Based on figures from the Labour Gazette 11 (1910-1911), page 53, this chart traces the wholesale prices of commodities for the period 1890-1909. In 1905 the value of the index was 114. This indicates that the cost of purchasing 230 commodities in 1905 was fourteen per cent higher than the cost of purchasing the same commodities during the base period 1890-1899. The rapid inflation of prices robbed workers of their hard won wage gains. From 1896 to 1914 meat rose 120 per cent in wholesale price, dairy products 70 per cent, fish 60 per cent, cereals 70 per cent and lumber 90 per cent. Department of Labour statistics estimated that it cost Toronto workers 45.1 per cent more in 1913 than it had in 1900 to buy the staple foods necessary for their families. It was also estimated that, during the same period, rent on a typical six room Toronto workers' house had increased by 90 per cent. Compare these statistics with the wage increases in illustration fourteen.
