SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC HISTORY 



' Standard wheaten bread ' as defined in the Act of 1 3 Geo. Ill, in which the 

 flour used was to include the whole produce of the grain, excepting the bran 

 and hull. They ordered the constables of the different parishes to present 

 both the bakers who made or sold any finer bread and those who had bought 

 it; further, the justices undertook to reduce the use of flour in other food but 

 bread in their households, and the quantity of oats and barley consumed by 

 their horses, begging all other families in the county to do the same. 



At the Michaelmas sessions" 1 of the same year, after another deficient 

 harvest, the magistrates described the prices as exorbitant, and issued orders 

 respecting forestallers of corn. Any person, who bought corn, which was 

 coming to any market or fair to be sold in the same fair ; who made any 

 bargain for buying corn before it came to market ; who did or said anything 

 to enhance the price, or persuaded anyone to withhold corn from the markets; 

 who kept back their own corn was to be proceeded against with ' the utmost 

 rigour of the law.' Corn growing in the fields might not be bought or 

 obtained in any manner with the intention of selling (excepting it was 

 obtained by demise, or grant, or lease of land, or tithes). All such offenders 

 were to be presented by the petty constables. The prisoners in gaol had 

 potatoes substituted for part of their allowance of bread ; churchwardens and 

 overseers and governors of hospitals and workhouses were recommended to 

 provide for the poor bread made of a mixture of wheat and barley, flour or 

 potatoes, and to distribute such bread, instead of giving the whole of their 

 allowances in money. 



Similar orders were made throughout the county, but in i8oo s12 the 

 justices admitted that they had failed in their efforts, in so far as they had 

 attempted to restrain the use of finer bread than the Standard Wheaten Loaf, 

 since the adjoining counties had made no such restrictions, and therefore finer 

 bread was freely imported into the county. 



The rate of wages during this shortage is so closely connected with the 

 working of the poor laws, that it is impossible to discuss the action of the 

 justices to relieve the distress of the population without first considering the 

 operation of the Poor Law at this time. 



In the later part of the eighteenth century a change took place in the 

 principles which ruled the administration of poor relief, a change based on a 

 philanthropic desire to improve the condition of the poor during a period 

 of great scarcity and distress. In 1782 Gilbert's Act, though mainly dealing 

 with the formation of voluntary unions of parishes with one workhouse in 

 the union under the charge of paid guardians, also ordered that only the 

 impotent should be admitted to the workhouse and the able-bodied were to 

 have work provided for them near their homes. In 1796 a further step was 

 taken ; the test of 1722 was abolished and out-door relief was legalized. 

 Legislation in this case followed the practice of the overseers, since at 

 Aylesbury the first entry of out-relief being given to an able-bodied man 

 appears in 1784, when is. was given to William Stevens 'being out of work,' 

 and in the winter such entries became very frequent. The weekly allowance 

 to the poor 'out of the house' was a regular entry; and roundsmen, or 

 labourers who were sent to work with various employers, but received 

 reduced wages from the overseers, were now entered for the first time. The 



'" Quart. Sess. Rec. Mich. 1795. '" Ibid. 1800. 



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