COST OF IMPORTED FOOD 111 



country, both from the economic and the military 

 point of view. 



46. On the economic side, according to Professor 

 W. G. S. Adams, the increase in the cost of imported 

 foodstuffs in 1915, as compared with 1913, amounted 

 to no less than £85,000,000, although the actual quan- 

 tity imported had not been increased at all. 



These high prices are often ascribed to high freights. 

 This is only partially true. The main cause is to be 

 found in the operation of the ordinary law of demand 

 and supply. The total weight of food imported into 

 this country during the war has been about the same 

 as before the war, i.e. the supply to this country has 

 been kept up in spite of scarcity of ships. But prices 

 have been affected by several factors. The supply of 

 food produced in Europe has been restricted by the 

 war. The war has also prevented the export of grain 

 from Russia, with the result that countries which 

 used to draw largely on that supply have become our 

 competitors for supplies from other markets. In 

 addition, consumption has risen through the mihtary 

 demands of ourselves and our Allies, and in this country 

 from the increased spending power of the population 

 resulting from higher wages. Two consequences have 

 resulted. The internal demand in the United Kingdom 

 has greatly increased. The demand of other buying 

 Nations competing with us in non-European markets 

 has forced up prices there. In the case of many raw 

 materials imported by this country for which the 

 demand has not increased, there has been little, if any, 

 rise in price, although the freights for their carriage 

 have been enormously advanced. But where there is 



