THE LABOUR QUESTION 215 



large stocks of bacon and other commodities ; to-day he 

 depends much more upon the local shops. The capital in 

 commodities has decreased quite as strikingly as the capital 

 acknowledged by the bank. 



It is always well to look to the future, and we ourselves 

 may be placed in straits like Germany. Should that be so, 

 it will be worth considering whether we should not, as a 

 nation, adopt a logical position and start an institution 

 which would amount to a wheat bank, with wheat bonds 

 and wheat deposits, paid for both in regard to capital and 

 interest in terms of wheat. Perhaps some of the difficulties of 

 supplying agriculture with the necessary capital could be 

 overcome if we more frankly recognized that in the past 

 agricultural capital has not altogether depended upon the 

 acknowledged currency, but has depended very largely upon 

 the currency of commodities and custom. To the old- 

 fashioned British farmer capital means fat stock and a full 

 stackyard, whilst currency means bacon and potatoes; 

 and to the Indian villager currency is dastoor and capital 

 a bullock. By returning to some of our old ideas we might 

 reduce the strain resulting from the lack of that capital 

 which has come to be denned in terms suited only to the 

 city bank. 



The Labour Question. Many of the difficulties of agri- 

 culture during the last fifty years have arisen from the fact 

 that the old industries which used to exist in the country 

 have migrated to the towns. The agricultural population of a 

 hundred years ago was not purely dependent upon agriculture, 

 but was partly dependent upon rural industries, and it is 

 not quite correct to say that when the rural population 

 removed to the towns they were leaving their old employ- 

 ments. In part, they merely followed their old employments. 

 To foster rural industries is part of the business of agricultural 

 development, and the full utilization of all woods and forests 

 is a natural part of rural economy. Whilst it is true that 

 arable land may produce twice as much food as grass land, 

 it would take nearly ten times as much labour to obtain 

 such a result. And where is this labour to come from ? The 



