I am delighted to see my friend Peter Rawlings has taken over the Talking Stock column. Peter is a good guy, well dressed, knowledgeable - the very model of a stockbroker.

"What's going to happen this year?" I asked him.

"Well," he said, "I think things may get better in the second half."

That's a circumspect reply from an old bull.

Once I was a great optimist and that got me into trouble on several occasions. Nowadays I am a pessimist. Perhaps it's something to do with my age.

However, I do have one piece of good news. Just before Christmas I stopped at Bucklers Hard in the New Forest. It is the place where Henry Adams built the Agamemnon, Nelson's favourite ship.

The Agamemnon was a substantial warship but nowhere near the scale of the Victory and other three deckers.

Nonetheless its building would have used some 2,000 mature oaks, about 40 to 50 acres of woodland. In the 17th and 18th Centuries our great forests all but disappeared (well ahead of Brazil and Indonesia).

It was good news to be told by Mr Clark of the Ministry of Agriculture (now DEFRA) that so many new trees have been planted that there are now more trees in England than in the beginning of the last century.

"Well done Mr Clark!" I said.

He was gracious enough to accept my thanks on the department's behalf.

Did you see the news about the UK's increasing trade deficit running at record levels? Our farmers and manufacturers are on their knees. The country's economy is supported by its shoppers. I do not think that this state of affairs can be sustained.

Our superstores now account for some 80 per cent of the food market. Hoards of shoppers clear the shelves where there is an extraordinary range of delicious foods, fruits and vegetables. But where does it come from? At Bucklers Hard I picked up a book of poems by Alexander Glanville, a land agent. He has the answer:

French bottled water And Kenyan mange-tout Israeli potatoes Who knows how they grew?

Australian Cheddar And fruit from the Cape With New Zealand lamb There must be a mistake?

Surely our country Can grow food for itself Not this worldwide assortment On the superstore shelf But it's food when you want it At all times of year Let half the world starve Just export it here.

Napoleon referred to the English as a nation of shopkeepers. Now we're just shoppers.