§ 5. Mr. GOULDasked the President of the Board of Trade whether, seeing that although the price of yarn and cloth utilised in the Lancashire cotton trade has declined about 50 per cent, during the past five months no corresponding reduction in the price of the finished product has been evidenced, he will extend the present system of control by his Department to the control of retail prices of commodities necessary to the comfort and use of the poorer classes?
§ Mr. BRIDGEMANThere is a natural tendency for movements in the retail prices of finished goods to lag behind the corresponding movements in the market prices of the materials. This happens equally whether prices are moving upwards or downwards, and I would remind the hon. Member that at various times during the War it was possible to purchase cotton goods retail below the actual cost of manufacture of the day. My right hon. Friend is convinced that no control of the retail prices of such commodities would be either feasible or beneficial at the present time.