FIvUCTUATIONS IN PRICES AND WAGES 



131 



Produce 



Barle.v 



Rye 



Wheat 



Daizu (Beans) . . . 



Adzuki (lentils) . . 



Salt 



( White. . 

 Sugar . . < 



( Brown . 



Sake 



Tea 



Beef 



Petroleum 



Coal 



Charcoal 



130 

 156 

 130 

 121 

 124 

 216 

 137 

 134 

 145 

 136 

 132 

 106 

 119 

 118 



If we add to this list other goods, not dealt with here for want of space, 

 such as calico, cotton goods etc., also of the highest importance for 

 consumption and take the average for them also for the years after 1900, 

 we get the following index numbers : 



1902 99 



1903 109 



1904 119 



1905 131 



1906 129 



1907 133 



1908 136 



1909 131 



1910 131 



1911 137 



From which we may conclude that the cost of living in Japan is 

 now very appreciably increasing, and that it has increased by 3'S % 

 in only ten years, It must of course be understood that our calculations 

 can only be approximate, above all because we should at least have 

 taken account, in the case of each article considered, of its relative 

 importance and assigned to it a corresponding co-efficient, which would 

 affect the general average according to the importance of the commodity 

 fcr Japanese consumption. But the calculation of a coefficient of this 

 nature is too complicated and would require a number of data, some of 

 which are altogether wanting, while others we possess in too incomplete 

 a form. We may, however, consider that the above index numbers give 

 a sufficiently approximate idea of the fluctuations in the cost of living in 

 Japan. 



