116 THE POSSIBILITIES 



All taken, there is thus no possibility of con- 

 testing the fact, that if the soil of Great Britain 

 were cultivated only as the unfertile soil of 

 Belgium is cultivated notwithstanding all the 

 social obstacles which stand in the way of an 

 intensive culture, in Belgium as elsewhere a 

 much greater part of the population of these 

 islands would obtain its food from the soil of its 

 own land than is the case nowadays.* 



On the other side it must not be forgotten 

 that Belgium is a manufacturing country which 

 exports, moreover, manufactured home-made 

 goods to the value of 198s. per head of population, 

 and 150s. worth of crude or half-manufactured 

 produce, while the total exports from the United 

 Kingdom have only lately attained during the 

 extraordinary year of 1911 the value of 201s. 

 per inhabitant. As to separate parts of the 

 Belgian territory, the small and naturally un- 

 fertile province of West Flanders not only grew 

 in 1890 the food of its 580 inhabitants on the 

 square mile, but exported agricultural produce 

 to the value of 25s. per head of its population. 

 And yet no one can read Laveleye's masterly 

 work without coming to the conclusion that 

 Flemish agriculture would have realised still 

 better results, were it not hampered in its growth 

 by the steady and heavy increase of rent. In the 



* See Appendix K. 



