Political Economy and the Land 



can to a large extent fix the price of his 

 commodity — at all events he is not entirely 

 in the hands of middlemen ; without co- 

 operation, it is the dealer who says what the 

 price shall be, and plays off one producer 

 against another. When the reorganisation of 

 London markets is undertaken, perhaps some 

 plan of establishing a large market in connec- 

 tion with each railway terminus will be found 

 feasible. Such an arrangement would obviously 

 do away with the hopeless blocking of incoming 

 produce which now exists. 



If the ideal conditions of exchange are those 

 in which the producer and consumer are as far 

 as possible brought into direct communication, 

 then surely it behoves those who introduce 

 such a measure as Tariff Reform, which vitally 

 affects the conditions of exchange, to review 

 the whole situation and deal with it com- 

 prehensively. 



Here again we are brought back to the need 

 of a Royal Commission to deal properly with 

 the subject — a commission whose guidings 

 would be promptly acted upon and not relegated 

 to regions of oblivion. 



I am insisting on the interests of the agri- 

 cultural producer, because I feel that there is 

 great danger of these interests suffering, and 

 being subverted to some extent by the imperial 

 side of the question, which is indeed the most 



209 Q 



