CHAPTER XII. 



AVERAGES OF PRICES. 



THE general principles on which the averages subjoined to 

 each chapter have been computed from the evidence supplied 

 in the second volume, are as follows. 



I. The general value is reckoned from prices only, and not 

 from quantities and numbers as well as prices. For instance, 

 in estimating the price of wheat for any given year, it has not 

 been considered necessary, or indeed advisable, to reckon the 

 amount sold as well as the price at which it was sold. Thus 

 a small entry, even of so low an amount as a peck, if any 

 such be found, is taken to be as important as the price of 

 a hundred quarters or more. The sale represents a market 

 value, in a given year, and often at a given date; and the 

 fact that the actual transaction is of a slight character, does 

 not imply that many more sales at the same rate were not 

 effected, and in the same market. If the number of all sales 

 could be exhausted, the quantity sold might in certain cases 

 be fairly or properly taken into account, in order to gather a 

 general price of any commodity, but in the absence of such 

 evidence, the only method that could be adopted seems, in my 

 opinion, to be that which I have employed. 



This rule has been followed even in the case of stock. If 

 two or more oxen, sheep, &c. are sold at the same price, and 

 at the same time, the rate has been taken at a single value. 

 No doubt, if we could get information of all the cattle that 

 were sold at any given place, and at any given time, we ought 



