80 
The Indian Wlieat Trade. 
value wbeii taken out of tlie wlieat, and the cleaning can be 
done at once more clieaply and more effectually in tliis country : 
than in India, cheap as labour is in that country, our machinery j 
and workmanship being greatly superior to those of India. ' 
To sum up briefly the evidence which has been reviewed in 
this article, it appears probable that the Indian wheat trade will 
continue to expand slowly, with a liability to fluctuations from 
various causes, such as poor crops in India, low prices in 
Europe resulting from good crops or heavy importations from 
America and other countries, alterations in exchange, and 
temporary advances in freights. The tendency, as we have 
seen, is towards a still further reduction of the expense of con- 
veying wheat from the interior of India to the coast and across 
the ocean, and I, for one, believe that prices in Europe have 
touched the lowest point. But the best authorities appear to 
be of opinion that, even under the most favourable conditions, 
the increase of the wheat area in India will not go on rapidly, 
while, in course of time, the increase in the enormous population 
will encroach upon the margin of cultivable land at present 
available for growing grain for export. That a sudden restora- 
tion of the rupee to what is termed its par value, through a | 
great discovery of gold, failure in the supplies of silver, or the j 
remonetization of that metal by the principal countries now * 
maintaining a single gold standard, would put a temporary check 
upon the export of Indian wheat is as certain as anything can 
be ; but then the result of the withdrawal of Indian competition 
would as surely raise prices in Europe, and thus restore the 
balance temporarily disturbed. As to the efiect of a further fall 
in the price of wheat in Europe, if that should happen, it may 
be inferred, from the slow increase in the Indian wheat area j 
under such favourable conditions as have existed during the last 
two yeai's, that there would be a contraction of the export 
trade — that is, supposing the fall in price to be greater than 
could be made up for by a reduction in the expenses of transport. ; 
But then, again, the effect here imagined would speedily react 
upon the producing cause, sending prices in Europe up again. j 
Thus it appears that, regarding the question from all 
points of view, the wheat-growers of other countries must be 
prepared for the continuance of Indian competition on a 
moderate scale at least, and that their best hope of future profit I 
lies in the conviction that farmers cannot anywhere long keep ' 
on growing wheat at a loss, while those who so perfect their j 
economy as to secure the greatest proportionate results from a 
given outlay will not be among the growers compelled to retire 
from the too fierce struggle to supply the staple food of the 
civilised world. 
