OCCUPYING OWNERSHIP 203 



which the higher duty of 12s. 2d. was imposed, the 

 official average price was 35s. 6d., or 6s. 6d. per quarter 

 less than during the previous nine years, when the 

 lower duties of 5s. 2d. to 8s. 9d. were levied.^ 



It is clear from the foregoing facts that the steady 

 improvement of agriculture in France and its com- 

 parative prosperity referred to (up to 1885), cannot be 

 ascribed to soil, climate, or protection. It can only be 

 accounted for by the system of cultivation which exists 

 there — a system based on what has been justly termed 

 "the omnipotent principle — the magic — of ownership." 



No doubt over-sea agriculturists supply this country 

 with wheat a few shillings per quarter less than the 

 French people pay for their own home-grown pro- 

 duct. Our foreign loaf is therefore slightly cheaper 

 than their French loaf; but in a later chapter other 

 factors will be brought into consideration, and an 

 attempt will be made to show that we really pur- 

 chase our so-called "cheap loaf" at a ruinous cost. 



The French people have not adopted the curse of 

 cheapness as the governing principle in their rural 

 economy. They look on the productive side of the 

 question. Instead of saving a small sum per quarter 

 by the purchase of foreign grain, they prefer to pay 

 a higher price for their own ; the difference being — so 

 to speak — an investment in their own land-bank which 

 bears a tenfold interest. They bring their own people 

 and their own soil together, and the result in wealth is 

 marvellous, not only in the form of money, but in that 

 of a prosperous rural population. 



Their huge national debt, nearly two-thirds bigger 

 than that of England, is said to be more largely held 



* These calculations are worlccd out from the figures jjiven in the 

 "Statistical Tables of the Board of Trade* (1903, Cd. 1761). 



