It will have been noted from the Table of Retail Prices given above that on the whole there is comparatively little difference between the sets of figures compiled by the Post Office officials and those compiled by the Ministry of Labour and Local Government Board officials, though the Post Office figures tend to give a somewhat higher average increase of prices. This is brought out by the following table of the ratios of retail prices for the main groups of commodities for the three dates:—
| Mid-July, 1914. | Mid-March, 1922. | Mid-June, 1922. | ||||
| A | B | A | B | A | B | |
| Food. | 52.4 | 54.6 | 104.8 | 102.8 | 100 | 100 |
| Clothing | 52.7 | 52.9 | 103.9 | 101.7 | 100 | 100 |
| Rent (C) | 78.9 | 78.9 | 100.4 | 100.4 | 100 | 100 |
| Fuel and Light | 46.6 | 48.1 | 104.8 | 104.4 | 100 | 100 |
| Sundries | 50.5 | 51.9 | 103.2 | 103.1 | 100 | 100 |
The figures A result from the returns from the Post Office.
The figures B result from the returns from other Departments.
The figures C were obtained from only one Department—the Local Government Board.
(In case the meaning of this table is not at once clear, it may be explained that the first line, for instance, means that for 100s. expended on food by the wage-earning households in June, 1922, exactly the same quantities and exactly the same foods could, according to the Post Office officials' returns, be purchased in March, 1922, for 104.8s., and in July, 1914, for 52.4s. and according to the other returns for 102.8s. and 54.6s. respectively; and so on with the other items).
The near agreement of these figures is a strong proof of their essential accuracy. We ultimately decided to take the average between the two sets of figures as representing the nearest approach to the truth at which we could arrive.
(B) The Collection of Household Budgets.
(1) Representative Budgets.
The second stage of our enquiry was to obtain representative household budgets, from which to compile the "weights" by which the individual price changes might be combined into a single final figure.