ECONOMIC FACTORS 241 



per capita quantities by the working classes than by other classes. 

 The quantit}' of such foodstuffs that can be afforded from the 

 ordinary working-class family income is in some measure a test of 

 the purchasing power of that income ; and the demand for higher 

 real wages is in some measure a demand for an increased proportion 

 of animal foodstuffs in the diet. In view of the industrial troubles 

 that are apt to arise when workers are dissatisfied with their 

 circumstances, the study of the means whereby increased, and at 

 the same time, reasonably cheap supplies of animal foodstuffs can 

 be produced and marketed deserves close attention. 1 



The problems relative to these matters are of the greatest import- 

 ance, since when the prices of the less essential foodstuffs rise beyond 

 a certain level relative to wages, they cease to be consumed by the 

 working classes except perhaps in small quantities and become more 

 or less luxuries of the rich. 2 Now animal foodstuffs form the most 

 prominent class of the less essential foodstuffs, because it is possible 

 to maintain health and strength when only small quantities of them 

 are consumed; but as they are strongly desired by most Europeans, 

 including those of the working classes, they have passed into the 

 category of conventional necessities. As such the average Euro- 

 pean feels it a great hardship if his consumption of them is severely 

 restricted. 3 



The discussion has so far been limited to the change in the situa- 

 tion under progressive industrialism with reference mainly to the 

 working classes. In all countries, however, where such changes 

 have taken place on a marked scale, a large class has come into 

 existence which in the purely agricultural state is exceedingly small. 

 Whereas in the latter there has existed, and still exists, a very large 

 proportion of peasants and agricultural labourers with correspond- 

 ingly smaller proportions of landowners and traders, in the highly 

 industrialised country the so-called middle class becomes in- 

 creasingly prominent. This class which is now often quite numerous 

 in proportion to the rest of the population, generally lives at a com- 

 paratively high standard and therefore consumes animal foodstuffs 

 freely. As a rule, the more numerous the middle class is in pro- 

 portion to the whole population, the higher will be the per capita 

 consumption of animal foodstuffs ; and the progress of industrialism, 



1 Some of the questions under this head have been touched upon in Part 1* 

 above. 



2 A tendency in this direction was observed in Great Britain just before the 

 outbreak of the European War. Compare the following quotation : " If, 

 as it would appear, less meat per head has been eaten in recent years the 

 reduction may possibly be attributed more to the natural check upon con- 

 sumption consequent upon higher prices than to deliberate abstinence." 

 Agric. Stat., Part IV., 1913 (Cd. 7551), Report by H. Rew, to Secretary, 

 p. 286. 



3 Under ordinary European conditions of life a small proportion of animal 

 foodstuffs in the diet may be regarded as a necessity, the extra quantities 

 consumed when the proportion is moderate may be regarded as a conventional 

 necessity, while the further additional quantities consumed by the rich to 

 make up their heavy proportion may be regarded merely as a luxury. 



