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British Financial Experience, 1790-1830 283 BRITISH FINANCIAL EXPERIENCE 1790-1830 NORMAN J. SILBERLING HE monetary and financial events which attended brought down to 1837 in the History of Prices,1 with the Tthe military operations carried on by Great Britain assistance of Mr. M. L. Merac, who likewise derived and her continental allies against the armies of France, practically all of his figures from the Price Current. The between 1793 and 1815, have acquired at this time a table of prices as given in this volume includes the high special interest. The wars of the Napoleonic era pre- and low quotations at four periods within each year: sent, in their political and economic aspects, numerous (1) about the middle of January, (2) the last days of points of similarity to, as well as interesting points of March and first days of April, (3) about the middle of contrast with, the great war of the past five years. An July, and (4) about the middle of November. There examination of some of the financial experiences of are many gaps in the data, especially in the quotations England during and immediately following this earlier for the first and last periods during the earlier years. period may be useful, not only in setting forth historical This series was continued in the subsequent volumes of parallels and contrasts, but in furnishing valuable the History of Prices. In the early sixties, Professor lessons for our own time. Jevons conceived the plan of casting these materials It is proposed to consider in this paper, certain as- into the form of an index number, in order that the pects of the financial history of England for a period general trend of prices might be ascertained. His re- beginning just before the war and extending to the year sults first appeared in the Journal of the Royal Statistical 2 1830, thus including the interval of recovery and return Society for June, 1865. Jevons utilized practically all of to normal conditions. The object of this study is Tooke's quotations, as given in the History of Prices, primarily to bring together statistical data concerning and supplemented these by a very few others from dif- currency, prices, the rate of interest, etc., which are ferent sources. No attempt was made to average the available without elaborate research and special cal- four sets of quotations for each article each year, and culation. It is not intended to enter at any length into Jevons used merely those for the second quarter, for a causal inquiry or reasoned interpretation of the events which the figures were on the whole most complete. disclosed, but rather to present the materials in clear This fact is of importance in the proper use and under- and usable form, enabling comparison to be made be- standing of his results. Taking the prices of 1782 as tween the various sets of data and laying a basis for a base, Jevons constructed a series of index numbers, further investigation. using the geometric mean of the individual ratios to obtain the final indices. No weights were given to the COMMODITY PRICES various commodities except by the inclusion in some Statistics of price movements form a natural starting instances of several varieties of the same article, as in point for an inquiry of this sort. For the well-known the case of cotton, coffee, and sugar. Jevons also ob- index numbers of W. Stanley Jevons, for the years from tained index numbers for various groups of commodities 1782 until 1865, we are primarily indebted to Mr. such as " corn " (six cereals), metals, fibres, oriental Thomas Tooke, an English merchant in the Russian and tropical produce. The commodities entering into trade whose career extended through and beyond the his general index number, and the composition of the war period. Tooke, an earnest student of currency and special groups for the limited period 1782-1830 are prices, published in 1823 a work entitled Thoughts and enumerated in Table 1. An examination of this list Details on the High and Low Prices of the Last Thirty Years, later expanded into the first two volumes of his TABLE 1. —COMMODITIES REPRESENTED IN more widely familiar History of Prices. In his Thoughts JEVONS' INDEX NUMBERS FROM and Details Tooke included a table, extending from 1782 1782 TO 1830 to 1822, of the prices of seventy-eight raw materials and CORN foodstuffs (including different varieties) which were fur- Wheat, Gazette average nished by a friend, Mr. A. Hinrichs. The principal Barley, " Oats, source was Prince's Price Current established in 1782, Rye, the leading publication of its kind in that day. Only Beans, « about forty of these quotations were later copied and Peas, " " from 1792. 