Manchester Memoirs, Vol. xli. (1897), No. 12. 3 



to 93i, and in January, 1897, the two are coincident 

 at 96*4. The movements are shown in Plate 13. 



A similar treatment of Sauerbeck's Index for 45 

 commodities shows even less divergence between the 

 results of the two calculations. The fall to 1886 is from 

 37 % above of the original, 41 % of the modified index 

 in 1876. After 1886 the modified number keeps very 

 slightly above the original, reaching 106 as contrasted 

 with 105 in 1889 and falling to 89*4 as contrasted with 

 88'4 in 1896. The movements are shown in Plate 13. 

 • It is to be noticed that, though the Economist 

 number and that of Mr. Sauerbeck indicate practically 

 the same movement from 1877 to 1886, the subsequent 

 movement shows a constantly lower level of price in the 

 latter estimate than in the former. The last ten years 

 have experienced, according to the Economist number, a 

 considerable rise and a subsequent fall to very little below 

 the original level ; but, according to Mr. Sauerbeck, the 

 rise was not great, and the level subsequently reached is 

 substantially lower than that of 1886. 



Neither of these index numbers makes any very 

 systematic allowance for the greater importance of 

 changes of price in some than of those in other 

 commodities, beyond allowing more than one quotation 

 to enter in some cases, as, for example, in the Economist 

 number, where two quotations of raw cotton, cotton yarn 

 and cotton cloth all enter and thus permit the variations 

 of cotton prices to exercise a large influence on the final 

 total. If we may regard the quotations used as fair 

 samples of the price movements of groups of commodities 

 of tolerably equal importance, of the changes in which 

 the quoted price serves as a tolerably accurate measure, 

 this circumstance will be of little moment. So slight 

 has the difference been between these simple averages 

 and what are called weighted means, where each quotation 



