256 THE ENGLISH CORN LAWS 



V the craft of bakers, by preventing monopolies and speculations in 

 ^ grain which, in days when difficulties of transport restricted com- 

 petition to narrow areas fed by local suppUes, were a real danger. 

 To this class of laws belong prohibitions against selling corn out 

 of the country, or transportmg it from one district to another ; 

 statutes 1 against corn-dealers who " forestalled," " engrossed," or 

 " regrated " grain ; and the Assizes of Bread,^ which, dowTi to the 

 reign of George II., regulated the actual size of the loaf by the 

 price of com, instead of proportioning its cost to that of its material. 

 Eventually this class of legislation defeated its own object. 

 It hampered the natural trade in corn, locked up the capital of 

 farmers, and so tended to reduce the area under the plough. But 

 the national dread of corn speculation, of which many laws Avere 

 the expression, was only paralleled by the national horror of witch- 

 craft, and lasted longer among educated classes. As facihties for 

 internal transport increased, opportunities for local monopohes 

 diminished. Successive steps were taken towards freedom of 

 inland trade. Thus in 1571 com was permitted to be transported 

 from one district to another on pajonent of a licence duty of Is. 

 a quarter ; in 1663 liberty to buy corn in order to sell it again was 

 conceded, when it was below a certain hmit, provided that it was 

 ' not resold for three months in the same market ; in 1772 the 

 statutory penalties against corn-dealers Avere repealed as tending 

 to " discourage the growth and enhance the price " of com ; in 

 1822 the practice of setting out Assizes of Bread was b}^ Act of 

 Parhament discontinued in London ; in 1836 an Act, similar in terms 

 I to that of London, abohshed Assizes in provincial towns and country 

 ! districts. Instead of attempting to secure just prices by multiplying 

 \ laws in restraint of speculation, or by regulating the cost of com 

 and bread, the modern tendency has been to enforce honest dealing 

 by increasing the protection of consumers against false weights and 

 adulteration. 



Other means were adopted to maintain stead}^ prices in the 

 interest of consumers and, indirectly, of producers. Thus the 

 erection of pubhc granaries, in which farmers might store the 

 surplus of one year against the shortage of the next, wa,s borrowed 

 from Holland, and urged on the country by royal proclamation. 



^E.g. 5 and 6 Edward YI. c. U (1552) ; 15 Car. II. c. 7 (1663) : 12 Geo. 

 III. c. 71 (1772). 



2 See Appendix III. C. 



