180 PRODUCTION 



convenient to include also those charges that arise for the capital 

 invested in the machinery of distribution. 



Changes in the proportions of town and rural population, together 

 with the great increase in plant, buildings, and transport and 

 storage facilities, have led to capitalisation and industrialisation 

 on an ever-increasing scale in the preparation of, and the trade in, 

 animal foodstuffs. In this connection the enormous aggregate 

 sums of capital held by wholesale and retail agents in distributing 

 these foodstuffs, may also be noted. 



The value of farm live-stock alone in the leading countries re- 

 presents a capital sum, which is probably more than double the 

 figure of twenty-five years ago. However, the more valuable 

 stock require more costly equipment, so that a further increase in 

 capital charges appears. It has been observed above that there 

 has been a considerable increase in the capital outlays on the part 

 of the various organisations for the collection, manufacture, storage 

 and distribution of the perishable animal food products. The fact 

 that a number of operations, such as meat-packing, bacon-curing, 

 and even the manufacture of butter and cheese, formerly carried 

 out on the farms, have been largely transferred to factories, and 

 the treatment of the non-edible products entirely so, means that 

 the hold of urban capital over animal industries has been greatly 

 increased ; and the marked increase in the size and financial 

 po\ver of the wholesale agencies in the large towns has strengthened 

 this movement. It is not to be supposed that a return to the old 

 system, if it were possible, would prove more economical ; the con- 

 trary is more likely, since the big trading company has made its 

 way in competition owing to economies of management. Never- 

 theless, what requires to be kept in view at this point is that the 

 concentration of populations in towns has necessitated a much 

 more highly organised system of distribution within the same 

 country, and has, incidentally, led to the building up of large 

 undertakings with heavy aggregate holdings of capital, engaged 

 in one way or another in the business of transferring animal food- 

 stuffs from the farm to the consumer ; while formerly, when the 

 proportion of urban population was much smaller, the same work 

 was done for a majority of the population by self -supply, by barter, 

 or through the services of the small local dealer, and naturally, 

 therefore, cost less. 1 The centralising system has now gone so 

 far that in many parts of England and the United States the needs 

 of the rural districts in certain kinds of animal foodstuffs, are sup- 

 plied from factory centres. There is, moreover, reason for believ- 

 ing that while the large modern organisations were building up their 

 business against competition, they did their work cheaply, but that 

 some of them, having established a practical monopoly, exact 



1 The most remarkable instance of increased charges following upon the 

 migration of consumers to towns, for services in transporting and distributing 

 animal foodstuffs and keeping them fresh in the interval, occurs in the case of 

 milk. 



