14 



Minnie TJiroop England 



Table Mil 

 IMinitiiiiiii Point After a Crisis 



II 



TPIE FALL OF PRICES 



What is it, then, that brings the upward movement to a halt? 

 Why do prices not keep on getting higher and higher, ad infin- 

 itnni? The explanation would be comparatively simple if it were 

 found that the order of decline was merely the same as that of the 

 inflation movement, viz., a fall of stock exchange prices and a 

 contraction of loans, followed by a decline of commodity prices. 

 The situation, however, is more complex. 



Comparing the movement of commodity prices and clearings, 

 it is found that in some cases commodity prices fall first, and 

 that at other times clearings decrease before prices. In the nine 

 crisis periods presented, prices fell first in four instances, clear- 

 ings first in four, and both together in the remaining crisis. On 

 the average, the movement of the two approximate each other : 

 in the United States the averages are the same : in England prices 

 fall three months after clearine"s. 



'Other securities. 



■The minimum point of stock exchange prices for the crisis of ISS-I- is 

 given as the crisis year hecause the lower points of 1 890-!)! are clearly 

 connected with the situation preliminary to the crisis of ISOH. 



54 



