Manchester Memoirs, Vol. xli. (1897), No. 12. 9 



was £14. 12s., of exports £9. 12s. If the Economist 

 changes of price be relied upon, the average level of price 

 of imports for the last five years is about 15% below that 

 of 1886, of exports hardly 2% below. The value at the 

 average prices of 1892-96 of the ton of goods of 1886 

 would therefore be, for imports £12. 8s., and £9. 8s. for 

 exports. The actual average value has been about £14 

 and £8. us. respectively, thus indicating goods of greater 

 value in the same bulk in the later imports than in those 

 of 1886, and the contrary with exports as already con- 

 cluded by the former mode of argument. 



But there is another feature besides this. The average 

 price per lb of cotton yarns and twist exported in 1883-4-5 

 was, roughly, one shilling. For the last three years it has 

 been, roughly, gjd., a fall of fully 20%. Now, this may 

 be a real fall of price of yarns of similar quality and fine- 

 ness ; it may be, and, I believe, to some extent is, something 

 more than that. If the yarns exported to-day are of finer 

 counts than those of a dozen years ago, the price corre- 

 sponding to yarns such as are now sent abroad would have 

 been something over a shilling, say, for example, 14 pence. 

 The actual fall of price should therefore be regarded as 

 something over 30 % in place of 20 %, on the basis of the 

 assumed figure. Were we able to estimate the yarns 

 exported, not simply as grey and bleached and dyed, or, as 

 was done before 1889, merely as one undistinguished mass, 

 but by the weight of each count included in that mass, the 

 figure of price-variation, if my hypothesis be correct, would 

 have fallen more than that resulting from the Economist 

 calculations. Similarly, if the imports include now goods 

 of lower qualities than formerly, but called by the same 

 name, the prices resulting from considering the quantity 

 and value of the various headings of imports should show 

 a greater fall than has actually occurred in prices, and 

 than would be shown if we were able to distinguish and 



