28 AMEEICAN EXPORT CORN (mAIZe) IN EUROPE. 



the relative prices that should be obtainable for American corn, as 

 compared with the prices obtainable for corn from other exporting 

 countries under equal and normal market conditions, provided the 

 American corn was delivered in Europe in equally good condition as 

 that from other countries. 



In Great Britain the consensus of opinion as expressed was that 

 American corn would bring at least 1 shilhng per quarter (equal to 2.8 

 cents per bushel) more, although some merchants maintained that it 

 would be worth from IJ to 2 shillings per cpiarter more; while in 

 France, Germany, and the Netherlands the invariable answer was 

 that American corn under such conditions would command at least 

 5 per cent higher prices than the corn from Argentina and most other 

 corn-exporting countries. 



LONDON CORN (mAIZE) PRICES. 



Observations from time to time during the past several years of the 

 various European market reports have indicated that the prices quoted 

 for American corn upon those markets were often lower and fluctuated 

 at times to a greater degree than seemed reasonable or than was the 

 case with the prices quoted for corn from most other corn-exporting 

 countries. 



Table XI shows, in addition to the average of the monthly prices 

 quoted for " No. 2 Corn " at Chicago in cents per bushel, the average of 

 the prices (ex granary) for American corn, compared with the average 

 of the prices for corn from other exporting countries quoted ' ' off stands, 

 Mark Lane, London, as reported each Monday by the :Mark Lane Ex- 

 press in shillings and pence per quarter of 480 pounds of corn, for a 

 period of six years, extending from July 1, 1902, to June 30, 1908, 

 these quotations being reduced to equivalents in. cents per bushel. 

 The Chicago prices shown in the table are based upon the average of 

 the high and low prices for each month, and the London prices are 

 based upon the average of the high and low prices for each week as 

 quoted. That is to say, that the prices shown were obtained by aver- 

 aging the highest price and the lowest price quoted for the period in 

 each case. In the London prices quoted the range for any one week 

 in the prices for the corn of any individual country seldom exceeded 

 1 shilling per quarter, but the range was more often 6 pence to 1 shil- 

 ling per c{uarter. 



This method does not, of course, give the average prices obtained 

 or that were obtainable as considered from the standpoint of the num- 

 ber of bushels bought or sold, but so far as data are available it shows 

 the average of values per unit of measure for the indicated limited 

 periods, and the prices shown are comparable upon that basis only. 



The table is divided into periods of three months, the number of 

 weeks the corn of the various countries was quoted as being on the 



[Cir. 55] 



