The Indian WJieat Trade. 
63 
that we should compare our imports iu 18S1 with Indian 
exports for 1881-82, and so on with later years. In 1881, then, 
we imported from India 1,693,500 qrs. of wheat; in 1885, the 
year of maximum as far as English imports only are concerned, 
the quantity was 2,809,676 qrs. ; in 1886 it was 2,548,725 qrs. ; 
and in 1887 there was a fall to 1,963,637 qrs. In the following 
table these quantities appear with those from the other principal 
sources (flour in wheat equivalents included), each source of as 
much as a million quarters being named in the short list :— 
Wheat and Flouk imported to the United Kingdom. 
From 
1881 
1885 
1886 
1887 
United Slates .... 
Qr=. 
I,6;i3,560 
10,.')47,U-t 
947,147 
3,276,301 
Qrs. 
2,809,676 
8,98.5,730 
2,788,244 
4,175,.562 
Qrs. 
2,544,725 
8,983,880 
872,829 
2,782,664 
Qrs. 
1,963,637 
11,615,950 
1,282,312 
3,220,108 
16,464,162 
18,759,212 
15,184,098 
18,082,007 
These figures show that our receipts of wheat from India, 
■which in only one previous year had been as much as 5 per 
cent, of our total foreign supplies, rose to 10"3 percent, in 1881, 
to 15 per cent, in 1885, and to 16'7 per cent, in 1886. Surely 
such proportions are large enough to account for a great fall iu 
prices, considering that they represented receipts from a new 
source of supply. It is true that the proportion fell to i0"9 per 
cent, in 1887, when American supplies were unusually large 
and Russian contributions considerable ; but that was after 
prices had been brought down to an extremely low level, and is 
to be explained by the unusual deficiency of the crop of Indian 
wheat in 1887, following a crop below average in 1886. 
Moreover, we received more wheat from Russia on account 
of extensive Indian exports to Italy than would otherwise have 
come to 'us. During the three years between 1881 and 1885, 
for which the quantities of our imports of Indian wheat have 
not been given, they averaged 2,130,284 qrs. per annum, and 
since 1881, including the diminished receipts in 1887, the 
average has been 2,284,814 qrs. per annum. As we had not 
felt the want of these new supplies, there was no natural demand 
for them, except at the expense of other exporting countries ; 
and, as the other countries had prepared to meet our wants to 
the full, the large surplusage from India produced the effect 
always to be expected from a glut in the markets. 
The full effect of the Indian supplj^ upon prices, however, 
already intimated, is only to be estimated by considering 
