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II prices are advancing for the same reasons. Our Revolu- 

 tionary, Civil, and Spanish Wars, and the minor conflicts 

 of other countries, however, had little effect on the world 

 price structure (table 1). 



The Revolutionary and Civil Wars had a decided effect 

 on our prices, but our Spanish War had little effect (table 2) . 



TABLE 2. CHANGES IN UNITED STATES PRICE LEVEL 

 DURING MAJOR AND MINOR WARS 



During our Revolutionary War there was wild inflation due 

 to the depreciation of the Continental paper currency. The 

 expression "not worth a Continental" dates back to that pe- 

 riod. During the Civil War, prices rose in both the North and 

 the South moderately in the North and wildly in the 

 South. These advances were not due to world- wide changes in 

 commodity prices. They were due to depreciation of paper 

 currencies in the United States. Northern greenbacks depre- 

 ciated until they were worth about forty cents on the dollar, 

 and the Southern Confederate notes until they were worth- 

 less. 



Wars, if small, may have no effect on the prices of a nation 

 or the world. Larger wars may affect the prices of the war- 

 ring nations and not the world; or if large enough, they 

 affect prices of all nations. 



The present war is a world-wide conflict. A certain indi- 



