The State Protection of Agriculture. 203 



excess of wheat exports over imports was 1,384,000 quarters, 

 in the next ten, nearly all of which were plentiful, the im- 

 ports exceeded the exports by 431,000, and in the five years 

 ending 1785 the excess of imports was 410,000 quarters.^ 

 Then another series of good harvests once more enabled the 

 producer to export corn under the old bounty system ; but 

 in 1791 the almost obsolete physiocratic theory that a country 

 should on no account be dependent on foreign sources for 

 its food supply revived and caused an agitation which brought 

 about the repeal of the Corn Law of 1773, the nominal duty 

 of 6f/. being only allowed when wheat was as high as 54.^, 

 per quarter. The following year marks the period when the 

 farmer ceased to produce a surplus of wheat sufficient for 

 foreign trade ; and though the Bounty Act was not repealed till 

 1815, prices never sank low enough to enable the corn factor to 

 avail himself of its advantages. The last decade of the century 

 was, in fact, conspicuous for its bad seasons ; and in June, 1795, 

 the prices of wheat rose to 134.s. the quarter. Thereupon impor- 

 tation was stimulated by a system of enormous bounties, and 

 in 1795 neutral vessels employed in the corn trade were seized 

 and compelled to sell their cargoes to the Government agents.^ 

 Bakers' prices at this period afford very unreliable evidence 

 as to the effects of this legislation on the consumer. The 

 Assize of Bread prevailed in various parts of the country, and, 

 as we shall show later on, though it more or less controlled the 

 profits from the oven, it had no effect whatever on those from 

 the millstone. The wheaten loaf seems to have been the same 

 price throughout the southern counties, except in Hampshire and 

 Essex, where it was a halfpenny less, and in Gloucestershire, 

 where it was a halfpenny more. It is stated by Young to have 

 been uniformly 2rf. per pound. On the other hand, the raw 

 commodity was often selling at 10.s\, 15.9,, and even 20^. per 

 quarter dearer in the west than in the east of England.^ In 

 the northern counties bread averaged only \\d. per lb., which 



* Hiatoinf of England, Vol. VII. book i. chap. iv. Craig and Macfar- 

 lane. 



* Id. Ibid., Vol. IX. book ii. chap. iv. 



' Six Weeks' Tour through the Southern Counties, p. 232. A. Young. 



