ig6 MARKETING PROBLEMS 



so powerful, and possessed itself of vested interests so 

 great, that the British agriculturists who would abolish 

 it amid cries of * Down with the middleman !' have got 

 a very stiff job before them. 



The special problem as to the precise nature of the 

 r61e fulfilled by the Distributor, as an intermediary 

 between the Producer and the Consumer, is one that 

 may safely be left to the Professors of Economics. 

 Avoiding any formal disquisition on matters of theory, 

 and coming at once to the point, I would say that 

 what Producer and Consumer may well ask for is that 

 the Distributor element should be either abolished 

 altogether or, alternatively, kept to an irreducible 

 minimum. If it cannot be abolished, then at least 

 let ' Distributor ' be in the singular, rather than 

 allowed to develop into a word indicating * multitude ' 

 or * number.' 



It is obvious, however, that no hard-and-fast line 

 can be laid down. No general principle can be 

 established which will apply equally well to all the 

 different agricultural or kindred industries. Each must 

 be considered separately. I have shown how British 

 fruit-growers now deal direct with the British jam- 

 makers, cutting out the market people on whom the 

 jam-maker had to rely so long as the home fruit- 

 grower did not produce in sufficiently large quantities. 

 I have shown, also, how the milk-producers, by means 

 of an effective organization, are seeking to avoid the 

 wholesale man, and open up direct relations with the 

 retailer. Here it is a case of dispensing with one 

 Distributor who is regarded as unnecessary but 

 accepting the other, who fulfils a useful role which the 

 Producer does not care to undertake himself. I have 

 shown how at Evesham the aim is not only to avoid the 

 London markets, but to avoid even the large provincial 



