160 AGRICULTURE IN THE TROPICS [PT. Ill 



To put it in other words, the cultivator must grow for a 

 market, and the larger the market, the steadier the price, and 

 the less the risk of over-production. He should be educated 

 through the stages of local market, market in the country, and 

 world-market. But of course with this must go the better 

 provision of capital, for the more distant the market the more 

 capital is required. Cooperation will turn an association of 

 peasants into a power corresponding to a capitalist, and give 

 them as strong a place in the general organisation of agricul- 

 ture, when without it they cannot hope to rise. By the proper 

 and gradual introduction of cooperation, the villager may be 

 taught to help himself, whereas by the sudden provision of the 

 necessary capital he would simply be encouraged in extrava- 

 gance. 



Capitalist planters are often strenuously opposed to the 

 encouragement of villagers in growing " export " products, for 

 they steal from the large plantations, and use their own few 

 trees as a blind. But this difficulty can be got over by more 

 stringent legislation, especially by licensing all dealers. 



