832 KEPORT— 1887. 



Fresh supplies of gold would, in the first instance, come to London, hut would 

 very soon he exported to the countries which wish to increase their stock of it. If 

 the increased supplies were continued on a large scale for several years a time 

 would come when these demands would be satisfied. If no fresh countries decided 

 to obtain gold, gold would begin to accumulate in the Bank of England, and then, 

 and not till then, would money prices begin to be raised by the addition to the 

 world's stock of the precious metals. 



Changes in money prices are always an evil, and it is uncertain whether a rise 

 or a fall is the worst. In any case attempts to alter them by Government inter- 

 ference are purely mischievous. 



5. Graphic Illustrations of the Fall of Prices in Belgium, France, and 

 England. By Professor Denis. 



6. Effective Consumpiimi and Effective Prices in their Economical and 

 Statistical Relations. By Hyde Clarke, F.S.S. 



The author began by defining that tbe present paper had no connection with his 

 papers on prices and depression of prices consequent on the operation of industrial 

 inventions, read before this Section and other societies. He had latterly been in- 

 duced to call attention to the statistical discrepancies between the figures of the 

 importation of commodities derived from the Board of Trade returns and those of 

 actual consumption. 



These discrepancies arose from the substitution for the imported commodity by 

 the retailer of other commodities, perhaps of home production. Thus the figures 

 of imports would not show the real consumption or the price which affected the 

 consumers. A decrease of the import might not signify a diminished demand for 

 the retail article. The same distiu-hance aflects home production. If a town 

 consumed and paid for 100,000 gallons of beer, it might be supplied with 100,000 

 gallons li'om the breweries, or 75,000 gallons from the breweries and 25,000 

 gallons of water substituted by the publicans. The consumers would pay the 

 same, but the brewers would get money for 75,000 gallons only, and the publicans 

 for 25,000 gallons besides their retail charges on 100,000 gallons. In the case of 

 coffee, that consumed is sometimes the reverse of coffee, as it may consist of 90 per 

 cent, of chicory, ground date and olive stones, &c., and only 10 per cent, of coffee. 

 To ascertain the positive consumption of a worlring man it was not sufScient to 

 assume that he had so many pounds of butter, beer, tea, coffee, &c., when a portion 

 consists of water, butterine, chicory, bullock's liver, &c. The matter to be 

 considered is not strictly adulteration in a sanitary sense, but the substitution of 

 one article for another and the statistical consequences. The increased consump- 

 tion of strong Indian tea has enabled the retailers to cover the substitution of 

 inferior mixtures for tea. The purchasing power of the community has no 

 immediate dependence on the conditions of importation, but rather on that of the 

 article presented by the retailer. If coffee is retailed at 20c?. a pound the value of 

 the realcofl'ee used may be 2d. and the whole cost of the article or?. Consequently 

 importation and consumption do not exactly represent each other. The author 

 enumerated many articles which are subject to the operation of substitutes, includ- 

 ing heer, spirits, wine, vinegar, tea, butter, tobacco, soap, bread, milk, pepper, 

 mustard, oil. Water figures largely in the operation of substitution. Even in the 

 case of tobacco the revenue authorities recognise added water to the extent of 33 

 per cent., so that a pound of tobacco may represent two-thirds weight of tobacco 

 and one-third weight of water. Soaps may be made to absorb 40 per cent, of 

 water. His purpose was to invite closer attention to retail consumption and prices 

 as statistical bases. 



