Annual average export prices of commodities of domestic production for each year from 1873 to 1889, inclusive.
| Year ending June, 30— | Corn per bushel. | Wheat per bushel. | Wheat flour per barrel. | Cotton (upland) per pound. | Leather per pound. | Illuminating oils, refined, per gallon. | Bacon and hams per pound. | Lard per pound. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dollars. | Dollars. | Dollars. | Cents. | Cents. | Cents. | Cents. | Cents. | |
| 1873 | .618 | 1.312 | 7.565 | 18.8 | 25.3 | 23.5 | 8.8 | 9.2 |
| 1874 | .719 | 1.428 | 7.144 | 15.4 | 25.2 | 17.3 | 9.6 | 9.4 |
| 1875 | .848 | 1.124 | 5.968 | 15.0 | 26.0 | 14.1 | 11.4 | 13.8 |
| 1876 | .672 | 1.242 | 6.216 | 12.9 | 26.2 | 14.0 | 12.1 | 13.3 |
| 1877 | .587 | 1.169 | 6.488 | 11.8 | 23.9 | 21.1 | 10.8 | 10.9 |
| 1878 | .562 | 1.338 | 6.358 | 11.1 | 21.8 | 14.4 | 8.7 | 8.8 |
| 1879 | .471 | 1.068 | 5.252 | 9.9 | 20.4 | 10.8 | 6.9 | 7.0 |
| 1880 | .543 | 1.245 | 5.878 | 11.5 | 23.3 | 8.6 | 6.7 | 7.4 |
| 1881 | .552 | 1.114 | 5.668 | 11.4 | 22.6 | 10.3 | 8.2 | 9.3 |
| 1882 | .668 | 1.185 | 6.149 | 11.4 | 20.9 | 9.1 | 9.9 | 11.6 |
| 1883 | .684 | 1.127 | 5.955 | 10.8 | 21.1 | 8.8 | 11.2 | 11.9 |
| 1884 | .611 | 1.066 | 5.588 | 10.5 | 20.6 | 9.2 | 10.2 | 9.5 |
| 1885 | .540 | .862 | 4.897 | 10.6 | 19.8 | 8.7 | 9.2 | 7.9 |
| 1886 | .498 | .870 | 4.699 | 9.9 | 19.9 | 8.7 | 7.5 | 6.9 |
| 1887 | .479 | .890 | 4.510 | 9.5 | 18.7 | 7.8 | 7.9 | 7.1 |
| 1888 | .550 | .853 | 4.579 | 9.8 | 17.3 | 7.9 | 8.6 | 7.7 |
| 1889 | .474 | .897 | 4.832 | 9.9 | 16.6 | 7.8 | 8.6 | 8.6 |
| Year ending June 30— | Pork, salted, per pound. | Beef, salted, per pound. | Butter per pound. | Cheese per pound. | Eggs per dozen. | Starch per pound. | Sugar, refined, per pound. | Tobacco, leaf, per pound. |
| Cents. | Cents. | Cents. | Cents. | Cents. | Cents. | Cents. | Cents. | |
| 1873 | 7.8 | 7.7 | 21.1 | 13.1 | 26.6 | 5.3 | 11.6 | 10.7 |
| 1874 | 8.2 | 8.2 | 25.0 | 13.1 | 22.1 | 5.7 | 10.5 | 9.6 |
| 1875 | 10.1 | 8.7 | 23.7 | 13.5 | 25.6 | 6.0 | 10.8 | 11.3 |
| 1876 | 10.6 | 8.7 | 23.9 | 12.6 | 28.0 | 5.4 | 10.7 | 10.4 |
| 1877 | 9.0 | 7.5 | 20.6 | 11.8 | 25.9 | 5.2 | 11.6 | 10.2 |
| 1878 | 6.8 | 7.7 | 18.0 | 11.4 | 15.8 | 4.7 | 10.2 | 8.7 |
| 1879 | 5.7 | 6.3 | 14.2 | 8.9 | 15.5 | 4.2 | 8.5 | 7.8 |
| 1880 | 6.1 | 6.4 | 17.1 | 9.5 | 16.5 | 4.3 | 9.0 | 7.7 |
| 1881 | 7.7 | 6.5 | 19.8 | 11.1 | 17.2 | 4.7 | 9.2 | 8.3 |
| 1882 | 9.0 | 8.5 | 19.3 | 11.0 | 19.2 | 4.8 | 9.7 | 8.5 |
| 1883 | 9.9 | 8.9 | 18.6 | 11.2 | 20.9 | 4.6 | 9.2 | 8.6 |
| 1884 | 7.9 | 7.6 | 18.2 | 10.3 | 21.2 | 4.5 | 7.1 | 9.1 |
| 1885 | 7.2 | 7.5 | 16.8 | 9.3 | 21.5 | 4.0 | 6.4 | 9.9 |
| 1886 | 5.9 | 6.0 | 15.6 | 8.2 | 18.3 | 4.1 | 6.7 | 7.8 |
| 1887 | 6.6 | 5.4 | 15.8 | 9.3 | 16.3 | 3.8 | 6.0 | 8.7 |
| 1888 | 7.4 | 5.3 | 18.3 | 9.9 | 15.9 | 3.5 | 6.3 | 8.3 |
| 1889 | 7.4 | 5.5 | 16.5 | 9.3 | 13.9 | 3.8 | 7.6 | 8.8 |
To show from another source the same general fact of the decline of prices, I quote from an article published in the New York Tribune early in 1886.
