217 



CORN-LAWS AND CORN-TRADE. 



CORK-LAWS AND CORN-TRADE. 



218 



and has its bearings in a sliding frame. Other apparatus allows the 

 spindles to disengage the cork when cut. The edge of the cutter- 

 wheel is kept sharp during the operation by means of two rotating 

 discs, oue acting on each face, and each covered with leather and emery. 

 The blocks or pieces of cork are placed in a box, from which they are 

 taken by a jaw which slides forward and places them between the 

 grips of the revolving spindles. 



Another plan was patented a few years ago by Messrs. Cutler and 

 Hancock. A horizontal spindle, running in suitable bearings, carries 

 ajiollow conical cutter at each end. The largest end of the cone, 

 which is outwards, is made very sharp ; and a small opening lengthwise 

 of the cutter has also a cutting edge, for reducing the cork to a proper 

 size and shape, as it enters the cone. A convenient number of these 

 spindles are mounted in a frame, to which a traversing motion can be 

 given by means of a screw and handle. A rapid motion is communi- 

 cated to the spindles by a number of belts from a large drum moved 

 by a steam engine or other source of power. Pieces of cork are placed 

 in a holder ; and the holder being placed in front of the cutters, with 

 a proper support behind, they are urged forward by the hand screw 

 until the cork has been cut through. The corks, as they are made, 

 are pushed out by rods, which slide within the spindles. 



Mr. Gilpee's ]>atented machine for cork cutting, has a cutting blade 

 which has a horizontal reciprocating motion, and which acts upon 

 pieces of cork grasped by rotating holders. Harris's patented apparatus 

 contains a circular toothed cutter, mounted horizontally with a circle of 

 holders ; pieces of cork are put into the holders, and the holders 

 receive modified movements while the cutter revolves. 



A " Patent Cork Cutting Company " was established a few years 

 ago, for the manufacture of corks by machinery. The patentees 

 averred that the corks so made were both cheaper and better than 

 those made by hand. The same company manufactured cork gun- 

 wadding, used in military services. The speculation was not however 

 successful. 



Many substitutes for cork have from time to time been introduced, 

 as stoppers for bottles. Mr. Brockedon has invented bottle-stoppers 

 made of India-rubber. The core of the stopper is made of cotton 

 twisted into strands ; several of the strands, lapped with flax thread, 

 are laid together longitudinally, with .loose fine cotton roving laid 

 between them. They are then lapped in a cylindrical form with flax 

 thread, and the India-rubber solution applied to it while warm. It is 

 only for peculiar purposes that these stoppers can be used as substi- 

 tutes for corks ; when applied, they must be slightly wetted to make 

 them slide down the inner surface of the neck of the bottle. 



Messrs Belts hare introduced metallic capsules for covering the 

 mouths of corked bottles. [CAPSULES.] 



One of many modes suggested of employing cork for stuffing beds 

 and cushions is that patented a few years ago by M. Bachelard. 

 According to this suggestion, the cork is used in the state of saw-dust 

 or shreds, instead of in bulk. Any mode of preparing it may be 

 adopted, provided the cork be in very small fragments. It may be used 

 alone, or combined with wool or horsehair. The patentee states that 

 if a substratum of the cork be covered with a layer of horse-hair or 

 wool, we shall have all the smoothness of a horse-hair or wool mat- 

 trass, combined with the lightness and elasticity of cork. When used 

 at sea, such a mattrass might be light enough to act as a life-preserver, 

 in case of exigency. Mr. Ritchie has introduced an ingenious mode of 

 using cork in beds, mattrasses, &c. ; and also in hats. 



CORN-LAWS AND CORN-TRADE. From a very early period 

 of our history the corn-trade of the country was the subject of legis- 

 lative interference and restriction. At first, and while the kingdom 

 was thinly peopled, it was deemed good policy, in order to insure 

 a sufficient supply of food for its inhabitants, to forbid the exportation 

 of corn, while its importation was freely permitted ; but, in later times, 

 during which the population had increased with a rapidity rarely seen 

 in long-settled countries, the policy of the legislature was altogether 

 different. The object then sought was to stimulate home production 

 by prohibiting importation, or by restricting it in such a degree as to 

 secure to the native fanners a monopoly of the home market, and its 

 ultimate aim was professed to be the securing of a constant sufficiency 

 of a principal article of food, independent of all foreign countries, by 

 means which should insure to the home grower an adequate return for 

 the capital and skill employed. It needs no argument now to show 

 that the policy of our ancestors was ill calculated to insure the end 

 which they had in view, that of providing a sufficiency of cheap food 

 for the common people. 



The earliest statute extant upon this subject is the 34th Edw. III., 

 c. 20, passed in 1360-61, by which it was enacted, that" the passage of 

 corn shall be prohibited in all the ports of England, so that none have 

 licence nor warrant to pass with such corn in anywise, unless it be to 

 Calais or Gascoigue, or to other special places which it behoveth that 

 the king cause to be furnished with the corn of England, and that at 

 his own ordinance and licence." 



The phraseology of this act has led to the supposition that exporta- 

 tion was previously illegal, except with a licence from the king, and 

 that the, object in framing this law was to define and restrict the royal 

 prerogative in this particular. In 1394 another act was passed (17 

 Richard II., c. 7) of a somewhat contrary tendency. By this new law 

 licence is granted by the king such are the terms of the act " to all 



his liege people of his realm of England, to ship and carry corn out of 

 the said realm, to what parts that please them, except to his enemies, 

 paying the subsidies and devoirs thereof due, notwithstanding any 

 ordinance, proclamation, or any defence (prohibition) made before this 

 time to the contrary ; nevertheless he will that his council may re- 

 strain the said passage when they shall think best for the profit of the 

 realm." This act was confirmed in 1425 by the act 4 Henry VI., c. 5. 

