=402. Rise in the price level since 1896.=—Toward the close of the nineteenth century a change became apparent in the very basis of business, namely in the world’s money in which prices are expressed. The prices of different commodities never rise or fall exactly in unison, but it is possible by statistics to show the change in the average of prices or the price level, as it is called; and a study of recent statistics shows a rise in prices so extensive and so rapid as to make it clearly a topic deserving serious attention from the student of commercial development. Taking for the basis of comparison the average of prices in the decade 1890-1899, the price of staple raw commodities in the United States had risen in 1910 by almost 40%; or, comparing 1910 with 1896, when prices were lowest, by 66.3%, almost two-thirds. The change has been less marked in manufactured wares, for it has been offset to a certain extent by improvements in methods of production, but still it is very great: nearly 30% compared with the decade before 1900, and over 40% compared with 1896. =403. Effects of increase in the world’s gold production.=—Countless factors have contributed to this result, in one way or another, but economists are generally agreed that the one cause overshadowing all others is the increase in the world’s output of gold. The metal which is the basis of the world’s currency system has become so plentiful that it has cheapened; and the purchaser of wares has now to give more gold for them, that is, prices have risen. From the time of the Californian and the Australian gold discoveries, for almost half a century, the world’s annual gold output was curiously constant, at a figure somewhat over _one_ hundred million dollars. The discovery of new gold fields and the perfection of new processes effected a revolution. The output of 1896 first exceeded the figure of _two_ hundred million, in 1899 it passed the mark of _three_ hundred, in 1906 and in succeeding years past 1910 it never fell below _four_ hundred million.