Delmar.] 664: [Jan. 15, 



Prices. 

 Tho average of the prices of graiu and meat in all the 49 departments 

 of Spain in the month of July, 1874, is shown in the following table from 



the Oaceta de Madrid : 



Average Prices in all the Provinces of Spain, July, 1874. 



Wheat, {Trigo) per bushel, |1.57^ 



Barley, (Oebada) " .94 



Hye, (Ceideno) " 100 



Maize, (Maiz) " 1.14 



Eice, (Arros) per pound, .05|^ 



Large Chick Peas, {Qarbanzos) " .06 



Mutton, ( Carnero) " .10 



Beef, {Vaca) " .11^ 



Bacon, {Tocino) " .16^ 



Maximum and Minimum Prices in Various Provinces. 

 Wheat, maximum • per bushel, $3.73 



" minimum " .91|^ 



Barley, maximum " 1.49 



" minimum " .50 



It is not explained how these prices are determined, nor whether they 

 are wholesale or retail ; but I take it they are determined by public sales 

 at market towns and at wholesale. The difference in prices in the vari- 

 ous provinces, ranging from 91^c. to |2.73 per bushel for wheat, and 50c. 

 to $1.49 per bushel for barley, show that, notwithstanding numerous 

 railways, there still exist in Spain obstacles to the mobilization of bread- 

 stuffs which should demand the serious attention of the Government. It 

 can hardly be due merely to the cost of transportation by railway that 

 wheat and barley are three times as high in one province as another, and 

 the tables published every month in the Gaceta show this to be the case, 

 more or less, throughout many years. Spain is an extensive country, and 

 as yet comparatively destitute of water-ways and other cheap modes of 

 carriage. Still, 500 miles by rail will carry a bushel of wheat from one 

 end of the country to the other, and unless the extreme prices quoted 

 are in places as yet remote from the established railway lines, or octroi 

 duties hinder the free circulation of commodities, I am at a loss to account 

 for the disparities shown in the prices of the principal edibles. 



Commercial Policy — Corn Laws — Tariff.'^, etc. 



The severe restrictions which formerly characterized the Spanish com- 

 mercial policy have been much modified of late years. 



Until 1865 the exportation of breadstuffs, with occasional excep- 

 tions at long intervals, was prohibited, except to the colonies. (U. S. 

 Com. Rel., 1866, p. 215.) I find, however, that in 1860, 1861 and 1862 

 there were, comparatively speaking, considerable exports of grain and 

 flour from Spain to England, and I infer from this that the harvests of 



