330 EUROPEAN AGRICULTURE. 



LV. THE CORN EXCHANGE IN MARK LANE, LONDON. 



The supply of London itself is an immense affair. The or 

 dinary population of this mammoth city is estimated at about 

 1,800,000 ; and during the session of Parliament, in what is 

 technically called &quot; the season,&quot; when the legislature may be said 

 to be in full blast, all the places of public amusement opened, 

 and the court in the plenitude of its luxuries, it is supposed that 

 the population of London does not fall much short of 2,500,000. 

 Nothing impresses a reflecting mind with more force, than the 

 consideration how such vast numbers of people, all of whom are 

 consumers, are to be fed. Yet they are fed, and the cases of 

 want and starvation do not arise from any deficiency in the 

 supply of bread, of which there seems always enough and to 

 spare. 



&quot; The total importation of corn and grain of all kinds into 

 London averages, at the present time, about 28,000,000 bushels 

 annually, besides about 50,000 tons of flour and meal the 

 weight being at least 530,000 tons.&quot; The Corn Exchange, in 

 Mark Lane, is the great place of trade in corn and flour, and in 

 all kinds of grain and pulse. There are two spacious buildings 

 adjoining each other for the transaction of business and the 

 exhibition of samples, and the market is holden three times a 

 week, on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, Monday being 

 the principal market-day. The business done here is immense in 

 home-grown and in foreign grain. 



LVL CORN DUTIES. 



Grain is not admitted into England from foreign ports, Canada 

 excepted, free of duty, excepting when the price reaches its 

 maximum. The highest duty, of 20 shillings per quarter, is 

 paid when the price is 50 shillings per quarter, and the scale of 

 duties is a descending scale, in certain determinate proportions, 



