fifty grocers selling tea. In their competition they lay out a good
deal in advertisement and handsome shop fronts in the most expensive
streets; they keep (the fifty between them) many more hands than are
necessary to retail the tea. All this outlay has to come out of the
consumer. Government would buy pure tea first-hand in large
quantities cheap; a few trustworthy highly-paid officials would test
it, value it, and see it done up in sealed packages of sizes from 16
lbs. down to 2 oz.: these might be sold in an odd room attached to
the Post Office in each town and village. There can be little doubt
but that a saving in capital and labour would thus be effected, while
the public would get the tea cheaper and purer than at present. The 2
oz. purchaser, in particular, would pay a good deal less for 2 oz. of
real tea than she pays now for 2 oz. of rubbish.

Or,--Government might hand over the tea-retailing of Canterbury and
five miles round to a company as a monopoly: the state of things
would be something like what we experience in the large stores now:
the public would get their tea probably cheaper (quality considered)
than at present; the company would make a large profit on their
capital. If Government sanctioned two tea-retailing companies at
Canterbury, these would probably make a less rate of profit: though,
after the first heat of fight was over, they would probably agree to
sell the same tea at the same (profitable) rates, and the consumers
would gain little out of so restricted a competition. If a new
company were to apply for a private Act to enable them to retail tea
at Canterbury, the old company would show Parliament that themselves
sufficed to satisfy the requirements of the public.

The case of tea is a very specious one. By Government taking to
itself each branch of business in succession till all was in