THE ECONOMIC DISTURBANCES SINCE 1873. 781 



(27 per cent) ; of bacon and hams from 9*6 cents to 7'5 cents ; and of 

 lard from 9'4 cents to 6*9 cents. In the case of lard-oil an exception- 

 ally great decline in price in recent years i. e., from an average of 94 

 cents per gallon (Cincinnati market) in 1881-'82 to a minimum of 

 48*8 cents in 1886, is claimed to be due mainly to the large production 

 and more general use of vegetable oils cotton-seed oil in the United 

 States, and palm and cocoanut oils in Europe. The effect of the in- 

 creased quantity and cheapness of these vegetable oils has been espe- 

 cially marked in England, France, Italy, and Germany ; and has also 

 undoubtedly influenced the price of tallow, the decline in which in 

 English markets, comparing the average prices of 1867-'77 with those 

 of 1886, having been 31 per cent, while in the United States the price 

 for 1884-'85 was the lowest on record. 



Cheese. American cheese experienced an extraordinary decline 

 in price from 12 and 13 cents in 1880 to 8| and 10^ cents in 1885 ; and 

 as the American contribution of this article of food to the world's con- 

 sumption has constituted in recent years a large factor, the world's 

 prices generally corresponded with those of the American market. 

 This decline in the United States was due mainly to increased prod- 

 uct ; the relative prices of butter and cheese during the years 1880-'81 

 being so much to the advantage of the latter, that large quantities of 

 milk which had previously gone to the creameries to be made into 

 butter, found their way into factories to be made into cheese ; and 

 for the years 1883, 1884, and 1885 the annual receipts at New York 

 city averaged 25 per cent in excess of the receipts for 1880. Demand 

 for export at the same time largely fell off, and so assisted in the de- 

 cline of prices ; the same influences existing in the United States hav- 

 ing also apparently prevailed to a degree in other cheese-producing 

 countiies, the amount recognized by the trade as supplied to the great 

 cheese-consuming countries, Great Britain, the Continent of Europe, 

 and South America, having increased from 1880 to 1884 to the extent 

 of 14 per cent. 



Fish. The year 1884 in the United States was notable for a pleth- 

 ora of all kinds of dry and pickled fish on the one hand, and of ex- 

 treme low prices of such commodities on the other ; mackerel having 

 touched a lower price in the Boston market than for any year since 

 1849, while for codfish the price was less than at any time since the 

 year 1838. 



Coffee and Tea. The decline in recent years in the prices of 

 each of these great staple commodities has been almost as remarkable 

 as has been the case with sugar, coffee having touched the lowest 

 prices ever known in commerce in the early months of 1886, the price 

 of " ordinary," or " exchange standard No. 5," having been 7 cents per 

 pound in January of that year in the New York market ; while, accord- 

 ing to Mr. Giffen, of the British Board of Trade, the decline in the price 

 of tea, comparing 1882 with 1861, has been greater than that of sugar, 



