Page:Indian Journal of Economics Volume 2.djvu/421

 RBLAI'IVB PlaICES OF POOD GRAI175 known to average as high as 101 per cent and 108 per cent the prie of wheat in the United Provinces and the Punjab although its natural price relation is about 100 per cent. In years of. plenty as evi- denced by low prices and generally by large exorts the price relations of the cheaper lower than the .average, but the will not be so great as a rule average. To this extent in India tend to bear out enunciation of Gregory Smith's Law. I have tabulated in the Appendix price relation, the maximum year and the minimunn average over any the cheaper grains to wheat and rice provinces. It will be seen that almost grains tend to fall fall below average as the rise above the prices'of food grains Professor Thorold Rogers' the average over average any one one year of in arious invariably the maximum price relations are scarcity plenty. reached in years of and the minimum These maxitna aud relations in years of minima are averages over a whole year and are not absolute as the relatire prices in any given year are also liable to fluctuations, so that the maxima and been exceeded.. If the minima shown have probably naximum relations to wheat be examined, excluding gram as possessing somewhat different food constituents, it will be found that the only grain which exceeded the price relation, worked out on food values, was jur in the Punjab in 1900. Now the 'price of just, when the demand for seed is. great, frequently the quotation, as exceeds the price of wheat and far as human consumption is concerned, may be a purely nominal one. Secondly jr is often only available during its season and at a period when the price of whea above the average price of the price relation worked out on the not accurate. is year, so yearly considerably that the average is