104 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1800. 



buted, in many places, to delay the 

 thrashing out barley and oats, and 

 may have had a similar temporary 

 effect on the price of these articles. 

 It appears to your committee, 

 that these circumstances might be 

 expected to have produced a very 

 high price at this season, even if the 

 late harvest had been abundant ; 

 that the degree in which it has been 

 deficient must naturally have added 

 to such price, whether with or with- 

 out the concurrence of any other 

 causes, the existence and effects of 

 which your committee pi-opose to 

 investigate in a farther stage of their 

 proceedings. Your committee, 

 therefore, think, it may reasonably 

 be expected, that the price, pro- 

 duced in some degree by tempo- 

 rary circumstances, will, when 

 those circumstances have ceased to 

 operate, experience a reduction ; 

 especially when it is generally 

 known, that on the result of all the 

 information that has been collected 

 from every part of the kingdom, 

 there is no ground to suppose that 

 the deficiency in the crop, below 

 the usual average, is greater than 

 Avhat your committee have ali-eady 

 stated ; and when it is also seen 

 to how considerable an extent we 

 may confidently expect that defi- 

 ciency to be remedied by the 

 double operation of importation 

 and economy. 



With respect to the former of 

 these objects, your committee ob- 

 serve, that within twelve months, 

 from September 26', 1799, to Sepr 

 tember 27, ISOO, there have been 

 imported into Great Britain no less 

 than 



1,26'1 ,9.'52quartersof wheat andflour 

 67,98 S barley, 



479,320 oats, 



300,693 cwt. rice. 



This happened under the unfa- 

 vourable circumstances of a harvest 

 abroad uncommonly deficient in 

 quality, and not abundant in quan- 

 tity, and of the late period of the 

 season when the bounty wasgranted 

 by parliament. 



It has been stated to your com- 

 mittee by several of the principal 

 importers of corn, that the wheat 

 of the present year, in the north of 

 Europe, is, by all accounts, far su- 

 perior in quality to that of last year; 

 in Germany, it is represented as 

 abundant ; and though some less 

 favourable accounts of later dates 

 have been received from other 

 parts, yet it is stated, that little re- 

 liance is to be placed upon them, 

 as they have only become less fa- 

 vourable since the deficiency of the 

 crop in this country has been the 

 subject of speculation abroad. All 

 other grain (except rice) has been 

 uncommonly abundant on most 

 parts of the continent of Europe. 

 The harvest in America, both of 

 wheat and rice, has been unusually 

 plentiful. Thcindemnifyingbounty, 

 now proposed to be given, is con- 

 sidered, by those importers whom 

 your committee have examined, as 

 much more satisfactory than what 

 was granted in the last session, and 

 as likely to afford still more effec- 

 tual encouragement. 



There seems therefore no reason 

 to doubt, as far as depends upon 

 the state of the harvest abroad, and 

 the probable exertions of foreign 

 and British importers, that the sup- 

 ply maybe fully equal to that of last 

 year in wheat and flour, and in oats 

 and rice will considerably exceed 

 it ; and that in other articles to 

 which encouragement may now be 

 extended, particularly in barley and 

 Indian corn, a large additional sup- 



