HEAVY TAXATION 



247 



According to this the farmer did little more than pay rent, 

 interest on capital, and get a living. Yet prices of what he 

 had to sell had gone up greatly : wheat in Herefordshire in 

 1760 was 3^. a bushel, in 1805, los. ; butcher's meat in 1760 was 

 i^d. a lb., in 1804, yd.; fresh butter 4^d. in 1 760, is. 3^. in 1804 ; 

 a fat goose in Hereford market in 1740, lod. ; 1760, is. ; 1804, 

 4^. ; a couple of fowls in 1740, 6d. ; 1760, yd. ; 1804, 2s. ^d} 



The winter of 1 813-4 was extraordinarily severe, and the 

 wheat crop was seriously injured, but the increased breadth of 

 cultivation, a large surplus, and great importations kept the 

 price down. Many sheep, however, were killed by the hard 

 winter, which also reduced the quality of the cattle, so that 

 meat was higher in 1814 than at any previous period. At 

 Smithfield beef was 6s. to ys. a stone, mutton ys. to 8^-. 6d. 

 With the peace of 1814 the fictitious prosperity came to an 



* Duncumb, General View 0^ the Agriculture of Hereford, p. 140, 



* Tooke, History of Prices, li. 4, 



