Prices of Goods / Preços dos Géneros
, etc.. We indicate below the prices of various foodstuffs and other goods now and before the war, so that in the future it will be easy to know how much the cost of living has increased in Funchal from 1914 to the present (1921). We believe that the greed and lack of scruples of many merchants, industrialists, and farmers have had a greater influence on the increase in the cost of living than the devaluation of our currency and the increase in contributions and workers' salaries, although these are the causes generally cited to explain the multiplication of domestic expenses and the consequent disappearance of the small savings, previously accumulated by the less affluent at the cost of many sacrifices.
Prices in 1914. Sugar, $28 and $29 per kilo, rice, $08 to $10 per kilo, olive oil, $26 per liter, codfish, $24 per kilo, potatoes, $02(5) per kilo, coffee, $50 and $60 per kilo, pork, $26 per kilo, beef, $24 per kilo, onion, $03 per kilo, barley, $40 per bushel, tea, 2$00 and 2$60 per kilo, chouriço from Lisbon $80 per kilo, peas, $80 per bushel, broad bean $50 per bushel, beans, 1$20 per bushel chickpeas, $16 per kilo, milk, $04 per bottle, butter, $78 per kilo, pasta, $13 per kilo, ground corn, $04 per kilo, bread, $10 per kilo, eggs, $20 per dozen, petroleum, $10 per liter, cheese, $65 per kilo, soap, $14 per kilo semolina, $04 and $06 per kilo, wheat, $83 per bushel, candles, $18 per bunch and vinegar, $09 per liter.
Prices in 1923. Sugar, 4$20 per kilo rice, 1$70 to 2$40 per kilo, olive oil, 6$00 per liter, codfish, 5$00 per kilo, potatoes, $50 to $70 per kilo, coffee, 7$00 to 8$00 per kilo pork, 5$00 per kilo, beef 4$00 per kilo, onions, 1$50 per kilo, barley, 10$00 per bushel, tea, 12$00 to 20$00 per kilo, chouriço from Lisbon, 14$00 per kilo, peas, 12$00 per bushel, broad bean, 11$00 per bushel, beans, 20$00 and 21$00 per bushel, chickpeas, 1$40 to 2$00 per kilo, milk, $50 per bottle, butter, 9$00 to 10$00 per kilo, food pasta, 2$30 to 2$40 per kilo corn, 1$20 per kilo, eggs, 3$60 per dozen, bread, 1$30 to 1$40 per kilo, petroleum, 2$00 per liter, cheese, 14$00 to 16$00 per kilo, soap, 4$40 per kilo, semolina, $50 to 1$20 per kilo, wheat; 12$00 per bushel, candles, 2$80 and 3$00 per bunch and vinegar, $80 per liter.
It should not be surprising that tea and petroleum, for example, which are foreign goods, cost today (1921) seven and twenty times more than in 1914, but what is inexplicable, despite the excessive wages demanded by agricultural workers, is that not only national goods are being sold at fifteen, twenty, and even fifty times the prices of the past, but also those produced in Madeira. If we move from grocery items to various fabrics and clothing articles, the discrepancies are even greater, and the ever-increasing cost of living has made the situation quite difficult for some classes that once had a comfortable life.
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