His successors gave to the world Pausanias, Strabo, Eschylus, Galen, Hippocrates, and Longinus; so that, when the Estiennes of Paris came to Italy, they found only Anacreon, Maximus, Tyrius, and Siculus, unedited. Aldus had sent forth Latin and Italian books also; the Etna and Asolani of Bembo, collections of Poliziano, the Divine Comedy, Cose Volgari of Petrarch, Prudentius, Pontanus, younger Pliny, Quintilian, Valerius Maximus, and Adagia and Proverbs of Erasmus, either in first edition or with new beauty of type and paper. He made one hundred and twentysix known editions, seventy-eight being in quarto or folio, and thirty-three being first editions of the greatest Greek authors, beside rewriting two Greek grammars and compiling a lexicon. All of the early books were printed from large, round, open types with broad margins,-fair imitations of the best manuscripts of his day, and in the style now most commended by bibliographers. He was not fortunate in getting the approval of all critics. One literary friend, Codrus, said in a letter to Aldus, that he was pleased with the workmanship and accuracy of the Aristotle, but indignant at the price. The five folio volumes brought about $20 in silver. The average price of a folio in London at the beginning of the eighteenth century was $12 to $15, and now is rarely less than $40 to $60. The prices asked by Bodoni, the Italian printer in the first quarter of this century, were twice and thrice as much as those of the elder Aldus. However, this adverse criticism was very fortunate for the people, in that it led to his invention of the Italic system.

His learning won the hearty praises of ripe scholars, nor did any student of the age express more fully his deep sense of the dignity conferred by learning on the soul of man. He called his Greek works the fruits of the Academy, but no man could have known better than he that his own genius was the life and spirit of the undertaking. His manuscripts were as open to the instruction of scholars as his printed books were to the public. Neither he nor his sons lived to see the benefits that he hoped would follow a wider study of classic texts. His work did not bring to Venice the ideal republic of Plato, for in 1520 Greek studies began to decline, as though exhausted by the enormous energy wherewith Florence had acquired and Venice disseminated such culture. To us far greater was his reach, in that he secured this literature

against the possibility of destruction and made it easy for Grocyn and Linacre to transplant the erudition beyond the Alps. Perhaps no more fitting tribute is left us of him than that of Musurus in the preface of the Greek grammar, published after the death of Aldus. Musurus deplores the loss of his friend, "a man of rare moral qualities, modest, just with his workers, generous with his enemies, in possession of the confidence of the wisest and most distinguished men of the age, feasted by the princes, lauded by the nobles,-all, for his effort to introduce in all Italy, and preserve to posterity, the famous works, annihilated by the Turks."

Living in an Era of Rising Prices

BY WILLIAM H. GLASSON

Professor of Economics in Trinity College

The country has scarcely recovered from the panic of 1907 and the depression of 1908, before, with the resumption of business activity, there is renewed complaint of the increase in the cost of living. In the spring of 1907, when general prices were reaching the highest point of a long and steady upward movement, newspapers and periodicals were full of discussions of the cause and effects of the general rise of nearly all commodity prices. The panic and the succeeding depression checked this rise of prices. But, in a surprisingly short time, the upward movement seems again to be in full swing, and prospects are that general prices will soon equal and exceed those recorded early in 1907.

The press has recently published some figures supplied by Bradstreet's Agency, which has been regularly recording wholesale prices for comparative purposes since 1892. It is computed by this agency that in the last thirteen years there has been an advance in the wholesale prices of commodities of about fortynine per cent. This would indicate an even greater rise in retail prices. In reaching this result, the agency has made use of the wholesale market prices of 106 different commodities, including breadstuffs, clothing, textiles, dairy products, fuel, building materials, leather, and, in fact, all the articles that enter to any appreciable extent into the demands of householders. What is technically called an "index number" has been constructed. This has been done by adding together the prices of a small amount, usually one pound, of all the 106 commodities on certain dates chosen for comparative purposes. The resulting amount is thought to represent very roughly the level of prices at each date.

