ABSTRACT
To this first cause of continuing maladjustment, Mr. Lamartine Yates adds many others and concludes: "When one contemplates the cumulative effect of all these resistances-the peasant's attempt to maintain his income, the time-lag in production and the protective assistance afforded by governments-it is small wonder that price has proved a singularly ineffective weapon for achieving reduction in output, and it is not surprising, therefore, that even small diminutions in price or in demand have produced gluts of quite astonishing proportions." 2
339. Measures to introduce more stability into the production and marketing of the primary products which Britain uses, should be an integral part of any full employment policy for Britain. But such measures fall only to a limited extent within the power of Britain. It is true that Britain can propose long-term contracts stabilizing her price for particular articles from particular countries. But Britain is only one-although a very important one-amongst a number of purchasers. If the raw material and food imports of other countries continue to show large fluctuations in volume, even a complete steadiness of British purchases and a complete stability
of British prices will not assure steadiness of purchasing power to the primary producers. The problem of extreme and irrational instability in primary products can only be solved completely by international action, embracing both the primary producers and their principal industrial customers. No attempt can be made here to define the practical form which such action should take in regard to particular commodities. Full discussion of the various alternative policies-of long-period global contracts covering the whole supply of each country, of "buffer stocks" and of quota systems, would occupy another volume or several volumes. Different policies would no doubt be required for different commodities.l The central problem in all cases is that of ensuring reasonable stability in production as well as in price, without stopping change and technical progress.
