LAND AND NATIONAL SAFETY. 247 



was a war increase ; but it is explained by 

 some that it was not an increase solely due 

 to war. On this point the Royal Commission 

 reported : — 



" It may be argued that if prices could 

 rise to nearly 75s. when there was prac- 

 tically no danger to our maritime trade, 

 they might rise to almost any point in a 

 modern naval war. It may be, however, 

 that the war was not the only important 

 factor in producing this increase of prices. 

 During the period 1848-52 there was only 

 one really abundant British crop (in 1849) ; 

 but harvests in the United States and on 

 the Continent were good, and the repeal of 

 the Corn Laws had begun to take effect 

 on prices — at any rate, to some extent. On 

 the other hand, the wheat crop of 1853 was 

 very deficient both in this country and on 

 the Continent, and the great increase of 

 price appears to have been due to this fact, 

 though it was, of course, intensified and 

 sustained by the war, and more especially, 

 perhaps, by the high rates of freight conse- 

 quent on the war requirements of the 