In 1892, just before the panic of 1893, the total cost of the chosen quantity of all of the 106 commodities was $8.1382. In 1896, when the country was in the depths of the depression which followed the panic, the "index" price went down to $5.7019. Then came an intermediate period, and later, just before the panic of 1907, prices reached their highest point, the total commodity

price being $9.1293. In the summer of 1908 the price dropped to $7.7227, and after that there came a gradual increase. In January of this year the "index" price was $8.2631, while in August it was $8.5039.

According to the summary of Bradstreet's figures, published in the New York Times Financial Review, there has been an increase in the wholesale market price of the group of breadstuffs, in the representative quantities, since 1896 from 5 to 10 cents; live stock, 18 to 38 cents; provisions, $1.36 to $2.08; fruits, 12 cents to 17 cents; hides and leather, 82 cents to $1.25; textiles, $1.57 to $2.45; oils, 20 cents to 41 cents.

In 13 years the wholesale price of eggs has increased from 12 cents a dozen to 28 cents; mutton, 5 cents to 11 cents; bacon, 4 cents to 11 cents; butter, 15 cents to 27 cents, and potatoes, 75 cents per 180 pounds to $1.75.

The United States Bureau of Labor has long been keeping a much more representative and scientifically constructed index number. This is based on the wholesale prices of about 250 carefully selected representative staple articles secured in leading markets of the United States. The price of each article on the list is obtained monthly, and later the average price for the year is completed. From the adding together of the average prices for the year of each of the commodities, the price of the whole list for any given year is obtained. The Bureau of Labor has averaged up the yearly totals of prices of the 10 years from 1890 to 1899, and taken the resulting average as the basis, and called it 100. The price of the list of commodities on any other year is stated as a percentage of this basis.

The writer has not at hand the Bureau of Labor's figures for the movement of prices since the panic of 1907, but the prior publications of the Bureau give a substantial confirmation of the facts as to the upward tendency of prices which is a noteworthy feature of recent economic history. In 1906 prices had reached a higher level than in any other year of the seventeen then covered by the Bureau's investigations. Remembering that the average of prices for the period from 1890 to 1899 is taken by the Bureau as a basis of 100, prices were the lowest in 1897 when the index number was 89.7. From that time the index number tended upward until it reached 122.4 in 1906. Or, taking the price level of

1897 as a basis, by 1906 prices had risen 36.5 per cent. The rise of prices has been unequal in various lines. Comparing the year 1890 with the year 1906, the price of farm products rose in the 10 years 57.9 per cent.; the price of food 34.4 per cent.; the price of cloths and clothing 31.4 per cent.; the price of fuel and lighting 24.2 per cent.; the price of metals and implements 44.3 per cent.; the price of lumber and building materials 50 per cent.; and so on. The average prices of 1906 were 35.4 per cent. higher than those of 1896. Farm products which could have been bought in 1896 for $1.000 cost in 1906 $1,579; an amount of food, which in 1896 was sold for $1.000, was sold in 1906 for $1.344; a thousand dollars spent in building materials in 1896 purchased as much as $1,500 in 1906. Perhaps we may emphasize what has happened by getting rid of the terminology of dollars and putting the illustration in terms of gold which is our standard money. The coinage of gold being free, an ounce of gold will make, and is approximately equivalent to, $20.67. So we may say that an equal quantity of farm products could have been bought for 48.38 ounces of gold in 1896 and for 76.39 ounces of gold in 1906; an equal quantity of food could have been bought for 48.38 ounces and 65.02 ounces in the two years respectively; and an equal quantity of building materials would have cost 48.38 ounces of gold in 1896 and 72.57 ounces in 1906.

While the foregoing facts show the upward movement of prices prior to the panic of 1907, later publications of the Bureau show the check given to rising prices by the recent depression. The index number may be expected to rise again with the resumption of the upward tendency of prices which the country is now experiencing.

All this has a serious meaning for millions of people. If wages and income do not rise equally with prices, or if they rise more slowly than prices, the efforts of the consumer to secure his accustomed necessities and comforts of life become increasingly difficult. The discussions which are becoming so frequent in newspaper and magazine articles and editorials reflect his anxious: "What is the matter? Why is it that everything is going up?" Consequently, it may be of some service to review here some of the causes to which the increased cost of living has been, or may be, attributed.