THE STANDARD OF VALUE AND THE EXCHANGES. [To THE EDITOR
OF Tut " SPECTATOR.") Sza,—I am sorry that in attempting to be picturesque I over- stepped the limits of the possible. But the principle is as sound as the illustration was faulty. If my genial critic will sub- stitute ten and twenty for the percentages, and eleven-twelfths for the final result, I trust that everything will be shipshape. As for the other matters, the suggestion that an increase of Clearing House transactions means decaying trade seems dis- tinctly novel. I suppose that an increase in assessable incomes has a similar significance. As to the Royal Commissions of the period, I was fully aware of them, and also that Professor Marshall was a witness before one of them, and told the Chair- man that appearances were deceptive, and that statistics did not bear out the theory that falling prices diminished the pro- ductiveness of industry. The figures subsequently available and given in the Blue Book to which I referred have amply vin- dicated his prescience. As for the Oldham yarn, I will not try to unravel it. But even here the British figures show some increase, and the commodity is only one item and not the most important of our manufactures. Let us balance it by steel, the production of which increased about fourfold.—I am, Sir, &c., H. H. O'FARRELL.
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