BYSK 265 



advantages of selling to us or to our corHpetitors in 

 Germany, Denmark, Norway, and Sweden, etc., who 

 are also extensive purchasers of Siberian produce. 

 If these latter countries were to impose no extra tax 

 on such imports, the Siberian exporter would 

 obviously find that it would pay him' better to sell to 

 them. The quantity imported into this country 

 would, therefore, decrease and the market price would 

 rise in proportion. On the other hand, the producers 

 would be obliged to reduce their production, the 

 standard of wages would be lowered, and the cheap 

 labour diverted into other channels — possibly the 

 manufacture of goods which would compete on our 

 own markets with the products of our own manu- 

 factories — in which case the home producer would 

 not have the advantage of freshness, as in the case 

 of dairy produce. 



There was, however, one broad idea which 

 appealed to me very forcibly as I travelled through 

 this vast country, and that is, that the more food- 

 stuffs are produced in the world, the more remote 

 will be the danger of famines and deficient food 

 supplies, and that, therefore, the interests of the 

 human race at large are directly concerned in the 

 development of those industries which have for their 

 object the supply of the food-markets of the world. 



Although, at present, racial and national animosi- 

 ties stand in the way of so desirable a consummation, 

 a day is bound to come when the farmers and cattle- 

 breedeTs throughout the world will be able to produce 

 largely and find a market for their produce. When 

 that day arrives the country which enjoys the most 

 suitable natural conditions will take the lead, while 

 those that are less favourably situated in this one 

 respect will turn their energies into other channels. 

 Each country will supply the specialities for the pro- 

 duction of which, from its natural conditions, it is 

 best adapted. 



