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THE IMPORtANCE OF GENERAL STATISTICAL IDEAS 341
{lot merely in proportion to the growth of population,
out in larger proportion. The position here obviously
is that, with the industries of agriculture and the ex-
traction of raw material (except as regards the one
. article, coal) practically incapable of expansion, and
with a population which not only increases in numbers,
but which becomes year by year increasingly richer
per head, the consuming' power of the population in-
creases with enormous rapidity, and must be satisfied,
if at all, by foreign imports of food and raw materials;
there is no other means of satisfaction. But what is
true of the United Kingdom is true in a greater or less
degree of certain European countries-France, the
Low Countries, the Scandinavian countries, Austria-
Hungary, Italy, and Germany. Especially is it true in
a remarkable degree of Germany, which is becoming
increasingly industrial and manufacturing, and where
the room for expansion in agriculture is now very
limited. Those interested in the subject may be re-
ferred to an excellent paper by Mr. Crawford, read at
the Royal Statistical Society of London about two
years ago. What I am now desirous to point out is
the governing nature of the idea, which necessarily
follows from the conception of a European population
living on a limited area, with the agricultural and ex-
tractive possibilities long since nearly exhausted, and
the population all the time increasing in numbers and
wealth. Such a population must import more and more
year by year, and must be increasingly dependent on
foreign supplies.
I shall not attempt to do over again what is done in
Mr. Crawford's paper, but a few figures may serve to
iUustrate what is meant. In the" Statistical Abstract"
for the principal and other foreign countries, I find
tables for certain European countries classifying the
imports for a series of years into articles of food, raw
and semi-manufactured articles, etc. ~rom these I
extract the following particulars for all the countries
which have tables in this form: