GREAT BRITAIN, II

251

Great Britain we have seen how great the excess of imports has
long been, and also how that excess has fluctuated from time to
time. The net barter terms are a hypothetical matter. The
phenomenon which we encounter in fact is that of the gross barter
terms of trade — the relation between the unsegregated mass of
goods coming in and the unsegregated mass going out.
None the less, it is possible to use substantially the same device
for measuring changes in this relation also. We can construct
indices of the trend of the gross terms. The following figures for
Great Britain's trade in the years 1890, 1900, 1910, illustrate
the procedure :

[890
[900
1910

Values of Imports and Exports
(million pounds)

|e
i

RECORDED VALUES

VALUES AT PRICES
oF 1900

(1)
mports
356
460
R75

2)
Kxports
263
291
130

(3)
'mports
333
460
25

4)
Exports
278
291
438

Derived Indices

RevLaTive PHYsIicAL
QUANTITIES
(1900 = 100)

(5)
"mports
72.4
100
114.1

(6)
Exports
98.6
100
150.3

RELATIVE
Gross
BARTER
TERMS
6) = (5)

(7)

136
100
133

Columns 1 and 2 give the actual money values of the total imports
and of the total exports; that is, the values as recorded in official
statistics. Columns 3 and 4 give these money values as they would
have been at the prices of 1900. Possessing a separate index of
import prices, as we fortunately do, we can readily compute what
the money values of the imports would have been if the prices
of the articles had remained unchanged — if prices had remained
the same as they were in the year selected as base (1900). And so
as to the exports. The prices being reduced to identical terms,
a larger or smaller total money value necessarily indicates a larger
or smaller physical volume. The adjusted figures of money values
become measures of physical quantities. Columns 3 and 4, while
they are money values (adjusted), thus show the increase or