2 INTRODUCTORY 



that amounted to a revolution in our economic con- 

 ditions. The opening up of vast expanses of virgin 

 soils in the United States, Canada, Argentina, Austra- 

 lasia, and elsewhere, to the production of wheat on a 

 scale to which there could be no possible approach in 

 the United Kingdom ; the quick transport of these and 

 other foreign or colonial supplies by ocean steamers at 

 rates which were so low that they became almost a 

 negligible quantity ; the invention of refrigerating 

 processes which nullified climate, as steam had already 

 annihilated distance, and opened up British markets to 

 the almost limitless supplies of meat, butter, and other 

 perishables from distant lands; the steady fall in the 

 price of wool, owing to the magnitude of the flocks 

 raised in our colonies ; these and other causes, apart 

 from the advent of a succession of unfavourable seasons, 

 were sufficient in themselves to disturb the very founda- 

 tions of British agriculture, and to show that the old 

 order of things in regard thereto was passing away. 



But while these adverse conditions were being ex- 

 perienced in Great Britain, and while individuals who 

 clung especially to the production of cereals were going 

 from bad to worse, other sets of modifying changes 

 w r ere being developed which offered a certain degree 

 of compensation, had full advantage at once been taken 

 of them. The towns were, indeed, growing at the 

 expense of the country, whence the rapidly-increasing 

 industries and the various occupations of urban life 

 drew their supplies of labour. Yet in proportion as 

 the towns grew and manufactures developed, there was 

 an increase in the demand for food-supplies other than 

 simply the wheat and the meat, in regard to which the 

 foreign and colonial competition was especially severe ; 

 while, with the greater wealth of the country there 

 was brought about a greater purchasing power among 



