APPENDIX 259 
decline of from £40 to £50 in the income of every family of five in the 
Commonwealth. This may convey some idea of the magnitude of the 
disaster. Mr. J. M. Keynes has said: ‘The fall in wholesale prices of 
rawmaterials has now taken on the character of a world-wide disaster. 
The storm centres are to be found neither in Great Britain nor in the 
United States, but in the great producers of raw materials overseas. 
For great areas are being reduced to very serious distress by the 
combined circumstances of a fall in the prices for their chief products 
and the difficulty of obtaining funds on the International Money 
Market.” What the future holds is beyond the skill of any man to 
foretell ; the legacy of the past as far as Australia is concerned can 
be read in part within these covers. 
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