Mr, William Pitt on the Production, i§c. 473 



that for the three years preceding, a very extraordinary sum had been paid as 

 bounty for the exportation of corn ; in the following single year, 1 750, the 

 bounty paid amounted to no less than £^3 24, 176. \0S. 6d, ; yet the average price 

 of the best wheat for that year in Windsor market was only 3^. yd. per bushel. 



The above particulars are from Dr. Smith, on the Wealth of Nations; from 

 whom also I cxtiact the following. 



The proportion of the average quantity of all sorts of grain, imported into 

 Great Britain, to that of all sorts of grain consumed, does not exceed that of one 

 to five hundred and seventy ; and the average of all sorts of grain exported from 

 Great Britain does not exceed the one and thirtieth part of the annual produce. 

 No date is affixed to these calculations, but it shows that for the time for which 

 they were made, the exports had been to the imports, nearly as nineteen to one. 



The 13th of the present King, c. 43, seems to have established a new system 

 with regard to the corn laws ; in some respects better than the ancient one, but in 

 others perhaps not quite so good. Thus far Dr. Smith. 



I was surprised to find in Mr. Malthus's Essay, on Population, Chap. X. an 

 extract from Dirom on the corn laws, stating, that before the year 1650, the 

 average price of wheat per quarter had been £6. Ss. lod. or per bushel i6s. i^rf. 

 this must have been owing to the neglect of cultivation, during the civil wars 

 preceding that period. 



From 1650 to 1700, by the same authority, the average price of wheat per 

 quarter was £'3. os. nd. which is js. jd. per bushel. This is very high for that 

 period of time, and in the then state of population and commerce. From 1710 to 

 1750, the average price was so low as £i. 16s, per quarter, or 45. 6^. per bushel, 

 during forty years : this was the period of our greatest exportation, and during the 

 whole period the export bounty existed ; the exports have since been gradually 

 decreasing, and the imports increasing. The average price of wheat for forty years,, 

 ending 1800, was £2. 9s. ^d. per quarter, or per bushel 6s. zd. and for the la.st five 

 years of diis period £"3. 6s. 6d. or per bushel Hs. ^d. nearly. The balance on the 

 import side has been very high, and the dreadful fluctuations of price, which have 

 occurred of late years, are but too well known. Mr. Malthus. 



The following particulars of the corn trade are taken from the Annals of 



VOL. V. N Jl 



