THE PRICE OF WHEAT 165 
ties’’ production in these countries progressed rapidly. 
With a relatively small density of population, the amount 
of wheat required for home consumption was not great, 
and consequently there was a large surplus for export 
to European countries and principally to England, 
where acute agricultural depression beginning in the 
“*seventies’’ was being experienced in the ‘‘eighties’’ and 
early ‘‘nineties.’’ With ever-increasing supplies brought 
to the English market from these countries, the most 
natural result was a fall in price. During the period 
the chief exporter of wheat to England was the United 
States, the imports of wheat from this country in 1870 
being 12,371,922 ewt., while in 1880 they had risen to 
29,634,820 ewt. The exports from the Argentine were 
also considerable, and those of Canada increasing, though 
the period of great development there did not commence 
until the beginning of the present century. New Zealand 
and Australian exports had also begun to exert an 
influence on the English wheat market, New Zealand, 
indeed, in the ‘‘eighties’’ having reached her maximum. 
The great increase in the importation of wheat into 
England is shown by the fact that, whereas in the decade 
1866-75 the average annual importation of wheat per 
head of the population was 134 lbs., during the decade 
1876-85 it was 180 lbs., and in the following decade it 
was 187 lbs. The absolute increase in importation is 
shown by the following short table :— 
TABLE XXIII. 
IMPORTS OF WHEAT INTO ENGLAND. 
(In Million Cwt..) 
Quinquennial Imports 
Period (Average Annual) 
1851-1855 58 
1856-1860 56 
1861-1865 69 
1866-1870 67 
1871-1875 87 
1876-1880 94 
