120
OF PRICE
ones. .3. The diminished rate of profit produced bycapital however employed. This may be estimatedby the average price of three per cents, at the periodsstated. 4. The diminished price of the raw materialsout of which these articles were manufactured. Theraw material is principally brass and iron, and thereduction upon it may, in some measure, be esti-mated by the diminished price of iron and brass wire,in the cost of which articles, the labour bears a lessproportion than it does in many of the others. 5. Thesmaller quantity of raw material employed, and perhaps,in some instances, an inferior quality of workmanship.6. The improved means by which the same effect wasproduced by diminished labour.
In order to afford the means of estimating theinfluence of these several causes, the following tableis subjoined:—
Average Price of
1812.
1818.
1824.
1828.
1830.
1832.
£ s. d.
£ ^ d.
£ s. a.
£ .¥. rf.
£ s. d.
£ s. d.
Gold, per oz. . . .
4 15 6
4 0 0
3 17 62
3 17 7
3 17
3 17 10£
Value of currency, 7per cent. . . . J
79 5 $
97 6 10
100
100
100
100
Price of 3 per cent. 7consols . . . . J
59j
78i
83 §
86
89j
82J
Wheat, per quarter .
6 5 0
4 1 0
3 2 1
3 11 10
3 14 6
2 19 3
English pig-iron, at 7Birmingham . . )
7 10 0
6 7 6
6 10 0
5 10 0
4 10 0
••
10 10 0
9 10 0
7 15 0
6 0 0
5 0 0
Swedish bar-iron,in tLondon , exclud- fiog duty of from ••4/. to 0/. 10.y. per \ton ...... '
16 10 0
17 10 0^14 0 0
14 10 0
13 15 0
13 2 0
The most influential of these causes has un-doubtedly been the invention of cheaper modes of ,manufacturing. The extent to which this can be