The Revolution in Agriculture 71 



agriculture. Economic reasons justify enclosures, but both 

 moral and economic reasons condemn this treatment of people 

 who had already suffered injustice in the loss of their land 

 through enclosure. 



Men in power found it difficult to adapt themselves to new 

 conditions. They could not easily impose restraint on the use 

 of opportunities "for making money by any means. They were 

 tried seriously by another development. The rapid increase of 

 industries outside of agriculture and of a population engaged in 

 these industries created a new problem. Agriculture was losing 

 its pre-eminent place against all these new forms of production. 

 Manufacturers, merchants, and miners were Englishmen just as 

 much as landlords and farmers were, and as members of the same 

 community their interests had to receive similar consideration. 

 This was what they claimed. But landlords, who were a majority 

 of the legislators, found it difficult to accept this view. They had 

 been accustqmed to use Parliament to fix prices as well as wage?. 

 They had imposed taxes on imported corn to keep up the price, 

 and had granted bounties on exported corn to add something 

 to what the farmers got from foreign buyers. Between 1697 

 and 1773 bounties amounting to .6,237,176 had been paid to 

 farmers by the Treasury on corn that was exported. From 1789 

 onwards the amount of corn imported exceeded the amount 

 exported. 



Having been accustomed to the high rents which were possible 

 during the war when wheat was sold for Soj-. a quarter the land- 

 lords could not allow prices to fall again to the old level. When 

 the war ended in 1815 they passed the Corn Law which prohibited 

 foreign corn from being brought to British markets when the 

 price was less than 8cxr. a quarter. Corn could be imported, but 

 it had to be stored at the ports. The intention of those who 

 passed the Corn Law was to keep the price of wheat at 8oj., and 

 landlords and farmers expected they would succeed in doing this. 



