The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1916-11-14
COMMODITY PRICES
GO UP WORLD OVER
Statement by National City Bank of
New York Shows Increases of SO
to 80 Per Cent.

NEW YORK, Nov. IA. = Prices in
foreign countries continue to advance
just the same as in the United States.
and for the same reason. A compilation
by the foreign trade department OF the
National City bank Of New York, issued
yesterday, showed that prices abroad
on a large percentage of the articles i'm
ported into the United States had ad-
vanccd greatly since the outbreak Of the
European war. The compilation, which
covered q considerable variety of ar
ticles, including f0odstuffs, manufactur-
ing materials, and manufactures, showed
that the most striking advances had oc-
CURED i'll foodstuffs and manufacturing
materials.
You would scarcely expect, said
the bank $ statement, - that the natives
Of Haiti and Jamaica, which furnish
most Of our logwood, could be SO fully
onto the situation as to demand, and
get, three times the price per ton foc
their logwood as they did before the
war, but they are demanding it and get
ting il. The indigo growers and mer-
chants of India, Java, and San Saliva
dor are demanding and getting ten
times as much per pound for indigo as
they did before the war. Chinese and
japanese silk growers are getting dou-
bic the prices prevailing prior TO war,
and fresh eggs crash into the United
States at double the prices of two years
ago. \ recent statement by the Ameri-
can consul general at Paris indicates
that the imports OF France in 1916 en-
ter that country al prices about 80 per
t,rIn
exports leave that country M prices
about 80 per cent above those Of 1911
The prices shown are those of the
articles in the whnlcsatp markets Of the
countries from which the merchandise
is imported into the United States, or
the actual selling price in the country
from which the expectation occurs. The
advance in the import price, therefore,
does not include the advance cost added
through the unusually high ocean
freight rates. This general advance is
the more striking when it is remembered
/ that large proportion OF the merchan-
disc imported into the United States is
drawn from several different countries,
and the increase in the average import
price therefore represents the average
price increase he world over.
Among the advances taking place the
past two years, as enumerated by the
bank, were India rubber, 80 per cent {:
goat skins, slightly more than 50 per
cent; copper, from II cents to 32 cents
per pound; pigiron, from $3.50 to
Sl0l.32 per ton; tin plate, from 3.2 cents
to ll.2 cents per pound; raw silk, which
Il year ago vas exported to this country
ct S2.7&. is now $4.67 per pound; chenli
cal wood pulp, unbleaehcd, from $685.
to 54o.TS per ton, and blcached wood
pulp, from $49.2n to $s5.1s per ton.
Combing wool, which was exported to
America al an average OF 24.4 cents q
pound III the month before the war, was
31.9 cents in July last, while carpet wool
jumped from lG.7 cents per pound to
23.4 cents in August, 1916.
Among the food supplies named as
coming III for stiff advances were maca.
roni, cocoa, currants, sugar mackerel
cheese and eggs. The dependence of
this country on China for eggs was
shown by statistics prepared by the
bank. The importation of eggs alone
from China in the fiscal year 1915 was
2,o35, 1862 dozen, and in 1914, /, S7j. .365
dozen. This did not include the volks
of eggs and frozen eggs, OF which the
ilmportations from China in 1915 were
,O67 ,OS5 pounds, the total value of eggs
imported from China and Hongkong in
1919 being nearly $1,000,000.