Vol. VI, No. 3.] The Rupee and Indian Prices. 129 



[N.S.] 



would carry us altogether beyond the scope of the present paper, 

 in which we have merely tried to indicate the larger and more 

 permanent forces at work. The financial crisis was overcome 

 by the drastic action of the Secretary of State during the year 

 1908. The general crisis produced by the failure of the mon- 

 soon of 1907 has now passed with the favourable crop returns 

 of the present year, and prices have accordingly become easier. 

 There is absolutely no reason, however, to infer that the larger 

 influences we have indicated are no longer at work, and it ap- 

 pears highly improbable that, even with plentiful supplies, 

 prices will fall below the level which prevailed at the beginning 

 of the period. Apart from all other causes — and there are 

 doubtless many — a period of exceptional trade activity must 

 spell rising prices of food-grains because it gives free play to 

 that natural adjustment we have already indicated in the 

 proportional prices of raw materials and manufactures as be- 

 tween the manufacturing countries on the one hand and, on the 

 other, the agricultural countries with which they trade. 



