93 



compared with the centre gold and with the respective value- 

 orbits of silver, tin, wheat, and potatoes, because the experi- 

 ence of the producing industries of England and Tasmania 

 during the last ten years proves that one hand during a 

 year on the average can produce : — 



ACTUAL. 



EQUIVALENT EATIO 

 TONS. 



330 tons coal 234,800 



0-001405 of a ton of gold 1 



0-032 of a ton of silver 22-75 



2-001 tons tin (metal) 1,424 



9-52 tons wheat 6,776 



40-8 tons potatoes 29,040 



It is remarkable, notwithstanding the local differences of 

 market prices and rates of current wages of the different 

 industries, how closely the ratio of producing effort, taken 

 inversely, agrees with the ratios of the selling prices in the 

 English market. Any person who takes the trouble to 

 examine this matter closely must be convinced that it 

 amounts to a perfect demonstration that Cost of Production 

 is the Primaiy Law which determines and regulates Economic 

 Prices or Values, and that this law can alone account for the 

 remarkable permanence of the ratios of equivalent exchange 

 weights of the principal commodities in relation to gold and to 

 each other. 



It also alone satisfactorily accounts for the constancy or 

 varying eccentricities of value-orbits over long periods caused 

 by the rise, fall, or stationariness of prices of different 

 commodities. 



The True Cause of the Recent General Decline of Prices. 

 Persons who are unable to afford the time to give more 

 than a superficial examination of such an important economic 

 subject as the Recent G-eneral Decline of Prices in respect 

 of which we are constantly deluged with the controversies of 

 loose and inexperienced writers, may be apt to refer, without 

 sufficient reflection, certain effects to one out of several 

 possible causes. 



Uniform decline of Prices. 



For example, uniform decline of prices of commodities 

 might be produced by any one of four very different 

 conditions as follows : — 



(1.) By a uniform reduction in cost of producing various 

 commodities, with the exception of gold, whose 

 cost of production is assumed to remain un- 

 changed. 



