Political Economy and the Land 



the reverse is the case — we want to benefit the 

 manufacturer by directly enlarging the purchas- 

 ing power of the rural population, and by in- 

 creasing the rural population itself to ease the 

 congestion in the urban areas. 



As any tariff is bound to exert a powerful in- 

 fluence on capital, it will therefore be the most 

 valuable means at the disposal of the Govern- 

 ment for guiding capital into those channels 

 which will most benefit the nation. Guiding 

 capital is a very delicate operation, and must 

 be undertaken with the greatest care. And my 

 chief objection to the proposition of an all- 

 round lo per cent tariff is that it is altogether 

 too crude a way of dealing with the matter. 

 Can any one deny that many industries are 

 already over-capitalised, and that one effect of 

 a tariff on such industries will be to attract to 

 them still more capital ? And population follows 

 capital, so that we should see still more workers 

 attracted to the already overcrowded centres 

 of industry. Also more capital devoted to in- 

 dustries which have already sufficient will be 

 capital lost to agriculture — capital that might 

 have been used to help to replace that 

 ;^i, 500,000,000 lost to the agricultural industry 

 through a harmful fiscal policy. 



Agriculture is almost the only industry which 

 it is impossible to over-capitalize, but this sub- 

 ject is so well treated in M. Meline's book, " Le 



223 



