830 REPORT—1899. 
and 1891, and the present investigation is in part complementary to Mr. Bowley's 
work, The method of arrangement, however, is different from his, as he measured 
wages in industries, whereas wages are in this instance measured in towns, The 
year 1840 has been taken as 100, and the averages are simple arithmetical averages 
of the figures collected. Twenty-three towns are selected, and the wages for at 
least thirty-five separate industries are to be found in the tables on which the 
calculations are based. The index number so obtained is as follows :— 
1790 | 1795 | 1800 | 1805 1810 | 1816 | 1820 1824 | 1831 | 1840 | 18 | 1880 | 3855 | 1860 
72 82 93 | 104 122 115 109 112 103 | 100 | 99 | 102 116 | 116 
To solve the problem of real wages it is necessary to have an index number of 
retail prices, and one has been calculated, being the average course of retail prices 
in ten large towns corrected by the average cost of articles composing a typical 
workman’s budget of the period 1831. The index number of retail prices and 
Jevons’s Index number of wholesale prices for the same period are :— 
| 
a al 1800/1805 1810)1816)1820/1824|1831)1840/1845|1850)1855|1860 
| 
Index number—Retail prices . | 74 | 101) 130|134/140|121/ 117] 102] 96 |{QQ/ 93 | 92 | 102] 99 
Jevons’s number — Wholesale | | 
prices Oey ee ny thy ete 2 140 | 163} 105 | 116 | 101} 94 100, 85 | 73 | 92 | 91 
With these numbers as the basis of the calculation, the variations of real 
wages over the period are :— 
| | 
} 
Se 1790 1795)1800 1805)1810/1816 1820\1824 1831 ie4olis4s 1850/1855)1860 
ER AES 1 (A PS BI PE BINS ng Ss 
1 by Index number of retail 
prices » + 6 « . | 96} 81] 71 | 77 | 87 | 94 | 92 | 108} 108/4QQ) 106 | 110} 114} 116 
2 by Jevons’s number of wholesale | 
prices ° 2 tein bE . | 72 | 61] 57 | 74 | 75 |109| 94 | 111 110)100) 116 | 137 | 126 | 127 
The figures obtained by using Jevons’s number are given to show what would 
have been the variations in purchasing power of wages if prices paid by the wage- 
earner varied directly with the course of wholesale prices, as compared with what 
were the actual variations as shown by the index number denoting the course of 
retail prices. Over the whole period the net gain in real wages was 20 per cent., 
but the gain denoted by use of Jevons’s number is 76 per cent., showing that the 
use of wholesale price index numbers when calculating real wages, or variations 
on purchasing power of money wages, is not justifiable, as it does not represent 
the actual variations on prices paid by the consumer. 
3. The Regulation of Wages by Lists in the Spinning Industry. 
By 8. J. Cuapman. 
The Paper dealt briefly with the following subjects :— 
1. The origin and development of lists in the spinning industry. 
2. The difference in the structure of the various lists in use, and in the results 
given by each. 
3. The mode of applying the lists. 
4. The scope of the lists, possibilities of further development, and the proposed 
universal list. 
5. The adoption of the system of lists in other branches of the cotton industry. 
The object of the Paper was to supplement the information about spinning lists 
already given in the British Association Report on the subject in 1887, 
1 Report, 1898, p. 970. 
