The Indian Wlieat Trade. 
the quantities sent to Europe. Xow, during tlie six years 
ending with 1886-87, the average of those quantities exceeded 
4,000,000 qrs. per annum. In proportion to the total wheat 
supply of Europe, the quantity is a small one ; but it is a very- 
large one to come on top of supplies already ample. It is im- 
portant to notice that the period of the commencement of large 
exports of wheat from India to Europe was also the time at 
which wheat-production in the United States reached its maxi- 
mum. In the three years following 1881 the quantity of wheat 
produced in the country last named was greater than it had 
been in any three previous years, or has been in the three 
succeeding years. Therefore there could not have been a time 
when the opening of a new source of wheat supply for Europe 
would have had a greater effect upon prices. 
As the whole of continental Europe imports considerably 
less wheat and flour from outside countries than the United 
Kingdom alone, the proportion of the Indian contribution to 
the total European supply is larger than it has been shown to 
be in the case of this country, and has, consequently, a greater 
effect upon prices. Therefore, even if our receipts of Indian 
wheat should continue to decline, it will not be right to assume 
that the efiect of exports from India is diminished, unless 
the quantities received in continental Europe also fall off. In 
1882-83 India sent only 40,630 qrs. of wheat to Italy; whereas 
in 1886-87 the quantity was 1,202.810 qrs. There has been an 
annual increase during the period ; but more than three-fourths 
of the augmentation occurred in the last year, when our receipts 
from India fell off. The explanation, as is pretty generally 
known, is that Indian wheat has been found peculiarly well 
fitted for the manufacture of macaroni and other pates alimen- 
taires. For the same reason France has increased her consump- 
tion of Indian wheat, though not to the same extent as Italy. 
It is scarcely necessary to say that I do not attribute the 
whole of the great fall in the price of wheat to the supplies 
from India. The fall has been general, nearly all commodities 
having been subjected to it, and no one could expect wheat to 
be an exception. But the fall in the price of that grain has 
been much in excess of the general fall in values, and the ex- 
cessive depreciation, I believe, has been principally caused by 
the great increase in the exports of wheat from India to Europe. 
How that increase itself is to be accounted for, in the face of 
falling prices, is a question to be discussed hereafter. It is 
contended by some persons that the fall in prices has been 
occasioned Ijy the diminished expense of producing and export- 
ing wheat ; but the explanation is obviously insufficient, because 
the combined sayings refeiTed to are certainly not equal to the 
