CHAOS IN BUYING 57 



this country, and the collieries were faced with a 

 difficult problem during the earliest days of the war. 



Of course this could not have been foreseen and the 

 Cabinet had its hands very full at that period. The 

 mine-owners to a great extent had to settle the matter 

 for themselves. The English Board of Agriculture 

 issued within a few months a pamphlet which was of 

 considerable assistance. It might have been antici- 

 pated, however, that the pinch which was at once felt 

 on the score of pitwood would have opened our eyes 

 to the other directions in which a shortage was likely 

 to make itself felt. We had been too long spoon-fed, 

 however, and the reverse was the case. No efforts 

 were at once initiated to place the whole matter of the 

 timber supplies of the country on a firm basis under a 

 central and business-like control. Different interests 

 competed the one against the other, and in this laisser 

 faire policy the most powerful, because backed by 

 unlimited funds, were the Admiralty and War Office. 

 Orders were placed right and left and prices were of 

 little account. These prices, with the dearth of freight 

 steamers, added to the later activities of German sub- 

 marines, jumped up a;nd continued to do so. In the 

 haphazard manner in which the whole business was 

 approached there was nothing to prevent merchants 

 from asking what price they pleased. True the Govern- 

 ment put on an adviser, paying him an enormous 

 commission. But he was in the trade himself ! The 

 Swedish merchants who, with the closing of the Russian 

 ports, were quick to perceive their opportunity, took 

 full advantage of our predicament. Prices went higher 

 and higher until they now stand at two and a half to 



