TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION F. 1157 
are the limited hours of labour a disadvantage, for labour saved is not lost. 
Britain has more capital than any other country, and nowhere the value of money 
is lower than inthe United Kingdom. She has almost a monopoly of the carrying 
trade of the world, and she has the goodwill of a large and well-established 
custom, By all means let other nations advance in wealth and industry. There is 
room for all. Let us only trust for better times, and we may be quite sure that any 
rays of sunshine which may brighten our fellow-labourers in the field in any part 
of the world will likewise brighten and energise every branch of British industry. 
3. On the Variations of Price-Level since 1850,! 
By Micuart G. Muunatt, £.S.8. 
Hitherto all efforts to ascertain the variations in the purchasing power of gold, 
especially since the year 1850, have been futile, because economists could not agree 
on the best method of fixing a level of prices. Someadopted index numbers, others 
arbitrarily laid down classifications of merchandise of primary or secondary necessity. 
But there is only one true way, namely, to take the current market value of the 
goods that are bought or consumed among nations, and compare the aggregate sum 
with the amount which the same quantity of goods would have cost at any former 
date with which it is sought to make a comparison. 
The same quantities of products and merchandise consumed annually from 1881 
ae 1884 would have cost in previous periods, at the prices then ruling, as 
ollows :— 
Millions £ sterling 
1841-50 1851-60 1861-70 1871-80 1881-84 
on, ee 1,419 1,724 1,658 1,547 1,326 
Meat . : ; A 560 6238 661 TAT 85 
Hardware . . ; 576 525 504 593 384 
Dairy products . - 236 2€6 303 335 540 
Cotton goods. vo onal tel; 335 484 346 302 
Woollen goods . 2 263 245 280 268 223 
Timber : 5 : 428 338 338 301 273 
Coal . 5 F 224 241 241 241 189 
Leather : “ ‘ 218 202 212 188 184 
Potatoes . 3 F 115 125 154 164 181 
Wine . : é : 86 105 111 iL 130 
Raw Cotton s : 76 85 183 101 87 
Wool . z ‘ 5 160 145 125 97 83 
Books . > . P 120 115 105 87 79 
Silks . 5 4 5 68 82 104 88 73 
Linens, ce. . a 5 ra 74 78 74 70 
Sugar . : - ; 106 100 106 84 61 
Coffee . . : ; 23 30 38 50 42 
Tobacco . - : 29 44 53 38 37 
east, . { 2 16 20 24 21 16 
Ratan) Hit) bainven |eorg186 5,429 5,762 | 5,479 | 4,910 
The above twenty items comprise 90 per cent. of all human industries, as re- 
gards products or manufactures, and therefore enable us to arrive at the exact 
variations of price-level for the whole world, that is the rise or fall in the purchasing 
power of gold since 1850, The result is as follows :— 
Years Years 
1841-50 . » é 100-0 1871-80. . . 105°7 
1851-60 . & ' 104-7 1881-84 . 5 c 94-7 
1861-70 . : : dilatel 
1 See History of Prices since 1850, by the same author (Longmans & Co.), 1885. 
