SHORTAGE OF WORK IN OUR TRADES 97 



agricultural wealth, but it is a matter of common knowledge 

 that enormous loss has resulted. 



Loss OF Agricultural Wealth means Much 



It has l)een shown in a former chapter that the loss of 

 agricultural wealth has been estimated at £1,000,000,000 to 

 £1,600,000,000, and although this estimate differs considerably, 

 which is inevitable in the circumstances, owing to the many 

 difficulties attending the investigation, immense wealth has 

 undoubtedly been lost ; but whether the country is poorer, 

 through the destruction of its land industry, by 500 millions 

 more or less, is not of so much importance as the fact that 

 the country and the people are poorer, and considerably 

 poorer, than they would have been had agriculture been spared 

 to them. 



There is much more evidence from equally reliable sources, 

 but this single instance is sufficient to show that so far as 

 agricultural wealth is concerned a truly stupendous sum has 

 been lost to the country, and as it is equally clear that vast 

 national wealth cannot be lost without individual and col- 

 lective loss to the people, it becomes obvious that the com- 

 munity must have suffered considerably. 



If the axiom holds good that the people cannot become 

 impoverished without tlie State Exchequer suffering, owing 

 to the shrinkage in the taxable area of the country which 

 must inevitably result from such a condition, then it seems 

 clear enough that, in building up our manufactures at the 

 expense of our agriculture, the State must have lost vast 

 sums since we commenced to neglect our great land industry ; 

 it will, perhaps, never be clearly demonstrated what we have 

 really lost, but the sum is a colossal one. 



manufacturmg wealth no compensation for loss of 

 Agricultural Wealth 



It may be contended that the increased manufacturing 

 wealth will compensate for loss of agricultural wealth, but 

 this could not be maintained, because, quite apart from other 

 considerations, the demand for manufactured goods naturally 

 expands as the world's population increases, and prosperity 

 spreads. It therefore follows that had British agriculture 

 remained in a prosperous condition, or, to put the true inter- 

 pretation on the matter, had our legislators put agriculture 

 in its proper position and maintained it as the chiefest 

 industry and the chiefest wealth-producer of the nation, 



H 



