32 AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTION 



more and more inadequate, and imports 

 grew steadily and rapidly. We have seen 

 above that the average annual imports of 

 wheat rose to 907,638 quarters in 1831-40. 

 This was due mainly to four bad harvests, 

 for in 1836 the amount was only 25,000 

 quarters ; but the tendency was upwards all 

 the time. In 1841-49 the annual average rose 

 to 2,588,706 quarters. Again there were 

 several deficient harvests, but in good or bad 

 seasons alike the deficit was rising. There 

 was great distress, and in 1S46 the sliding 

 scale of import duties then in force under the 

 Corn Laws was modified, with eventual 

 abolition in 1849. These laws, which dated 

 from the Middle Ages and had undergone 

 innumerable modifications, were, and still 

 are, the subject of a vast amount of discus- 

 sion. In Mr. Prothero's judgment they had 

 little effect on prices, at any rate down to 

 1815, and he thinks it almost impossible to 

 decide whether their total effect was to 

 promote or retard agricultural progress. 

 " From 1689 to 1815," he says, " it is prob- 

 able that the marked deficiency or abundance 

 of the harvest in any single year produced a 

 greater effect on prices than was produced by 

 the Corn Laws in the 125 years of their exist- 

 ence as a complete system." This experience 

 only conforms to the general truth that laws 

 have a trifling influence compared with the 



