344 LAND REFORM 



articles form no exception to the general rule." Among 

 other examples of this general increase of prices he 

 names cheese, which, with a duty of los. 6d., was sold 

 in 1845 ^t £2. I OS. per cwt. In 1865, with no duty, 

 the price was £2. 17s. 8d. Eggs, the price of which 

 in 1845, with a duty of lod., was 4s. lod. the great 

 hundred, had risen in 1865, when duty free, to 6s. id. 



The same writer o^oes on to refer to the orreat 

 increase which had taken place in the price of meat 

 and other articles. " Milk," he says, "had doubled in 

 price, and bread, which in 1851 was 5d. for the quar- 

 tern loaf, had risen in price to 8d. in 1867."^ 



As regards fuel, the prices paid by the Bethlehem 

 Hospital for coals was, in 1845, i8s. ; 1846, i6s. 8d. ; 

 1850, i6s. 5d. The price steadily rose till in 1874, 

 the last year quoted, it reached 30s. id. per ton.'^ 



A distinguished political economist, writing nearly 

 thirty years after the repeal of the Corn Laws, 

 states : — 



" In some branches of industry there has been no 

 doubt a very considerable rise in wages ; many classes 

 of workmen, however, have only been able to obtain 

 so slight an increase in their wages as barely to com- 

 pensate them for the greater cost of living consequent 

 on the rise in price of so many articles of general 

 consumption. ... As there has been a not less marked 

 rise in the price of coal, meat, milk, butter, cheese, 

 and many other commodities which compose the items 

 of a labourer's ordinary expenditure, it would seem 

 that, even in the trades where the advance of wages 

 has been the greatest, a large portion of the additional 

 wages has been absorbed by the increased dearness of 

 commodities." 



^ "Fiscal Legislation, 1842 to 1865." John Noble (Longmans, 1867). 

 " "National Finance," John Noble, 1875. 



