AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS 



prices fell back almost to their old level. The 

 average price of wheat was just about half as 

 high for the five years from 1821 to 1825, as for 

 the five years from 1809 to 1813. With this fall 

 in prices the farmers became even more averse to 

 the taking of long leases than the landlords had 

 previously been. One after another the Wit- 

 nesses before the Parliamentary Committee on 

 Agriculture, in 1833, bore testimony to the fact 

 that the farmers were objecting seriously to tak- 

 ing long leases, because they did not know how 

 soon they might be unable to pay the rent, as their 

 capacity to pay the rent depended upon such un- 

 certain prices. The farmers were in doubt as to 

 how much protection they were to have from the 

 competition of foreign producers. But without 

 regard to this, they knew that the prices of agri- 

 cultural products had been falling for several 

 years in succession and they were unable to tell 

 when the limit would be reached. 



With depressed prices the landlords found new 

 reasons for objecting to long leases. This was 

 the time, one might think, for the landlords to 

 regain what they had lost during the period of 

 rising prices, but they found it rarely happened 

 that the tenants were able to stand the losses in- 

 curred by falling prices. The farmer could not 

 be forced to live up to his contract, if he was 

 losing money. It was said that leases were bind- 

 ing upon the landlords but not upon the tenants. 



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