82 STATISTICS OF EXPENDITURE AND CONSUMPTION—DAVIDSON, 
InDEX NUMBER OF CONSUMPTION IN CANADA, 
if | | ;. 
YeEAR.|Tea.| Coffee. |Sugar.| Dried Fruits. | Spirits. | Tobacco.| Beer. oe eee 
18s0 ; 100 100 100 100 100 | 100 100 700 
ISSL | 140 Wily 119 159 129 106 101 $71 
1882 | 159 Ay 115 178 142 113 122 1006 
1883 | 148 150 130 210 153 120 128 1039 
1884 | 140 132 146 Die 141 result 129 1092 
1885 ! 148! 235 163 215 , | 2159 137 117 1174 
1886 | 181 PS 146 189 100 107 126 1071 
1887 | 140 102 163 Pi) 105 1u8 136 975 
1888 | 137 150 163 235 90 110 144 1030 
1889 | 133 165 180 242, 109 113 144 1086 
1890 | 140 165 134 247 124 TY 149 1071 
LEO Vie 2, 153 252 104 120 168 1106 
1892 | 162! 182 261 ! 247 98 120 | 156 1226 
1893 | 133 192 192 231 104 124 ' 154 1130 
1894 | 151 175 934 : 278 104 LS alee 1222 
1895 | 148 180 268 273 { 94 113 154 1231 
1896 | 167! 175 180 | 294 87 lll 155 | 1169 
| | 
The year 1880 is evidently not an average year, and there 
were probably trade infiuences at work inducing a small 
importation. And itis to be remarked that the figures on which 
these index numbers are originally based are figures of trade 
and not of consumption. In order to attain something like strict 
accuracy by eliminating the effects of anticipatory importations 
to avoid a threatened tax, and such like influences visible in 
all trade returns, it would be necessary to make the consumption 
for each year the average of a period of three or four years— 
thus the figures for 1886 would be the average of 1884, 1885. 
and 1886; the figures for 1887 the average of 1885, 1886, 1887. 
But such exactitude would be tedious, and the process might be 
liable to the objection that it sought to attain a greater degree 
of accuracy than the nature of the subject admits. 
Within the limits set down this index number illustrates the 
steady growth of the national prosperity and well-being—a 
movement not uniform or without backward steps—but none the 
less indicating that the command the nation has over the material 
sources of satisfaction has increased. 
