Page:Indian Journal of Economics Volume 2.djvu/420

 4O4 (. J. E. O'BYRNE does not vary directly portionate cost of labor in the cheaper grains. with the will be price and the pro- considerably higher It is not, therefore, possible to work out an exact natural equivalent grains, but moisture in the limits converge, when for their food the above price relation relations between the case of klmrif grains will to which the price relations will are 'in demand It is a well-known in India that the prices of the to approximate. to the prices of 11 food grains values. phenomenon of cheaper the of the cheaper that the tastes price of the we &8511me change, the consumption when the dearer grains cannot rise, owing higher than the he various witti allowance for indicate tend to simply dezrer. population famine times grins tend Unless entirely grains in general are also available to demand for human consumption, point, where an equal amount of food is obtainable for the same price whichever grain is consumed, that is to say, when the prices are at their natural price relation. Taking wheat and barley in the United Provinces, the maximnm price relation on the average, in any one year, was 79 per cent reached in the famine years of 1896 and 1897. It is probable that at certain times dnring those years, the price relation may have reached 81 per cent, as he latter .percentage was reached in Meernt in one year, and 84 per found and different, as, cent by comparison barley. With gram compared with was the natnral price relation of the food values of wheat the case is ins s much larger proportion of proreid, prote)d is in special demand owing to pulses, the proportionate price may rise somewhat wheat and rice, it con- and when scarcity of somewhat higher than its food value, as measured in calories, would warrant. Thus the price of gram has been