PRICE OF WHEAT IN ENGLAND.

Globe, Volume XXI, Issue 1773, 25 October 1879, Page 3

PRICE OF WHEAT IN ENGLAND.

[" EconomiEt," August 9th.] Laßt February we commented upon the extraordinarily low price of wheat then current. Taking the " Gazette" average for British wheat as our guide, the lowest quotation for a large number of yeara waa that for the week ended February 22nd, and the rise since then has been almost continuous, though latterly gathering impetus from our gloomy harvest proapects. The figures are aa followa : Weekly Avebagje Price of Wheat. Week Price. Ended s. d February 22nd 37 8 March Ist 38 0 April sth 40 11 May 3rd 40 9 June 7th 41 7 July sth 42 4 August 2nd 49 3 The rise since the end of February has, therefore, been 11a 8d per quarter, or upwards of 31 per cent. At this time last year the quotation waa only 44a lOd; and the farmers would no longer have any reason to complain of unremunerative prices if only they could mako fairly certain of securing an average yield. But thia it appears certain they will in many districts be denied. It is, however, somewhat curious to note that barley has all this time been falling in price, so that while since the Ist of January last wheat has advanced 10s per quarter, barley has fallen quite a siwilar amount, while oats have remained stationary. Indian corn has also receded in market value, bo that the rise has happily been confined to the one description of grain. In connection with thia subject, the following statements concerning the American crop, contained in Meters MoCulloch's circular, are of considerable interest:— Taking the country as a whole, it may perhaps be aaftly assumed that the winter and spring crops combined will yield about an average, or possibly slightly over. Under these circumstances, it becomes a serious question whether the European deficiencies can be supplied without an advance in the price of wheat. It is true, the present visible supply of wheat in the country ia unusually large, being 11,700,000 bushels, against 4,425,000 a year ago, and only 2,069,000 at the same date in 1877, and the stocks of Indian corn "in sight" are alao 5,300,000 bushels above what they were at this date of 1878: But theae figurea are email compared with what we are led to expect aa the extra requirements of Great Britain and the continent. In order to afford a more definite idea of what we may be able to contribute to European consumption, it may be proper to recite our total. exportß of wheat, flour, Indian corn and corn meal for each of the_last*three fiscal years:— Average Value, price. Bushels. S S „f C 1875--6... 55,000,000... 63,400,000... 1.24 .exports OI J 1876-7...40,3f>0,000...47,100,000...1.17 wneat (.1877-8.. .72,400,000.. .06,900,000... 1.34 Barrels. S S ~ .„ „ f ("1875-6... 3.935,000...24,400,000...6.21 f1V.,,. i 1876-7... 3,313,000...21,600,000...6.48 nour (.1877-8... 3,916,000...25,100,000...6.36 Bushels. $ S t, . . (-1875-6... 49,500,000.. .33,300,000.. .0.67} tF,?v „ J2L.-J 1876-7...70,800,000...41,600,000...0.58? Indian com (_i 8 77„ 8 „.55,508,000...48,000,000...0.56i Barrels. S S ■p™,™.*., „f f 1875-6... 354,240... 1,305,000...3.60 r£l ™»o1 \ 1876-7... 447,907... 1,511,000...3.37 corn meal \ 1877 ._ 8 _ 432.723... 1,335,000...3.09 It will be seen that, in the year ending June 30th, 1878, we sent out wheat and Indian corn valued at 171,335,000 dols, against 131,811,000 dols in 1876-7. The exports of the two grains for the coming year are likely to exceed these of 1877-8 in proportion as the European deficiency is greater than that of the harvest of 1877.