Middlemen in English Business 159 



exports; the period of the Restoration was one of rapid transition and 

 was followed by a century of unparalleled exportation. It has been 

 elsewhere shown that due to the excessive growth of London the 

 metropolitan consumption overtaxed the producing parts of the 

 Kingdom in the period 1500-1660; again the Industrial Revolution so 

 industrialized the English population that not even the "New Agri- 

 culture" could keep the island as well supplied with corn after 1760. 

 These changes are registered by the changes in government policy 

 with respect to the corn trade and by changes in the mercantile 

 organization which performed that trade. 



In the days of the manor tolls were levied on corn in the internal 

 trade as it passed the town lines. There was a tax (lastage), levied 

 for fiscal purposes, on corn exports, and frequently licenses to export 

 corn were issued to merchants, especially in time of war. Since the 

 import trade in corn was negligible the state refrained from legisla- 

 tion with respect to it. By the beginning of the fourteenth centur>- 

 the non-producing but consuming population in the towns, partic- 

 ularly London, became an important factor in corn legislation. This 

 section of the people was naturally in favor of large home supplies at 

 low prices, looked with disfavor upon exportation abroad or carriage 

 to other parts of England and upon middlemen handling corn and 

 apparently raising prices. The policy with regard to the export of 

 corn thereafter fluctuated much according as the producing or con- 

 suming classes gained the ascendancy in Parliament or had better 

 access to the royal ear. Discriminating taxes were imposed upon 

 alien exporters and importers in 1303; four decades later the tax was 

 extended to denizens. During most of the fourteenth century expor- 

 tation was prohibited except under special license; this policy of pro- 

 hibition became more popular as the century waned. ^ The first 

 half of the fifteenth century was reactionary and compromising- 

 and indicates that the surplus for export was becoming larger and 

 the need of foreign corn or all the domestic corn was less feared. 

 During the latter half of the century it was the normal thing to be 

 exporting corn. Except in years of dearth this was freely done on 

 payment of the export duty, provided prices were lower than pre- 

 scribed moderate schedules; in case prices were higher importation 

 was allowed. 



• Cf. 34 Ed. Ill, Cap. 20. 



2 17 Rich. II, Cap. 7; 15 Hen. M, Cap. 2; 20 Hen. VI, Cap. 6; 23 Hen. VI, Cap. 

 .S;3Ed. IV, Cap. 2. 



