Using に to make a comparison


I came across the following sentence in an old Japanese text a while ago and
am wondering about the use of に here:

> 工場の規模極めて小さく且使用機械不完全なる為め、製品の品質本邦產品に劣り。

Now I am pretty sure that the に here is used to make a comparison. But I have
never seen に used like this. So is this use of に to make a comparison common?




It is rather that 劣{おと}る (and its opposite 勝{まさ}る/優{まさ}る) takes に-phrases.
They correspond literally _inferior/superior **to**_. So に is used for
comparison as commonly as _to_ is used for comparison.

* * *

I assume 劣り is a typo for 劣る.

