INTRODUCTION
place among the exports, and this would have been of comparatively
small importance had it not been for one great market (China).
9. We thus see that the increasing variety of commodities entering
into commerce is in a great measure an increase in the commoner
articles of consumption. To get an idea of the extent of the variety
that has been attained through the gigantic and complicated commerce
of the present day, there is no better method than to examine the price-
list of one of the great miscellaneous retail shops now so common.
10. The equalising tendency of commerce has already been inci-
dentally illustrated by the reduction of price of tropical commodities
just referred to ; but this tendency needs a little further elucidation,
The tendency may be described, first, as one towards equality of
prices from year to year—in other words, to stability of prices ; a ten-
dency manifested most conspicuously in the case of those commodities
the supply of which in any particular region, apart from commerce, is
largely dependent on the weather. Between 1641 and 1741 the price
of wheat per quarter in England oscillated between 23s. and 76s. ; in
the period from 1741 to 1841, between 22s. and 129s., the highest prices
being reached during the period of the Napoleonic wars ; in the period
1842 to 1883 the limits of oscillation were only 39s. and 75s., the
latter figure being reached only during the Crimean war.
11. But the tendency of which we are now speaking is, secondly, a
tendency towards equality of prices in different regions of production ;
a tendency in perfect keeping with that just spoken of, being in fact
due to the same cause. Excessive prices in one region are kept down
by supplies sent from other regions where the commodity is cheap, and
the sending away of the surplus from these latter regions tends to
raise the price in them. The effect of this nature attributable to
commerce is best recognised by observing the conditions that prevail
in places where communications are still very imperfect and commerce
consequently limited. Quito, a town in the Andes at the height of
nearly 10,000 feet above sea-level, could be reached from Guayaquil,
the principal port on the coast, only by means of pack-animals, which
had to travel a distance of 320 miles. Here, accordingly, local produce
was exceptionally cheap, but imported articles were excessively dear.
Beef sold at from 2d. to 24d. a pound, mutton 13d. to 2d., chickens 6d. to
74d. apiece ; ordinary labourers received about 6d. ; carpenters, stone-
masons, and other artisans about 1s. a day, finding their own food.
On the other hand, dry goods, hardware, common cutlery, crockery,
and imported furniture were from 25 to 50 per cent. higher than in
foreign markets ; and common ironware cost fully twice as much as in
the countries from which it was brought! So also in Turkey, where
the paucity of railways and the mountainous character of the country
made communication difficult, wages were comparatively high in Con-
stantinople, extremely low in distant villages and rural districts. In
1 7.8. Cons. Reports, 53, p. 49. (The report is dated April 11. 1885.)
