Economic Pressure as a Cause of the Revolt of the Asiatic Peoples Against Occidental Exploitation

an industry of diminishing returns, but during the last century agriculture on the whole showed itself an industry of diminishing costs. Three million acres of land went out of cultivation in England which had been profitable before agriculture was extended to new land in other countries. It is by no means clear that this development is at an end. The tropics at present supply only a small amount of food, but they may prove to be great sources as the Prairies did. They are no further removed from the possibilities of food production today than the American West was a hundred years ago. Food prices have in general kept pace downward with the prices of other articles throughout the past century. Food prices now include a greater proportion which represents cost of transportation and other distributive factors. Therefore, distribution is not only playing a greater part than formerly in the total cost but is tending to overshadow the costs of original production. A comparison of prices of food in Massachusetts and in leading centers outside of New England recently completed by the speaker shows that retail prices were 16 per cent to 17 per cent higher, whereas wholesale prices were only 1 per cent to 2 per cent higher. This also shows the comparative importance of the cost of distribution in this thickly populated region. In conclusion, the speaker stated that, while the Federal and State Departments of Agriculture were conducting marketing research work, other agencies must also undertake the study of the improvement of the distribution of foodstuffs in the interests of the consumers because the agricultural agencies were committed to the interests of the agricultural classes

Agricultural economics · Agriculture · Business · Distribution (mathematics · Economics · Economy · Food distribution · Geography · Pace · Political science · Production (economics · Cuban History and Society · Russia and Soviet political economy · Soviet and Russian History