Self-Evident Facts In An English Community May Be Utterly Misconstrued
In Cyprus.
The Cypriote has never been accustomed to unrestricted
freedom, but like his own ox in the plough, he requires a certain amount
of control, and his energies must be directed by a driver or ruler.
When
the vegetables were assured of a certain fixed price per oke regulated
by the authorities, he knew that he would obtain that amount for his
produce whether good or bad; accordingly he brought his goods to market.
But, when he found that his inferior vegetables would remain unsold, or
would realise a mere trifle should a competitor's stall present a
superior show, he withdrew altogether from the market, which at length
became deserted; and the few who maintained their positions advanced
their prices to such an exorbitant degree that vegetables became a
luxury in which none could indulge but the rich. The fishermen profited
by the reform and only caught sufficient for the minimum demand, but at
the same time that they reduced their own labour and consequently the
supply of fish, they also took advantage of the new law of free trade,
and advanced their prices in extortionate proportion. Instead of the
self-evident prosperity that would benefit all classes, the sudden
liberty to which the Cypriote was unaccustomed acted diametrically
against all English expectations, and for the time ruined the market.
This was told me by Colonel Warren himself, and the failure of the
apparently wholesome reform is suggestive of the danger that may result
in the too sudden enfranchisement of those races which from a long
series of oppression are unfit for perfect liberty.
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