The economics of state assistance to agriculture with special reference to future policy in South Africa

Abstract

[From the Introduction] The argument by which it is shown that, under a system of open competition, prices are determined in a way which secures to consumers a maximum aggregate of satisfaction consonant with the relative security of the means of production is the familiar material of many treatises on economics, and does not need to be repeated here. In Economics (as distinct from Politics) this argument provided in a simple form the logical justification for the advocacy of laissez faire in State policy during the early 19th century even though "it was the actual success of private enterprise and the inefficiency and corruption of Government control that caused laissez faire to be an acceptable policy". No-one, of course, contended that pure competition did in fact characterize the economic relations of the time. Quite the reverse. It was argued that if the hindrances to competition were removed, society as a whole would reap the benefits indicated by the theory.