COSTA RICA

a republic in central america and a member of the league of nations. its area is 23,205 sq. m. and its population was estimated on dec. 31 1923 at 498,435: no census had been taken since 1892. political history in ro10 ricardo jimenez was chosen president by popular vote, but in 1914 recourse to the legislative branch was required for the election of alfredo gonzdlez. in jan. 1917 gonzilez was forced out of office by frederico tinoco, who became the pro- visional chief of the republic. a commission was appointed to draw up a new constitution, which was finally promulgated in june 1917. in april deputies were elected to a constituent assembly and a president elected, in accordance with the elec- toral law of aug. 18 1913; tinoco was proclaimed president from may 1917. in rorg a counter-revolutionary movement under julio acosta took place; tinoco resigned and acosta became president. following the entry of the united states into the world war, costa rica severed relations with germany and finally declared war on may 25 1918. the boundary dispute with colombia, arbitrated by president loubet of france in rgoo, continued as a dispute with panama and resulted in the white award in 1914. in 1921 panama ap- pealed to the united states govt. against the award but was informed that it must be accepted. on aug. 18 secretary hughes announced that costa rica need delay no longer in taking jurisdiction over the disputed territory and on aug. 23 the coto district was ceded by panama. costa rica protested against the bryan-chamorro treaty of 1016, alleging that it infringed her sovereign control over parts of the proposed nicaraguan canal route. the protest led to a protocol, signed feb. 8 1923, between costa rica and the united states, whereby the latter agreed to recognise the rights of costa rica in the san juan river in event of canal construction. this protocol, however, was rejected by the united states congress. in oct. 1924 president jimenez approved the central american treaties signed at the washington conference of 1922-3, and in nov. his govt. ratified the general treaty of peace and friendship (see central american union). education.—the school enrolment in 1923 was 41,277; in 1924, 38,672. secondary, normal and professional schools have been estab- lished. education during the post-war period received about 16°; of the national budget. in feb. 1925 a commission began the study of agricultural and vocational education in south america. national finunce.—the budget showed deficits cach year from 1914-21, totalling altogether over 27,000,000 colones. in 1922 rev- enue exceeded expenditure; in 1923 the surplus was over 1,500,000 colones. the internal debt on dec. 31 1923 was 39,807,956 colones; the foreign debt consisted of gold refunding bonds, ig1t1, of £1,478,000, and the unpaid balance of the french loan, 1912, amounting to 32,269,500 francs. production and frade.—increased attention is being paid to agri- culture, and a new department of school agriculture has been estab- lished. the chief products are coffee and bananas; the production of sugar is increasing in importance, while maize, cocoa, tobacco, rice and potatoes are also grown. gold and silver mining rank next to agriculture. few manufactures exist. the distillation of spirits is a government monopoly. the value of imports declined during the period 1915-9, owing to the war and restricted shipping facilitics. exports, however, re- mained fairly steady, and consequently favourable trade balances were registered cach year. the following table gives the value of exports and imports from 1914 to 1923:— imports i-xports lhs. lbs. {gi4 1,554,033 2,235,272 average 1915-9 1,121,000 2,209,000 | 1920 3,645,873 2,563,929 1g2t 2,390,600 3,095,548 1922 ‘ 1,716,840 2,926,533 1923. 4 ‘ 2,013,353 2,640,321 coffee and bananas represent over two-thirds of the total exports. overseas trade is mainly with the united states and great britain. 743 in 1923 59 ° of the value of total imports was from the united states and 16° 5 from the united kingdom. of exports, 54° was to the united states and 38°5 to the united kingdom. there were 403 m. of railway in the country in 1925, 81 m. of which were state owned. some 1,000 m. of roads existed, but only about 50 m. were suitable for motor traffic. bibliography.— m.de perigny, les cing republigues de lame- rique centrale (1911); e. n. vose, costa rica: dun’s commercial monographs no. 1 (1913); m. de perigny, la republigue de costa rica (1918); d. g. munro, the five republics of central america (1918); l. el fediott, central america (1924); w. s. robertson, history of the latin-american nations (1925); department of over- seas trade, reports on the economic and financial situation in costa rica (1922 and 1926). (h. i. p.) cost of living.—until recently the phrase “ cost of liv- ing ’’ was only used loosely by economists when the balance between movements of wages and prices was in question, but from r1or4 onwards during the world war the necd of a measure- ment of the rise of prices gradually resulted in making the ex- pression prominent in industrial and statistical discussions. it has frequently been assumed that the term “ cost of living ” has a unique and definite meaning, and that accurate measure- ments can be applied to it, but in fact the meaning is vague and the statistical methods appropriate to it are complex and lead to results whose precision is not of a high order. the phrase may be regarded as an abbreviation for “ the cost in a defined region to persons of a defined social or industrial class of goods of a kind usually purchased at frequent intervals, by the consumption of which a certain standard of economic welfare is reached.”’ we may usefully distinguish four cases:— (a) where the standard is a physiological minimum; (5) where some conventional or average budget of expenditure is taken and the cost of the items in it is measured at different times or places; (c) where the iiems are varied but the whole contents of the budget result in an unchanged standard of welfare; (d) where both the contents of the budget are modified and the standard is raised or lowered. case (6) is that which has in recent years been the subject of measurement, but case (c) is that which is in reality appropriate to the problem of measuring or adjusting real wages. i. general considerations the physiological minintum.— attention was directed by mr. scebohm rowntree (poverty, a study of town life, 2nd ed. 1902) to the cost of obtaining in york (england) and else- where food, clothing, heat, light and shelter suflicient for a family to maintain itself in health and efliciency for work, when all possible economy was practised, subject to the availability of commodities and the legal requirements for housing, decency, etc. the minimum of food was computed in relation to the quantity of calories, carbohydrates and protein calculated by atwater and others as necessary for maintaining health and vigour under various conditions of life, and dietaries were drawn up which contained the necessary constituents at the minimum aggregate cost; to this cost was added the expenditure on clothing, fuel, cleansing materials, etc., and rent, which was found to be customary among persons in regular work at the lowest rates of wages for adult men. the most natural meaning of the cost of living is perhaps the cost of maintaining the minimum standard thus described. the standard is, however, not scientifically definite; apart from questions as to the validity and applicability of the meas- urement by calories, it is clear that there must be a great differ-_ ence between the amount of food necessary for work of low and of high efficiency; the indian, chinese and japanese peasants live on a sparser diet and produce a lower output than english or american; definable points are where efficiency is a maximum (which needs a more liberal dict than that considered by mir. rowntree) where the value of additional efficiency exactly equals the cost of the additional food, etc., necessary (for whose ascertainment there are no observations); and atwater’s stand- ard is in fact conventional (see bowley, measurement of soctal phenomena, chap. viil., 1915). if we drop the word “ minimum ” and speak of mr. rowntree’s as a conventional standard <or 744 demarcating poverty, we can properly measure the change in the cost of living at this standard (if the facts are ascertainable). the varying cost of the official civilian rations, computed in germany circa 1919, gave a measurement similar to that de- scribed. the cost of mr. rowntree’s standard, and one modifted in the direction of ordinary purchasers by bowley, was worked out for certain english towns in 1913 (livelihood and poverty, 191g and in 1924) (h1as poverty diminished? 1925). <a icgal minimum wage could be based on a standard thus defined, but in fact it is generally related to a higher conventional standard. the conventional or average budget—the usual method of measuring the change of the cost of living during and since the war has been as follows: detailed statements of expenditure having been obtained from a number of working-class house- holds (in most countries at some date prior to 1914), an average budget is formed showing so many pounds of meat, bread, etc., with the prices and expenditure in considerable detail. the aver- age prices of the same foods is ascertained from time to time, and the expenditure necessary to purchase the former quantities at the new prices is computed. the cost of living (so far as food is concerned) is then taken as having increased or decreased in the same ratio as this standard budget. in many countries a standard of the same kind is established for clothing, fuel, light, rent, cleansing materials and some other articles, and the cost of the aggregate, including food, is computed from time to time. the result obtained (if the process were complete) would be the relative cost of maintaining a defined standard constant in every detail. it is generally expressed as a percentage; thus if the costs were 25s. and 30s. at the two dates, the ratio is 100:120, the index number at the second date is 120 and the percentage increase 20. this method cannot be carried out in its entirety for two reasons, namely, lack of information and change of quality of the commodities in the market. in most countries data of ex- penditure and prices are only obtained for principal commodities (meat, bread, etc.) and not for those on which little is spent (cur- tants, pepper, etc.) or in which the unit is variable (fruit, vege- tables, etc.); but unless owing to shortage of supplies there is a run on the articles not included, these omissions cannot affect the result significantly. in some countries expenditure is not known, but only prices, and then the resulting calculation is generally valueless; and in others currency has been so variable that the computation has been meaningless. in nearly all cases there