622 
to the general disposition to withhold sur- 
plus capital from the so long unprofitable 
investment of agriculture. 
. The rise in cur market, whatever may 
have been its causes, was such in the ten 
years preceding 1773, as:to lead to an 
act of a new kind an act implying that 
in regard to corn, England was to be 
considered rather an importing than an 
exporting country. It permitted the im- 
port of foreign wheat whenever our own 
reached or exceeded 48s. the quarter; a 
limit just and moderate, which, while it 
relieved the consumer from an exorbitant 
rise on the occurrence of a bad harvest, 
was productive of no injury to our agri- 
culture, the prices of corn continuing to 
afford’ a steady return for the labour and 
capital employed. Our market now ex- 
hibited all the advantages of supply duly 
proportioned to demand: in some years 
a partial import was necessary; in others, 
the nature of our crops enabled us to 
export; but after 1788, a time of exten- 
sion and_prosperity to most of our manu- 
facturers, import decidedly predomi- 
nated, 
In 1791, the landed interest, not satis- 
fied with the advantage secured to them 
by the act of 1773, carried it a step far- 
ther, and obtained a law preventing im- 
port, except where our wheat should 
reach or exceed the price of 54s. the 
quarter. Whether this measure would 
have operated to raise prices, or by 
directing an extra share of capital to til- 
lage, would have, in some degree, low- 
ered them, we had no opportunity of 
ascertaining, so soon was it followed by 
the war of 1793. 
The wars of the present age, attended 
by an unparalleled drain of both la- 
bourers and capital, could not fail to 
raise the price of corn. For some time, 
however, the rise was gradual, the ave- 
rage price of our wheat, during: the first 
seven years of the war, not exceeding 
63s.3; but two successive bad harvests 
(1799 and 1800) altered the state of the 
market, and carried prices toa rate (6. 
and upwards) till then unprecedented in 
our history. Theseasons of 1801, 1802, 
and 1803, were favourable, and produced 
a fall to nearly 3/., a fall which, in con- 
currence with the demands of the Trea- 
sury on the land-holders for our renewed 
contest with France, led to the corn law 
of 1804, by which the import of foreign 
wheat was in a manner prohibited, until 
our own should be at or above 63s., and 
“taxed till our own reached 66s. These 
prices, high as they then seemed, were 
soon surpassed by the currency of our 
Lowe on the State of England. 
market, in consequence, partiy of an 
unfavourable season (1804), partly of 
the continued drain of hands and capital 
for the war. ‘These causes operated in.a 
greater or less degree over the. rest of 
Europe, and greatly lessened the relief 
which importation would otherwise have 
afforded. 
The. non-convertibility. of our pape 
currency had existed since 1797, and 
passed, in vulgar estimate, for the prin- 
cipal cause of this progressive rise ; but 
the degree of enhancement proceeding 
from it was slight (not. exceeding three 
or four per cent,) until 1809, when it 
was suddenly accelerated by an unfortu- 
nate concurrence of. circumstances; eX- 
penditure in Spain, the stoppage of neu- 
tral traffic, and above all, a deficient har- 
vest.. From this time forward, our pur- 
chases of foreign corn were made a sacri- 
fice of eighteen, twenty, or twenty-five 
per cent. a loss incurred on the whole of 
the very large sum of 7,000,0001. ex- 
pended on the purchase of corn in 1810. 
The currency. of our market was now 
between 5/, and 6/., and though, for one 
year, arise was prevented by the abun- 
dant harvest of 1810, the case became 
very different after that of 1811, although 
only partially deficient. A supply from 
abroad was now, in a manner, out.of) the 
question, partly from the anti-commer- 
cial edicts of the time, more from our 
want of specie and the fall of our bank 
paper. Accordingly, during 1812 and 
1813, our prices averaged above" 6/:,a 
rate ill-calculated to prepare our farmers 
for the great and general fall to be ex- 
pected from the approaching change in 
the state of Europe. : 
Never were the effects of peace more 
promptly or generally felt, than in 1814; 
import co-operated with favourable sea- 
sons; the price of corn fell rapidly, and 
it was in vain that parliament passed, 
early in 1815, a new act, forbidding im- 
port till the home price of our wheat ex- 
ceeded 80s.: the market continued..low, 
and for a time exposed. both the farmers 
and the public to all the evils of sudden 
transition.* In 1816 .a.-deficiency, of 
crop, more serious both in England and 
the continent, than any .in the present 
age, reversed this state of things, raised 
prices, and led, during 1817 and 1818, 
to an import of unexampled magnitude. 
* The transition from war to peace 
means, in plain language, a- variation of 
public expenditure, the abatement of loans, 
and the consequent non-employment of 
contractors.—ED. 
But 
