704 REPORT— 1902. 



of arable into pasture laud, and that this was entailed by Free Trade. The 

 emigration statistics show how rapidly this depopulation took place. From 1851 

 to 1860 the emigrants from Ireland numbered 1,163,418; 1861-70, 849,836; 

 1871-80, 623,933; 1881-90,770,706; 1891-1900,433,526; a total from 1851 to 

 1900 of 3,841,419, consisting of 2,013,344 males and 1,838,075 females. The 

 large majority of these emigrants were young, strong, and enterprising — ^just the 

 class which it is most desirable to keep at home. Thus in 1900, 82-3 per cent, 

 were between the ages of 15 and 35. It would be difficult to estimate the 

 national loss caused by this vast emigration, which is still going on, though not 

 quite so rapidly. Not only has wheat almost ceased to be grown, but the acreage 

 under tlax, formerly a most profitable crop, has greatly diminished, owing to the 

 free importation of flax from Belgium and other countries. It may be said that 

 this is good for the linen trade, but that is doubtful. The trade is not as prosperous 

 as it was, and it depends for its existence almost on the steady supply of imported 

 flax. 



The loss inflicted on Ireland by the destruction of a large part of its cereal 

 and flax-growing industry has not been compensated by gain in other directions. 



The revenue from the export of cattle has not increased to an extent at all 

 corresponding to the loss from the causes mentioned. In England, though agri- 

 culture is depressed, manufactures have flourished. It has not been so in Ireland. 

 Her agriculture has been ruined, and her manufactures, except in Belfast, have 

 not increased. 



The suggestion that a remedy should be sought for in a moderate measure of 

 Protection is not outrageous. Reflection on our national weakness due to the 

 dependence of the people for their food-supplies on imports from foreign countries 

 has stimulated the tendency to look towards Protection, and that tendency 

 ought also to be increased by a consideration of the state of Ireland. In Ireland 

 the work of the rent-fixing courts, and the creation by the Land Purchase Acts 

 of a peasant proprietary on a large scale, would enable tliose who are actually 

 engaged in agriculture to enjoy the prosperity which a moderate measure of 

 Protection would aflbrd. 



4. The Instability of Prices in India before 1861. 

 By Professor T. Morison, M.A. 



It has been asserted that prices have been more stable in India than in Europe. 

 The object of this paper is to show, by the publication of price-lists for the earlier 

 years of the nineteenth century, that the tendency <>f prices in India has 

 been from irregularity to stability ; that the prices before 1861 fluctuated violently 

 and irregularly ; and that as means of communication improved, and as India came 

 under the influence of Western trade, prices became comparatively stable. 



Table I. gives the prices of wheat at eight diflerent centres in Hohilkhand and 

 the Doab — that is to say, in a comparatively small area of the N.W. Provinces 

 of India — from 1803 to 1860. Table II. gives the available prices for barley, and 

 Table III. for bajra. The price of wheat in Bareilly is represented by a price- 

 curve from 1805 to 1899. This curve shows that before 1861 the price of wheat 

 fluctuated violently, on five several occasions the difference of price within the 

 space of one year being over 20 seers ; the lowest price recorded in tlie centurj^ ia 

 73 seers to the rupee (in 1815), and five years later (1820) the price had risen 

 (temporarily) to 18 seers to the rupee. The fluctuations in the price of the coarser 

 grains, the staple food of the people, are even more e.xtravagant ; there seems to 

 have been no such thing as a normal price for barley or bajra. The extreme limits 

 t)f variation for barley are 120 seers to the rupee in 1829, and 28 seers (ten 

 years later) in 1839; for the decade 1809-1818 the prices are 51, 57, 110, 95, 53, 

 96, 113, 87, 66, and 34 seers to the rupee. But, great as are these fluctuations, 

 they do not in all probability represent the full extent of the actual variations, 

 for these prices are the average prices of the year ; and we know, from the differ- 

 ence between harvest prices and annual prices, that the fluctuations within the 

 twelvemonth were hardly less surprising. 



