Middlemen in English Business 163 



the state to follow the example of Venice or other such ports in regu- 

 lating the export. Malynes in 1603 proposed that the authorities of 

 the ports be furnished ^\ith information from the justices of the coun- 

 ties as to the "quantity of corne in all places" and "consider what the 

 realme may spare, having a regard to the season of the yeare, and 

 making the price accordingh' . . . knowne in certaine publike 

 places" once a week; thus what would be "by license transported" 

 would be "done upon due knowledge."^ It was the common Eliza- 

 bethan policy to put the provision of corn for the poor as a duty upon 

 the town officials and to allow them to import corn if necessary from 

 abroad in times of dearth." Charles II permitted, 1670,^ the impor- 

 tation of corn subject to import duties which decreased as the home 

 market price increased. He also permitted the exportation of corn 

 whenever the market price was above prescribed minimum prices and 

 export duties were required.^ These export duties were removed 

 practically in 1689 and expressly in 1700.'' So the application of the 

 sliding scale of prices as the determining element as to importa- 

 tion and exportation was not an altogether new principle of com- 

 mercial policy; but the payment of export bounties under the 1689 

 act was new. This body of regulation which discouraged importa- 

 tion and encouraged exportation continued till 1765, when the ex- 

 portation of corn was prohibited and importation was made duty 

 free. This lasted till 1773. The acts of 1765 and 1773 reversed the 

 former policy — encouraged importation and discouraged exportation. 

 The corn-bounties had a very peculiar effect on the commerce of 

 corn. Throughout this period the rate of interest was lower in Hol- 

 land than in England by 2 or 3 per cent.*' To speculate heavily in 

 corn required large capital or credit, but money could be had more 

 cheaply in Holland. Hence in Holland larger stores of corn could be 

 carried in warehouses for the same outlay of capital and interest 

 charge. It was preferable to store corn in Holland's granaries. The 

 export bounty on corn more than paid the difference of transportation 

 charge. The merchants of London, accordingly, were in the })ractice 

 of hiring storehouses in Holland, Hamburgh, Dantzig, and other 



' Mal>'nes, lOugland's \'ie\v, 90-93; somewhat similar recommendations arc 

 given by E. Lamond, Discourse on Com. Weal, 16,^. 



-Leonard, 123-24; Faber, 97. 



' 22 Chas. II, Cap. 13. 



^ 12 Chas. II, Cap. 4; the minimum prices were raised in the fifteenth and twenty- 

 second years of his reign. 



5 1 Wm. & M. St. I, Cap. 12; 12 \Vm. Ill, Cap. 20. 



^Hatton, Comes, Supp.. 3; "Abstract of Crievances," 9; etc. See Chapter VII. 



