PART I 



FOOD, DRINK, OIL-SEEDS, DRUGS, 

 AND TOBACCO 



CHAPTER I 



THE ASSETS OF A NATION 

 



THE word ' assets ' originally meant ' sufficient for ' (ad 

 satis), and was used by lawyers to signify the property of 

 a person, sufficient for paying his debts, or meeting the claims 

 made upon him. Later on the word was used to mean the 

 entire property of a man, his wealth, or what he was worth, 

 taking into account everything of every kind that could be 

 said to belong to him. In the same way, the * assets ' of 

 a nation is the whole wealth of the nation derived from every 

 possible source. 



Until recently we were content to go on from year to year 

 without taking the trouble to ascertain what our resources 

 were, content if only we could supply our needs cheaply at 

 the moment. 



When we reflect that the empire stretches from Pole to 

 Pole, and contains within it every variety of soil and climate, 

 so that there is scarcely a commodity which it cannot produce, 

 when, moreover, we remember that the area of the empire 

 is 14,272,782 square miles, and that the population numbers 

 in all some 445 million souls, we must realize that to estimate 

 our resources is a task of great difficulty and complexity. As 

 a matter of fact no complete survey of the resources of the 

 empire has ever been made. Yet, although we do not possess 

 a complete survey, we are not at present in such a lamentable 

 state of ignorance as we were in the past, for in 1912 a Royal 

 Commission was appointed to carry out these investigations 



