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CHAPTER XI.—AGRICULTURAL PRICES. 
Statistical records of the prices of the principal farm products 
have been collected by the Ministry of Agriculture since 1904. 
Earlier records of wholesale food prices back to 1846 were com- 
piled by Sauerbeck, and have been continued by the Statist, 
while statistics collected by Jevons covered the period 1785 to 
1865. Other records of wholesale food prices have been prepared 
by the Board of Trade and by the Hconomist. There is thus a 
fairly complete record of the movement of agricultural prices up 
to 1904, and a more detailed record thereafter. Index numbers 
based on the prices collected by the Ministry have been worked 
out for the years since 1906; the average prices in the three 
years 1911-13 have been taken as a base and corresponding 
prices in other years are expressed as percentages above or below 
the prices ruling in the base vears.* 
The fifty-five years which have elapsed since 1870 may be 
divided into five periods—namely, 1870-1896, 1896-1914, 1914 
1920, 1920-1923 and 1923-1925—each of which was characterised 
by distinct price movements. In the first (1870-1896) prices 
were falling, subject to an interruption between 1886 and 1891, 
and farming suffered a prolonged depression; in the second 
(1896-1914) prices were rising slowly, accompanied by a gradual 
revival of agriculture; in the third (1914-1920) prices were 
rising very fast and agriculture experienced a short period of 
great prosperity; in the fourth (1920-1923) prices were falling 
* In order to prevent misconception it may be well to explain here 
that these index numbers are based on the average of the weekly prices 
of the principal articles sold off the farm as ascertained by the Ministry’s 
Market Reporters and published in the Agricultural Market Report. In 
most cases the prices used in the calculations are those for second quality, 
which is taken as a fair indication of the average of all qualities. The 
prices used are market prices, without any deductions for carriage or 
other costs of marketing, as it is not until the supplies are at the market 
that they are on an equal footing, and it is only from this starting point 
that the price movement can be compared with the pre-war position. 
The actual prices, on which the annual index numbers for the years 
1906-24 are based, are given in Table 36 of Part IIT of the Agricultural 
Statistics, 1924, and for 1925 in the corresponding Report for that year. 
In calculating the general index numbers for all commodities a suitable 
allowance is made for their relative importance. For instance, more 
weight 18 given to livestock and milk than to corn, because, on the 
average, livestock and milk bulk more largely in the farmers’ receipts 
than corn. The weights applied to each commodity are given in 
Table 37 of Part TIL of the Agricultural Statistics, 1924. Individual 
farmers or groups of farmers wi naturally be affected in different degrees 
according to the crops or livestock which they produce. The general 
index number is a measure only of the general change in price level, and 
not of changes in gross receipts of farmers, as these are affected by the 
changes in the output of different years as well as in prices.