THE LAND AND TARIFFS. 197 



to cultivation to add 100 per cent, to the local 

 crop. Suppose, further, that with wheat at 

 50s. a quarter it would pay to bring back to 

 wheat cultivation enough land to feed all the 

 population (again let me insist the figures are 

 arbitrary and theoretical, intended merely to 

 illustrate an argument). A sound considera- 

 tion of the matter might well lead to the con- 

 clusion that wheat at 50s. a quarter would 

 make wheaten bread far too dear, but that 

 wheat at 35s. a quarter would leave bread at a 

 tolerable price; and the upshot would be a 

 sliding-scale tariff on wheat to make its landed 

 price 35s., whatever its price on board ship. 

 That would give to the British farmer the assur- 

 ance of a 35s. price, would guarantee the con- 

 sumer against a higher price, and would prob- 

 ably strike a business-like non-party mind as a 

 fair arrangement all round. 



But in approaching the work of reviving the 

 British agricultural industry by judicious pro- 

 tection of the local market for the local pro- 

 ducer, statesmanship would encounter many 

 serious difficulties due to the fact that the pro- 

 portion of the agricultural community to the 