is no sufficient knowledge of expenditure on clothing either in total or in detail, and it is often difficult to obtain adequate data for fuel and light or for miscellaneous items. the sums included in the calculations, in fact, account for only a part of ordinary household expenditure, but where most care has been given to the question the part is a large proportion of the whole. classes of expenditure that are not strictly necessary, such as amusements, tobacco, alcohol, etc., are generally omitted, as are occasional expenses (doctors, purchase of furniture, etc.), but in some cases subscriptions to trade unions, ctc., insurance pay- ments and travelling to work are included. the miscellaneous expenses omitted become a larger proportion of total expenditure as we go up the scale of incomes. the difficulty due to the change of quality of goods which has been so marked since 1914 is even more fundamental. over any long period the actual constituents and quality of a pound of bread, a cut of meat, a pair of boots, change considerably, but from some points of view these gradual changes are not impor- tant. during the war, however, substitution of one commodity or ingredient for another was sudden and common, and the pre- war quality was unobtainable at any price, or if obtainable had a quite altered position in domestic economy. consequently the prices included in the calculations were frequently not for the same things at different dates and the precision of the measure- ment was greatly diminished. after the armistice there was some return to former qualities, but the change has been sufhi- cient to undermine the foundation of the numbers, and a new basis is necessary. it should be added that separate budgets ought to be formed cost of living (and in some countries have been formed) for different grades of income and for different classes of occupation, and also for single persons and for married persons with dependants. the structure of the index numbers of the cost of living is shown most clearly by algebraic symbols. if q:, qe, qs... are the number of units of the commodities in the standard budget, and pi, pa, ps ... the prices per unit at the date taken as starting point, and we write o.xp,=e,, q2axp2=e2... where fi, ex, es... are the ex- penditures on the commodities, then e=f,+e: . . .=q:p:+q2pe ...is the whole expenditure at the first date on the standard budget. let pi, ps, ps... be the prices per unit at a subsequent date; then o.xpir=e1, qoxp2=ez . . . are the presumed expenditures, and e=eytet ... =oipit+qupet ... is the whole expenditure. the ratio of the cost of che standard budget at the second date to that at the first, is = sod rsa se = ii tage a ee where le o.pi+qep2+ “«# « e,+e,+. * « r=pi/p, (the price ratio for the first-named commodity at the two dates), re=pz/p.2.... the last expression shows that by this method the ratio of the costs of living is a weighted average in which the price ratios are weighted by the expenditures at the first date; hence we only need to know these expenditures and ratios, and not the actual quantities nor prices. in the official measurement in the united kingdom only the quantities e and r are in fact used; this method is very convenient in dealing with rent (for which there is no natural unit of quantity) and with clothing (for which a general price ratio is obtained without any definition of unit), the gencral theory of weighted averages shows that a considerable roughness in the estimation of the smaller expenditures is smoothed out in the process of averaging, but that it is important to obtain precision in the case of large items, such as clothing, treated in a single entry, and rent. it is important, however, that the r’s should be accurately known when they differ much from one another, and the quality of the commodities that are priced should be the same at both dates. e ex 100, and the per- the index number for the second date is ‘ . c centage increase 1s g- r) x 100. variation in detail on an unchanged standard.—it must be granted that when the cost of living is compared at two places or at two dates we ought not to assume that precisely the same quantities of the same commodities are purchasable in both cases, and in order to make a strict numerical comparison we need a test of equality of standard if not a means of comparing two standards. the problem so stated has not yet been com- pletely solved. a measurement could be made on a strictly nutritive basis and the cost of purchasing in the most economic way the amount of calories (including the necessary protein) considered proper to health and efficiency could be ascertained in both countries or at both periods; but this would only give a theoretic solution, since it ignores the influence of custom and taste in diet, and, in fact, in developed countries relatively few people have been compelled to purchase their nutriment in the cheapest possible way. the actual practical question in england in 1921 was what was the cost of maintaining the pre-war standard of living in nutritive power and satisfaction or pleasure derived from food and clothing, allowance being made for changes in prices and available qualities. this statement intro- duces the vague word satisfaction, which it is not practicable to define exactly, though some mathematical methods based on economic principles have been suggested for ascertaining its equality in two cases. one method would be to frame a new budget of goods obtainable