THE FOLLOWING TABLE shows Retail Prices in March and June, 1922, in respect of certain Commodities for which corresponding prices in 1914 were not collected.
------------------------------------+-----------------+--------------- | Mid-March, 1922.| Mid-June, 1922 |--------+--------+--------+------ | | M.L. | | M.L. | P.O. | and | P.O. | and | | L.G. | | L.G. ------------------------------------+--------+--------+--------+------ | d. | d. | d. | d. Butter (Irish Factory) per lb. | 21·9 | 21·1 | 22·0 | 20·6 Rice (Rangoon) per lb. | 4·1 | 4·0 | 3·9 | 3·8 Rice (Java) per lb. | 6·1 | 5·9 | 5·9 | 5·6 Jam (Strawberry) per lb. | 15·7 | 15·9 | 15·2 | 15·2 Fresh Pork (Shoulders) per lb. | 16·8 | 17·2 | 17·4 | 17·4 Fresh Herrings per lb. | 26·1 | 25·3 | 25·6 | 23·7 Cod Steak per lb. | 14·4 | 14·7 | 13·8 | 13·8 Tea (Quality most used by | | | | working classes) per lb. | 36·1 | 35·0 | 33·4 | 32·1 Cabbage per head | 3·6 | 3·7 | 3·4 | 3·1 ------------------------------------+--------+--------+--------+------
The above prices, which were used as far as possible in conjunction with other figures to arrive at the correct increases between July, 1914, and March and June, 1922, in respect of commodities, less specifically described in the returns for 1914 (_e.g._, Butter, Rice, Jam), will also be of value in the future as an additional basis from which to calculate the change in the cost of living.
There are obvious difficulties in the collection of figures for 1914 after so long a lapse of time, and the accuracy of these figures may possibly be questioned.
Despite the eight years' interval, however, we believe these prices to be reasonably accurate. The compilers of the returns were asked to get figures in every case from the actual books kept by the shopkeepers; and the food prices collected by us are in substantial agreement with those collected by the Board of Trade in 1914. The latter are, as a matter of fact, slightly higher than those collected by us, so that if they were to be used in preference to our figures the resultant percentage increase would be slightly lower than on the figures which we have accepted.
(_b_) _Comparison Restricted to Strictly Comparable Articles._
A point to be noted is that in comparing prices at different dates it is essential that articles of different quality should not be compared; milk, for instance, is a simple commodity and is always comparable with milk, but beef is a variable commodity inasmuch as sirloin beef is not strictly comparable with shin beef; consequently special figures showing the relative consumption and average prices of the different parts of beef, mutton and bacon were obtained on Form B3 (see Appendix), and in these cases the prices as returned for each description of meat are separately weighted by the average quantities purchased in order to arrive at the ultimate average prices for "beef," "mutton," etc.