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 i- due to profusion rather than to a low 

 standard of living. It exists alongside of a large consumption 

 of the comforts and commoner luxuries 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, calcu- 

 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. 



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 



