Our inquiry can, therefore, be divided into four main stages:
=(A)= The collection of retail prices for July, 1914, and March and June, 1922.
=(B)= The collection and analysis of representative family budgets by means of which to determine the "weighting" of the retail price changes.
=(C)= The combination of the retail price changes by means of the "weights" so obtained into one final figure.
=(D)= The results of applying different methods of "weighting."
We found that as regards articles of food much of the information we required had already been collected by the Ministry of Economic Affairs who had obtained returns for July, 1914, and March, 1922, from 420 sources in towns of 500 persons and upwards; and also that retail prices of a certain number of articles of food had been collected in 1914, in Ireland by the Labour Statistics Branch of the Board of Trade.
Our first task was, therefore, to collect returns of the retail prices in June, 1922, of all the commodities selected, and of the corresponding prices in July, 1914, and March, 1922, where these were not already at our disposal.
Forms were accordingly drawn up on which this information could be collected and specimens of these forms are shown in the Appendix to the Report.
(1) _Food, Clothing, Fuel and Light, and Sundries._
These forms for food, clothing, fuel and light and sundries, were sent out for completion through the channels used by the Ministry for Economic Affairs in its inquiry (viz.:--officials of the Post Office, of the Ministry of Labour, and of the Local Government Board, and in the Six-County area through other sources), and to the same towns as in that inquiry (viz.:--towns with populations of 500 and over). In the case of the larger towns more than one report was asked for, graduating from two returns to twenty returns according to their population as shown in the Census of 1911.
The following table summarises essential particulars regarding the forms:--
---------------------------+-----------+----------+--------------------- | | Number | | Number | of | Returns Form. | of Forms | Towns | collected |dealt with.|from which| by | | received.| ---------------------------+-----------+----------+--------------------- Prices (Food) A | 450 | 250 } | Prices (Food, Fuel and | | } |Post Office, Ministry Light and Sundries) B 2| 436 | 220 } | of Labour, and Prices (Meat) B 3| 434 | 227 } | Local Government Prices (Clothing) B 4| 436 | 216 } | Board Officials. Rents B 5| 91 | 71 |Rate Collectors and | | | Town Clerks. ---------------------------+-----------+----------+---------------------