THEIR FREQUENT SUSPENSION 261 



available suffered simultaneously from deficient harvests. Through- 

 out the period 1689-1765 the average price of wheat in England is 

 stated to have been less by 4d. a quarter than the average price in 

 Continental markets. Foreign corn, therefore, after bearing the 

 cost of transport and insurance, seldom less than 12s. a quarter and 

 often increased by war-risks, could not have reduced English prices, 

 even if no import duties had been levied. Consumers were not shut 

 out from an alternative and cheaper supply, because no other supply 

 was available except at higher prices than were being paid for home- 

 grown grain. On the other hand, they profited considerably by the 

 results of the fiscal policy pursued in England. In average seasons 

 England grew not only corn for her own people, but a surplus for 

 exportation. It was only in adverse seasons that any deficiency was 

 probable. When this was anticipated, the Government had two 

 strings to its bow. The ports were closed against exports, and, if 

 the supply continued inadequate, were opened to imports. It 

 seemed probable, therefore, that consumers suffered no injury from 

 the heavy duty on imports, or that, if they were injured at all, 

 their loss was infinitesimal. 



During the period 1689-1765, neither the bounties, nor the 

 liberty of exportation, nor the restriction on imports, were continu- 

 ously operative. In nine years l the bounty was suspended, or the 

 exportation of home-grown corn altogether prohibited. Generally 

 this expedient succeeded ; the unusual quantity of corn retained in 

 the country met the deficiency. But in three years 2 out of the 

 nine the further step was taken. In 1741, and both in 1757 and 1758 

 foreign corn was admitted duty free. The total amount of wheat 

 imported into the country in those three years was 169,455 quarters. 

 In these exceptional years, war and war-taxes, the restoration of the 

 currency, or the gradual growth of the population may have specially 

 affected English prices, and the bounty may, as its opponents 

 asserted, have assisted their upward tendency. But all these causes 

 in combination were comparatively unimportant. Throughout 

 European markets the dearth or the abundance of grain, together 

 with high or low prices, mainly depended on the weather, which 

 generally affected the whole corn-area in the same way. The last 

 seven years of the seventeenth century, for instance, were long 

 remembered in Scotland as the " seven ill years," and in England 



1 1698, 1699, 1700, 1709, 1710, 1741, 1757, 1758, 1759. 

 1 In Scotland only. 



