nature of the Commerce in it, within the districts 

 whose surplus finds a vent through the mouths of the 

 Vistula; and also to collect information on the 

 subject in the other parts of the Continent through 

 which I passed. 



I heard every where among Landowners, Farmers, 

 and Corn merchants, complaints of the distress in 

 which they were involved ; and their complaints 

 were far too general to leave room for the suspicion, 

 that they were not founded on the existing state of 

 their respective circumstances. The prices of pro- 

 duce of all kinds within the last three or four years, 

 when compared with the period which had preceded 

 them, or indeed with any past period, in which prices 

 are accurately recorded, confirmed the conviction, 

 that their complaints were justified by the losses they 

 had sustained. 



It appeared of some importance to collect, where 

 it could be done with any assurance of accuracy, the 

 prices of Corn for a series of years. The wars of 

 which these countries have been the theatre, gave a 

 degree of uncertainty to some of the accounts before 

 the year 1815, and that uncertainty was, in several 

 places, increased by the variations in the value of 

 the circulating medium, which had taken place during 

 the continuance of hostilities. Except at Dantzic, 

 where a register had been kept for near two centu- 

 ries; at Berlin, where, from the minister of the 

 interior, I received the prices for 50 years ; and at 

 Warsaw, where I obtained them from the Stadthouse, 

 for 30 years, I confined my inquiries to the last 10 

 years. The several accounts which were collected,, 

 form a part of the APPENDIX to this Report. 



As the facts collected, and the remarks made 

 during my journey, are of very various kinds, and 

 were committed to writing as they occurred, it may 

 be more satisfactory to your Lordships if, after 

 shortly describing the nature of the Corn trade, 



