for the United States. We note the great variability of the curves. Very seldom do they run horizontally. Occasionally, even in peace times, there is a variation of over 10% within a year.
Between 1873 and 1896, in countries using the gold standard, prices fell; while in countries using the silver standard, they rose. In the United States the fall was aggravated by the necessity of getting back from the paper standard of the Civil War to the gold standard. Prices fell from an index number of 100 in 1873 to 51 in 1896, when the cumulative downward movement resulted, politically, in the famous Bryan campaign.
But, by the irony of fate, scarcely had the country become excited over falling prices when the movement turned upward again; and, with few exceptions, it has
Fig. 3. Price Movements of the United States and England from the Earliest Index Numbers through the First Years of the Great War
Showing, in general, a close similarity. England was on a paper basis, 1801-20; and the United States, 1802-78. The dotted lines for these periods show the prices as translated back into gold.
