"An army marches or its stomach," Napoleon Bonaparte once said. He did not live in Shanghai in 1940 or he would never have uttered such a statement. To fill a Shanghai stomach so that it can be marched on is some task these days. Meat is an essential commodity if any marching, or work, is to be done. Best beef—25 to 50 cents a pound. Veal—40 cents to $1. Best pork—20 to 45 cents. Mutton—25 to 50 cents.
They were the prices for meat in force at the various markets in February, 1939. Look at the prices today! Sirloin roast, $1.50 a pound. Rib roast, $140. Rump steak, $1.50. Soup meat (dearer than the best meat in 1939), 85 cents. Today the prices of mutton range from $1 to $130, pork from 68 cents to 7. Veal fetches from $1.20 to $1.70. Even buffalo is $1.15 and goat $1.05. Again comment on the prices is unnecessary.
Fish prices, like the rest, have increased, although fish are so plentiful hereabouts and there need be no procuring of foreign supplies to send up the value because of foreign exchange. The dearest fish on sale on February
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.