Page:The Economic Journal Volume 1.djvu/575

 NOTES AND MEMORANDA 553 last February, was 286,697,000. Discussing the details of commerce, the writer, Mr. J. E. O'Connor, removes the popular impression that the country is being denuded of its food supplies by exportation. The exports of food grains can hardly be said to have increased at all in the last decade; at any rate when account is taken of the increase of the area under cultivation. Many interesting details respecting other articles of trade are given. The increased importation of sugar is a noticeable feature. The question is raised: " Is this feature of trade the result of artificial encouragement of production in Europe, or is it the result of natural causes ?" THE volume relating to Prices and Wages in India compiled in the statistical branch of the Finance and Commerce Department of the Government of India, issued this year, is rich in statistical matter. The first part contains the prices of ten food-grains and also salt in each province and district for the last thirty years or rather, the inverse prices, the quantities of each article which were obtainable for a rupee. The interpretation of the statistics is assisted by a table giving the average annual prices of certain food-grains at selected stations. There is evidenced a very general though not universal rise in the prices of these articles of food. The second part of the volume gives the wholesale prices of certain staple trade commodities in Calcutta and Bombay, and exhibits their variations from year to year. The general decline of silver prices since 1873, which is taken as the standard year, is marked, though (in the case of the Calcutta statistics) lualified by some exceptions. The third part of the volume contains inter alia returns of the average monthly wages of skilled and unskilled labour in each district since 1873. It is not attempted to combine the elements of each part of the volume, much less to connect the parts, by means of index-numbers. How much is the wage-earner better off in virtue of a rise of wages attended by a fall in the prices of most exports and imports and a rise in the price of most food-grains ? Such questions are perhaps incapable of numerical solution. RECENT OFFICIAL REPORTS AND IETURNS. Agricultural Returns of Great Britain for 1891. THE summary of these returns, which has been issued by the Board of Agriculture, shows a continuation in the decline of acreage under wheat which has prevailed for some years without break since 1888, and with only a slight break since 1884. The decline of acreage under barley and oats during these years is less marked. Meanwhile there has been an increase in the amount of live stock. Comparing 1891