170 WHEAT PRODUCTION IN NEW ZEALAND 
When such an increase of production is considered, 
it is not surprising that wheat prices did not rise to 
the same level as general prices. What is, on the surface, 
surprising, is that prices rose at all. The phenomenon 
is interesting from the point of view of monetary theory, 
and is another link—an insignificant one—in the already 
long chain of statistical evidence in support of the 
classical quantity theory of money. 
8. Price of New Zealand Wheat. 
Changes in local prices are not the result of economic 
causes operating within the Dominion only. Reference 
must constantly be made to the operation of certain 
factors, the influence of which pervades the whole 
economic world. Therefore, reference will have to be 
made to some ground already covered in the discussion 
of English prices, but local conditions will be emphasised, 
as these are of greater relative importance in the 
explanation of fluctuations, especially in the early history 
of prices. 
In Chapter I. we have already discussed the question 
of fluctuations within the year, that is, seasonal fluctu- 
ations, over a period of sixteen years, and a well-defined 
seasonal movement was found. This question does not 
require further elucidation here, and we may pass on 
to a consideration of annual fluctuations and an attempt 
to discover certain well-defined periods in these. To 
these topics we shall confine our attention in discussing 
the course of wheat prices in New Zealand. 
Although great fluctuations occurred throughout the 
period, and more especially during the ‘‘sixties’’ and 
“‘seventies,’’ certain periods of rising and falling prices 
can be discerned, and these coincide with similar move- 
ments in English prices. 
(a) 1860-78. Slightly Rising Prices.— During the 
“‘sixties’’? price changes were frequent and of great 
