336 LAND REFORM 



With regard to butcher's meat, the average price 

 paid at St. Thomas's Hospital during the years 1840 

 to 1849 — the so-called "hungry forties" — was for 

 beef, 3s. 3f d, ; for mutton, 3s. 9jd. per stone of 8 lb. 

 In 1843, ^^^ y^^^ when the greatest distress existed, 

 the prices were, beef, 2s. 8d. ; mutton, 3s. per stone of 

 8 Ib.^ In 1902 beef in London was 9*5d. per lb. 

 (foreign 8'3d,) ; mutton, 77d, per lb. (foreign 4*9d ; 

 and pork 8*5d. per Ib.^ At Stamford, in 1851, beef 

 was 5jd. per lb.; mutton, 5d. In 1863, after fourteen 

 years of free imports, beef in the same locality was 

 8d. to 9d., mutton 6^d. to lod. per Ib.^ 



Mr. Villiers in 1843 moved a resolution that "The 

 House resolve itself into a Committee to consider the 

 import duties on foreign corn, with a view to their 

 immediate abolition," 



One of the main arguments — an argument not dis- 

 puted — of Mr. Gladstone, in opposing the motion, was 

 "the existing cheapness of provisions." He quoted the 

 prices of the principal articles of food, and showed how 

 exceedingly low they were. He compared favourably 

 "the prices of the present year (1843) with those of 

 1835, the cheapest of the generation."* 



If we turn to the prices of bread, the facts are still 

 more striking. There is a sentiment about the " staff 



^ These averages are based on the detailed prices given in Tooke's 

 " History of Prices," Vol. VI. It must be borne in mind, however, that 

 the market prices for meat and other produce were always higher in large 

 towns, for some articles much higher, than the prices which ruled in 

 country places. The present writer well remembers that the labourers 

 always expected to get — and did get when they had the money to buy — 

 at least a pound of beef, a pound of mutton, and a pound of pork, for a 

 shilling. 



^ Board of Trade Statistics, 1903, Cd. 1761. 



' Noble's "Fiscal Legislation," 1867. 



♦ "Annual Register," 1843, p. 112. 



