530 History of the English Landed Interest. 



Want of capital is at the bottom of a great many diffi- 

 culties in the present economy. First, a farmer's credit 

 begins to diminish, then his manure and labour supply, 

 lastly, his produce. His income grows smaller and smaller 

 every year, and he faUs heavily into debt. The mischief 

 spreads, for wages become reduced ; the labourer goes on the 

 credit system, and a few bad debts reduce the miller's profits, 

 who thereupon raises his price of flour. At the present 

 moment in Suffolk wheat is selling per coombe of 18 stones at 

 14s., from which is yielded 14 stones of flour, worth 22^. 2rf., 

 and the offal worth 45. Neither the miller nor the baker are 

 making fortunes, so what becomes of the 12^. 2c?. difference ? 

 Shall we on this account advocate the renewal of the assize of 

 bread ? Again, our History proves useful ; reminding us that 

 even when all the labour and sumptuary laws were in exist- 

 ence the same difficulties were experienced with the middle- 

 man. Moreover, even as we write, there comes from Marseilles, 

 where a similar statute is still in force, a vehement protest 

 against such a state of things. There the millers and bakers are 

 aroused to such resistance that a bread famine is threatened. If 

 once we began to resuscitate this ancient economy, there would 

 be no telling where we should stop, for in order to put down a 

 combination like that threatened in Marseilles, we should have 

 to revive the old arbitrary measures against Trade Union- 

 ism. In this country the origin of such a difficulty springs 

 from the straits to which want of capital has reduced the 

 entire landed interest. The landlord is too poor to effect 

 permanent improvements, the farmer too poor to give adequate 

 wages, and the labourer too poor to pay his flour and bread 

 bill. The miller and baker make up for bad debts by absorb- 

 ing the difference between the retail and wholesale prices of 

 bread ; and exactly the same process is at work in the meat 

 market. 



The moral of this phase of our problem is, for the farmer to 

 avoid the error of supposing that his duties are at an end when 

 he has marketed his produce. He would do well to retain 

 control over it until he has, as far as possible, seen it into 

 the consumer's mouth. The extension of such institutions as 



