ON THE PRICE OF GRAIN. 255 



Young's Political Arithmetic. It is true that this accurate, intelli- 

 gent, and conscientious observer clings to both bounty and 

 import duty, but he does so not so much for the advantage 

 which he thinks they give to the farmer, as for the benefit 

 which he believes they confer on progressive agriculture. But 

 I am of opinion that the bounty of 1689 had its effects on the 

 prices of corn at the Western ports, and that it is far from 

 unlikely that Houghton's returns in these localities show what 

 is after all a factitious depression. In Pownall's memoir on 

 the corn trade, the difficulty of getting trustworthy returns on 

 prices of exported grain is commented on. 



I have not found it necessary, as in previous volumes, to 

 comment on the variety of measures in England. There still 

 survived anomalous local measures, and Houghton collected 

 and published them early in his periodical. Thus we are 

 informed that the aighendole of East Lancashire was 7 

 quarts, that the barrel at Derby was 32 gallons, that 

 the bowl of Berwick was 6 bushels. The bushel is still 

 various in quantity. At Abingdon and Andover it is 9 

 gallons, at Chester 32 gallons, and in oats 40 gallons. 

 At Appleby, wheat, rye, and peas are sold by the bushel of 

 1 6 gallons, oats and mixtil by 20 gallons. In Carlisle 

 the bushel contains 24 gallons. In Dorchester, while all 

 other kinds of grain have 8 gallons to the bushel, malt 

 and oats are sold at 10 gallons. At Kingston-on-Thames the 

 bushel is 8i gallons, at Reading and Wycombe 8J gallons. 

 The quarter at Farnham is 8J bushels, at Kingston 8$, at 

 London 8, at Reading 8}. The chalder is 63 bushels at Hull, 

 36 at London and Oxford, 32 at York. The windle is 12 

 gallons at Manchester, 26 at Lancaster and the North. 

 The load at Appleby is for peas, rye and wheat 4 bushels, 

 of barley and bigg 5 bushels. At Wakefield the met is 8 gal- 

 lons. These are all the local measures of com which Houghton 

 notes, and he collects them in order to reduce his returns to 

 uniformity, or at least to supply the means for so reducing 

 1 Young's Political Arithmetic, p. 307, &c. 



