Political Economy and the Land 



of cotton used in English factories should be 

 grown within the empire, and there is no doubt 

 that this could be done. 



Free Traders say that we can get all the raw 

 cotton we require from America and send the 

 manufactured article back to that country, and 

 to the neutral markets. Quite apart from any 

 question of placing of capital and encouraging 

 industry within the empire it would be well for 

 Free Traders to realise that there is a growing 

 feeling in America that it is unprofitable to send 

 raw cotton to England, that it would be more 

 advantageous to send the finished article direct 

 to the neutral markets and even to England her- 

 self ! Now to make a short comparison between 

 the relative cost of living in the United Kingdom 

 and any of the protected continental countries, 

 I cannot agree with the contention of Free 

 Traders that living in England is altogether 

 cheaper. Take a family with /^200 a year, 

 and that sum will go further, say, in Florence 

 or Dresden than it will in an English town of 

 similar size ; for half-a-crown one gets a better 

 dinner in Italy, France, or Germany than one can 

 at even a French or Italian restaurant in London. 



But the really important comparison is that 

 between the relative cost of living of the work- 

 ing classes in the respective countries. And I 

 have no hesitation in saying that the French, 

 German, or Italian housewife can, say on 12s, 



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