Article 8: Statistics
This is part 8 of a series. Go to the 1st Paper for the first part.
Money Watch
Augest 3, 1778
Dasha Stykes
The drought and resulting famine have impacted urban centers such as Forcastle the most. Farmers are barely producing enough food to survive and are therefore reluctant to see it all sent away, out of their reach. The law of supply and demand dictate that the price must rise, and in this case, rise significantly. How significantly no one anticipated. We’ve compiled a list of the price and income fluctuations leading up to the famine and subsequent market crash.
This table shows the rise in the price of one loaf of bread over time.
August ¢24.00
September ¢24.10
October ¢24.13
November ¢24.9
December ¢24.15
January ¢24.2
February ¢24.27
March ¢24.43
April ¢25.52
May ¢27.97
June ¢31.23
July ¢41.32
As demonstrated, prices grew only marginally until April, where it rose by almost 4 and a half percent. Since May, many people in Forcastle, and other major metropolitan areas have become poorer as more and more of their income has to be set aside for food. The rising price of food also affects everyone, even employers. This means that employers have less money with which to pay their workers and that buyers have less money with which to purchase. The rising price of bread is compounded by a lack of pay.
The drought furthered the price increase, but what did the most damage was people who, in fear of the 40¢ and subsequent 10% increase, began to buy bread in excess. We urge everyone not to hoard bread. Those who do are increasing scarcity and making the problem worse for everyone else. We need to stand in solidarity if we are to all get through this.
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