The New York Tribune is pretty good authority. These figures are undoubtedly from the calculations and from the pen of Mr. Grosvenor, of the editorial staff of that able journal, formerly editor and proprietor of the "Public," whose estimates of prices have, in my judgment, been more correctly made than those of any other statistician in the world. The article is as follows:
Quotations of about two hundred articles are compared since 1860, and the amount of money is ascertained which would purchase, at different dates, of these various articles, quantities corresponding as closely as possible to their ascertained consumption in 1880, the date of the last census. Among the articles compared are wheat, corn, oats, rye, barley, beans and pease, mess pork, bacon, ham, live hogs, lard, fresh beef, tallow, live sheep, poultry, butter, cheese, eggs, milk, hay, potatoes, turnips, cabbage, onions, apples, raisins, sugar, brown and crushed; molasses, coffee, tea, tobacco, whisky, malt and hops, mackerel, codfish, salt, rice, nutmegs, cloves, pepper, cotton, print-cloths and standard sheeting, wool of different qualities, blankets, carpets, flannels, leather, boots, shoes, hides, silk, India rubber, iron (pig and bar), nails, steel rails, coal, oil (crude and refined), tin and tin plates, copper, lead, hemp, lumber, spruce and pine, oak, ash, walnut, and white wood, lath, brick, lime, turpentine, linseed oil, soap, glass, paper, white lead, and twelve other kinds of paints, fertilizers, and over fifty kinds of drugs and chemicals.
Cost of products at different dates.
| Dates. | Cost in currency. | Price of gold. | Cost in gold. |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1860, May 1 | $100.00 | $100.00 | $100.00 |
| 1865, November 1 | 174.77 | 145.87 | 119.81 |
| 1866, May 1 | 157.60 | 125.12 | 126.04 |
| 1866, November 1 | 170.31 | 146.25 | 117.82 |
| 1871, November 1 | 122.03 | 112.00 | 108.95 |
| 1872, May 1 | 137.13 | 112.50 | 121.81 |
| 1873, November 1 | 115.14 | 108.50 | 106.01 |
| 1874, May 1 | 122.77 | 112.87 | 108.77 |
| 1875, January 1 | 113.01 | 112.37 | 100.37 |
| 1876, October 1 | 97.30 | 110.00 | 88.45 |
| 1877, May 1 | 99.29 | 106.75 | 93.01 |
| 1878, May 1 | 82.09 | 100.37 | 81.81 |
| 1878, October 18 | 77.94 | 100.37 | 77.65 |
| 1879, November 1 | 93.48 | — | — |
| 1880, January 1 | 103.42 | — | — |
| 1881, January 1 | 95.98 | — | — |
| 1882, May 16 | 106.59 | — | — |
| 1883, March 13 | 97.82 | — | — |
| 1883, November 1 | 88.71 | — | — |
| 1884, January 1 | 88.37 | — | — |
| 1884, November 21 | 78.47 | — | — |
| 1885, January 1 | 79.66 | — | — |
| 1885, May 9 | 80.22 | — | — |
| 1885, August 22 | 74.56 | — | — |
| 1885, November 1 | 75.35 | — | — |
| 1885, Close | 78.53 | — | — |
It is not only clear from this comparison that the prices of 1885 have been the lowest in our history for twenty-five years, but that there has been a general tendency toward lower prices. From 1866 to 1871, and again from 1872 until 1885, prices fell quite steadily. Indeed, had not the short crop of 1881 caused a temporary advance in the spring of 1882, the range of January, 1880, would have been the highest of the later period, and it might have been said that the present era of declining prices had continued with little intermission for six years. None will fail to observe how swift and sharp the advances have been—about 12 per cent. from November, 1871, to May, 1872, and 25½ per cent. from October, 1878, to January, 1880. But these spasmodic advances, by which the general tendency downward is interrupted, only serve to make it more clear that prices have been tending irresistibly toward a lower level than that of 1860, not only during the period of paper depreciation, but since gold has been the measure of value.
In order to show that the United States are not alone in their complaint of falling prices, but that the complaint is universal, and in order that we may have before us a broad view of the field of general prices, I submit a table showing the relation to each other of the range of prices from 1809 to 1849, by decades, based on the prices of fifty leading articles of commerce, prepared by the distinguished Professor Jevons and published in the London Economist for May 8, 1869.