and in fact purchased by housekeepers with the same skill of adjust- ing purchases to desires as in the case of the earlier budgets. this would mean obtaining from representative working-class women a budget which in their opinion would now give the same variety and pleasure as a selected budget of 1914, care being taken that the energy value is the same. the result would be a new conventional budget, the ratio of whose cost to that of the pre-war budget would give a rough measure of the cost of living (cf. bowley, “ measurement of cost of living,” journal of the royal statistical soctety, may 1919, p. 354; and ‘' cost of living and wage determination,” l:cononie journal, march 1920, p. 117). another method was used in the british board of trade’s in- vestigation into the cost of living in the united kingdom, united states, france, belgium and germany, which was initiated in 1905 (cf. official papers cd. 3864, cd. 5609, cd. 4512, cd. 5065, cd, 4032). a comparison was made of the cost of living in the united kingdom and in each other country on a double basis as follows: it was found that an english housewife purchasing in 1909 in the united cost of living states a week’s supply of food as customary in england, would have spent 38° more in the first-named country, the ratio of the costs of living being on this basis 100:138; on the other hand, an american housewife purchasing in england a week's supply of food as custom- ary in the united states would have found her expenses reduced in the ratio 125:100 (cd. 5609, pp. ixvi., ixvii.). if these ratios had been reciprocal either would measure the differences in the cost of living (so far as food is concerned); as it is, their divergence illustrates the want of definiteness in the problem. another method gives, perhaps, the most practical solution, though its adequacy can hardly be proved from theoretic conditions. ob- tain typical budgets of expenditure at two dates; compile a new or mean standard of quantities which, item by item, are the averages of the entries in the budgets. thus, if in one the consumption of 33 ib. of bread is stated, in the other 35 lb., enter 34 ib. in the mean standard; now find the cost of the mean standard at each date and take the ratio of these costs as the measurement of the change in the cost of living. if all prices rose in the same ratio the methods now described would necessarily yicld the same result; the need for choice arises 320 ~~ ah ® oo n a 9° °o2 90 900 8 n) | | 745 so much as indicated by the index number based on working- class expenditure, and on the other that the standard of living must be lowered—the higher the income the greater the fall. a similar scale was adopted at nearly the same date for railway officials. we are thus led to consider a conventional standard of living which changes from time to time. when there is no reference to a physiological minimum, the cost of living may be regarded as the cost of maintaining the standard customary to the social or occupational class concerned at a given time and place. in this sense the cost of living of chinese labourers is lower than that of the americans, though they pay the same prices for commodities. when “ cost of living ” is used in this sense it should always be accompanied by a description of the standard attained. thus the british committee on the cost of living in 1918 (cd. 8980) estimated the average expenditure of working-class families in 1914 and ro1r8 and at the same time j b | o. 2 - 8 7 fic, 1.--diagram showing percentage changes in the cost of living from 1913 to 1925, and movements of time rates or piece earnings in great britain and northern ireland. the cost of living graph is based on figures given by the ministry of labour for the first day of each month. the wages graph is based on figures given in the table in the article on wages (q.v.) for the normal week in july of each year from 1914 to 1925, and in jan. 1926. from inequalities of increase, including the case where the goods are no longer in the market as one where the price is indefinitely great. now if at one date purchases are made so as to maximise the satisfaction in the outlay of the week's housckecping allowance, as we may reasonably assume, and prices rise irregularly, it is evident that somewhat less will be bought of the commodities which have risen most and more of those which have risen least if a maximum is still obtained, and that consequently the increase in the expenditure necessary to obtain the same satisfaction as before is less than the increase if exactly the same quantities had been purchased. for example, if oranges are doubled in price and bananas increased only one-half, more bananas and fewer oranges will be purchased. vartations in content and tn standard.—the problem with which many countries were faced in 1920 and 1921 was in reality not that of preserving a standard of living on the level of 1914, but of adapting themselves to a lower average standard, what- ever the fortunes of favoured classes. this may be illustrated by the arrangement of the salaries of civil servants in england in feb. roz0. at that date the official measurement (on method b) of the increase in the cost of living over 1914 was 130%. the full increase of 130% was awarded to persons with a wage of 353s. weekly ({g1 5s. per annum) or less, 60°% was added to any excess of salary up to £200, and 45% to any excess over {200. thusa man whose salary was £400 on the pre-war basis received an addition of £2737 (130% on for 5s.