.. for the adulterated, 

 and 5d. for the unadulterated milk. An analysis of the 

 Covent Garden prices and a comparison of the same 

 with retail prices, which was made some years ago in 

 the Daily News, proved that the customer pays for 

 vegetables at the rate of 6d. to is., and sometimes more, 

 for each penny realised by the grower. But in a 



