1 94 History of the English Landed Interest. 



hundred years ending 1750, can be found than the comparison 

 of this sentiment of Young's with that indifference, almost 

 sublime, expressed by Hartlib as to the extent of the wheat- 

 producing area in England, so long as there was enough wool 

 to exchange for foreign corn. 



It was fortunate that, in spite of public opinion, and not- 

 withstanding the Government's preference for the ploughman, 

 evinced by its frequent Small Holdings Acts, its appointment 

 of Royal Commissions to inquire into the grievances of evicted 

 cottagers,^ and its instructions to the judges of assize to exert 

 pressure on the local farmers,^ the wool trade still managed 

 just to hold its own against corn husbandry. 



Turning now to this latter industry,^ we find that it gradu- 

 ally received more and more favour from the statesman, 

 though during the early period of our History, — viz., up to the 

 reign of Edward III. — a general law against the exportation 

 of grain (unless to Calais and Gascony) was in force.* At 

 the end of the fourteenth century appears the first permis- 

 sive enactment in favour of its exportation ; but the effects of 

 this measure (17 R. 11. c. 7) on prices cannot be ascertained ; 

 for in 1390, when the prohibition against exportation was in 

 force, wheat was selling at 8*'. 9c?. per quarter, and in 1401, 

 eight years after exportation had been permitted, it was 

 averaging \s. Sd. less.^ 



But this law had not entirely freed the market from royal 

 control, for it enacts that the king, at the request of his com- 

 mons to him made in this present Parliament, hath granted 

 licence to all his liege people of his realm of England to ship 

 and carry corn out of the said realm to what part that please 



' As in 1638. 



^ As at York in 1648. 



3 For the following statistics see Considerations on the Exportation of 

 Corn, 1770 ; Abstract of Corn Acts, etc., 1785 ; and The Occasion of the 

 Dearness of Provision, etc., 1767. 



* 34 Ed. III. c. 20. 



^ I have taken Professor Rogers' averages. Vide History of Agriculture 

 and Prices, vol. i. p. 234 and vol. iv. p. 221. A writer in 1770 gives the 

 prices of wheat in 1390 and 1401 as 16s. 8d. and I6s. respectivelj-. Vide 

 Considerations on the Exportation of Corn. London, 1770. 



