Ii.—: Value and Quantity.

It is not enough to know the amount of exports and imports in one year, and compare it with that of another year, unless we know the prices given for the two years in the returns, and the method by which they have been discovered.

Every year the Economist gives a table comparing the quantity and value of the trade of the year with that of the preceding year.

If England had paid the same price for her imports as she did in 1903, their value was £480,000,000—an increase of 11/2 per cent.; and so for exports, an increase of 2·8 per cent. Then taking imports and exports together, we find the actual figures for British trade to be:—

—a quantitative difference of £15,252,000, or 2 per cent.

Now turning to price, there is a difference of 0·62 per cent. on imports and 0·35 on exports:—

Thus in the net increase of trade for 1904, relative to 1903, more than 5/6, or £15,252,000, is accounted for by the increase in the quantity of imports and exports, and less than 1/6, or £2,780,000, by the rise in prices.