143 



CHAPTER XV 



British and Foreign Wheat Production — The 

 Cheap Loaf Cry 



WE are told by those who bolster up the Free Trade 

 idea that if we want cheap bread we must give up 

 growing our own wheat, let others grow it for us, and 

 then let it come into our ports duty free. By such means 

 we are told we shall have a cheap loaf, much cheaper 

 than in those countries which grow their own food-stuffs 

 and put a duty on imports. 



If this be true, it follows that our bread should cost us 

 a good deal less than is paid for it in other countries. 



If it be not true, then it is clear that we have been 

 deceived. 



So far as Germany is concerned, a country bristling 

 with tariffs of all sorts, we find, from the " Gains- 

 borough Report " that the 41b. loaf cost, when the 

 Commission visited that country a year or more ago, 

 about the same as it did in England. 



" At Hochst, near Frankfort, as we pointed out in a 

 previous report, people eat white wheaten bread as well 

 as bread made of wheat and rye flour mixed. A loaf of 

 white bread made at Hochst weighing four English 

 pounds should cost 4^d. The Gainsborough quartern 

 loaf costs 4|d., so that the difference is hardly per- 

 ceptible." 



