Some Aspects of the Contemporary Agrarian Question

Abstract

This article argues that the first industrializing nations like Britain historically met a large part of their food needs through tax or rent-financed imports and re-exports, from today’s developing countries. It points out a fallacy in Ricardo’s theory of mutual benefit for both trading partners from specialization and exchange, arising from its assumption that both countries produce both goods. Developing countries did not benefit but experienced falling per head output of basic staples, severely undermining food security for their own populations, both historically and under current trade liberalization, which has again shifted cropping patterns towards exports. The direct colonial taxation of the past to suppress domestic mass demand is replaced by income-deflating fiscal measures under the neo-liberal regime. It discusses why globally grain consumption per head is positively associated with per head income, and argues that the observed decline in India, as its income rises, can only reflect absolute decline in consumption for the already under-nourished majority.