To meet the demand for a continuous record of the prices of the principal staple commodities showing the changes in the general price level from year to year, the Bureau of Labor in 1901 collected data relating to wholesale prices for the period from 1890 to 1901. These prices were compiled and both actual and relative prices for the twelve years published in Bulletin No. 39, the issue of March, 1902. The investigation thus begun has been continued each year and the results published in the March issue of the Bulletin to show actual prices for the year immediately preceding and relative prices for the period since 1890. Following that plan, the present Bulletin con-. tains actual prices for 1906 and relative prices for the seventeen years from 1890 to 1906. In these reports wholesale prices have been presented for a large number of carefully selected representative staple articles secured in representative markets of the United States. That it would be impossible to secure prices for all articles in all markets is so apparent that the fact hardly need be stated. In the present report prices are given for 258 representative articles. With a very few exceptions these articles are the same as have been. covered in the preceding reports on this subject. Retail prices of food, which indicate better than wholesale prices of food the changes in cost of living from year to year, are published in the July Bulletin of each year. The present investigation shows that wholesale prices, considering the 258 commodities as a whole, reached a higher level in 1906 than at any other time during the seventeen-year period covered. The average for the year 1906 was 5.6 per cent higher than for 1905; 36.5 per cent higher than that for 1897, the year of lowest prices during the 17-year period; and 22.4 per cent higher than the average for the ten years from 1890 to 1899. Prices reached their highest point during the 17-year period in December, 1906, the average for that month being 4.1 per cent higher than the average for the year 1906 and 6.3 per cent higher than the average for December, 1905. An examination of the prices of the various articles covered by the investigation shows that notwithstanding this large average increase the increase in price did not extend to all commodities. Of the 258 articles for which wholesale prices were obtained 30 showed no change in average price for the year and 50 showed a decrease in price as compared with 1905, while 178 showed an increase in price. The following table divides the articles for which prices were secured into 9 groups or classes and shows for each group the number of articles in the group, the per cent of increase or decrease in the average price for 1906 as compared with that for 1905, and the number of articles that increased or decreased in price: PER CENT OF INCREASE OR DECREASE IN AVERAGE PRICES FOR 1906 AS COMPARED WITH THOSE FOR 1905, AND NUMBER OF ARTICLES THAT INCREASED OR DECREASED IN PRICE, BY GROUPS OF COMMODITIES. From the above table it is seen that when the commodities are considered by groups, only two of the nine groups showed a decrease in price for 1906 as compared with 1905, namely, farm products and drugs and chemicals. Seven groups showed an increase in price, this increase reaching 10.4 per cent in the case of metals and implements and 9.6 per cent in the case of lumber and building materials. The average price for 1906 of farm products, taken as a whole, differed but little from that for 1905, a decrease of only one-half of 1 per cent being shown. A number of articles included in this group, however, increased in price. A reference to Table IV, page 380, shows an increase in the prices for 1906 of barley, cattle, cotton, hay, hides, hogs, oats, and western sheep, but the increase for these articles was slightly more than offset by the decrease in the prices of corn, flaxseed, hops, rye, native sheep, and wheat. Food as a whole increased 3.6 per cent in average price for 1906 as compared with 1905. In this group 28 articles increased in price, 5 showed no change, and 20 decreased in price. The principal articles showing an increase were cheese, fish, fruit, hog products, milk, |