Estate Economy. 309 



the same period the exportation of wool was prohibited. From 

 1597 by 39 Eliz. c. '2 arable land made pasture since 1st of Eliz. 

 was to be reconverted to tillage, and that still under the plough 

 was to remain so in future. 



The effect of this general tendency to discard the plough 

 was naturally to enhance the price of corn. The State there- 

 fore turned its attention to restricting its exportation and 

 artificially lowering its home market value,^ This action of the 

 legislature might have prevented the rising want and dis- 

 content amongst the smaller class of farmers. There was a 

 popular saying of the times that " it was never merry with 

 poor craftsmen since gentlemen became graziers." Then, too, 

 Fitzherbert's ideas about closes had taken root, and the farmers 

 were exchanging their scattered " acres " • in the infield for 

 that landowner's ideal, a " ring fenced " holding. 



But legislation soon checked the practice of laying down 

 land to pasture, and as soon as the soil became once more 

 arable there was work and bread for everybody. Simul- 

 taneously the statute book records the change, and a dozen laws 

 follow in quick succession, lowering the restrictions on corn for 

 exportation, so that the price at which wheat was allowed to 

 be exported, rose successively from 6s, ScZ, per quarter in 1553, 

 to Vds. in 1562, to %)s. in 1593, to 2(].s\ M. in 1604, to 32.s-. in 

 1G23, to ¥)s. in 1660, to 486-. in 16(33, and to almost entire free- 

 dom from restriction in 1670.^ 



The value of Avheat during the sixteenth century varied 

 considerably. In 1499 it was 4*', per quarter, and in 1521, 20.v, 

 During the fifties it kept pretty steady at 8.s', In 1574 it 

 leaped up to £2 16.s'. ; in 1594 it was again at this famine 

 price, and in 1597 it reached £5 4.s\ and kept high till the end 

 of the century,^ The effect of the later Elizabethan Corn 

 Lav/s, and indeed even the statute of 1552 against forestalling, 

 regrating, and ingrossing, though it not only stopped its export- 

 iition and spoiled its home trade, had no effect on its market 



' Ey the statute against forestalling and ingrating, 155'2, 5 and 6 

 Ed. VI. c. 14, 



^ Enclyclo. Brit., sub. voc. Agriculture. 



" Adam Smith, Wealth of Nat i oris, Appendix, bk. 1. 



