Prices of Commodities during last Seven Years ( 1886 - 92 ). 397 
lating to the various articles are added together, and the total is 
divided by the number of articles. The following is an example 
for 1892 
Total numbers Average 
Vegetable food, corn, &c. (wheat, 
flour, barley, oats, maize, pota- 
toes, and rice) .... With 8 Index Nos. 523 65 
Animal food (beef, mutton, pork, 
bacon, and butter) . . . „ 7 „ „ 586 84 
General average, including 
materials . . . . „ 45 „ „ 3,071 68 
The index number 68 indicates, therefore, that the prices of the 
45 commodities in 1892 (see Table II.) were on the average 32 per 
cent, below the standard period from 1867-77. 
Prices in 1892. 
Seven years have elapsed since my index numbers of the prices 
of commodities first appeared in the Journal of the Royal Statistical 
Society , seven years of profound moment in the history of trade, 
comprising times of great activity and of great depression, whilst 
now complaints are again prevalent, as in 1 886, and the battle of the 
standards is still receiving universal attention. The present time 
seems, therefore, to be a suitable one to give a retrospect of the 
movements during this epoch. 
Before entering, however, upon a full review of the whole epoch 
I will make a few remarks as to the course of prices during the 
past year. 
The index number for all commodities was 68, or 4 points lower 
than in the previous year, though on a very close calculation the 
difference would have been slightly less (1892=68*2, 1891 = 71*6, 
1890=71*7, 1889=72*3). The fall in the prices of materials during 
1891 had not affected the general index number, as it had been 
balanced by a corresponding rise of corn, but as the latter lost the 
whole of this rise in 1892, while the fall of materials continued, the 
index number receded to 68, being on a par with 1887, the lowest 
on record. The various articles comprised in the group of corn 
declined almost uninterruptedly during the past year, until at the 
end of December English wheat had fallen to 25s. 8 d. per quarter 
(and 24s. 8c7. in March, 1893), the lowest price known for the last 
100 or 130 years. The middling and inferior sorts of beef and 
mutton 1 were depressed, particularly towards the end of the year, 
but pork, owing to the great decrease in the number of pigs in this 
country, ruled distinctly higher than in 1891. Textiles, which fell 
1 The index numbers for meat in my tables do not include inferior sorts, 
for which the decline as compared with 1867-77 is much greater ; in 1892 the 
average price of inferior beef was 27 d. per 8 lb., and of inferior mutton 30 d., 
against 43 d. and 46 d. respectively from 1867-77, showing a decline of 36 per 
cent., and at these prices large quantities of good imported meat were sold. 
The prices of live cattle were excessively low in the latter part of the year. 
