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I 10 ECONOMIC INQUIRIES AND STUDIES
the decline in the former being especially notorious.
In tobacco again in the last ten years there has been
no increase of the consumption per head;. which con-
trasts w.ith a rapid increase in the period just before-
viz., from about I.3I lbs. per head in 1865 to 1.46 lbs.
per head in 1875.
No doubt the observation here applies that the
utmost prosperity would obviously be consistent with
a slower rate of increase per head from period to period
in the consumption of these articles, and with, in the
end, a cessation of the rate of increase altogether.
The consumption of some articles may attain a com-
paratively stationary state, the increased resources of
the community being devoted to new articles. But
here, again, we have to observe the necessity for ex-
planation. The indications are no longer so sure and
obvious in all directions as they were. .
I t is difficult, indeed, to resist the impression made
wheri we put all the facts together, leaving out of sight
for a moment those of values only. We are able to
affirm positively-(a) That the production of coal,
iron, and other staple articles has been at a less rate
in the last ten years than formerly; (6) that this has
taken place when agricultural production has been
notoriously stationary, and when the production of
other articles such as copper, lead, etc., has positively
diminished; (c) that there has been a similar falling-
off in the rate of advance in the great textile indus-
tries; (d) that the receipts from railway traffic and the
figures of shipping in the foreign trade show a corre-
sponding slackenirig in the rate of increase in the
business movement; and (e) that the figures as to con-
sumption of leading articles, such as tea, sugar, spirits,
and tobacco, in showing a similar decline in the rate of
increase, and; in some cases, a diminution, are at least
not in contradiction with the other facts stated, although
it may be allowed that there was no antecedent reason
to expect an indefinite continuance of a former rate of
increase.