June 1896.] 



FOREIGN OFFICE REPORTS. 



69 



arrangements for storage, the facilities afforded for payment, the 

 cheapness of transport; and the fact that in Spain certain 

 descriptions of wheat are not grown. 



With respect to the question whether increased protection is 

 advisable, it is calculated that the amount of wheat required for 

 home consumption, for seed, and for exportation is about 

 1,000,000 tons, and it is a very debateable point whether the 

 whole can be raised in Spain without unduly increasing the 

 price. 



From the millowners' point of view the question assumes a 

 different aspect. However great the benefit would be to the 

 agricultural interest if native-grown wheat were used exclusively 

 in the production of flour, there is considerable doubt if this 

 would be possible. 



The difficulties already alluded to in connection with the 

 exclusive use of Spanish wheat are greater in the case of flour 

 production. The taste of the consumer renders necessary wheat 

 which is at present grown only in Russia ; the number of 

 small producers renders any system of storage on a large scale 

 difficult ; and the system of ready-money payments required by the 

 small farmer is, moreover, less convenient than payment at three 

 months or six months date as is usual in dealings with the 

 foreign producer. 



These objections combined with the difficulty of railway 

 transport would, according to the millowners, effectually put an 

 end to an industry in which a large amount of labour is 

 employed, and in which considerable capital has been sunk. 



The effect of the protectionist policy on the national finances 

 of Spain is clearly shown by the Custom House receipts from 

 the importation of wheat, which fell from 1,363,000L in 1894 to 

 742,000£. in 1895. The inevitable result of the protection 

 afforded to native grown wheat has thus been the diminution of 

 custom receipts, which is severely felt in the critical stage 

 through which the country is now passing. 



Wheat, which has hitherto been the principal source of revenue, 

 compensating to a great extent for the diminution of receipts, 

 has been gradually disappearing from Spanish ports since the 

 Law of 9th February 1895 was put in force. It may be said 

 that the benefits to agriculture have been conferred at the 

 expense of the public Treasury, in the receipts of which there 

 has been a considerable diminution. 



Agriculture in Algeria. 



Sir R Lambert Playfair, Her Majesty's Consul-General at 

 Algiers, says, in his last annual report to the Foreign Office, 

 that the question of agriculture is always the most important in 

 Algeria. For years past it has had great difficulties to encounter, 



