302 PRODUCTION AND CONSUMPTION 



will depend in general upon the relations obtaining between supplies 

 and prices on the one hand, and the average purchasing power on 

 the other ; but independently of this general law. certain tendencies 

 that are likely to operate call for remark. 



First, the per capita rate of consumption is certain to continue 

 to be greater in the surplus-producing parts of the Empire than 

 in the United Kingdom. Hence a more rapid rate of increase in 

 population in the Dominions than in the United Kingdom, leading 

 to an increased proportion of the total white population resident 

 in the former, would tend to raise the Empire's per capita consump- 

 tion ; though it would tend to reduce the Empire's net deficiency, 

 owing to the more than proportionate increase in production likely 

 to result therefrom. 



Second, in consequence of the anticipated shortage of meat, the 

 Empire's per capita consumption of cheese, which, prior to 1914, 

 was relatively low, will tend to rise. Hitherto, owing to the com- 

 parative cheapness and abundance of meat, the people of the British 

 Empire have not utilised cheese so largely as an article of food 

 as those of some continental countries. Not only, however, does 

 the Empire already produce the greater part of the cheese it con- 

 sumes, but there is no doubt that, by reducing its output of butter, 

 sufficient cheese could be produced within the Empire to meet a 

 greatly increased consumption 



Third, the Empire's per capita consumption of butter has been 

 high, and any increase in that of cheese will tend to reduce the 

 supplies of milk available for butter production unless the Empire's 

 dairy herds increase unexpectedly. Moreover, margarine has now 

 become established in the United Kingdom as a recognised sub- 

 stitute for butter, and as shown above, 1 the Empire's deficiency in 

 animal foodstuffs and feedstuffs makes the increased consumption 

 of margarine from its own factories highly desirable. In the 

 Dominions, however, owing to conditions brought about by the 

 butter-producing and exporting industries, margarine appears 

 likely to remain almost an unknown article of food, and the per 

 capita consumption of butter in them will tend to remain very 

 high. 



Fourth, while the tendency in the per capita rate of meat con- 

 sumption in the decade prior to 1914 was apparently downwards, 

 this movement is not likely to proceed much further without some 

 appreciable increase in the per capita consumption of dairy pro- 

 ducts. The climatic conditions under which most of the white 

 people of the Empire live, and the traditional importance of meat 

 in their dietary, will make a per capita meat consumption of, say, 

 120 Ibs., the minimum standard in the future. It is to be observed 

 that any social or economic changes in the United Kingdom that 

 result in an increase in the relative purchasing power of the industrial 

 and labouring classes, tend indirectly to raise the Empire's per 



1 See Part III., Chap, i., p. 287. 



