This very cheapening of many commodities in 1913, side by side with which went also a cheapening of many manufactured articles, was indicated as the sign of a decline in the power of consumption of the population.
The canal system of Canada, linking together the great natural waterways, is also of much present and prospective importance in cheapening the transportation of agricultural produce.
Thus weighting, which was until recently thought to apply only to black silks, and from which coloured silks were comparatively free, is now cheapening and deteriorating the latter in pretty much the same ratio as the former.
Statistics.-The cheapening of manufacture by improvements in processes and machinery, and by the increase in the scale of operations, has been very great.
Just as books were the means of multiplying, cheapening and disseminating ideas, so engravings on copper or wood were the means of multiplying, cheapening and disseminating images which gave vividness to the ideas, or served, for those ignorant of letters, in their stead.