CHAP. XXI. INCREASE OF WEALTH. 139 



corn generally in store, either in the stacks or the 

 barns of the cultivators, or in the hands of dealers 

 and millers. This may be inferred from the less 

 variation in the price of corn in the century in 

 question, when compared with the excessive fluc- 

 tuations which are recorded of the preceding ages. 

 In the whole hundred years from 1600 to 1700, 

 the lowest price of wheat on the average of the 

 year was 19* Wd. per quarter, and the highest 

 price 31. 2s. 9^.; whereas in former ages the 

 variations in its price, within the compass of a 

 few years, was from 8s. to 61. , and in one instance 

 from 8s. to the enormous price of 19^ 4*. The 

 greatest variation in any one year in the seven- 

 teenth century was in 1662, when before harvest 

 the price was 4/. and after harvest, 2l. 5s. ; but in 

 the preceding century, in the year 1557, wheat 

 which before harvest was at 2/. 13^. 4d. fell after 

 that to 5*. 



From this contrast of fluctuations two inferences 

 may be drawn : first that there had been a great 

 improvement in the practice of cultivation, for 

 good husbandry has a tendency to counteract the 

 vicissitudes of seasons; and secondly that there 

 must have been a stock at the end of each pro- 

 ductive year, which could be retained by capitalists, 

 and would dimmish the weight with which a year 

 of scarcity would otherwise fall on the community. 



Not only the surface but the bowels of the earth 

 contributed to the production of additional com- 