= £1188, 60% on £108 15s. = £651, 45° on £200= f90), about 68% in all. this increment was increased or decreased by one twenty-sixth part for every com- plete movement of § points in the official index number averaged over certain periods, it appears to have been assumed on the one hand that the expenses of the middle class had not increased in each graph, july 1914 is taken as equal to 100. reported on the change of standard. in some of the statistics quoted below a conception of this kind is involved in the figures. ii. conditions in various countries great britain —in the united kingdom the basis of the official measurement of the cost of living is that of finding the cost of a standard budget of expenditure at various dates (see report on working-class rents and retail prices. cd. 6955 of 1913, pp. 299 seg. and labour gazetie, feb. 1921). the standard budget was obtained from a collection of 1,944 records of weekly expenditure made in 1904; the average weekly family expen- diture was 36s. 1od., of this 22s. 6d. was spent on food, and of the food 18s. 6d. is accounted for in the standard used prior to the war. a somewhat altered basis was taken in 1914. rice, tapioca, oatmeal, pork, coffee, cocoa, jam, treacle, marmalade, currants and raisins (the expenditure on all of which was about 2s. 1d in 1904) were omitted and fish and margarine added (an addition equivalent to 6d. in each case). it was assumed that, though prices had increased between 1904 and ror4, the relative expenditure (which alone enters into the computation) on the different commodities was unchanged; this assumption is too rigid but not unreasonable, and the facts otherwise known about price movements and consumption show that the error intro- duced is insignificant. relative importance being determined, the next step was to ascertain the movement of prices. prior to 1914 the records were obtained exclusively for london, but it was shown (cd. 6955, pp. 299 and 306) that from 1907 to 1912 the average movement 746 was very nearly the same in provincial towns as in london. from aug. 1914 statements of prices were obtained for 650 towns and villages. the index numbers of the cost of living, so far as food is con- cerned, were then obtained by the method b described above; prior to 1914, the year 1900 was taken as base, and the prices then equated to 100; from the beginning of the war july 1914 was taken as base. the index number is in the form 100 (eyr;+eere+ ...) + (ef; +e2+ . ) where fi, es... are the expenditures on the separate commodities i in the standard budget and rn, re... are the ratios of the prices at any particular time to the prices at the basic date. the values actually taken for the e's in 1914 were as in table i., being proportional to the expenditure. table i. relative importance of foods bread . ; . 50 fish ' . ‘ 2, “9 flour . ; . 20 milk ; . . 25 potatoes. . 3. “218 butter. : . i british meat eggs ; : : . 9 beef . ; : . 24 cheese. ; . . 10 mutton . , p ae margarine. e . 10 imported meat tea d : : + 322 beet ; : ? . 24 sugar. : ‘ . 19 mutton . ; 4 he — bacon... . . iq total: . 334 there are certain weaknesses in the method. it is assumed without explicit evidence, that expenditure on meat was in the proportion 2s. on beef to 1s. on mutton, and that british and foreign meat were of equal importance, while the price ratios taken for meat are for four selected joints only; during the period 1915 to 1919, when the relative quantities available varied and relative prices were altered, these assumptions affect the index numbers. the weight assigned to margarine is arbitrary. the number of eggs consumed (about 12 per house- hold per week) is based on summer records and is no doubt higher than the average for the year. rent, clothing, etc—next in importance to food comes rent. the figure included in the index number allows for such increases for rates, repairs, etc., as are legally permissible and is accurate for persons who by remaining in the same house since 1914 have the benefit of the rents restriction acts; the increase for those who have moved must have been very variable and for it no estimate is available. the cost of clothing, which ranks next to rent in expenditure, is always very difficult to measure owing to the difficulty of defining the garments or stuffs purchased, and of assigning their relative importance in the budget, and also there was great variability in the qualities in the shops during 1914 to 1921. the difficulties can be understood by comparing the estimates and method of the cost of living committee (/oc. cit., pp. 21-3) with those of the official index number described in the labour gazette, april 1921, pp. 178-9; the former found an in- crease of 96°% between july 1914 and the summer of 1918, the latter reaches increases of 210% in june and 240% in sept. 1918. the differences are partly attributable to the great variability of the increases among the articles in consequence of which the relative importance given to each has great effect, cost of living and in this respect the committee’s measurement was the more systematic; and partly due to the difficulty of obtaining quota- tions for the same qualities of goods or in allowing for sub- stitution. the question is too intricate to discuss here; it can only be suggested that the results have little precision, and that the process of obtaining an estimate based on a new budget in which modifications of custom are allowed for is even