Food Price in Hong Kong in 1844-1940

API Detailed Documentation

API URL:

API Data Enquiry
Output Fields (JSON) Swagger Format
 
Name Type Unit Of Measure Description
Fd_yr Date Year
Fd_bread_a Number per pound  Bread 
Fd_tobac_a Number tins  Tobacco 
Fd_coffee_a Number per pound  Coffee 
Fd_milk_a Number per quart  Milk 
Fd_beef_a Number per pound  Beef 
Fd_pork_a Number per pound  Pork
Fd_rice_a Number per pound  Rice 
Fd_tea_a Number per pound  Tea 
Fd_sugar_a Number per pound  Sugar 
Fd_salt_a Number in 1-pound. jar  Salt (Table)  
Fd_beer_a Number per quart  Beer 
Footnotes
Food Price in Hong Kong in 1844-1940
Period: 1844-1940
Currency Unit: Pence of the UK Pound (= 1/240 UK Pound) 
Unit for Food Items: Bread: per pound
Tobacco: tins
Coffee: per pound
Milk: per quart
Beef: per pound
Pork: per pound
Rice: per pound
Tea: per pound
Sugar: per pound
Salt (Table): in 1-pound. jar
Beer: per quart
Source: Hong Kong Blue Book
Notes: The prices in 1879-1940 are originally reported in HK dollar.For consistency, they are transformed to UKP by multiplying a representative exchange rate of HK dollar in UKP.
When the price of a food item is given in range, we take the mid-point for calculation.
For 1845-78, average prices of food items in a year are reported in the HK Blue Book.
For 1879-1940, prices are given in range.
Food Price Index: Modified Food Price Index, base=1845, annual data.
Prices of the items are from the Hong Kong Blue Book. The relative weights of selected food items are based on a survey on consumer pattern conducted by the University of Hong Kong.
in December 1955. It was headed by Edward F. Szczepanik.
The survey does not provide a separate weight for beer or coffee. We follow the assumed weights used by C.F. Joseph Tom in his work "Monetary Problems of an Entrepot: The Hong Kong Experience (1963)".
Food Item: % in food basket
Rice: 30.76, Pork: 6.98,
Wheaten Bread: 4.02, Beef: 2.65,
Sugar: 0.84, Tea: 0.41, Milk: 0.35
Beer: 0.3, Table Salt: 0.28, Coffee: 0.2             
Javascript Example
$.ajax({
url: 'https://api.hkma.gov.hk/public/hkimr/food-price?offset=0',
dataType:'json',
success:function(data){
alert('results found:'+ data.result.datasize)
}
});
 
Python Example
import urllib.request
url = 'https://api.hkma.gov.hk/public/hkimr/food-price?offset=0'
with urllib.request.urlopen (url) as req:
print (req.read())