The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1896-09-28
sO-CAILED, ARE THE Low PRICES
OF GRAINS DUE, BY STATE
FIGURES
IN l.. G. POWERS NEW TABLES,
SHOWING VARIATIONS IN CROP
PRICES FOR FORTY YEARS,
MORE OR LESS.
LOCAL AND MERCANTILE CAUSES
Directly Responsible, He AfiirIns
Rather Than Amy Effect of Ma
tiORaI Legislation.

There has been issued from the press
a 160-page pamphlet on the rela-
ton of gold values to crop prices.
including statistics gathered and col
lected by the state bureau of labor
statistics, which is being used very liz
orally in the campaign work of the
sound money forces Commissioner
Powers introduces 1t thus:
The three general causes in the modern
world affecting prices, and thus also modify
ing and determining the purchasing power
of money and of gold,% its standard or COM
mon denominator of value, are these:
/. The varying cost of producing and trans
porting to the markets of the world the ar
2 Changes in the supply and demand for
those articles; and
8. Changes in the relative supply Of gold
and silver and the amount Of those metals
contained in represented by the unit OF
exchange.
Thus, between 1871 and 1852 the soveregns
of England reduced the silver in the coined
pound of exchange, and from 1883 to 1912 the
supply of precious metals in that country was
greatly incre ased by the floods of silver that
reached it from the mines of Mexico and
Peru. Before 1910 the average price of wheat
for 2S0 years had not been far from eighteen
cents a bushe. A century later it had so
risen that from 1850 to 1860 it $1.S4 a
bushel, or seven and a half times as great.
In the year 1851 1t was $212 bushel, or
nearly twelve times its earlier average In
preceding centuries. But not all Of this ad
vance was due to the debasement of the cur
rency and the food of silver from the New
World. The short supply of whe at IN the year
1861 greatly enhanced 'ts nrice and hence we
d d W tn the passage Of time fall, IN II In 1852
the price was only $1.3l bushel. Attention
is called to these facts of past price changes
to show how difficult it is to separate the
price movements due to the supply of the
precious metals and other currency changes
from those which result from wholly differ
ent causes.
1t is very easy to have a ready made the
DRY or explanation Of all price movements.
1t is difficult to investigate, weigh, and mea-
sure the varying effect of changed cost of
production and transportation and alterations
in the supply and demand of the various ar
ticles of commerce. Hence the disposition
to place a greater stress upon and assign
an undue Importance to changes in the sup
ply of gold and silver in establishing prices.
The question of varying supply and de-
mand and their relation to price changes has
been investigated by many persons. One Of
the first who by his studies has thrown much
light upon this subject was Gregory King,
who lived and labored in England about two
hundred years ago. Summing up the effect
OF changing supply before the advent of mod
to others he says:
I'VE take it, defect In the harvest may
raise the price Of corn in the following pro-
portion:
One-tenth defect, raises the price three
tenths above the common value.
Two-tenths defect, raises the price eight
Three-tenths defect, raises the price sixteen
tenths above the common value.
Four-tenths defect, raises the price twenty
eight-tenths above the common value.
Five-tenths defect, raises the price forty
hve-tenths above the common value
The law of King will find many illustra-
tons in the tables presented in this report,
which are nearly all compiled from the fig
ures gathered and published each year since
1862 by the United States department of ag-
riculture.
These statistics are not only given for the
nation as whole, but for certain groups of
states that are considered typical of the ag-
rlcul; ural industry in the different sections
Of the country. One general group consists
OF the ten states that occupy the great Up
per Mississippi valley. They are Ohio In
diana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, Mis-
souri,, Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska and Kan
The United States treasury department, on
page l16 OF the quarterly report of the bureau
OF statistics for 1879. gives the value Of
paper dollar in gold in the month of January
each year as follows. in cents:
1862 1863 1854 1866 1866 1867 1868 1869 1870