24 STATISTICS OF EXPENDITURE AND 
conclusions of the theory of consumption; and it stands to reason 
that the more of the luxuries of the table a family consumes the 
less need has it for the grosser necessaries. But this conclusion 
must be taken to apply to percentages rather than to absolute 
amounts; for where the great majority of the population are in 
the condition of working class people, prosperity may show itself 
both in a decreasing percentage and in an increasing absolute 
amount, With a better use of the consumption power at their 
command, probably the working classes in America would come 
to consume less of the grosser necessaries of bread and potatoes 
and meat, and rise to a higher conception of well-being than 
mere profusion. The large consumption of bread stuffs in the 
exporting countries is due to profusion rather than to a low 
standard of living. It exists alongside of a large consumption 
of the comforts and commoner iuxuries of the table. 
Speaking in general terms, Europeans eat more bread and 
potatoes than Americans. Australians consume more meat and 
less bread and potatoes than either the Americans or the Euro- 
peans. In Canada the consumption both of bread and potatoes 
is, according to statistics, high, probably much too high, consider- 
ing the standard of living common in the community. In the 
Statistical Year Book for 1891 the average consumption, ecaleu- 
lated by deducting the net exports and the estimated amount 
retained for seed from the estimated crop during the 10 years, 
1881-1891, is given as 6.75 bushels per head :-— 
CONSUMPTION PER HEAD, IN BUSHELS. 
1881 6.48 | 1884 | 8.96 | 1888 6.02 
1882 8.19 | 1885 | 7.41 1889 5.38 
1883 6.16 1886 5.70 | 1890 6.69 
| | 1887 | 6.63 | | | 
But the authors of this estimate do not themselves place 
much reliance on it; and if it were accurate, one would almost 
be justified in inferring that in the lean years Canada was on 
