at the principal shipping ports of the United States in 1885 for 56 cents less per bushel than in 1874, 32 cents less than in 1882, and 20 cents less than in 1884.[1]
"I have calculated that the produce of five acres of wheat can be brought from Chicago to Liverpool at less than the cost of manuring one acre for wheat in England."—Testimony of W. J. Harris, a leading farmer in Devonshire, England, before the British Commission, 1886. And what has happened in the case of wheat has happened also in a greater or less degree as respects meats and almost all other food products; increased supplies having occasioned reduction of prices, and reduction of prices, in turn, ruinous losses to invested capital, and revolutionary disturbances in old methods of doing business. The Bessemer rail, the modern steamship, and the Suez Canal have brought the wheat-fields of Dakota and India, and the grazing-lands of Texas, Colorado, Australia, and the Argentine Republic, nearer to the factory operatives in Manchester, England, than the farms of Illinois were before the war to the spindles and looms of New England.
Changes in the Relations of Labor and Capital.—Consider next how potent for economic disturbance have been the changes in
- ↑ The average value of the wheat exported from the United States in 1885, according to the tables of the United States Bureau of Statistics, was 86 cents per bushel at the shipping ports. This was a decline of 20 cents from 1884, 2612 cents from 1883, 32 cents from 1882, 66 cents from 1874, and 61 cents from 1871.
The export value of corn was 54 cents in 1885, showing a decline of 7 cents from 1884, 14 cents from 1883, 12 cents from 1882, 30 cents from 1875, and 15 cents from 1872.
The export value of oats was 37 cents in 1885, showing a decline of 2 cents from 1884, 13 cents from 1883, 7 cents from 1882, 20 cents from 1875, and 14 cents from 1871.
The export price of bacon was 9 cents in 1885, showing a decline of 1 cent from 1884, 2 cents from 1883, 2 cents from 1875, a rise of 1 cent from 1872, and a decline of 6 cents from 1870.
The export price of lard was 7 cents in 1885, showing a decline of 2 cents from 1884, 4 cents from 1883, 6 cents from 1875, 3 cents from 1872, and 9 cents from 1870.
How closely the decline in recent years in the export prices of American cereals has been followed by corresponding reductions in the prices of cereals in the markets of Great Britain is exhibited by the following table (published in the British "Farmer's Almanac" for 1886), showing the average prices per quarter of wheat, barley, and oats, in Great Britain for two periods of ten years, commencing with 1865, with a separate estimate for 1885:
Cereals. Price per quarter.
Average for the 10
years, 1866-1875.Price per Quarter.
Average for the 10
years, 1876-1885.Average price per
quarter for 1885s. d. s. d. s. d. Wheat. 54 7 34 43 9 34 32 10 Barley. 39 2 36 5 30 1 Oats. 25 10 12 22 8 14 20 7 Similar tables given by the same authority show the gross value per annum of the product of wheat, barley, oats, beef, mutton, and wool, in Great Britain, to have been £35,000,000 ($175,000,000) less in 1885 than were the mean returns for the ten years 1866-1875. According also to data given in the returns of the British Registrar-General, the average prices of beef by the carcass in the London market were £58 5s. 7d. per ton during the ten years from 1866-1875, £57 5s. 8d. for 1876-1885, and £49 17s. 6d. for the year 1885.
