Why do we use the term "hike" to describe an increase in price, value etc?

The earliest reference I can find in the OED to this sense of hike is from 1904.

1904 Topeka Capital 10 June 4 City Center kept the price of ice cream sodas at five cents until the State Sunday School convention struck town, and then the scale was hiked to ten cents.

We talk about a hike in stock-market value, a hike in interest rates/rents/wages etc.

It is also used as a transitive verb. But why is it hike?

Solution 1:

According Etymonline the meaning of "raise' is probably from the sense of "pull up", a variant of "hitch" ( from Middle English hytchen, hichen, icchen ‎, “to move, jerk, stir”).

Hike:

• Sense of "pull up" (as pants) first recorded 1873 in American English, and may be a variant of hitch; extended sense of "raise" (as wages) is 1867.