146 THE xMURDER OF AGRICULTURE 



given day in dght of her great capitals, and the answer 

 is: ^^ practically the same price in all countries. And no 

 dearer than in your own. 



Having then placed our 41b. loaf side by side with 

 similar loaves from other countries, we find, in spite of 

 all we have been told to the contrary, by those who 

 raised the cheap loaf cry, that it is neither heavier, 

 bigger, nor cheaper than those made and sold in 

 countries which protect their trade by a multitude of 

 restrictive tariffs, and in which there is not a vestige of 

 what is fatuously called in our country " free trade." 



So far as Germany is concerned this significant fact 

 was discovered by a number of British workmen, who 

 constituted themselves into a Commission for the ex- 

 press purpose of inquiring into the state of trade and 

 labour conditions prevailing in that country'. Among 

 other things they unearthed the price of the German 

 4ib. loaf, and we find that it is no dearer than our ovm. 



Now when we speak of " discovery " it argues that 

 something has been revealed which was not known be- 

 fore, and this is precisely what has happened here. 

 Bread in Not a man in a hundred thousand was aware that the 



Protected 



Countries Protected States of the world produced and sold their 

 bread as cheaply as we do; not a man in ten thousand 

 ever thought of it at all. The general belief was that our 

 loaf was really cheap, a good deal cheaper than in other 

 countries, and we accepted this as a fact because we were 

 told so by those who professed to know. 



Despite the fervid " cheap loaf " cry, and notwith- 

 standing Germany's ring of tariffs which encircles her 

 trade as with bands of steel, the German 41b. loaf is no 



