256 THE ENGLISH CORN LAWS 



the craft of bakers, by preventing monopolies and speculations in 

 grain which, in days when difficulties of transport restricted com- 

 petition to narrow areas fed by local supplies, were a real danger. 

 To this class of laws belong prohibitions against selling corn out 

 of the country, or transporting it from one district to another ; 

 statutes l against corn-dealers who " forestalled," " engrossed," or 

 " regrated " grain ; and the Assizes of Bread, 2 which, down to the 

 reign of George II., regulated the actual size of the loaf by the 

 price of corn, instead of proportioning its cost to that of its material. 

 Eventually this class of legislation defeated its own object. 

 It hampered the natural trade in corn, locked up the capital of 

 farmers, and so tended to reduce the area under the plough. But 

 the national dread of corn speculation, of which many laws were 

 the expression, was only paralleled by the national horror of witch- 

 < craft, and lasted longer among educated classes. As facilities for 

 internal transport increased, opportunities for local monopolies 

 diminished. Successive steps were taken towards freedom of 

 inland trade. Thus in 1571 corn was permitted to be transported 

 from one district to another on payment of a licence duty of Is. 

 a quarter ; in 1663 liberty to buy corn in order to sell it again was 

 conceded, when it was below a certain limit, provided that it was 

 not resold for three months in the same market ; in 1772 the 

 statutory penalties against corn-dealers were repealed as tending 

 to " discourage the growth and enhance the price " of corn ; in 

 1822 the practice of setting out Assizes of Bread was by Act of 

 Parliament discontinued in London ; in 1836 an Act, similar in terms 

 to that of London, abolished Assizes in provincial towns and country 

 > districts. Instead of attempting to secure just prices by multiplying 

 \ laws in restraint of speculation, or by regulating the cost of corn 

 and bread, the modern tendency has been to enforce honest dealing 

 j by increasing the protection of consumers against false weights and 

 adulteration. 



Other means were adopted to maintain steady prices in the 

 interest of consumers and, indirectly, of producers. Thus the 

 erection of public granaries, in which farmers might store the 

 surplus of one year against the shortage of the next, was borrowed 

 from Holland, and urged on the country by royal proclamation. 



1 E.g. 5 and 6 Edward VI. c. 14 (1552) ; 15 Car. II. c. 7 (1663) ; 12 Geo. 

 III. c. 71 (1772). 



* See Appendix III. C. 



