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THE  PROBLEM  OF  THE  UNEMPLOYED

contributions  to  the  solution  of  the  Unemployed  problem,
we  must  keep  in  mind  two  economic  points.
In  the  first  place  so  far  as  these  schemes  of  agricultural
revival  are  directed  to  the  increase  of  English  industry
by  the  displacement  of  foreign  agricultural  and  other
goods,  they  are  purely  national  remedies.  If  by  improved
methods  of  dairy  farming  we  can  enable  English  butter
to  beat  out  of  the  market  Danish  and  Brittany  butter,  we
are  simply  increasing  employment  in  England  by  diminishing ­
  employment  in  Denmark  and  Brittany,  and  the  problem
of  unemployment  merely  shifts  its  locale,  unless  the  producers ­
  in  Denmark  and  Brittany  can  force  a  new  market
either  at  home  or  elsewhere  for  their  butter  at  a  reduced
price.  The  objection  which  is  sometimes  urged  to  the
effect  that  the  displacement  of  any  class  of  imports  will
throw  out  of  employment  the  capital  and  labour  engaged
in  those  English  manufactures  which  produce  export  goods
to  pay  for  the  imports,  has  no  validity.  If  English  agriculturists ­
  increase  their  production  by  the  amount  which
was  formerly  imported,  they  will  be  able  to  get  in  exchange
and  consume  those  manufactured  goods  which  formerly
went  out  in  export  trade,  or  their  equivalents.  But  when
due  regard  is  paid  to  the  rapidly  growing  importance  of
the  international  aspect  of  all  industrial  questions,  it  is
not  possible  to  contemplate  as  a  final  and  satisfactory
solution  of  “  unemployment  ”  an  improvement  of  English
agricultural  production  which  merely  enables  England  to
oust  a  foreign  competitor,  and  to  secure  for  herself  a
larger  share  of  the  same  aggregate  of  agricultural  employment. ­
  If  this  argument  seems  to  any  a  begging  of  the
question,  I  would  refer  them  to  the  general  analysis  of
unemployment  for  a  recognition  of  the  fact  that  an