Description of the files in the WHEATPR folder.

FOLDER NAME:  Wheatpr
Contains two files with annual wheat prices from Europe and
France.

FILE NAMES:
Europe.xls - European wheat prices
French.xls - French wheat prices

DESCRIPTION OF DATA SET:
The European annual wheat price data is
for the years 1500 to 1869. 
The French annual wheat price data is the price in 
Toulouse, France for the years 1486 to 1913.

SOURCE OF DATA SET:
The French data was compiled by Bertrand Roehner in "Wheat
Trade and Wheat Prices in France, 1486-1913" (ICPSR 9777) and
was extracted from the Inter-university Consortium for
Political and Social Research, P.O. Box 1248, Ann Arbor,
MI 48106. 

The European data source: W. H. Beveridge,"Weather and
Harvest Cycles," ECONOMIC JOURNAL, Vol. 31, 1921, pp. 429-452.

VARIABLES IN THE FILES: Variable name and description 

(Europe.xls) NUMBER OF OBSERVATIONS: 370
year - Year of data
priceind - Actual Index Number: the mean of the index numbers 
       	   for the individual countries included.  All the 
           component indices have a common base 1700 - 1745 = 100.
tfi - Trend Free Index: the ratio (expressed as a percentage)
        of the actual index number to its 31 point moving average
        smooth. 
	
(French.xls) NUMBER OF OBSERVATIONS: 428
year - Year of data
price - Price of wheat in September of each year in centimes
	     per hectolitres


COLUMN HEADINGS AND FIRST FOUR RECORDS AS THEY APPEAR IN THE FILE: 

(from Europe.xls) 
year priceind tfi
1500       17 106
1501       19 118
1502       20 124

(from French.xls) 
year price
1486    72
1487    62
1488    45