1 Vol. 2, Appendix, 1838. MEAT 2 Reprinted in his Investigations in Currency and Finance, 1884, Mutton, St. Thomas' Hospital average. pp. 119 f. In the reference above to the Journal of the Royal Statistical Society I have used the present name of the publication. Previous to Beef, St. Thomas' Hospital average. 1887 it was called the Statistical Journal. Irish mess beef, St. Thomas' Hospital average. [282] Digitized for FRASER http://fraser.stlouisfed.org/ Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis BRITISH FINANCIAL EXPERIENCE, 1790-1830 283 FIBRES base year, 1782; and for eight commodities, later than Cotton, Upland, 1793 Tooke until 1801; after 1801 1790, the year from which I shall hereafter compare " Pernam, 1788 from Journal of the Royal Statis- Jevons' series with various other series.1 All the articles " Surat, 1790 tical Society, December 1862. in Jevons' list are foods and raw materials, but they " Surinam, 1782-1844; Demerara after 1820. include a fair proportion of the important articles of Wool, Southdown, average 1784-1845, McCulloch's Dic- tionary. this nature for the period concerned. Table 2 contains Silk, China, raw. Flax, St. Petersburg. TABLE 2. —JEVONS' INDEX NUMBERS OF PRICES TIMBER FOR FORTY COMMODITIES AND FOR CEREALS, Memel fir, in bond. METALS, AND ORIENTAL PRODUCE, 1782-1830.* Quebec yellow pine, 1784-1806, 1820-39, 1813-21, McCulloch's Dictionary. Year (usually the Forty Oriental second quarter) commodities Cereals Metals produce OILS 1782 IOO IOO IOO IOO Gallipoli, in bond. 1783 I27 IOO IOI Fish. 1784 93 Il6 9O 94 FODDER 1785 90 IO4 89 93 Hay, Gentlemen's Magazine^ 1798. 1786 85 IO5 95 82 Clover, Gentlemen's Magazine, 1803. 1787 87 IO2 93 9i Straw, Gentlemen's Magazine, 1798. 1788 87 99 96 9i 1789 85 I05 93 85 METALS I79O 87 117 92 80 Copper, tough cakes. 1791 89 112 IOO 89 Lead, British pigs. I792 93 no 108 107 Tin, English bars. 1793 99 129 113 96 Pig. 1794 98 140 in 84 Iron Wrought, Russia. 1795 117 168 108 96 Bars, Welsh. 1796 125 I53 117 DYES 1797 no 112 123 85 Logwood, Jamaica. 1798 118 116 122 107 Indigo superior and inferior, East India. 1799 130 IS9 127 IOO Cochineal, Spanish. l8oo 141 252 *35 80 I8OI 153 253 152 87 TROPICAL FOODS, ETC.* I8O2 119 140 148 80 Sugar, Muscovados, Tooke 1782-1805, Gazette average after 1803 128 127 148 76 1804 122 138 1800. 151 73 " Havannah, for exportation, after 1801. I805 136 182 166 81 1806 *33 163 i74 81 ng0U Tea ^° - 1807 hyson 132 173 156 75 Coffee, superior British plantation. 1808 149 201 160 86 " inferior British plantation. 1809 161 211 164 88 " St. Domingo, for exportation, after 1807. l8lO 164 203 165 96 Rum, Jamaica, l8ll 147 182 161 81 81 Rice, Carolina. I8l2 148 272 i45 Pepper, East India black. 1813 149 256 144 88 Cinnamon, first quality, in bond. 1814 153 165 151 121 Tobacco, Virginia, in bond. I8I5 132 137 138 98 I8l6 109 148 115 82 1817 120 198 83 MISCELLANEOUS no I8l8 135 209 122 93 Butter, Waterford, etc. 1819 117 186 119 78 Tallow, St. Petersburg. I82O 106 152 109 67 Ashes, barilla, Carthagena in bond. I82I 116 101 68 u 94 pearl; Danzig or Russia. l822 88 92 IOO 67 Hemp, St. Petersburg, clean. 1823 89 125 107 65 Tar, Stockholm. 1824 88 147 108 61 * Another group of " oriental produce " for which a separate 1825 103 i57 123 80 series was calculated includes sugar, tea, pepper, cinnamon, indigo, 1826 90 152 III 56 China silk, and Surat cotton. 1827 90 155 103 58 1828 81 136 95 53 discloses an aggregate of fifty-two items — counting 1829 79 135 89 5i different varieties of the same article — and of about 183O 81 138 81 52 forty distinct commodities. For several articles the first quotations obtained were for years later than the * Based on currency prices relative to those in 1782. Jevons' data for various groups of articles are given for the years 1801-20 inclusive, 1 The years in which the quotations begin are as follows: 1792, in terms of gold; these figures were therefore reconverted to paper by 1793, 1798, 1801, 1803, 1806, and 1808. the index of the price of gold which Jevons used. Digitized for FRASER http://fraser.stlouisfed.org/ Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 284 THE REVIEW OF ECONOMIC STATISTICS CHART 1. —JEVONS' INDEX NUMBERS OF PRICES FOR FORTY COMMODITIES, FOR CORN, FOR METALS, AND FOR ORIENTAL PRODUCE, 1782-1830 (DATA GIVEN IN TABLE 2) (a) FORTY COMMODITIES. UNITS OP ONE PER CENT. (C) METALS. UNITS OF ONE PER CENT. (b) CORN (CEREALS). " « « " (d) ORIENTAL PRODUCE. " « " « * SERIOUSLY DEFICIENT HARVESTS. the index numbers derived for all articles, and for those with the exception of beans, peas, mutton, Georgia of three important special groups, namely, " corn," cotton, fodder, and wrought iron; and in addition it metals, and oriental produce.
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