A recent study of the demand for British manufactures in Asia at the end of the last century suggests that demand increased when food prices rose, not when they fell. Because many people were below the threshold of income at which they bought factory goods, falling food prices did not enable them to buy these products. But when food prices rose, producers and dealers above that threshold became better off and increased their consumption of manufactures. If a similar situation exists today, planners seeking cheap food may be retarding the industrial development of their economies.