'30 



REPORT — 1901. 



Europe and Foreign Food Stipplies. 



Another idea to wbicli attention may be drawn appears to be tbe increasing 

 dependence of European nations upon supplies of food and raw material obtained 

 I'rom abroad. We are familiar with a conception of this kind as regards the 

 United Kingdom. For years past we have drawn increasing supplies from 

 abroad, not merely in proportion to the growth of population, but in larger pro- 

 portion. The position here obviously is that, with the industries of agriculture 

 and the extraction of raw material (except as regards the one article, coal) prac- 

 tically incapable of expansion, and with a population which not only increases in 

 numbers, but which becomes year by year increasingly richer per head, the con- 

 suming jjower of the population increases with enormous rapidity, and must be 

 satisfied, if at all, by foreign imports of food and raw materials ; there is no other 

 means of satisfaction. But what is true of the United Kingdom is true in a greater 

 or less degree of certain European countries — France, the Low ('ountries, the 

 Scajidinavian countries, Austria-Hungary, Italy, and Germany. Especially is it 

 true in a remarkable degree of Germany, which is becoming increasingly industrial 

 and manufacturing, and where tbe room for expansion in agriculture is noAV very 

 limited. Those interested in the subject may be referred to an excellent paper by 

 Mr. Crawford, read at the Royal Statistical Society of London about two years 

 ago. What I am now desirous to point out is the governing nature of the 

 idea, which necessarily follows from the conception of a European population 

 living on a limited area, with the agricultural and extractive possibilities long 

 since nearly exhausted, and the population all the time increasing in numbers and 

 wealth. Such a population must import more and more year by year, and must 

 be increasingly dependent on foreign supplies. 



I shall not attempt to do over again what is done in Mr. Crawford's paper, but 

 a few figures may serve to illustrate what is meant. In the ' Statistical Abstract ' 

 for the principal and other foreign countries I find tables for certain European 

 countries classifying the imports for a series of years into articles of food, raw and 

 semi-manufactured articles, &c. From these I extract the following particulars 

 for all the countries wJiich have tables in this form : — 



Imports of Articles of Food and Ram Materials and Semi-mamifactuTed 

 Articles into the undermentioned Countries in 1888 and 1898 compared. 



