314 
Gambling in Farm Produce. 
option system have fallen in value during the last ten or fifteen 
years to a greater extent than other articles of farm produce. 
There have been temporary advances in two of the products 
referred to, due to exceptional scarcity (as in the case of the 
flesh of the pig at the present time) or to gigantic speculation ; 
but, as a rule, the fact is as above stated. Space forbids me to 
prove this statement by figures, and it is hardly necessary to do 
so, as anyone familiar with the prices of farm products will see 
at once that it is correct. 
The American Anti-Option Bill will probably become law 
during the present year, and this will be a great gain. But there 
is a possible danger for European countries in the prospect. It 
may be that the stoppage of the gambling system of trading in 
America, its chief home, will knock it on the head altogether ; 
blit, on the other hand, it is possible that this will only cause its 
transportation. For example, Liverpool may take the place of 
Chicago as the great centre of option trading. Whether this be 
an imaginary or a real danger, there can be no question upon a 
point to which I wish to draw the special attention of British 
agriculturists. It would greatly strengthen the hands of the 
opponents of the gambling system in America if we, in 
this country, followed their example in demanding legislation 
against it. Immediate legislation, of course, is out of the ques- 
tion, and what I desire to induce agriculturists to ask for 
promptly is the appointment of a Select Committee to inquire 
into the subject. 
There is, surely, substantial reason for a Parliamentary 
inquiry. In the Liverpool and London markets there are, as has 
been shown, good grounds for believing that the practices in 
question are conducted in a manner which, if not demonstrably 
illegal, is highly objectionable from many points of view. 
Apparently the law is not stringent enough to suppress the evils, 
as it fails to put down gambling of the more familiar kind. 
The subterfuges which are resorted to under the system indi- 
cated would probably render a conviction for gambling difficult, 
if not impossible. 
But, apart from the objection to gambling in principle, there 
is every reason to affirm that farmers and landowners, and 
labourers through them, and, indeed, all who are connected with 
the land, are seriously injured by the system of gambling in 
farm produce, which artificially depresses prices and restrains 
legitimate trading ; and that system, therefore, should be stopped 
before it becomes more extensive than it is in this country. 
That this would be proved by a Parliamentary inquiry I have 
no doubt whatever, and therefore I desire nothing better than 
L^5SJ 
