864 REPORT— 1885. 
an index of quantity for each article, and so by simple addition for the 
whole of the specified articles in each year. To illustrate this process, in 
1883 the exports of cotton yarn were in round numbers 265,000,000 Ibs., 
and the value 13,500,0001., in 1865 they were 193,500,000 lbs. weight, 
and 10,300,0001. ; the price per lb. being 12°25d. and 23-98d. respectively, 
or 96 per cent. higher in the earlier year. The value index of 56 stands 
for 1883, but being multiplied by 1-96 we change it into 110 to represent 
the value 26,400,0007. which would have accrued had the price been the 
same as in 1865. Or reversing the process we divide 42, the index for 
1865, by 1:96, giving 21:5, to show the value 5,165,000. which the yarn 
of that year would have realised had it been sold in 1883, and thus get 
the ratio of quantity to value for this article, All the enumerated goods 
being dealt with in the same way, and the non-enumerated assumed to. 
follow the same ratio, it is evident that the index numbers fairly indicate 
the proportionate bulk of the trade in therespective years. The following 
tables in which the enumerated articles, instead of being separately 
detailed, are gathered into groups, show first (A) certain index numbers for 
1883, and the changes which would have to be made on estimating the 
goods at the prices of three other years within the decade 1873-83, and 
of one earlier year 1865, in which the disturbance of prices arising from 
the American Civil War exercised a marked influence upon the export trade 
of this country. Secondly (B), the index numbers for these same four 
years are shown in parallel columns with the alterations that the prices of 
1883 would have produced. These illustrate the manner in which the full 
set of tables for a series of years may be easily used to manifest the 
fluctuations in quantity as well as value, either by way of comparison 
between later and earlier or earlier and later years. 
A.—Ezxports of 1883 in Index Numbers, together with those numbers as they 
would have been at the prices of other years. 1,000 = 240,000,0002. 
Additions to 1883 for Prices of 
Articles Grouped 1883 
1879 1875 | 1873 | 1865 
Cottons . ‘ 3 é ; - ‘ ‘ 299 12 68 100 | 243 
Linen and Jute Z ; ‘ > z 2 36 } 5 8 13 
Woollens ‘ ; . ; > : : 89 —6 19 23 27 
Chief Textiles . ‘ A ‘ 424 if 92 131 283 
Coals. : 3 : : : 3 44 —3 20 54 1 
Tron . ; 4 : 5 : ; : 118 —1 59 109 36 
Other Metals . \ f ; ‘ = 2 21 —1 7 9 4 
Chief Minerals . . : ; 183 —5 86 172 41 
Other enumerated . 2 ; : : 99 2 17 23 26 
All other goods. : : : : . 294. 2 82} 137_| 147 
Total Exports . , 3 . | 1,000 6} 277 | 463] 497 
