ECONOMIC FACTORS 237 



stuffs. The constitution of the average European is such that he 

 will almost always prefer to eat a liberal quantity of meat and 

 other animal foodstuffs in preference to whole-meal bread, beans, 

 and other vegetable produce., which, if taken in sufficient bulk, 

 will supply the same nutrition values. This arises from several 

 facts : first, that the human appetite, and particularly the Euro- 

 pean appetite, craves variety ; second, that a moderately liberal 

 proportion of animal foodstuffs in the diet throws a much lighter 

 burden upon the digestive system ; and third, that these foodstuffs 

 stimulate both bodily and mental activity. 1 



In view of the fact that throughout Europe the per capita con- 

 sumption of animal foodstuffs among the working classes is limited 

 on the demand side by the extent of their purchasing power, it 

 follows that a cheap supply of cereal foodstuffs in any region, other 

 things being equal, will increase the demand for animal foodstuffs ; 

 the smaller proportion of the ordinary working-class family income 

 that has to be spent on breadstuffs, the greater the proportion left 

 for the purchase of the less essential articles of food in its dietary, 

 of which animal foodstuffs are in practice the most prominent. 

 Hence a tariff on imported cereals will tend to reduce the demand 

 for, and the consumption of animal foodstuffs ; while the free 

 importation of cereals including feedstuffs cheapens the bread 

 supply and leads directly also to an increase in the production of 

 animal foodstuffs within a country. 2 



In estimating the strength of the demand for animal foodstuffs 

 in the future, account must be taken of three factors, namely, first, 

 the probable increase in the meat-consuming populations, together 

 with the distribution of that increase between countries of relatively 

 high and those of relatively low per capita consumption of animal 

 foodstuffs ; second, the probable changes in the rates of wages and 

 the purchasing power of the working classes as a whole among 

 meat consumers ; and third, the probable price-levels of the staple 

 cereal foodstuffs. 



Of these factors the first has been discussed at length elsewhere 3 ' 

 the second is of outstanding importance at the present time, and 

 will require to be discussed at some length, while the third may be 

 treated at once. 



With reference to the world's supplies of food cereals, apart from 

 war conditions, there is no evidence of any probable shortage in 

 the future. An examination of the position in the period 1901- 

 1911 shows that the production of food cereals increased on the 



1 See above Chap, iii., p. 228, Notes 1 and 3. 



2 It does this, first, by reducing the cost of the raw material in the form 

 of feedstuffs required for animal rearing and thus cheapening the cost of 

 production of animal foodstuffs within the country, and second, by causing a 

 diversion of a certain part of the agricultural resources in the country that 

 would otherwise be devoted to the production of food cereals, to animal- 

 rearing industries. 



3 See above, Chap. i. 