more necessary than in the case of food. fuel and light present little difficulty when a general average for the country is in question since the retail prices of coal and of gas are ascertainable. the variations from north to south in price and consumption and that between winter and sum- mer are not very important, since where coal is dear, gas is used for cooking, and in working-class households one fire is necessary throughout the year for cooking and this also provides heat. the official index number allows only one-twelfth of the weekly expenditure for all items not already included, or about 1s. 6d. per household in 1914. this sum is exhausted by cleans- ing materials with a very small margin for tobacco, newspapers, household replacements and fares. insurance and trade-union subscriptions are not included, nor is alcohol. the five classes of expenditure now named are combined in the following proportions, stated for clearness on the basis of a pre-war urban weekly expenditure of 37s. 6d. food 22s. 6d., rent (including rates) 6s., clothing 4s. 6d., fuel and light 3s., sundries 1s. 6d. here the proportions on food, rent and light rest on good evidence; that on clothing, for which the expendi- tures vary greatly: according to the income and personnel of the family and for which there has never been a satisfactory investigation, is little more than a guess based on vague esti- mates; that on sundries is the residuum when other expenses are met and is probably too low. the results for sclected dates are as follows:— table: 11; official measurement of cost of living in great britain fuel baca || ett cloth- a ae all com- ing | licht | dries bined relative im- portances 60 16 12 8 4 100 july 1914 100 100 100 100 100 100 july 1919 209.) (7) (1) (}) (1) 205 to 210 dec. 1919 234 @) () 185 (*) 225 july 1920 258 117 430 230 220 252 dec. 1920 282 142 305 240 230 269 july 1921 220 145 290 260 210 219 dec. 1921 195 155 255 230 200 199 july 1922 180 153 240 190 195 184 dec. 1922 178 150 225 187 180 180 july 1923 162 147 220 182 185 169 dec. 1923 176 147 220 180 180 177 july 1924 162 147 225 185 180 170 dec. 1924 180 147 227 185 180 181 july 1925 167 147 230 180 180 173 dec. 1925 174 148 225 180 180 177 the statistics are for the beginning of each month. 1 not stated separately at these dates. table iii. index-number of retail prices of food, expressed in the currencies of the countries united kingdom france, paris! italy, milan switzerland netherlands, denmark sweden norway united states canada british india, bombay south africa australia new zealand amsterdam 1 fuel and lighting included. 2 these numbers refer to the jan. following. 3 for june 1924. costume it is probable that the increase in cost was exaggerated, at least to the end of 1920, owing to evasion of the higher prices by the sub- stitution of cheaper articles, without lowering the general standard obtained. from 1921, however, supplies have been adequate and the final change in the composition of the budget can hardly have reduced the number effectively by more than five points. the winter is higher than the summer numbcr, partly owing to seasonal dearness, partly owing to the assumption that eggs, etc., are bought in the same quantitics winter and summer, on the average the july num- ber is about 2° below the average for the year. tor fine measure- ments this variation should be taken into account, but in fact the index-number is not precise within, say, five points, even for the most general purposes, and still less is it a perfectly accurate measurement of the change in the cost of living in particular localities or occupations. other countries.—lt is only possible in the space available to state without analysis the official statistics of the movements of retail prices of food. in other countries, the numbers are subject to the same want of precision as in the united kingdom and are com- piled in a similar way. they represent the cost of purchasing from time to time a defined and unchanged ration estimated as typical of pre-war working-class consumption. these numbers are currently summarised in the ministry of labour gasette (london), the laber review (washington), and the jxternational labour review (geneva) and for each country in its official publication. the prices are, of course, strongly affected by the relative value of the currencies in the countries. the result of expressing them on a gold basis may he illustrated as follows, july 1920 being selected as near the date of the maximum of prices:— table iv. retail food index numbers —see, july 1920 july 1925 t 3 i] z a a ra) = 0 ° oo | gel s ge |e | a > oo a a. t) sa & —_ f rth oo ! ort ih =e om mo arg a | woe ao “a ee) = 5 a oo 4) = 4 y% "om aos “oo if “oo so <s = pars & : g fart = great britain} 258 76-6 198 167 100 167 paris . 373 39-4 146 a421 24:8 104 milan . 445 27-6 12 602 1g‘0 ii4 amsterdam 217 85:5 185 148 100 i48 denmark 253 58:9 149 210 79 166 sweden 2907 79 234 169 100 169 united states | | 7 thus, if an american had gone to paris in july 1925 with $ro4 he could have converted them into as many francs as would buy the food that cost $100 in paris in july 1914. in new york he would have needed $159 to purchase food that cost $100 in new york in july 1914. the great variation in the index from country to country, even after conversion to a gold basis, is noticeable. the increase is generally the less the greater the depreciation of currency. (sce index-numbers; prices; wages.) (a. l. bo.)