THE ECONOMIC DISTURBANCES SINCE 1873. 7 



that the decline in the general prices of this commodity gave any oc- 

 casion for anxiety. 



Careful comparisons of price-movements in recent years also fail 

 to show any exact correspondence of results as respects different coun- 

 tries, the average fall of prices having been apparently less in France 

 and Germany than in Great Britain during the same period ; while 

 the average fall in prices in the United States, in respect to all those 

 commodities which enter into the general wants of man, have been 

 undoubtedly greater than in any other country.* 



Now, while such results are not in accordance with what might 

 have been anticipated /"row and can not be satisfactorily explained by 

 any theory of the predominating and depressing influence of a scarc- 

 ity of gold on prices, they are exactly the results which might have 

 been expected from and can be satisfactorily explained by the condi- 

 tions of supply and demand — conditions so varying with time, place, 

 and circumstance as to require in the case of every commodity a spe- 

 cial examination to determine its price-experience, and which experi- 

 ence, once recognized, will rarely or never be found to exactly corre- 

 spond with the experience of any other commodity : the leading factor 



* The following extract from the " Report of the Chamber of Commerce of Cincin- 

 nati, Ohio," for the year ending August 31, 1886, strikingly illustrates the extraordinary 

 decline in the price of staple commodities in this great interior market of the North 

 American Continent : 



" There is one condition revealed " — i. e., by the statistics of 1885-'86 — " that is very 

 noticeable, which is that prices in general touched the lowest point in a quarter of a cent- 

 ury. There were those who supposed that the shrinking processes had been arrested in 

 the preceding year, and yet the figures for 1885-'S6, in nearly all departments of busi- 

 ness, show lower prices than the previous year. In presence of the low prices of 1884- 

 '85, it seemed almost incredible that so much of market value could be wrung from 

 them as has been during the past year. Thus, commencing near the alphabetical list, 

 bran declined 9 per cent; creamery butter, 20'7; butterine, 18; candles, 18"7 ; soap, 

 15*2; cattle, 8; coal, delivered, 'Z'S ; middling cotton, ir9; feathers, G*?; dried apples, 

 27'4; No. 2 mixed (shelled) corn, 14-6; No. 2 oats, 6-3; New Orleans molasses, 11-6; 

 Louisiana rice, 13'1 ; hay, 5; hops^ 252; mess-pork, 21'1 ; prime lard, lOV; lard-oil, 

 11'7; tallow, 22; white-leaf tobacco, 25; flax-seed, 18-4; starch, 13'4; high wines, not 

 including the taxes, 16'3. In a few articles — tanners' bark, clover-seed, lead, barley, 

 wool, etc. — there was an advance ; yet the number is so small as to make them quite ex- 

 ceptionable. 



"While the depreciation which has taken place the past year (18S5-'86), compared 

 with the prices of 1S84-'S5 has been marked, it may be interesting to take a glance at 

 the tremendous reduction which has taken place in the past five years, which, in articles 

 that enter into the every-day wants of man, in not a few instances has been equal to 

 almost one half their value in 18Sl-'82. The gravitation to a lower plane of value has 

 been so steady as to prevent a full appreciation of the enormous shrinkage to which com- 

 modities have been subjected. Thus, in mess-pork the depreciation in the general aver- 

 age price since 18Sl-'82 has been 48-5 per cent; in prime steam lard, 46; hams, 24-4 ; 

 shelled corn, 43 ; oats (which in Europe have shown no tendency in recent years to fall 

 in price), 39-4; rye, 32-6; bran, 33-8; extra butter, 46-9; tallow, 41-4; flour, 34-3; lin- 

 seed oil, 30; salt, 18-6; cheese, 17"1 ; fair to medium cattle, IS'S ; middling cotton, 21-7; 

 Louisiana rice, 28-9; barley, 18-6; and wool, 15 per cent." 



