the industrial revolution, namely
the alteration in the ratio of the exchange value of
manufacture and food--the shift over of advantage in
exchange from the side of the industrialist and manufacturer
to the side of the producer of food."[27]

"Before the War the towns of Europe were the luxurious and
opulent centers; the rural districts were comparatively
poor. To-day it is the cities of the continent that are
half-starved or famine-stricken, while the farms are
well-fed and relatively opulent. In Russia, Poland, Hungary,
Germany, Austria; the cities perish but the peasants for the
most part have a sufficiency. The cities are finding that
with the breakdown of the old stability--of the transport
and credit systems particularly--they cannot obtain food
from the farmers. This process which we now see at work on
the continent is in fact the reverse of our historical
development."[28]

But although the farmer may have sufficient food for the time--though in
Russia millions are starving, due in considerable measure to the
economic and political chaos of the nation--yet if this reverse process
should go on, rural civilization would be reduced to that of former
generations, and its advance would be possible only when the industries
which furnish its material basis were revived and confidence in the
medium of exchange were again established. The city owes its existence
to the farm, but without the city the farm would go back to the hoe and
the sickle and the "age of homespun."

I am not seeking to justify the modern city, for its economic and social
weaknesses are ever increasingly apparent, but it is important that we
fully realize the fact that rural progress has been chiefly due to the
goods and services received in exchange from urban markets. We have
already noted the tendency toward specialization in agriculture and its
effect on the rural community, and that specialization has been chiefly
due to markets. One of the chief factors in encouraging specialization
in the growth of certain products by whole communities and sections is
the fact that a larger volume of a given product ensures better
marketing facilities and a better price to the producer as long as the
supply is not in excess of the demand. Where there is a considerable
volume of a certain product, buyers can meet their demands more easily
and are attracted to it