544 



KEPOKT — 1887. 



Banffshire oats and beef, and taking the result of 1850 as the standard, 

 we have these results : — 



1846 

 1850 

 I860 

 1870 



173 



155 

 126 



Taking the fiars of the five counties I have referred to, we have the 

 following results : — 



These are startling results viewed alone, but they are far from singu- 

 lar. Take other commodities, and assuming the prices of 1873 as the 

 standard, we have these results : — 



Agricultural produce has fallen along with other commodities, and the 

 dealers in other commodities must have suffered along with agriculturists. 

 Nor is it difficult to discover in the case of agriculture the proximate 

 cause of this fall. In 1870 there were 88,000,000 acres under wheat in 

 the United States ; in 1884, 157,000,000. India in the same period in- 

 creased from 18,000,000 to 25,000,000. Id Europe the acreage in 1870 

 was 440,000,000 acres ; in 1884, 482,000,000 ; between 1869 and 1879 

 production of Europe doubled ; in 1869-70 the importations into Europe 

 represented 82,000,OOOZ. ; in 1879 they were 163,400,000Z. The same 

 liberal supply of other commodities enriched the world, and the world 

 ought to have been rejoicing in bounteous plenty. Why its joy should 

 be turned into sorrow is a question, therefore, which interests commerce 

 not less than agriculture. 



But there is another lesson which these statistics of price convey, 

 which many are very slow to learn from them. The system of long leases 

 in Scotland at any rate proceeds, as I have said, on the idea of purchase 

 and sale. A man takes his lease for nineteen years for better or for worse. 

 Suppose him to have done so nineteen years ago — in 1867 — he must have 

 fixed the rent with the result of, say, the five previous years before him, to 



