THE HIGH PRICES OF 1765-1815 265 



that private merchants would hesitate to pay the high prices which 

 were demanded abroad. Corn in neutral ships, destined for foreign 

 ports, was seized and carried to England. Bounties on imports of 

 grain which had been offered in 1773 at the rate of 4s. a quarter by 

 the City of London, were offered by the Government at the rate of 

 from 16s. to 20s. a quarter in 1795-6 and again in 1800 and the years 

 that followed. Substitutes for ordinary corn, such as rice and maize, 

 were eagerly bought : the cultivation of the potato was greatly 

 increased. But in spite of all these efforts to provide food, the 

 scarcity continued until there seemed to be a real prospect of a 

 failure in the supply of provisions. In 1812 the country stood on 

 the very verge of famine. Shut out from Continental ports, at war 

 not only with Napoleon but with America, England was reduced to 

 acute and extreme distress. Conditions were at their worst. In 

 August of that year the average price of wheat at Mark Lane was 

 155s. per quarter ; prices of other grains, as well as of meat, rose in 

 proportion ; at the end of October the potato crop was found to have 

 failed by one-fourth. The year was one of the most severe suffering. 

 But 1813 brought relief. An abundant harvest lowered prices with 

 extraordinary rapidity. In December wheat had fallen to 73s. 6d. 

 In 1814 l the fiscal system which had lasted, though with many 

 interruptions, since 1689, was finally abolished. After June of that 

 year corn, grain, meal, and flour were allowed to be exported without 

 payment of duty and without receiving any bounty. Henceforward 

 the Corn Laws only survived in the one-sided form of restrictions on 

 imports. 



The high prices which prevailed in the second period (1765-1815) 

 have been explained in various ways. They have been attributed 

 to the improper practices of corn-dealers, the growth of population, 

 the consolidation of holdings and diminution of open-field farming, 

 the depreciation of the currency, unfavourable seasons, the war, or 

 the fiscal system. Each of these causes may have contributed to 

 the upward tendency of prices. But the most effective reasons 

 for the dearness of corn were the weather and the war. These two 

 causes alone would sufficiently explain the continued scarcity. 

 Even under a system of absolute free trade, they would produce the 

 same results to-day, if England still drew her supplementary supplies 

 of corn from the same limited area at home and abroad. 



The growth of the population is undoubtedly an important factor 

 1 54 Geo. HI. c. 69. 



