Sir  Robert  Giffen  holds  that  up  to  1891  the  general
change  in  agricultural  prices  ranged  to  about  a  fall  of
25  per  cent.,  that  in  many  manufactured  articles  there
has  been  a  greater  fall,  and  that  the  fall  in  agricultural
produce  has  not  been  greater  than  the  fall  in  general
prices,  except  in  the  one  article  of  wheat.  But  the
heavy  fall  of  agricultural  prices  is  felt  more  keenly  be-
cause readjustments  are  slower.
Sir  Robert's  estimate  rests  on  the  figures  of  1891.
The  evidence  of  many  witnesses  would  make  the  general
average  fall  of  agricultural  prices  considerably  greater,
and  when  the  period  of  1892  to  1894  is  taken,  including
months  in  which  the  lowest  recorded  prices  of  wheat  and
barley,  and  some  of  the  most  exceptionally  low  prices  of
stock  occurred,  it  would  be  safe  to  estimate  the  general
fall  at  not  less  than  40  per  cent  since  about  1872-74.
The  fall  in  agricultural  prices  is  illustrated  by  Sir  R.
Gififen's  tables.
Thus  the  money  value  of  the  total  amounts  ofagricul-


54  AGRICULTURAL    DEPRESSION

>/  tural  produce  in   1891,  at  the  current  prices  of  189 1,  is
given  as  ;^222,9i  5,000.     But  if  prices  had  remained  at  the
.      figures  of  1874  the  money  value  of  the  total  produce  of
^.  1 89 1  would  have  been  ;^298,997,ooo.^


Corn  Prices.
