120 



ESSAYS ON WHEAT 



interference with contracts that resulted from the Gov- 

 ernment's action, losses were caused both to members of 

 the Exchange and to fariners; but it was recognized that 

 the financial sacrifices involved were being made as the 

 result of a war measure which had been taken in good faith 

 with a view to assisting the British Empire and the Allies 

 in their great struggle for the cause of liberty.®^ 



The rising prices of bread in the United Kingdom, as 

 in other European countries, soon forced the British Gov- 

 ernment to consider ways and means of protecting the con- 

 sumer, and the British Government decided to create an 

 agency upon this continent for the purchase of wheat. The 

 result was that a company — the Wheat Export Company 

 — was named at Winnipeg in 1916 and authorized to pur- 

 chase wheat for the United Kingdom. At a later date, this 

 Company was entrusted with the buying of all the wheat 

 for the Allies in Europe, especially for Great Britain, 

 Erance, and Italy. When this stage was reached, the ex- 

 porters of wheat in Canada found themselves deprived for 

 the time being of their business, and an important section 

 of the grain trade was thus made to feel the full conse- 

 quences of the war.^^ 



The Company that purchased for the European Allies 

 made use of the machinery of the grain exchanges. It 

 bought for future delivery in the ordinary commercial 

 way; but, representing as it did the treasuries of Great 

 Britain, Erance, and Italy, its operations were upon an 

 enormous scale. During the times of peace in which the 

 grain exchanges had been developed and had taken care of 

 the wheat of the continent of North America, no company 

 had ever appeared which had behind it such immense re- 

 sources, which had furnished to it orders for such tre- 



51 W. E. Milner, The President's Address, Eighth Annual Report 

 of the Winnipeg Grain Exchange, Sept. 13, 1916, p. 25. 

 02 J. C. Gage, loc. cit., p. 36. 



