402 Prices of Commodities during last Seven Yews ( 1886 - 92 ). 
and in the first part of the year great fears were entertained as to 
the effect of the McKinley tariff, which was almost prohibitive to 
European manufactures. 
Towards the middle of the year the difficulties of the Argentine 
Government became more apparent, and in October and November 
there was a great fall in American railways. On November 14 the 
firm of Messrs. Baring applied to the Bank of England for assistance. 
This is usually called the Baring crisis, and it might have been of 
the most serious consequences had it not been happily met by the 
prompt action of the Bank, and the arrangement of a guarantee 
fund for the enormous liabilities of the firm. 
Trade had become worse, not only under the pressure of the 
financial difficulties, but as a natural reaction from a period of 
prosperity in which everything had been overdone. In 1891 the 
European export trade suffered greatly from the effects of the new 
American tariff, from the shrinkage of the South American demand, 
the fall of silver, and the unsatisfactory conditions of business in 
the East. Affairs in Argentina and Uruguay went from bad to 
worse, and there was in addition the war in Chili, and the crises in 
Portugal and Brazil. The most important event of the year, however, 
excepting the great losses of investors, was the failure of the French 
and Russian crops, and the famine in Russia, simultaneous with a 
large American harvest. Corn rose considerably, and in Berlin rye 
ruled even higher than wheat in October. Materials, on the other 
hand, of which the production had been greatly increased, fell 
heavily. The general commercial depression continued with un- 
abated force in 1892, and an agricultural depression was added. 
England was particularly unfortunate, as in conjunction with de- 
clining values of corn the harvest was a bad one, and cattle had to 
be slaughtered and sold at excessively low prices. Of other causes 
unfavourably affecting trade, we may mention various strikes, the 
outbreak of cholera on the Continent, the crisis in Australia, and 
the uncertainty of the future of silver. 
The average prices of the seven years were distinctly below the 
average of the preceding decades ; but there is one point which on 
a close comparison of the tables may nevertheless afford some con- 
solation if not satisfaction. The increase in production from 1879 
to 1883 was very large indeed, and prices declined heavily from 
1880 to 1887, but although in the last five or seven years there was 
again a very great increase in production, and although some com- 
modities have been even cheaper than in 1886 or 1887, still the 
average of all commodities has not sunk materially below the 1887 
level. It would therefore appear that the effect of quantities on 
general prices has in the latter period been rather less decisive than 
in the former. 
The Causes of the Fall, and the Monetary Question. 
The general causes that have contributed to the fall of prices as 
compared with the period from 1867-77, and up to 1886, had been 
stated in my former paper as follows : — 
