Page:Stabilizing the dollar, Fisher, 1920.djvu/60

6 fluctuations have been far greater, as, for instance, in the case of the famous assignats of the French Revolution, and the "Continental" paper money of our own Revolution and the present paper money of Russia. After the American Revolution a barber in Philadelphia is said to have covered the walls of his shop with Continental paper money, calling it the cheapest wall paper he could get! Jokes were also heard of a housewife taking a market basket full of this "money" to the butcher's shop and bringing home the meat in her purse! This money became a hissing and a byword; and, even to this day, one of the favorite expressions for worthlessness is "not worth a Continental."

3. A Century and a Quarter of Price Movements before the Great War

But we have no really good measure of price movements before 1782, the date from which Jevons begins his system of index numbers for wholesale prices in England.

Between 1789 and 1809 Jevons' index number rose from 85 to 161. That is, in twenty years, according to Jevons, English prices practically doubled.

Between 1809 and 1849 Jevons' index number fell from 161 to 64. That is, in these forty years, according to Jevons' number, English prices were reduced by more than one half.

Between 1849 and 1873, English prices, as measured by Sauerbeck's index number, rose (with two interruptions) from 74 to 111.

Figure 3 exhibits these movements as well as those