Page:Tales in Political Economy by Millicent Garrett Fawcett.djvu/50

 competition effectually excluded. Fortunately, however, they had no power to prevent their neighbours from supplying their wants at the lowest possible cost: i.e., at the least possible sacrifice of labour and self-denial. They were, therefore, compelled to endure what they could not cure. It was impossible for them to deny that the new flour made very good bread, or that the other dishes that were made from the plantain-fruit formed a very pleasant variety in their fare. Some of them began to prepare their wheat for the brewing process which the captain had recommended; but they did this with the air of those who considered themselves very hardly treated. Some of them said they didn't believe it was possible to make malt of anything but barley, and they therefore exchanged their wheat for anything they could get for it. Meanwhile, they began to work at preparing the plantain-fibre for weaving, and before long they succeeded in producing a coarse, but very strong and useful cloth, which they disposed of to their neighbours in exchange for the products of other industry. In less