 Eleven years later it was thought necessary to fix a limit in regard to 

 the price at which the liberty to export should cease, and that limit was 

 declared (15 Henry VI., c. 2) to be 6s. 8rf. per quarter for wheat, and 

 3s. per quarter for barley. This act was passed for only a limited 

 time, and had expired, when, in 1441, on the meeting of parliament, it 

 was renewed in the following terms : " Our sovereign lord the king, 

 forasmuch as this statute is not now in his force, and that many 

 counties adjoining to the sea may not sell the substance of their corn 

 but by carriage and bringing by the sea, hath ordained, that the statute 

 and ordinance aforesaid, now expired, shall begin to hold his force at 

 the Feast of the Nativity of our Lady next ensuing, and shall endure 

 from thence till the parliament next to be holden after the same feast, 

 so that a parliament be holden within ten years next ensuing after the 

 first beginning of this present parliament, and if so that there be no 

 parliament holden within the same ten years, that then it shall con- 

 tinue and endure till the end of the same ten years : " in 1444 this act 

 was " ordained to be perpetual, and stand in his force for ever " (23 

 Henry VI., c. 5). 



The limited permission thus given to export their produce must be 

 attributed to the increasing power of the land owners ; and it may be 

 taken as evidence that the cost of production in this kingdom was at 

 least equally moderate with the cost in neighbouring countries, that 

 in all this time no attempt was made to prohibit or restrict the im- 

 portation of the produce of other countries. Such a restriction was, 

 however, imposed in 1463 by the statute 3 Edward IV., c. 2, which on 

 the plea that " the labourers and occupiers of husbandry within this 

 realm of England be daily grievously endamaged by bringing of corn 

 out of other lands and parts into this realm of England, when com of 

 the growing of this realm is at a low price," enacts that " no person, 

 from the feast of Saint John the Baptist next ensuing, shall bring into 

 England any wheat, rye, or barley, not of English or Irish growth, 

 unless the price of wheat shall exceed 6s. 8d. the quarter, that of rye 

 4s., and that of barley 3s., on pain of forfeiture of the grain." The 

 statutes here mentioned, by which the prices were established at which 

 the importation and exportation of corn were respectively to cease, 

 continued in force until 1534, when a new act (25 Henry VIII., c. 2) 

 prohibits, except by licence from the crown, the exportation of grain, 

 the reason for which alteration is thus quaintly expressed in the pre- 

 amble to the act : " Forasmuch as dearth, scarcity, good, cheap, and 

 plenty of cheese, butter, capons, hens, and other victuals necessary for 

 men's sustenance, riseth and chanceth of so many and divers occasions 

 that it is very hard and difficile to put any certain prices to any such 

 things, no person or persons, unless it be by licence under the king's 

 great seal, from henceforth shall carry or eonvey any corn, beeves, 

 muttons, veals, porks, or any other of the above said victuals to any 

 parts beyond the sea, except only for the victualling the towns of 

 Calais, Guinnes, and the marches of the same, and except for victual- 

 ling of ships passing the seas." The civil wars which preceded the 

 accession of Henry VII. had caused much land to be thrown out of 

 cultivation, and the act of 1534 was probably occasioned by the con- 

 sequent diminution of produce, but this attempt failed, as it neces- 

 sarily must, to increase the supply of grain, which effect would best 

 have been brought about by a removal of all restriction. Such a course 

 would have ill agreed with the imperfect ideas upon such subjects 

 which then prevailed ; but as the evil was increased during the next 

 seventeen years, and it was thought necessary to apply some remedy, 

 the statute 5 & 6 Edward VI., c. 5, was then passed. This statute is 

 entitled, " An act for the maintenance and increase of tillage and corn," 

 and it enacts that thenceforth at least as much land should be tilled in 

 every parish as had been under the plough at any time since the acces- 

 sion of Henry VIII., under a penalty, to be exacted from the parish, 

 of 5s. for ever}' acre that should be deficient. The general permission 

 to export grain, which had been taken away in 1534, was restored in 

 1554 (1 & 2 Philip & Mary, c. 5), whenever the prices were at or under 

 6. Sd. per quarter for wheat, 4s. for rye, and 3s. for barley. The pre- 

 amble to this act makes it appear that it was passed, not in consequence 

 of the prevalence of any sounder views of public economy, but because 

 it was found impossible to prevent exportation, and it was thought 

 that better success would attend the regulation than the prohibition 

 of the trade. In 1562 an alteration in the law was made, by enlarging 

 the limits of the prices which governed exportation, and these were 

 fixed at 10s. per quarter for wheat, 8s. for rye, and 6s. 8d. for barley ; 

 and nine years later it was enacted (13 Eliz., c. 13) that corn might be 

 exported on payment of certain specified duties at all times when no 

 proclamation had been issued to the contrary. The law of 1463 had 

 rill this time been in existence, prohibiting importation while the 

 prices of wheat, rye, and barley should be under Cs. 8rf , 4s., and 3s. 

 respectively ; but the prices that had for some time prevailed rendered 

 this law inoperative, and the law of 13 Elizabeth therefore gave virtual 

 freedom to the trade in corn. 



In the succeeding reigns, and up to that of William and Mary, this 



