THE PRICE OF BREAD

Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 142, 18 June 1931, Page 13

THE PRICE OF BREAD

INTERESTING COMPARISONS

Wellington prices of bread vary from lid to Is Id the four-pound loaf, i.e., two ordinary loaves. The price in England is a shade over 7d, but the old custom of make-weight is observed there; that is to say, if a loaf of two pounds, or two loaves of two pounds each are bought in the baker's shop, the bread is .weighed, and if under two. or found pounds, as the case may be, an additional piece of bread is given to make up., the full weight. . A question was recently asked in the House of > Commons as to how the price of "a 41b loaf in Great Britain compared with that in Germany, Italy, Sweden, United States of AmeHea, and Canada. Mr. Lawson replied: "Tile latest statistics available in my Department for the overseas countries concerned relate, except in the case of Germany and ' Italy, to December,, 1930, and are summarised in the table below.. In. the absence of information as to the quality of bread to which the various quotations relate, it is not known how far the prices shown may be regarded as comparable one with another. The prices have been converted to .sterling at the rates current at the dates to which the figures relate. Price of White Bread (per 41b) In December, 1930.» ' Equivalent . ■ In Original ' Sterling Country. . Currency. . Pence., Great Britain and Northern Ireland 7.5 d 7.5 d Germany .... ~1.51 E. marls 17.78 d Italy (Rome) ... 2.81 to 3.52 lire 7.53 dto 'J.SSd •Swoden ........ 1.36 kroner 18.03 d United States- 34.0 cents , IO.SOd Canada 26.4 cents ' 13.053 ♦In the case of Germany and Italy the prices given relato to July and Novoniber respectively. At the recent annual meeting of Spillers, Ltd., the great English flour-milling company, the chairman (Sir Malcolm Robertson) referred to the low price of bread in the United Kingdom. He said that the effect of the enormous surpluses of wheat available in the world's markets, the fact that the British market was one of the few completely free for the world's exporters, and the efficient organisation of the British flour-milling industry, meant that the people of Great Britain were buying bread more cheaply than those of almost any other country in the world. He asserted that Great Britain produced the cheapest and best flour in the world, because the wheat market was free. This presented an inestimable advantage .for the purpose of blending the most suitable wheats while taking the price factor into account.

Interference with a free market was likely to react disadvantageous^ on- the cost or in the quality of British flour and .bread. That had occurred in Germany, France, and Italy..