76 
The Middleman in Agriculture. 
business and undertaking all risks. But such cases are rare ; 
and in the greater part of the business of the modern world the 
task of so directing production that a given effort may be most 
effective in supplying human wants has to be broken up and 
given into the hands of a specialised body of employers, or, to 
use a more general term, of business men. They ‘ adventure ’ 
or ‘ undertake ’ its risks, they bring the capital and the labour 
required for the work ; they arrange or ‘ engineer ’ its general 
plan, and superintend its minor details. Looking at business 
men from one point of view we may regard them as a highly 
skilled industrial grade, from another as middlemen interven- 
ing between the manual worker and the consumer . 1 ” 
The difficulty of definition which even the scientific econo- 
mist finds may easily perplex common folk. The farmer has 
of late been clamouring — not without cause — against the 
“ middleman,” yet he is, in fact, a middleman himself. If the 
principles advocated by Mr. Albert Grey 2 obtained general 
adoption he would be abolished, except, perhaps, as the paid 
superintendent of his men — a consideration which may give pause 
to some of those who write and speak vehemently. It is well, 
therefore, to recognise frankly that the middleman in agriculture 
is, to some extent at least, a necessity. But enough has been 
said to show that he is apt when unchecked to presume upon 
his intermediate position, and to use it without regard to the 
interests of either the consumer or the producer. This fact 
naturally disposes both consumers and producers to regard with 
favour any scheme for rendering them less dependent upon the 
generosity and goodwill of the intermediaries. It is also a 
matter for grave consideration whether in the distribution of 
some articles of produce, especially those of a perishable nature 
which must go into consumption immediately, there are not too 
many “ dealers ” and “ handlers,” and it is, further, not a matter 
for consideration but one of entire certainty that where the 
middleman prostitutes his calling, by adulterating or wrongly 
describing the articles passing through his hands, the most 
stringent measures should be adopted to compel his honesty. 
R. Henry Rew. 
1 Marshall’s Elements of Economics, Yol. I., 1892, p. 182. 
2 “ Profit Sharing in Agriculture.” By Albert Grey. Journal of the Royal 
Agricultural Society, Yol. II., 3rd Series, Part 4, 1891, pp. 771-793. 
