236 CONSUMPTION 



been accustomed to alternations of seasonal plenty and scarcity 

 in such animal foodstuffs as have been within reach of his purchasing 

 power, and has perhaps not missed them very much in the long off- 

 seasons. The town-worker, on the other hand, who now for nearly 

 two generations, has been living within reach of transported sup- 

 plies, has seen animal foodstuffs exposed for sale the whole year 

 round and has been tempted to buy them whenever his circum- 

 stances permitted. The demand for animal foodstuffs on the part 

 of town workers has thus to some extent been artificially created. 

 In any case, there is less economic and social inertia in the progres- 

 sive industrial towns, and changes in the style and the standard of 

 living take place with greater ease and rapidity. Thus on these 

 grounds also, the transference of population from the rural districts 

 to the towns in countries of white population, results in a tendency 

 to increase the per capita consumption of animal foodstuffs. 



Owing to the fact that the mass of the working-class populations 

 of Europe have hitherto shown in general a somewhat low rate of 

 consumption of animal foodstuffs, this rate of consumption has been 

 sensitive to special influences. The chief ca.use that has operated 

 in restraint of a higher consumption among these populations has 

 been their lack of sufficient purchasing power. Consequently the 

 consumption of meat fluctuates more from year to year according 

 to prices than does the consumption of the staple grains 1 ; further, 

 in agricultural districts it fluctuates according to the yield of the 

 harvests, and in the industrial towns according to the state of trade 

 and employment. 1 Such fluctuations in working-class consumption 

 have never been very considerable on the Continent of Europe, 

 owing to the limits set by the comparative inelasticity of supplies. 

 In Great Britain where meat has been imported duty free from all 

 parts of the world the fluctuations have been more noticeable. 



It is most important to observe that the per capita consumption 

 of meat and other animal foodstuffs among the working-class 

 populations of European countries is per se capable of considerable 

 expansion. From this it follows that the consumption of animal 

 foodstuffs in any given economic area depends less upon the re- 

 sources and wealth of that area as a whole, than upon the distri- 

 bution of the wealth between the various social classes of the 

 population. 2 In general, the higher the rates of real wages among 

 the industrial and working classes of European countries, the 

 greater tends to be their per capita consumption of animal food- 



1 Schmoller, Grundriss der Allgemeinen Volkswirtschaft, para. 145, p. 603. 

 For the influence exerted by the state of trade upon fluctuations in meat 

 consumption see also (Cd. 2644), QQ. 388-9. 



2 Schmoller, Grundriss der Allgemeinen Volkswirtschaft, p. 595. ' The 

 distribution of income in the nation according to the social classes influences 

 the strength of the demand for essential and unessential commodities." 



In Great Britain also during the first two or three years of the European 

 War, the per capita consumption of animal foodstuffs apparently increased 

 beyond the pre-war level among the wage-earning classes, owing to higher 

 average purchasing power. 





