CHAPTER XIX 



1816-1837 



DEPRESSION 



The summer of 1816 was wretched ; the distress, aggravated 

 by the bad season, caused riots everywhere. At Bideford the 

 mob interfered to prevent the export of a cargo of potatoes ; 

 at Bridport they broke into the bakers' shops. Incendiary 

 fires broke out night after night in the eastern counties. At 

 Swanage six people out of seven were paupers, and in one 

 parish in Cambridgeshire every person but one was a pauper 

 or a bankrupt.^ Corn rose again : by June, 1817, it was ii^s., 

 but fell to 77^-. in September. 



In 1 81 8 occurred a drought of four months, lasting from 

 May till September, and great preparations were made to 

 ward off the expected famine ; immense quantities of wheat 

 came from the Baltic, of maize from America, and beans and 

 maize from Italy and Egypt, with hay from New York, as 

 it was selling at ;^io a ton. However, rain fell in September, 

 brown fields suddenly became green, turnips sprang up where 

 none had appeared, and even spring corn that had lain in 

 the parched ground began to grow, so the fear of scarcity 

 passed. 



In 1822 came a good season, which produced a great crop 

 of wheat ; in the lifetime of the existing generation old men 

 declared that such a harvest had been known only once 

 before; imports also came from Ireland to the amount of 

 nearly a million quarters, so that the price at the end of the 

 year was 38^-., and the average price for the year was 44s. yd. 

 Beef went down to 2s. ^d. a stone and mutton to 2s. 2d. The 

 cry of agricultural distress again rose loudly. Farmers were 

 ' Walpole, History of England^ i. 161. 



