( 94 ) 



T lie baker's profits on loaf-bread are limit- 

 ed by act of parliament ; and why may not the 

 butcher's, and that of thofe who either buy 

 or import corns to be made into meal ? How 

 often do we fee thofe who import corns, in 

 time of fcarcity, buy up in one part of the 

 country what they {hip off to another ; by 

 which means the price is fometimes raifed 

 very high. Nay, fometimes thofe very corns, 

 or others of the fame kind, are returned at 

 an advanced price to the place from whence 

 they were originally ftiipped ; and thus an 

 artificial dearth is raifed, as was feen in the 

 year 1756. At that time, thofe who dealt in 

 meal in the North of Scotland, refufed ijs, 

 per boll, for that of the crop of 1756 ; yet a 

 great part of that very meal was afterwards 

 fold in 1 757, for 5 s. per boll ; fbme of it fq 

 much damaged by keeping, and the oatmeal 

 mixed with bear, that they were 'obliged to 

 throw it on the dunghill. 



This ihews, that whenever the corn crop 

 reater than the coiifumpt, it is beyond 

 the power of any fet of people, whether gen- 

 tlemen, merchants, or farmers, to combine 

 together in fuch a manner as to raife the 



price 



