﻿WAR BORROWING

166

Month	Wholesale	Retail Food
i —  January 		[1913= 100]  	 18s	160
February 			 187	l6l
March 			 188	154
April 			 191	154
May 			 191	158
June 			 193	162
July 			 198	167
August 			I7'I
September 			 2078	178

It appears from the above that wholesale prices
began to rise in the mid-summer of 1915, that the
upward movement continued steadily through the
first six months of 1916, that thereafter it proceeded
with great violence until the summer of 1917 when,
after a period of stability tending to slight recession,
the upward tendency resumed early in 1918 and
thereafter developed with increasing momentum.
In the case of retail prices there has been the cus-
tomary “ lag.” The earlier, more gradual rise con-
tinued through the autumn of 1916, the sharp up-
ward movement extended for some months beyond
the mid-summer of the same year, and the period
of comparative stability and recession continued
through the early spring of 1918.

Concentrating attention upon that period of our
war borrowing for which data are at this time avail-
able— May, 1917, through September, 1918 — it
appears that for the first seven months (May-De-
cember, 1917) wholesale prices were subject to nar-
row fluctuations and underwent no eventual change,
and for the second nine months (December, 1917—-

8	Preliminary.