192 OUR ENGLISH LAND MUDDLE. 



other countries having a surplus of agricultural 

 products to sell (I write for the moment purely 

 from the point of view of the producer, leaving 

 out of consideration the interests of the con- 

 sumer). If the total of British agricultural 

 products is to be increased, it can only be by 

 selling an increased quantity to the British 

 people. No foreign market is open. And in 

 selling an increased quantity to the British 

 people, it will be necessary to dispossess, to 

 crowd out, some foreign imports (though I 

 would hope that some betterment of the market 

 would come too, in time, from the British poor 

 eating more : they need it). But, for the time 

 being, the extra British products coming from 

 a restoration of British land to cultivation would 

 have to find a sale by driving out of the British 

 market a proportion of foreign imports. Since 

 those imports could not turn to another Free 

 Trade market, because none other of any import- 

 ance exists, they would compete strenuously for 

 this market. Since they would be selling a 

 " surplus product " — that is, selling an exportable 

 balance after satisfying their local market under 

 protected conditions — they would be ready to 



